It is Sunday and that means it is time for another What I eat in a day! This week Els’ food diary and it is super interesting and fun to read again 🙂 

Hi, I am also joining Karlijn’s initiative to share a food diary!

Always nice to learn from each other and especially to get low FODMAP ideas. I am Els, 51 years young and I live together with my husband, daughter and our 3 cats in beautiful and calm Zeeuws-Vlaanderen.

Since I was a child I have been struggling with my health: inexplicable fevers, chronic diarrhoea, exhaustion, so badly that I sometimes couldn’t stand on my legs anymore, pain in all my muscles, underweight etc. It all started then: hospital in, hospital out, doctors in the Netherlands and in Belgium, at age 11 my first of several belly operations and lots of diagnoses, but never a real solution.

They never found the actual cause of my problems. Until… in November 2015 a B12 shortage was found, for which I get an injection 3 times per week ánd a new doctor told me that all my problems were caused by food. The first one in 49 years who said this (looking back I think it is crazy that they let me walk around with this for so long)!

And she was right! The breath test was very clear: lactose intolerance (after this test I could hardly get home, I was exhausted)… and because I thought I was reacting to a lot more,  I started the low FODMAP diet. Together with a dietician. It was quite hard, especially in the first few weeks, where I left food from the red lists out and introduced food from the green lists. I reacted very heavily to some foods that were on the green lists. I moved those things (corn and spelt amongst others) to the red list too.

It took 12 weeks for my stomach to calm down and for the diarrhoea to go away. A new world opened for me! Introducing was hard because I react to almost everything from the red lists. I also was a bit disappointed that I lost 10 kilo’s because I had just gained some weight after the menopause (and I always wanted to gain some weight)

But I am sóó happy that I can finally go out and lay on the beach without worrying. I would advise trying the low FODMAP diet for everybody with stomach problems! I eat delicious things (I love food), very clean, I have never been hungry and my family eats a lot of my meals too and they enjoy them (amongst others recipes from Karlijn’s Kitchen).

Els’s low FODMAP food diary

For you 1 day of my FODMAP way of life 😉

Breakfast
A large mug of tea
Fresh fruit (today strawberries, blueberries), pecans, oats, soy yoghurt. Everything mixed together 🙂

Snack – 11.00
A cup of tea.

At 12.00 I make the spaghetti sauce for tomorrow. I make this with minced meat from the butcher, zucchini, the green part of leek and spring onion, bell peppers and carrots in small pieces. The sauce is made of fresh tomatoes and spices. I fry the vegetables in garlic-infused oil. It smells delicious.

Lunch – 12.30
I eat a spelt bun (I recently found out that I tolerate one :D) with ham, old cheese, Russian salad, tomatoes and alfalfa hmmm… that tasted good! And of course with a cup of tea.

Dinn

Snack – 15.00
A large mug of tea with a mandarine and a piece of a cookie.

Dinner – 17.30
Lettuce with bacon! Potatoes, iceberg lettuce, bacon slices, 3 hardboiled eggs and tomatoes. With spices and some vinegar and some mayonnaise on top 🙂 Delicious!

Snack – 20.15
2 cups of tea

Snack – 22.00
A glass of water with mixed (low FODMAP) nuts.

That was my day. I wish everybody good luck with the diet!

Thank you for sharing your food diary, Els. I hope you could get some inspiration from this! Would you like to share a food diary on Karlijn’s Kitchen too? That’s possible! Just send me an e-mail to karlijn@karlijnskitchen.com