It has been sixty-three days since my last post. Part of me is shocked that I have been meaning to write a blog post for sixty-three days and have not succeeded. The other part of me is thinking, "Wow, all of that happened in sixty-three days!?" It has been a rough sixty-three days. So rough, in fact, that the very basis for this blog was shaken- heal the gut, eat healthy, be healthy. This has been my rock solid belief and practice for the last three years. So why have we been dealing with sickness after sickness for the last two months? I wish I had an answer.
When I wrote my first post at the end of July last year, I mentioned I was planning on going back to the introduction diet because of a recent miscarriage and the degeneration of eating habits, due to stress. I never succeeded in this plan either. I have so many excuses (as we all do when procrastinating). The one at the top of the list is my family. They have been through the Intro. Diet already, how can I make them do it again, just for me? I should just practice some self control and cook two meals. Enter the second excuse on my list, my adoring husband who truly believes I should spend the remainder of my days propped up with pillows with servants at my every beck and call (I may be exaggerating just a bit) not having to lift a finger to do anything but be me. (Is he not the sweetest man alive?) He is so convinced of this that he tries to save me and pamper me as often as he can. Since he works at Walmart he is always bringing home some goody or other to either save me work, or delight my taste buds. This will not work for my introduction diet plans. (He is also slow to get on the band wagon, hence the one hundred eight-six days since my first public declaration to start GAPS Intro. again.)
The GAPS Introduction Diet is six stages. Do no bother asking how long it normally takes, there is no normal. In fact, I thought I might just be the odd one who took two months on Stage 1, so I looked it up on the good ole' internet. Turns out everyone says it can take a few weeks, but they took longer. Everyone. So let me give you a list of seven things that will help you be prepared for GAPS Introduction Diet.
1. Be prepared for Stage 1 to take five times longer than you expect. There are a number of reasons for this. The biggest reason is your body's acclamation to this strange new way of eating. Another reason is die off. If you are considering GAPS you have gut issues. If you have gut issues, than you have bad bacteria wreaking havoc in your gut. When you take severe measures to kill this bacteria, you will have considerable die off symptoms. This leads to the next way to be prepared before starting Intro.
2. Be prepared for a lot of questions. These will mainly be about what is going on in your body. The really stinky thing about this one is no one really knows what is going on in your body. I cannot tell you how many times I have said to my husband, about my kids, "I just wish I could cut open their insides and see what is going on in there." Know that you may not ever have all the answers (I know I do not), but that it does not mean that your body is not healing.
3. Be prepared for a lot of work. On a good day I spend at least five hours in the kitchen. I write that I am thinking to myself, "Only five, really?" As I think about it more, I think that is twice as long as I spent in before I started GAPS, and that is a good day. On a more tedious day I will spend another hour or two making things like stock, yogurt, sauerkraut and maybe chopping vegetables for the next days meals. (None of this accounts for cleaning up my mess in the kitchen, either.)
4. Be prepared by having meat stock and fermented foods on hand. This is my first suggestion to anyone about to start GAPS Intro. When I first started GAPS I never thought to do anything ahead of time. I quit the old way of eating cold turkey and on the first day of the diet I started making meat stock and fermented foods. This left me not only exhausted from the diet change, but physically exhausted from all the work.
5. Be prepared to be discouraged. The diet will not go the way you plan. It can be so disheartening. At times when I am at the lowest I have to remind myself of the reasons I am doing GAPS and the benefits I have experienced. Quite frequently my mother and I would be talking on the phone and she would remind me of how sickly my youngest son use to be. She would remind me of all the good things that GAPS had brought to my family. She would reaffirm me and my decisions, and tell me that the sun would come out tomorrow. Keep in mind all the reasons you want to start GAPS. Keep a journal of all the good things (and the bad, so you can see how they change too). One of the things I would remind myself of the most was God's leading. I had prayed about GAPS, and I felt it was what he wanted us to do. I had to walk in faith and trust him. It was not always easy, but it helped a lot.
6. Be prepared with a plan. This is the greatest tool for success I have found. When you have a plan you are stronger. As I begin to think about tomorrow I am forming a plan of what I will eat, and what I will do. When I look at my calendar for the next event where there will be food I can think of things I can bring, or plan to eat before hand, or have a special treat for myself afterwards, thus making me prepared to face the temptations that come with being at functions where there is food you can not eat. When I look to the next birthday celebration and can plan things that will make it special, instead of happening upon the day and being completely depressed. Which leads to my next point.
7. Be prepared with a positive attitude. This is key! Stay positive. Think of all the things you have to be thankful for. Think of all the successes you have had that day (or week). When an event is coming up, get excited about trying something new. Get creative.
After reading all of that some of you may wonder why I am still on GAPS. It is a lot of hassle. This is a question I am asking myself as well. I got an answer this morning. A painful reminder why GAPS has helped me and my family. Before we started GAPS I could not have any dairy whatsoever with out severe abdominal pain (usually followed by diarrhea). It had gotten so bad that I could not even eat something that was processed in a factory that also processed anything with dairy in it. I kept a list of companies that did not have dairy in their factories. I also could not eat things other people made because of the risk of contamination. My son was the same way. If you cut a loaf of bread on a cutting board, anything you cut on that board afterwards would be contaminated. When we ate out I had a few restaurants we could go, and I would spend a good five to ten minutes explaining to the person taking my order how important it was that they not contaminate our food with gluten or dairy.
Today, that is all gone. I can eat at a friends house with out any concern for their cutting boards. I can eat at a restaurant without five minute lectures. Our guts are mostly healed. Well, my families guts are mostly healed. This morning I was reminded that I still have some work to do. I had to take antibiotics with my miscarriage. In addition to that set back, I also started seeing a chiropractor for back problems and found I had parasites. The parasites are gone, but before they departed they dumped all the bacteria they had been harboring in their little shells into my gut. I had a bowl of cereal (raw, whole milk and organic granola) for breakfast this morning, and it caused some serious pain. I had forgotten how painful it was!
So here I am, committing to all who read this to start Intro! I will try to blog regularly as a way of accountability, and to maybe give encouragement to someone who is on a similar journey. I will not give up. He who is in me is greater than he who is in the world. God is my mighty fortress, and he will help me see this through to the end.
No comments:
Post a Comment