GAPS Intro Diet - Day 21 (Stage 3)

Before starting this diet, I had a few months to mentally prepare and to prepare the people around me that I would be eating a little bit differently. I knew that for me, having to eat very specific foods at work, where it is sometimes necessary to eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner, would be a challenge and an inconvenience. Also, there is some travel involved in my job and I am mostly traveling with other people. I don't exactly want to whip out my soup on a 6 hour drive upstate and then try to explain why I was eating hot soup in 80 degree weather. So to prepare I told the three people I sit with at work, I told my boss, I told my former boss who I still work/travel with and I told a few other co-workers. It was a mental preparation for me and for them.  Everyone has been super supportive and even think my soup smells good (or so they say), even though it still makes me self-conscious.  I was traveling for work one day last week - about a 12 hour day and I knew I would be starving if I didn't eat so I stood at this train station in Long Island with my soup in hand and ate it with my little metal spoon. People probably thought I was a crazy person in a suit eating soup from a thermos... but I just tried to tell myself that hey, everyone in NYC is crazy, they won't even think twice. And they probably didn't. I don't know why I am so self-conscious about it... I need to get over that.

So this week I have been traveling for work the last two days and as I mentioned a few posts ago, have been stressing about what I was going to eat on the road and in the hotel since this is my first overnight trip on the diet. Actually, all my stress turned out to be unnecessary because things ended up being just fine. For the first day I just brought my soup in 2 thermoses for breakfast and lunch. For dinner that night and for the next day, I brought some chicken, green beans, avocado, hard boiled eggs and sauerkraut in a cooler. Let me tell you, it may sound gross, but avocado mixed with some sauerkraut on top of some hard boiled egg is delicious! I introduced way more than the 1 teaspoon of avocado than was recommended, but seemed to be fine with it anyway. I haven't had problems with eggs so knew that hard boiled wouldn't be an issue either. I am glad that this went more smoothly than I thought it would since the whole GAPS diet with work/travel was something I wasn't sure how to handle. I have a trip planned down to Richmond at the end of this month and then up to Rhode Island the weekend after, so I will be getting some additional traveling experience on this diet.

Other updates with me are that I have still been getting headaches.  I had a strong one on Tuesday and another one again this morning in addition to some nausea. Thankfully peppermint oil works to relieve the pain from the headaches - I carry it now at all times in my bag.  Who knew that peppermint oil can be used in place of Aspirin or Ibuprofen?  Not me.  Luckily K shared this little trick when I was out in San Diego and having a killer coffee detox headache. It is still amazing and exciting to me that a few drops of the oil on the spot(s) where your head hurts actually works.  Even WebMD has pain relief listed under the uses of peppermint oil. All for a mere $8 at Whole Foods and much better than taking pills. Other than the headaches, I have also been having muscle aches/cramps/pain in my left calf all day long, which seems strange and is surprisingly painful. Unfortunately, tonight's detox bath did not help. Peppermint oil kind of helps, but I can still feel it in spite of the oil.  Well, on the bright side, at least I smell like a giant peppermint.

I wanted to share a recipe for peas that I thought was really delicious - I decided to make it today after jury duty (it's been a fun week) as a treat for sitting in a cold room for 6 hours.  Peas as a treat - yep I am crazy. I saw this recipe while watching the cooking channel last Saturday.  Alex can't believe I still bother to watch, but I still like to see what they put together, even if I have no chance of ever eating it myself.  What do you know, but I actually saw a GAPS friendly pea recipe by Nigella Lawson - it even incorporated chicken broth!  I used onions and garlic sauteed in some ghee (1 teaspoon) and some coconut oil, wilted in the lettuce, added the peas and stock and heated it through. It sounds very simple, but it was actually very flavorful and delicious. I also added in some fresh basil too.  This is a cell phone photo in fluorescent lighting... not ideal, but trust me it tasted better than it looks!