I have just had a shitty last few days (in so many ways), and it’s still going! The fever has broken, the delirium has lifted, the fever-induced aches have gone, leaving me exhausted and still sore, and with a very upset gastrointestinal tract.
I have always had a sensitive gastrointestinal tract. Right from when I was a bub, the rule of thumb was if you picked me up the wrong way I would upchuck. Well it hasn’t gotten much better over time! When I am disrespecting my stomach with foods I know it can’t quite cope with, it reminds me by waking me up at 2am to bring it right back up again.
I went on a gluten free keto-style diet years ago, and while it worked really well for bloating, the amount of fats I was required to consume made me physically ill. I eventually found a balance point, but that all fell to bits when I moved countries and had to get reacquainted with a new array of foodstuffs. I’ve been more-or-less okay until now, other than occasional instances of gastro that clear after a day or two in reaction to something or other. I’ve even been able to eat small amounts of lamb and pork without bringing it back up (at 2am)!
This weekend I ate takeaways. I shouldn’t have, the impact of this particular takeaway on my body has been slowly but surely increasing in a negative way over the past couple of months, and I suspect it finally hit peak ‘nope’ when it coincided with the first day of my period (which is always a time of gastrointestinal upset anyway). The result? PAIN AND POO. Yes, that nasty ‘p’ word. Except what was (and still is) coming out could barely be classified as that.
Which brings me to the actual topic of this particular post. I’ve come to the conclusion that I can no longer eat whatever I want and just expect my body to be fine with it. I wish I could, I really want to just be able to have a pain au chocolat and not feel like my insides are turning over, or have that piece of cake and not feel awful for the rest of the day. I’d love to be able to eat takeaways because they’re so much easier than cooking. But that is not my lot in life, apparently, so I’m going to have to suck it up.
My biggest problem is I am energy poor and, yes, lazy. I’m not sure which came first, but the end result is I just don’t want to spend more than 30 minutes on making dinner, and that’s not even to talk about lunches. Breakfasts are easy enough – I can swap my toast out for a big shake, I’ve done that before and I’ve felt a lot better for it. But the rest – lunches and dinners – it’s just so much work.
So I have to keep telling myself: suck it up.
I’ll be able to enact my master plan of changing up my diet this week. I’ll get everything I need for my shakes, typically:
- frozen fruit of some kind (mixed berry or straight mango is amazing)
- banana
- inoffensive (and cheap) protein powder with the largest difference in sugar and protein
- milk
- oats
- LSA (if I remember)
- coconut oil
- sometimes plain unsweetened yoghurt.
Chuck it all in the blender in whatever proportions you like (I tend to go heavy on the fruit and oats and end up with something that more has to be eaten with a spoon than with a straw) and blend it.
Lunches … for now I’ll go with oats and milk and bananas until I can sort something a little more appealing, and dinners I’m going to wing it for now. I’ve found a lovely recipe for hoki that I am so keen to try, as well as my old favourite orange salmon (the recipe of which escapes me).
It is a real challenge to change your diet when you’re exhausted and under the weather, but it’s times like these when you need that good diet the most. (I still don’t want to, but I’m going to do it.)
Walk to Wellness 