I love all things January; at least all things in the beginning of January. By the middle of the month, nearing the end I’ve usually had enough. Enough of the cold weather and dreary days. Today, though is a great day. As with the start of each New Year, I always feel anything is possible. It’s exciting and it’s creative and it’s fun.
As many of you know, I’ve been working diligently on curing my IBS. My naturopath, Dr. Angela Kirk is a wonderful lady who has helped me tremendously through this process. She is always more than willing to listen to me and to my concerns and stubbornly tries to address each one. Since everyone’s IBS symptoms differ, it is very helpful to embark on one’s own to do some independent reading on the subject and to discover as much as possible about the insidious disease. I did some IBS-related reading online, being mindful to pay attention to the sources quoted, being sure they were reputable. I found out several things that I was not previously aware of – (1) white rice can exacerbate symptoms, (2) carbonated beverages were not helpful to those suffering from IBS and (3) to stop drinking all kinds of teas. White rice I love, so changing to eating brown rice was a bit of a chore, but it’s now done. Since I avoid alcohol and caffeine, my “party” drink was club soda. Once I understood the carbonation was hurting my recovery and healing, I stopped drinking that. Since not being able to tolerate black teas, I drank herbal teas all during the day – especially when meeting a friend at Starbucks. Quitting the herbal tea side of things was particularly difficult for the reason that drinking it was part of a social routine.
Help, though, came in quitting white rice, carbonated beverages and herbal teas, and it came immediately. It was actually shocking! As a result, I’m doing much better now. My naturopath would like me to take some herbal antibiotics sometime this month to help with the bacteria in my small intestine. I must admit that I haven’t yet decided if I wish to go that route.
I have been following a low fodmap diet which has also helped me tremendously. The diet is not as strict (at least not to me) as the Paleo diet was and I seem to be tolerating it well. I do cheat; eating onions, cream cheese (in soup) along with a few other food choices. All in all, however, I’m doing better than I have in a long time.
Yoga helps me every day that I practise. Getting to class three or four or five times a week is always a blessing. I’ve never once left a yoga class saying, “well that was a waste of time!” It allows me to work hard for 75 minutes, refocus and regenerate. It’s a Godsend and I love it.
Writing is my goal in 2016 – all kinds of writing and writing whenever I can. We’ll see where this leads me.
Thank you everyone.
Till later
Kim
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