Irritable Bowel Syndrome Message Boards | To Rebecca1013 and everyone else :)

I know it may be tough to keep an eye on your weight when we have to eat so many carbs to ease our bellies

Carbs are not bad....it's just very easy to overeat on them, and because we have to be leary of whole grains and their if content we are not getting the benefit from the added fiber to fill us up! It can be tricky..

Telling you how much you should weigh is tricky business....like i am 5'3 i weigh 140 (but my body fat is a low %) Don't pay too much mind to the weight on the scale. In fact your weight can change by up to 5pounds from day to day just because of water weight and especially in our case from bloating and food stuck in our bellies! So please don't let a number rule you.

As for your workouts....I am not familiar with those dvd's I personally go either bike riding or walking/jogging. I use Leslie Sansone walking dvd's. The best thing you can do is interval train....start with a 5min warm-up, after that speed up for 2min, then slow back down for 2min....continue on to the 26min mark...then cool down for 4min. Interval training is more effective at burning fat than long drawn out workouts. Also, if you absolutely insist on doing a longer workout, please make sure you do not go past the 1hr mark of CONTINUOS exercise...this is too much stress on your body and it actually is detrimental to your health...(not only that but when we get stressed we release cortisol, which not only affects your mind but your ibs as well!)....1/2 of cardio is great

If you want to tone up you could do light weight training. Check circuit training on the pc if you have a gym membership you can easily find suitable workouts online (listed under circuit training workouts). If you workout at home, you can do a search on home circuit training workouts. Just remember any strength exercises you do, you want to perform at a brisk pace and do 3 sets of 15 reps.

Or you can just make it easy on yourself and do yoga/pilates! I love yoga and do it everyday it not only tightens my body, but also helps with stress relief which has in turn helped my ibs.

As for your diet....I can tell you that if you eat a constant of about 1500 cals a day you should lose on a average of about 1-2 pounds a wekk, especially if you are active. Make one day (preferably on the weekend) as to which you have a special ibs friendly cheat food. This is beneficial for not only your state of mind, (who the heck wants to diet all the time lol

), but it tricks your body.....you see if you eat 1500 cals everyday, every week, your body will actually become accustomed to that figure and accomadate to burn at or around that figure...now if you have say 2500 cals or even 2900 cals one day a week...your body will think...oh wow ok im not starving ...and continue burning fat.

People often times think if they just ate less they would lose weight, and actually it is a little more complicated then that.

I try not to eat processed foods at all....that is my personal choice, but if I don't understand an ingredient on the label it isn't going in my mouth...there is no need for food dye to be in my drinks or preservatives to be in my cereal, it's just unneccesary.

Brown rice is safe but I would proceed with caution. If you are going to mix berries with the rice (start out with a small amount ....1/8 c and work your way up to a higher amount as long as you get no neg side effects.) I would have white rice. If you are going to mix bananas with the rice, you can go ahead and have brown rice. Mix some cinnamon on it and about a 1/2 packet of sugar in the raw (which you can dissolve in a little water) and your set.

As for taking foods to work, I always pack my foods up the night before. I make a big batch of ORGANIC GRASS FED CHICKEN BREAST (make sure it is organic & grass fed) on a Monday, which I use for lunch throughout the week. I also make ORGANIC GRASS FED CHICKEN EGGS hard boiled which i use for breakfast. The trick to really igniting your metabolism is having minimeals throughout the day. Not only does it keep you full, maintain energy levels, but it speeds up your metabolism as well.

Here would be a sample of what your day could look like:

Morning Before work:

glass of warm water
1/2 hr of cardio or yoga

1 egg white
2/3 c cooked oatmeal made with water, cinnamon, and sugar in the raw.
1/8 c berries
1/2 banana

3oz chicken
5oz baked russet potato
1 serving of any veggies you can tolerate

1/2 c white rice
1/4 c berries
2t of almond butter

1/2 hour of yoga or cardio

3/4 organic corn flakes sweetend with honey
1/3c almond milk

5oz white fish (or 3 oz of chic or turkey)
5oz sweet potato or yam
1 serving of any veggie you can tolerate

1/2c brown rice
1 banana, or mango chopped or papaya chopped
2t almond butter

Remember drink lots of water!!
Make sure you have protein at every meal...it will help fill you up.

Hope I helped a little GOOD LUCK

Print Remind Me Notify Moderator