This was my third reintroduction week on the FODMAP diet.

Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
Reintroduction Week 1
Reintroduction Week 2
An explanation

Proposed Meal Plan

Breakfasts

• The doc’s smoothie blend

Lunches/Dinners

• I will be traveling most of this week, so I’ll mostly just try and eat on plan.

Snacks

• I will try to limit these where possible

Actual Meal Plan

Breakfasts

• Doctor shakes
• Hotel buffet breakfasts – lots of fruit, a little meat, a little potato

Lunches/Dinners

• Lots of Asian, some bbq, too many potatoes, and too much bread

Snacks

• Was semi successful in avoiding while traveling

What did I learn this week?

Challenge foods for this week were accidental dairy (super out), overeating (also super unpleasant), a small amount of onion (less pleasant once – ok a second time), and a Chinese food amount of cooking garlic (fine I think; I was bloated but I think from the salt content of PF Chang’s).

Wheat is still in, but based on the pics of my food this week I look like I need to reign in my consumption of unnecessary breads and fried foods. I’m also tired of potatoes again, and have picked back up a wicked Diet Coke craving, so I may be doing a Whole30 to reset my tastebuds soon.

This was my second reintroduction week on the FODMAP diet. Week 1 went fairly well, and it seems as if everything I’ve introduced so far is fine. I may switch to monthly updates or a big go/no-go list of foods in a few months, because this phase is going to take awhile. Like, could take 9 months awhile, and I don’t want to bore you all with the details.

The procedure for reintroduction is to eat a little of a food from the high FODMAP list, pay attention to what my mind and body is telling me for 2 days, record any and all reactions, and either re-test the same thing on day 3 or go for something different. I’m starting with foods that I’m fairly certain are on the ‘go’ list, and working my way up to foods I suspect I have a reaction to or have had reactions to in the past – and crossing my fingers that whatever form of inflammation or whatever it was that was going on in my gut when I started this journey stays as calmed down as it is now when I go for the biggies (to me) like garlic, onions and brassicas.

Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
Reintroduction Week 1
An explanation

Proposed Meal Plan

Breakfasts

• The doc’s smoothie blend

Lunches/Dinners

• Grapefruit salsa salmon
• Rice noodles and veggies salad

Snacks

• Popcorn, my love

Actual Meal Plan

Breakfasts

• Doctor shakes

Lunches/Dinners

• Salmon with leftover poke bits
• Salmon with roasted potatoes and grapefruit salsa
• A bunless burger & sweet potato fries out
• Popcorn because #adulting
• Sushi
• Scrounged and cobbled together noodly bowls with rice noodles and leftovers
• Smoothie bowl out
• Yaki udon out
• Travel day food – alcohol, mixed nuts, some chicken, a bite of squid, and a bite of olive maybe pasta something – avoided the onboard snacks.

Snacks

• Popcorn

What did I learn this week?

Mushrooms and wheat are in! Not sure on a bowl of cashews & almonds, because I think travel always makes me bloated and burpy – so I’m counting that as not a real challenge.

Smoothie bowls are also fine – I think all the ingredients were either FODMAP-friendly or I’ve already tested, but quantity was key here regarding fructose.

This was my first reintroduction week on the FODMAP diet. For this phase, the doctor has taken me off the odious vitamin regimen, has swapped those for a smoothie-based morning booster, and wants me to keep super-detailed records of everything from my gut to mood as I try something from the no-go list every 3 days.

I don’t think I remembered to list my supplements for Phase 1 for y’all, either. I was taking (tried to always take with lunch):

1 Digestzymes (Betaine HCI and a proprietary blend of Ox Bile extract, Peptidase, Amylases, Pepsin, Proteases, Glucoamylase, Lactase, Invertase, Lipase)

2 CoreBiotic Sensitive Probiotics (Bacillus Coagulans SNZ1969 and MTCC5856 Lactospore, Bacilius Subtiis)

3 LV-GB Complex (Vitamins A, B-6, B-12; L-Methionine, Milk Thistle, Taurine, Inositol, Ox Bile, Artichoke, Beet Powder)

4 Gastromend-HP (Vitamin C, Deglycyrrhizinated Licorice, Mastic Gum, Methylmethionine Sulfonium Chloride, Zinc Carnosine)

I didn’t feel any different with this regimen of supplements (other than hella annoyed because I am not great at swallowing pills), but I guess they may have done something, since the doctor noticed a marked difference in my skin the second I walked in the door (and tbh I haven’t felt like I look quite so crappy in the face skin lately), and my gut has been feeling a bunch better.

At the end of Phase 1, I don’t feel like my GI system is in crisis any more (I was having pain after 95% of my meals and was almost ready to give up and go on a chicken & rice diet), my dry skin is still there but isn’t as flaky, my nails aren’t peeling and chipping as much, and I only have a little stomach stabbiness for a few minutes every few days or so. I’m also a touch more regular with less need to head for the hills any time my digestive system is on the move, and I’m less bloated overall.

Whether that is a function of cutting out most of the foods causing an issue (frustratingly, the intermittent nature of my issues hasn’t stopped, a week with on-again/off-again cucumber sensitivity being the most recent) or the supplements – I don’t know. We shall see.

Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
An explanation

Proposed Meal Plan

Breakfasts

• The doc’s smoothie blend

Lunches/Dinners

• I’m still not tired of canned tuna for some inexplicable reason. I think I’ll have a repeat of bowl life, just with different flavors. I’m thinking Thai and/or poke sauce.

Snacks

• I didn’t really snack last week, so I still have oat crackers leftover.

Actual Meal Plan

Breakfasts

• Hard boiled eggs
• Buckwheat pancakes
• Doctor shakes

Lunches/Dinners

• Made a batch-prepped Thai-style tuna bowl
• Bought sushi for lunch while grocery shopping, which led to my first challenge food: avocado
• Made the tuna poke bowls
• Had a soba lunch out
• Had chicken & rice lunch out
• A non-compliant meal out introducing a friend to local cuisine
• Zoodles with tuna and/or eggs

Snacks

• Blueberries
• Oat crackers

What did I learn this week?

Introducing challenge foods is hard, and the impetus to run before I can walk is strong. Avocados, mangoes, spelt, banana & almond butter all seem fine – and all are things I was pretty sure I could tolerate.

The morning shakes the doc gave me are kinda making me bloated – but I’m not sure yet if it’s bloated bloated, or if my body may get used to them. I’ll give them another few days.

This was my seventh week on the FODMAP diet.

Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
An explanation

Proposed Meal Plan

Breakfasts

• Overnight Oats with blueberries

Lunches/Dinners

• Chirashi bowls
• Crab salad with zoodles

Snacks

• Finish those fairly joyless oat crackers

Actual Meal Plan

Breakfasts

• Overnight Oats with blueberries
• Açaí bowl out with semi-compliant ingredients
• Leftover deviled shrimp with rice

Lunches/Dinners

• The last of the miso orange orange things with rotisserie chicken from last week
• Chirashi bowls, both home and out
• Lemon pepper tuna + Kewpie mayo + cucumber + pickled ginger bowls
• Game night at a friends’ – beef roast, shrimp deviled eggs and definitely non-compliant dessert
• Chicken & rice out at the wings place one night

Snacks

• I didn’t really snack much this week

What did I learn this week?

Having 1 thing you batch cooked that can be switched up a ton of different ways makes every meal feel full of possibilities.

Sure, I only had a set number of toppings to choose from, but I could load my bowl down with a couple bites of a ton of different tastes and textures.

I think this is the key to batch cooking – good thing, since I love me a good dinner/Buddha/nourish/whatever the Pinterest kids are calling it this week bowl.

This was my sixth week on the FODMAP diet, and it went well. I ended up eating at home a bunch and even managed to stay, at least in my calorie macros, pretty on track.

Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
An explanation

Proposed Meal Plan

Breakfasts

• Overnight oats
• 1 planned breakfast out

Lunches/Dinners

• Salmon fried rice
• Miso orange roasted veggies
• Rotisserie chicken
• Probably 1 lunch out, maybe 2

Snacks

• ? Find something?

Actual Meal Plan

Breakfasts

• Overnight Oats with blueberries, tahini or peanut butter, and pumpkin seeds or granola
• Chicken breast/poached egg/hashed browns out

Lunches/Dinners

• The salmon fried rice was even better than anticipated (recipe coming soon!)
• Rotisserie chicken is such an easy staple to keep on hand – whip up a batch of rice early in the week, and you’ve got 3/4 of dinner ready in minutes
• Roasted sweet potato/butternut squash/carrot mix with orange miso dressing to toss in with chicken
• Chirashi and steak out for lunch
• Mussels frites out for dinner – chose Thai style because the broth was made from compliant ingredients; didn’t end up eating much of the broth anyways
• Scrounge dinner of leftover rice with a little butter, some furikake seasoning and a touch of sweet soy sauce to hit macros one night

Snacks

• Bought some more mostly joyless carbs – this time in the form of oat crackers. Must do more snack research. I’m sucking at snacks lately, and my favorite go-tos are off limits (almonds, corn nuts, wasabi peas, dried fruit)

What did I learn this week?

Salmon fried rice is delicious. And I’m sad I ate all of it – will have to make again soon.

Also, because I was digging that dish so much, I kinda re-discovered being excited to come home to a batch-cooked meal. It’s not like what I usually make isn’t good – or isn’t exciting – but something about this dish had me wanting to choose to go home for lunch rather than deal with finding something to eat while out.

This was my fifth week on the FODMAP diet.

Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
An explanation

Proposed Meal Plan

Breakfasts

• Overnight Oats with blueberry milk, collagen peptides, peanut butter thinned to a sauce, and superfood granola.

Lunches/Dinners

• This week I want to keep it simple – all I have planned is to make up big batches of veggies, a base to go with them (rice/quinoa mix), and make a spicy lime vinaigrette to go with everything. And rotisserie chicken. I’ve got that on hand.

Snacks

• I had no plan going to the grocery here, just knew I was tired of the marmite rice cakes, the buckwheat crackers I bought last time were yuck, and I didn’t want to rely too heavily on fruit this first week back from vacation.

Actual Meal Plan

Breakfasts

• Overnight blueberry milk oats with superfood granola & peanut butter.
• Breakfast out at Eggspectations: Chicken, egg & fruit.

Lunches/Dinners

• Batch cooked a big bunch of zucchini & carrots and had a bunch of ways with a spicy lime vinaigrette and rotisserie chicken.
• Batch cooked some brown rice pasta – had with my favorite chili tuna.
• Lunch out at Wagamama: A rice noodle and greens salad with carrot and lemongrass vinaigrette + chicken.
• Lunch out at Chang’s: Spicy tuna sushi that was a frustrating semi-fail.
• Cucumber/cherry tomato/cilantro/lime vinaigrette salad – also eaten as a snack.

Snacks

• Fairly joyless buckwheat & chia rice cake crisps – joyless because I couldn’t for the life of me think of what to put on them that wasn’t either a ton of calories, contained dairy, or was too sweet. I’ll keep working on this issue and get back to y’all with some options.
• A semi-fail green smoothie that looked compliant from the menu, but tasted like it may not be.

What did I learn this week?

This week was all about getting back into the swing – again – because for some reason I completely lost last week and thought I had just gotten back from vacation. 😆

I was a bit cocky in my restaurant choices, not wanting to believe that the vegan place really *doesn’t* have anything for me (again. It didn’t when I was doing Keto, and it’s semi-difficult to eat Paleo there too).

I also need to leave non-Japanese Asian places alone. Garlic is building block #1 of Chinese food. And yes, it’s in everything. Usually with onions.

This was my fourth week on the FODMAP Diet. Well, not straight – last week, I went pretty off the rails while on vacation.

Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
An explanation

PROPOSED MEAL PLAN

This week, the meal plan was simple – we got back from vacation early in the week, I had some planned meals out, and really just wanted to concentrate on eating smaller meals full of simple things that I know wouldn’t hurt my stomach – and to me, that means Japanese (light).

My meal planning consisted of a breakfast: Strawberry Milk Overnight Oats (recipe coming soon), and simple “safe” veggie + rice bowls with a little protein.

I knew I wanted to batch cook some veggies – was craving bok choy, carrots & cucumbers – and steak nibbles sounded great. I made a 4-portion batch of veggies (recipe for this coming soon too) + steak bites and combined that with a couple portions of leftover rice I grabbed for dinner the day after we got back.

ACTUAL MEAL PLAN

Breakfasts

• Super plain oatmeal made in the microwave
• A planned breakfast out – steak and eggs.
• Strawberry Milk Overnight Oats.

Lunches/Dinners

• My first meals back were super simple: delivery chicken pho (the broth of which probably had garlic – oops – my FODMAP brain isn’t quite working yet).
• Dinner that first night was delivery chicken & rice.
• Fried rice grabbed at a grocery hot bar – and oops: I’m pretty sure it contained hidden onions. I tasted them but did not see them – and was in crisis mode needing food-wise.
• Dinner that night was chicken kebab with white rice grabbed from a local takeout place because my favorite go-to place for healthy reasonably-portioned meals had literally zero things I could eat. Good thing the kebab place was next door, and I was no longer starving to death.
• I made sure to batch cook the next day – had my veggies, rice & a little meat for 2 out of 3 meals he next day.
• Had a planned lunch out and tried to make the best choices possible: sushi over a bunch of dishes that would have me picking around my plate – and didn’t do too terribly. Had a (fake) crab + shrimp salad with mayo (which may have had a bit of non-compliant something in it), salmon and cucumber sushi, and sliced melons + strawberries.
• Went to a Japanese-themed game night with friends: had salmon & cucumber appetizers, killer homemade miso soup, a really good little gingery salad, Japanese curry (which may or may not have had 100% compliant sauce ingredients), and glutinous rice balls for dessert. And Frangelica on the rocks all evening. Mmmmm. Ate too much by far, but it was delicious.

Snacks

• I had a couple frozen pineapple things left, so snacked on those.
• Didn’t really feel like snacking otherwise – was still trying to reign in my overeating on vacation, while consequently overeating two days. Oops.

What did I learn this week?

You’d *think* I’d have learned to not schedule 2 big food days in 1 week, or to make sure I’ve get my butt to the grocery the day I get back from vacation, but no. Did not. Oops.

This week was all about mitigation and having fun with my friends without going completely and totally off the rails. I did fairly well, at least according to my GI system – it hasn’t been terrible this week. A little pain some days, and some poo issues – but nothing major, and nothing that kept me from living my life. Bonus: this was also a very low carsickness week. Not sure if carsickness is related to the rest of my gut issues or if I’m just a delicate Princess, but I was in and out of Ubers in the heat and really only got nauseous and spinny once. I’m counting that as a win, even if it’s unrelated!

Looks like I’ll be continuing on with FODMAP for at least two more weeks – I go see my doctor again on the 25th for an assessment. We shall see what happens then. In the meantime, I need to remember to update my symptom tracker app religiously – I’ve been a touch slack in pain reporting because I’ve been tired of worrying about or paying attention to it in the last couple weeks. I need to get over that for these next two – we won’t know if this diet has actually done me good unless I’m accurately reporting symptoms and trying my hardest to remain compliant.

This was my third week on the FODMAP Diet.

Week 1
Week 2
An explanation

ACTUAL MEALS

This week, the hubby and I were on vacation in Germany, so I did what I could and ate compliant foods where possible. It was hard to not bury myself in a vat of sauerkraut & pretzels.

Breakfasts

• For the most part, I erred on the side of breakfast meats – sausages, bacon, cured meats – lots of protein. Some breads when I was tired of straight protein.
• There were a few pastries when that wasn’t possible, and a language barrier day where I accidentally ordered something containing bread, dairy & onions – which I only ate a few bites of.

Lunches/Dinners

• I did what I could here, and if it was something I knew was not compliant, I only ate a bit. Ish.
• Had warm sauerkraut, a potato dumpling & a couple bites pretzel one day.
• Had currywurst and the bun on a slider the next.
• Had mostly-compliant ham-stuffed pork – and then some pasta one day.

Snacks

• Mostly cured meats. Man, I missed prosciutto.

What did I learn this week?

Vacation while FODMAPping is hard. I mean, I already figured it would be – and I was right. While meat-centric meals were pretty easy to come by, this being Germany and all, staying away from bread when I’d already worked hard (before FODMAP) to give myself permission to eat bread again was hard and I didn’t do the best job. I could have chosen to do better, but I wasn’t really feeling it tbh.

I think I’ll postpone my doctor checkup and give this thing a solid week, maybe two more (especially given that the vitamins the doc had me taking only just came in this week).

This was my second week on the FODMAP Diet. Week 1 went fairly well, despite eating more meals out than anticipated (foolishly, if I was paying attention I would have remembered), and being bummed that no garlic or onion were to be had.

Week 1
An explanation

PROPOSED MEAL PLAN

This week, I didn’t meal plan heavily. I know I’ve got at least two if not three dinners out, and I didn’t feel like shopping too heavily in advance of our vacation next week, so I bought the bare minimum and will be eating a lot of pantry foods. This proposed meal plan is what I have come up with on the fly.

Breakfasts

• Overnight oats with peanut butter and strawberries

Lunches/Dinners

• The salmon burgers I didn’t eat
• The rest of the chicken/tomato sauce/olive mixture I made
• Maaaaaybe the rest of the baked sweet potatoes from last week if I can find a way to dress them up so they’re not so plain
• I grabbed some wholegrain rice pasta from the grocery
• Steaks with smashed baby potatoes and green beans as a nice dinner for the hubbs
• Zoodles(?) with chicken and frozen green beans & carrots

Snacks

• I have Marmite-flavored rice cakes left over
• A stab at a compliant Dole Whip

ACTUAL MEAL PLAN

Breakfasts

• Overnight oats with strawberries and pumpkin seeds
• Overnight oats with peanut butter, strawberries and pumpkin seeds – and I need to doctor these up a bit next time; the weirdo French peanut butter in a tin can I bought because the kid on the package was mildly disturbing may be – dare I say it – too bland for my taste. I love my no sugar added peanut butters, but this was less satisfying somehow. Maybe because I’m making my oats with water instead of unsweetened plant milk?
• Went out for a scheduled (weekly) breakfast date on Wednesday – had steak & poached eggs with a side of fruit instead of the fried potatoes & onions. Brought my own hazelnut milk for my Americano(s).

Lunches/Dinners

• Finished the chicken marinara-ish mix off by Monday.
• Made steaks with smashed potatoes and green beans for dinner Monday.
• Scrounged leftover potatoes topped with Kewpie mayonnaise for lunch Tuesday because I was woefully unprepared with the proteins when I crashed through the door in dire need of lunch.
• Delicious and super easy Japanese style zoodles with poached chicken.
• The last of the baby potatoes I boiled up for dinner Wednesday with more poached chicken and Kewpie mayo.
• Lunch out Thursday – ordered a side of chicken breast, a side of turkey ham and a side of confit potatoes.
• Dinner out Thursday, too – had more chicken breast and plain rice.
• Friday dinner was planned out as well – Brazilian steakhouse with 2 vodka sodas

Snacks

• Had a fresh strawberry juice while out
• Made a really good dessert from a lemon-flavored coconut yogurt mixed with strawberries and this really good vegan (and compliant! The only freaking thing that didn’t have dates and/or almonds in it in seemingly the whole restaurant!) granola.
• The third and final bag of organic popcorn – with butter and nutritional yeast topping.

What did I learn this week?

HaHaHa. I need to plan better. I know winging it is no way to meet my macros, and I need to not be lazy the next week I’m home. Which won’t be next week – let’s see how I handle this business while on vacation. Spoiler: I’ll be eating sausages and I know I won’t be able to completely not eat sauerkraut. At least it’s fermented? Maybe? Hoping I won’t be undoing any good I’ve done in these two weeks so far.

This was my first week on the FODMAP Diet. Last week it was the IFM Elimination Diet, but after 1 week and a chat with my functional fitness doc about my bloodwork and the strong reaction I had to cabbage (boo!), we decided to switch over to this diet to see if we can get things to calm down in my GI system.

The good news: Yay! Coffee! I can have a vodka soda!

The less good news: Garlic and/or onions are in literally everything I make and in most of my favorite foods. Italian and Mexican are going to be tricky. Also: it’s the start of mango season and mangos are high FODMAP. Guess I won’t be subsisting on mostly mango and chicken salad lunches like last year. Boo!

Proposed Meal Plan

Breakfasts

• Overnight oats with peanut butter, blueberries & pepitas

Lunches/Dinners

• Baked sweet potato with ground chicken marinara, olives and baby spinach
• Ground chicken marinara with olives, baby spinach and zoodles
• Salmon burgers with a carrot/cucumber/sesame salad
• Salmon fillets with green beans, rice/quinoa mix and chive sauce
• 1 weekday breakfast out, 2 weekend lunches out, 1 skipped weekend breakfast

Snacks

• Rice cakes with tuna salad

Actual Meal Plan

Breakfasts

• Overnight oats – remembered everything but pepitas
• Overnight oats and I remembered the pepitas

Lunches/Dinners

• Ended up eating out pretty much every day – or eating rice cakes with tuna salad, which turned out well. I ended up grabbing Marmite-flavored rice cakes because it sounded weird, and was pleasantly surprised. They make a great base for tuna salad. Not so much for peanut butter, but maybe that’s good – I don’t need to eat so much peanut butter anyways.
• I only ate 1 of 2 salmon dinners – chucked the other (boo).
• Only ate 1 serving of the chicken & sweet potato, and that was on Saturday.
• Ended up eating out more than anticipated, which shouldn’t have been as big a surprise as it was. I know my life.
• Also ate popcorn with nutritional yeast for dinner one night, because hubby was out and yolo single life.

Snacks

• Single servings of the rice cakes, some leftover grapes, and an errant blueberry or two.

What did I learn this week?

So. I thought I learned last week to not schedule every meal and to not make 99999 recipes requiring tons of ingredients.

My meals this week *were* simple, but I completely forgot about the standing lunch date I had planned for Thursday and the birthday party brunch I said I’d go to Friday. Oops.

So, I didn’t end up making everything and I still have some ingredients left over for next week, so it isn’t all a bust. A macros bust (somewhat), but not a FODMAP meals bust (quite).

I also learned that limiting myself to 1 vodka soda is hard with my wine group (I ended up having 3 spaced over 6 hours), but was easy in a big group setting where I could buddy up with the other non-drinker (I had 1). Overall, I’m pleased with that.

For next week, I’m not planning anything special – since we are heading off for vacation the next week, I’ll be making food from the pantry and eating up the rest of my batch-cooked food (that hasn’t spoiled). I will buy some more berries for breakfasts, and I’m kind of craving a Dole Whip for dessert – I bet I can make a compliant version. If it works, I’ll actually have a recipe to share next week. Fingers crossed.

Also in the realm of things I need to keep better in mind: storage. I only have a limited amount of Tupperware containers, and don’t want to buy more – planning a bunch of things to batch cook doesn’t work out super well, unless it’s enough for mains + sides, and I can chuck them in the 4 divided meal boxes I have.

I kinda want 4 small icy treat containers, though, that can double as individual overnight oats holders on weeks I don’t make anything.