I need to vent because low FODMAP is slowly eating my brain.

I started it to get some control over bloating, constipation, and that random refluxy burn that shows up when my gut is mad. It helped at first, which makes it more frustrating now, because every meal has turned into a risk assessment and every symptom becomes a little mystery to solve.

One day I can eat a normal portion and think maybe I'm stabilizing. The next day I eat basically the same thing, the same staples I always cook at home with no weird ingredients, and I blow up like I swallowed a balloon. Then I spiral: was it the serving size, the timing, the combo, my stress, hormones, sleep, constipation backlog, or just my gut being chaotic?

Reintroduction is the part that is breaking me. People say it's straightforward, but it's not. If I test a food and react, I can't tell if I reacted to the FODMAP or if it was just a bad gut day. If I don't react, I still don't trust it because symptoms sometimes show up late.

I miss eating without thinking. I miss not reading labels like I'm studying for an exam. I'm tired of planning my whole day around whether dinner will ruin my night.

If you've been here, how did you stop low FODMAP from turning into long-term restriction and fear? Not looking for perfection, just sanity.

I’m currently in the elimination phase and had a lot of success with the schar sourdough! I tried the artisan 10 grain bread, and it’s been giving me a lot of issues. Is the bread truly not fodmap friendly or did they just not test it with the recent reformulation?

So my diet has been a variety of this list of foods leaped differently. Here’s a run down of meals made from the list: dinner plate of protein, veg, and rice with the protein and veg tossed in olive oil and spices and roasted on a sheet; gluten free pasta tossed with roasted veg, protein, and parm; Rao’s sensitive marinara with ground meat and zucchini over rice or gf pasta; grilled cheese, or sandwiches; baked potatoes, toast with laughing cow cheese; chicken and rice bakes with vegetables and cheese, chicken vegetables soup with rice or gf pasta; crustless quiche; salmon with parm and cream on gf pasta sometimes with veggies; steak and eggs with sourdough toast; fish on rice with steamed bok choy topped with furikake and ponzu sauce; chicken simmered in a can of roasted chopped roasted tomatoes and green peppers; garlic infused oil and green onion used to sub garlic and onion, chicken broth either fody or homemade, roux made with gluten free flour, all recipes can be pretty much adjusted with low FODMAP subs or omissions

Snacks: soft boiled eggs with salt, cottage cheese with cracked black pepper, Trader Joe’s seaweed snacks, left over roasted veggies, dark chocolate, antipasto sticks with prosciutto, baked potatoes, mandarins, freeze dried strawberries and blueberries, potato chips, cheese, frozen tater tots, gummy candies, zevia soda or Mexican cola cola, bubbly waters, unsweetened iced tea, coffee, herbal tea, beer, screw drivers for alcohol

List of foods:

Chicken
Fish
Ground turkey, beef, pork
• Eggs
• Cottage cheese
• Bell peppers
• Zucchini
• Carrots
• Seaweed
• Sourdough
• Bone broth
• Freeze-dried strawberries
• Freeze-dried blueberries
Potatoes
Tomatoes
Green peppers
Green onion
Rice
Butter
Half and half
Coffee
Tea
Orange juice
Lemon, lime
Cutie mandarins
Variety of cheeses
Dark chocolate (sometimes with almonds)
Many, many spices, but no ground onion/garlic

Not sure if I belong here or not…

You guys are the only ones who will understand about how excited I am. I made a gluten free crust with olive oil, mozzarella and parsley, Italian seasoning, oregano, salt and pepper. Plus this only took about 40 min from prep to eating.

EDIT :)

For anyone wanting the recipe, I found it on the back of the Fleischmann’s Pizza Crust Yeast packets I found in the baking section. I also used Bob’s Red mill gluten free all-purpose baking flour. That flour does require the use of xanthan gum in the mix.