Hi,

New here and really happy to find this group. I've also had Crohn's for roughly 10 years now and find dieting difficult. My flare up food is all the white processed, east to digest crud you are NOT supposed to eat to lose weight. There seems to be a fine line as far as what I can get away with fiber-wise but I never know where it is until it is too late.

My experience with dieting with Crohn's has been on and off, always doing well until I flare up, which I believe the diet is causing, so I'm hoping to find a way to avoid that. Also, with chronic pain, the exercise is difficult, but I am pushing through it, and have been exercising successfully for several weeks. Now it's time to fix the diet part, as I am not losing much but feel my muscles getting stronger.

I have constant, chronic IBS which pretty much means I can't eat a lot of raw vegetables, romaine lettuce, NO broccoli or cabbage, not too many whole grains or high fiber foods, or anything else that irritates my stomach more than usual. Whenever I start to diet I usually go overboard and eat tons of salads and vegies, which makes me completely sick and then I get discouraged.

This time I am trying to steam or cook as many vegetables as I can to make it easier to digest, eating lots of yogurt (I can have gluten and dairy) and lots of easy to digest lean protiens (ground beef, chicken and fish, none or little pork or steak).

I have definitely found it hard dieting with IBS, but it can be done! I am back at the weight battle after losing 70 lbs in high school. I gained about 50 lbs back after about ten years (marriage, work and stress can do that to you, amirite?). I would love to talk to other sufferers about how they have dealt with eating healthy, when all you want to do to calm your stomach down is have some white, fluffy foods and go to sleep!

Exercise has been tough too - it is hard to go jogging outside when there aren't bathrooms nearby. Even in the gym, sometimes going to the bathroom means actually leaving the gym, or going to a different floor. Team sports means the same problem - what do you say when you have to leave the field because of your guts?

Look forward to meeting people on here! -Kallie

I think you are right about cooking the vegis. I think the raw produce may be my downfall because it is difficult to chew enough to break down that fiber. I do find peeling apples to be helpful. But because I can tolerate some, I never know how much to push it. I am trying soups now because that cooks the vegis well but hopefully keeps the nutrients in the broth. At least that's my theory but I hope it works. I really like soup.

Have you tried applesauce or just peeling apples? That seems to help me, but my CD is in my large intestine. May be ulcerative colitis, they aren't sure. I've had scopes that appeared to be both at different times. Lucky me.

In trying to survive I've eaten the worst stuff (poptarts became a staple for me).. I know I need to find a way to get better nutrition in my diet. And lose weight.

Be sure to take a probiotic or at least eat yogurt to replenish the good bacteria that gets killed by the antibiotic. I can't say that I've ever had a flareup after taking antibiotics so maybe you will be okay. Good luck with the wisdom teeth removal.