When I first got diagnosed with IBS, I did what everyone does. I Googled "IBS foods to avoid," printed a massive list, and tried to memorize it at the grocery store.

It didn't work. Every meal felt like a coin flip. Some days I'd eat the "safe" thing and still get wrecked. Other days I'd eat something supposedly terrible and feel fine.

The problem wasn't the food. It was the approach.

Random elimination doesn't work. Your body isn't a spreadsheet — it responds to combinations, timing, stress, portions, and patterns that a single-food checklist can never capture.

So I stopped guessing and started sorting.

The Three-Bucket Trial is dead simple:

🟢 Safe bucket — foods you've eaten 3+ times with no reaction. These become your baseline. You eat from here when you need a calm day.

🟡 Uncertain bucket — foods you've eaten but with mixed results. These get tested one at a time, tracked properly: what you ate, when, how you felt 2-4 hours later.

🔴 Stop-now bucket — foods that have triggered you more than once. They're not banned forever — just parked until your baseline is solid.

That's it. No massive restriction list. No anxiety at restaurants. Just a system that lets every meal teach you something.

The first step? Name breakfast. Pick the most boring, predictable breakfast you eat regularly. Write down exactly what's in it. Eat it for 3 days. Track symptoms and timing. If it passes — congratulations, you just put your first food in the safe bucket.

I put together a free guide that walks through this entire method, chapter by chapter. It covers baseline building, trigger sorting, meal tracking, and how to build three flexible menus instead of one fragile plan.

If you're tired of guessing, it's yours — completely free.