Belly fat? Or just trapped gas? I think those of us with IBS all suffer from a bloated, fat looking belly. This is exactly what motivated me to look for a way to reduce it. “Oh, please, not another crazy diet!” is what you may be thinking. Well, "The Belly Fat Cure" is not even considered an IBS diet, although, it does promote a healthier digestive system. This is a plan I happened to stumble upon quite by accident. It is a way of eating that helps you control your carb and sugar intake, while still enjoying healthier substitutes. For me, it also became quite helpful for calming the symptoms of IBS. By eliminating too many carbs and too much sugar, it became easy to see that those are two things that trigger my IBS symptoms.
As many IBS sufferers know, the bloating we must endure causes us to have two sets of clothes. When we are feeling great and we've had a complete bowel movement, there is no bloating or rumblings of gas in our belly, and, thank goodness, no pain, well, those are the days when we get to wear our slim clothes. They fit snug, they look good, and we feel five pounds lighter!
However, then there are 'those' days. The days when the IBS has flared up yet again, we have pain, gurgling and fullness in the abdominal area, Even if we have had a bowel movement, it still feels like there is something that is just “stuck” in there. My mother used to say, “I feel like I need dynamite to make me go!” She was probably experiencing that same feeling in the abdomen that makes you look and feel like you just put on five pounds in a matter of a few hours! These are the days when we reach for that second set of clothes. Those loose stretchy pants or the pants that are a size or two bigger, and those baggy shirts, or if we are lucky enough to just be hanging around at home, those big sweatshirts.
So after enduring the misery day after day, with much more frequency of the bloating, I decided I needed to try to get rid of some belly fat. While I am not overweight (5 foot 3, 120 pounds, give or take a few) I figured that even if I was bloated, when I lost a few pounds then maybe I wouldn't look so fat, and I wouldn't be so uncomfortable in my clothes with a little smaller waistline.
A friend of mine said she had read "The Belly Fat Cure" by Jorge Cruise. She explained to me that it wasn't a diet of deprivation and starvation like so many others and it was working great for her! She also said that she loved the recipes, and the practical and tasty substitutes you can use for the foods you love. I went out that night and picked up a copy of the book. After trying the diet for a few days, I found it was very easy to follow, I was losing some weight, and, wait a minute.....my IBS symptoms were improving? It had to be a coincidence, I thought, even though the author does include a section in the book all about belly bloat. I wasn't convinced this was a great IBS diet until I tried a few days without it. OUCH!! My stomach pain had returned, the gas and bloating were bad, and it felt like I had a rock in my gut by the end of the day.
Now, I am back on the diet and tend to stay there as much as I possibly can. Actually, I don't really consider it a diet as much as a better way of eating. Jorge Cruise emphasizes that you should not let yourself get hungry. You gotta love that! The fact that I am a few pounds lighter is a real plus, but for me, the true benefit of this diet is that I learned that too many carbs and sugar are the enemy making so many of my IBS symptoms worse.
There is free diet information at JorgeCruise.com that can help you get started and at least give it a try to see if it works for you!