Client Success Story: Reintroducing FODMAPs and Training for a Half-Marathon
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I read health and fitness magazines for new workout ideas, but my favorite articles are always the reader success stories. Workout advice is great, but I gain so much more insight from seeing that Jane Jones from Seattle does 30 minutes of interval training 3 times a week.
That’s why I’m so excited to share the success story of one of my FODMAP Coaching clients with you! Her story shows what life ACTUALLY looks like when you reintroduce FODMAPs, even with a lot of work and life commitments.
AND that you don’t have to eat a boring, depressing diet (kale and rice I’m looking at you). Suzy tried new saucy Asian stir fries and experimented with polenta so she never got bored. But that's getting ahead of ourselves!
The Before
Suzy did my Reintroduction Roadtrip 1-on-1 coaching program earlier this year. For 6 months, she’d been living on mostly water and air (okay, it was more like basic salads with olive oil and lemon) in the elimination phase.
She loved not being bloated and constipated, but knew she couldn’t go on like this forever. She wanted to get back to cooking meals both she AND her husband wanted to eat. Read her Behind the Belly story!
Meet Suzy!
Suzy Remmert lives near Austin, Texas, and works in a salon/boutique. Suzy was in the middle of training for a half marathon with her husband. It was going to be her first one, and she and needed her belly to be calm and fueled up not only for training, but for race day!
Combine her high-protein needs with her limited food groups and she stuck in an unappetizing rut.
Even though cutting all the high-FODMAP foods - garlic, onion, beans, dairy - tamed the IBS beast, she thought she’d be stuck on...
A) A joyless diet FOREVER
B) Randomly testing high-FODMAP foods out of boredom and risking her health
C) Not being able to hit her physical goals because of poor diet
Being stuck in the elimination phase didn’t feel like much of a win, but Suzy didn’t have hours or days to spend becoming an expert on the reintro phase. And she definitely didn’t want to jeopardize all the race training she was doing.
Key results Suzy was looking for:
Finally figure out what foods were making her bloated and constipated.
Be able to have fun at social events and enjoy her workouts without feeling like crap.
Go out to dinner and enjoy it fully since she knows what and how much to eat.
Let’s hear the scoop from Suzy!
Julie: Where were you in the FODMAP diet process when you started working with me?
Suzy: I had been doing the elimination diet for 6 months, feeling frustrated and so defeated and alone.
Julie: What made you decide to work with a FODMAP coach?
Suzy: I had seen several dietitians and none of them were knowledgeable with the FODMAP diet or had been able to help me at all. I was literally at my wits end.
Julie: What did you hope to accomplish through coaching?
Suzy: To find out how to reintroduce foods correctly with as little discomfort as possible. Also, to get more recipes and have more selections and not feel so deprived.
Julie: How did coaching make the reintroduction process easier?
Suzy: By walking me through step by step and explaining the process. Also, I would not have known that after testing a food and having no symptoms that I still needed to keep it out of my diet till I was completely done with reintroduction.
Julie: Now that you're done with coaching, how is your life different?
Suzy: I feel so much better tummy wise, but also emotionally. I feel more confident with my food choices, and that I do have control in feeling better. I have a ton of recipes to chose from and I feel more confident in the kitchen.
Julie: What would you say to anyone considering coaching?
Suzy: I definitely think [FODMAP] coaching is worth every penny. The Fodmap diet is extremely confusing and overwhelming, having someone that understood it and was able to guide and educate me through it made all the difference in the world.
Here’s how Suzy summed it up in a post in the Calm Belly Kitchen Facebook group:
Suzy got the exact results she wanted from her time together with me and you can too. It doesn’t matter if you’re a foodie who loves Italian or a Triathlete who needs protein, I’ll make sure you, your belly, and your kitchen are all working together.
What life is like after:
Learn what FODMAPs trigger your symptoms and in what portions so you can go back to eating the ones that don’t.
Eat at restaurants and social events without monitoring the distance between you and a bathroom at all times.
Stop spending a fortune on “special” food because everything else contain “less than 2% natural flavors” (translation: probably garlic).
Be able to travel to exotic places and eat on the road without stress (and if you’ll be traveling during the reintro phase, we can make that work!).
