Farewell "junk food" AIP

Weeelllll... So much for only one month of eating "junk food" AIP and two of eating strict, low-ish carb AIP HA! This month has pretty much been a repeat of last month: technically strict AIP (generally speaking) but way too much sugar. Also, if I'm going to be honest there were a couple of meals with, let us say, questionable ingredients: a reddish mystery spice on my salmon when I went to the Sophie's down by where I work only to find out that not every Sophie's carries the same food (I always get pork chunks, tostones, and mixed veggies)! I mean, even the gosh-darned mixed veggies had chunks of red and green peppers in it at this Sophies!!

I also had way, way, WAAAYYY too much sugar, mostly in the form of fruit (which is still not great for me - sugar is sugar, regardless) but also just straight up sugar, too. I notice that when I finish my dinner with a substantial sugary treat, whether fruit based or not (I'll often have half seltzer, half grape juice after dinner), I wake up with what can only be described as a "carb hangover"; my head feels strange and I feel dull, heavy, and off. It's a really strange feeling. The closest it comes to is a literal hangover; not the headaches but feeling strange and wrong in my body. I need to stop but it's so hard when you've given up so much!

I really think this may be why AIP has felt so easy since I started it. Yes, it's super restrictive but no particular macronutrient is restricted. I.e. I can eat as much sugar and junk as I want. Even though it's AIP my body still doesn't like it. I've also been eating waaayyyy too much salt, but mostly because I'm using this stupid chunky sea salt that I bought from my local food coop. You go from totally undersalted to practically inedible in one sprinkle. I need to get some finer salt and just use this one for cooking.

So I realize that I need a plan. Going AIP was pretty easy, particularly since I was going from another really restrictive diet (GAPS) to AIP. I didn't really need a plan, I just got rid of all non-AIP foods and started eating foods on the OK list. This is going to have to be different, though. I'm going to need to plan things out my food and, more importantly, to plan what I'm going to do when confronted with the desire to "cheat". I hate that word, but clearly just winging it isn't working, I need to make a promise to myself to stick with this and see how my body reacts.

So, farewell junk food AIP, it was fun knowing ya! Hello strict AIP, I'm looking forward to getting to know ya.

Article: The 10 Most Common Mistakes Women with PCOS Make

From the excellent website Paleo for Women: Basically, watch out for the drugs doctors love to put us on, exercising in the wrong way, and an overly restrictive diet. Great article, and great website!

I’ve been working with women who have PCOS now for more than 5 years. In this time, I’ve encountered hundreds if not thousands of specific cases. Iv’e read just about every blog, website, and article there is out there for PCOS. I’ve spent hours searching through online forums and facebook communities, learning about women’s experiences.

After all this time, I’ve learned a thing or two (or several hundred) about what’s right for PCOS, as well as what isn’t.

To help prevent you from making the same mistakes I see over and over again with women who have PCOS, I’ve put together a list of the 10 most common ones. Hopefully then you’ll be able to dodge the bullet, so to speak, and overcome PCOS quickly and painlessly

- Stefani Ruper, The 10 Most Common Mistakes Women with PCOS Make (Paleo for Women)

Easy living on the Good Ship AIP

Apologies for the lack of posts since starting AIP... but you know what? It may be because I no longer feel a desperate sense of urgency on this diet. While doing GAPS I felt like I needed to live, breathe, and (of course) eat GAPS. GAPS filled my brain so full I had to constantly read, or write, about it because I was always thinking about it. That isn't the case anymore.

I'm not sure why this is so. Maybe it's because I'm not restricting a macronutrient. Maybe it's that I was soooooo restrictive during the GAPS intro phase (basically, soup with meat and veg and that's it) that AIP seems positively decadent in it's variety and choice. It's certainly not that intro AIP is any less restrictive than the full GAPS diet that I was eating by the end of my month-long GAPS experiment. Although to be fair, I ate a very generous, loosey goosey version of AIP that first month; after coming off GAPS I simply couldn't face another super restrictive diet. But the fact is, even now on a tighter version of the AIP protocol, I still don't feel that sense of hyper focused attention that I did while on GAPS.

To be honest, this way of eating doesn't seem particularly restrictive to me. The only time I feel the pinch is when I try to eat out. However, I think that says more about how generally unhealthy the standard American diet is than anything about the AIP. What's so damn strange about the foods on AIP, anyway? Meat, fish, veg, fruits, safe starches like sweet potato and tropical starches. How is this SOOOOOOO WEEEEEIIIRD that it's nearly impossible to find in most restaurants so you end up having to cook everything for yourself???

Yes, I miss many of the foods I'm used to eating. I miss rice. I miss curries and spices. I really miss tomatoes and potatoes. BUT, so many of the foods I eat are delicious and totally satisfying. I eat plenty of fat, and I'm not overly restrictive with my carbs. My food is actually well seasoned and delicious. This is NOT a hard way to eat, at least not if you're used to cooking most of your food (which I am).

I will be very happy to expand my diet, especially the spices. This will also make it a lot easier for me to eat with others. This is my biggest complaint about the AIP protocol. But for myself, I find this is not only a deeply nourishing way of eating that minimizes damaging or questionable foods, it's a delicious, satisfying, and quite sustainable way of eating as well.

Trader Joe's haul

Oh Trader Joe's, how I love thee. Your fun and tasty offerings, your wallet-friendly prices, your Hawaiian shirts, but most especially your awesome selection of AIP friendly goodies! You make me feel like a normal person.  <3

I went to Trader Joe's this weekend to see if there was anything (besides the usual meat, veg, and dried fruit) that was AIP compliant and they did not disappoint. Some of the oil choices are questionable (lots of Omega-6 heavy industrial seed oils) but other than that, there were some really fun products. Check it out:

Broccoli Florets

Crunchy chip replacements. When I was doing low carb I'd eat these with sour cream and onion dip... DELICIOUS! They're surprisingly tasty, and you get greens in your snack. Ingredients: broccoli, rice bran oil, salt.


Just Beets

Basically dehydrated beet chips. I haven't tried them yet but they're literally just beets. They're beets, how can you go wrong?? Ingredients: Beets.


Organic Ginger Turmeric Herbal Tea

I love ginger tea, so this should be good. And there's turmeric in it too! It's always good to get some of that awesome antioxidant in your diet. It does have black pepper, which, as a berry, should be avoided in the early stages of the AIP protocol. Also, stevia is not AIP. It's a bit of a grey area food, but I'm going to use it as something of a treat. Ingredients: ginger root, turmeric, licorice, orange peel, orange oil, black pepper, stevia.


Plantain Chips

Seeing as I practically live on these things it's nice that TJ's has plantain chips. The only downside is that these also are fried in seed oils.  :(   Ingredients: plantains, sunflower oil, salt.


Sweet Potato Chips

Another staple chip for AIP'ers, these are nice and crunchy. Watch out for those seed oils, though. Ingredients: sweet potatoes, a mixture of different seed oils, salt.


Banana Chips

These are sweetened so they're not for every day use, but they're nice to have on hand as a treat (especially when your co-workers are holding a bake-off, which is unfortunately a common thing at my job.) Also, they aren't made with any dodgy oils. Ingredients: bananas, coconut oil, sugar, natural banana flavor (???)


Ginger Chews

These are awesome - watch out if you have a problem with spicy foods because these babies are HAAAAAAAT! Ingredients: sugar, ginger, tapioca starch.


Coconut Chips

No, they're not as good as Dang! coconut chips (they're a bit tougher) but these are still darn tasty. Ingredients: coconut, salt, sugar, coconut milk, coconut juice.


Apple Banana Fruit Sauce "Crushers"

Yes, it's a lot of sugar. And yes, there's a lot of packaging waste (these are basically those baby food pouches you see in stores), but they're tasty as heck and handy for trips where you need to eat something that doesn't require utensils. I'm keeping these on hand for my next trip. Ingredients: apple puree, banana puree, ascorbic acid, citric acid (the latter two are "for freshness.")


Coconut Cream

HOORAAAYYYY!!!! IT'S BACK!!!! Last time we went to TJ's there was no coconut cream! The person there said it had been discontinued. GASP! Well, it appears that I'm not the only sad coconut cream lover shopping at TJ's because they brought it back. It's also about $2 cheaper than the coconut cream at my local food coop. And it's organic! So much win! Ingredients: coconut, water. [Post-refrigeration update: This new coconut cream is no bueno in the refrigerador  :(   It separates into one solid half and one liquid half. You can't even make whipped coconut creat with it. This never used to happen with the other coconut cream! Maybe it's because that cream had emulsifiers in it? Ugh, whatever. It's still good for cooking hot foods.]


So there you have it, a few of the more interesting items at Trader Joe's that you can eat while on AIP. They often have questionable or grey area ingredients but I'd say they have a place in an overall healthy AIP diet as a way to make us feel more normal. Many of these also make great travel foods for bringing on the road with us. I'm going out of town at the end of the month and you can be sure that I will be bringing many of these with me!

(Note, some of these packages are already open. I didn't think to take pics until after I'd gotten home and torn into my goodies. My bad!)

Dosed at Sophie's

Whups, there definitely was something in that cassava croquette that my feet did not like. Yesterday I went to Sophie's Cuban again, with the boyfriend. I found a place I can eat out! We get fried pork chunks and tostones (and an extra side dish of steamed veg for me) and split it because the portions are YUUUGE.

It was our day to get out a bit and hang out in the city. First we went to Book Off (a Japanese chain second hand store) to get Akira Kurosawa's Ran and Rumiko Takahashi's Maison Ikkoku, then we stopped by Trader Joe's to see what AIP goodies I could score. In between was Sophie's, which is just a few doors down from Book Off. I'd eaten there before with no adverse effects and I saw a CASSAVA croquette on the menu. It's CASSAVA! I can eat cassava! Well, I took one delicious bite and I knew that there was some stuff in there that I probably couldn't eat. I finished it anyway, though, because, quite honestly, I wanted to see what happened.

Nothing happened immediately after but this morning I woke up with a slight pain in my right ankle. It was very slight and went away pretty quickly as soon as I got moving but it's not a good indication. Or maybe I should say it's a good indication that I really do need to give this AIP thing a bit more time. My issues don't tend to come on fast and strong but generally creep up little by little until I have a hard time walking or standing so I feel like that was an initial sign that my body didn't like what I put in it.

It's nice to get to learn more about how your body handles different foods.  :)

One month in

Sooooo... This has been a lot easier than I thought it was going to be. Of course, it didn't hurt that I was doing what one might call "loose AIP"; everything was technically AIP but it was higher in carbs, especially sugar, than I really should do. Part of this was because I had just done an incredibly restrictive diet - GAPS - and needed a mental break from all that "diet head", part of it was because half the month would be vacation and I was not going to diet during my vacation! So, there was lots of AIP treats and other questionable food choices (I think I cleaned my local grocery store of plantain chips last  month.)

And I got better! Not perfect; my left ankle is still a little wonky. The only time that went away and my feet felt NORMAL is the first two weeks of GAPS, when I was eating basically just meat and veg in bone broth. I'm hoping once I do button-down serious AIP that will change but we'll see about that. But it's much better than it was when I'd introduced eggs and nuts so there appears to be an autoimmune component to whatever is going on with me. I also did a 2 week herbal antibiotic protocol, which I will write about in another post. That was interesting, to say the least!

It's a challenge to stay mentally healthy while restricting your diet. I had very few problems last month, though. I'm not sure if it's because I had just gotten off Intro GAPS and by comparison loosey goosey AIP was positively bountiful in it's choices, or because AIP, while it's restrictive, doesn't restrict any macronutrients; while I couldn't have every carb or fat, I could have any amount of legal carbs and fats whenever I wanted. Possibly it was a combination of the two.

My plan is to spend two more months, doing slightly more restrictive AIP, to add up to a total of 3 months before attempting reintroductions. I went off the deep end with the carbs last month but I know that that isn't good for me. At the same time I don't want to negatively affect my gut bacteria so I will keep my carb intake around 100 grams a day, or one piece of fruit and one modest serving of AIP safe starch (sweet potato, plantain, yucca, stuff like that) per day.

Wish me luck!

AIP: A new beginning

Welp, I'm fully on AIP now. Unfortunately I was too busy with things to write it all up but I spent the weekend at home purposefully transitioning from GAPS to AIP... and by "transitioning" I mean stuffing my face with all the AIP friendly starch I could get my hands on! My body felt soooooo hungry for starch! I must have eaten 5 plantains by myself, lol (largely in the form of plantain chips, which isn't great but it is what it is.)

I have been making sure to start my days with plenty of probiotics. I start off with one Prescript Assist soil based organism capsule, one capsule of saccharomyces boulardii, and two of your run of the mill probiotics (I have so many in my freezer from my various stints of trying to get my gut balanced). Drink them all down with a glass of water with a tablespoon of Inner Eco coconut water probiotic and a smidge of Jarrow inulin FOS (I'm starting with a tiny amount and working my way up - I've experienced starting too much too soon and it is NOT FUN.) I've also started making breakfast smoothies again but with more limited ingredients than usual. I used to make them with whey powder but that's out on AIP. I did include egg yolks but I'm going to need to end that... as soon as I use up my eggs! The two recipes I alternate between are as follows:

Strawberry Banana Smoothie
Banana
Frozen strawberries
Coconut butter
Gelatin (in the green container)
Egg yolk

Chocolate Smoothie
Banana
Frozen blueberries (not too much!)
Frozen spinach (not too much!)
Carob powder
Coconut butter
Gelatin
Egg yolk

I think I'm going to stop drinking these for breakfast and have them for dessert instead - they are too delicious! Plus, that's way too much sugar to have as a "meal".

On the plus side, my feet and knees are already feeling better! As is my mood! Fingers crossed that it lasts. On the negative side, my guts are SO FREAKING LOUD. They've been grumbly and gassy all goddam day! Hopefully they'll settle down as the bacteria reach a new equilibrium. I may leave out the inulin/FOS for a week or so.

So that's it for my GAPS experience! Thank you GAPS, you taught me a lot about myself!


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Breakfast: strawberry banana smoothie

Lunch (I was STARVING!): Korean short ribs, sweet potato, green salad, apple

Dinner: The last of my AIP nachos; AIP Mexican ground beef, fancy AIP guacamole (normally I make a very simple guac with just salt, lime juice, and garlic powder but since I'm doing AIP I decided to fancy it up), lettuce, and plantain chips

AIP Mexican Ground Beef
Sautee ground beef and onions
Add (fresh!) oregano and salt to taste

AIP Fancy Guacamole
Avocado
Lemon (or lime) juice
Cucumber, diced small
Fresh cilantro
Fresh pressed garlic
Green onion
Salt

The Korean ribs recipe was based on this recipe by The Paleo Mom. As usual I just eyeballed it - mixed up a mess of coconut aminos, apple cider vinegar, honey, lemon juice, garlic, ginger and some salt -  and tossed the ribs in the mixture. Cooked in a low oven (300 degrees) for about 4 hours. They were delicious but totally dried out; next time I will cover with foil until the last half hour and see how that works. Maybe put them under the broiler to get some nice crispy bits going. <3

GAPS Day 26: To FODMAP or not to FODMAP

That is the question!!

So, I started this whole quest to get my digestion in order, primarily to resolve my issues with GERD (Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease, or heartburn) and my digestion in general. Looking at my history it's pretty clear that I've had problems with digestion going back decades, possibly even to childhood. Resolving my issues with GERD is the most immediate concern but I really need to get all of these issues under control, and to do that I need to heal my digestion.

In Chris Kresser's ebook on GERD (you have to sign up for his email list to get access to this) he recommends going on the SCD or GAPS diets to starve out the bad bacteria. He says he often uses the low FODMAP diet, especially for those with SIBO (Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth, which I'm fairly sure I have) and in a July 13, 2012 article he wrote an article ("FODMAPs: Could common foods be harming your digestive health?") in which he says the same thing. Dr. Sarah Ballantyne also suggests limiting FODMAPS for people who suffer from SIBO ("Veggiephobia: Why limiting your vegetable intake might be slowing down healing"). But then on October 8, 2015 Kelsey Marksteiner wrote another article on ChrisKresser.com in which she says that one should not restrict carbohydrates or FODMAPs for SIBO or gut dysbiosis in general.

But starving the bacteria over the short term does not eradicate the bacteria, which is what we’re trying to accomplish, as the small intestine is not supposed to contain much bacteria. If you continue this restriction for a long period of time in an effort to kill the bacteria, you’re also starving the bacteria in your large intestine that should be there and that play a vital role in your health.

("Why Diet Alone Is Not Enough to Treat SIBO")


In this article, she references a discussion Kresser had on his September 10, 2015 podcast with Dr. Mark Pimentel ("SIBO Update — An Interview with Dr. Mark Pimentel"). Here's what Dr. Pimentel says:

If you give guar gum or you augment their [the bacteria's] eating — so now you’re feeding them, they’re thrilled, they’re enjoying all that food — they’ll be more sensitive to rifaximin.  So when I treat with rifaximin, or antibiotics, in general, for these IBS patients, I don’t want them to be on a low-FODMAP diet simultaneously or any kind of carbohydrate restrictions.  I want those bacteria happy and fed because they’ll respond better, in my experience, and the guar gum study kind of supports that notion.

So I'm really at a loss for what to do. The ideal thing would be to find a good functional medicine doctor and have some testing done but a) that's expensive, and insurance doesn't cover it and b) I dread looking for someone who knows what the hell they're talking about. Since that's out right now I need to figure things out for myself. I do want to go to a doctor, and I will, but not right now. I have too many things I need to save money for (not the least is my wedding and honeymoon!)

The other thing is, although I still believe that digestion is the foundation of health (you can't absorb any nutrients if your digestion isn't working), this experience with GAPS has driven home the fact that I still have autoimmune issues and I need to get those under control. At least after doing GAPS the autoimmune protocol diet doesn't seem so bad!


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I actually ate breakfast today (the last of the GAPS pancakes with a slice of GAPS bread with honey). Guess if there's bread involved I'm hungry enough to eat at 9:30 lol.

Lunch was shredded beef with some salad and chicken broth on the side with some pineapple (from a can, but packed in it's own juice... which spilled in my insulated lunch bag! Damn you non-water tight food containers!!!)

Snack was the last two donuts from Liberty Specialty Foods. I had to! I need to get through all my GAPS food before moving onto AIP, lol.  XD



Today's article:

My Experience with the Paleo Autoimmune Protocol

GAPS Day 25: GAPS "bread"

Soooo tired.  :(   I wanted to get to bed by 11:00 pm at the latest but didn't manage to do so until around 1:00 am because F left at 12:00. Oh well. I somehow powered through the day, which was crazy!! My co-worker was out and the guy who normally covers for her was pulled to sit for someone even more demanding. I managed to get through it and drag myself home. I wasn't going to do much but I really wanted to try my hand at Cheeseslave's simple GAPS bread. This meant I didn't eat until 9:30, which is not great but whatevs. The bread turned out to be doorstop dense but whatevs, it's bread! It also had a very "whole wheat" texture since I used Trader Joe's almond meal, which has the skins of the almonds.

Breakfast was Mexican soup again (salsa and shredded beef with chili powder and some spinach thrown in) with an apple (I started eating the skins so no need to peel).

No snack. I was going to buy some plain chicken and veggies from the cafeteria salad bar but I couldn't face food. I think I was just too tired to eat.

Dinner was GAPS bread, smoked salmon, sauerkraut, and the last of the guac. It was nice to have bread, even if it was heavy enough to kill someone if thrown at them.


Today's article:

The autoimmune-inflammatory model of diabesity (Chris Kresser)

"Notice that inflammation alone directly contributes to every single metabolic dysfunction associated with diabesity: leptin resistance, impaired fat and glucose metabolism, insulin resistance, and beta-cell destruction. Inflammation can be considered the primary mechanism through which the modern lifestyle and genetics cause diabesity."

GAPS Day 24: Feet :(

And knees :(

Well, I'm guessing that this isn't just a "normalization" of being on GAPS, I do seem to be going backwards in some areas, namely my feet and ankles. They're back to hurting a bit on waking, and while I stand on the train. Not as bad as before doing GAPS but the pain isn't 100% gone the way it was when I first started GAPS. I suspect that I need to do the Autoimmune Protocol; I've been eating nuts and eggs like crazy since going on full GAPS, as well as regularly eating tomatoes.

I've suspected that some of my problems are autoimmune in origin for a while; I have eczema, which is an autoimmune condition, and if you have one autoimmune symptom you have autoimmunity. I'm going to stick with just doing GAPS for now; the idea of limiting my diet to even further will completely drive me off the deep end. The gut is the first thing I need to get under control, after that I'll work on the autoimmunity. (Then again, my gut problems may have an autoimmune component, in which case I may have to do both at the same time waaaaaahh!!)

I felt so amazing doing intro GAPS but IT'S. SO. GODDAM. HARD!!! I will definitely redo the intro again but I'm hoping that I can do it for a month or so at a time, and not for years and years and years and years (please god no).

I've also been having bathroom issues again; I keep trying to increase my HCL dosage and it's just no good, my digestion can't handle it. But increasing stomach acid soooo important to improving digestion that I keep pushing! I've been taking one 650 mg with breakfast and snack (even though I don't eat a lot for my snack) and two with dinner. I've also been taking relatively large amounts of fish oil, which also tends to loosen stuff up. This is important but not as important as getting my digestion on track so I may try cutting out the fish oil and just focusing on the HCL. Ugh, this is so complicated!!!!

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Breakfast (at 10:30 am as usual) was LSF crackers (I have to remember to bring in my GAPS pancakes!!!) with "Mexican" soup, just broth with shredded beef, salsa, and cauliflower. Nothing fancy. A small apple and some nuts afterwards. Snack was cucumber from the cafeteria salad bar, guacamole, salsa, and smoked salmon (with just salmon and salt - you have to read the label because they freaking love putting sugar in everything) with a Larabar (I really have to start making these!)

F came over tonight - he was supposed to come last night but forgot (hence the salsa and guacamole - I may not be able to eat corn chips but he can... also, I just love my local Mexican restaurant's salsa, and guac is always awesome!) I had egg burrito again and was going to make F a platter with the chips, guacamole, beef, etc. but he ended up coming really, really, REALLY late (10:45 pm!). And he's bought a sandwich. Huh.



Today's article:

"The Autoimmune Protocol" (from The Paleo Mom)

"Autoimmune disease is an epidemic in our society, affecting an estimated 50 million Americans. But it doesn’t have to be. Although genetic predisposition accounts for approximately one-third of your risk of developing an autoimmune disease, the other two-thirds comes from your environment, your diet, and your lifestyle. In fact, experts are increasingly recognizing that certain dietary factors are key contributors to autoimmune disease, placing these autoimmune conditions in the same class of diet- and lifestyle-related diseases as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and obesity. This means that autoimmune disease is directly linked to our food choices and how we decide to live your life. It also means that we can manage and reverse autoimmune disease simply by changing how you eat and making more informed choices about sleep, activity, and stress… and that’s some pretty darned good news!"

GAPS Day 23: Liberty Specialty Foods

Sooooo... I bit the bullet and bought some things from Liberty Specialty Foods. Was it worth it? Well, let's see. But first, what I ate today!

"Breakfast" was curry beef soup; crockpot shredded beef (literally, just put a piece of meat on top of some sliced onions and a 1/4 cups of stock and you will have some meaty deliciousness with almost no work), cauliflower, some spinach with curry spices (cumin, coriander, turmeric). Fruit on the side.

I had a little snack after my walk; didn't bring it in, I just got some fixings from the company salad bar: cucumbers, broccoli, beets, chicken, and half a hard boiled egg with olive oil and lemon juice on top.

Dinner was egg burrito with shredded beef, salsa, and guac. I kind of overdid it; I kept making too little so this time I made way to much. I also had half a grapefruit and a small apple.

My night snack was two of the LSF donuts.



Review: Liberty Specialty Foods

I found Liberty Specialty Foods on my search for SCD/GAPS convenience foods. GAPS is inconvenient to say the least, and it would be nice to find some things that I don't have to make at home. LSF isn't just convenience food, though. It's legitimately gourmet. It's also pretty pricy. I decided to bite the bullet and give them a try.

Waffles (3 waffles for $16.99. Yeah, I know.) These are Belgian style waffles and OMG, they have amazing texture! And taste delicious! They pretty much taste (and feel) like the "real thing". The only thing is that they don't crisp up in the toaster, but otherwise, these just taste like delicious waffles. I just had mine with honey but I bet they'd be AMAZING with strawberries and whipped cream!

Donuts (6 for $16.99) I wasn't thrilled with these at first - they're like a very dense apple cider donut. They're made from coconut flour so they have that denseness that coconut flour products have, but by the time I'd finished one I was ready for another. I could only finish half of the second one, though. Very filling. But darn tasty! And they don't taste like honey (which is the case with my baked treats), but like donut. I really enjoyed these.

Herb Crackers (4.5 oz for $9.99) While these were probably my least favorite of the three items, I still really enjoyed them. I try to avoid dairy so these were just about the only savory items they have. They're not really crisp, more like pie crust, which is unavoidable since they're made from almond flour, but they have a really nice rosemary taste. My only problem is that they are very delicate and break very easily.

All in all, I would buy these again... as a treat. They're definitely too pricey for every day use, but that's probably for the best. They make a nice treat. And since I'm not spending any money eating out nowadays I think I can afford a couple of these a month. Next month I want to try the pizza crust!

GAPS Day 22: Two steps forward, one step back

Ugh, I bathroom issue again this morning. I'm pretty sure it was because I upped my cod liver oil and HCL dose last night; 1 tablespoon up from 1 teaspoon of CLO and 2 capsules of HCL instead of 1. I need to take it back down again I guess.  :(   I'll try to increase the doses again next week. Maybe one at a time instead of both would be good Suzanne!

My meals were kind of screwed up; ran into a friend at work who was all "Hey, let's do lunch!" but I don't do lunch now. Since starting GAPS I've eaten "breakfast" (generally soup) at 10:30 am, when I start feeling hungry, then a snack around 3:00 or 4:00. Since normal people eat lunch at lunch time I shifted around my meals so I had my snack at 10:00 am and lunch at 1:30 pm. Lunch was shredded crockpot beef with a side of butternut squash with some ghee in it. "Breakfast" was cucumber chips with pate "dip" (my liver pate mashed with homemade mayo). For dinner I had a GAPS burrito; I stopped and got some chips and salsa from my favorite Mexican restaurant and put the salsa on the crockpot beef with some cumin and avocado (G got the chips; he was a happy camper.)

I also had some GAPS treats! My package from Liberty Specialty Foods came in today and I kind of pigged out. I have no regrets, either. This is my treat for being soooo good, a reward for surviving being surrounded by illegal foods all month. It's also REALLY EXPENSIVE - $17 for 3 waffles, the same for 6 donuts, and $10 for a small box of almond flour crackers - but everything is amazingly delicious! Definitely worth it as a treat. I'll do some reviews tomorrow.




Today's Article:

You Are What Your Bacteria Eat: The Importance of Feeding Your Microbiome (Chris Kresser)

The microbiome - all the bacteria that live in and on you, mostly in your gut - is the new frontier of science. They've found that changes in gut bacteria not only affect your digestion and stomach issues, but everything from weight to mental issues. If you need the GAPS diet you have problems with your gut, but our guts affect so much more than just digestion.

"[H]umans are just elaborate vessels for the propagation of microorganisms."

GAPS Day 21: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Welp, I guess I'm on full GAPS now. I was looking at the rest of the month, planning out how I would do stages 4 to 6 and looking at the food lists. I'm already eating raw veggies (cucumbers) and cooked and even raw fruit (apples and applesauce). I'm planning on adding shakes made with frozen bananas and berries, too. And, of course, there's the cake, although that's really a special treat that I'm not going to have every day (just until the rest of the cake is finished, lol.)

I can't stomach the thought giving these little things up, and I don't have Crohns or ulcerative colitis. I'm not reacting to any of these foods, or if I am it's not really obvious (noticeable changes in mood or bathroom issues for instance.) So I guess I'm on full GAPS now. I do want to do early GAPS intro (say, stages 1-3) a couple of times a year, for one month periods, to focus "healing and sealing" my gut, and doubling down on eliminating the bad bacteria, but right now I just want to not make myself crazy, which is what was happening. I find I'm actually enjoying the food I'm eating now and don't feel deprived. I'm not overeating, and even the "junk food" that I treat myself with is nutritious and healthy. So, I'm going full on GAPS!


Today's article

"Was the GAPS Diet Worth It?" (Nourished and Nurtured)

GAPS Day 20: First *day* out!

And I refrained from popcorn... but I get ahead of myself!

I spent a large part of the next day with F, pretty much just chilling and chatting. Breakfast was a "burrito" made with leftover kale/beef saute with cumin, lemon, and the one ripe avocado I could find at the store, all under an omelet "wrapper" with more apple (I had grapefruit for snacks).

There may have also been some amazing coffee, my first since starting GAPS. F is a coffee aficionado and makes some of the best coffee I've ever drunk in my life... AND he has water processed decaf! So I made some bulletproof coffee (coffee blended with coconut oil or unsalted butter to make the most delicious creamy, frothy drink) and some honey. Such a treat!

We left his place at 5:30, me so I could meet G at 6:30 to see Logan (OMFG AMAZING MOVIE!!!) and F so he could go to Trader Joe's, which he's been putting off because he's so miserable all he wants to do is stay home. So this was good for him, helping him go out. G, of course, got a container of popcorn. He asked if I minded and I honestly didn't really, although I did sit away from him while he was chowing down. He got us some seltzer (two giant movie theater sized seltzers, one for each of us WHYYY?) We got home around 11:00 so I didn't eat anything else that day since I didn't want to go to sleep with food in my stomach.

I think the reason the popcorn really didn't bother me was because my tastes and desires are changing. Crap SAD food doesn't lure me as much as it used to. It's not perfect - I still want it - but the urge isn't as strong. I also made sure to have some food in my belly before leaving F's place; I boiled a couple of eggs and had them with fruit right before leaving.

All in all it was a good experience, but I'm glad to be home again, if for nothing else than because I have all my GAPS legal foods at my fingertips. Also, I am a homebody. I love my home.  :)

GAPS Day 19: First "night out"

Well, it wasn't really out out - I wasn't at a restaurant or something - but I wasn't at home. I spent the night and half of the next day at a friend's (F's) place. He's going through some hard times and needed a friend. I stopped by the grocery store to pick up some supplies first. Here's what I got:

Onions
Lemons
Avocados
Eggs
Grapefruits (I am obsessed!)
Fuji apples
A half a kabocha squash
A bag of frozen kale
Honey

I also brought a package of ground beef from home - F is an ethical vegan, but his concern isn't to not kill any animals but to never eat any animal that has suffered. His definition of suffering isn't simply being killed, but living a full and happy life before being killed. He grew up on a farm (in Italy; he's Italian) so he doesn't really have romantic ideas about animal husbandry, but as a spiritual person he's become more and  more uncomfortable with the way animals are treated in modern agribusiness (which is horrific - please get your meat from ethical farmers if you can!) The upshot is, he won't go out of his way to eat animals but he will eat animals if they've been humanely treated and other people bring it.

I made a simple sautéed dish with the beef, onions, and kale while I baked the squash and mashed it up with honey and some of F's coconut oil, with peeled/sliced apple on the side. F raaaaved about dinner, but he always does. It's always really gratifying to cook for him because he's so enthusiastic about everything I make lol!

It wasn't GAPS intro - the sautéing, and lack of bone broth - but it was GAPS. That's what mattered.

GAPS Day 18: Feet!

Here's something else that I noticed while on GAPS; a while back I was reading Starlene's blog and saw something about resetting leptin dysregulation. I've known about leptin's role in obesity for a while; it's another hormone, like insulin, which affects appetite and fat storage. It's basically the appetite hormone. Like insulin, in overweight people our bodies become "deaf" to the leptin that's actually circulating in our bodies, making us want to eat more because it think we're starving.

What surprised me was this, one of the symptoms of leptin resistance:

How do I know when I am no longer leptin resistant?

Changes in appearance: Your hair and nails will improve in color and presentation. Your pedicurist will notice you have less dead skin on your feet. Your face will look a lot better, with softer skin and better color, especially if you use olive oil or coconut oil on your skin.

Changes in mood, personality, and thoughts: You will become more thoughtful, more mindful, and less explosive in explosive environments. If you decide to add mindfulness to your reset, (you should) you will notice tremendous changes in your thinking and your ability to learn and comprehend things. Your insight, intuition, and mental acuity will be sharper. Also, your sexual desires will change and your libido will awaken. Your spouse will begin to notice things and treat you differently.

Changes in appetite: Your carbohydrate cravings will go away. You’ll feel full and not really need to eat three meals a day. You’ll notice your taste and smell change.

Changes in energy and sleep: Over 6-12 months, expect your energy to gradually improve. You will feel warmer and exude body heat, but your body temperature will actually be lower. It will continue to trend lower over the next 18-24 months while you thyroid settles into its new biologic groove. Dramatic improvements will be made in your sleep. Both migraines and muscle soreness from exercise will decrease.

Did you see that bit in the first item? The thing about the feet? Well, this is something that's been an embarrassment to me for years. I used to go to the pedicurist religiously until I realized that I had a fungal infection in my toenails that the polish was exacerbating. I'm soooo sad that I can't have cute colors on my toes, and I feel so bad that I exposed my pedicurists to nasty fungus (although they do always wear gloves). But the one thing that stands out is the crazy amounts of dead skin on my feet, particularly my heels. I always had to have the "crudo" thing done, where they basically shave the excess skin off your feet. I know that this isn't normal; most other people don't have it so I don't know why I never thought about why my feet were so crusty but guess what? They aren't any more!

I kind of half noticed it maybe a week prior to reading the article. I'm not sure because I didn't really think about it until I read the above and it hit me, "Hey, my feet aren't gross anymore! I have normal feet!!" I guess this is one more thing to thanks the GAPS diet for (although it may also just be that I've been eating pretty low carb.)

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Lunch was a beef and broccoli soup I tossed together (beef, broccoli, sautéed onion, mushroom mirepoix) and a couple of GAPS pancakes with some of the cooked applesauce with cinnamon. I'd like to keep broth/ soup at lunch to be sure to get my daily dose.

Dinner was "GAPS burrito", which is basically an omelet; steam sautee meat and veggies in fat/broth combo until cooked (or heated if you do what I do and pre-cook everything). Combo's I've done in the past are meat/onion/pepper/avocado and beef/broccoli/onion/avocado. Tonight I did Mexican-ish with beef, onion, avocado (I actually always put avocado in these) with some lime juice and cumin. Delish! Finished dinner off with a grapefruit. I'm really getting into grapefruit; so juicy and delicious!


Today's Article

I find many great articles that I find researching health issues on the interwebs. I'm going to include them in my daily postings when I find something particularly interesting. Today's is from one of my favorite experts on the internet, Chris Kresser, "There is no single cause of (or treatment for) obesity". I didn't start eating GAPS to lose weight but it's been a positive side effect.

Since I have PCOS and find it nearly impossible to do so this has been a really exciting development. In this article, Chris talks about difference the various mechanisms that may cause obesity and the effect, obesity itself. Just because one person may lose weight on low carb, or low fat, or whatever, that doesn't mean carbs or fat causes obesity, anymore than aspirin deficiency causes headaches.

GAPS Day 17: GUURRRRRDDDDD

 

I have GERD (Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease). Resolving my GERD issues is why I got into GAPS in the first place... even though so many other things have improved since starting. I started taking HCL (Betaine Hydrochloride)/pepsin capsules, one with each meal. (So many acronyms! But that's why we're in Acronymlandia.) I have low stomach acid and this not only prevents me from absorbing nutrients, it's the reason I have GERD (see below). The symptoms have actually improved somewhat since starting the GAPS diet but it's still there - I don't think it's going to go away until I actually supplement with HCL. I started both this and cod liver oil (1 teaspoon once a day), starting slowly since both have given me bathroom issues in the past. So far so good, so I will start increasing the dosage every few days and see how it goes. Fingers crossed!

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I threw today's lunch together - had no protein prepared so it was egg and tomato soup with a side container of pate, cucumber chips, sauerkraut, and the other half of the smoked salmon I bought over the weekend (ugh I should have taken a picture - I finally had something that looked nice!). Threw a couple of the GAPS pancakes in there and called it a day. Turned out to be way to much food, but that gave me a nice little snack in the afternoon.

Dinner was tuna fish (Italian tuna in olive oil) with homemade mayo. I didn't have any onions, and you can't use onion powder on GAPS, so I tossed in some sauerkraut. Figured it would be kind of like dill pickles. Turned out delish! Had that on some of my savory GAPS pancakes with some raw apple and a quick soup (chicken broth with mushroom mirepoix) and it was a night. Of course, there was a slice of chocolate cake afterwards woop!



Today's Article

Is about GERD; what it is, what causes it, how to fix it, and it's probably not what you think. Heartburn/GERD isn't caused by too much stomach acid but too little, and Chris goes into the why's and wherefores in this series of articles. If you suffer from GERD you need to read this.

What Everybody Ought To Know (But Doesn’t) About Heartburn & GERD (Chris Kresser)

TMI Report #2

GAS!! OMG, the gas!! After having almost nothing in that area for several weeks all of the sudden I was getting the most awful, SHTANKY gas coming out of my butt! This started some time late last week (Saturday was the worst. My poor boyfriend, living in my fart cloud!) I don't know what was up but it seems to be letting up, both in volume and stinkiness (thank God!) I figure it's another round of die offs, or something to do with my gut bacteria. At least it seems to be letting up. Fingers crossed!

GAPS Day 16: Snow day!

Great Christmas Snowpocalypse of 2010

Winter Storm Stella hit NYC with a whimper... I'm not complaining though, having lived through Hurricane Sandy and the blizzard of '10. That one snowed me and my best friend in my apartment for a days. We dodged a bullet this time but my train isn't running so G and I stayed home yay! Which is great, because I really wanted to make some GAPS chocolate cake to make up for yesterday. Chocolate cake with FROSTING! I'm using this recipe.

We were supposed to get up to 2 feet of snow but this morning it was downgraded to a few inches. At least for NYC, go a little north or west of us and it's crazy snowy. It's snowing a bit here right now, though. Blowing like crazy - the wind is still pretty bad. Beautiful weather to be baking in the kitchen, listening to jazz and just enjoying myself. I don't think I would have been so happy a few weeks ago; the feeling of pure pleasure that I had, just messing around in the kitchen while the snow blew outside... I don't think I've had that in years. Decades even. Thanks GAPS!

There are a couple of recipes that I threw together this morning that are interesting. The first is scallion pancakes! I'm making GAPS pancakes, and decided to gussy them up a bit. I'm not enamored with acorn squash - butternut is still the best to eat straight! Although the calabasa pumpkin pie turned out delicious! (I did use half the amount of honey to keep the sweetness levels low, and therefore the addictiveness of it low... I'm still addicted, though.) I used this basic GAPS pancake recipe and added a few things: sauteed onions, fish sauce, coconut aminos, and then I tossed in some chopped scallion and a half a slice of bacon, fried very crisp. Definitely not GAPS intro... I don't even know if I should say I'm still on GAPS intro. I was planning on moving forward with the intro stages but with the snow day, and yestrday's bake off, I just wanted a little treat. My feet kind of hurt this morning so this may be a bad idea physically but my mental health is much better. I'll go back to Stage 4 tomorrow.

I had "siracha" chicken salad with the scallion pancakes: I mimicked the hot/garlicky/sweet taste of the siracha with honey, garlic, and Tabasco in my homemade mayonnaise. The mayonnaise turned out AMAZING too, really thick and rich. I used 2 egg yolks instead of one whole egg. Figured it was more nutritious, even though I hate throwing out food.  :(   Added some chopped cucumber (scallion would have been nice here, too) and it was good to go. Awesome meal! The great thing about doing the early stages of the GAPS intro is that afterwards just about everything tastes UTTERLY DELICIOUS!

GAPS Scallion Pancakes

1 cup squash
1/2 cup nut butter
4 eggs
Fish sauce
Coconut aminos
Salt (sea or Himalayan)
Chopped scallions
Crumbled bacon (optional)
Bacon fat

Put squash, nut butter, eggs, fish sauce, coconut aminos, and salt (I did it by eye but I'd say about a teaspoon of each) in a food processor or blender and mix everything together. Mix in scallions and bacon into batter and fry small pancakes in bacon fat.

Oh yeah, glue ear is back. I'm not sure if it ever really went away - maybe I just had a good day? I'll periodically feel something weird deep in my ear, as if there was some earwax or thick snot adjusting a bit. Ick.

GAPS Day 15: It's hard :(

Today has been haaaard. My co-workers occasionally have bake-offs, where several people make the same dessert and the floor votes on their favorite version. It's always been fun... until this time around when I was on GAPS. UUUUGGGGHHHHHHHH, mint chocolate brownies are filling their air with their tempting fragrance. We're may have a "snow day" tomorrow - Winter Storm Stella is barreling down on us - so I may be forced to make GAPS chocolate cupcakes tomorrow. Waaaaaaay off schedule but right now I'm at the point where I can't keep saying "no" to all the delicious non-GAPS foods people are eating, especially since I don't have Crohn's or Ulcerative Colitis. But I do tend to have disordered eating around food.

I'm still going to stick pretty much with the GAPS intro, but I will deliberately eat slightly ahead of plan, to keep myself uncrazy.



Today's Article

"Did GAPS Cause My Disordered Eating?" from Chloe Breczinski of How We Flourish

This is something I always struggle with. After spending my teen and young adult years on one diet or another my mind gets screwed up whenever I limit my diet. Paleo, low carb, and GAPS have been much easier than traditional calorie restriction or low fat, but it's still hard, especially in our crap food environment. Just walking down the street is a test of steely will. I know that GAPS is an amazing, healing diet but there are difficulties, too.

GAPS Day 14: Wahoo! It's been two weeks!!

I can't believe I made it! And I've had so many changes already, in what's basically just a few days. The first week was pretty bad; tired, no energy. The second week I got steadily better. Today I'm back to normal levels of energy... which kinds of disappoints me, to be honest. I had some flashes of joy and feeling totally energized but now I feel normal. Not bad, just not aMAAAAzing. I have to stop expecting things to be utterly miraculous... even though some miraculous things have actually happened, which I need to remember:

• My feet! My feet don't hurt, even on my 40 minute train commute home!!
• Speaking of feet, the gross callous-y buildup on my heels is gone!
• Not only can I walk up stairs more easily, I can walk down them, without hanging onto the railing for dear life. I actually walk down instead of stumping down like an arthritic elephant.
• My shoulder!!! After more than a year of pain post surgery, my shoulder spontaneously feels better!!
• No eczema but that's not a surprise, I get that with Paleo. And my seborrheic dermatitis and hidradenitis suppurativa are so mild that they're nearly gone. But again, this happens to me with Paleo too so I can't chalk that up to GAPS.
• Mild glue ear; I kept feeling and hearing something weird glugging in my right ear. Gone now!
• Better overall mood, including: not repelled by people; no incidents of "road rage" (becoming furious with someone when they do something rude); genuine laughter and feelings of joy; improved short term memory; mental clarity (even moreso than with Paleo); and a general, overall feeling of calm and happiness. Not perfect mood but much better than on SAD (Standard American Diet).
• And I actually do have more energy to do things. It's easy to adjust to a new normal, but three weeks ago I had no energy, I had to conserve my energy very carefully just to get anything done. And that's already really different from my SAD days!

So I'm enjoying a lazy Sunday. Didn't actually get around to eating until late afternoon ("clam chowder" made with pureed cauliflower, butter, sautéed onion, egg yolk, with a can of minced clams thrown in. Delicious!) Dinner was roasted turkey wings (holy smokes was it chewy! delicious but chewy), avocado just with a little salt (I like smearing avocado on the meat, like a spread), a beet "salad" that's just sliced beet and sauerkraut (sooo good, sweet and sour and yummy) and some buttered broccoli. I also had pumpkin pie for dessert; just pumpkin, egg, homemade coconut milk, spices, and a little honey. I used half the amount of honey that the recipe calls for to keep my sugar monster in check. After the last two weeks that meal tasted positively decadent!

BTW, the coconut milk was super-easy to make. Here's the recipe I used as a basis; I literally threw a cup of water in and 3 tablespoons of coconut butter (aka coconut manna, or coconut cream concentrate), I didn't even blend it up first, just threw everything in the food processor and gave it all a good whirl. If you're going to drink the milk you're going to need some cheesecloth or a nut milk bag to squeeze out all the solids, but since I was baking I didn't worry about it. Worked beautifully!

TMI Report

TMI WARNING! Don't go below this if you don't want to know what goes on with my butt!






So you're still here? I actually initially started my diary initially to keep track of bathroom issues. This is something I've struggled with for years, as has everyone who's on GAPS I'm sure.

Day 5 (3/3/17): This first entry was because it was pretty god awful; sticky and foul smelling. Something was brewing in there. Hopefully it's the bad bacteria all dying off!


Day 6 (3/4/17): Half formed and mucousy - WTF, was it the mucus the intestines protect itself from the bad food and bacteria with coming out???


Day 7 (3/5/17): Bizarre smelling BM!! I've never smelled anything like this, it wasn't even like poo, it was like chemicals! WTF is going on down there?????


Day 8 (3/6/17): Kind of constipated. Small poos - still smells weird but not as weird as yesterday. Small things to be grateful for.


Day 9 (3/7/17): Finally, a normal poo! Decent sized, although a bit spongy and gassy. Still smelled a bit like the weird poo of Sunday but seemed pretty much back to normal.


Day 10 (3/8/17): Hopefully this will be the last one for a while. Today it seemed like it was pretty much back to normal (thank goodness)! The only strange thing is that it hardly smelled. That's a good thing I guess?

GAPS Day 13: Energized!

Here's another thing I'm noticing about myself since doing GAPS: I actually want to do things!! I remember years ago, even if I had no one to hang out with I'd go out and walk around town, window shop, browse bookstores and then go to a nice coffee shop on my days off. Lately, all I want to do on my day off is hang out in t-shirts and yoga pants and play video games. Even though I had a lot of nostalgia about just kicking around town I only did it if I was going to hang out with G and his friends. It wasn't just the painful feet either, although that had definitely something to do with it. I just had didn't want to anymore. I think this was because my lack of energy.

My friend's know that I almost never do anything during the week. It's hard enough for me to get home, feed the cats, and pick up a little around the apartment. Even during the weekends I don't really have time because I need to spend one day shopping, cooking, and cleaning for the week, which I do this way: work for a half hour, rest for an hour, work for another half hour, rest for another hour (or thereabouts). I couldn't do sustained work for very long and would have to rest. I would get (most) everything done by the end of the day but it took all day long. I'm usually still cooking or folding clothes at 9:00 at night. And if I went out or did something on Saturday, then I felt like I had no time to rest all week, because I have to do my chores on Sunday and then work all week and I'd end up feeling totally unrested.

Things always took so long, because I always need to take breaks and rest. I could get things done, they just take forever. This means that I had to be very selective about what I wanted to focus on. Recently this has been my work on Jungian psychology, which I needed to take a break from while doing all this cooking and shopping and even thinking for GAPS, in addition to being exhausted from dealing with die off or whatever this greater than usual lack of energy has been. And it's not purely about physical exhaustion although there is that. It's also largely mental exhaustion, I just don't have the mental capacity to focus for too long on one thing.

I realized I had the female form of ADD years ago, and went to a psychiatrist who put me on Adderall. This was useful but not a perfect cure - I still had a hard time motivating myself to do things that I found boring. When I got back into Jungian psychology I didn't want to take it anymore because I find that it interferes with my feelings, and I don't know what I'm actually feeling when I take it (as a thinking type I have problems knowing what I'm feeling in the moment as it is, I didn't need a drug making it even harder.)

One of the things I'd resigned myself to, though, was the fact that I was never going to be able to accomplish a lot. I had a very limited supply of energy, and a large part of that had to go to taking care of basic needs, like going to work, or making food for myself. I also had to spend some of it taking physical and mental breaks, because even if I have enough energy in my body to do something, that doesn't mean that I have enough mental capacity to focus on it.

Well, I can't be sure but I've been feeling like I want to do things! This is something for a miracle for me. While I was absolutely exhausted last week, since Saturday I've had twinges of wanting to get up and get out and do stuff. I'm still taking it a bit slowly - Saturday was an example of me biting off more than I could chew - but the feeling hasn't been going away. It's still too early to say "yea" or "nay" about whether or not this is actually happening - it's still only been about 2 weeks - but I'm really hoping that as I heal more I'll have more and more of that feeling again.

GAPS Day 12: Three cheers for GAPS!

WTF woke up an hour before my alarm! Yesterday I slept right through my alarm, today I wake up an hour early??? Maybe something had to get fixed yesterday or something. Or maybe it was under eating? Calorie restriction is supposed to ratchet up repair mechanisms in the body, so... maybe that's it? Also OMG! OMGOMGOMGOMG my shoulder felt better this morning! I had surgery on my right rotator cuff over a year ago and it's never stopped hurting. Well, this morning it felt better! Like, noticeable better!! Not perfect but much stronger - it feels more "sore" than "damaged". Holy shit! I don't know if it's the massive amount of gelatin I've been taking in with all those bone broths or the fact that my gut is better able to absorb nutrients (including co-factors like vitamins and minerals) that are necessary for healing or the calorie restriction or all of the above but it's a goddam miracle!!!

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I made liverwurst/braunschweiger last night. I can't stand liver, even though it's one of the most nutrient dense foods on the planet. I love liverwurst though and would often eat that but all the stuff in the supermarket is filled with off plan ingredients so it's time to try my hand at making it. I used this recipe as a base. I didn't have any allspice or marjoram so I used nutmeg, which I've seen in other recipes. It tasted disgusting when I tried it hot, straight from the food processor, but after it had chilled a bit it was pretty tasty. Still a bit too gritty for my liking but that's probably not going to change unless I get some sort of specialized kitchen equipment. This is basically what I did. Measurements are vague because I tend to do everything by feel... also my herbs and spices are dead so I put way more than I normally would. I ended up adjusting it a bit to taste after it's initial run through the food processor.

About a pound of chicken livers
About a half a pound of beef
1/3 cup of bacon fat
1/4 cup sautéed onions
1/3 cup mushroom mirepoix (sautéed and pureed onions, carrots, and mushrooms)
Sage
Nutmeg
About 2 teaspoons of salt

I had the mushroom mirepoix sitting in the fridge because I'd defrosted it for a planned meatloaf that I never ended up making. It's delicious and super useful stuff, though, so it's easy to incorporate into other stuff... like liver pate! I thought it would be a nice addition since many vegan pate's use mushrooms as a base, and they add some nice umami to the dish. The way I did it was to sautee the liver in the bacon fat. Most recipes call for bacon, but the bacon from my CSA is off limits because it has sugar but I figured the fat wouldn't, but it would add some delicious flavor. And it's from the meat CSA so it should be healthy. After it was sautéed I added the other ingredients and heated them through, then threw everything in my food processor and processed the crap out of it. When I tried it cold it was actually pretty tasty. It certainly smelled like the liverwurst I was used to yay! Here it is, with a bit of sauerkraut on the side; I love eating the two together as the sour, crunchy sauerkraut balanced the rich liverwurst very nicely. Once I'm including raw veggies in my diet I'll be able to eat the liverwurst on some celery, cucumber chips, or carrot sticks. This was my snack today.

But first was "breakfast" or lunch, or high tea or something. I always eat my first meal at 10:30 or 11:00 because that's when I start feeling hungry. Creamy mushroom soup with beef with calabasa pumpkin on the side. I tried it as a change from butternut - it's really common in my local supermarket because I live in a West Indian neighborhood. I didn't really like it at first, probably because it was new and different from the butternut that I've been eating since starting GAPS, but it grew on me. I still prefer the butternut's texture (the calabasa is really soft, verging on slimy, and slimy is a food texture that I cannot stand). The soup is something I tossed together: pureed broccoli with mushrooms, spinach, and ground beef. I also threw an egg yolk in there, along with a little lemon juice, to give it a "cheesy" flavor (I discovered while doing dairy free that a bit of acid mimics the tartness of cheeses like cheddar.) It was fine.

I don't know if I'm going to keep posting pictures of all of my meals because many of them look kind of gross. Doesn't it look a bit gross? Plus, it's often exactly the same (soup and squash). Maybe I'll wait to until I start eating something different lol.

GAPS Intro Diet Stages

I wrote this up when I first started researching the GAPS diet. Items that are italicized are new foods for that particular stage. I hope it's useful!


Stage 1
• Homemade bone broth with meat and soft boiled carrots
• Sauerkraut juice
• Ginger and/or herbal tea


Stage 2
• Homemade bone broth with meat
• Uncooked gg yolks (add to soup)
• Well-cooked, non-fibrous veggies: add one at a time to see how they go
• Stews and casseroles
• Fermented fish/gravlax
• Added fats (ghee, coconut oil, tallow, lard)
• Ginger and/or herbal tea


Stage 3
• Soup w/ homemade bone broth, meat, avocado, egg yolks, veggies, etc.
• Cooked veggies
• Eggs scrambled with a lot of ghee, animal fat, or coconut oil
• GAPS pancake (eggs, nut butter, and summer or winter squash)
• Avocado
• Sauerkraut
• Ghee, coconut oil, tallow, lard
• Ginger and/or herbal tea


Stage 4
• Soup w/ homemade bone broth, meat, avocado, egg yolks, veggies, etc.
• Cooked veggies
• Roasted meat
• Eggs scrambled in ghee, animal fat, or coconut oil
• GAPS pancake (eggs, nut butter, and summer or winter squash)
• GAPS bread: nut flour, eggs, summer or winter squash, fat
• Avocado
• Sauerkraut
• Homemade coconut milk (this isn't official, I just thought it was where it belonged)
• Ghee, coconut oil, tallow, lard
• Cold pressed olive oil
• Freshly pressed juice
• Ginger and/or herbal tea


Stage 5
• Soup w/ homemade bone broth, meat, avocado, egg yolks, veggies, etc.
• Roasted meat
• Eggs
• Cooked veggies
• Raw vegetables starting from softer parts of lettuce and peeled cucumber. After those two vegetables are well tolerated gradually add other raw vegetables
• Sauerkraut or other fermented vegetable
• Ripe bananas
• Cooked fruit (start w/ homemade applesauce, then move to other cooked fruit)
• GAPS pancake and/or GAPS bread
• Coconut flour (not specifically mentioned but I figured it would go here)
• Avocado
• Ghee, coconut oil, tallow, lard
• Cold pressed olive oil
• Condiments: coconut aminos, fish sauce, sesame oil (same, not sure where these go but this looks good)
• Ginger and/or herbal tea


Stage 6
• Soup w/ homemade bone broth, meat, avocado, egg yolks, veggies, etc.
• Roasted meat
• Eggs
• Cooked and raw veggies
• Sauerkraut or other fermented vegetable
• Cooked fruit (homemade applesauce, pearsauce, fruit compote) and ripe bananas
• Peeled raw fruit
• Dried fruit (not on the list but I guess it can go here if you can start using it as a sweetener)
• GAPS pancake and/or GAPS bread (can start sweetening w/ dried fruit and/ or honey)
• Avocado
• Ghee, coconut oil, tallow, lard
• Cold pressed olive oil
• Spices
• Honey
• Ginger and/or herbal tea



I'm sticking with stage 3 because I'm hoping that it will have a weight loss effect; this is basically Stephan Guynenet's Bland Food Diet. I tried it once before but didn't really have luck sticking to it. I think I went a little too extreme. Also, my PCOS didn't help I'm sure - I'm not even sure if I even lost any weight! At any rate, as of last weekend I seemed to have lost something but now I'm not so sure. I weighed myself every day since then (yes, I know, it's dumb of me) and nothing that I can see. I'm going to give it until the end of the month to see if it's had any effect.

PCOS is a party pooper but I figure if anything can help me move the needle down, it's eating bland but deeply nutritious food. I'm going to treat this as one of my N=1 experiments and stick it out for the whole month. Wish me luck!

GAPS Day 11: Happy feet

Last night I made what I call Chinese soup; after the getting so tired of eating the same soup (chicken stock, chicken, carrots) for the first two days of GAPS I realized I had to make it somewhat interesting or risk failing because I absolutely could not eat any more boring ass food. So I researched the internet for GAPS stage 1 to 3 recipes, soups and casseroles. And I made a list of 17 soups I could put together in the mornings to bring to work, everything from French Onion to Vietnamese Pho. Now my co-workers are always asking what I'm eating that smells so good, lol! The "Chinese Soup" I made was the following:

Stock (I used beef because that's what's in my crockpot)
Steam sauteed ground pork (because that's the meat I had on hand)
Mushrooms
Steam sautéed bok choy
Fish sauce
A splash of coconut aminos
Fresh green onions

Steam sautéing is something I learned from Melissa Joulwan, author of the Paleo cookbook Well Fed. Melissa's book follows the Whole30 philosophy so its actually perfect for GAPS and SCD'ers as there's little starch and no added sugars involved. The food is also amazingly delicious! Since Paleo people also often have to prep their food for the entire week, one of her secrets is "steam sautéing" or sautéing vegetables in a little oil and a little water (I use broth) to pre-cook the food so all you have to do is assemble your meals during the week. Doing this means I can just assemble and heat up my lunch and put it in my soup thermos and I'm ready to go.

I wasn't hungry at all at 10:30, which is when I normally eat my "breakfast". I'm usually not hungry until then, and I've read that your body is in detox mode until that time so it works out well. The soup turned out really well, too! It tasted a lot like real Chinese soup (although my taste buds have probably completely changed in the nearly 2 weeks I've been doing this.) I'm not sure if coconut aminos are GAPS legal - there may be some residual sugar from the fermentation process - but I know amino acids are helpful when trying to heal the gut, and they've got to be better than Braggs liquid aminos which are made from soy. The orange stuff on the side is mashed butternut squash, my go to carb. I put some extra virgin coconut oil on it this time and it smelled heavenly! Didn't really go with the soup so I had it for "dessert." It was good.  :)   Here's a picture - I almost forgot that I wanted to start taking pics of my meals so the soup is half-eaten sorry!

I was starving for dinner - ate nothing last night and the Chinese soup, although delicious, wasn't filling at all. I haven't been putting a lot of meat in my soups when getting burned putting too much food in my food and not being able to finish it. Well, it wasn't enough today so by the time I got home I could've eaten my head! I've started making "omelettes" (meats and veggies cooked in broth, chopped avocado, topped with a softly fried scrambled egg, kind of like an open omelette) and tonight I wanted a GIANT ONE! It ended up being a bit too much, though, but I managed to finish it. I felt stuffed afterwards though.

There's something else I've noticed since starting GAPS; my feet don't hurt! I used to have problems standing for long times. Commuting to and from work, which required standing for around 40 minutes each way, was a special hell. Yesterday on my way home I noticed something... my feet weren't killing me!! It's a goddam miracle!!! Usually I keep my eye out for an open seat, but last night I didn't even care because I wasn't in pain!

A couple years ago my feet and ankles started hurting. When G and I went to Seattle together I had to spend half the time resting because my feet hurt so much, even wearing Doc Martens with super fancy (and super expensive - they cost as much as the boots!) orthopedic inserts. G loves Seattle and he's been there several times. He really wanted to share the city he loved with me. We walked around, took tours, and ate delicious food that was probably contributing to my pain.

I didn't regret it and when we came back home and I went back to eating Paleo my feet got better, but never perfect. It still hurt to stand for long periods, it just didn't hurt all the time. At one point, before I'd gone back to eating paleo, even stretching my legs in the morning hurt. I had to move my feet in a certain specific direction to avoid hot shooting pains of agony. And if I ever accidentally bumped my heels on something forgetaboutit, FLAMING WHITE HOT PAIN. Thankfully that went away but I could never stand for long, even eating gluten free or Paleo. But guess what? I CAN NOW!! How amazing is that?