Still filling in the GAPS as we take a few steps back.

This past weekend was the big Memorial Day weekend, so of course my hubby and I had our first experience with a party situation on the GAPS (intro) diet. Since it was grilled food, and we were progressing rather well, we proceeded to eat the meat along with this veggie, soupie mix we brought along just in case there weren't enough GAPS friendly options. Good thing we did because just about everything served (minus a beat salad that used Balsamic Vinaigrette - another thing to avoid on GAPS) was made up of grains or corn. In addition to the grilled food, we also enjoyed our own contribution of an avocado dip, which we may have indulged in a little too much (I wonder if I have some minor sensitivities to avocado based on previous experiences......). I also may have (definitely) over done it on the grilled food to the point that I ended up with a gut bustingly full belly. Probably not the best idea with the still sensitive digestive track, especially since I believe the grilled chicken had a not-so-GAPS-friendly marinade, possibly contributing to the following digestive issues......which lingered on to Monday.....during which I foolishly tried to introduce a new food: almond(/nut) flour bread. While quite delicious, I don't think my body was quite ready for it yet.

That brings me to where we are currently, once again making my way through the early parts of the intro diet. Tuesday I went back to stage one and continued with that until Wednesday. Today, Thursday, I added in some raw egg yolk in hopes of getting myself back to where I was previously. I have continued to increase the probiotic throughout the day, primarily dairy based. Not sure if this is helping or hindering yet. The gas and bloating, among other digestive issues of which I will spare you the details, have continued throughout this entire process. One of the hopes I had in getting back to the first stage was to help alleviate those symptoms as well. So far I have yet to feel any significant benefits. Perhaps it's the detox. Either way, I am planning/hoping to progress through this intro stage with a little more gusto to get myself eating more "normally" again, whatever that means at this point.....I'm continuing to hope that the process will, in the end, be a success.

Continuing through week three of the GAPS intro

Some interesting developments over this last week, especially over the last couple of days, as the hubby and I continue through the GAPS intro diet.

Last week I was concerned that I was perhaps having some issues with night shades. I removed those from the diet and things seemed to have progressed on fairly well. I seemed less gassy and had fewer issues with overall digestion. I will try adding those in again, but a little more gently this time....(they were introduced with the GAPS beef stew recipe which is comprised mostly of tomatoes and meat....)

We had big plans for the weekend's breakfast. We had looked ahead to the next steps in the intro diet, and were excited at the prospect of introducing some pancakes and avocado. I was a little nervous since I was still seeing how things went without the night shades, but didn't want to disappoint the other half (or myself as I was also anxiously awaiting the new foods!). We looked up a recipe for the pancakes and had mixed success with them. They are definitely as people claim: very difficult to work with, and would never be mistaken for real pancakes (update to this recipe to follow). That being said, they were quite tasty, and it took lots of will power to not over do it with the new food. With the seeming success on Saturday, we continued with the pancakes and avocado on Sunday. We probably had a little more than we should have......but it was once again quite yummy! Noting some of my own digestion distress however, mild as it was, I decided to pay careful attention on Monday, and tried eliminating them on Tuesday. Today is now Wednesday, and while things did not start off the greatest with digestion, I'm once again avoiding the pancakes in hopes of allowing things to settle down again. Avocado is still on the menu, but will continue to be monitored.

One thing I forgot was that we both have seen a slight increase in gas. The hubby believe his to be the sauerkraut juice, I was uncertain. Regardless, we both have been avoiding it for a bit, myself trying to gradually wean off it to see if I couldn't find a better balance with the whey/dairy probiotic. I'm not sure if the increase in sour cream has been all that beneficial though....Just one of the many things I'm continuing to monitor.

So once again, very mixed results as we continue to work our way through the diet. Both the hubby and I feel a little like we're just fumbling in the dark at times, despite having the book as a guide. Hopefully as we continue to research and fine-tune the diet, we'll start seeing and feeling something more positive in our results.

side note: I've always had acne, and lately I've been noticing, especially on my face, quite a bit of healing. Not sure if it can be attributed to the diet, or the change in temperature here from winter to summer (less dry for the skin). I've also noticed my sweet cravings have almost completely disappeared. That's been the case, aside from the first few days, since the beginning. I use to live for sweets with a scheduled dessert EVERY night (as mentioned in an earlier post), and now I'm much more inclined to enjoy the savory foods. Hopefully these small changes will lead to more sweeping changes down the road. I'm still waiting for that awesome surge of energy, feeling less tired upon waking and more energized for the day ahead. Keeping my fingers crossed!

On the GAPS journey: finding the culprit.

Starting the second week of GAPS has left me feeling less than optimal in the digestive area...Today starts the process of figuring out what food seems to be the culprit. By not adhering strictly to the protocol in how new foods are introduced, it's a little more difficult to determine what's causing the problems, but I think I have a good idea.

Prior to starting the GAPS diet, I was trying to increase my fresh vegetable intake as much as possible with as much variety as I could get. Tomatos and bell peppers were some of those foods I heard are especially good for the body, and of course add a good amount of color to the plate which is another indicator of a healthy meal. I noticed that I had some major digestive issues with this, but since I was adding these in conjunction with so many different foods it was difficult to pinpoint which was specifically causing the problem. With the limited GAPS diet, I haven't had much that would be causing any blatant digestive distress, until this last weekend when we tried making stew.

At this point, I feel comfortable making the hypothesis that it is in fact the nightshades causing the digestive issues, though further experimentation is required. So for the next few days, no tomatos or peppers. 

Continuing to bump along on GAPS....

Some rough times on the GAPS diet so far. Sticking with mostly soups and well cooked veggies (maybe cheating a bit with roasted vs. boiled), I'm still having some digestion issues. Could be the early introduction of yogurt, which is really the one probiotic we've had in the house.....It was also store-bought, all be it good quality, full fat yogurt, that could be the source of some of the issues. To help try and alleviate any issues with the commercial yogurt, we started work on our own homemade yogurt right away, which we've been using now instead, but the issues tend to persist. The Sauerkraut we started over the weekend will be finishing up soon, so perhaps that will be safer for the tummy, I also want to make me up some ghee as well, to see if that may not be a little gentler than using what we have which is butter, coconut and olive oil. We also started some whey from the home made yogurt, which again, may be better?

While I continue to fumble through various changes with my diet, I do tend to get rather frustrated at not seeing the awesome changes I've heard so much about from others. I know each individual body is different, and I have heard it gets worse before it gets better, so here's hoping!

Another GAPS type of day, still not quite perfect.

This GAPS diet has definitely been an experiment for me. I'm not normally the type of person to just jump into things. It took me a good five years to buy a new camera, three for a new bike, two for a laptop, the list goes on. I strategize everything, trying to find the most efficient and economical way to achieve my objective. Unfortunately, perfectionism ultimately leads to procrastination and not getting things done as quickly as I would ultimately like. Based on these prior experiences, I wasted no time with the GAPS diet and took the leap immediately, bringing my husband along for the ride (thank you hon!).

So things have been far from perfect with regards to the GAPS protocol. Non-GAPS approved foods "sneak" in every now and again (mmmm....bacon!), we've been hovering between stages one and two for the last couple weeks, never really following each step as it's laid out in the book. And now we are slowly starting to move on to stage three. With the imprecise nature of our approach, while we've seen some areas of improvement, every other day seems to alternate between really good and not so great. Today for example, not as super awesome for myself.

Regardless of the approach, we continue on, knowing (hoping) things can only get better. And honestly, there are things that are starting to make a lot of sense to me with the very limited diet. Night shades for example may not be something my digestive system is ready to handle yet....May need to avoid those a little longer and see what progresses.

As usual, biggest short-term concern is what else can we eat? I wouldn't say I'm bored with the diet, but the distinct lack of snacks makes things rather difficult.....so much easier to grab some fresh fruit or veggies to nom versus warming up some broth or making up some new soups. Fortunately I love soup, but it does lack a convenience factor, at least when trying to avoid microwaves. We also have a 50 mile bike ride coming up in a few weeks (probably not the best timing for this diet, but again, was not the most premeditated plan...), and I'm a little concerned about food on the road. I know there are plenty of great trail mixes and snacks I could pack/make, but only if my/our internal system is ready for them (those types of snacks are reserved more for the full GAPS diet). Perhaps we'll get lucky and brease through the rest of the steps. Here's to wishful thinking!

Starting the GAPS with some backstory.

Feeling pretty whipped today. How does this GAPS (intro) diet fit in with an already full-time life?

Keeping up with the need for more soups, broths, and acceptable veggies (which is rather limited with stage one of the intro diet), has left me feeling pretty drained. Don't get me wrong, I have been thoroughly enjoying these dishes, which in some ways surprise me since they are just so simple (I love playing with spices), but it can be tough to get the same enjoyment at work as I do at home since the use of microwaves is prohibited on the diet.....Cold soups just don't sit with me in the same way.

So why am I doing this whole GAPS thing in the first place? Here's a bit of the backstory in a nutshell (a large nutshell):

In recent months, I've been getting into nutrition and wellness hard-core, soaking in as much information as I can get with podcasts and my own independent study. I've always been interested in health. My dream is to be this super fit, 80 year old lady who you'll still see out on the bike, trails, water, you name it! Lofty goals I know, especially when you consider the diet I've maintained until now: Low fat, high-carb. Bread was the love of my life, with fruit and veggies a necessary evil. Meat was good, but not too much for it contains far too much saturated fat. It's what I grew up with, and if a little (or more than a little) extra weight was gained, the mantra of the day was to cut calories and ramp-up the exercise to burn it off. Insert lots of jogging and weight training here, with some interesting dietary maneuvering to keep the calories down (I can swap a proper meal for some dessert right?).

Health and wellness is an ever-evolving process, and while I looked rather healthy, I didn't always feel super healthy (perhaps it was all the dessert?). I knew I had to bite the bullet and start to (gradually) introduce more of the "healthy stuff" (AKA fruits and veggies). It was definitely a process, but eventually I was able to successfully convert a larger portion of my meals to fruits and veggies. So much so in fact, that I was (and continue to be) seen as a vegetarian by certain crowds.......I also moved away from more typical white breads (minus the delicious artisanal breads) to the healthier whole grains, all while continuing to limit my saturated fat intake (gotta keep my heart healthy right?). I started consuming more milk and yogurt for calcium and vitamin D, and as for exercise, more strength training, yoga and pilates continued to play a greater role. Weekends were definitely a little more loose, and I (almost) never skipped dessert (low fat of course), but overall I felt like I had a very well-rounded diet. 

Enter the podcasts.

Starting with Jillian Michaels. I love(d) listening to her show. She sounds so genuine, and I could relate to so many of the call-ins. I heard more about calories in, calories out, and started tracking my diet and calorie intake. I also started taking some of the food recommendations to heart, and began paying closer attention to organic and local foods vs. conventional. It was a fantastic start, but soon enough I caught up with the available episodes, and was hungry for more, when I stumbled across the Dude Where's My Health podcast. That's when things really started to get interesting.

Clark Danger and his guests blew my mind, so to speak. While not everything I heard was entirely new to me, the guests helped put a lot of the concepts I had heard in passing into context. From there I found Underground Wellness and the Fat Burning Man Abel James.

Exercise less and eat more, I like this concept. Remove refined grains and processed dairy. Eat good quality food. Sounds reasonable, and with my ever evolving, on-going goals to be healthy, I thought why not try implementing some of these ideas. I mean really, if this many people are in consensus about how to eat, move an be healthy, AND can speak from experience, what harm could it do? Unfortunately for me, my body was not quite ready for some of these more sweeping changes. I was not feeling all that awesome eating what is suppose to be pretty awesome food. My digestion was not right, I was feeling super fatigued though I wasn't over exerting myself, in fact I had been making efforts to simplify my life in hopes of relieving stress. I was super irritable, hangry made it's way into my vocabulary (and occurred far too often)...All this leading to my feeling more frustrated and lost with the overall wellness process.

Fortunately, as I continued to listen to Underground Wellness I eventually heard an episode with the author of the GAPS diet, and having had enough of the digestive distress, decided I'd give it a go. There seemed to be very little harm, as much of the food is good, whole, nutritious food designed to heal. Cutting out the potential irritants and giving the digestive track a break. Sounded quite brilliant to me, and with my growing frustration with my situation, decided to precede full steam ahead.

So now, after only a few days on the INTRO part of the GAPS diet, I'm feeling pretty whipped out. I've heard the detox can get pretty extreme, so this is not necessarily a surprise, but it definitely creates a challenge for keeping up with the food prep. It's amazing how much soup and broth can be gone through in a couple of days, but not especially surprising when that's the ONLY food on the menu. I know I'll get the hang of it soon enough, but until then, balance in life will be key, which I'm hoping will come sooner than later. Stay tuned for more updates!