My first albeit lengthy intro post...

chrisstans

Hello!

This is my first post on the forums here on MyFitnessPal. I've been the mobile app since October 2010 to count my calories and my exercise. It's been insightful as far as how much I've been getting from my diet and physical activities.

I changed my lifestyle in Jan'10 because I was 243 lbs, 5'9" and sick, sick, sick. I was a new dad, eating poorly and barely exercising. I started experiencing excruciating pain in Nov. '09 from what my doctor eventually figured out to be my Gall Bladder. Seeing a specialist, booking the surgery, and getting the removal finally came in October 2010.

Anyways, to cope with the relentless Gall Bladder attacks, I ate less and exercised.
I cut out bread with yeast. I never liked how I felt after bread, I felt bloated and gross. So no pizza, no bread. I ate carbs like brown rice, barley (which is lower glycemic than brown rice) and buckwheat in whole grain and pasta form. I increased my fresh fruit and vegetable intake so it was 2/3 of my daily diet. I ate clear broth soups, and watched my fat intake. Low fat meats, like Chicken breast, Bison and Elk topped it off. I found if I kept my fat intake to 5 to 10 grams of fat per day, my Gall Bladder attacks would be less severe. I ate smaller portions, and ate more frequently.

I walked to work, which was only 1.5 miles from home. I walked my stepdaughter to her school in the mornings (and on my days off I picked her up) which was another couple of miles every day or so.

By March I was down to 200 lbs. which I hadn't been since 2000. I felt fitter, but unfortunately when someone who begins to steadily lose weight with a nasty GallBladder, it can actually increase attacks.

In some ways I felt like I was damned if I did, and damned if I didn't, but holding my little guy while he was sleeping some nights while also having a GallBladder attack puts things in perspective. I wasn't just doing it for me, it was for him too.

I started running in April last year. I was always a staunch cyclist and I turned my nose up at runners. My step father and my sister were very devoted and educated runners, so seeing them run for over 10 years with few problems made me wonder if I should give this a chance. Also my girlfriend was a casual runner and she was super supportive for running.

I started running 5 minute/walking 1 minute intervals for the first month, steadily increasing the distance and frequency of my runs over the summer. I didn't push myself, feeling it was better to air on the side of too little starting out than too much.

As I had said before my step dad was very well read in regards to health and fitness, and it helped me a lot through the year by finding me articles on diet and fitness with focus on GallBladder health. He was especially insightful on how to approach running as a newbie. I owe a lot to him and also my sister who are my closest running buddies.

In September '10 I was down to 183 and was feeling far better, with exception to my GallBladder attacks which were occurring every couple of days for anywhere from 2 hours to 10 hours. I tried many things to 'heal' my GallBladder, homeopathic remedies, reflexology, foot detoxes. Sadly in the end removal was the thing that helped the most. I found many things that helped relieve the pain but nothing corrected it. If anyone has any questions on what I did, message me and I can go into more detail.

I've been eating less and exercising more so I've lost over 70 lbs since Jan. '2010. MyFitnessPal mobile app has been a big help. Sustainable lifestyle changes and patience to maintain these changes have been crucial. I never felt like I saw quick changes in how I looked but many people saw it and I just had to keep track of what I was doing and find opportunities to steadily improve it.

Good luck to all of you, good on you all for starting your lifestyle changes for a better life. After all, we haven't got much if we haven't got our health.

cmsu64113

WTG! I understand the gallbladder thing. I have a bad one , but only have attacks when I gain or lose weight fast, so far after dropping 70lbs I have had no pain. Keep up the good work!