A Few Thoughts from After the Liver/Gallbladder Flush...

1. I had an extremely hard time getting the "concoction" down :( But once I did, my body handled it really well! Very little nausea and heartburn :) I think this is because I've been eating more (healthy) fats, so ingesting that much fat at once wasn't such a shock to my system. It was very encouraging to me because my gallbladder must be functioning well for me to not react so much. I think if it wasn't functioning properly, I would not have ingested the olive oil without a lot of nausea and heartburn. (I really hope that makes sense... I keep trying to rewrite it but can't make it clearer right now :p)

2. When I was doing the flush, I found some info online that makes a lot of sense to me and backs up my experiences lately. When you eat a lowfat diet, the bile just sits in your gallbladder (bile is used to digest fats - if you're not eating many of them, it's not needed as much). When it sits, it concentrates. Concentrated bile = gallstones. When you eat a higher (healthy) fat diet, the bile doesn't have time to concentrate. Your gallbladder holds it for a while, then releases it in response to the fats you've eaten. I have found that my gallbladder problems STOPPED when I increased my fats. Fats are supposedly what cause gallbladder problems, and I was a bit scared to increase fats because I was scared of how my gallbladder would handle it. But it has responded beautifully! I think the stone I had was just an old one that hadn't come out yet. It definitely wasn't very big. I can tell by the amount of pain I was in compared to previous times :p And I didn't see many stones after the flush. I don't think I have zero stones, but I do believe that the ones that are still there were formed at a time when I wasn't eating much fats.

And as a side note... If I needed confirmation that my body does better eating less carbs (grains in particular), I certainly got it yesterday! I ate a (whole grain, lots of fat) high carb lunch, and oh man, did I pay for it! I had terrible brain fog. A stomachache. My gallbladder protested a bit (no real pain, but definite twinges). Ugh! Not doing that again :p

Meal Plan 11-2 to 11-12

Our big meal is at lunch. I need one supper still... When everyone else has eggs, I'll have leftovers.

Breakfast:
Boys - yogurt, fruit
Me - yogurt or cheese

Lunch:
Macaroni and cheese
Roast (leftover in freezer), bleu cheese potatoes, broccoli (green beans for Jesse)
Bacon, overnight oatmeal
Leftover beef veggie soup
Burgers on English muffin halves, celery
Loaded potatoes - turkey, cheese, sour cream, California mix veggies (green beans for Jesse)
Sweet Beef and Rice
Mexican - turkey, canned chiles, cheese, rice
Homemade breakfast sausage crumbles, fried potatoes, sauteed red bell peppers
Turkey casserole w/rice, cream cheese, and green beans
Ground beef casserole w/beef broth, cream, rice; carrots

Supper:
(Restaurant with extended family)
Scrambled eggs w/rice x 4 (two plain, two with tomato puree)
Beef veggie soup x 2
Mexican - turkey, enchilada sauce, rice, cheese
Cottage cheese w/peaches and almonds x 2