GAPS Report – Days 3-5

HOLY COW YOU GUYS – I DID IT!!

I have made it 5 days on GAPS with no cheating and I’m feeling very proud of that fact. It has not been easy, the first few days were the WORST! But on the eve of day 6, I’m feeling moderately better about the whole situation. I have been keeping a personal journal with all the TMI that you guys don’t want or need to know, and reflecting back I am seeing some positives.

Let’s start with mood: the first few days were awful, I was angry, frustrated, teary, EXHAUSTED, bloated, crampy, and headachy, fuzzy thinking. I felt very unsettled, back and forth and back and forth about what I was doing with this stupid diet (which was hard for me because, while I may take time to really make a decision, once I make it I don’t generally change my mind – so to be changing my mind every couple of hours was just agony). Then, gradually my headache went away, the cramps went from constant to intermittent, to gone, and I’m tired but not exhausted (like having 2 naps a day like I was). Today I feel ok. More energy than I’ve had since I started, still tired though. No more crazy mood swings. No tears today. However, we have a new symptom: achy hips at night, achy joints all day. Arthritis or further die off? Time will tell. I have read other people’s blogs about GAPS though, and the joint pain seems to be right on schedule.

Foods: Thanks to a dear friend who’s baby had such severe allergies she could only eat 6 (!!!) foods while breastfeeding him (the same friend I called the first night), I have many new ideas about what to do with food. She told me about the make-believe shepherd’s pie and last night she suggested a lemon, ginger, honey drink with my Soda Stream (it carbonates water which is GAPS legal). I made that today and it was delicious!! I threw a roast in the crockpot with broth, onions, and carrots – delicious!! And then I just drank the extra broth with my meal.

I have officially started on Stage 2 of the Intro Diet – which means that if I didn’t have an egg sensitivity, I could start adding in eggs. But I can’t. So it means I have started drinking sauerkraut juice (1 tbsp) before every meal to improve stomach acidity and just today I got to actually eat some. It’s pretty delicious. Bubbies brand is naturally fermented, so it is GAPS legal and saves me from making my own – which I may yet try, but for now seems like a lot of additional work on top of what I’m already doing. The best part of Stage 2 though, is the addition of Ghee (clarified butter). I had some on my zucchini at dinner tonight and it was a little piece of heaven. Depending on how my guts fare with these new introductions over the next day or two, I may move on to Stage 3 quite quickly – that means avocado for those of you playing at home.

Some successes of the past 5 days: Asking for help when I need it. Two birthday parties, no cake.

Also, in a dark moment I sent a pitiful email to my ND, who told me I could do some beans instead of meat. There are some beans allowed on full GAPS but certainly not in the intro because they are hard to digest. With my trusty Vitamix however, I can pulverize them beyond recognition before putting them in a soup, or mixed in with some broth or something, so hopefully that will work for me. It’s nice to know I have options.

Planned indiscretions:

1. Ian and I are going in to Toronto on Thursday to see The Wizard of Oz and we are going to go out to dinner. I have already perused the menu online and picked the most GAPS-friendly items – but I would probably be asked to leave if I asked them to boil my steak, so the method of cooking may be illegal. Unless I could find a poached fish of some sort….and I will try to skip desert.
2. Dinner out with friends this weekend – again, have pre-selected my meal. Also, a Kindfood cupcake may be involved. While they are not grain free, they are gluten, sugar, and dairy free. So not too big a problem – I hope.

So all in all, it’s been a good couple of days since my last post. I have to say though, that the nightly detox baths are my favourite part! And Ian can’t even complain about them because they are part of the program, and he wants me to succeed! 😉

GAPS Report – Day 2

After I wrote my last post, I had a colossal melt-down. Called my friend crying, saying I hated broth and meat and that there was no way I could do this. I went to bed firmly resolved to throw in the towel in the morning.

Morning of Day 2 arrived with a pounding headache (had been there all night) and me not feeling able to face the day. I know part of this was caffeine detox. I also had terrible uterine cramping (like menstrual cramps – but I’m nowhere near due for those). I realized I wouldn’t get through the day with this headache, so I made myself some half caf coffee and had half a cup – so really, only a 1/4 cup of caffeine! Black, with honey (so still GAPS legal – in fact some coffee is allowed on the later stages, so I wasn’t really breaking any rules). I felt better within about 20 mins.

Ian and I had a long talk about this GAPS business – he’s so supportive and would love to see my guts (and thus me) get better. So I asked him to start prepping the days meat, because I just didn’t think I could do it. Off he went to the kitchen to simmer me some hamburger patties in broth.

Day 1 was butternut squash soup, boiled onions, boiled chicken, and broth. Day 2 was soup for breakfast (threw some chicken in to really spice it up), hamburger patties with carrots and cauliflower ‘sauce’ (boiled them in broth with the patties then threw it all in the vitamix). Supper was ‘shepherd’s pie’ – bottom layer of boiled ground turkey and butternut squash, second layer of boiled broccoli, third layer was whipped cauliflower. And broth. Lots and lots of broth.

Now most of the time I like meat. Since I fell off the GFV wagon we’ve eaten meat several times a month, mostly when we got out. But I think this much meat is going to kill me. I feel gross and bloated. And maybe starting to smell like meat a little. YUCK! I really don’t know how long I am going to be able to keep this up…

I’m trying to separate “die-off” symptoms from my body telling me cut it out with the meat. I will accept that the bloating, headache, fuzzy head, and EXTREME exhaustion are part of the die-off and detoxing from sugar/caffeine etc. However, those menstrual like cramps have me worried. For 10 years, they have been a sign that I am putting something into my body that shouldn’t be there. So now what? Do I push through, ignoring what my body is telling me in this respect? Or do I listen to it, thereby throwing in the GAPS towel? I just don’t know what to do.

Depending on how long I stick to this stupid Atkins diet, there are some helpful things I will take away:

1. Adding naturally fermented foods to my diet to increase digestion and good bacteria.
2. Decreasing almost to the point of elimination, refined sugar.
3. Decreasing grains, even the gluten free kind.

Anyway, I have a warm cup of broth waiting for me so I should get to drinking it! Stay tuned for more updates, because at this point it’s less day to day and more meal to meal.

GAPS Report – Day 1

Last night I was pumped – happily making my soup, broth, and boiled onions for the coming day.

Tonight? I have a headache, am exhausted, and find myself already sick of broth, soup, and boiled onions. Even the detox bath didn’t help.

I am DYING for some sugar.

Less than 24 hours in and I’m ready to give up. Ugh.

Going GFV was a freaking breeze compared to this. GAPS will certainly be a day by day thing for me and in a pinch, I’ll just flip back to GFV now and maybe try GAPS again in the future.

But for now, I press on…going to go simmer some meat patties in broth now.