Irritable Bowel Syndrome Message Boards

Hey all,
Well, I finally sorted out my whole mystery of why I've felt like complete crap for the last few months. I really thought it was my thyroid, and so did the student health nurse practitioner, but it turned out to be anemia! I never thought I'd think of anemia as good news, but I'm SO GLAD it's not my thyroid. So, they did follow-up tests to see if I was simply not getting enough iron, or if I was getting enough but for some reason not absorbing it. The second outcome would have meant something wrong with my intestines, possibly colitis or something else bad. Thankfully, it turned out that I was just not getting enough iron in my diet. Because of the IBS and my recent tendancy toward constipation, iron pills are not an option for me. I must say that I LOVE the nurse prac for totally agreeing with me on that. So, she set me up an appointment with the school nutritionist for a week from Tuesday. I hope the nutritionist won't give me a problem about following the IBS guidelines, and will help me fit some iron in to my diet safely. In the meantime I've researched about iron-rich foods and I'm doing my best to incorporate them. The nurs prac said it will take about 3 months to get my iron levels back where they belong, but that hopefully I'll start feeling better sooner than that.

I've also gained a few pounds this summer and have been trying the Zone diet. I'm using www.formulazone.com to help me. I put in all my info and they gave me a weekly menu with a shopping list and recipes. It's fairly easy to follow and allows you to restrict any foods or food groups from your diet. So, most of them come out safe automatically. Every once in a while it will throw me a recipe that's too high in IF and not high enough in SF, or that contains artificial sweetners, but it's fairly easy to swap them out for a new recipe. I wouldn't recommend this for people who are not yet stable, since even the safer recipes are somewhat questionable, but for me it's working okay. I'll see if I start losing weight.

On a related note, I have a question that I know I'm going to catch a lot of heat for. Does anyone know if there is really a safe over-the-counter diet pill? I'm frustrated because I only want to lose maybe 8 pounds, not a ton. I don't take in very many calories as it is, so it's hard for me to reduce my diet much more (on zone, I'm getting about 1300 a day). With the anemia, I haven't had very much energy to exercise. Plus, since I really am pretty physically fit, my body doesn't use a lot of calories when I exercise. I have to run on the treadmill for at least an hour to burn 4-500 calories, and be running pretty fast. Meanwhile the heavy guy next to me is burning 2 or 3 times that much. So, what I'm saying is that it's hard for me to create a significant calorie deficit and lose weight. So............ I'd really like to try one of these trimspa or hydroxycut or whatevers. But, if they are going to make me feel like I'm on crack or give me a heart attack (or an IBS attack) I don't want to go near them. I'd appreciate any direct advice or first-hand experience anyone has to share. I just want to know if they're actually safe or unsafe.

That's it for the updates from me!
Panda

--------------------
Amanda

I live in the Big Apple, but I don't eat the skin

Print Remind Me Notify Moderator