Thursday, January 8, 2009

My Food's a Pain in my Gut

So to state the obvious, I am a member of Weight Watchers. I love it. I love that I am held accountable for my weight, they encourage exercise, AND that it teaches mental strategies for dealing with food. Now to be completely honest, I lost my weight without working out. At all! I worked out when I was fat, but not when I was losing weight. Makes sense doesn't it? I told you I have issues. Anyway, I believe in those things. I still need to work on the mental strategies for sure!
Weight Watcher also came out with what's called the Core Plan (well now they are calling it Momentum). Many WW I know don't like it because it feels too restrictive. But it's about eating foods that are healthy and good for your body. Mostly, I do like core but I have a few issues with it. I love oatmeal, but I love the kind that core does not "allow." I usually eat the lower sugar or weight control Quaker oats rather than steel cut. It's quick for one and I love the taste. I have tried mixing apples, applesauce, and cinnamon with plain oatmeal and almost spit it out. Yuch! Another issue is bread. I love me some bread...cereal, toast, tortillas, buns, rolls, etc. I eat the whole wheat kind, but according to Core any bread is a no no.

What's interesting to me was after reading the great and powerful Miz's post yesterday is that Core and the Zone are practically the same! They both encourage lean proteins, lots of fruits and veggies, no bread, corn, or potatoes, fat free milk, low fat/fat free cheese, and healthy oils. Now, I know I feel good when I eat core. In fact, I curb my sugar cravings on it because it cuts out sugar. BUT I have tummy issues and sometimes when I eat TOO many veggies or fiber, my tummy churns. This is why I had to stop eating Flat Out wraps and Fiber One bars (which I LOVE) because it was too much fiber and made my tummy gurgle. I also notice it churn a lot when I eat my typical Saturday morning breakfast of a Clif Bar. So, I went out and bought a few Zone bars. I tried one this morning and was pleasantly surprised at how full I felt (tummers is still churning though?). I think it's the extra protein that helped fill me. I am SLOW when it comes to advice. I had a few bloggers, Miz one of them, who told me to up my protein, especially when I was training for my 1/2. Did I listen? NO. Should I listen? Probably since I already know that I tend to over do my portion of fiber and the tums rejects it. I do a ton of fiber though because if you know Weight Watchers, the higher the fiber the lower the points! But it doesn't do me any good when I can't even eat at night because I'm curled up in a ball on the floor with stomach cramps! I have gone to a gastrointestinal doc and at first they told me to up my fiber. Umm Ok I guess...you are the doc right? That was a big mistake! I was already eating like 40 grams of fiber a day and she had the nerve to tell me to up it. "Well everyone always thinks they eat enough fiber, but they don't. The 2nd time I went in and made her listen to what I eat during the day she realized I was probably over doing the fiber. Ya think?
I still have tummy churns though and wish I could figure out the food since the docs aren't much help. I have tried eliminating sugar substitutes (aka sugar free foods), bread, and coffee (which I don't ever want to do again!). Anyone else out there with IBS and have advice for me. It gets embarrassing and is painful. Help...advice...words or wisdom? I'm open today I swear.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Workouts:
Wednesday -1 hr. 15 minutes on the Wii Fit
Thursday- Ran 4 miles in 35 minutes then as a consequence for finishing off a bag of rice cakes (I guess it could have been worse), I walked 2 miles on various inclines between 4 and 11 on the treadmill for another 24 minutes.

7 comments:

new*me said...

that must be awful! I had noticed it was similar to the zone. I think you can eat bread.....but it's not very much and not a good choice food.

Fiber doesn't bother me but it does hubby

carla said...

swung by to check on you and how nice to find you were talking about the zone!
I feel for you with the fiber as Im fine with ANY amount--the husband? notsomuch.

let me know if I can lend a hand at all---next week we are talking more SPECIFICS with regards to zone'ish food choices.

Miz.

TB--Milwaukee said...

I love Core, struggled with fiber too until I added healthy oil and that really helped me.

It amazes me that WW is stressing the filling foods, but all their products are cr@p that doesn't fill you up!! Won't say any more than that as I do get a commission whenever someone buys it;)

Marcy said...

Wow on the fiber! It always kills me too hehe.

Kate said...

You know what I was one of the few lucky ones, that when I increased my intake of fiber, I didn't get nasty side effects, a little bit for a couple weeks, but nothing major, and it went away!

SuperDave said...

Hey Chellie, Thanks for stopping by. You look great and what a great transformation and what's even better is that you are maintaining and still going strong.
Holy crap! you are a speedster to to top it all. Those are some fast feet at least compared to me. I've read a few of your posts and you have great idea's on eating. I can use any help on my eating. I am going to give myself a month to start losing and if I can't get weight off then I'm going to try WW. I've sorta hit a wall after my intial loss and have been concentrating on running. I've refocused and am now back on my good eating habits.
I'll be sure to check back.
Take care

Brightcetera said...

Alot of processed food products are pumped up with fiber from chicory root. I think it's called inulin. I can't handle this kind of fiber either. It makes me gassy & very uncomfortable. Check the labels of the products you're eating that are giving you the tummy probs. I almost guarantee you'll see inulin or chicory root as an ingredient.
"normal" fiber from veggies, fruits & steelcut oats doesn't gas me up at all.
TMI, I know :)