Eating out, eating on the go, grabbing takeout on a low FODMAP diet?

It’s not as hard as you think. You’ve been watching your FODMAP intake or you’ve been on the FODMAP elimination diet and things are going great, but then a friend or colleague invites you to dinner, and you panic. Taking care of your tummy and staying on a low FODMAP diet when eating out can be tricky, but it’s not impossible and it doesn’t mean you have to decline the invitation or miss the fun!

With a little bit of preparation, you can eat out and stay on your low FODMAP protocol. Here’s what we recommend:

Number one: Use our Eating Out Guide and get the direction you need to navigate fine dining, fast food, and take out without sacrificing your tummy.

Number two: Call ahead, research menus, and ingredient lists online, and arm yourself with information to ensure there’s something on the menu you can enjoy without consequences.

Number three: Consider restaurants that cater to gluten-free and/or dairy-free diets, which may have more easily customized options on their menu.

Taking a little time to be prepared can reduce anxiety and stress (both of which can be IBS triggers for some people) and make eating out something to look forward to instead of something to dread.

Smile. That’s it. Just smile.

Smile on purpose to supercharge your mood. Make it part of your morning routine. If something goes awry during the day, try smiling to quickly transform your mood, feel less stressed, and put things in a different perspective. Better yet...go for a walk outside and smile while you're walking!

It’s scientifically proven the simple act of putting a smile on your face will improve your mood and diminish your stress.

Why not give it a try?

Come on…do it now.

Honing the practice of having a great day. Every day.

Waking up and going directly into your workday can put you in an anxious, high-stress state from the start. If you don’t give yourself time to sort through your own thoughts, ideas, to-do lists, and anxieties before launching the day, it’s a perfect recipe for a stressful, scattered, and unproductive day. And yet, that’s how most of us function!

In this blog, we have talked about building habits and planning ahead by using that part of your brain that has your best interests in mind. When you wake up in the morning, your mind is open and relaxed and your thoughts can flow easily. You can quickly access what you learned from yesterday’s experiences and prioritize what things you plan to do today. Capturing that energy and harnessing that clarity of thought is one of the best tools to maximize your own potential and begin to meet, and even exceed, your goals — no matter what they might be.

Using your brain to benefit yourself is incredibly powerful, free, and, once you establish a practice, quick and easy.

But how do you do it? One of the most powerful, and easy-to-implement, practices is to download (write down) your thoughts first thing in the morning. This thought download serves to capture key learnings from the day before and inform your priorities for the day/week/month ahead. It takes a bit of practice but if you can take 10 - 15 minutes each morning to do it for yourself, you will reap incredible rewards. Of course I can hear some of you saying no way, I don’t have time for that. What would I write down? How would I even start? This is stupid.

Use this template to give it a try. There’s no downside.

For those of you in the IBS Game Changer program, you’re already documenting some of this stuff on a daily basis in the IBS Game Changer journal you received when you signed up for the program. Good for you! You’ve already started to establish a practice. To help you take that to the next level, I’m sharing a template that should be very helpful.

Following this template will make the work of downloading your thoughts a powerful tool that benefits…you!

“It’s not what happens to us but what we learn from it that matters most.” - Michael Hyatt

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Yesterday

What happened?

• Don’t chronicle everything, just the highs, lows, and anything you want to remember later.

What did you read or hear? 

• List important books, articles, podcasts you consumed since your last thought download.

What were your biggest wins? 

• This gives you a sense of momentum to start the new day.

What lessons did you learn? 

• Try to distill your experience down to a couple of lessons you want to remember. It’s not what happens to us but what we learn from it that matters most.

What stood out? 

• I don’t want to lose what I learn in my reading and listening, so I record key insights.

Today

What are you thankful for right now? 

• This is one practical way you can cultivate a sense of abundance and gratitude.

What are you thinking and feeling right now? 

• Your thoughts and feelings are the be-all-end-all because they drive everything you feel, actions you take, and the results you get. Writing them down prevents you from ignoring or suppressing them and gives you an opportunity to check in on yourself.

What are your goals for this week/today?

• Keep your goals focused and no more than 3

• Allow yourself to include goals related to personal growth and self care in addition to work and productivity

What are your top 3 priorities to support those goals today?

• Stay focused so you can keep your priorities in mind. It’s ok to list them all, but then prioritize and focus on the top 3. \

What can you do for someone else?

• Doing things for others is one of the best ways to feel connected and reap personal rewards. This can be as simple as reaching out to a friend or family member with a call, text, or card or it can be as much as volunteering your time at a local food pantry or shelter to help strangers who are in need. The simple act of helping someone else is powerful in lifting your own spirit.

Tomorrow

What are your goals for this week/tomorrow?

• Give some thought to tomorrow and what your focus can be to maintain your progress.

What can you do next to move forward on your goals? 

• Think through your goals, priorities and schedule and identify a few key actions you could take tomorrow to keep your momentum going. 

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Here’s a text version of the prompts you can copy and use as you establish your daily practice.

Yesterday

What happened?

What did you read or hear? 

What were your biggest wins? 

What lessons did you learn? 

What stood out? What did you like best?

Today

What are you thankful for right now? 

What are you thinking and feeling right now? 

What are your goals for this week/today?

What are your top 3 priorities to support those goals today?

What can you do for someone else?

Tomorrow

What are your goals for this week/tomorrow?

What can you do next to move forward on your goals? 

It doesn’t take long to build a practice that works for you and allows you to mentally prepare yourself for a great day every day!

Quick Reference Guide to Sugars and FODMAPs

As we enter the holiday season we always seem to find ourselves surrounded by food — much of which is sweet! Even this year, while we’re all on pandemic quarantine, the cookies, cakes, and candies seem to be materializing as if by magic or maybe it's the baking fairy in my kitchen! The gifts from friends, neighbors and colleagues. The displays at the supermarket. All seem to say “eat me I’m deliciously sweet!”

The low FODMAP diet is definitely not intended to be a sugar free diet and you can indulge in an occasional treat, but you need to make sure you are choosing treats that are sweetened with a low FODMAP sweetener. This is why we created the Quick Reference Guide to Sugars and FODMAPs.

Of course we all know, any sugar or sweetener should be consumed in moderation. But that gets tricky when you are literally surrounded by sweets everywhere you go! To limit your consumption, you need to plan ahead so you don’t spend all your time arguing with yourself. If you’re going to eat a cookie. Plan to eat a cookie. And when you eat the cookie, be very conscious about what you’re doing. Don’t just wolf it down as though you’re going to get “caught.” Enjoy every bit of it! Savor it! Make it last. Doing this will make it a pleasure NOT a guilty pleasure. But it does require some advance planning.

When it comes to sugar and sweets, having a plan you make ahead of time that you can stick to in the moment, is your best bet. Just decide “Today I’m going to eat a cookie.” And then stick with your plan and don’t make it negotiable. Don’t wonder if you’re actually going to eat ten cookies. You’re not. You made a plan and you’re sticking to it. And, you can make a new plan for tomorrow.

Once you have your plan, knowing what sweets are “safe” when you have IBS means you can indulge without fear.

To help you navigate your way around sugars and FODMAPs grab our handy quick reference guide. It will make selecting safe sweets easy.

Making intention your IBS ally.

Planning ahead and being intentional are two of the most important things to keep you feeling good when you have IBS. This is especially important during the holidays when rich foods with long lists of ingredients are a major focus. Making decisions in the moment can lead to making decisions you later regret. I'm not saying don't be spontaneous. Just have plans in place to honor your intentions.

A great way to define, reinforce, and refine your intention is to write it down

Writing things down has a way of making them real. Establishing them in our thoughts. Reinforcing them to remind ourselves what is most important. When you think about IBS what are the most important things to you in gaining control of your body? Here are some ideas:

• Understanding my triggers so I can avoid IBS flare-ups

• Learning what I can eat so I don't trigger symptoms

• Making peace with having IBS and what it means for me

Old habits can undermine your intention

Our habits can be the enemy of our success just because our brain has been trained to do (or not do) a particular thing at a particular time. Write down those old habits so you know what you have to work on. Here are some examples of old habits that might sound familiar to you.

• I ALWAYS eat whatever is offered because I don’t want to be a bother.

• I ALWAYS snack on chips and candy when I’m watching TV even though I know they won’t be good for me.

• I NEVER make any special requests at restaurants because I don’t want to be “that person.”

• I NEVER read ingredient lists because they’re just too complicated. Besides, if it says “gluten-free” it’s good for me, right?

Keep in mind you are in charge of your body. You don’t have to make up excuses for taking care of your body. A simple no thank you should suffice. You don’t have to follow it up with a long discourse on IBS and your personal triggers. Sometimes that “no thank you” needs to be directed to yourself!

New habits can reinforce your intention and serve as an incredible support for you

The good news is, your brain can be RE-trained and your habits can become health-promoting rather than health-destroying! Write down some new habits you want to practice for a change. Here are some examples you might want to try.

• I ALWAYS stock my fridge and my pantry with low FODMAP foods that I love

• I ALWAYS have a glass of water when I walk through the kitchen or use the bathroom

• I NEVER eat foods I know won’t be good for me.

• I ALWAYS read ingredient lists and if they’re too long or full of things I can’t pronounce, I don’t eat them

• I NEVER go to a social gathering without a plan, or even worse, a plan to “cheat”

Making new habits takes work and practice

Setting your intention is the first step. Reinforcing your intention with new habits takes practice. Keep it simple. Keep yourself in mind. Keep a good supply of things you can say YES to so you don’t feel deprived. Learn new recipes for old favorites and make them often.

Not sure where to start with all this? Start with yourself. Write it down. Map out your intentions and then write down a few new habits to practice that will support your intentions. And if you make a mistake or fall back into an old habit here and there, don’t panic. All is not lost. Just keep practicing the new habits. Eventually, they will become as automatic as brushing your teeth.

Three questions to harness your desire and reap real rewards.

When you have IBS there are certain things that you eat, drink or do that can make you feel, well, terrible! So why on earth would you do this to yourself?!

It all boils down to the fact that you are a human being and we humans are hard-wired to have urges and desires. So yay! You’re normal.

Harnessing your desire for good is the challenge. To do that, you must learn to recognize when your desire is working for you (healthy desire), and when it’s just an urge for something that you know will be bad for you. The acid test? If what you want is going to make you feel like crap afterward, it’s an urge that should be acknowledged but not acted upon. It’s your brain telling you a giant piece of chocolate cake and a big glass of milk is JUST what you need right now. And when your brain tells you to hurry up and take action on your urge, that’s another test. The part of your brain that generates these urges (we call that the “primitive brain”) will always try to bypass the part of your brain that’s more sophisticated and thoughtful. By rushing you and making it seem like an urgent need. This leaves you with no time to think about, and realize, no it’s not urgent. No, it’s not even something I should do!

So, here’s a little checklist you can apply to your urges and desires to see which part of your brain is in charge. When you get an urge for something, check in with yourself and ask these three questions:

1. Will the results of taking action on this urge make me feel good?

2. If I take action on this urge will I be more of who I WANT to be afterward?

3. What will happen if I don’t take action on this urge?

Use these questions to clarify the true source of your desire. For the urgent “needs” that are sent up by your primitive brain, practice allowing yourself to feel the urge without taking any action. Keep in mind your greater desire to feel good, be healthy, honor, and respect yourself. This takes practice! Don’t beat yourself up if you can’t do it the first few times you try.

As you practice, you should begin to discover some important things.

1. Nothing bad happened because you DIDN’T take action on that urgent “need.”

2. You are starting to see the emergence of healthy desire — such as the desire to feel good instead of feeling like crap; and the desire to honor and respect yourself instead of treating yourself badly.

3. Healthy desires, such as the desire to eat what is good for you, go for a walk, focus on accomplishing your goals, will start to become stronger than the urge to sit in the kitchen eating chocolate cake and drinking milk. And that’s because, as you see and feel the results of taking action on your healthy desires, those results will become very motivating.

These practices are proven to work because they enable you to take control of your urges by focusing on results. You get thoughtful about your urgent “needs” vs your healthy desires. You change your brain’s natural focus from short-term pleasure to long-term reward. And the results that pile up serve as a reminder the next time you get one of those urgent primitive brain “needs.”

Do something wonderful for yourself. Try this for two weeks and see what happens. The rewards are waiting for you.

Three minutes a day to breathe stress away.

With all that is going on with the pandemic, and vaccinations coming available but still hard to get, each of us is experiencing higher levels of stress. Most of us are well aware, stress is not good for our health. Among many other things, stress weakens our immune system, increases depression and insomnia, and affects our digestion. None of these are good for anyone, but especially those of us with IBS.

When you are stressed one of the simplest and most effective things you can do to reduce your stress…is breathe.

And that doesn’t mean hyperventilating. That will just make it worse.

Inhaling slowly through your nose and exhaling slowly through your mouth is a simple and efficient way to activate your parasympathetic nervous system. This is the system that allows you to “rest and digest” rather than “fight or flight.”

Practice this breathing technique for one minute in the morning, afternoon, and evening:

Inhale through your nose counting slowly to 4 and exhale through your mouth counting slowly to 8. Repeat this cycle 3-5 times morning noon and night.

Make a note in your journal when you start this practice and do it daily. If you do, you’ll start to notice you’re feeling more relaxed, clear-headed, calm, and happy throughout the day. You should be sleeping better and your tummy should feel better too.

Stress triggering your IBS? Four things you can do right now that will help.

Stress is a biggie for all of us. And we tend to have a lot of stress in our lives no matter who we are or what we do. For those of us with IBS, stress can bring on painful symptoms that have a negative effect on our lives. If you’re wondering why stress is such a big deal for people with IBS, read on.

Your nerves: Your gut has hundreds of millions of neurons (nerve cells) that are all in constant communication with your brain. A high level of stress has an effect on gut-brain communication that can trigger pain, bloating, and other gut discomforts. Understanding this connection is a really important piece of controlling your IBS symptoms.

Your gut bacteria: Your gut is also home to millions of bacteria. A balanced gut biome is required to have balanced emotions. Stress can cause changes in your gut bacteria and in turn have a negative influence on your emotions.

Your mind: The way you think about a situation has a real impact on your body’s response to it. That’s why, for some of us, driving in traffic is extremely stressful while for others, it’s not stressful at all.

What to do: Reducing your stress level is the fix for this. And, there are many ways to do that! If you can dial down some of your professional and/or personal commitments to allow yourself some space, that’s a great place to start. Separate from that, there are a few simple things over which you have complete control that have been proven to help reduce stress. Give them a try. You will be glad you did.

1. Maintaining a healthy social support network - Humans thrive on social interaction and, in fact, require it to maintain their sense of well-being. Right now we’re all a bit isolated but don’t let that stop you. Reach out to one friend or family member each day and say hello. You can call, text, Zoom, email, or best of all, meet for a socially-distanced walk together. And extend that interaction to strangers! Be kind. Say thank you and mean it. Look people in the eye. It will make you and them feel good.

2. Engaging in regular physical exercise - This does not mean killing yourself for an hour. It can be as simple as going for a ten-minute walk around the neighborhood. Or even going for a walk around your own home! Set an achievable goal for yourself — and that might start with just putting your shoes on! Once you’re comfortable with that goal, up the ante just a bit. This is NOT about doing an Iron Man. It’s about doing yourself a small favor that starts with only a few minutes a day.

3. Getting enough sleep - Sleep is the key to so many things! Having a bedtime routine that allows you to fall asleep and stay asleep is very important. Especially when you are feeling stressed. This routine is different for each of us. For me, a cool dark room, a cup of ginger tea and a good book have me snoring in minutes. For you, it might be a hot shower or bath, meditation, or quiet music. Also important is choosing to avoid caffeine, especially late in the day, alcohol, and screen time right before going to bed (or, worst of all, screen time IN bed). All of these things can disrupt your sleep.

4. Mind management - This one is the most interesting to me because, with mind-management, you can retrain your thinking and your response to stress. A feeling of stress comes from a thought. If you can work on modifying your thoughts you can reduce your body’s stress response. If you are new to mind management, this may sound like a bunch of “hooey.” In the IBS Game Changer program, we work with you to teach you how to manage your mind and EFFECTIVELY reduce stress WITHOUT quitting your job or joining an ashram.

And be sure to read our post: Three minutes a day to breathe stress away.

All sugars are not FODMAPs! Fact vs. fiction.

If you’ve been diagnosed with IBS it’s almost certain you’ve heard about FODMAPs (a group of small chain carbohydrates that cause all kinds of problems for those of us with IBS). There is a lot of information out there about FODMAPs and it can be tricky to filter the myths from the realities. Let’s look at six of the most common myths about FODMAPs and see what’s really going on.

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Fiction: All Sugars are FODMAPs

Fact: All FODMAPs are considered ‘sugars’ because of their chemical structure, but not all sugars are FODMAPs. For example, white table sugar is not a FODMAP and can be eaten freely (while adhering to normal dietary guidelines for sugar intake). 

Fiction: The low FODMAP diet dairy free

Fact:  The low FODMAP diet might be a low lactose diet if you are sensitive to lactose, but it does not need to be dairy free. In fact, once you’ve taken time to give your body a rest by eating a low FODMAP diet, it’s important to challenge yourself to maintain the most varied diet possible.

Fiction: If I can’t tolerate specific high-FODMAP foods, I’ll never be able to eat them again.
Fact: If you have a negative reaction to a particular FODMAP-containing food, challenge yourself to try a little less of it the next time. If you’re still having issues, repeat the challenge again and make sure you’re not layering too many challenges at once. You may find your tolerance improves with time, especially if you work on some of your other IBS triggers, such as stress, hydration level, and caffeine intake at the same time.

Fiction: A low FODMAP diet will cure my IBS

Fact: About 80% of people with IBS find their symptoms improve on a low FODMAP diet, but the symptoms do not usually go away all together. This is in part because there are so many dynamic factors that can contribute to IBS symptoms such as stress, intense exercise, medications, eating too much in one sitting, eating too fast, etc. Reducing your intake of high-FODMAP foods is very likely to decrease symptoms of diarrhea, constipation, bloating and pain, but there’s more to it than that.

Fiction: If you are experiencing gut symptoms such as diarrhea, bloating or abdominal pain you should get on a low FODMAP diet right away.

Fact: The low FODMAP diet is for people with diagnosed IBS, not for people who suspect they have IBS. If you experience IBS-like symptoms, such as a change in bowel habits, pain etc., see your Doctor and rule out anything more serious than IBS. Once you have a diagnosis, that’s when to start on a low FODMAP diet.

Fiction: The low FODMAP diet is a weight loss diet

Fact: The low FODMAP diet is not meant to restrict calories and induce weight loss. The diet focuses on simple food swaps to decrease FODMAP intake such as switching from eating an apple to eating an orange, or switching from using garlic in your salad dressing to using garlic-infused olive oil, or switching from eating blackberries to eating raspberries.

As the bloating subsides, and the pain recedes you may look and feel like you’ve lost weight and that’s just the “icing on the cake!”

Cut your coffee intake, not your mental clarity

Is that even possible?

Yes. Yes it is. I had to cut my caffeine intake down because it was wreaking havoc on my IBS. And believe me, I “needed” my 2 or 3 cups of coffee every day! I just decided it was “worth” the IBS consequences because I felt I needed the caffeine to wake up in the morning and to maintain my mental focus and clarity throughout the day.

As my symptoms got worse, I could no longer convince myself it was worth the consequences to keep drinking regular coffee. As luck would have it, about that time, I was listening to The Tim Ferriss Show podcast, and he was raving about Mushroom Coffee by Four Sigmatic. He said he always asked his guests to have a cup when they came on his show so they would get the benefit of incredible mental clarity while he interviewed them.

That convinced me to give it a try.

As with any other new thing I introduce to my diet, I took it very slowly. I added just a half a packet of Mushroom Coffee to a cup of brewed decaf. Then…I tasted and discovered it wasn’t half bad! Even better, I found out the combination of a very small amount of caffeine (in the decaf) when combined with a small amount of the mushroom coffee mix gave me plenty of get up and go without any of the usual coffee side effects. I was awake, alert, and my mind was clear. What a discovery!

There are several varieties, but the one I like best has Lions Mane for mental focus.

Post Script Update (June 2023): Lion’s Mane is now in the Monash app and tou can order powdered Lion’s Mane that you can stir right into your decaf coffee without adding any caffeine at all. The link to order is here. After my first cup of the day (where I like to include the tiny bit of caffeine in the Four Sigmatics Mushroom Coffee blend) I now use powdered Lion’s Mane in my coffee later in the day and I love the mental clarity results!

Link note: This post contains links for you to easily purchase items listed on the page. In some cases, we have provided a special discount code for IBS Game Changers so be sure to use it when you purchase an item to get the discount that has been arranged just for you! As an Amazon Associate, I earn a commission from qualifying Amazon purchases. 

Stress management: the gift of ten minutes

Stress is a trigger for IBS and we all have different ways of relieving our stress. How do you relieve your stress? Meditation? Listening to music? Going for a walk? Reading a book? Nothing at all you just power through?

It’s likely you have the best of intentions. But it’s more likely you just THINK about doing something to reduce your stress and then you go back to whatever was stressing you out in the first place. And maybe, to make matters worse, you grab a cup of coffee and a candy bar as an afternoon “pick me up” and then you’ve compounded the problem. Now you’re stressed out and you have a stomach ache.

Here’s a thought. What if you gave yourself the gift of ten minutes each day. Put it on your calendar at a time you feel you will be most likely to honor that gift to yourself. Then decide, ahead of time, what you will do with that time. Don’t make it complicated or you won’t do it. Put a visual queue out as a reminder (like your walking shoes for example.)

Can’t think of anything you can do in ten minutes? Try this:

• Take a walk. Even around the block. Or, around your house if it’s bad weather outside. Just walk for ten minutes.

• Want to make that walk even more valuable? Pop your headphones in and listen to music while you walk.

• And one last thing…take some deeeeep breaths while you walk. Fill your lungs completely with a focus on the very base of your lungs and hold it for a few seconds. Then breath it all the way out and hold that for a few seconds. Do this a half a dozen times while you’re walking.

I promise you will be amazed at the results. Your stress will be reduced. Your mind will be more focused. You will be ready to tackle whatever it was that was stressing you out with renewed optimism and energy.

Once you get good at this ten-minute gift you might find you’d like to expand the gift to 15 minutes or even longer. The benefits will far outweigh the few minutes it takes to do.

Want to learn more about handling stress and other IBS triggers? Join me in the IBS Game Changer program. We’ll map out the perfect ten-minute gift for you and start working together to get your body and your mind into a nice rhythm that will help you change your game and thrive.

What’s love got to do with it?

When you have IBS you have a constant struggle between your body and your mind. Your mind says “Hey, I want to eat that onion soup with bread and cheese all melted on the top and I don’t care about the consequences.” And your body says “If you do that to me, I am going to let you know it was NOT a good idea.”

Mastering the art of self-love is a critical piece of managing your mind and managing your IBS. But how do you do that?

Self-love is the promise to yourself that you are going to learn what is good for you and what is not good and make an effort to focus on the good. As you begin to honor this promise to yourself, you will see how powerful it is in generating a sense of self-love and self-respect. Every promise you keep is evidence that proves you MATTER and you VALUE yourself. 

Unfortunately, we all start with an untrained mind that will do its best to make us fail. Your untrained mind sees everything as a BIG DEAL and will try to convince you that you are constantly in danger and every good decision you make is going to put you in even worse danger. For example, if you decide NOT to eat that onion soup with bread and cheese on top, your untrained mind will tell you that you must eat it or you will die. It will tell you the consequences of that action will be far outweighed by the immediate pleasure of eating it. It will convince you there is urgency and you need to eat it quickly so you can’t change your mind.

Fortunately, we have the tools you need to train your mind to stop making everything an urgent catastrophe so you can focus on the small decisions, actions, activities that are actually facing you. Start by introducing the power of possible thinking to your mind. When it says “Hurry up! Eat that soup or you will die.” You can pause and consider the consequences and say to yourself, “It’s possible if I don’t eat that soup I will not die. In fact, it’s possible if I do eat that soup I will feel horrible afterward and wish I hadn’t eaten it in the first place.” This power of possible thinking will minimize the thought and name the facts and make it simpler to pause so you can make the right decision for you.

Your untrained mind will always try to convince you it’s URGENT that you take action or make a decision quickly. That urgency will drive you to do it without thinking. By training yourself to pause and consider you are training your mind to get control of itself. You are asking your adult brain to step in so the toddler brain can settle down.

Eventually, that untrained mind will be replaced with a more powerful trained mind that will become your inner champion instead of your inner doomsday predictor.  

Stop and think about what your untrained mind is telling you to do? Sleep a little longer. Who needs time to exercise? Don’t drink water. Who cares about hydration? Have another cup of coffee. Who cares how it makes you feel? Eat those donuts. You’ll feel fine afterward.

Then consider what form of self-love you can focus on first? What do you need to give to yourself? Do you need to get up a little earlier in the morning so you have time to exercise or meditate? Do you need to drink more water? Do you need to eat food that sustains you and nurtures you?

It’s possible to change any area of your life by training your mind to recognize what you REALLY need and giving it to yourself. This is just an introduction to the way we teach you to harness the power of your mind in the IBS Game Changer program to support the work you will do around your personal triggers.

Is Caffeine a trigger for IBS?

The answer to this question is Yes…BUT that isn’t necessarily bad.

Caffeine acts on the smooth muscle of your gut and serves to stimulate the movement of your gut. This, in turn, stimulates the movement of whatever is inside your gut.

If you have a tendency towards diarrhea (IBS-D) then stimulating your gut will only make it worse. If you have a tendency toward constipation (IBS-C) then some gentle gut stimulation may be very helpful.

Just like everything else with IBS, if you listen to your body and treat it with love and tenderness, not frustration and anger you will have a much better result. A small amount of well-timed caffeine (at a regular time in the morning) is worth experimenting with. You can play with the timing and the amount and then look at the results.

If you are experiencing pain, cramping, and diarrhea, you may need to back off. If you aren’t experiencing anything then you may choose to have a bit more. Let your body do the talking.

If you are having wide variations in your symptoms and ongoing difficulties no matter what you do, you will also want to consider other factors such as hydration status, stress, and diet that could be triggering your symptoms. In the IBS Game Changer program, we consider all of these things and we help you figure out what particular triggers might be affecting you so you can reduce or avoid them and get your body on track.

Ten reasons not to treat your IBS. Really?

1.  IBS is just a catch-all diagnosis
The Doctor couldn’t think of any other tests to run so you got the catch-all diagnosis: Irritable Bowel Syndrome (eye roll)
2. It’s really all just in your head
There’s nothing really “wrong” with you so you just have to get over it.
3. You LOVE being bloated
What’s not to love!? Never knowing what clothes you’ll fit into from one day to the next is the best!

4. You HATE going out with friends
Ugh. Another dinner? Another get together? Another round of drinks? PASS.
5. FODMAP is just too much
What does FODMAP even mean? You don’t know and you don’t want to find out.

6. The bathroom is your favorite place to be
You love living in your ceramic palace and the smell is just divine!

7. Pills? I love pills!

I’ll just take a pill to make those bad symptoms go away. Oh wait…they don’t go away!
8. Going to the doctor is so fun
Tests, tests, we all scream for tests! It just makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside to wait at the doctor’s office for hours just to have another round of inconclusive tests.
9. Cramping is fine because you can stay in bed all day!
Sure, you may be locked in the fetal position all day, but at least you’re in bed.
10. People asking if you’re pregnant is the best!
I love the attention! The disappointment on their faces when I say no is s a little awkward though.

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As you can see, none of these reasons is a real reason! There isn’t ONE reason not to treat your IBS and the IBS Game Changer program was developed to help you do just that.

You’ll get education, a thorough assessment of your situation, a personalized plan, and individualized coaching. And, you’ll have the support of a community moderated by peers and experts to inspire you, learn from you, and celebrate your success. 

The program is tried and true. The only thing missing is you.

Let’s get this party started…

As a wife, mother, entrepreneur, CEO, retired nurse, and health coach, I developed IBS Game Changer to apply my expertise and experience to helping women—like you and me—who have spent their lives dealing with Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

My IBS Story

I've struggled with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) for as long as I can remember, and for most of that time I didn’t have any idea what it was. In fact, I didn’t even know it wasn’t “normal” to have all these symptoms and the anxiety they caused. Twice I ended up in the ER certain that I had appendicitis. I was in such pain I couldn’t even stand up straight. Each time I was sent home without a diagnosis or any help for what I was experiencing.

When I finally went to a GI specialist and had the full battery of tests to rule out Celiac Disease, Crohn’s Disease or any other bowel-obstructing problem, I was told it was “probably IBS.” At the time, I felt like that must be a catch-all diagnosis the doctors used when they couldn’t figure out what was really wrong. I didn’t even look into what it meant or what I could do about it because it didn’t seem like a diagnosis of anything “real.” 

After two more years of denial and discouragement and unpredictable symptoms, I went back to the GI specialist and that was when I finally accepted Irritable Bowel Syndrome as a reality. It was also the first I heard about FODMAPs—carbohydrates found in certain foods that trigger IBS symptoms such as gas, bloating, and stomach pain. 

Once I realized there was something I could do about my situation, I was all in on learning everything I could about symptoms, triggers, and solutions. That was when my constant gut roller coaster started to flatten out. 

And that’s when I started to develop the tools, techniques, and coaching program that I have packaged for you as the IBS Game Changer program.

And now, you can take advantage of all that work by joining the IBS Game Changer program yourself. With expert education, a personalized approach, coaching, thought work, and a community of peers to support you, the IBS Game Changer program is designed with you in mind.

Schedule a free consultation with me today to learn more.