Quick question...
Should bread, pasta, and/or potatoes be seriously limited on an AF diet? Even the whole wheat versions? I haven't had potatoes or pasta since this started and bread only occasionally. I'm afraid of those things having binding properties...am I being too strict? Just curious about your experiences...

I don't eat pasta really but they do have versions now that are high fiber so I think that would be okay. I eat whole wheat bagels but not really bread. I think if it is high fiber or at least not refined it should be okay. If I eat white bread, pasta or potatoes it binds me up.

lecia - hey there birthday buddy! how are you today? as much advice as i've been seeking from you on here, i feel as if we should be old friends by now. lol it's really great to have a place to find this stuff out, though. it's so hard to explain to someone else why you're afraid to eat something as harmless as a turkey and swiss or a grilled cheese. i think i want to find a bread with a higher fiber count (what i have now has 2 per slice) just to be on the safe side. I bought some whole wheat wraps for the occasional change, as well. i never thought about the whole wheat bagels...that's a great idea.

I find that pasta and potatoes are actually quite nie. they are mushy and have absorbed a lot of water, so they stay relatively hydrated compared to things like bread. And lovely little new potatoes or red potatoes have a good amount of fiber if you eat them with the skin on. I would stay away from cream sauces, but I have found pasta or gnocchi nice with a bit of sauted onions, some aromatc herbs, like parsley or marjoram, a good heep of olive oil and walnut oil and a small bit of some goat cheese, perhaps even a small bit of almond butter. Delicious!! (Goat cheese hasn't constipated me at all. Cow cheese on the other hand...) I'm sure this would be good for potatoes as well.

Hey Taurus Twin,

I know what you mean about the eating situation. It is tough to try to explain especially to casual acquaintances. For example, I took my daughter to a birthday party and I kept getting offered a piece of cake, over and over. And I know from experience that cake constipates me and makes for a bathroom ordeal. I had to keep turning it down and was afraid people would start to think I had an eating disorder or something. Sometimes I want to say "hey, if you had pain when you pooped, you would watch what went in too!"

But I am starting to branch out. I was craving oranges last week and overdid it and then my butt burned the next day so I have had to cut back on that, but I figure it is going to hurt anyway as I recover from surgery so I am eating a wider variety of things. I even ate chocolate for the first time in a year. I just had to try one of those dark chocolate Milky Ways!!!!

The bleeding is better, but I can still feel the stitches. I am not sure when those are supposed to dissolve.

I found I didn't look at food as food any more before the op-I looked at it how it was gonna come out the other end-haha-gross!
I found wholewheat bread ok and jacket potatoes with baked beans, but then everybodys tummies are different-I wasn'y constipated to start with.
Lecia, did you have many stitches? Mine have melted away now, but they took a while, and they were very uncomfortable!
We dont have dark chocolate milky ways! :(

lecia - yeah, i know exactly what you mean. my office (very small- only 3 of us) just received a box of specialty pints of ice cream from a client. my boss is harassing the hell out of us to eat it so it doesn't go to waste. she knows i'm a chocoholic and even saying that you're watching your weight doesn't explain turning down a single bite of gourmet stuff like that. so i finally told her that i was having some issues with dairy lately - she can't fight that one!
i'm glad that you've been able to start adding different foods back into your diet. it sounds like you've really had a rough time of it (understatement, perhaps?) but advances like that show you that light at the end of tunnel. everything that you've been through also lends credence to the strong stock of the taurus female! lol
so, how was the milky way?

dark chocolate milky ways are divine! chocolate is one thing even my fissure couldn't make me give up....
I have also found beans to be wonderful and tasty fissure food. We have been having beans and franks regularly for dinner over the past couple months.

my abandonment of chocolate is what made my partner realize how seriously afraid i was about this! lol i think she was convinced that nothing short of death would separate me from my love affair with all things chocolate. i do get a fix from the oats and chocolate fiber one bars. tasty, but i won't lie to you - it's not the same!

buttgirl - do you have issues eating the franks? i was thinking of looking into the veggie ones bc i've been craving a hot dog!