Morning #2

Hannah and Audrey perked up somewhat after eating last night. No more vomiting. They are both a little more willing to eat this morning. I scooped the meat and veggies out of the beef soup and served it to them on a plate without the broth. Hopefully I can transition them to taking the broth as well. I told them we could go to walmart and get an inexpensive toy this morning if they would eat. I don't like to bribe them, but if I can just get them through the hardest part of this, we'll all be in better shape. Audrey's body in particular seems to have a hard time with the richness of the food. I wonder if I need to be giving her a tiny amount of HCL or something. My GAPS book is on schedule to arrive tomorrow, so hopefully it will address that.

After I got in bed last night I started shivering and by around midnight, had a pretty high fever going. I alternated between shivering and sweating all night long and my stomach was upset. I'm pretty sure it was just die off because I feel ok this morning, though weak and tired. I was light headed and a little dizzy when I got up, but after eating some soup and a little almond butter I feel better though still kind of foggy. Going to take it a little easier on the probiotic foods today and see how I feel. As well as we have been eating for years, I'm surprised that I had the die off reaction that I did. I guess the past few months, with all the stress and thus poor digestion, must have allowed candida overgrowth. If I can get rid of that, all the sickness and fatigue will get much better.

It amazes me how much this diet is about paying attention to your body and adjusting, adjusting, adjusting. There are so many "moving parts" to the diet - HCL or no HCL, probiotics, probiotic foods, new foods to introduce, die off and detox, etc. You have to be in this for the long haul, because if you change more than one thing at a time, you'll have no idea what worked or didn't work. My biggest goal is to get to feeling good - I don't care that much what I have to eat or not eat at this point. But when the diet is super limited it seems to be difficult to feel good so that pushes you to try to add things but those things can make you sick again... I really want to try eggs (second stage) but they have been making me so sick that I'm hesitant. Maybe if I feel good today I'll try it tomorrow? Or maybe I'll try for two days of feeling good? I haven't tried just egg yolk (which is all you're supposed to do first), and I know people are often sensitive to the whites but can handle yolks.

I have been taking a digestive enzyme and HCL to help my digestion. Yesterday I didn't take it and I really noticed the difference. Over time, the fermented foods are supposed to help increase stomach acid production so hopefully before too long I won't need those anymore.