Last week, I posted about how I tested my poo and learning that I was deficient in, well… almost every strain of gut bacteria! Lots of you have been asking what the next step is so I thought I’d share what I’ve done so far and what I am planning on doing!
Prior to my results, I actually had a one-off appointment with a nutritionist which was very helpful. I know I have a nutrition background myself-but I’ve realised I definitely need someone to take a look at my diet from the outside too. It was a really great appointment and we agreed on the key focuses going forward for me diet wise:
Diet Plan
- I’m going to try to introduced different sheep, buffalo and goat’s cheeses to see if I can tolerate them-to help with protein, fats and calcium-as this is something I struggle to get being dairy-free. I am largely dairy-free but I do sometimes have goat’s cheese as experience and an intolerant test suggested I was ok with this. I’m doing okay with buffalo so far! The jury is out on the rest! I wish I’d done this before jumping straight to dairy free!
- Add more nutrition value to my breakfasts in particular. At the moment I tend to have gluten-free nutribix and/or oats but I am in the process of slowly adding different things one at a time: such as fine-milled blueberry powder (for antioxidants-I’m using this one by Artic powders), psyllium husk and flaxseed powder (I’m using this one by Linwoods which also has ground walnuts in). So far I’ve managed to introduce these in small quantities and done fine but I need to work on upping them a bit!
- Slowly increased vegetables in small quantities to avoid such ‘carb-heavy’ (or potato-heavy!) meals. At the moment, I’ll often have potato-based dishes and my meals are also lacking protein. I am also going to try to vary protein sources with things like tofu.
You can watch my ‘What I eat in a Week: Part 1’ which was my first week after seeing a nutritionist and my attempt to mix things up!
I don’t think I’ve been as healthy since but I’m gettting there! I know that I definitely need to mix things up diet wise. As mentioned in my gut microbiome post, I know that one reason that my bacteria is limited is that I’m relying on the same things over and over.
I am going to be using a food diary from The Food Diary Company (In fact, you can win the one I’m using on My Instagram-so go enter) to track things properly and make sure I’m really eating more varied.
Supplements
So the one thing we agreed is that I need to only take liquid-based supplements as my stomach probably isn’t digesting them in whole tablet form– so I chucked everything else away pretty much!
I have been prescribed liquid drops and I’m currently taking vitamin D drops and vitamin B12/ folic acid. It feels a bit weird as they’re literally just teeny-tiny drops so I feel like how can they possibly work? But I’m due to retest my Vitamin D so I’ll see!
I am also taking fish oil. I know fish oil can be incredibly beneficial for inflammation but not stuck to a supplement consistently in the past. The nutritionist recommended this one by Bare Biology; which is almost £50.
Yes, that’s not a typo. £50 for fish oil! I don’t what to tell you-I can’t believe I spent that much money on a supplement. But I don’t often eat wild fish any more and I know that I needed a good source to try it properly (it has really great reviews) It also doesn’t leave me burping which is also a bonus!
The plan is to mix a turmeric tablet with the fish oil to create a paste- which makes sense as turmeric needs fat for absorption. So I’ve been sticking to that as often as I can bear it (the fish paste tastes pleasant but the turmeric tastes awful!)
My final supplement in Symprove As you know, I’ve been reluctant to try and recommended specific probiotics in the past until I’d been tested; but now I have, I know I need a multi-strain probiotic and again this came nutritionist recommended. There’s been a lot written about Symprove but I’ll give it a go and share my honest opinions!
Acupuncture
So the final life change is I’m doing acupuncture again.
Regular readers will know I had this about a year ago and it was a DISASTER However, I’ve now found a therapist I love who was actually recommended by the hospital I’m seeing about my low egg reserve issues. It’s more for general health than Crohn’s but I’m really enjoying it! The lady who does it is much more on my wave length and also a qualified therapist so it’s a bit of a 2 for 1!
Phew-that was a long life update! I hope that was a helpful post! Of course, I’m still on Humira but I’m hoping these changes will be great for my health in general and help me get my gut bacteria flourishing!
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