I’ve been struggling with IBS bloating for many years, but got worse than ever after my post-competition binge. I don’t bloat for a couple of hours, I bloat for days to the point of it’s a habit to suck in at all times. It’s been so bad, that I’ve had to cover my belly at the gym some days.

The bloating a mix of stress and food intolerances, resulting in stress eating and more intolerances. I’ve tired a few different “diets” lately, like keto and intermittent fasting, so I ended up with a elimination diet and this is what I eat in a day:

Kefir on empty stomach

Kefir contains about 30 unique species of probiotics, one unique to kefir only; Lactobacillus kefiri. Drinking it on empty stomach maximises the effect as nothing else in your stomach is in the way for the bacteria to spread out. I do tend to get less bloating on the days I drink kefir, but I tend to drink a lot during the day as well..

— Kefir also reduces stress hormones

One or two hours later — Green protein smoothie

Smoothies are easy to digest, since the content is already blended and easy for the enzymes to break down further giving my stomach a bit of a break. I’m somewhat fructose intolerant so I do a green smoothie.

50g Spinach
3-4 slices ginger
Some celery
Cinnamon
30-35g Nuzest vanilla pea protein (I’m intolerant to sucralose, all the commercial Whey protein brands contain sucralose so I found this on ze internet, was meant to use after workout, but pea protein takes 4 hours to absorb so it isn’t that effective as post-workout shake)
50-100ml Almond milk + water

— The ginger, celery and cinnamon prevents and reduce gas in the stomach — thus reduces bloating.
— Fiber from the celery and spinach helps bowel movements to run smoothly.
— Almond milk isn’t the best, because it contains a lot of thickener, but it tastes good.
— Fluid from the celery, almond milk and water helps everything flush.

It’s low calorie and high in protein, males you feel satisfied for hours, perfect for weight loss!

Lunch, pre-workout, post-workout & dinner — chicken soup!

Yep, it’s kind of a liquid diet, but I find it effective for my stomach issues. I’ve seen improvements, haven’t fixed my problems tho but that’s probably because I have a hard time sticking to eating only a certain amount on a certain time. I really need to learn potion control, but one thing at a time ok.

300g Carrots
200g Celery
420g Chicken breast
300ml Almond milk
15g Olive oil or coconut oil
4-6 cubes chicken stock (this may have upset my stomach tho because it contains onion and garlic, both are high FODMAP)
1 bag miso (miso is also probiotic, but unfortunately contains a lot of sodium and I think it may have been too much for my sensitive stomach so I just used this package, then didn’t use it any more.
Frozen parsley

— Many prebiotic ingredients, that feed the good bacteria in your gut.
— Both soluble and insoluble fiber to prevent gas & promote healthy bowel movements to reduce bloating from constipation
— Everything except the stock cubes are low FODMAP

Also low calorie, high protein and low in fat!

I boil the chicken, then blend with almond milk.

Yes, to make it even more easy to digest! I swear this was not my intention when I purchased the Nutribullet, but it’s been very handy.

Post-workout

Since I’ve been in calorie deficit for a while I need to make the most of what I eat to optimise for my muscles.
So directly after workout, not more than 10 minutes after:

• Collagen shake

• Rice cakes

The reason being that cortisol levels go up during workouts, and cortisol raises the free amino acids in the serum by inhibiting formation of collagen, decreasing amino acid uptake by muscle and inhibiting muscle protein synthesis.

Carbs + protein spikes insulin, which decreases cortisol and increase glucose uptake by muscle.

Collagen is a form of protein, very expensive one, but effective because of its ability to be absorbed quickly into the bloodstream.
The collagen that I use is sweetened with stevia, so it doesn’t affect my sensitive stomach as much.

Rice cakes are easier on my stomach than banana, and easy to bring in my bag.