Week #2 Failures on the SIBO Elemental Diet

In the post, the truth about the failure to be able to stick with the SIBO Elemental diet is discussed.

What happened this week on the SIBO Elemental Diet?

I can not believe how much I am struggling to try to write this post. 

I have gotten in and out of my seat over 10 times.  Let's face it, who really wants to take the time to hold a mirror up to their face and examine all the possible reasons for their failures. 

However, with that being said, my blog is called "My Crash Test Life" for a reason and this post is a perfect example of how sometimes, even the best intentions can be severely interrupted. 

The most important part is not to fail but rather, how you chose to respond to those failures.

For those of you who have been following my journey on the SIBO Elemental Diet, I hope I have not let you down. 

If you are unfamiliar with my initial posts with regards to the Elemental Diet, please check out my first and second posts before continuing to read this third installment.

 

What I think contributed to my failure in the SIBO Elemental Diet?

After I had just completed Day #10 of the Elemental diet, I came down with horrible sinus-like symptoms.  We are currently at an all-time high in terms of pollen here in Florida and never before have I been so severely affected.

Was it possibly due to the SIBO Elemental Diet and my immune system being compromised? 

I am unsure...but it certainly gave me the perfect opportunity for my will power to drop and to use as an excuse.

A headache, runny nose and burning eyes are not the most pleasant of symptoms. 

I even cancelled my last hour of patients on Wednesday since I was feeling so terrible.  In over 14 years of practice, I have only ever left work early one other time.

Why am I telling you this?  Well, it is one of my several excuses that I have used to explain my failure.

So, Thursday, feeling horrible, I decided to throw myself a one-person "pity party". 

Come to think of it, if I had invited anyone else to my party, I probably would not be in this current predicament.  Someone, in a moment of weakness, I managed to convince myself that one "little" taste of my Peanut Caramel Chocolate Bars, couldn't be that bad for me, right? 

I mean, come on, I made them from scratch with good quality ingredients, therefore, I could justify them as "healthy", right?  Besides, I would only have a little nibble to make sure that they hadn't gone bad in the freezer...:-)

This is exactly how the conversation went in my brain.

"So what", you are thinking... "one little bite...get over yourself", right?  Wrong!  One little bite became two little bites, two little bites became four little bites...

I'm sure you get the picture.

Now, if I had stopped right there, I think I would still have been able to redeem myself.  I woke up Friday feeling significantly better and jumped right back to where I had left off with the SIBO Elemental Diet.  Honestly, I was feeling really good and thought that maybe, I would keep my little Peanut Caramel Chocolate bite a secret all to myself. 

If no one saw me do it, then did it really happen?

Fast forward to Saturday and I am in a great mood. 

My stomach is feeling better and I have a long, 3 day weekend.  Life could not be better!  Maybe the food I ate on Thursday didn't really affect me...maybe the doctors were wrong and I only needed 10 days instead of 30 on the SIBO Elemental Diet...? 

Once again, my brain justifying my actions before they even happened!

So, after I got home from a long run and a great work out at our local gym, I showered up and went to make myself my Elemental diet drink.  As I was blending the concoction,  I just happened to open the fridge and notice a container of opened ricotta cheese and a lemon that needed to be used up. 

I HATE wasting food, so I convinced myself that I was strong enough to be able to bake a Ricotta Lemon pound cake and not try a taste.

Boy was I ever wrong!

Once again, a lick of the batter turned into a bite of a bar which leads to chewing an asparagus tart and finally ended with a swallow of delicious Ricotta Asparagus Tart (Gluten-Free, Low Carb).

After swallowing the tart, I took a deep breath and could not believe what I had done.

 

 

The whole point of following the SIBO Elemental Diet is to:

 

A) Give your digestive system a complete rest in order to repair the intestinal lining

B) Remove any and all possible gut irritants to help decrease the inflammation in the digestive tract

 

And, what did I do?

A) Ate a large amount of hard to digest foods resulting in an extra difficult load on my GI system

B) Threw the largest possible variety of different food groups into my stomach in one sitting to create a huge surge in inflammation

Stupid, stupid, stupid!

Feeling completely discouraged, I sent a "cry for help" email to my medical mentor, secretly hoping that if I "confessed" my sins, all would be forgiven and forgotten.

Unfortunately, that may work with religion but doesn't work with your digestive system.  I was informed that the damage was done and I would have to restart.

 

 

What Did I Learn from this experience?

I have agonized over my lack of will power but also knew that if I swept my failures under the rug, I would not be able to turn them into successes.

So, moving forward, I needed to identify and have a plan of action for my weaknesses so as to not repeat the same mistakes.  Below are my "weaknesses" and the measures I will be taking in the future in order to successfully accomplish 30 days on the SIBO Elemental Diet.

 

How will I try to make sure that I will follow the SIBO Elemental diet?

1. My love of cooking - cooking brings me so much joy (hence why I decided to start a food blog!) that I dream about it all the time.  Unfortunately, there is no way to create new and interesting recipes without tasting along the way, so for the next 30 days, I MUST stay out of the kitchen (Don't panic fellow followers! As I love to cook sooooooo much, I already have 4 weeks of recipes and pictures ready to go that have yet to be posted!)
2. Food brings me comfort - If I feel ill in the next 30 days, I will call my mum instead of grabbing a fork.  Cooking is a love we both share and helps me to feel nurtured and closer to her.  With that being said, a simple phone call will easily do the same thing!
3. Not wanting to throw away food and be wasteful - this was a simple solution...I have NOTHING in my fridge that needs to be used so that problem is solved!
4. Boredom - the Elemental Diet drink comes in only 1 flavour.  So, for breakfast, snacks, lunch and dinner, you are only ever tasting the sweetness of the drink.  In order to combat this, I will allow the use of organic plain broth.  Hopefully, being able to alternate between salty and sweet, will keep my taste buds from rebelling!

 

 

Alas, I will finish this post by letting you all know that I am not proud of myself.  However, with every failure, we have the chance to achieve unimaginable successes, so continue to follow me as I once again attempt to accomplish 30 days on the Elemental Diet!

Back on the horse and here we go again...

♥ Cat