Do you eat breakfast?
#226868 - 11/23/05 11:20 AM
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Draupadi
Reged: 07/16/05
Posts: 218
Loc: Santa Cruz, California
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Hi there,
I am struggling with my morning meal...I usually have cereal with soymilk and some kind of fruit (usually a banana), and a cup of tea. Lately, I've been feeling like this is too much, because I usually start to feel really full and bloated afterwards. If I don't eat breakfast, though, I'm starving by lunch, which usually triggers an attack due to overeating or making unsafe choices. In addition, I am trying to keep up my calorie intake, as I'm currently in recovery from anorexia, and still trying to gain back the last few pounds.
Do any of you find you can't handle breakfast? If not, what do you do? Thanks in advance!
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Julia
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Have you tried splitting your breakfast into a pre-breakfast, breakfast, and morning snack? I do this, and there are lots of people here who do the same. Generally, IBS folks are happier eating a little bit every couple of hours rather than a lot at one sitting.
--AC
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I have a REALLY REALLY hard time eating breakfast. I am also an anorexic in remission (3 years). Because I never ate breakfast before, I am not hungry in the morning at all. Especially, now with IBS, because I usually have my attacks in the morning. Although, I had one today at 2:00pm. I literally have to just nibble until I feel like my stomach can handle it.....sometimes it takes me until 12:00pm to be able to eat. It's the most difficult time of the day for me to eat, so I totally understand your pain!!
Just nibble....don't force yourself or you could trigger an attack. I have done that too many times.
Good luck!
Michelle 
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IBS-D. Hiatal Hernia, GERD
Unstable
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on good days- I do a bowl of cereal and rice milk, then a luna bar on my first break at work... but on bad days it waits until that luna bar for food... I aim for 5-6 small meals a day.. and am able to keep up calorie counts (actually with less exercise I gained some weight again so back on the workout wagon) but if I eat a big meal I tend to have major problems! I am much better with smaller meals all along.. I tend to be more able to eat a large amount at dinner then any other time... but still it isn't a huge meal...
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Dietetics Student (anticipating RD exam in Aug 2010)
IBS - A
Dairy Allergic
Fructose and MSG intollerant
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Yes. Most mornings, I have oatmeal (1/2 cup dry) made with 1 c. soy milk. I mix in a 1/2 cup of either canned peaches or pears and a shake or two of cinnamon. I make it at work.
I eat a Luna bar if I don't have time for the oatmeal.
I eat breakfast after I've had my AM dose of Benefiber.
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Seriously...have a teeny snack to wake your tum up and then have something more filling a little later. 
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I'm with you on the two breakfasts! I always have something small, like toast, a homemade muffin or piece of quick bread, or 1/2 a bagel, when I get out of the shower in the morning. Then 2-3 hours later I eat another small breakfast, usually either a cereal bar or the other 1/2 of the bagel. I call it my "second breakfast", just like the hobbits ate in the LOTR. 
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"Anyone can exercise, but this kind of lethargy takes real discipline." -Garfield
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I usually start with a Luna Bar, then eat cereal and toast or fruit an hour later. If I wake up feeling IBS-weird (if you know what I mean), I'll start with plain toast and some tea.
I think you have to eat breakfast consistently every morning in order to get used to it. I would say if eating breakfast is new for you, to start with peppermint, chamomile, or ginger tea and toast to settle your stomach and those feelings of nausea. Someone mentioned taking their Benefiber first thing in the morning--that's an excellent idea, especially if you're still trying to get stable.
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Graze...
#226946 - 11/23/05 06:22 PM
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Wind
Reged: 04/02/05
Posts: 3178
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Lately, I just delete the a.m. by rolling over a few times.
However, skipping breakfast is a BAD thing. For me, it nearly always ends up in a SEIGE later (i.e. "attack.") I usually just grab something small and kind of go with the flow...no major structure. By something small, it could mean a piece of safe fruit/applesauce and fiber/smoothie or just cereal. It really depends on the "tactic" or mood I'm in, but there is always SOMETHING! Perhaps try dividing your breakfast, i.e. start with the banana and then have cereal/soy milk and tea later or vice versa. Personally, if I had that much food in the morning I would be really ILL.
If for some reason I decide to exist in the morning, eating before 11 a.m. always ends up in disaster. I don't know why, but it just does--one way or the other.
Kate, IBS-D.
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After that, I just get more and more bloated and constipated after lunch and dinner.
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Re: Graze...
#226966 - 11/23/05 10:55 PM
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Draupadi
Reged: 07/16/05
Posts: 218
Loc: Santa Cruz, California
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Thanks for your input, everyone! I think I am going to start dividing my breakfast into sections, and eat them a few hours apart...I'll let you know how it goes!
I feel like perhaps my digestive system just isn't functioning fully when I first wake up, and I just need to warm it up a bit before I have anything major...
Again, thanks for the advice and support!
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Julia
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I found that the easiest thing was to graze. Eat a little when I first wake up, eat a little more an hour or so later, and so on. I rarely ate more than a piece of toast when I woke up in the morning, but by lunchtime I'd usually eaten several pieces of toast, cereal, and a banana or some applesauce or something like that.
Eating small amounts often is better for your IBS, too. And after a while, my insides adjusted and now I'm able to eat a "normal" breakfast (which, for me, is usually oatmeal with a banana or some other large quantity of fruit).
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By the time I get up and take my fiber.....wait an hour and take my Nexium......and have to wait another hour to eat, it's about 11:30-12:00. So, I don't eat anything in the a.m. either.
Michelle
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IBS-D. Hiatal Hernia, GERD
Unstable
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Quote:
I feel like perhaps my digestive system just isn't functioning fully when I first wake up, and I just need to warm it up a bit before I have anything major...
exactly. that's the principle behind very much of this diet - getting your digestive system working gently, before introducing foods that could shock it and the cause the gastrocolic reflex to go haywire. that's why eating sketchy foods on an empty stomach causes problems, but eating them after some SF foods is often okay. like warming up before a strenuous workout. (more like warming up your voice before singing. sorry, analogies abound. but i find these make more sense, are closer to what (i think) is actually happening in our stomachs than the idea of a 'SF cushion' - it's true that most SF foods are cushy, but - and i'm ready to be corrected - but i don't think the cushion image represents what's actually happening. though, of course, it is a helpful idea.)
anyway, this is why so many of us find it works to graze throughout the day rather than eat a few distinct, larger meals - aside from ensuring we never get famished and overeat, which would cause ibs problems, too, it keeps our digestive system running, gently and smoothly, throughout the day, so it doesn't have the chance to jump into overaction, which is sort of what an attack* is.
*well, D attacks, and some C - C gets trickier because you can be suffering without spasms (the spasms being the jumpy gastrocolic reflex), but the spasms are what a D attack is.
okay. here ends jaime's personal treatise on ibs and the 'SF cushion.'
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jaime
ibs-a (mostly d) // vegetarian
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Yup every morning. A packet of plain instant oatmeal and a cup of peppermint tea. That's usually enough to last me through to lunch, though I'll still snack about halfway between meals to keep something in the tummy.
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Jonna, IBS-D
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I like the voice analogy... if you're looking for more, you could even go inanimate and say it's like warming up a car. Warming up anything, though, I think is a good way to think of it, as opposed to a cushion - because it implies action, motion etc. Which is what our guts are doing... they're not just staying still, taking it all in, lol.
GREAT post!
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