Reality is, I wake up each day wondering if I’m going to get an IBS flare up or not. That’s the thing with IBS, you just don’t know. It’s also different for each person who has IBS. Some people react differently than others, in my case, my stomach blows up and I look six months pregnant. Hard to believe right? Keep reading…The hard part about having IBS is that you can have a great day of exercising and eating clean but somehow your body reacts to something and, in my case, blows up like a balloon. This happened to me on Monday. I woke up Monday around 7:45 feeling refreshed from the weekend and ready to tackle a long week of school. I came back from classes and had a kick-butt work out. I decided to make a delicious platter for lunch. Here’s a picture of the plate.

Full of color, right?! So how did this cause me to get an IBS flare up? Well honestly, I wish I could tell you. I’m not sure what on this plate caused me to have a flare up. Because I can eat everything on this plate. I MEAN LOOK AT THIS PLATE! IT’S SO HEALTHY!!!! EVERYTHING IS GLUTEN AND DAIRY FREE! Frustrating right? Now, this is a lot of food. I will say I did consume quite a bit on this plate, which may have been the cause, but I didn’t eat the whole thing. Because one thing that has helped me is portion control. I’ve struggled with portion control my whole life. It’s something I have had to work on with having IBS. Because limiting how much I eat and stopping when I’m full has tremendously helped. But, with, you can eat clean, eat less, and exercise, yet still get a reaction. That’s just life living with IBS. Something I’ve just had to accept. So, here’s me being raw and showing you what my stomach looked like on Monday. Ironically, I took a picture and sent it to my mom to show her how lean my stomach was looking around 9 am. Below are the pictures.

Below are pictures of what my stomach looked like around 5pm.

Crazy right? I can’t believe that’s me in the picture. It hurts just looking at it. But people don’t believe me when I say this is what happens when I get a flare up. So, what happened after you might ask? Well, it hurt like no other and I made myself jump on that trampoline behind me in the picture to get the gasses out. But really what works for me is laying down and having someone I trust press down on my stomach. The pressure of them pressing down on my stomach helps break down the gases and gets them moving. I have found that this is the only thing that truly helps me feel better. Thankfully, my stomach went back down to normal size after a couple hours, but I still felt bloated the rest of the week. I will say this has been one of the worst reactions I’ve had, because it took so long for me to feel normal again. But I’m here to tell you that IBS flare ups happen and I’m still learning as I go. I’ve only been aware of my IBS diagnosis for about 5 months, and everyday is different and I’m learning to embrace the process.

xoxo,

Sophia