Stage 1- Day 2

     Is it poetic justice that healthy foods called to me at every turn today?  This is a really nice reward for doing GAPS Introduction Diet.  I remember adding things the first time we went through Intro, and how fantastic it was to be able to eat a raw vegetable.  When we could eat apple sauce we were ecstatic.  Today I found myself drooling over tangerines and pining for cabbage salad.  No cravings for snickers or ice cream.  That is the silver lining behind this diet.  It is also another reason to start with Intro, instead of going straight to full GAPS.

     Feeling deprived is a difficulty my kids, in  particular, struggle with.  In our culture of over abundance there is food everywhere you go, and it is tasty food.  Recipes for the perfect gooey dessert for the next event you have planned are limitless.  If those of us on GAPS lived in a bubble, I do not think we would feel as deprived.  It is not like my kids are going hungry.

     In the first two weeks of our GAPS journey, three and a half years ago, my kids (even the really picky ones) learned to eat soup.  They were long, hard weeks.  It was gut wrenching watching my kids laying around, void of energy, no more pep.  I agonized over our decision to do GAPS Intro.  I just could not believe that it was good for my kids to act this way.  They refused to eat very much, they did not like the soup.  I kept offering them soup, and by the end of the first week they started to eat it.  By the end of week two they ate soup, and they liked it.  Another six months into the diet and it was not uncommon for the then four year old who would cry at the first sight of a green bean to beg for them, along with beets, cauliflower, and other vegetables he would never have tried before.

     Intro changed our taste buds, for the better.  When we would venture out to a restaurant, it was very common for me to vow never to eat their again because, if I am going to pay money to have someone make me food, it better taste good.  Most times I leave feeling I could make it better.  These days I know what to look for in a good resturant, fresh and unprocessed ingredients.  It is amazing what flavor you find in raw ingredients, as straight from the farm as possible.

     Today our struggle is not so much with feeling deprived and more with over eating.  It seems we have won one battle, just to have created a whole new one.  Because my kids have felt so deprived for so long any time they have a chance to eat something they like they can not stop themselves.  It has become so bad that I have to portion out their food, and tell them that is all they get (and hope with all that I am that I gave them enough).  They will look at me with those big brown or blue eyes, with the saddest, hungriest expressions on their faces.  It is more than a mother can bare, but I have learned, time and time again, that if I let them have a little more they will leave the table feeling sick.  My kids will eat themselves sick!  I am praying about this issue.  Obesity runs on both my husband's and my side of the family.  I am praying that once we introduce grains back into our diets, and my kids start to eat yummy things more often, not feeling deprived when we go to events and functions, that they will stop doing this.  Only time will tell.

     Back to my second day on Intro, where I fought the urge to consume the entire bowl of cabbage salad I made for my family for dinner.  My bone broth, which cooked all night, was hot and ready for drinking this morning.  I gave some to the kids too.  I kept it simmering until dinner time. I had hoped to make it into soup before dinner, so I had something new to eat.  Today was a busy day though.  Thankfully I had enough soup to keep me out of the kitchen, because I needed to run errands this morning.  I got them all done before 1:00 but I grabbed a rotisserie chicken from Walmart on my way home.  I could not help myself.  After I got the kids their lunch I started eating the chicken, and I had to force myself to stop and eat soup.  From previous experience I have learned the dangers of only eating chicken.  The last time I did Intro. I became constipated.  It was a real struggle to eat soup.  Sometimes I could get one bowl down in the morning, and then just not eat anything except coffee, honey and water (well, that is more like drinking than eating).  Then, when the chicken was ready to go into the next batch of soup, I would devour the skin and some of the meat, and be satisfied until the next day, and do it all over again.

     With this previous experience in mind, I did force myself to eat soup.  I had several bowls through the course of the day.  Still, I did not have a bowel movement.  I know, too much information, but it is pertinent to this topic.  A year ago I was struggling on Stage 1 with severe constipation (again, TMI...sorry) and finally did some research and decided to introduce juicing ahead of schedule.  I am copying from the gapsdiet website (http://www.gapsdiet.com/uploads/FAQS_Listing_0114.pdf):

When reading your recommendations for constipation it seems to me that dairy plays a key role. What if you cannot tolerate dairy?

Constipation is not about dairy, it is due to lack of beneficial microbes in the gut and an imbalance of the intestinal nervous system: the sympathetic nervous system is too active, while parasympathetic is suppressed. By restoring gut flora with probiotics and diet, we resolve constipation long-term. Short-term we need to re-balance the nervous system with diet. In order to activate the parasympathetic nervous system and to calm down the sympathetic one we need raw juices, rich in magnesium, potassium and other substances; we need more animal fat with meals, and we need to change the ratio of vegetables to meats in our meals (less muscle meats and more vegetables with gelatinous meats).

After 13 months in Intro, I still cannot digest fat and have problems with carbs. Fat maldigestion contributes to my daily heartburn and SIBO (Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth) side effects: fibre gives me bloating. I know low carb-low fat is an unsustainable diet long-term, and I am underweight, and often hungry. There is plenty I cannot eat yet: garlic, onion, good fats, nuts, and fruit. I eat meats, fish, broth soups, zucchini and juices. I am taking herbal anti-parasite remedies and have started coffee/whey enemas although I don’t suffer from constipation. Any other ideas?

Please, look at questions in the section Liver. Poor fat digestion is usually due to bile stones. You need to introduce GAPS milkshakes, coffee enemas and use Ox bile supplements with your meals. Introduce fats gradually, starting from small amounts per meal. 
GAPS Milkshake: make a juice from a mixture of fruit and vegetables, add 1-2 raw eggs (both the yolk and the white) and a large dollop of raw sour cream (if sour cream was not introduced yet, use coconut oil) and whisk the whole thing. It will turn into a delicious ‘milkshake’. The fats and protein balance the sugars in the juice, keeping the blood sugar under control. The juices of apple, celery, beetroot and other vegetables soften the gallbladder stones over time, while the fat provides gentle stimulation to the liver to squeeze these stones out. Start this milkshake from a few tablespoons per day and gradually increase to 2 glasses per day: fist thing in the morning on an empty stomach and middle of afternoon.

     These are just two of the hundreds of questions answered on the website, and a lot to pour over and try to figure out.  When I started drinking a GAPS Milkshake every morning, I finally started being regular.  Today I got worried, and although I do not have any sour cream handy, I drank some orange juice.  Tonight I plan to make sour cream, and tomorrow make a GAPS Milkshake.

     A bright spot of my day were the rutabaga I found on sale!  They are huge!  I love rutabaga, but I try to keep my vegetable purchase down to two dollars a pound or less.  Normally rutabaga (which I buy organic because they are not on the "Clean Fifteen") are $2.29 a pound.  Every once in a while I will splurge.  Today I bought every single one they had at the Keweenaw Co-Op because they were locally grown (instead of full out organic, but their growing practices are very close to organic) and only $1.79 a pound.  Thank you, Lord.  I am very excited to make a rutabaga, red bell pepper (which I splurged and bought at the Co-Op for $4 a pound, yikes!) and carrot soup.