This past Saturday was my 30th day on the GAPS diet. It is hard to believe it has been an entire month already on this diet - time goes quickly. Although I can't say it has been an easy month, it honestly wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I have just had to spend A LOT more time in the kitchen cooking and washing dishes than I did before and meal planning for the next day or days has been esstential. Just like transitioning to a gluten free diet, all special diets just take practice to master. I remember being so overwhelmed at first with the idea of eliminating gluten because it seemed to be everywhere (a reality, actually) and in every one of my go-to meals and favorite cook book recipes. This diet has been even more challenging in that initially you are eliminating much more than just gluten, but also more simple in some ways since following such a limited diet narrows down your choices for meal options. Estentially, you always know what your next meal will be - soup! Just like the GF diet, as more time goes on it will continue to get easier.
Over all I am feeling pretty well. I have not had any headaches recently, but still getting cramps in my calves - I woke up the other night standing on the floor beside my bed with my foot flat trying to prevent a charlie horse. Luckily my body moved faster than my brain did! I have noticed that my sweat smells a little funky and apparently so does my breath. I have had some nausea as well - mainly due to introducing food way too quickly and in too large a quanity. I have been introducing things like nut flour bread, larger quanities of fermented vegetables, cooked greens, eggs, avocado, fresh herbs, and olive oil. I have also tried lard, honey (organic, raw, somewhat local) and a little butternut squash. None of these items have really been sucessful. Lard, I have discovered, makes me nauseous. I tried it on my nut flour bread and felt sick for over 12 hours. I related the sick feeling to the bread and made some cauliflower mashed 'potatoes' with some lard and felt sick after eating them. So no more lard. Honey, I can eat in about a 1/4-1/2 teaspoon quanity. I was a little over zealous and had about 1 tablespoon of honey in one sitting which led to some sugar induced asthma just like the old days. I was really hoping to be able to eat honey... maybe after a few more months of broth drinking...
I have also found that both honey and nuts trigger me to want more food even if I am full - it is the same insatiable feeling that I use to get all the time prior to doing this diet. I imagine as I add more foods back in I will find others that do the same thing.
One thing I haven't introduced yet is fresh juice. The book recommends starting with a few tablespoons of carrot juice (carrots are tough for me) and moving on to lettuce, mint and celery. I also don't have a juicer so that has been another reason I haven't tried it yet.
But so far, so good, and I am excited to see how it continues.
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