I've always thought of myself as having very few "issues" with food. I started eating for health as a 17 year old, and never struggled much with weight (either too much or too little), comfort eating, or other things many people talk about. But doing GAPS has uncovered one of them for me: I actually worry about enjoying food.
It's not that I don't enjoy the taste of things, but I rarely allow myself to get excited about food, or to really savor it. It's just...food. This philosophy has served me well for the most part. But I realize my perspective is not totally healthy when my kids get excited about a totally legal GAPS food, and it makes me uneasy. Why is that???
Before GAPS, many foods we truly enjoyed were not really working for us. They either had things in them that we were sensitive to (like eggs), or they were made with refined ingredients. But that's not the case now. And I still feel this way.
I also get totally overwhelmed with how MUCH food my kids (particularly Hannah) want to eat. My three girls finished off 20 oz of green peas at dinner the other night, in addition to 1/2 pound of ground beef EACH and some other things! Also, we will be eating a meal and they'll ask about what they get for snacks. We will just have gotten up from a meal and I'll be clearing the table and they'll come to me saying they're hungry. Honestly, I get really angry. I try not to, but I do. I don't want to refuse them food if they're truly hungry, but I don't understand, particularly after this long on GAPS, how they could really be that hungry still. Not to mention that I just want them to eat at meals, rather than play around during meals and insist on being fed later. We never allow them to fill up on snacks, so I don't understand why they continue to do that.
I really, at some point, want to do other things with my life besides living in the kitchen. I understand that our previous diet created some nutrient deficiencies that we're now making up for, but...wow. All of us but Hannah have reached a saturation point by now, and mostly eat reasonable amounts, but she is still never (and I do mean never) satisfied. On the rare occasion she says she's full, it's because she doesn't want to eat what's on her plate and she'll be back asking for snacks in 10 minutes. She doesn't get them, and that results in tension between us, which causes stress to both of us...
This is one area that I really really hoped GAPS would fix. I still think it will, but I'm weary of waiting. Anybody have any thoughts?
Sara, I'm all out of ideas but I can definitely sympathize. My almost three year old is just now on her way to bed at 11:15 pm because she's been tanking up for the last 3 hours. Who eats for that long??? Since starting GAPS, she eats about a 1/2 pound of meat at a meal at least once a day but rarely can eat less that two meat inclusive meals a day. All 24 pounds of her. That's in addition to all of the veggies and fruit. It's maddening and about the only reason I miss grains.
ReplyDeleteMy only recommendation is that she needs to have eaten the meal to get a snack so soon after. If she didn't, then the meal is the "snack". Feed her till she's hungry, but don't cater to her fussiness. Do this and you may find the constant whining for food will end.
ReplyDeleteI worry about letting her eat as long as she wants to though. She's 6 years old, and she has been like this her entire life. As a toddler, she would eat to the point of vomiting, and still want more. It is a constant struggle to know how to coach her in this area. And it needs to get resolved, because what will happen when she gets older and I'm not always around to require her to stop eating? This is not an issue that started with GAPS, it is one we've dealt with all along, but starting GAPS sure has brought it to a head...
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