Keeping thinking of things to post today!
Tess LOVES sauerkraut. It cracks me up. I never think to give her any because it just...doesn't seem like baby food. But I'll be handing it out to everybody else (they love it too), and she points and demands some and then eats it right up! SO funny. :)
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Resources
For those of you who are asking me for more info on GAPS:
http://www.gutandpsychologysyndrome.com/
http://gaps.me/
http://gapsdiet.com/
http://gapsguide.com/
I highly recommend getting the GAPS book, along with GAPS guide and the Internal Bliss cookbook. It'll make your life easier. :) GAPS guide recommends doing full GAPS first and then "backing in" to Intro. It gives you time to learn it all. Take your time and read about it. You can make small changes and head the right direction, a little at a time. I read about it for a year before starting last month!
http://www.gutandpsychologysyndrome.com/
http://gaps.me/
http://gapsdiet.com/
http://gapsguide.com/
I highly recommend getting the GAPS book, along with GAPS guide and the Internal Bliss cookbook. It'll make your life easier. :) GAPS guide recommends doing full GAPS first and then "backing in" to Intro. It gives you time to learn it all. Take your time and read about it. You can make small changes and head the right direction, a little at a time. I read about it for a year before starting last month!
Superfood Muffins
I made a recipe from Grain Free Meal Plans called Superfood Muffins this weekend. Basically, they are individual meatloaves cooked in a muffin tin. Cute, right? The kicker is what's in them - liver! I did mine with a pound of liver, a pound of ground lamb and a pound of ground beef. Add some spices, a little broth (instead of tomato for us, for now), and lots of garlic, run through the food processor, bake in muffin tin for 30 minutes. These were a huge hit. Hannah and Audrey ate 2 1/2 of them each!!! I knew there was liver in them and couldn't taste it, especially with some homemade lacto-fermented ketchup. :)
Report
I felt awful this week. Tons of stomach/digestion stuff. Totally miserable. And I wasn't doing anything different. I kept experimenting with the HCL - too much? Too little? Different kind? Then, as I was processing this with Nick last night, he said, "Could it be the almond butter?" We bought almond butter at Whole Foods the past couple of weeks, their freshly ground stuff. So, I'm at about 18 hours without almond butter and...I feel great. On the one hand I'm mad about how many days I'm been miserable for something that stupid. On the other hand, I am so happy to feel good today! I'm debating about whether to try the Maranatha brand almond butter that had been working for me, or to just leave it out and do the "real" stage one and two and try to get egg and ghee working for me. If I can feel ok without it, since Tess even skipped her morning nursing today (hopefully taking us easily down to 2x's a day), I will probably leave it out for the time being. I wish I had a way to make my own almond butter with soaked nuts. I tried the food processor I have and got almond flour, to which I added coconut oil...which just isn't very good. But I digress...
Nick is feeling terrific. There's just nothing more to say about this. He keeps saying he has never felt so good. I love that. :)
Hannah has been struggling some this week too, it could be the almond butter for her as well? She started having potty accidents fairly regularly again, after weeks without them. I'm really trying not to be discouraged about this. I think there's a pretty good chance it's die-off/toxin release for her. So we press forward.
Audrey is still eating everything in sight, but seems to be getting satisfied maybe a little quicker than before. Actually, all of us seem to be eating less this week, for which I (and our budget) am grateful. Her legs are very sore with eczema and she's had several difficult nights recently. I received our No-Fenol yesterday, and gave her some with dinner. She did not scratch last night. This will require further testing, but the only night this week that she was not miserable was last night. If this works, it will be the most amazing thing.
Tess continues to do great with GAPS. She is teething again I think and had a very fussy day yesterday, but a dose of homeopathic teething remedy this morning seemed to do the trick. She is so sweet!
I won a 9-tray Excalibur dehydrator 3900 on Ebay last night for about half price. I am very excited about that. No more worrying about burning nuts and seeds (not to mention killing all the enzymes since the lowest temp on my oven is 170), and when we get fruits added I'll be able to make all kinds of treats for the kids.
We have lots of leftovers in the fridge today, so I'm looking forward to a light cooking day.
Nick is feeling terrific. There's just nothing more to say about this. He keeps saying he has never felt so good. I love that. :)
Hannah has been struggling some this week too, it could be the almond butter for her as well? She started having potty accidents fairly regularly again, after weeks without them. I'm really trying not to be discouraged about this. I think there's a pretty good chance it's die-off/toxin release for her. So we press forward.
Audrey is still eating everything in sight, but seems to be getting satisfied maybe a little quicker than before. Actually, all of us seem to be eating less this week, for which I (and our budget) am grateful. Her legs are very sore with eczema and she's had several difficult nights recently. I received our No-Fenol yesterday, and gave her some with dinner. She did not scratch last night. This will require further testing, but the only night this week that she was not miserable was last night. If this works, it will be the most amazing thing.
Tess continues to do great with GAPS. She is teething again I think and had a very fussy day yesterday, but a dose of homeopathic teething remedy this morning seemed to do the trick. She is so sweet!
I won a 9-tray Excalibur dehydrator 3900 on Ebay last night for about half price. I am very excited about that. No more worrying about burning nuts and seeds (not to mention killing all the enzymes since the lowest temp on my oven is 170), and when we get fruits added I'll be able to make all kinds of treats for the kids.
We have lots of leftovers in the fridge today, so I'm looking forward to a light cooking day.
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!
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!
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Weird
Today I'm rendering tallow. What's the matter? Never occurred to you to render tallow for fun on your Saturday? Boy, are you missing out. ;)
The biggest issue we are now having is keeping the children FED. They are drinking their broth (occasionally with complaint, but they're doing it), they are eating everything I put on the table for meals and then some, they are hungry an hour later, and they are so thrilled with every new recipe I try that they tell me I should make it for dinner every night. We have had three peaceful dinners in a row, with no crying, no complaining, no wallowing in chairs, just quiet, exciting EATING. Um, wow.
I added 2 tsp of egg to each cup of our broth this morning, and so far there have been no negative effects. We have more or less been off egg for I think 4 years. The suggested way to introduce these types of foods goes like this:
day one: add 1 tsp to broth
day two: avoid the food
day three: add 2 tsp to broth
day four: avoid the food
day five: use freely, if there's been no reaction
The first time we tried egg (a whole yolk), it gave all of us diarrhea, so I did 1/2 tsp first, 1 tsp next, and 2 tsp today, with a day in between. No diarrhea so far! I am so hopeful we can get this to work. It will make a huge difference in the variety of foods we can make.
We are going to try a bit of cooked apple/applesauce today. We've been totally off fruit for nearly three weeks. We're pretty excited. :)
I've been slowly adding salicylates and citrus back to our diet. Last night's honey lemon chicken would have been a big no-no. And Audrey did itch some, but according to the GAPS book, that is a natural reaction to toxins being carried out of the body, and avoiding the reaction, while maybe more comfortable in the short-term, isn't necessarily helpful. I have to say, MAN is it good to use a little cumin, lemon, honey, bell pepper, apple, etc. again. It's been a long couple years.
The biggest issue we are now having is keeping the children FED. They are drinking their broth (occasionally with complaint, but they're doing it), they are eating everything I put on the table for meals and then some, they are hungry an hour later, and they are so thrilled with every new recipe I try that they tell me I should make it for dinner every night. We have had three peaceful dinners in a row, with no crying, no complaining, no wallowing in chairs, just quiet, exciting EATING. Um, wow.
I added 2 tsp of egg to each cup of our broth this morning, and so far there have been no negative effects. We have more or less been off egg for I think 4 years. The suggested way to introduce these types of foods goes like this:
day one: add 1 tsp to broth
day two: avoid the food
day three: add 2 tsp to broth
day four: avoid the food
day five: use freely, if there's been no reaction
The first time we tried egg (a whole yolk), it gave all of us diarrhea, so I did 1/2 tsp first, 1 tsp next, and 2 tsp today, with a day in between. No diarrhea so far! I am so hopeful we can get this to work. It will make a huge difference in the variety of foods we can make.
We are going to try a bit of cooked apple/applesauce today. We've been totally off fruit for nearly three weeks. We're pretty excited. :)
I've been slowly adding salicylates and citrus back to our diet. Last night's honey lemon chicken would have been a big no-no. And Audrey did itch some, but according to the GAPS book, that is a natural reaction to toxins being carried out of the body, and avoiding the reaction, while maybe more comfortable in the short-term, isn't necessarily helpful. I have to say, MAN is it good to use a little cumin, lemon, honey, bell pepper, apple, etc. again. It's been a long couple years.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Salicylates and healing
In fall of 2009, Hannah and Audrey muscle tested for sensitivity to salicylates. If you aren't familiar with this particular food chemical, it's in pretty much everything. Berries, spices, apples, peppers, tomatoes, almonds, potatoes...the list goes on and on. At the time, Audrey was covered with horrible eczema and Hannah was having multiple accidents a day at 4 1/2 years old. We were pretty desperate to try whatever we had to try. And so this became a way of life. There was this random list of foods that we just didn't touch (along with all the other biggies like gluten, dairy, soy, corn...) And since I didn't want to make multiple meals, we all pretty much ate that way.
Things improved enough to keep me motivated to avoid those foods. Hannah would have accidents for two days after eating too many salicylate foods. Audrey would have an instant scratching attack. It was hard, but what choice did we have?
So here we are, a year and a half later. Their health never got much better than shortly after going off all those foods, which was mediocre at best, but I felt trapped. If they were sensitive to those foods, I didn't want to feed them something that would make them sick.
When I read the GAPS book, I was interested to see that she addresses salicylate sensitivity (and the even more intense phenol sensitivity, which I suspect Audrey tended toward as well). Her take is that avoiding all those foods, while it may alleviate symptoms like eczema, in the long run causes other problems. You end up cutting out so many foods that you end up with nutrient deficiency. Essentially, you are reacting to the antioxidants in those foods, the very nutrients that also carry toxins out of the body, sometimes through the skin which results in eczema.
It would be easy to feel guilty about all of this. After all, I kind of became "that mom," the one who wouldn't let her kids eat anything because of how they would react. I never wanted to get like that. But when your three year old is covered in scabs from head to toe, you tend to do extreme things that you normally wouldn't. We felt we had no way out. These experiences are the source of my determination to do GAPS.
Based on the advice in the GAPS book, I am slowly reintroducing things we have not eaten in literally a year and half. I added black pepper and paprika to our homemade breakfast sausage that I am poaching in broth in the morning. I added whole peppercorns to my meat stock this afternoon. I put some small pieces of red bell pepper in our turkey vegetable soup last night. It feels...really strange. I have been in protection mode for so long, trying to keep those "evil" foods that caused my kids to be sick, out of our diet. And yet those foods we have avoided probably hold the very nutrients we need most right now.
Thus far, Hannah has had no noticeable reactions, and seems to perk up when I tell her she's eating something she couldn't have before. Audrey has been scratching some, but it's minor and she hasn't broken the skin. I'm feeling heavy-hearted about this whole thing today, but determined to trust God's guidance on this path.
Things improved enough to keep me motivated to avoid those foods. Hannah would have accidents for two days after eating too many salicylate foods. Audrey would have an instant scratching attack. It was hard, but what choice did we have?
So here we are, a year and a half later. Their health never got much better than shortly after going off all those foods, which was mediocre at best, but I felt trapped. If they were sensitive to those foods, I didn't want to feed them something that would make them sick.
When I read the GAPS book, I was interested to see that she addresses salicylate sensitivity (and the even more intense phenol sensitivity, which I suspect Audrey tended toward as well). Her take is that avoiding all those foods, while it may alleviate symptoms like eczema, in the long run causes other problems. You end up cutting out so many foods that you end up with nutrient deficiency. Essentially, you are reacting to the antioxidants in those foods, the very nutrients that also carry toxins out of the body, sometimes through the skin which results in eczema.
It would be easy to feel guilty about all of this. After all, I kind of became "that mom," the one who wouldn't let her kids eat anything because of how they would react. I never wanted to get like that. But when your three year old is covered in scabs from head to toe, you tend to do extreme things that you normally wouldn't. We felt we had no way out. These experiences are the source of my determination to do GAPS.
Based on the advice in the GAPS book, I am slowly reintroducing things we have not eaten in literally a year and half. I added black pepper and paprika to our homemade breakfast sausage that I am poaching in broth in the morning. I added whole peppercorns to my meat stock this afternoon. I put some small pieces of red bell pepper in our turkey vegetable soup last night. It feels...really strange. I have been in protection mode for so long, trying to keep those "evil" foods that caused my kids to be sick, out of our diet. And yet those foods we have avoided probably hold the very nutrients we need most right now.
Thus far, Hannah has had no noticeable reactions, and seems to perk up when I tell her she's eating something she couldn't have before. Audrey has been scratching some, but it's minor and she hasn't broken the skin. I'm feeling heavy-hearted about this whole thing today, but determined to trust God's guidance on this path.
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