Practice makes Perfect!

Learning the true value of Yoga for those with IBS

I have practiced yoga for many years now.  Actually, if I am honest, ‘practice’ is probably not the best word to describe my previous relationship with yoga, as looking back now, I see that I never quite ‘got’ the whole holistic, ‘oneness’ of mind and body that yoga inspires.  

I went to classes four times a week, basically, as a means of staying fit.  I would join in with alternate nostril breathing, or Nadi Shodhan pranayama to give it, its proper name, or meditation, whenever the instructor took a break from movement.  Sitting cross-legged on the floor, I obediently took part, thinking that it wasn’t really making me feel any different from I did five minutes ago, and could we just get on with the stretches please!  

I often found myself running through either what I had to do in the house after I left yoga or concentrating more on the cramp I had in my leg, while trying to imitate the instructor’s perfect Padmasana or lotus position ...

Cue my bitmoji below - me, as I picture myself in my head... but just not quite the same in real life!

However, I have found since experiencing IBS, how ineffective my perception of yoga was, to myself in terms of the many benefits that I sadly missed out on, in an attempt to merely keep in shape. 

Yoga offers me a way to try and calm my mind, lowering my IBS related anxiety, through breathing, and meditation.  Gentle stretching routines offer too, some relief from the symptoms of IBS, such as pain and bloating often experienced.

I often use this short and gentle sequence of yoga poses in the video below when I feel some discomfort.  

For those of you interested in trying yoga but not quite ready to go to an organised class (in our new COVID-world, classes are often off or restricted in size anyway), check out my favourite Yoga channel on YouTube, Yoga with Adriane, where together with her dog Benji, she offers free yoga videos to which you can subscribe, with routines that cover all yoga levels!

Here’s a short 5 minute ‘Welcome’ to Breath orientation video – no moves, no pressure, just a gentle introduction with Adrienne and Benji.

I can’t believe how much of yoga’s true benefits, I had missed out on in my previous ‘practice,’ and though I do not profess to be a black belt yoga ‘ninja’ yet, far from it, I am perhaps, using my martial art metaphor, a white belt student, motivated to learn and ‘live’ the true nature of yoga practice, keeping me in shape AND offering me, a little inner calmness too.

Gut Influencers

A smorgasbord of dietary help and advice

If I am honest, this post has turned out quite differently from what I initially had in mind when I sat down to write it.  My thought was to write a post about foods that I have found to ‘influence’ my gut, either in a bad or good way.  My intention was to chat with you about those that I eat or ones that I avoid in my diet, in an attempt to remove or minimise their influence on my IBS.

Thinking hard, I chose myself a snappy title (well it is in my head anyway !) and began to compose my post, however the more I thought about it, the more I felt that the gut ‘influencers’ really out there in the digital world, were likely way better than me at explaining the gut and its complexities, and how particular foods can effect it.  After all, what works for me in terms of food and nutrition, may be different for you.

So let me instead, offer you a little menu of links to those influencers that have helped me this far within my own IBS experience and which I hope will be helpful to you too, with heaps of advice, learning and gorgeous foods for you to consider and incorporate into your own life’s journey with IBS as your companion. 

The Gut Stuff:

I love the website of Lisa and Alana, aka, the Mac Twins, homegrown here in my home country, Scotland.  Their website is an absolute compendium full of knowledge on the gut, how it works and things that affect it.  There is a section on approaching your GP and other health practitioners to contact about gut symptoms you may be experiencing.  I absolutely cannot do this site justice in one little paragraph, so I urge you, please check it out.

 
However, I cannot, not mention the recipes the girls have on their site and absolutely cannot sign off without a SHOUT OUT to my favourite guilty pleasure, Sauerkraut no-bake Brownies, made with gooey and squidgy medjool dates.  Please don’t let the name put you off; yes, I know there is sauerkraut in them, but honestly reserve any judgement until you try them – and then tell me you ain’t making them again and again!

Becky Excell:

I have found some absolutely great info and advice on this site.  Based in the UK, Becky is the creator of gluten-free recipes which she shares through her free food blog.  Diagnosed herself with IBS some years ago, Becky like many of us, thought she would never eat anything tasty again after finding out she had to restrict her previous diet.  However, she has proved her own worry wrong, with fab recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner and any time in between.

What I also love about this site is the advice she offers, as a gluten-free traveller,  with great recommendations of places she has tried throughout many European cities, including where to get the best gluten-free gelato in my favourite place of all time, Rome!

And just in case, you happen, at some point when this old world settles down and you happily find yourself in Roma, then why not stop by and enjoy a gelato for me, for, 'when in Rome...'

Find Gelateria Fiocco Di Neve 

on Trip Advisor

If you want to get ahead, get an app!

Reduce the fear of going out with these helpful loo locators.

Do you remember as a child, those little turns of phrase that parents and grandparents would often recite, you know the .. ‘don’t coming running to me when …’ or ‘well, it will all end in tears …’?  At the time, they seemed completely random sentences that must only make sense to grown-ups, and which to you in that moment, made you stop, screw up your nose and contemplate really hard for a second or two before deciding you had no idea what they were talking about, and running off to do whatever it was you were being cautioned not to?

Well today, I have a little saying for you and me both, updated every so slightly to reflect for our modern-day lives; it requires no nose squishing, hard thinking or anything more than a bit of finger tapping on our phones, for, ‘if you want to get ahead, get an app!’

 As anyone with IBS knows, the thought of being out and about in unfamiliar surroundings, brings with it the anxious, gut churning dread of not knowing where the nearest loos are.  The sense of fear I find this to cause, has at times stopped me from going out with friends, so worried am I, of needing to go to the loo and not wishing to waste everyone else’s day, with a constant game of ‘I spy with my little eye, something beginning with L, T or whatever you want to call them!’

However, I have found that the best way for me to deal with this, is to do a bit of forward planning and indeed, how glad was I, when I realised there were actually some handy little apps out there to help with this.  I urge you to have a look at those available and find which one suits you best, however, to get you started, here are some of the helpful links that I have found and used, all easily available through my mobile device.
 

Flush: Toilet Finder & Map:

Both IoS and Android offer this free app which currently lets you search from over 200,000 toilets world-wide, with directions on how to locate them.  The app lets you filter to show only those toilets that are free or suitable for disabled access.   Easy to use, the app consists of a map which places tiny pins on the location of toilets in the area which you specify.  You can navigate around the map, zooming in/out and shifting between countries, by moving the map onscreen with your finger.

 

The Great British Public Toilet Map:

It’s not just apps that are available.  Here in the UK, I have used this interactive map which is available to launch from your mobile browser.  Filter capability is again present, with ability to find loos near your current location or or others found through the search function.

Walt Disney World Restrooms Locator:

Okay, so we’re not really going on holiday at present as a result of COVID-19, but this was an absolute life-saver for me, during those long, busy days with my family visiting the parks at Walt Disney World in Florida.  The idea of being out and about in large crowds all day would have been awful, without the use of this interactive map available through your online browser. I was able to locate whichever restroom was nearest to me during my visit or to have a quick check before leaving our hotel. 

 

I understand that no app or website can remove all anxiety from an outing with friends, family holiday or even just a trip to the shops, but hopefully these helpful features courtesy of modern technology, can provide a little reassurance and perhaps something more concrete that the promise of business success offered to 1940’s men within the advertising adage, my Grandpa was so fond of saying... ‘if you want to get ahead, get a hat!’  

Dialling Down the Stress

The rise of the Fidget:

I truly thought my days of playing with childhood toys were over, apart that is, from the jigsaws I love to do with my all too grown-up daughter.  If I am honest, I am completely rubbish at doing them.   We each take a different side to start with, having of course been ‘oh so sensible’ and put all the outer pieces together first.   It is there however, that all sense leaves me.  Like a magpie, I am drawn to whichever brightly coloured area of the puzzle delights me, trolling through the pieces in the box, to find enough bits to allow me to gain a foothold in our ever so competitive (but not competitive at all – tongue in cheek as I write this…) battle to meet triumphantly in the middle. 

Yet I realise it is my lack of staying power that defeats me with jigsaws.  Conscientious in many other areas of life, I have no stamina with them.  My girl sees the shape of each piece much better than I ever do, and very soon, has to help me sort the pieces I gather into one whole part!

As enjoyable as I may find jigsaws, relaxing they are not!

It was with some surprise therefore in my grown-up years, that I realised how much I did begin to feel a sense of calm, playing with what I believe, according to my girl are the ‘in thing’ right now – fidget toys.

Brightly coloured, they are a kid’s (and big kid’s) dream, a way for parents to keep youngsters amused, and for me, and others, a way to relieve mild anxiety or tension through squishy repetitious action - something for anxious hands and minds to focus on, while helping to calm the nerves.

There are a vast array of fidgets, with some as simple and portable as a keyring size, providing something handy , when I am out and about and perhaps, feeling anxious about my IBS.   I love these squishy peas, whose little faces are too cute!

You'll be pleased to now, I’ve also manage to find a more grown-up version of the fidget, that I can use for instance, when at work or in company, in the form of a beautiful ‘spinner ring.’ Less obtrusive, it too keeps my nervous hands and feelings in check and is based on Tibetan meditation traditions, which believed spinning, to have a calming effect on both mind and body through concentration of thought.

There are various suppliers of spinner rings on the web, but I’ve added an image of some dreamy ones in sterling silver that are not too expensive and available from Orli Jewellery, here in the UK.  I urge you to take some 'me' time and browse their beautiful selection of rings.

I absolutely love my spinner ring and wear it continually, but if I'm secretly honest, I love my squishy pea pod keyring just as much!