#5. Planning
Nothing can be done on a whim when you are on the GAPS diet. Traveling or even a trip into the city requires some planning because for the most part you can't eat anywhere - not easily at least. Even my previous gluten free/dairy free diet wasn't this challenging. It is getting better as I can eat more things, but easily transported snacks are hard to come by on this diet.
#4. Getting the 'Right' Things
You run out of _______ (fill in the blank) - it's not just 'oh, let me go to CVS and buy some more', it's 'let me try and figure out what product is going to expose me to the least amount of toxins'. I was in CVS the other day and realized I need more rewetting drops for my contacts and I couldn't find one that I felt comfortable buying, so I just left without it. Even something simple like buying new bath towels requires thinking and research, unless you just get sick of it and just go to TJMaxx and buy some because you don't have time to research or pay for the organic cotton ones with natural dye. There are also so many things needed for this diet, from kitchen equipment, to detox bath supplies, to natural home products, I feel like I am always having to replace and restock. I want to choose the best products for me - I just wish it was simpler to identify and locate them!
#3. Time
As you might imagine, cooking three meals a day from scratch takes a lot of time, as does preparing and packing food for breakfast and lunch to take to work 5 days a week. I usually spend 5+ hours on Sunday in the kitchen cooking food for the week and even with this prep I feel like I am always in the kitchen, chopping vegetables, washing dishes - and there is only one of me to feed! Nothing on the GAPS diet is simple - you can have nuts, but you should buy raw, organic nuts, soak them in salted water for 24 hours and then dehydrate them for another 24 hours. You can have yogurt and kefir, but shouldn't eat the store bought kind, you should find the appropriate yogurt culture or kefir grains, then hunt down a farmer that will sell you raw milk (and good luck finding one that will deliver in NYC at a time when you aren't at work) and then make your own yogurt or kefir yourself. You want mayo, ketchup, relish - make it yourself. You want to eat lacto-fermented and raw pickles/sauerkraut/etc. that don't cost $9 a jar - make it yourself. See a theme here?
#2. Money
I've said it before, this diet ain't cheap. One dozen pastured eggs are $8, the chicken I buy (which is the cheapest of the farmers market options is about $5/lb roughly $27-$30 for a bird, grass fed pastured ground beef is $10/lb and organic vegetables and fruits, you know those aren't cheap. I spent over $500 last month on food and that's just whats on the credit cards from the grocery stores, not the farmers market which is cash only....I can't wait til I have a house so I can have a garden and grow my own food and a giant freezer so I buy in bulk and freeze. Til then, I am going to feel broke.
#1. The GAPS Diet Stink
Yes, all the planning, time, money, and frustration of trying to buy the right things is annoying, but my #1 complaint is the seemingly permanent stink due to the GAPS diet - my clothes stink, my house stinks, I stink. I am sick of stinking like boiled chickens and garlic and ground hamburger and soup!
Well, I might have just spent the last few days thinking about and writing up my gripes on the GAPS diet, but in the end, even though it is time consuming and expensive, the diet is totally worth it. As a wise person reminded me when I was tired of spending money trying to figure out why everything I ate seemed to make me feel like garbage, "What do you have if you don't have your health?" The answer is - not much.
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