Tiffany Brien is a 26-year-old fitness blogger from Ireland. She often posts motivational photos and messages on her Facebook page.
After suffering from some extreme bloating due to food intolerance, she decided she would share the not-so-flattering photos online. But the message that came with it touched and inspired thousands.
"Reality check....
No I'm not 6 months pregnant. It's just my food baby...These two photos are 12 hours apart, left before bed and right when I woke up.... I know right!!
We are not all what we seem on social media. I thought I would share a bad day with you to show you nobody is "perfect" and it is ok to have an off day where your body just decides to not play ball. Don't worry girls, it happens to the best of us, all part and parcel of being a female! It is a delightful cocktail of lack of sleep, stress, hormones and food intolerances. A mixture for a whole lotta bloat.
To make matters worse it seems to happen at incredibly inconvenient times... On a evening out for dinner in a lovely tight dress. I could be half way into my main course and I suddenly feel uncomfortable and now really unattractive with a big bloated belly!
I have learnt a lot over the last few years through my own research into my own problems once I noticed my body playing up when I did certain things and ate certain foods. It was really frustrating because I couldn't work out what was triggering it.
This photo is a bad day, a day I cannot tell you exactly what I ate that made me blow up. I have gone over everything I ate and I was relatively clean so it could be something I think is "healthy" that my body now thinks naaa no likey. Sometimes your body becomes intolerable to something you've always eaten, you just have to work it out. Fun game though? No. Not really.
Stress. The killer. I have a busy and stressful job which pushes me every day. I love my job and wouldn't change it for the world but I have to factor in de-stress time to help me unwind and allow my insides to untwist after a tough day in the office. Yoga, walks with the dog or just putting my feet up and watching Netflix normally do the trick.
Sleep. I am guilty of lack of sleep. Our bodies need our 8 hours to relax, rebuild and unwind in order to keep going to their full capacity each day. I for one do not get enough sleep by the time I finish work, go to the gym, come home and have dinner, do my food prep, then maybe sit down, by the time I know it its 11:30pm.... Not ideal!
Hormones. Mine are a bit up the left after competing in bikini competitions a couple of years back. I've never been the same since due to the amount of physical stress I put my body under for the comp. Currently I'm working on getting all my hormones triggering right again so everything ticks over nicely.
I am in no way perfect. In fact I am miles away from being a role model when it comes to looking after myself fully in this sense. We all have our areas of weakness. I know what I am doing wrong and I know how to fix it but it is actually implementing it into your lifestyle that's the tough bit. I am trying extremely hard to sleep more, relax more and eat right (not less, just right) and I am definitely seeing improvement and will share tips and photos as I go.
Yes it gets me down when this happens. No there's nothing I can immediately do about it. But you can aid it and eventually overcome it.
Top tips:
* Get your zzz's!
* Write a food dairy and reflect where and when you bloat.
* Don't over exercise to compensate for a bloated belly. It's not fat. Exercising will most likely make it worse.
* Look into gut health supplements - multivitamins and probiotics.
* Drink peppermint tea to soothe your tum.
* Relax and be happy... It'll be ok, you're not alone. Promise."
* Get your zzz's!
* Write a food dairy and reflect where and when you bloat.
* Don't over exercise to compensate for a bloated belly. It's not fat. Exercising will most likely make it worse.
* Look into gut health supplements - multivitamins and probiotics.
* Drink peppermint tea to soothe your tum.
* Relax and be happy... It'll be ok, you're not alone. Promise."
Such an important message. No one is perfect!
