More on the diet, and trying out the bus

 Two of you lovely readers (one via email) recommended recipes by a food writer named Becky Excell, who has written several books and has a website with loads of GF - and other 'free froms' - recipes.  Coincidentally, I'd recently joined a low FODMAP group on FB, they also recommend her.  I've bookmarked her website and had a quick glance through it, it looks really great, so thank you for the recommendations.  Yesterday I made a soda bread loaf using a Doves Farm GF flour and a small amount of wholemeal spelt - spelt isn't actually recommended on the FODMAP diet but it's a flour which is well tolerated by lots of people, I've used it before and it doesn't seem to have a huge reaction for me.  Besides, using such a small amount and spread across the whole loaf which will cut into about a dozen slices, it'll only be a negligible amount in each slice.  I just like the taste of it.  I also put in some mixed seeds and a good tsp salt and pepper.  The bread is lovely, tastes just like a normal soda bread, so I'll be making that from now on.  Incidentally Heather, cornflour is fine on the diet.

I'm finding this diet relatively easy to do, I remember when I did it years ago I hated it and found it really restrictive, probably because back then we ate a lot of takeaways and ready meals, with us both working full time.  Now it seems much easier to follow, it does require a lot of cooking from scratch but that's fine as it's what I do now anyway.  It also includes lots of foods I already eat, such as protein in the form of eggs and fish - plainly cooked, plus meat for the carnivores, cheese in restricted quantities, seeds and some nuts (not all nuts are allowed), and plenty of fruit and veggies.  Again, there are some fruits and veggies which aren't allowed - apples, stone fruits and mangoes e.g., and onions (they always give me a bad reaction anyway), cauliflower and mushrooms, which is a shame as I love both of those.  Apparently, they can ferment in the gut and cause bloating, which is why they're not allowed in the initial phases of the diet.

One thing about this diet is that it can be quite carb-heavy - GF breads and baked goods, potatoes, rice and GF pasta are all allowed.  I'll have to be mindful of that and make sure I don't eat too many of them, as carbs aren't good for my diabetes or my joints.

Right, I think I've bored everyone enough with all this FODMAP diet talk, sorry about that!  It's just that I'm finding my way through it and it's quite important to me right now.

We've got dull and rainy days today and tomorrow, then it's back to sunshine and nice weather from Thursday onwards.  On Thursday we're planning to go into town on the bus, from next week I want to start going into town for my solo respite breaks and need to suss out the route and where the buses stop/pick up.  Husband has been on the bus to town a couple of times, so he's familiar with it, he just can't really tell me exactly where it goes, he gets confused when trying to explain it.  The bus doesn't go what would be the conventional route to town, I know that much, it sort of goes around the houses (well, it would, wouldn't it?!), so I need to have a trial run to check where it goes, where I can get off and, more importantly, where I can get back on again to come home.  Some days I'd like to have a mooch around the shops in town, other days when it's warm and sunny I'll take a book and bottle of water and sit on the beach, or go for a walk to the harbour end of the beach along the promenade.