The IBS Invasion

Last week, BD had a long overdue colonoscopy and endoscopy.  As I'd suspected, the doctor diagnosed him with Irritable Bowel Syndrome.  Game over.

After the diagnosis, I immediately consulted Dr. Google.  And my mom, who was my Google long before Google existed.  Medications don't really help the symptoms of IBS, so I knew we'd have to shake up our diet.  And, gasp, start exercising.  We are lazy people.  If laying around on the couch burned calories, we'd be stick figures.

The exercising part, I don't see as too much of a challenge.  Little Babydoll is becoming quite the active monkey and will probably be tearing up the house any minute now.  Cooler weather has finally hit our desert town, making it easier to actually go outside and do stuff.  BD tuned up our bikes a couple weeks ago.  There is a park within five minutes' walking distance of our house.  There is no good excuse why we can't get off our lazy asses and start burning some calories.

I bet you a million dollars we'll find a good excuse.

Back to the diet.  Ugh.  "Diet."  If that's not a four-letter word, I don't know what is.  Let's not use that ugly, ugly word.  We'll say "eating plan," instead.  I thought we were doing pretty well: we eat mostly organic foods and only grass-fed beef.  I should clarify: this is how we eat when I cook.  When left to his own devices, BD chows down on pre-packaged meals, Apple Jacks, hot dogs...you get the picture.  After examining the "what not to eat" lists I found online, I discovered that for my part, I only need to tweak a few things (less fat, mainly) and I just need to make sure there are more options for him at lunch time.  Lunch seems to be his downfall.

The biggest obstacle he'll have to overcome is milk consumption.  He can easily go through four gallons of milk in a week.  Seriously.  We should have just bought our own dairy cow.  But since D-Day, he's already cut way back.  Progress!  Next up, cheese.  We are cheesy people.  Nothing brings a smile to BD's face like a wedge of Brie and a sliced baguette.  It seems our suppers of cheese, bread, salami, fruit and wine are in the past, or, at the very least, will become much more infrequent.  Sad face.

Next up: fiber.  Lots and lots of fiber.  Easy enough.  I'm a label-reader anyway, and I'm always checking the fiber content of cereal, pasta, bread, etc.  Lentils are already one of our staples, and I've been looking up new recipes to use them.  My current favorite use is a lentil soup with kale, carrots, and chicken Andouille.

Sugar.  He's not much of a sweets-eater, but if you're a label-reader like I am, you know that sugar is hidden everywhere.  Cutting back on the milk should definitely help in that department.

Artificial sweeteners.  Here's the hurdle.  He loves Sweet 'n' Low.  I know.  I KNOW.

Caffeine.  Not much of an issue - BD doesn't chug coffee and tea the way I do.

Water.  This is a foreign word to him.  If given the choice between water and expired milk, I bet he'd choose the expired milk.

Probiotics.  We started giving Babydoll Country Life MaxiBaby powder in her yogurt every day to help with her eczema (yes, it's working), and I'd been thinking for awhile that we probably ought to take some, too.  Done and done.

We can do this.  If I can keep him out of the Apple Jacks...