Gallstones Shmalstones

I get a comment about once a week about my weight loss so I thought I would post about it for those of you who haven’t heard this speil.  Its not a serious drop, but since I’ve hovered around the same number for the last 4 years, I guess its pretty noticeable.  About a year ago, I would randomly get a weird stomach ache in the middle of the night. I thought I was just eating some bad food. After one pretty serious stomach episode of vomiting and rolling around on the bathroom floor for 3 hours I decided it wasn’t food poisoning. I went to my dr. to figure out what the hell was going on.  My Mom had a sneaking suspicion it was a gallstone attack since she had just gone through the same issue the year before. And sure enough, it was. Blood tests and ultrasounds confirmed that I had “several stones”.  Thankfully, my doc said that I have them due to genetics (Thanks, Mom) but if I can watch what I eat and avoid trigger foods, I wouldn’t have to have surgery.  This meant I had to cut out a lot of the normal foods I ate.  Such as: pizza, burgers, fried food, fast food, soda, beer, ice cream, bacon, caffeine, and fatty red meat. Sounds like a no-brainer to avoid those foods, but apparently, I ate it a lot.  And now that I look back at my food choices, I get grossed out.  Its no wonder I felt awful after most meals.  Always overly full and lethargic. So I cut it all out and I haven’t had any crazy attacks since.  I DO get an almost burning sensation in my guy when I cheat even a little. Its amazing how my body will quickly tell me, “NOPE!”  I don’t miss any those foods hardly ever….maybe taco bell sometimes. Not gonna lie.  But I stick to chicken, turkey, and fish for my meats, water 99% of the time, lots of salads, fruit, very little dairy and lots of veggies.  I actually only will eat meat about 3 times a week and I wouldn’t mind doing fish only at some point. We’ll see.  But the bonus of all of this has been the weight loss.  I was not expecting it at all, but within about 6 weeks, all my clothes were too big. Not a bad problem, right? But regardless of being too big or too small, its annoying to have ill fitting clothes. Thankfully, I had a few old pieces that I hadn’t gotten rid of under the delusion that I would one day fit into it. It only took 5 years, but that day has arrived!  I hope to maintain this weight and diet because it makes me feel healthy.  And after the two kids, its nice to give my body a well deserved break and just relax a bit.   Anyways, that’s the story on these last 12 lbs. and as long as my gallbladder doesn’t flare up again, I feel like I could avoid surgery for a long time. Fingers crossed. The top two photos are from last summer and the last two pics are very recent.  Noticeable in my face, right? PS. How cute is baby Chloe?! Miss that little nugget.

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