THIS CONTEST IS OFFICIALLY CLOSED. THE WINNERS WILL BE ANNOUNCED SOON.
So . . . I’m opening the IBS Insider Club officially next Tuesday 24th February To 50 more people.
But first… I’m running a little contest here and I will give a free club membership to two winners. I’ll announce the winners on Friday morning.
In Addition to Giving Away an IBS Insider Club Membership, I am also Giving Away the Following to the Two Winners . . .
- “Low Fodmap Menus” cookbook
- “Low Fodmap Snacks” cookbook
- 1 hour consultation phone or Skype call
This is YOUR chance to win an IBS Insider Club Membership and it will only take a Couple of Minutes . . . All You Have to Do is Answer ONE Question.
In the comments section of this blog post, tell me . . .
Why you think the IBS Insider Club can help you create a life you love free of IBS symptoms. (Or, if you already are a founding member, tell me why you think the IBS Insider Club can help you take your health to the next level).
Entries with more SPECIFICS have a better chance of winning.
I’m going to go through every single one of your responses and award a winner Friday morning.
If you win, you’re going to get access to the IBS Insider Club where you will find:
The Chat Room
… where you can chat, ask questions, share news, voice opinions and help each other. There is a specific forum where you can directly ask me questions, but I will be in the chat room as well.
The Resource Centre
… where you can find the latest research, articles, videos and links on IBS and the low Fodmap diet.
Meal Plans
… which are detailed to balance all food groups and to keep the Fodmaps in the right proportions. These will include vegetarian plans, a plan that incorporates a reflux diet as well as a simple meal plan guide.
The News Room
… which will be kept up-to-date with all the latest news on the Low Fodmap diet and IBS.
Weekly Challenges
… to help you develop a balanced lifestyle that supports your IBS. This will include a wide variety of challenges to create an interesting life that suits you perfectly.
Live Get Togethers
… for you to ask all your burning questions in a monthly live environment where you can get to know everyone else. In there, you will be given the chance to speak.
Low Fodmap Course
… for you to piece together a new life based on the low Fodmap diet with all the necessary elements for a balanced lifestyle. The “Combat Your IBS Symptoms” course is sold on my website for $197. It consists of 22 lessons spread over 4 units and will be delivered week by week in the club. If you are a club member, this course is included at no extra cost.
Remember, I will award TWO winners.
I’m really excited to read your entry and hear what you have to say . . .
Good Luck!
Danielle says
I know a membership will help me with my 3 year old who has IBS. We have learned so much with the free videos it has been amazing. The menu plans will be awesome. I am a professionally trained chef and this has been the hardest part! My eldest daughter as sever allergies to dairy, peanuts, and eggs so I have learned a new way of cooking before, but her, my youngest, it is much more difficult. Her dietary needs are very challenging. The snack suggestions would be a huge blessing, because what kids dose not eat snacks. Having a chat session for my questions would be so helpful. I know the basics but to tailor her for the real world I have some pretty specific questions. A direct from you answer would be so great. I Google lots but I never know if they know what they are talking about. You have unfortunately have been through a lot and have found answers from goods sources. The resources you have compiled are amazing. The low fodmap courses sound like they would really help me learn how to teach and sustain my little one. Also the support of learning from others with her problem would be a blessing. Support for the emotional part that I am feeling would be so great. I get so many funny looks and snide remarks when I try to explain what is going on with her. This is a real disorder and to talk with how other deal with it will help both of us. She will need to be strong and informed when she gets older. I am grateful for this opportunity to gain this great blessing to our life. I am also grateful for finding you and your support tools. Thank you so much :)!
Faye says
I believe the IBS Insider Club can help me create a life I love free of IBS symptoms by teaching me how to eat, what to eat and how much of each food to have at one sitting. I know that I have a lot to learn about this diet and how this diet works. I also know that I am willing to learn all I can to make myself feel better.
I have suffered for so long with this problem and truly believe I have found the right combination to turn this around. I have been ruled by IBS for most of my adult life and I am ready to not have to worry about this every second of my life.
I know once I have the tools, like this, to help me master this; I will have the life I have dreamt of and it will only get better. The embarrassment of this problem has almost taken over my daily life and affected my personal life. Knowing the answer is here on this website gives me a feeling of relief and overwhelming happiness.
I have started some of the recipes that Suzanne has created and my symptoms have lessened but I still have a lot to learn about all of this. This club is going to teach me what I need to know.
Barbara Kirch says
I have been Celiac for years and just recently was put on the Low FODMAP diet by my gastroenterologist. I am totally lost and searching for direction. I find it difficult to find recipes without garlic and onion and I so miss soup in our very cold winter months.
While I make all my soups, I’m not one for making homemade broths and I’m frustrated by not being able to use my gluten free broths.
I also miss beans and legumes.
I know winning a membership would help ease the frustration and help with the budget of this retired senior citizen!
Hollyzana says
With the start of the IBS Insider Club I feel like I’ve won the lottery!
I’m so ready to move away from this life where I’m always focused on myself. I don’t want past failures and frustrations to dictate how I live.
The Insider Club can help me direct my focus and lay a foundation for success. With everything all on one site, I’ll be able to learn what I’m missing, ask smarter questions, and get accurate answers to connect all the fragmented bits and pieces into knowledgeable working solutions. I feel like I’ll now be able to make reliable choices in my commitment to reach my goal of negligible IBS symptoms.
My transformation back to freedom will be the healing prize! So, it’s “Back to the Future” for me …to the carefree life I remember of uninhibited outings, fitted clothes, liberating embraces, and more relaxing times with friends and people I love…oh the deep of joy! With the help of Insider Club, I’m going to crush this thing!
claire wright says
Hi i’m a mum of 4 and have severe ibs as confirmed by my consultant here in the uk, I feel that the ibs insider club could help me a lot more as the dietian’s don’t know much over here an gave me the fodmap book an have left me to it, which I have struggled enormously due to very minimal ideas on what to have, I lapse greatly due to no support and would really like my life back an for my kids to enjoy things more as I rarely go out unless I know exactly where the loo’s are. And mornings are a nightmare for school run due to ibs flare ups causing us to always leave late no matter that I wake early, it always happens just before walking out the door it’s not fair on my family.
Louise Rohrkemper says
At 63, I am still a life long learner. It’s a good thing, as it’s taken a long time to sort out this IBS stuff and to finally realize, I no longer need to suffer through my leaky gut issues. Since June 2014, I became 100 % gluten free and casein free (no cow products), but from reading information from the STRANDS of My Life and the Low FODMAP diet, I am beginning to feel a bit more empowered and in control. I am sure I could benefit from the INSIDER CLUB because the low fodmap diet has really sorted out the gut busters. Until I found this information, I was playing roulette with foods, mixing and changing up combinations of foodstuffs only to discover still wrong combinations which irritated my bowel and produced the undesirable gut issues.
I believe using the low fodmap diet, the recipes, and the guided experience will propel me to the next stage in that I’ll be less focused on daily bowel habits and irritants and become focused on just making tasty foods using the outlined or guided food choices. I can immediately eliminate the troublesome foods, avoid buying and wasting money on those foods, and focus my efforts on foods that compliment my healthy living goal.
I believe the benefits from the Insider Club will be numerous. I would look forward to
+ The sharing of information
+ Using the tested recipes
+ Answers to my questions or personal issues
+ Positive feedback
+ Support and guidance that lays the foundation for a IBS free lifestyle.
Prior to discovering the low FODMAP choices, I was on a roller coaster and eliminating foods only after my gut told me to do so which is also why I’d like to remain informed with the latest information regarding IBS issues and the corresponding Low FODMAP diet.
Caitlyn says
I envision membership in the IBS Insider Club helping me get back to the life I want to live. Starting about 7 months ago I began experience crippling, debilitating nausea. As a healthy 29-year-old female who had just gotten married and adopted the world’s most gorgeous and loving golden retriever (!), I thought it would just “go away.”
Alas, 7 months later, after a colonoscopy, endoscopy, several blood/stool/urine tests, multiple ultrasounds and CT scans, I’m now on daily anti-depressants, anti-anxiety medication, and anti-nausea medication. My GI seems to have deserted me; my primary care physician keeps reminding me that all of my tests have come back negative; and my nutritionist doesn’t seem to be very knowledgeable about the low FODMAP diet that she recommended.
So, for the past 7 months, I’ve been worrying about losing my job (which I LOVE!), disappointing my husband, isolating myself from friends and family, and not being able to adequately care for my new and amazing dog. Every couple weeks I have a nausea “flare-up,” wherein my constant level of nausea is amplified to the point that I don’t sleep a wink, and spend the next day anxious about “working from home,” for fear that it’ll be interpreted as irresponsible and non-committal. I haven’t been out to dinner or happy hour in 7 months; my husband and I had to cancel our honeymoon, and I fear I’m missing out on my life. I’m currently doing my best to stop voluntarily isolating myself, and have been searching for a support group, to no avail.
I think the IBS Insider Club will help me on all fronts. The Chat Room and Live Get Togethers seem like a wonderful place to find a support group of people who have fought this terrible disease for longer than I have. I long to discuss with experienced sufferers questions like, “How do you go to work after a night of zero sleep, when you know you’re going to have symptoms all day, are exhausted, and can only manage to eat GF cereal all day? How do you make plans with friends when you fear you’ll need to cancel them? How do you make new friends when discussing your GI symptoms is so uncomfortable? How in the world do I maintain this job that I love!?” It would also be nice (although I hate that anyone else is experiencing this!) to be reminded that I’m not the only one experiencing all of this – strength in numbers, they say!
The Resource Center and News Room sound like a dream to me – I’ve asked my GI for literature on IBS, IBS-nausea, and low FODMAP diets, but her response has been disappointing. The Resource Center /News Room would likely be a daily stop for me in my quest to better understand this disease that has taken over my life.
The Meal Plans and Low FODMAP course are what I’m most interested in. I’ve basically been on an elimination diet for the past 5 months, and started my low FODMAP journey several weeks ago. This weekend I had such a yearning for some high FODMAP food, just to get some flavor in my life. I know low FODMAP does not need to preclude flavorful meals, but I truly need help understanding my options, proportions, and how to best start adding potential trigger foods into my diet to test my tolerance. After 5 months of such a limited diet, I’m legitimately afraid of food and could use a support system/guidance in overcoming this fear.
I envision the Weekly Challenges really helping me to move past some of the emotional hurdles this disease has caused me. If they include activities like challenging oneself to exercise, despite feeling awful, I could use the motivation and incentive to make myself exercise – before this disease struck me, I was extremely active. Now, I’m exhausted and nauseous all the time and fear exercise. I’ve begun to feel sedentary and lazy, and could use challenges to push through this. I also hope these challenges include recommended alternative activities to try and have more in my life than my nausea/IBS and my job. It seems that the two are all I have, and I yearn for more, but am paralyzed by the fear of feeling ill.
I hope to be able to join the Insider Club and learn how to move past my IBS-nausea and get back to the life I want to live. I’m desperate to be a better wife, better dog-mom, friend, daughter, and employee. I want to feel like my life is my own, and not fear that important life choices, like whether or not to have children, have been taken away from me by my IBS-nausea. I want to take my dog on walks, exercise, and not worry every second of every day. I truly believe that the Insider Club will give me the tools to achieve all of these things, and more, and look forward to the opportunity to participate!
joanna says
I’ve had IBS since I was a baby and then developed UC. Seems like my digestive system is always working against me. I decided to try the FODMAPS diet after my friend told me about her results. I’m only on day 2 but I can’t believe that I have no gas at all. It’s kind of crazy since I’m usually a fart machine. I also need tips on how to absorb my nutrients better. I am getting my 20th-25th round of iron infusions next week because I just can’t get a handle on my anemia. I am wondering if a diet low in FODMAPS will help repair my gut to the point where I don’t need them anymore.
Leanne Shepherd says
As a member of the IBS Insiders Club I would be able to get the assistance I need to be able to handle my symptoms whilst also achieving my long term goal of qualifying to complete Australia’s toughest marathon, The Six Foot Track (https://www.sixfoot.com/) . To do this, I need to complete a standard marathon in a qualifying time of 4 hours 20 minutes or challenging marathon course in 5 hours. My first 2 attempts of qualifying I posted times of 4’33” and 5’05”. Do you know how much time I waste having to stop to take care of IBS problems whilst out on the course? To much! If it wasn’t for this, I am sure I would have qualified by now!
My IBS and needing to follow a low fodmap diet also means fueling my body for the months of marathon training very hard. Firstly, I find none of the sports drinks offered on the course are suitable for me so I need to carry any sports drinks on me for 4-5 hours of running. That extra weight I can do without. Then there is trying to get carbs into me for the duration of the training and races. There are very few (aka 1 that I have found!) energy gels on the market that are low fodmap. I get to the point where I have to carry PB sandwiches on me in case I need them for energy and have you every tried one after its been in a backpack on the back of a sweaty runner for 4 hours? ewwww. Carry a banana? Well that banana will ripen in my bag in the hours its on my back and then its too ripe for my low fodmap system. All this is the warm Australian climate. Then into the bargain I have to manage cramping from the heat!
I can do with all the help I can get. I train alone, I work all this out on my own especially since moving out of the city to a coastal area where I know very few people. The internet is my main source of information. Please consider me for this opportunity and wish other entries all the best.
Barb Daane says
I’ve been feeling sooo good since finding the low-FODMAP diet and I don’t want this feeling to leave me. Having the advantage of the INSIDERS CLUB will be such a help to know others are having the same issues I am and to learn many different ways to handle even one issue will be invaluable since we are all so different and respond to things differently. Having the News Room will be so handy knowing the current information is available without having to sort through everything out there, only hoping what I’ve found is correct! I really could use more ideas with meal planning as far as combining foods and portion amounts since I could (and often do) easily over eat when I think I’m doing things correctly. This club will make a terrible situation very manageable. I am working with a great dietitian and can email her with any questions but I only see her every couple of months where this club would be at my finger tips whenever I have a question…or lots of questions.
Thanks
Camille says
I think the IBS Insider Club would help me go from “i really need to have a go at this diet (but it’s all too hard, i’ll start next week/next month/after that social event/when work isn’t so busy)” to “i’m doing this, and it’s not so hard because i have all these people from all different locations, and all different life experiences helping and supporting me”
As we all know, family and partners can sympathise and say they understand and try to help you, but unless you are living it, you can’t truly understand what it is really like. To be able to connect with “like-minded” people and people knowledgable in the various aspects (not only the diet itself but the social, emotion and physical aspects) would be so beneficial and i believe would give me strength to start the diet and then carry it on, even when it gets hard or people don’t understand.
Kim Campbell says
I think the IBS insider club may be my last resort to get my IBS symptoms under control. I get so tired of running to the bathroom hoping I make it in time, not knowing when a flare up will occur. I never walk outside anymore for fear I may need to use a restroom. If I walk, I walk inside at work so I can be close to the bathroom. Long drivers are the worst! Or heaven forbid having an attack at someone’s home.
Carly W says
I know a membership would free up my time of ‘searching’ the internet for the right way to eat for myself and my 5.5 year old daughter (we both have IBS).
I seem to spend so much time obsessing about finding the right foods, recipes and help … and there is so much conflicting information .. causing me to get upset and flustered and feeling like I’m failing my little girl.
I believe that we can help our symptoms … and I believe this membership would be the answer to that.
Thank you for the opportunity to win.
Warm regards
Carly
Dawn Carseldine says
Now that I have completed the course and got my health under control, I think on my own it would be easy to become complacent, stagnant and lose focus over time.
Our lives are busy and the internet is a maelstrom of information, not all of it is current or accurate.
Being a long term member of this club would be a convenient way to have all the right information in one place.
To stay up to date with news and recipes, learn new safe foods to try that I may not have considered before.
To have the combined voices of a community of people who are in the same situation, (after so long feeling isolated and alone), at my fingertips.
Together we can spread the word… spread the love, (so to speak), we are not alone anymore and in this place we have each other.
It brings a legitimacy to our struggles that we have not always had, especially with doctors and medical advice.
This I think is an awesome concept and this feeling of community and continuously updated information will most definitely help me take my health to the next level and keep it there.
Hotly Spiced says
You’re doing such a great work, Suzanne and doing so much to help so many. I know this will be very successful xx
Suzanne Perazzini says
Thanks, Charlie. I just wish more people knew about the magic of this diet.
Elizabeth says
I think the IBS Insider Club would help me with personal guidance for my individual situation. I work for two non-profits, one full-time and one part-time, so the meal plan would be great to help me plan ahead for busy weeks.
I started having trouble in 2009. A GI specialist tried one test and stopped, saying it was just IBS. But he was no help and just threw some medication at it, medication that messed with my head and effected by job. I finally changed doctors in summer of 2012 and was diagnosed with wheat and peanut allergies. Sent to a dietician, we tried the FODMAP diet, but I still had troubles. After a special test during an EGD in December of 2014, I found out I have Celiac and it looks like it was overlooked back in 2009. *sigh* I still have trouble figuring out exactly what my other triggers are. I have questions like, is my pain connected with what I just ate, or what I ate last mealtime? I have a pretty understanding core group of friends, but not knowing does put a toll on a “normal” social life. Which is hard for 22, now 27. I know most of my set backs are stress related, so after changing jobs, I’m hoping to get back on track!
Good luck choosing. There are so many of us who could really use help.
S deSoto says
The opportunity to be a life long member of the club is amazing! Thanks to your suggestions and emails, I have found the Low FODMAPs diet to be life-changing. I have a complicated medical history (have a permanent Colostomy) that includes IBS and most recently Polyarthralgia with Fibromyalgia.
I am giving all effort to maintain a healthy balanced diet without restricting myself too much! I have been working hard to modify the Low FODMAPs diet to fit with my Colostomy (and underlying spastic colon) and extreme food sensitivities that I deal with.
To have the opportunity to Chat, to interact with others around the world that are learning how to adapt to this new lifestyle is a HUGE opportunity! The ability to have a “go to” resource center…rather than having to search through the layers of information and disinformation that is out on the internet would be a great time saver!
Susanne says
Suzanne, your program has changed my life! My IBS used to rule my life. I couldn’t go anywhere without thinking about where the nearest bathroom was. Now that I have completed your program, I feel like I can live a normal life and manage my symptoms. With a lifetime membership to the Insiders Club, I will have a place to go to keep me on the right track. I can share my experiences, while I learn from others in the chat room. I’m also interested in the latest news on the fodmap diet. There is so much misinformation out there, but I can trust that all of your information is accurate. I love your recipes! Since I’m a vegetarian, it’s a little more difficult for me to find the right foods to eat. But, you’ve got it covered in your meal plans! I’m so thankful for you! You’ve given me my life back! I hope to see everyone in the Insider’s Club!
Susan says
I am desperate! In my search for relief from IBS which is now IBD I discovered you and your blog, I pray you are legitimate because I am suffering. I began the Fodmap diet 3weeks ago per my gastrologist’s direction and I began to feel some much needed relief, but to my dismay I am confused as to how to nutritionally balance myself. I should tell you I have a full plate of medical issues starting with a bad back, fibromyalgia, painful systematic lupus, a cardiac event and cardiac stents, ischemic colon and C. difficile history, gastritis, anxiety and depression, sleep apnea to name the bulk of my situation. Can you imagine how excited I was to begin a diet that could help me feel some relief? I was so thrilled I treated myself to a carrot, ginger, celery, apple juice, but thankfully after three sips I couldn’t finish it. I am so grateful I wasn able to drink it because the effects of the healthy drink caused me four days in bed agonizing with horrible belly pain. Oops! HUGE mistake to experiment with raw foods or was it the apple? Here I go frustrated again with extreme consequences I cannot do this alone. Suzanne, You sound as though you have done the work and found a path I could follow to management of one of my complex medical dilemmas. After I had the heart attack six years ago I became dedicated to following heart heathy eating plan which launched me into a full blown fiber fermented food diet disaster that irritated the IBS to ischemic IBD and caused the GERD to spiral beyond any medication treatment, I just cannot manage this any longer! Please pick me to win, I believe I found you and your blog at the right moment thankfully to God and the powers of the universe. The prospect of a supportive well informed community centered around sharing strategies for wellness with IBS is uplifting! The possibility that I could reduce some of the twenty six (26) pills I take daily, to have less pain, fatigue, bloating, and suffering due to methods of eating really healthy appropriate meals is exciting! I need you and I am so desperate to know how to feed myself more than rice cakes, Rice Krispies and almond milk. A lifetime membership to the Insider’s club and the opportunity to show my family and friends and physicians that there is hope for even desperate cases like me would be so wonderful. Thank you for considering me and others for the lifetime membership.
Patrik says
Hi!
I have been suffering with IBS-symptoms for so long now I actually cant remember when they started.. I have been able to keep them somewhat under control by restricting my diet. The problem is I’ve been restrictng my diet more, and more, and more, over the years so now I’m down to just a handful of foods to eat.
I’m somewhat controling my symptoms, and meanwhile my life is slipning away.. My mood aint what it used to be. I’m getting more tired, less happy, more depressed, and having less energy. And somehow I believe that in the long run this will be a downwards spiral that affects my ability to digest foods properly, so it probably worsens thing in the end.
I want my life back! I want energy to live, love, work, play, laugh…
I want to be a good, loving husband, and a good fatter to my kids.
And now I see this happening to a couple of my kids to. I see bad digestion, dark patches under the eyes, and other signs of bad digestion and perhaps some malabsorbtions.
It would be great to get some inside information on how to broaden my diet to get some energy back, without worsening my IBS-symptoms. It would be great to feel like I could tell my kids that, Yes, this works. I feel better now! And my digestion works fine, and I could show you how to active that to..
This might be what I need, and what my family needs. I hope so, and would be so happy if I was one of the winners.
Thank you! //. Patrik
Heather Katopodis says
I have been one of the IBSers road testing Suzanne’s IBS Insider Club.
It’s everything I hoped it would be. My biggest problem is working out how much of and how often to eat various foods. I’m starting to work this out and my nausea is gone! I really like that we can share recipes and that Suzanne checks them and advises changes to the recipes if they are not quite Right – FODMAP wise. It’s exciting to know I can chat with other IBSers who understand my fears and frustration. Best of all we can ask Suzanne questions to help us get it right. Suzanne regained her life through the changes she made and she is clearly very passionate about paying it forward. I’m very happy I joined the iBS Insider Club and I highly recommend it to anyone with IBS.
Suzanne Perazzini says
Heather, thank you so much for saying this. I am passionate about helping others since I know the power of this diet to change lives. I hope many find the club a refuge, a place to share and a place to learn.