Friday, March 18, 2011

Report

This is sure an interesting journey...

We hit our one-month GAPS anniversary this weekend. It has really gone fairly fast. Here's where we are:

Bad news first:

Cons - I am still struggling with my stomach. HCL seems to irritate my stomach some, but I don't seem to make enough of my own yet, which lead to reflux stuff and maldigestion. Adding probiotic foods like sauerkraut juice seems to help, and it's better than it was, but still a ways to go. I've been making coconut milk kefir and I LOVE it. GAPS says to intro kefir slowly because of die off, so I have been going slow - up to about 2 oz at a time, but it tastes so good to me. It's really very sour. My taste buds have acclimated to fermented flavors, I guess!

I have not been able to intro eggs or ghee, and both times I tried I had lots of stomach pain and saw stars all day. I wish I knew what triggered the seeing stars. I always used to have it when I had soy. I will probably try them for the kids again here soon, but it's difficult for me to have different family members on different foods because then I have to make multiple meals.

Audrey's legs are pretty sore from reintroducing salicylates. I read about an enzyme called No-Fenol that is supposed to help people like her digest them better, so I ordered her some. Should be here tomorrow or Monday. I'm interested to see how it helps.

Still having the occasional emotional wrestling match with the older kids over drinking their broth or eating meals that aren't their favorite. These seem to come out of no where and they are super frustrating to me at times. Not sure why for one meal they will do what they need to do, and the next meal is hard again. But, Hannah discovered this morning that putting broth into a sippy cup and watching a movie while she drinks it is much easier for her. Hallelujah.

The prep is exhausting. I am in the kitchen A LOT. I like to cook, but this is...a lot. Nick has been helping with the dishes, and he is a continual source of encouragement, but I don't know how I'd do it without him.

Pros:
Audrey, who used to have trouble chewing meat and would cry at dinner almost every night, is eating EVERYTHING IN SIGHT. She had third helpings of shepherd's pie (topped with mashed cauliflower - you'd never know it wasn't potatoes) at dinner tonight. This is flat out incredible.

Hannah's chronic stuffy nose and continual potty accidents are gone. Nose is clear, no problems with bladder or BM control (unless she eats too much almond butter like she did yesterday. Oops.) This is also incredible.

Nick says he feels better than he has in years.

Though we are off fruits (for now) and grains, we can suddenly use so many spices and veggies that we've been doing without for years...this doesn't feel restricted to me. I'm really pretty satisfied with meat, veggies, broth, nuts, tiny amounts of honey and fresh juices. I don't crave sugar and we feel full faster and faster. At first we were going through 2 lbs of meat each meal. Tonight we ate half that!

We are on a waiting list for raw goat's milk to make yogurt with. I really, really hope we can handle it when our name comes up. Surely with the 24 hour fermenting time (which is said to remove all the lactose), we'll do well on it. I hope.

I signed up for grain-free meal plans. I'm probably using 60-70% of them. All the recipes are SO nice to have. I'm able to pick things that sound good to us, mix them with other things I pick up at Gnowfglins or from GAPS or GAPS Guide or Internal Bliss, and I feel like I suddenly have a plethora of ideas for dinners. It's been nice to some ways - got me out of the rut I was in of making the same 5 or 6 meals. Of course, some of that was our food limitations!

Overall I am very pleased with our progress. I was probably in the worst shape, so it will probably take me the longest to heal. But we're most certainly on the right track!

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