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 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!

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?

GAPS Day 10: Losing weight?????

Still chugging along. Felt better this morning, kind of like I did this weekend if not as dramatic. I think the inulin did me in - the bad bacteria had their last little hurrah. This is interesting because it shows how even a tiny amount of sugar or starch can really have a negative impact, at least at the point I'm at now. This is motivating me even more to do this GAPS thing 100%, and stay with this for as long as I have to.

Had "creamy mushroom soup" for lunch (some onion and a bunch of pre-sautéed mushrooms blended with the stick blender, with some ground pork and an egg yolk mixed in). My co-worker said it smelled delicious. It tasted delicious! I also added a small container of mashed butternut squash topped with browned butter ghee and a tiny bit of himalayan salt; sooooo goooood! My co-worker was kind of jealous lol! After the first two days on GAPS stage one, eating the same chicken/carrot soup I literally could not bring myself to look at it anymore and realized I'd need to come up with some tasty combos if I wanted to survive. Scoured the internet and made a list of 17 soup options - I'll post them tomorrow.

I'm running out of the beef stock so I was going to get an organic chicken from the food coop but I forgot to get off the train so I decided to see if I could find on at my local regular supermarket. They did not have it so I just got a rotisserie chicken. Thinking about that chicken and taking it home made me sooooo hungry! I pretty much tore into it as soon as I got in. Ate it with avocado (I forgot to buy more! AGAIN!!) and a simple salad of sliced beets and sauerkraut. The salad was really tasty, kind of sweet and sour with crunch from the sauerkraut. The chicken was AMAZING! It's been so long since I've had anything that wasn't boiled. I ate all the legs, thighs, and wings. Smeared with some of the avocado it was heavenly! I'm sure I overate but whateverrrr.

I'd decided over the weekend to try to see if I could actually maybe possibly lose some weight on GAPS. I wasn't trying to - after the last time when I did cyclic low carb and I lose zero pounds I'd given up. PCOS ruled my life, or at least my waistline. But when I weight myself Sunday morning I saw that I was 20 pounds less than when I'd last weight myself last year, after the last one month low carb attempt. And it does look like I've lose some weight since starting GAPS. I can't know because I didn't weigh/measure myself at the beginning. I kept weight myself (despite knowing I shouldn't) every morning since then; I should have taken my own advice, it went down a tiny bit maybe, then went up again this morning. It's stupid, I'm not going to weight myself again until the end of the month!

The reason I thought it would work is 1) maybe it's the bad bacteria that made me fat in the first place! Also, 2) low "seductiveness" is the only really "diet" that's been actually shown to permanently lower the "adipostat" (the adipostat is the weight one's body decides is the best weight; like a thermostat, the body fights to keep it's weight at the adipostat, whether one is trying to lose or even gain weight.) I tried doing this before, making boring, tasteless soups, but I didn't last. But now that I have to stick with this, for reasons other than vanity but serious health conditions, maybe I can manage to lose some weight? Maybe??

GAPS Day 9: Joining the human race?

Woke up with what seemed to be some slight pain in my ankles (due to the inulin from yesterday?) Mood ok, nothing spectacular but still calm and upbeat.

One thing that's amazed me about this little experiment is the psychological effect it's had. I'd experienced a lifting of the brain fog while doing Paleo, but this is something exponentially different, almost personality changing. For one thing, I've been feeling truly happy. I didn't realize how not happy I was until I started feeling this feeling of calm positivity and good humor over the weekend. There was also a lessening of a general feeling of anxiety that I'd never really been aware of - I always considered myself a bit high strung but I'm coming to think that it's actually anxiety.

I also had moments of really, truly enjoying being with others. This is another thing I was never really aware of; I always knew that I felt stressed by being with most people (with the exception of close family members, G, F, and another close friend, K). Even with people I really liked, I found myself quickly exhausted from spending time with them. Of course parties are an absolute nightmare! But I've been having flashes of actually wanting to move toward people. I never realized that I have a pronounced avoidant streak; I think I may be on the autism/Aspergers spectrum. If that's truly the case, then this diet would of course help.

It's been an amazing, eye-opening experience and it's only been a week!

GAPS Day 8: Uh oh

I took probiotics and prebiotics (inulin) in my morning water; according to the book you're supposed to drink a cup of water with lemon, preferably warm but I really like my water cold. I just tossed the inulin in there with the probiotics because that's what I've always done when I drink something with probiotics in it. This may have been a mistake - I forgot that the whole point of this diet is to not feed the bad bacteria. But you're also supposed to take probiotics and eat probiotic foods! I mixed my probiotic drink with water and added inulin to the water to give it something to eat. But this may not have been such a hot idea.

GAPS Day 7: Staying out of bad food

Woke up feeling great again. Spent the day kind of getting ready for the week, but mostly just relaxing. G went out with his friends - came back early because he was cold. Didn't bother eating while he was out so he ended up getting Chinese food from our favorite Chinese place. THANKS G!!! Made him eat in the other side of the apartment so I didn't have to look at all the delicious food I couldn't eat.

GAPS Day 6: Windy city

Woke up feeling happy and really good, like I wanted to go out and do things. Unusually so. Up to today I've been really draggy. Tuesday was the worst - I had to stay home because my muscles literally felt like they had no energy in them. I've been babying myself, taking it really easy. Today was the first day I woke up feeling good, and not just good REALLY good! Way better than ever! Unfortunately, it's also freezing cold and crazy windy! I kind of made G go out with me. He asked me where I wanted to go and I said to Prospect Park. This turned out to be way unrealistic. We went to Cortelyou Road instead, which was about a 10 minute walk, although in that wind it felt like an hour. I was ok but G is more sensitive to the cold. When we got back he jumped under the blanket, poor guy. We cuddled under the blanket though, which is the best way I can think of to spend a cold, grotty Saturday.

Wandering around Acronymlandia

Feeling like I've been in the desert for years

(My first post was getting monstrously long so I've divided it in two; the previous part was my history of health issues and my attempts to resolve this. This post will be about issues I'm dealing with on GAPS.)



A very good friend of my aunt's - my cousin's (the one who had the wedding) godmother. A wonderful woman. She died of a heart attack the day after my cousin's wedding. She'd been obese for years and was finally pretty much stuck in a wheelchair the last few years. She had developed congestive heart disease and had trouble breathing. She could barely walk with the help of a cane or walker. She was a kind, loving, and well loved woman. She should not have died as young as she did. I don't want to go down that road!!

I know that I need to get serious about my health; what I do now determines how I live for the last decades of my life, and I want those to be full of wonderful experiences, and ease in my body. It's not going to be easy; not only are we surrounded by food that hurts us, and will eventually kill us, but I struggle with getting the people around me to be supportive of my health goals. Except for F, who, the last time I saw him, made sure that I did not get unhealthy (even if it was gluten free) crap but had healthy, nourishing food (he bought me kombucha and almonds when I wanted to get soda and potato chips.)

Other than F, everyone else either clueless or downright unhelpful. In particular, I struggle with my boyfriend. We work together but he has a later schedule than me, so I've gotten into the habit of staying after work to eat dinner with him. He won't go on the diet with me (I'm pretty sure he has gut issues which make it very difficult for him to not eat shit food because the bad bacteria are all screaming for it). I didn't bother asking him to because I know how he is with food.

I make him his dinner, which is what we used eat together (something loaded with non-GAPS ingredients like sugar with rice or potatoes on the side) but I don't want to have him sit in front of me and eat it! I don't need to smell or see this!! It's hard enough!!! I ask him to eat in another part of the apartment, away from me, when he's eating toast with nutella, or the spareribs combo (the kind with pork fried rice and my beloved egg rolls) from our favorite Chinese place. I ask him to get this food out of the apartment so I'm less tempted but it's still hard!

We had a talk last night about this. I was listening to one of Christ Kresser's podcasts, his latest one with obesity expert Stephan Guyanet. As the podcast was closing Chris asked Stephan what was the one thing, the most important thing, he could tell people about healing obesity. Stephan told Christ that the one thing people could do was to get rid of food triggers. We're already bombarded with the most seductive commercials from food corporations that don't care about our health, they just want our dollars, and that means making the most tempting (but least healthy) "foods" they can. We can't really do anything about that, but we can make sure to get all that shit out of our homes.

Since I started this, I've been asking G (my boyfriend) to take leftover non-GAPS food out of the house. I already got a bunch of it out; I gave away individually packaged rice pudding snack cups, sweetened coconut, Ghirardelli chocolate chips, etc. to co-workers. I dumped the leftover whipped cream and heavy cream down the sink since G said he didn't want it. But there's still some stuff left, including a giant jar of NUTELLA! When I heard Stephan talking I finished up what I was doing and walked over to where G was lying down on the sofa and asked him to listen to the end of the podcast with me. Then we had a talk.

I told him how important it was that I do this, but that it was hard. I didn't want to end up like my aunt's friend; I didn't want to be stuck in a wheelchair or a recliner, unable to move. Needing to be cared for. Dependent. I wanted to have a bright, healthy future, but I needed him to be on board, 100%, to do what I needed him to do to help me with this. That I'd really like him to do this, too, quite honestly. Besides gut and bathroom issues, he has issues with anxiety, which I'm positive have to do with his messed up gut. But if he can't do it with me, to support me in whatever way he could. This includes supporting me in not having dinner with him. Not only do I need the extra hour to get all the goddam cooking eating like this requires (not to mention the nightly detox bath), but that seeing and smelling his delicious dinner was just too hard for me at this point.

This made him really sad. We talked about it. He's been alone for so long, and getting a chance to spend time with, and share things with, someone he enjoys being with and loves... giving that up has really hit him hard. We hardly get a chance to see each other now that his schedule's been changed; he gets home at around 9:30 and I should really go to bed at 11:00 (although I literally never get to bed before 12:00, unless I'm exhausted or something.) He's much more affectionate than I am, and loves being with people way more than me. I'm quite happy with what I get at work, and the few hours with G at night. I think he needs more. We're working on balancing our needs, but for now he's agreed to help me however he can with my health because he knows how important it is. He's just not very proactive, and has a hard time seeing beyond his feelings. This is a great learning experience for both of us.

So, I'm soldiering on, along with my loved ones. I'm nervous and excited about this experiment. I've failed so many times before; even though I learned something each time, and each experience has benefited me, I haven't come close to permanently resolving my health issues. I don't want to get over excited and think "NOW I've found THE solution!!! This time it will work!!!!!" I've been burned too many times. But I do know that this will do something; I'm already seeing some amazing improvements, including of some issues I hadn't even been aware of having! I know some good - some great and wonderful good - is coming from this experiment so even if I don't lose a hundred pounds and become a perfect specimen of health, I think this will be an enormously helpful experience.

I didn't think to start this blog until after reading and enjoying Starlene's so I'm missing a few days. I hope seeing my struggles will help you with yours! Join me on our journey to health... and self-discovery, too!

My life in Acronymlandia to now

My life until now! (LOL)

(This is a long one - my health journey is more complicated than I realized!)



Even though I've been doing GAPS for almost a week, I was inspired by Starlene Stewart of GAPS Diet Journey to start my own diary of my visit to GAPS town, both so I can see my progress (fingers crossed!) and for others who are starting or are thinking of starting their own attempt. It's not easy, and it's been enormously helpful, inspiring even, to read about other people's experiences. I hope this blog can do the same for someone else.

I found myself in Acronymlandia - living with PCOS, GERD, and SIBO - decades ago, even though I didn't realize it until fairly recently. In my early 20's I started having issues with gas (mostly burping but often out the other end as well). In my late 20's I started developing seborrheic dermatitis, a lovely skin condition where you have giant monster sized flakes of dandruff. Super attractive and not embarrassing at all! By my late 30's I also had gross, scaly (seriously scaly, like the Creature from the Black Lagoon scaly) eczema on the front of my ankles; and keratosis pilaris (tiny hard little nubs keratin, i.e. fingernail, growing in your pores) along with a rashy redness on my upper arms. For most of this time I also had hidradenitis suppurativa, another skin condition, this one looks like the absolute worst and most disgusting case of giant acne pimples on the inside of my thighs.

Holy moly, looking back on it I really was a mess! I do remember feeling depressed and pretty much resigned to never having an intimate relationship because who in their right mind would want to date a scaly, rashy, bumpy, acne-y mess. All this changed when I found the Paleo diet. Almost immediately all of my skin conditions started getting better. I was on a kick! I lost a ton of weight, almost without trying, by sticking with low-ish carb Paleo. This lasted for about half a year; I was feeling great! I had started training at a great Crossfit box in Brooklyn. I was doing WODS! I was lifting crazy heavy weights! I felt AWESOME!!

It all came crashing down when, after a workout, I started feeling pain in my right shoulder. I motored through it, because that's what you do! I didn't let it stop me! At work, I kept lifting heavy things above my head! I kept working out! I kept doing bench presses! The bench presses which had irritated my rotator cuff tendon because I had bone spurs that I had no idea I even had until I started exercising. I blindly kept this up until I tore my left rotator cuff tendon, too. This time I did not try to be a hero. I pampered my left shoulder. I did nothing until the soreness disappeared. And I went to an orthopedic doctor, who told me that I had torn both tendons and would need surgery. SUPER DUPER AWESOME!

I tried to keep up with Paleo but I started backsliding, and then backsliding a little more. I'd do strict month-long resets then tell myself I would eat 80/20 Paleo (80% Paleo/20% Standard American Diet, or SAD). It would not go the way I planned. The holidays would come and I'd tell myself that I would let myself eat whatever then be strict again, and I would manage to stick with it when I had to do it 100% but I could never keep it up. I tried different month-long rounds of Diane Sanfilippo's 21 Day Sugar Detox, and John Kiefer's Carb Nite. All of these short term solutions were beneficial, but they never lasted. During this time I had started living with my boyfriend (did I mention him? I got a boyfriend! After years and years and years of nothing! OMG!) Awesome as he was, he found himself constitutionally incapable of resisting the lure of crappy SAD foods.

Then, last year I tried a month of cyclic low carb and... Nothing. I lost nothing, not one pound! It didn't work!! It was then that I realized that I had PCOS, a hormonal imbalance in women that, among other symptoms, makes it really, really, REALLY hard to lose weight. With this realization I basically gave up, and decided to just try eat well and exercise; to be healthy regardless of my size.

But a storm was brewing on the horizon; the GERD that I'd been struggling with for years - the excessive gas after meals had progressed to having to suffer the torture of food getting stuck halfway down your esophagus - got even worse. It was bad enough to have food get stuck in your esophagus. It's one of the most painful things I've ever felt, like trying to birth through your chest! It didn't happen very often, maybe once every couple of months, but when it did it was AWEFUL! But then, even though I couldn't imagine it getting any worse, it got worse: it wouldn't go down. The first time this happened I was in the bathroom at work, terrified that I was going to have to go to the ER to have this food removed, but then my body went into action and I vomited it up into the toilet (to my great relief.)

Since that incident it's happened several more times, even though I tried to chew and chew my food until it was mush; I would forget and get a little careless, and then it would get stuck again. Most of the time it would go down, as it had before, but a couple of times I had to upchuck what was stuck, including at my cousin's beautiful wedding (joy!!).

Around this time I started developing new symptoms whenever I would go off Paleo; swelling and severe pain and inflammation in my ankles! On my last vacation my good friend (F) came over and painted my apartment for me. As a "thank you" I paid for all his food. Since I was busy too (Boyfriend an I would do all the cleaning and prepping of the area, including moving furniture from one part of my small studio apartment to the other - it was like a giant, exhausting Rubik's cube). My pain was so bad I could barely stand, and had to take frequent breaks. I showed F my ankles and he was horrified - it didn't even look like I had ankles! I immediately went off gluten and that helped enormously. I still ate tons of rice, potatoes, and SUGAR though.

This was in October, the beginning of bad food season, and I wasn't going to make myself trigger disordered thinking around food. I've struggled with this since as a result of  dieting from my teens to my late 20's, when I decided that loving myself and being kind to myself was more important than what people thought about me. I have a much better relationship with food and with my body now, but I still will have a reactive urge to binge if I restrict my diet too much, or even if  I'm around people who are judgmental about food and eating.

It was around this time that I realized that I probably had PCOS. I have all the symptoms: obesity, exhaustion, unwanted hair on unwanted parts of my body (like my chin), hair loss where I actually wanted it (like my head), sleep problems (sleep apnea, for which I've used a CPAP machine for years). It all fell into place. I started trying to work on this issue, too. But the GERD was always there in the back of my mind. I knew I had to do something about it. I had known what the solution was for a few years but I had avoided doing it because it's so hard, and takes so long. I had to go on a GAPS/SCD style diet, and I had to stick with it far longer than the month or few months that I normally would do.

I need to do this. I'm 47 years old. I've had a good 25 years of health issues that need to be cleared up (longer if you look at how I went from a skinny, healthy kid to an overweight, hungry all the time teen - I'm sure my gut issues really started around puberty if not a little earlier). I don't want to be stuck in a wheelchair when I'm 60. I want to live a full life, and life requires a healthy body.


(To be continued! Because this got waaaaaaay too long for one post!!)