Managing IBD with a Plant-based Diet

Things still looking good. Weight is at a stable 155 pounds lately. Feeling good. Yesterday's breakdown: http://imgur.com/a/sklvc

About a week ago, I decided to give intermittent fasting a try. This decision came after I heard an interview with Dr. Garth Davis, where he said he was very impressed with the current research on this topic. My goal was simple: burn the small amount of stubborn extra fat I have left without effort. I realized I had already been intuitively working towards intermittent fasting by delaying my breakfasts, but I was usually doing the mistake of eating a fruit when I woke up. I simply stopped this habit and don't eat for 2 hours more than usual. This has been quite easy for me to do. The results? I'm at my lowest weight ever in the last 3 years. In the last two days, I weighed myself a few times and I've been between 161-163. In the past couple months I was stuck at 164-167. In my previous weight update post, when I was at around 170 lbs, it was my goal to lose a final 8-10 pounds, and so I've reached it! What's next? I'm going to keep doing the fasting for as l

I was curious today to see how much nutrition there was in my newly adopted homemade burgers. They are incredibly cheap and easy to do. I've been buying pre-made veggie burgers for about a month now, and I'd like to avoid that expense. I realized it would be much better and more convenient to make a big batch of burgers to always have on hand. I ended up choosing Jeff Novick's bean burger recipe. I messed with Cronometer to see exactly how much nutrition I would get if I chose to eat that twice a day. After that, I ended up inputting everything I ate that day, which was 100% unplanned. As expected, the results were great. Plant strong diets for the win. (As usual, some things are wrong: the sodium content is much lower than shown here, because I couldn't find the exact same burger patties I bought, and had to pick Amy's to find the closest thing in terms of fat content. There's no trans fats in my burger buns either.) Oh and of course, I got a good hour of sun

I was just reading one of my earlier posts and I noticed that I had set a goal to be at 170 pounds for the summer. Well, without any restrictions whatsoever, I have already achieved this goal. (The last few days I weighted myself were around 169-172, mostly 170). I am very happy with these results, but I have decided that I wanted to lose another 8 to 10 pounds. I'm not setting any timeframe for it, I will let it happen naturally. My plan is to keep biking at least 3 days a week, and take a couple walks as well. My bike rides are moderate to high intensity 1 hour or so workouts, and so I feel like I get a very good workout for both fat loss and anaerobic training. Lastly, a new goal I just thought about is to reduce my grocery shopping expenses. In the last 4 months, I have paid literally no attention to the money I was spending. I was assuming that it was a little bit higher than before, due to the fact that I actually eat whole foods now, instead of processed garbage on sale

A while ago, I read Diana S Fleischman's blog entry about the ethical case for eating oysters (found here: https://sentientist.org/2013/05/20/the-ethical-case-for-eating-oysters-and-mussels/) It makes a very strong case in the favor of including some oysters in a vegan diet (which Denise Minger also argues on her blog but from a nutritional perspective only). Diana takes a more global approach to the subject. Diana coins two terms to describe herself, 'ostrovegan' and 'bivalvegan'. I chose to discard the term bivalvegan, since I am not interested in eating mobile mollusks, and the word doesn't specify which bivalves are eaten. In my view, if it moves of its own, then it is more distant from the plant kingdom than close to it, unlike sessile mollusks. So, I chose the word 'ostreovegan'. Ostreo for Ostreidae - or the family of edible Oysters. (Superfamily: Ostreoidea & Order: Ostreoida). This word also makes it easy for me to use the same word b

I don't use Cronometer much at all anymore, but decided to input things today to see how it looks. I am never worried about meeting any targets, but it's good to see that even when I don't plan anything out and just go into the kitchen and prepare the quickest meals I know of, I can still get everything I need and more. Note: The trans fat showing up is coming from the French Fries. In reality, there is no trans fat in the home made french fries we make. Also forgot to add 4 small local tomatoes I had in my lunch. The vegetables that show up as cooked were actually steamed, so they were in fact a bit more nutritious than shown here. Drinks not included here, but as usual just water and green tea.

I was on a gluten-free diet for a few weeks. Tonight I realized I ran out of gluten-free bread, so I went back to the old bag of wheat/buckwheat/chia bread in the freezer. I made my usual sandwich with tofu and kale and mustard. 3-4 hours later I started feeling fatigued and depressed, and bloated. I kept passing gas and without realizing it, actually some liquid got through to my underwear. This hadn't happened in a long time. 5-6 hours later I started going to the bathroom a lot. I think I went 4 times in the last hour just to pass some liquid stool with blood. I pushed quite a bit because I felt really bloated and constipated, but nothing solid came through. Unless this is the red kidney beans I ate and which I normally don't eat, and which have been in the fridge for 3-4 days, it has to be the gluten bread, even though it's supposed to be low in gluten. So I will go back on a gluten free diet and see in a month if I want to confirm it, but it looks like I am gluten sen

I thought I'd make a post about all of the things that have been a problem for me leading up to my Crohn's diagnosis and state. I only now realize how bad it was now that I am free of them. What I was taking for granted was completely caused by my own unconscious lifestyle and dietary habits. I suffered from: -Chronic fatigue -Depression and anxiety -Chronic discomfort and pain in my joints, neck, back, and legs (if standing for a while). -Frequent headaches (a few times every week) - Not migraines, but persistent headaches that were very close to unbearable -DSPS (Delayed sleep phase syndrome, which has been following me for over a decade) -No interest in most things and no energy to pursue the little that still interested me -Allergies - This became specially bad around the time my Crohn's was active. It never was such a problem in my life before, they were very mild. -Skin issues - In my teens I had to go on Accutane three times. As a result, my skin became ve

Still on track! Not just that, I've taken it up a notch. I've been eating almost exclusively whole foods (with the exception of condiments and the healthiest flours/whole, non-wheat breads I found). I am basically following an Asian-McDougall diet. Very starch heavy (gluten-free oatmeal, brown rice or potatoes) with lots of greens and 2-4 servings of fruit a day (citrus and mixed berries). Through a process of elimination, I have figured out that I don't do very well on processed "fake meat" products. Even the more healthy, gluten-free versions of those. So I am keeping it simple (and very cheap). For drinks, I drink water, green tea, jiaogulan, and low sodium V8. I have been almost fully symptom free for a few days now. I occasionally get some serious flatulence, which isn't ideal, but I'll take that any day over the indignity of shitting yourself. I feel good, and I hit all my macros or at least 95%+ of them every day without issues. My stools are very

I am still on track with the diet. My symptoms have improved significantly in the last week or so. The most persistant one has been flatulences and stinky stools. I eased up on taking probiotics because I figured that with all the fiber I consume, I'm doing a good job at feeding my good gut bacteria. Most importantly, I go to the bathroom significantly less. I've lost a little bit more weight, now at around 182 lbs. Went to take my BP and was pretty astonished at how low it was compared to just a year ago: https://www.instagram.com/p/BC85VCEGEjgfnv1AJFtf0__vZKnjNFdtPeebyk0/ I have almost completely moved away from animal products. The only exception in the last week or two has been a very small quantity of organic/free-range eggs/mayo, because I had already purchased them. But I no longer feel that it's necessary for me to consume animal products. I still have some canned wild salmon and mussels which I will definitely use at some point. I don't find these to upse

I've hit virtually all of my targets today. Only need to focus on getting a little bit of magnesium, potassium and zinc from some specific foods. Probably an additional serving of fruit. My macros are almost identical to that of the Japanese study as well. I've also hit all my targets minus one beverage for the "Daily Dozen". I'll keep this meal plan for at least a week.

Last week my GP gave me my test results from my stool/urine/blood tests. The results weren't good, as expected. I didn't expect him to announce that he was certain it was Crohn's, though. I couldn't believe it, since I had no pain. Since then, I've had a little pain, and I'm hoping it will stay little while I wait for my appointment to get a colonoscopy. As soon as I came back home I started reading online. I was already watching Dr. Michael Greger's videos on nutritionfacts.org, but I decided to go look at the ones specifically for IBD and Crohn's. What I learned is that certain people manage to put their disease into remission thanks to a plant-based diet (though not exclusively plants). I am starting this blog to track what I do and what I eat so that it can help me (and perhaps others) in the process of healing from this rather awful disease. Right now, I have adopted the diet from the most successful study on diet and Crohn's so far . I a