Food is stress. Food is fuel. Food is life.

Food for Inflammatory Bowel Disease is one of the most stressful parts of this disease! It feels as if I do not know how to eat anymore. I have actually panicked in grocery stores to the point of almost running out in tears not sure what I could even eat safely. Food is also incredibly important for triathletes. So I'm going to use my blog to share some of my random fun food musings and tips for athletes and fellow IBDers. Every person with IBD has different food "triggers" and a lot of it is trial and error. There is unfortunately not a magic list to figure it out. Usually during flares, it is recommended to have more easily digestible foods, such as liquids or lower fiber content.

I bought a Ninja Foodi on Prime Day last year and it was honestly one of the best purchases of my life. It makes food preparation so easy and fast. For someone who has limited time and energy for cooking due to disease and life and training, it really is a game-changer. 

Homemade yogurt- 

I've actually been using my Ninja to make my own yogurt at home. It is cheaper overall to be able to make it at home and pretty easy to do, too! You can use any kind of Ninja or Instapot. The first time you make the yogurt, you will use a plain yogurt starter with active cultures, similar to the method of saving a sourdough starter. With the Ninja: just turn pour in the milk, seal the lid, turn the setting to yogurt, and push start! That's it! The Ninja does the boiling and cooling steps for you. In a few hours you will add the Greek yogurt, stir, and ferment (about 8 hours). Put the yogurt in the fridge to set for about 8 hours. This makes a regular yogurt, which is a little runny but perfectly good still if you are looking for regular yogurt. But now we can also make it fancy and expand our protein/probiotic baking options if we so desire. If you are using regular yogurt, save 3 tablespoons for your next batch. 

For Greek yogurt, put the yogurt through a strainer after it is set. This will leave you with a thick yogurt portion, and a yellow-ish color yogurt whey. The yogurt whey has active cultures and can be used for your subsequent batches of yogurt. You can also use it for some healthy baking! And now, you can use your Greek yogurt however you desire. My personal favorite is homemade smoothies with berries, cherries, Greenwise chocolate Protein (free of carrageenan and artificial sweeteners!!!), cherries, and honey.

Health Stuff-

The strained yogurt whey can be used as a substitute for any recipe that calls for buttermilk. According to Livestrong, the strained whey, which is acid-based, is low in fat and cholesterol, so it can be used as a healthy baking substitute in many recipes. If you see a buttermilk recipe, the substitution is 20% less yogurt whey since they whey is runnier than buttermilk. So the nutrition benefits if the yogurt whey: It is a rich in B vitamins, and has some calcium, and potassium. And then some of your cultures, too, since you fermented it so nicely. Of course, the primary carbohydrate is lactose, so if lactose is the your trigger, or if you are lactose intolerant, stay away!

Blueberry Muffins-

1.  Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly grease the cups or a standard muffin pan or line with baking cups.
2. Whisk together the flour, brown sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon. Rinse and pat dry the blueberries with a towel. Stir in the blueberries last.
3. In a separate small bowl, whisk together the vanilla, canola oil, and yogurt whey.
4. Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients, stirring just to combine.
5. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups and fill them until full. 
6. Bake the muffins for 18-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the middle of one of the center muffins comes out clean.
7. Remove from the oven and let cool. Once cool enough to handle (about 5 minutes), transfer to a cooling rack.

Comeback 2021- Race Report!

 Race Report- Wow it feels good to be able to type that.

This finisher's medal is probably the single most significant medal that I've achieved because it wasn't just about this race or this finish line. It has been about the giant life fall, and trying to dig myself out of this hole back to some semblance of life. This medal is six years of an autoimmune disease (Inflammatory Bowel Disease), lots of different Gastroenterology specialists, nine episodes of clostridium difficile infections with three Fecal Microbiota Transplants (thank you, kind strangers, for your donations), five failed immunomodulators, two rounds of low-dose chemotherapy medications, multiple rounds of steroids, a broken foot with a lost medical career courtesy of a medical school professor with subsequent Complex Regional Pain Syndrome and foot surgery... and a Dad who decided to throw us away... six years of pain... six years of nausea... six years of trying to get my life back.... This medal is my fight.

I signed up for the the 38th Annual Great Clermont Triathlon a couple weeks ago, so it was a little bit of a last minute decision after I was able to successfully complete the bike and run distance in a brick during training so I thought it would be a great time for me to go ahead and give it a go. I was feeling so strong then, even finishing a sub-hour run for my 10K in practice! At the time, I was feeling so great, that after talking to my doctor's office, we decided it would be worth it to try to taper down from the Prednisone to see if the current biologic medication would be able to work on its own yet. Unfortunately, it did not. So for the past two weeks, I started to have an increase in some of my symptoms with pain and nausea, and had to start increasing the Prednisone again. What started out as excitement and confidence for the race turned into nerves and anxiety pretty quickly. But that still wasn't going to stop me. I signed up and I was going to do it!

Pre-Race

Goals: Finish. Have fun. Smile. Build Confidence. Don't poop in my onesie (one of the issues that I took for granted and never had to think about pre-IBD lol, sorry if it's TMI, but it's my blog and I'm going to post what I want). It's really hard emotionally and mentally when I was racing before for top spots, but now I'm just trying to figure out my body, what I can do, have fun, and finish. Sometimes it's important to just take a step back and appreciate what you CAN do and focus on that. And that is okay. You are competing for you. And that is it.

One of the many Prednisone side effects- Insomnia! Not good for racing. Or life. But that's just how it is. So, not the best sleep. But race day came and it was time to go!

Once I found my spot in transition, my mind started going through auto-pilot. I am thankful to have at least had enough experience and practice that my set-up was pretty much second-nature. I almost forgot to set up my Gu, but luckily I remembered before it was too late! One of the girl's next to me was talking about how this was her first time racing without her Dad because of health issues. This hit me hard because this was my first time racing without mine, too, but for different reasons. I was about to cry and wanted to just give her a big hug (but, social distancing and all), so we had a quick pep talk. My Dad does not get to ruin anything else for me. This race is for me. OWWWW fire ant bite. Ok drama over. Thanks Florida.

Swim (1.5 K)

So, I definitely did not train as much as I would want with swimming, but I think everyone is pretty much in the same boat here. With COVID restrictions, it is hard to schedule pool time that fits into the work schedule. And I didn't do any open water swimming. I'm very fortunate to have had a swimming background to rely on. I was a bit nervous about the water temperature because it is March and my wetsuit has holes in it. I didn't really have enough time or money to fix it up beforehand, so I was just hoping that the water was going to be warm enough. They said it was 68, which was fine. They had wave starts to make sure that everyone was socially distanced, so there was not to much fighting or swimming over each other. It was a pretty uneventful swim. I do really need to work on my sighting, though! That was pretty crooked, lol

Bike (43 K)

The bike course is slightly longer than a regular Olympic, but that's okay. The one thing that I was not really prepared for was the hills. When we hit the first hill, my legs wanted to hit race mode. I used to be a really strong hill-climber and could pick people off pretty easily, so I started going. As soon as I did, though, I could feel the abdominal pain starting to kick in. I don't really know the connection here, but for some reason, if I do a really have speed or hill set, the abdominal pain will feel like someone shot me with a cross-bow and I won't be able to move. My legs wanted to go, but my brain knew that if I did, my race would literally end on this hill. The race was not about this hill, though. This was just one little obstacle. "Who put this hill here?" I joked out loud to get my legs and body to calm down.

Run (10 K)

I felt really strong coming off of the bike and starting my run. This was going to be great. The last leg of the race and I was going to be a triathlete once again. I hit a pretty good pace for my first mile. By mile 3, the abdominal pain and nausea hit hard. The pain was pretty bad. I had to get to that finish, though. I was almost done. I mean, 3 miles is a long way while in pain, but in the grand scheme of things, 3 miles was nothing. I had to just keep my body moving. One foot in front of the other. Keep smiling. Keep moving. One of the things I love about triathlon is the camaraderie and atmosphere. That's what kept me going. The people. Get to the party. Get to the music. Get to the tents. Get to the announcer. Get to the finish. Get that medal.

Team Challenge

My ultimate goal this year is to race in Ironman California in Sacramento on October 24th, 2021. I am racing with Team Challenge for the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation. They do research, patient education, outreach, etc. so that hopefully we can have cures for these horrible diseases one day. Thank you so much to everyone who has contributed to my campaign so far. I am hoping to raise $1,000 for CCFA by the big race in October. Also, I know there is a log of stigma still out there about autoimmune diseases, especially with Crohn's and Ulcerative Colitis since a lot of people think that they are "just bathroom diseases." If anyone ever has questions or wants any information, please feel free to reach out and ask! https://www.facebook.com/donate/1779102638922629

And a final thank you to Rudy Project for keeping me on as an athlete through all of this. Such amazing support and products.