IBS on a Budget

Gimme all your money!!!

It's true.

This winter, between heating the farmhouse and drinking myself out of a broken heart, I am broke. Like, I'm running out of moneys.

The cool thing about IBS is this - the less I eat, the better my stomach feels. So not having money can be kind of a good thing. At the same time, there are supplements that I've grown to LOVE. And I can't afford them anymore.

Choices must be made. I can't have everything. So I have to decide what's most important.

Here's what I came up with.

Local, instead of organic veggies

I happen to live five minutes from a kickass farmer's market. Every Friday, I go and stock up on veggies. I can spend under twenty bucks and get everything I need for one - two weeks. This includes potatoes, greens, peppers, garlic, lemons, mushrooms, - literally everything.

Romaine soup - enough for a week!

Usually on Sunday or Monday, I roast or steam everything. Then I'm good for breakfast, lunch, and dinner the rest of the week. All that's really left to buy is nut milk, yogurt, raw cheese, and beans.

Yogurt? It's like, a dollar!

Flaxmeal bread, crackers, and muffins

flax bread!

flax crackers!

From this market, I can score a month's worth of flaxmeal for two-three bucks. So yeah. There's alotta flaxin' going on at my place!

one-minute muffin
with chocolate sweet potato icing

The Essential Vitamins

Over the past two years, I've tried A LOT of supplements. A LOT. These vitamins are my faves. There's double the daily dose of D3 in them, as well as non-binding iron, good B's and vitamin C. Ideally, I'd love to afford a whole food vitamin. But for now, these really do the trick. And they taste awesome.

When these run out, I've got back-up bottles of Trader Joe's D3, Megafood's Blood Builder (for Iron), Nature's Way Magnesium, and Nature's Way Quercetin with Vitamin C. Over time, these have proved to be the ones I feel the best from taking. They are worth my moneys!

Homemade kombucha, not GTs

I am a huge fan, Facebook friend, and now texting pal with Kombuchick. A year ago, she was selling three-day kits. Now, her business has expanded to a full make-your-own-booch start-up kit, a second fermentation kit, as well as numerous tea blends! There is no way to screw up making booch at home, if you follow Kombuchick's guides.

Look at what's in the cupboard

This is yummy garlicky sauce, made out of a baked potato, some tomato juice, garlic, nooch, and oregano. I poured it on a summer squash. Voila! Dinner.

Garden!


It's almost effin' spring!!!!

Simply by doing this, I've cut my weekly expenses in half.

Whole food eating continues to be the best practice for IBS. Veggies and grains are rarely as expensive as meats, dairy, and nuts anyway. So I think that eating on the cheap can definitely be a sort of treatment for farts - as good as any other!

Toots

What are your tricks for saving money?

Is it necessary to spend more, having IBS?

This Cupcake is a Problem...

This cupcake is dairy free, gluten free, soy free. This cupcake is delicious! And yet, this cupcake made me SO bloaty and farty and SICK.

Know why?

Because it’s got carbs and cashews in it.

Remember the growing up days of peanut butter sandwiches? Peanut butter toast was always my fave, on cinnamon swirl bread, on a Saturday afternoon in front of the TV, preferably Mystery Science Theater 3000. I’m a huge fan of the almond butter oats too, turned on by the legend herself, Heather Eats Almond Butter. But thanks to HEABs, and starting a food diary, I learned a couple years ago that when it comes to IBS, carbs and nut butters just don’t mix.

This is something to think about when you are IBSsy – COMBINATIONS. What foods are you combining? It’s possible that your tum don’t like it!

Here is a really neat article and chart about food combining. Interestingly, it's very similar to what I've learned keeping a food diary. Here are my big four yes and no combinations:

Yes - veggies and beans: Back in 08, I made cheese sauce out of nuts and nooch and I drenched my veggies in it every day. Now, I make it from beans or vegetables. There’s a huge difference in how my stomach feels. And I feel like I’m taking in more protein too.

No - nuts and grains: The deliciousness of 2008-2009 was oats and almond butter. Here, they are pureed with spinach and stevia. They look horrific. It's not the color or taste that was the problem though. Grains and nuts do not mix. Cramping and farting always follows.

Yes – nuts and fruit: Eaten at the right time of day, the date-nut-seed raw cookie really hits the spot! When not that hungry in the AM, one of these will power me to eleven, or even lunchtime.

No – veggies and carbs: This is a choice. When I eat veggies and rice, or veggies and gluten free pasta, I end up eating way more than I need to. The less variety on my plate, the less I eat. This is why, for lunch, I eat a salad or green leafy vegetable soup – non-carby vegetables. This is why, in the evenings, I’ll eat a small bowl of rice, mung bean noodles, or a Yukon Gold potato. Mix ‘em, and I’ll eat too much. I just know it.

That’s my basic diet. The goal? The minimal amount of food groups in each meal. When I do this, I feel my best. When I eat the carby cupcake made with chocolate cashew butter, I’m fucked.

Most days, I have to agonize over everything I eat. I have to gauge the hunger. I have to think about how my stomach feels. I have to ask: Am I really hungry? Or acidy? Could my stomach handle this steamed broccoli right now? Or would soup be better?

IBS is fucking annoying.

Toots

Are there foods that you can't combine?

What combinations work?

What combinations don't?