More IBS stuff.

I am trying to attract more readers, I don't know if writing about irritable bowel syndrome is the way to do it, but this is my reality. Through trying to transform my body, I have hit this snag. This IBS is an ongoing problem and I have made it worse through some of the stuff I have been doing. Kicking in a fight response all the time, is actually stupid, if I can't shut it off. So that's the problem. I can't shut it off then I can't sleep and can't digest my food. If you are getting in a fight, digesting your food is not the top priority. But eventually you need to.

Here are some tips I picked up from this guy I linked to on the other post:

1. I think some of the root is emotional! I have been doing colonics recently and have been experiencing deep (repressed?) emotions while having them. I wonder if some bowel problems are deeply repressed emotions (gut feelings)? Also using food as a pacifier - ie: eating too much, too little or inconsistently, or being addicted to the wrong foods for our systems.

2. I have been researching Chinese and Oriental medicine. They believe that posture and breathing is of utmost importance. The breath acts like 'bellows' for the digestive fire. If the posture is inhibiting the breath, or the breath is not 'nourishing' the digestion and oxygen in the bowels - then you don't properly turn the food to 'ash' and move it cleanly out of your system.

3. Also of note - in Chinese medicine the lungs are energetically linked to the large intestine. Also supposedly the earth has much less oxygen/carbon dioxide balance than 200 years ago. 200 years ago: Oxygen 38%, Carbon Dioxide 1%; today: Oxygen 19%, Carbon Dioxide 25%, from deforestation, burning fossil fuels etc. Source: Chi Gung by Daniel Reid.

4. The stress of modern life (and chatter in our heads) keeping the sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight) active - and therefore inhibiting proper digestion (parasympathetic system).

5. Much modern food is enzyme-less (body has to produce more of its own enzymes to digest - this stresses the body eventually). So I am trying to eat more fresh, whole foods and vegetables in smaller quantities and chew well! (Proper digestion starts with the saliva in the mouth - I even chew my vitamins and my juices.)

6. Being more comfortable with 'germs'. Our systems need good bacteria - I think our modern society has a war going on with bacteria. There is chlorine in the tap water and I think in general we are too clean. I lived in Europe for a while and I noticed that people there were much more comfortable with their bodies - and 'dirtiness'. I think life in North America is too sterile and it is not good for our bowels.

So the areas I'm working on are:

1. trying to express deep emotions through body work...Yoga and Chi Gung (Look into Chi Gung or Tai Chi if you have not yet - deep breathing and gentle movements enhancing and balancing bodies energy system)

2. eating a regular and very simple diet - (using blood type and food combining guidelines - eat fruit on its own, starch only with vegetables and protein only with vegetables... within reason...)

3. not eating if I am not hungry

4. cleansing the bowel periodically with herbal cleanse and colonics/juicing (be careful with juice - no fibre! best to eat some whole apples with the juice or other whole fruit/vegetable with veg juice or mix some fibre from juicer back into juice)

5. learning to meditate and calm my mind!

6. deep belly breathing (singing is great) and better posture

7. positive thoughts for my health/the future

8. removing all stimulants (especially coffee and cigarettes)

9. active 'hard' work (sweating) if you have the energy is good for digestion - sometimes I have to literally drag myself out to do gardening but it seems to help (getting anger/aggression out too!)

10. loving and feeling loved :-)

So anyway, These look like good tips. I am picking up, though, kind of a "trying" mentality. You know like "Try to garden if you have the energy". That's weak. I am not going to "try" to do anything "if" I have the energy, let alone garden. But this is good info here, this Guy obviously had a serious problem and really researched it.

I don't want this to be my thing, like a lifelong struggle, I want to lick this.

So here are some things I picked up.

1. I overuse stimulants. I feel run down a lot, so I drink whole pots of really strong coffee at a time. Plus, I have food intolerances and often I eat something it will make me feel like I am having a little bit of a allergic reaction. So then I developed this kind of instinctive habit of drinking a bunch of coffee after I do that in order to dump the allergen from my system. This was an unconscious thing, but I was inducing diarrhea.

2. My breathing is really not good. I do this thing where I feel like I am having an asthma attack so I hold my breath and just take infrequent little shallow breaths. I think it does prevent asthma attacks but its a horrible way to breath.

3. I have had problems with overeating, though, I feel like I am over it. But It hasn't really been that long since I stopped over eating. I still have bad habits. I eat really fast, I eat too large portions. I eat standing up, i eat while reading a book or browsing the internet. I overcame over eating basically through all the joy being removed from eating because of all my food intolerances and digestive problems.

I cut out all sugar, I greatly reduced dairy, I use barely any condiments. How excited can you really get about eating a plain chicken breast and steamed veggies? If you are not hungry it won't excite you. But still though I make way too much and overstuff myself with veggies.

4. I have this problem with a. eating too large a portion. b. eating something I have an intolerance for which causes bloating. So then I suck in my stomach. This screws up my breathing I think. It makes me breath up into my chest and shoulders instead of my belly.

5. When I was healthiest I was doing two things: Running and singing!

It sounds funny, but I was healthy in the Army and when I was in Bible College. I ran regularly both places, in the Army I called cadence and in Bible college I sang in Chapel. These are good for my lungs.


So I am going to keep up the running. I am not try to run. I going to run my ass off everyday. Plus I am going to learn how to relax. I will take up meditating again. I will take up Pilates finally, maybe Yoga, work on my breathing.

Plus, I will be more social. I wanted to do this anyway. I am weird in this way. I am not really social, but then when I get together with people I am really outgoing. I don't know if this will lead to singing, but in social situations, I laugh a lot and talk really loud so that should be god for my lungs.

I think part of the social thing is that I don't tend to hang out with people just to hang out. I don't have friends just to have friends. If I have friends that aren't quite the kind of friends I want to have and become part of the group I end up just kind of going along with the group and doing what they do. Actually, I don't do that. But that is what social people can fall into. I never fall into that. I would rather have no friends than drift along with some group. I am either a loner or I am kind of the main impetus behind the group. But This is somting I will put more effort into. There are cool people out there into really interesting things that I could be friends with.

So that's my IBS project. Meditate, run, relax, get some friends. Plus I will start a food journal next week and sort out all my food intolerances, and also sit down to eat and have normal meals and eat moderate portions in a relaxed way and not eat like I am a sled dog wolfing down a chunk of seal meat before the other dogs can get it.