A Man and His Wok

Diet, diet, diet…IBS sometimes has us consumed with our diet. This was working, but now, not… This food used to cause bad diarrhea, but now, I'm somewhat constipated… This is my life at the moment, mixing and matching, taking ideas from one IBS dietary concept or the other and hoping for the best. Sometimes, I think, we get SO consumed that we end up not realizing that simplicity is the key. It dawned on me the other day, that my diet had been a good one (I have talked about the FODMAP based/gluten free diet I typically use) and that I need not continually be reinventing the wheel. Perhaps I was having bad IBS symptoms for a few days simply because I HAVE IBS. I thought back to life before IBS and decided to take a very simple concept from my twenties that kept me healthy and free from stress, THE WOK.

Simplicity can help with an IBS diet

It was a time, a long, long time ago, in a galaxy far away, where all I owned was some clothes, a guitar, some books, chopsticks and A WOK. I would not stay in one place very long and therefore didn't want much to carry with me. I liked this way of life. One day, I had children and the traveling vagabond with the wok on his back ceased to be. Packaged food, microwaves, sixteen different size pots and pans, infinite utensils and tupperware. What happened? Did you ever try to cook a Stouffer's lasagna in a wok? Well, neither have I, but I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t work very well. Which brings us to the lesson for the day. What do you cook in a wok? I don’t know about you but I cook things like beef, chicken, fish, vegetables and nuts in my wok. What else? Not much else…rice? My point is that this simple tool of cooking forces you to eat clean and healthy. Of course you could cheat and choose the wrong meats, oils, vegetables even…but the process in itself is much more simple.

That all said, I pulled out my trusty wok the other day and looked at it fondly. My ‘trusty old friend’ had become my ‘rusty old friend’ (woks need proper care) and I treated myself to a new one. Score one for the IBS team. Currently, I have realized that while my diet does do a good job in keeping my IBS manageable, sometimes I obsess over the details to the point that it starts causing me stress. I don’t need additional stress. I already have work stress, family stress, relationship stress and other types that I’m not even sure how to define. Find ways to simplify and relieve stress, even if it is something as simple as paring down your cook station. If you are, like, A COOK, then I suppose you probably need all of your pots and pan and fine cutlery. I for one am a humble NOT COOK…and I will be using my new wok exclusively for a while. We do what we can.