Would you believe me if I told you these were taken one day apart?
On Sunday, I woke up with extreme pain in my stomach. I had eaten peanut butter pretzels the night before around 11 pm as I drove back from my uncles house.

Not the healthiest but not the worst snack to eat. But definitely not to be eaten at 11 pm.

If you have IBS, SIBO, or other gut issues I’m sure you know the golden rule: don’t eat past seven. Our body can’t handle us putting foods in late at night and then laying down right after. Because our digestion system starts doing it’s thing two hours after we eat, this was not my best decision.

It’s exhausting having to follow all these rules when you have IBS, SIBO, or other gut health issues. We were just having so much fun that I didn’t even want to think about the effects it would have.

But it did happen. Another severe bloating episode that resulted in me missing a bridal shower and feeling unimaginable pain.
Luckily, this wasn’t my first rodeo- and even though you never really know when it’s going to happen, or even why, I got through it.

The bottom pictures are me on Monday. Completely different pictures as you can see. I had just finished a workout, felt no stomach pain, feeling a bit stronger, and much happier then the top pictures.

But not quite 100%

When you have a severe bloating episode it doesn’t just go away that day. It can take a couple days or even a week for you to start to feel normal.

Let me rephrase. When we bloat, our stomach is expanding +5 pounds and we feel extreme pain because we’re not used to feeling this way. Even if the pain goes away it can still take some time for the bloating to go down.

Which is really hard on the stomach/body. I have gained many stretch marks due to this which is embarrassing to admit but it’s the truth.
My body doesn’t understand all the bloating that’s going on and can’t keep up with gaining +5 pounds and then losing +5 pounds every other week.

IT’S EXHAUSTING.

But I will continue to be patient in this healing process because I know I will win this battle. It might not be on my time but I know it will happen.