My Food History
After years of nightly stomach aches I was diagnosed with a milk malabsorption in the fifth grade, 9 years ago. For 8 years I was able to control my stomach aches. The stomach aches didn't return until I was given an antibiotic for a virus. This strong antibiotic cleared out my system and caused the stomach aches to return. One of my doctors referred me to an allergist and immunologist. Through discussing what I eat each day and when I get a stomach ache, the doctor was confident that if I ate a low fodmap diet I would no longer have stomach aches. To learn more about my low fodmap journey click here. I have reintroduced some high fodmap foods, so currently my diet is not strictly low fodmap. I am currently trying to lessen my carbs in order to lose weight and also only consume one source of meat each day for environmental reasons.
I would also like to mentioned that the reason I am gluten free is because gluten causes me to have stomach aches, I become irritable and my skin breaks out. I lowered the amount of carbs that I consume as a weight loss method. I cut out potatoes, gluten free pizza crusts, oatmeal and low fodmap lemon poppy seed muffins from my daily diet. In addition to portion control, lower carb and regular exercise I was able to loose 9 lbs. For me this is a significant amount of weight in a short time period of time. I am already a petite female and just wanted to lose a little bit of weight.
Weekly Meal Plan
This weekly meal plan is milk free, gluten free and low carb except for fruits and vegetables. The breakfast is vegetarian, lunch is vegan and dinner has meat.
Breakfast: 2 broccoli egg muffins and a large naval orange
Lunch: spinach salad with black beans, tomato, broccoli, cucumber, strawberries with a lemon vinaigrette and half an apple
Snacks: chocolate with unsweetened coconut chips and herbal tea
Dinner: chicken, steamed broccoli, sautéed peppers and squash (zucchini and/or yellow squash)
Items To Prep
- chicken (twice a week)
- sautéed veggies (twice a week)
- egg muffins (twice a week)
- wash and store raw veggies (broccoli)
- wash and store spinach
- black beans
- lemon vinaigrette
I prep the chicken and sautéed veggies on Sunday and then again on Thursday. I wash and store the raw veggies and spinach once a week, usually on Sunday. I buy my spinach in the organic section of my grocery store because it comes in only a zip tie which is low waste. I do the same for raw broccoli. I also made egg muffins on Sunday and on Wednesday. I only meal prep the lemon vinaigrette and black beans when I finish what I already have. With all the I meal prep and my busy work schedule I use canned no sodium black beans and just transfer the beans into a glass food safe storage container and store it in the fridge. I would love to cook black beans that I get in the bulk section.
Recipes
Lemon vinaigrette- low fodmap, gluten free, milk free and low carb
Egg muffins- keto, low carb, gluten free and can be made milk free
How To Change It Up Each Week
If you are looking for variations for the egg muffins I would recommend clicking the recipe link above. I have only tried broccoli and egg and spinach and egg. To switch up the breakfast fruit each week you could have low carb berries. If you aren't low carb then you could have an apple or banana.
From week to week you could switch up lunch by changing the salad toppings to different raw vegetables. Instead of raw broccoli you could cut up raw carrots or cauliflower. If you do not follow a vegan or vegetarian diet then you could substitute the black beans for chicken or another plant based protein. I use black beans because I can recycle the tin can, I don't have to worry about prepping tofu and its a low waste and easy option. Another option to change up this meal plan each week is to try a different type of apple each week.
Ways that I have found to change up my dinner each week is to use either olive oil or sesame oil to sauté the chicken and veggies. When I use sesame oil I also add sesame seeds. Another idea is to use a different variation of seasonings for the chicken. Some weeks I use a garlic and onion free Italian seasoning blend for the chicken so that it is low fodmap. Other times I use just salt and pepper. If you are someone how eats more than just chicken you could change up the meat by having pork, turkey, beef or fish as your animal protein source for dinner. Instead of broccoli you could have another steamed vegetable like green beans, peas, cauliflower or asparagus. For the sautéed veggies I usually buy one large or two small zucchini for Sunday through Wednesday and one yellow squash for Thursday through Saturday. When it comes to the peppers I purchase which ever colored peppers are on sale. I either buy yellow, orange or red. I only like green peppers when they are mixed with other peppers, but not on their own. You can either do a single type of pepper each week or a mix or all four.
I get milk free/vegan semi sweet chocolate chips from the bulk section of my grocery store. I also purchase unsweetened coconut chips from the bulk section. The herbal teas that I drink are the Tummy Balance Loose Leaf Tea and Organic Peppermint Loose Leaf Tea both from Full Leaf Tea Company. I purchase loose leaf tea to eliminate the waste produced from tea bags and avoid the the plastic that some tea bags contain.
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