IBS and FODMAPs

Hi Lovelies,

So, I don't know how many of you actually know this about me, but I suffer from IBS. It's a fairly common disease, that happens mostly to women around my age and people don't like talking about it because the symptoms are not that kosher.
It's also very hard to determine if it's a "real" disease or not. This is because the triggers are mostly phycological. Basically I got mine from my anxiety and panic attacks. Which is another thing you might not know about me. Senior year of high school I got my first panic attack, and I got scared of public transportation. It took some weeks before I got a diagnos and medication to help me. I was diagnosed with depression, anxiety and panic attacks. It was a very difficult time. If you are not familiar with this disease I'm not going to explain it, just send you to a video that Zoella posted a while ago that describes the symptoms and disease very well, even better than my phycologist did back when I was diagnosed!

It's almost 20 minutes long, but trust me, if you don't know what panic attacks and anxiety is this will explain it. And if you are suffering from it yourself this will help you understand it a lot better!

Now, back to the topic at hand, IBS and FODMAPs. I was diagnosed with IBS as a follow-up from my panic attacks, which is usually how you get IBS. IBS stands from Irritable Bowel Syndrome and has also been called Nervous Bowels. Basically, if I'm nervous, stressed or faced with something challenging or new my body stops functioning as it should. I get stomach pains and the urge to visit a bathroom becomes an emergency. I won't go into details, but let's just say that I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy.

It has become such a problem that I've let it control my life and because of it I'm not actually living my life to the fullest. I've lived with this problem for almost eight years now and it has been a constant struggle and worry for me.
One of my resolutions this year was to actually live my life and in order to do that I have to get my IBS under control. I've read about this diet called FODMAPs which is an Australian thing where you eliminate quite a lot of foods that are known to be irritable for your bowels. I've been eating according to this diet for a week now and I've noticed major improvements! Trust me, I noticed a change 24 hours into the diet!
I've eliminated gluten, lactose, unions and garlic. This is very, and I mean very, problematic and difficult in the beginning because there is unions and garlic in almost everything. However, it is so worth it due to how much better I feel already.

On Friday I accidentally ate something that had unions in it and the pains arrived a couple of hours later. This diet has definitely showed me things that I absolutely can't eat, and that I do feel better when they are eliminated. My co-workers are telling me that I have a healthier glow to my face now and that I am more energised.
I'll update you more about all of this as I go, but for now I'll leave you with that this diet works and if you have IBS I urge you to try this.

xx Zandrina

Saturdaze

I know,
I am so bad at keeping things I promise.
I say I'll post videos regularly, and I don't.
I say I'll do blogtober, and I don't...
I say all these things and I just don't stick to it....

I'd like to sit here and announce blogmas. but I don't know if I'll be able to stick to it.  I really want to, jeez - don't get me wrong, but there is part of me that knows that I'll just feel pressured and that I will end up not following it through.

I'm sitting here, curled up in my sofa, and I can't believe that Christmas is just around the corner! Tomorrow is the first of Advent and on Monday we have December 1st. Where has this year gone? And I remember that I said I'd try and blog for a year... how did that go? 21 blog posts in a year.
Jeez, that was a great success... And don't get me wrong, I like blogging. I like the idea of people reading what I write and finding my jabbering exciting. I want to be able to tell you about all the good books I read, the movies I see, the music I listen to, the pictures I take, the things that I like and the things that I don't like. I want to share my life with my trusty readers.
There aren't that many of you, but that's my own fault for not writing as much as I promised...
The same way that I want to make videos for my loyal viewers - even though there's only a handful of you!

And then life happens. Life gets in the way. The stress of work and life in general gets the best of me and then I'm stuck there - with nothing! The blog calling in the back of my mind and nothing that I can do about it.

I want that to change. I want to be able to update you without feeling obliged to, or feeling guilty for not doing it. I want to be able to live and update you at the same time... It's a very odd thing to get to work, believe it or not. In my life at least...

I'm sorry, not it's just mindless rambling and I'm sorry for that.

Hopefully you'll hear from me soon
love you lots

~Zandrina

Life update

Hey guys,

So sorry for not updating you in forever! I'm back at work and everything is super hectic! I haven't filmed a proper video since June! And no, I'm not counting my ALS video as proper. 

I have a huge pile of book that need reviewing so I'm going to get to that as soon as I can! Also have lots of ideas for tags and stuff that I want to do! So, I need to start filming stuff! 

Have some work to do, but I'm going to try and blog a little later - have a few posts planned :)

xx

~Zandrina 

Disney Dork

Hey lovelies,

I'm currently in bed with my electric warmer and netflix on my iPad. I have a really bad stomach ache due to two separate things; Period cramps and IBS aches. 

Yes, I feel sorry for myself but I'm cheering myself up with the Disney show Jessie. Yes, it's for children. Yes, it's Disney. Do I care? Nope! It makes me feel good and I deserve it! 

I'm such a dork...

~Zandrina

Changes

Hello dears,

I've changed a lot of things in my social media life recently. I've taken all my blogs into 1 and I've gotten myself a private instagram account.
I've been wooing over my youtube situation as I'm not uploading  as I'd want to.
Last evening I saw a video on Youtube that made me thing. Robyn Schneider, author of The Beginning of Everything, used to have a beauty channel that she didn't talk about too often and therefore not many people knew about it. I did, however, and I loved her beauty and lifestyle videos!
She is actually one of the reasons why I gathered strength to post my own beauty and lifestyle videos.
She just announced that she will continue to upload her lifestyle videos but now on her main channel instead as she is finding it stressful to have two channels and upload on the regularly. I have four channels! My beauty and book videos could easily go on my main channel and I'll just keep my follow round videos and vlogs on my second channel.
It would be like going back to basics and the way it was before the side projects came along. However, I'd still have them but on my main channel instead!
And it would be easier for me to upload videos and I'd not be as stressed out! I could possibly get one video up a week on one topic, either music, books or beauty and lifestyle! I can do my favourites in one video, combining beauty, books and randoms!

I can honestly only see positive things come out of this... How about you?

Let me know what you think of me taking all of my channels into 1, but keeping my second channel as it is? It would allow me to upload more videos and more frequently as I'm not restricted uploading a certain type of video to one channel.

~Zandrina

Last weeks stress

Hello readers,

it's the last few weeks before we go on holiday and those weeks are always the most stressful.
I have reports to write, planners to fix and the last few touches are to be placed on my kiddos before I send them off to the next teacher.
Truth be told, in two weeks time I will be overjoyed that all of this is finally over.

They told me that my first year of teaching would be horribly stressful and difficult. I believed them, I just didn't realise that it would be this bad!! I've had little to no free time this past year and it's been horrible. I want to say that it'll all get better next year, but truthfully I'm not too sure about that!

I have one day off next week to get through more reports but I want to get through at least half before that day so I can do other things as well. I have currently done 2 and I have 19 to do in total. I am doing my best but it is so hard. All the IB terminology and the different documents that need to be cross-referenced while your'e writing! It's driving me a little insane!

I've managed to fall completely out of my training routine, which sucks a lot because I now have 51 day to go until my holiday. Hopefully I can keep doing a little every couple of days until June 13th which is when the kids are on holiday and we just have things to do while we're at school. This means that I'll have spare time when I come home and can work out like a crazy person!

Ok, break over - back to reports now!

xx
~Zandrina