Hi! Remember me?

I thought of 101 blog posts I can do but somehow just haven’t taken the time to make it happen. I have some specific posts I want to work on so there’s at least that hope of that. 🙂

Last summer my gallbladder went south, after occasional (several times a year) gallstone attacks for the last 8-ish years. After about a week of not feeling good (burping, oh, the burping!) after an attack, I concluded that it was time to pursue having it removed.  After I figured out what was going on, I went on a strict low-fat diet. The symptoms went away immediately.

This strict diet made eating out very difficult. The few times we went out for dinner, they were accommodating in grilling my meat with little-to-no oil. And leaving the butter off of the veggies. Yes, it is possible to eat a baked potato with nothing on it but salt and pepper. Yes, you can eat a burrito bowl from Surcheros (local chain similar to Chipotles) without cheese, guacamole, sour cream or sauces. I already had been fairly conservative with what I ate but I went full on

The surgeon I chose did an ultrasound of the gall bladder and affirmed my suspicions that it was time for it to come out. From that time to the surgery date was about 8 weeks. I did a lot of Pinterest searches for non-fat or low-fat foods. It felt like there weren’t many because most people are going for the keto/low-carb track which was the opposite of what I needed.

I did find some delicious recipes and tweaked some others. I’m planning to share them here so that in case you find yourself in the same spot, you can have options and inspiration as well.

Thankfully, since my surgery, I can eat pretty much whatever I want. I do, however, try to be conservative on how much fat I consume. I can make (or reheat) food at work and do that frequently. I avoid eating out on a steady basis because I don’t need and at this point even want, the sodium and fat that so much food has. Plus, I think homemade food is better, most of the time. Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoy a meal out! I haven’t lost my love for french fries, unfortunately.

What my diet included before surgery: turkey (made my own turkey sausage), chicken, occasional small amount of lean beef, any veggies, any starches. I did eat a little avocado here and there.

Some low/non-fat foods I found that I hope to blog about: huli-huli chicken w/rice; braising meats/veggies in broth instead of sauteeing; low-fat peanut butter granola; chocolate cake with icing(!); baked “fried” pickles.

Since this post needs at least one photo, I’ll skip the photos they gave me of my gallbladder when they were removing it and post this sunset picture of a sunset from Jekyll Island a few weeks ago.

I saw my gallstones after the surgery was still too groggy to remember what they looked like. 🙂 The surgeon told me at my 1-week follow up appt that they removed a 4 cm stone, which was why my one incision (laparoscopic) was bigger than it would’ve normally been. No wonder I was having issues. That’s about the size of a golf ball! Thankfully the pathology report came back normal.