No Tummy Tuck for Me!

I have mad respect for my body.  It is far from perfect but it's given me 2 beautiful children and allowed me to run hundreds of miles.  It's always been strong and consistent.  Until the last few days.

Thursday morning I had my gallbladder removed.

See how loved I am?

Sidebar: I thought that this would be common knowledge, but if someone tells you they need to have surgery, this is not the cue for you to tell them every horrible surgical story you've ever heard.  It's kind of like when you're pregnant and every woman comes up to you to tell you how awful their labor was.  Why do people do that???

Really, really loved! 

For the record, gallbladder surgery is not fun.  It's not as horrible as half the people I talked to wanted me to think it was but definitely not something I ever want to go through again. Thankfully I'm a healthy and fit girl so I only spent one night at the hospital and got off the pain meds the day after surgery.  Tylenol is the only thing that doesn't make my world spin in circles.

But really, nothing says "Get Well Soon" quite like brand new Under Amour! :)

The most humbling experience (and when I "really" knew that I'd had major surgery) came Thursday evening when the nurse made me walk to the end of the hall.  And I could barely do it.  All I could think was, I ran 5 miles a couple of days ago and now I can barely walk to the end of the hall.  Yikes.

So I've decided that my mission now is to avoid surgery, if possible, for the rest of my life.  The funny part is that I used to believe that "some day" when my body was close to "perfect" I'd have some "work" done to tuck my tummy and move my girls up a bit to their pre-baby location.  Nope, never gonna happen.

Why would I torture myself to try to make me into someone that I'm not?  Why would any healthy girl?  Why is our self esteem so low that we feel we need to be "perfect"?  And why can't we accept that we are perfect just the way we are?

I love my body.  I work hard everyday to get my body in the best shape I can.  I will never take for granted the strength that I possess because I'm a pretty tough cookie.  I wish more girls I know believed this.

This unplanned downtime in my life has helped me put a lot of things into perspective.  It's reminded me that I don't have to run, instead I WANT to run.   Like right now.  Seriously.  But I won't, I'm all about respecting my body, remember?

The next few weeks will not go fast enough...but it will give me enough time to plan my racing calendar for next year! :)