IBS friendly coconut granola bars.

Okay peeps, Nothing like just throwing it out there, right. I swear I feel like I am defined by my IBS. It rules my life. It makes all my decisions for me. It has become my master. This bugs the crap out of me. No pun intended. Okay, so maybe a little pun intended.Lately I’ve had some huge epiphanies about my illness. On a recent trip I learned not everyone is going

to accept me being so open about my illness. I’ve been hospitalised before with complications so I’ve learned it’s always best to let people know about IBS. I’ve been known to black out from pain on occasion. So it’s always best to be up front with people.Unfortunately IBS is an illness many people do not take quite understand, nor do they take it seriously. So instead of feeling relieved and at ease for speaking up, I end up feeling horribly uncomfortable and alienated. That is IBS. Every. Single. Day.Many people do not understand it. Lots of folks do not realize the intense pain that comes with having it. They are not aware of the side effects that come with medications. Or the feelings a person gets of being different, the odd man out in any social situation. 

You see IBS comes with lots of stress. If you have it you probably understand what I’m talking about. The constant worry over whether you should eat while out in public. I mean an attack can happen at any time, right. The endless planning where the bathrooms are. The amount of planning that goes into having an exit plan everywhere you go. Let’s not even get started on how painful an attack can be, so you are constantly worrying about having one that will double you over in public. Or worse yet, you completely black out from pain. Yet people trivialize it, make fun of it, and make you feel horrible for having it. You start to feel like you’re walking around with a huge sign on your back. “Kick me while I’m down”, because living with IBS is not hard enough. That’s how it feels. Every. Single. Day.The good news is there are also lots of folks who do understand it. There are so many people who have it, or similar issues. It’s always nice to talk to someone else who suffers from it. You start to feel like you’re not alone. You feel like other people get it. That can be a powerful thing.I’ve learned so much in recent weeks about myself, my illness and other people. I do not want to be defined by my IBS. I don’t want it to be the only thing I can talk about. I do not want to feel like it’s controlling my life. I want to be in control of my own life. I want to walk out of the house and not have a back-up plan.I’ve learned my absolute biggest trigger is stress. Not the big kind of stress, it’s the little things. I am very careful to avoid stress, to surround myself with positive people, and to not look at the big picture in life. I do not handle getting overwhelmed very well, it can spiral me into an attack very easily. I tend to be very OCD about things, and I’m a total control freak. If things are not in their place my stress level rises.  It’s part of the reason I was not posting as much in recent months. I have found coconut to be very healthy for my IBS. I was diagnosed when I was 18 after quitting my job due to stress 3 days later I was worried because of all the pain I was getting, worried it might be bowel cancer as my uncle died of it. A year later they said I had IBS, tried every kind of pill to help it calm down no luck, so after learning about the coconut and what it does I tried it and since then I have had no pain since *fingers crossed*

Ingredients: 

• ½ cup brown sugar, packed
• 1 cup peanut butter
• ¾ cup rice syrup
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 cups old-fashioned oats, uncooked
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup coconut flakes, unsweetened

Method: 

1. Spray a 10 x 15" baking dish with non-stick spray.
2. Stir the first five ingredients together in a large mixing bowl until combined.
3. Now add the remaining ingredients, stirring with a wooden spoon until well combined. The mixture should resemble stiff cookie dough.
4. Now transfer the mixture to baking dish. Use the back of a spoon to spread it evenly. Let the dough rest for 30 minutes on the counter.
5. Preheat the oven to 350° F.
6. Place baking dish in oven, and bake for 25-30 minutes. The top should be golden brown.
7. Cool completely. Then slice into bars.
8. Store in an airtight container. Or shove them in your face while still hot like I did.