I Fell Off the Wagon… and It Hurts Bad
You know what sucks sometimes? When you’ve had a great couple of days or even weeks with no flare-ups, but as soon as you indulge, even just a little, all hell breaks loose. This is an aspect of IBS that can easily diminish a person’s quality of life. To go from feeling like you have things under control, to then feeling like IBS controls you. This is a constant cycle that I experience often because it’s hard for me to stay on a restricted diet forever without falling into temptation.
Fell off the wagon
For a while, I felt like things were going in my favor because I’ve been a lot more focused on leading a healthier lifestyle. For instance, I’ve been exercising more frequently, and I’ve put myself on a strict low to no carb diet plan for the past couple of months with a couple of mild cheat days here and there. Well, for about three or so weeks straight I was very strict with what I ate because I am trying to lose weight, and I also noticed during that time I suffered from less flare-ups. So as a reward to myself for my good behavior, I decided to enjoy a couple of beers and pizza one day. This then led to another day of fun, and then another day of fun after that. This is what I call “falling off the wagon.” I know what you’re thinking. Pizza AND beer?! Hess, are you nuts?? Yes, I should’ve known better than to fall off the wagon this bad. I rewarded myself way too much to a point where I’ve been suffering the consequences for a week now and it’s been both painful and challenging.
Getting back on the wagon
As a result of me falling off the wagon, I started slacking on my exercise regimen and I’m finding it a bit difficult to get back on my strict diet again. Granted, I am a firm believer in having a cheat day here and there for the sake of my sanity and freedom. However, I do believe in discipline as well, so keeping it to one cheat meal a week, or even every two weeks, should be enough to satisfy my cravings. For someone with severe IBS, I must be more careful about what kinds of food and how much of it I put in my body. With that being said, I do plan on getting back on the wagon as I’m writing this. Do I expect to be perfect after this experience? No. But I do plan to be consistent with leading a healthier lifestyle long term, and that’s all that matters. So even if I do fall off the wagon again, I believe in myself enough and I care so much about taking control over my health that I know I’ll get back on again.
For those of you reading: Have you ever fallen off the wagon and regretted it? How long did you suffer the consequences and how did you try to recover from it? Thank you so much for reading my article and I look forward to seeing your responses.
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