Hey {{first_name}},

Totally understandable and a great question to ask.

"I've got three weddings and a holiday coming up, should I start low FODMAP now or wait?" Or, "I'm mid-elimination and my routine's about to disappear for a month, do I push through or pause it?"

Good questions, and ones worth actually answering properly, because summer really doesn't make this diet easy. Less routine, less control over what's on the plate, a lot more meals you didn't cook yourself. All while trying to run one of the more demanding diets out there.

So here's my honest answer, from someone who's actually done the elimination phase and studied it properly, not just read about it.

The low FODMAP diet is not easy. I say that a lot because I need you to hear it from someone who's actually done it. There are things a good nutritionist or dietitian can do to make it smoother, but the diet itself still asks a lot of you. Anyone telling you it's simple either hasn't done it or is just trying to sell you something.

But it works. Around 70% of people who do it properly see a significant drop in symptoms and a real improvement in quality of life. And the strict phase, before reintroduction, only lasts a maximum of 2-4 weeks. It's hard, but it's not forever, and that combination is exactly why it's worth doing.

Which is also exactly why I wouldn't start it, or stay deep in it, right before or during your busiest stretch of the year. Full elimination needs planning, prep, and a level of control over your food that a wedding season with zero routine just doesn't give you. Trying to force it in that window usually ends in you white-knuckling through three weddings and then quietly giving up in week two.

But "just eat whatever and hope for the best" isn't the answer either. You still deserve to feel good at the wedding, on the flight, at the barbecue.

So here's what I actually recommend instead, and it's become one of my go-to moves for this exact situation.

Instead of cutting every high FODMAP food at once like you would on full elimination, you pick just one or two of the most common, most potent FODMAPs and only deal with those. For most people that's fructans and GOS, since they're behind a huge chunk of symptoms and hide in the most everyday foods. Onion, garlic, wheat, beans. Everything else on your plate stays completely normal.

It won't fully calm things down if your symptoms are severe right now, as that's what the full elimination is for. But if fructans or GOS are anywhere near your trigger list (which they are for most people with IBS and are often the ones causing the most symptoms, even partially avoiding them takes a real edge off.

And because you're only tracking one or two ingredients instead of an entire food group list, eating out or cooking at someone else's house stops being a full-time job. You just need a couple of swaps in your back pocket.

The good news is the swaps for fructans are genuinely easy. Leek greens or spring onion greens instead of onion. Garlic-infused olive oil instead of garlic. Same flavour, none of the fallout, and they work in almost anything you'd actually be served this summer.

They're swaps I personally use and I am still fairly sensitive to onion or garlic to the point where I definitely don't want to be eating much at all otherwise I will be stuck in the bathroom for hours.

Now once the weddings are done and your holiday's over and life has an ounce of routine back in it, that's when you start the proper elimination phase and do it right.

Doing something small and sustainable beats doing nothing, and it also beats forcing the full diet at the worst possible time. You're not failing the low FODMAP diet by not starting it this week. You're just doing it in the right order.

Enjoy the weddings, holidays and events :)

See you next week.

Zak