This is why you’re always bloated and can’t lose weight!

I used to consume foods that almost killed me. I would not say that food is harmful in its entirety, but I definitely agree that some food combinations and amounts can cause your digestive system to rebel against your body. This is my story.

Before I begin, I love food, dieting, and healthy living and my findings are solely based on surface research. I am not a nutritionist/dietitian and I do not have a license for any of those. I am a girl who became woke as regards nutrition and I am about to share what worked for me. Interested? Stick around for a guide that can help you shape your nutrition around healthy, available, and cheap food options you can experiment with.

In early 2021, I noticed that something was wrong with my digestion. I would burp and fart a lot because of the gas in my stomach and it made being outside for long hours become frustrating. Every time I tried to hold it in for courtesy sake, the gas just accumulated in my stomach and made me bloated. Bloating became a norm, my stomach hurt almost all the time. My sleep schedule became affected, I was losing concentration in class, and I began to experience symptoms of acid reflux (self-diagnosed, lol).

I knew it had a thing to do with the foods I was eating, and at first, I thought it was an allergy, the thought of that doesn’t make sense right now cause allergies don’t work like that. This is how uninformed I was about foods and nutrition. I became suspicious about the foods I was eating—eggs, especially—as I tried to figure the particular food that was causing this reaction in my digestive system. So, I developed a plan to fish out the culprit. This is where dieting came in.

It made sense to diet; it was like killing two birds with one stone — fixing my gut and losing weight. I decided to work with a specific group of foods, readily available in my area, and I carried out research that helped me cancel out calorie counting and focus on the specific nutrients that could help me get better, fiber being a priority.

Eggs, milk, oats, unsweetened popcorn, peanuts (groundnut), cabbage, carrots, green beans, green peppers (the common vegetables I could find in my town), rice, potatoes, avocado pear, pasta, chicken breast, okra, beans, plantains, fruits, tomatoes. These and other foods like aromatics and spices of negligible caloric value. It was at this point I realized the importance of vegetables, I used to think that it was a once in a while thing, for special meals like fried rice (I’ll write on other myths that I had to grow out of).

With these foods, I made a meal plan, balancing each food and making combinations that were filling, nutritious and of the right amount of energy for the day. YAZIO app helped me see the number of calories in each food in relation to the nutrients they contain and that was a big help. I started cooking three times daily, and I stopped buying food from the local vendors because that was definitely part of what disrupted my digestive system.

The first time I saw the amount of rice that was termed “normal,” I was in shock. I had been consuming about 15 times that amount in one sitting (this is not an exaggeration). I discovered how important dietary fiber is, my eyes became open to the almighty power of proteins and how we neglect it (I come from a country where a big bowl of rice comes with a beef piece that looks as small as peewee-sized egg).

Most importantly, I learned that restriction isn’t the answer, proportion is. Cooking one serving of my meals helped in making me eat just the right amount of food. You know how you can eat a bowl of noodles, want another, and by the time you’re done cooking a different one you’re full? That’s how it works. Eventually, I got used to it and I would be full by the time I was done eating my one serving because of the number of veggies I began to incorporate in my meals.

I ate sweet things too, pancakes especially. I didn’t restrict myself, but I became a lot more aware of the amount of food I was taking in, the spoons of sugar, of carbs like bread, and of oil. It would normally take about 2 weeks for me to finish a liter of cooking oil (I consumed a lot of fried food), but when I changed, I used a 75cl bottle of oil for about a month (this is not an exaggeration).

I stopped making tomato stew because an appealing stew in the average African home has the tomato settled in the deep pot with a pool of oil layered above it; eating a plate of rice and stew for lunch could cover and even surpass a person’s daily fat needs, most probably with unhealthy fat rather that healthy.

After about a month, I noticed changes. Funny enough, it all started with me wanting to wear fitted outfits cause my stomach felt flat. I had never felt like that in my life. The bloating was gone, I could see a distinct curved waistline (I took progress pictures that are a bit too personal to share), and I felt better than I had in ages.

I’m going to explain my food combinations, portions, unnecessary myths, money spent and other tips that can help out you on the right track health wise. After all, a good health can create a clean mind.