Bonus episode: How to manage IBS in a post-pandemic world

We all know that the pandemic isn't truly over, but in this semi-post-pandemic world where things are opening back up and social lives are ramping up... IBS plans are getting shaken up.

If you find yourself struggling to manage working from an office, going out with friends, and travel during this time, you're not alone. This episode is a conversation around what may be causing your symptoms and how you can get on top of them during this time.

You can check out the podcast on iTunes here, Spotify here, and on YouTube here! Below is a full transcript of the episode if you prefer to read through it or want notes.

Don’t forget to connect to others in The GUT Community, a Facebook group for those with IBS and digestive disorders to support one another and dive deeper into each episode together.

Alright, so today's live video is going to be recorded and added to our podcast and our YouTube channel, because this is a really important topic, and it's something that is coming up in conversations, and something that we need to talk about here and continue this conversation as we move into the next few months. So the question that I've been getting is all about how to actually get back into social life and all of the events that are popping up in this “post-pandemic life”. And so for the past year, we've, you know, been keeping inside, gatherings have been kept fairly small, there's been a lot more personal control over maybe food that you've been eating and ordering, you've been at home, you've been in comfortable clothes, and now that the world seems to be opening back up, maybe you're back in the office, you're back to those social events, it can feel a little bit daunting. Some of the things that you’ve use in the past with your IBS, they might not feel as accessible, so I wanted to chat through some tips and tricks that you can actually use to help with this situation.

So I know someone is here live, ask questions, say hello, I want this to be interactive as much as possible. So one thing to think about whenever the world is opening back up, is making sure that we're creating space to check in almost daily, especially if you're having a lot pop up daily, at the bare minimum every single week to see how you're doing. We saw that a lot of people's IBS symptoms actually improved over the pandemic year, over 2020, there were some surveys and studies coming out from that, and the likely reason is that people are at home, so there's a lot less complexity, there was a little bit less stress for some. If you saw improvement of your symptoms, it could have been because maybe a little bit less stress from not going as much, being at home, in the comfort of your home, less fear of not having a bathroom, kind of all those things, being a little bit more controlled the food that you're eating.

But whenever you go back into some more complexity and things that are outside of your control, it is vital that you have space to check in with yourself to see how you're doing both mentally and physically. Because mentally, stress of the unknown, stress of the things that might be going on under the surface is going to impact your gut due to this gut brain connection that we all have, and those with IBS, those connections are a bit off. And so we have to make sure that we're checking in with the brain and taking note of any fears, any concerns, any worries, any stress building up that we may not be addressing so that we can address it.

It's also important physically to check in to see you know, what new things are coming up and what strategies are we trying to implement? What strategies do we actually need? It's easy for me to say, oh, drink more water, make sure you're staying hydrated, but if you're not checking in on all the things that are changing, and the things that are actually happening, you may not know kind of where to truly intervene.

So ways to check in with yourself. I actually love a journaling practice for this. This is something I talk to my clients about all the time is having a daily journaling practice, where you don't really need a lot of prompts, but just a moment of I'm going to open my journal and this is the space where I check in with myself on how I'm feeling. And around the pandemic, you know, post-pandemic life, checking in of how do I actually feel about going back to the office? What are my thoughts about, you know, being in these events in these spaces, like what things are coming up? What questions are coming up internally, that I'm processing through, and we did this a lot last year, and it's important to do now that things are kind of shifting and changing your life might be a bit different than it was a year ago. And so just allowing space for your brain to kind of process and it's also a space of physically how am I feeling these days? Am I noticing that my symptoms are getting worse? And then what am I noticing changing in the world around me? What feels out of control? So that's a great daily check in.

Every week the check in is going to be looking ahead of what's actually happening in my life? And so one great way to prepare for the unknown and prepare for all these events and social things, and all of it kind of coming up, is to look ahead at it and notice and acknowledge that it's actually happening. And so planning at the start of the week, looking at your schedule, and looking ahead to what is coming this week, so that you can sit down and and figure out, okay, what do I need for all of these things? So if you know that you're going back to the office, like, okay, I'm gonna be in the office everyday this week, and you've been used to eating lunch at home, now you're scrambling for lunch. When you're preparing at the start of the week for going to the office, then you can write a note of okay, what do I need for this to support my body, it might be meal prepping and taking your lunch with you. It might be picking up a lunch on the way to work from a place that serves something that works really well for you, that could be a big piece of it. Maybe it's I'm going out with friends on Tuesday night, and then we have a family sports game on Wednesday night, then you might look ahead of what do I need? It's like, okay, maybe I need to plan out like, what are we going to have for dinner, I'm going to look ahead at this restaurant to see the menu, and just kind of thinking ahead to what I might need there.

Maybe your sleep is going to be off, like, okay, I'm gonna make sure that I take care of my body, the next day, I might sleep in, so my movement routine might move, just thinking through it, that can ground you and give you that space to kind of play an in process, so that in the moment, it feels a little bit less like you are scrambling. So tip number one, create space to check in. Tip number two, when you check in at the start of the week, really look ahead and plan for your week. Okay, and then the other tip is going to be actual strategies that you can use in the social events. So few of you guys are here, if you have thoughts or questions, please put them in the comments. I'm just talking, but I want to make sure that I'm interacting with you, so engage, and I'm happy to shift, clarify, or even get your tips to apply to our conversation.

So some of the strategies that you can use, one includes really taking care of yourself the entire day. So one downfall I typically see whenever there's travel, or a big event, or social interactions, or weekends, when people have like these big flares, what we usually see is it's less about one moment, and more about the entire day or week as a whole. And so really prioritizing taking care of yourself the entire day, versus just hyper-focusing on the one event. So what I mean by that is if you know that you're going to have a big thing, let’s say you're going to a wedding on Saturday night, and you know that, okay, there's probably going to be alcohol, which you don't normally have every night, you're gonna have food that you didn't cook yourself, there's gonna be a lot of stress because you're wrangling your family while you're getting there. Instead of thinking so much just about that one event, think about the day. Okay, how can I support my body first thing in the morning, hydrate, you know, settle in oo you can have a really good bowel movement, do some meditation, maybe, you know, eat a lunch that feels so nourishing and good in your body. Go for a walk before you get ready for the wedding. Give yourself plenty of time to get ready. Try to go to the bathroom before you get in the car, you know, hydrate the whole day. So think about how can you take care of yourself that entire day, versus just hyper-focusing on that one event.

In that conversation you're going to have with yourself, you're probably going to pull out a few things that are your choices that day. So if you know that there's going to be something coming up, let's say it's a work event. And so you have an entire day of work that you're focused in, then you might choose to meal prep, you know your breakfast and your lunch and take it with you so that you know that you have these foods that really work well for you. Maybe you choose not to have that extra cup of coffee that sometimes you have and you just get the one cup of coffee, you may choose to actually sleep in a little bit, give your body a little bit of extra rest. So there's a lot of ways that you can go about kind of shifting things as you think about how can I care for myself this whole day in my entirety versus hyper-focusing only on the one event.

Another great strategy is going to be how you approach events and how you handle that specific moment. So when it comes to food, one thing I always say is instead of going into an all or nothing kind of mindset where it's like, oh, well, I'm, I'm going to have things that are probably gonna have triggers, so I'm just not even going to think about it. I see that a lot, and I see that happening a lot, especially if you've been like restricting yourself a lot and then you now have pizza in front of you, and you haven't had pizza so now it's like, I'm going to have five pieces of pizza, because I haven't had it and I'm already gonna have symptoms so who cares?

What typically happens when you take that kind of all or nothing, and you move into the nothing side of it is you end up in a flare versus just dealing with the sort of symptoms. And whenever you can have fewer symptoms, you're usually going to have a more enjoyable experience that's not going to be marked by any shame or guilt because of the flare. It's also going to be a lot easier to come out of it and get back into kind of your baseline and feeling good. And so ways to do that instead of all or nothing, think about what can I do here? So when it comes to food, if you know what your triggers are, try to work around them as much as you can, the best way that you can. If you don't know your triggers, it's going to be a lot harder to figure out what your triggers are, get that guidance, the Master Method could help.

The second part will be really tuning into your fullness cues. So with you know your meal like chewing, taking your time, slowing down, and honor your fullness cue knowing that you can take that with you, you can enjoy it later, maybe that later is in an hour or two hours, but really honor those fullness cues so it's not so much that it overwhelms your body. Use a little bit of intention and mindfulness with alcohol, like drink water, be intentional with your alcohol intake if you know that a certain amount triggers a flare for you, stay below that amount or go there if you want to go there, but if you're trying to keep symptoms down, maybe stay below. And with that conversation of what can I do, maybe you use supplemental support to help you out or a medication that your doctor gave you, and so it's like, okay, that builds your confidence to have that bit of support as you're into that event or that thing. So it's kind of doing what you can with a meal or a situation instead of all or nothing.

And now this can look at other examples beyond just food is if you're going to go on a hike with your friends or something like that, then knowing I can take it slow, take a lot of deep breaths. Take your time, communicate your needs on the front end of like, you know what, I might not be able to go this full way, I'm going to give it my best shot but I might have to turn around a little bit earlier. Is that okay? And really advocating for yourself. So it's an example of what can you do? If someone does want to go out and do something just say, hey, can we work around this need that I have so that I can be able to enjoy this with you and really get into it.

One pitfall that I'm seeing a lot of people get into right now is kind of like bingeing on the social events, where every day, it's all the things, like they're going out, they're doing all the things. And they're pushing themselves so far beyond what they would have even pre-pandemic. And so giving your body that jolt, sometimes that alone, like the body doesn't like change, right? And so getting into kind of those routines slowly and being intentional with how much of them that you're pushing yourself into, that can be very helpful.

The last tip that I have is really about stress management in relation to events and activities. So a lot of times with like new dates or you know, events or things, the stress of it hits before any other trigger can. And it's the worry of what happens if I have symptoms, what happens if I need to go the bathroom, oh, I think I have symptoms coming on and you spiral into this stress-induced flare. So something that's so powerful and so simple to apply, is whenever you show up somewhere if you're in a car, or maybe you walk, take a train or whatever, however you got there, before you walk in the door, before you walk into that place that you're going to, take a moment. 60 seconds, just one minute, take a few deep diaphragmatic breaths of breathing in through your nose, letting your diaphragm fully expand, holding it for a moment and then exhaling fully through your mouth. Holding, inhale, hold, exhale, hold. Do that for a minute. You don't have to think about anything specific. It's giving yourself a grounding moment to also check in. And when you do have strategies that you're wanting to use, like okay, this is my plan, with our clients alot of times what we do is we come up with these plans, it's something we talk about heavily in our one on one and group programs.

A lot of times the implementation of the plan is where people have trouble, and so that grounding moment not only brings your whole body into rest and digest, so it helps bring that anxiety level, bring the stress down of it, it's also a grounding moment that if you need that moment of reminder of, okay, this is my plan, this is what I'm going to do like this is how I, you know, I'm prepared for this. And then that can be a helpful spot to be able to do that, just grounding yourself back, it's also a great place to kind of remind yourself, like, you know, what, I'm here to take care of myself, I've got this, I can do this, it's going to be a great night, a great day, whatever it might be. And then utilize that breath throughout the entire time or event, wherever you're at.

And so this is great if you're in a situation where things are kind of out of your control, it's like, take a step away, take a few deep breaths, knowing that that's going to help bring things down, especially if you feel a little bit of anxiety creeping up, bring things down. If it gets to a point where it's like, I am really feeling the stress, give yourself grace to be able to do what you need to do. So if that's go home, or take a break, or if you need to go to the bathroom for a little bit, give yourself in your body the grace that you need to do what you need to do.

So those are my tips. For those of you that are hanging around, any thoughts, any questions, any comments, anything that you want to add to the conversation around entering this post pandemic life with IBS and how to navigate it. It might be expected as things do kind of change, just like they did last year, you know, when your life changes fairly abruptly, or if that's how it's been looking for you, it's expected that your body might need a little bit of time to adjust and that's okay. That's where not pushing yourself so hard, so fast, can be really beneficial. So give your body that time to be able to really ease back into the world and then to your life as it is now. And then just knowing that, you know, if things do pop up, like, go find the strategies use them, because it doesn't have to stay that way.

If you're joining us later, either through our this live re-posted in The Gut Community or through The Gut show, if you're watching us on YouTube listening on the podcast, know that we can continue talking about this. So share some things that you've learned, specific questions that you may have. Share it with The Gut Community, if you're on The Gut Show, and you don't know what The Gut Community is, it's our Facebook group. It's free group, so find us on Facebook at The Gut Community and join in the conversation. So thank you for those of you that have joined me! I hope this is a helpful conversation for you, and I'm always here if you have any questions at all.