Irritable Bowel Syndrome Message Boards | Re: Not sure what "stabilized" really is....

It sounds like you basically put yourself on the Break The Cycle diet and stuck with it for too long. As you'll see from the link, Heather says do this for 3 days maximum. Then you need to start adding in safe protein and IF slowly and carefully.

So my guess would be that you ate pure SF for too long then may have added too much or too harsh IF when you started eating "normal" food (I'm assuming you mean protein and IF, not trigger foods). Also, you may have gone up on Acacia too fast - slow and steady is best because too much too fast can cause gas. Last but not least, be sure you watched your fat levels when you started eating "normal" foods.

My advice would not be to go back to all SF but rather to eat mostly SF with safe protein and some well cooked, well processed IF, like berries in smoothies or Heather's zucchini or pumpkin bread or well-cooked relatively benign vegetables (in other words, green beans rather than broccoli).

I never went all SF when I first started out. I just eliminated trigger foods; upped my amount of SF to about twice as much SF as safe protein and IF combined; was very careful about fat; and avoided the really tough IF like corn and salads. I ate a lot of the Baked blueberry pecan French toast from the Eating for IBS cookbook - it's a great example of a good ratio for me. Lots and lots of SF with just a little IF in the form of blueberries and nuts. Similarly, I always did very well with the Italian lemon tuna sandwiches from the same book - lots of bread, safe protein from tuna, and a little IF from tomatoes. Dinner would be something like the Crockpot Chicken Stew from the Recipe Board - lots of SF from potatoes and carrots, a little IF from onions and celery. And even with the sandwich and stew, I'd probably add in some more SF when I was first starting out - a handful of pretzels before the sandwich, a slice of French bread before the stew.

As for what's stable, as Syl says this comes up a lot. For me it wasn't a single magic moment. I started to feel better almost immediately. I'm IBS-D and had essentially been in the middle of an attack for about 2 months. Within days of cutting out triggers and eating lots of SF, the improvement in my pain levels was dramatic. It took about 3 months to feel good, 6 months to feel great, and 9 months to feel normal.

To me being stable means if I'm not stressed I have no symptoms of IBS. Beyond that, it means that if I am stressed the medicines at my disposal now work. Before the EFI Diet, I could pop Imodium, anti-spasmodics, anti-depressants, and anti-anxiety meds with no more effect than putting a traffic cone in front of a freight train. Now that the EFI approach has stabilized the part of my IBS that's food-related, my IBS is less likely to flare up under stress. And for those days when stress does get to my gut, I can manage it effectively with meds. Bottom line, I can live my daily life without being restricted by IBS.

HTH. Welcome to the Boards.

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