We started on the GAPS diet almost 2 months ago. The first two weeks were hard, mostly because our food choices were limited on the introductory diet. But we sped through it very quickly. (We don't have digestive issues, so I didn't feel like that should be a big part of our diet timeline.) The full diet has been much easier in terms of variety, although snacks continue to be an issue. (See my "Snack Aside" below.)
The first week was not only hard because of the limited food options, but also because "die off symptoms" were fairly intense. I'm not generally a meat eater, but because meat is such a big part of this diet, I tried to step into the diet full on. My stomach was not a happy camper. I don't know if that's a die off sort of thing or a not-ready-for-meat sort of thing, but it was yucky. Then I had a relatively symptom free week followed by an entire month of die off symptoms. I had started taking a second probiotic and I suspect that might have played a role, though I mostly felt symptoms after eating yogurt, so perhaps it was the microbes in the yogurt that was wreaking havoc, but I experienced an elevated heart rate and mild panic attacks. I knew that I could scale back on the probiotics and not experience the die-off symptoms as strongly, but I'm more of a "push through" kind of person than a "back off" kind of person. I did back off a little bit during the week when a group I'm a part of met with the superintendent of schools for our school district. I figured that was stressful enough in its own right. But for the most part, I went full bore. And I think it's paying off.
I'm done with kicking out the bad guys and now I'm focusing on building up the good guys. And so far I've seen two positive results. For several years now, when I drink red wine, I've experienced pretty severe jaw pain. (You can read more about this phenom at LiveStrong.com.) But on Thanksgiving we had red wine (Dry red or white wine is OK on the GAPS diet.) and my jaw didn't hurt. At all. Not even once. Woot! That was my first victory.
My second victory rolled into town yesterday. Every morning I eat breakfast with the kids. I shoo them off to school, walk the dogs for an hour, then come home and enjoy a yogurt, or two, or... sometimes three when I'm really, really enjoying them. After lunch, I might have another yogurt as a treat. By the time dinner rolls around, I rarely have any more yogurt only because I've eaten everything that I made the night before. But if there's yogurt still available, then I eat it. (Yes, I make yogurt pretty much every night. At least, I have so far.)
I've eaten the yogurt in large part because I've craved it. I've had cravings for years now. I've noticed that even when my stomach is full, my mouth still tells me that it's hungry. (That my mouth is hungry. My mouth really could care less how my stomach feels.) So I'll have eaten and be full, but I still crave just a little something chewy (carmel), or something bready, or something crunchy. More often than not I'm craving a particular taste or texture. And sometimes I'd even eat whatever I could find trying to meet that craving, without ever really satisfying it.
This craving has even continued into our diet. I've craved yogurt. I would finish one and jump up to grab another. I should add that it's not just yogurt I'm eating, but still warm yogurt (so much better than the cold stuff!) with warm honey at the bottom. It's tart and sweet and so utterly delicious. It's incredible. And I've been eating a lot of it. Some days it was all I could think about. I craved it. ... Until yesterday, when I didn't.
Boom. It was just like that. I still ate yogurt yesterday, because it was habit. But I didn't crave it any more. Today I've had yogurt once. It was good, but because I hadn't been craving it, it wasn't as satisfying as it had been. And the craving for yogurt hasn't been replaced by a craving for something else. It's like the craving machine has just turned off. It's gone. It's weird. I kinda miss it.
So this is my second woo hoo! for the diet. I can now drink red wine. And I'm no longer dominated by cravings for food that my stomach is too full to eat. (I'm hoping this means that I start losing a few pounds since I'm eating less. Things look good so far, but I'd be really excited if I could lose another 7 pounds or so.) It's about time I started seeing some positives. Hopefully the kids will start reporting in with some positives of their own soon.
Snack Aside
There are a few things that have worked well for snacks. By "snack" I'm referring to things that are easy to grab and eat without much (if any) prep work. That doesn't include the time it takes to make the snack and set it aside for later. So something like a turkey stick counts as a snack because you just grab it and eat it. Crepes, soup leftovers, even carrot sticks don't count (unless the carrot sticks are cut up in advance and waiting in the fridge) because they take a few steps before you can stuff them in your mouth.
Here's what we've settled into as our regular snacks to have on hand.
1. Homemade yogurt with honey. (This is my personal favorite.)
2. Chocolate mousse (I gave up on making other flavors. All the kids wanted to eat is the chocolate.) I make a triple batch at night and it's almost always eaten up by the next evening. (This is a dairy free treat as well. Though Nathan occasionally has some cheese, we're still trying to avoid dairy in general.)
3. Shelton's Original Turkey Smoked Snack Sticks. This has becomes Nathan's favorite grab-and-go food. Vitamin Cottage carries them. The other varieties by Shelton's have ingredients that aren't GAPS kosher, but the original turkey seems to be OK.
4. Almond Raisin Cookies. I think Nathan has had so many of these that he's pretty much OD'd on them.
5. Pomegranates, apples and bananas. And occasionally dried grapes straight off the food dehydrator.
That's pretty much it. We've tried other things and some have had their week or two of fame, but it's these five that we seem to be gravitating around.
 |
| Homemade Yogurt |
I'm done with kicking out the bad guys and now I'm focusing on building up the good guys. And so far I've seen two positive results. For several years now, when I drink red wine, I've experienced pretty severe jaw pain. (You can read more about this phenom at LiveStrong.com.) But on Thanksgiving we had red wine (Dry red or white wine is OK on the GAPS diet.) and my jaw didn't hurt. At all. Not even once. Woot! That was my first victory.
 |
| Big box of almond flour via Amazon |
I've eaten the yogurt in large part because I've craved it. I've had cravings for years now. I've noticed that even when my stomach is full, my mouth still tells me that it's hungry. (That my mouth is hungry. My mouth really could care less how my stomach feels.) So I'll have eaten and be full, but I still crave just a little something chewy (carmel), or something bready, or something crunchy. More often than not I'm craving a particular taste or texture. And sometimes I'd even eat whatever I could find trying to meet that craving, without ever really satisfying it.
This craving has even continued into our diet. I've craved yogurt. I would finish one and jump up to grab another. I should add that it's not just yogurt I'm eating, but still warm yogurt (so much better than the cold stuff!) with warm honey at the bottom. It's tart and sweet and so utterly delicious. It's incredible. And I've been eating a lot of it. Some days it was all I could think about. I craved it. ... Until yesterday, when I didn't.
Boom. It was just like that. I still ate yogurt yesterday, because it was habit. But I didn't crave it any more. Today I've had yogurt once. It was good, but because I hadn't been craving it, it wasn't as satisfying as it had been. And the craving for yogurt hasn't been replaced by a craving for something else. It's like the craving machine has just turned off. It's gone. It's weird. I kinda miss it.
So this is my second woo hoo! for the diet. I can now drink red wine. And I'm no longer dominated by cravings for food that my stomach is too full to eat. (I'm hoping this means that I start losing a few pounds since I'm eating less. Things look good so far, but I'd be really excited if I could lose another 7 pounds or so.) It's about time I started seeing some positives. Hopefully the kids will start reporting in with some positives of their own soon.
 |
| Almond Raisin Cookies |
There are a few things that have worked well for snacks. By "snack" I'm referring to things that are easy to grab and eat without much (if any) prep work. That doesn't include the time it takes to make the snack and set it aside for later. So something like a turkey stick counts as a snack because you just grab it and eat it. Crepes, soup leftovers, even carrot sticks don't count (unless the carrot sticks are cut up in advance and waiting in the fridge) because they take a few steps before you can stuff them in your mouth.
Here's what we've settled into as our regular snacks to have on hand.
1. Homemade yogurt with honey. (This is my personal favorite.)
2. Chocolate mousse (I gave up on making other flavors. All the kids wanted to eat is the chocolate.) I make a triple batch at night and it's almost always eaten up by the next evening. (This is a dairy free treat as well. Though Nathan occasionally has some cheese, we're still trying to avoid dairy in general.)
3. Shelton's Original Turkey Smoked Snack Sticks. This has becomes Nathan's favorite grab-and-go food. Vitamin Cottage carries them. The other varieties by Shelton's have ingredients that aren't GAPS kosher, but the original turkey seems to be OK.
4. Almond Raisin Cookies. I think Nathan has had so many of these that he's pretty much OD'd on them.
5. Pomegranates, apples and bananas. And occasionally dried grapes straight off the food dehydrator.
That's pretty much it. We've tried other things and some have had their week or two of fame, but it's these five that we seem to be gravitating around.
0 comments: