Pre GAPS part one

The Gut and Psychology Syndrome diet.
Warning this post is going to ramble cuz I'm in the middle of crashing from the exciting wonderful weekend I had with my family.

 I've been thinking about doing GAPS for a while now but have been too scared. I was worried that it would make me really sick like the elimination diet did in the spring. So what changed my mind? Having that nasty intestinal infection.

While it was going full tilt, I looked up the foods I could eat on GAPS Intro diet knowing that these foods are easily digested which would give my guts a break and a chance to heal from the infection. For over a week I subsisted on chicken broth, chicken soup, soft boiled eggs, pears and butternut squash soup.

Even though I was horribly sick and in pain, I also had days in between where I felt fine and had no pain at all even though I had stopped all of my meds and supplements. That is right; no joint pain, no back pain, no muscle pain, no headache. I also had a clear head. No fog. I could read books no problem. I had tons of energy. I got a lot accomplished when I wasn't having "an episode" and as long as I adhered to the strict diet. I slowly added foods back in but I'm still not back to my old diet.  I'm eating dairy again but not a lot of it and no raw milk and no yogurt.

So despite having an intestinal virus and despite eating a severely restricted diet, I didn't keel over. I didn't get sicker like I did this past spring. I even felt better from the CFS in between the bouts of intestinal torture. Now that I'm eating grains again and cheated like crazy over the Christmas weekend all the aches and pains are back. I've had to start the Celebrex again. I'm crashed today.

The other thing that I'm taking into consideration is that the pain meds I've been on damage the guts. I've had serious problems with malabsorption of just about every vitamin and mineral they've tested for. I've been taking aspirin or Vioxx or Celebrex for years now. Probably almost ten years. This has got to cause some serious damage and would explain the sudden wheat intolerance that hit me about six years ago.

I was also reading on Ncubator yesterday about a woman that has recovered most of her functionality after 15 years with severe CFS with a combination of things, a biggie being diet.

So what is pushing me over the edge from thought to action?  Well the ebook "What can I eat now? 30 days of recipes and tips for the GAPS Intro diet" is on sale for $14 from Cara at Health, Home and Happiness.  I bought my copy yesterday.  And I just found out that a 30 day challenge is starting over on Our Nourishing Roots on Jan 15th. This will give me just enough time to order supplies in and get the required reading done. I'll try to report on my progress here.

GAPS Plans for this week:

• Tell hubby what I'm going to do.  Discuss it with him so he doesn't try to temp me with trips to the ice cream store or bring chocolate mousse home (yes he did that to me during my intestinal infection and I was stupid enough to eat it).
• Order Internal Bliss cookbook from the GAPS store and any other supplies I need.  I already own the GAPS book and Nourishing Traditions.
• Get together an order for US Wellness Meats for soup bones and beef tallow.  I'm going to have to watch their website since they are frequently out of both.
• Start collecting GAPS recipes.
• Read the book.  (this is going to be a toughie since I can't read/comprehend text when I'm crashed)
• Maybe start introducing some of the foods into my current diet.  Try them out and see if I like them.  I love the squash soup.  I've also made cauliflower soup which was good.  My fav versions aren't GAPS legal since they both have dairy in them which will be a no no on the Intro diet but it is a start.