What's my motivation?

"What's my motivation?" I love that question in theater. Most lines are so very ambiguous that without a clear answer to the question, they become dull and meaningless, rehearsed to oblivion. This is also the danger of a strict diet. So here's my motivation.

Over Christmas break I had a nice long chat with my doctor. My lab results were beyond out of whack: hormones, vitamins, minerals, neurotransmitters, it all pointed to one very trashed system. This at least gave me a starting point for explaining my depression, weight difficulties, and other symptoms; but I just couldn't quite swallow the prognosis of a "genetic disposition to non-absorption of vitamin B." And then I started getting a clue of just how much all this was going to cost to re-balance through supplementation. We'll call it a shocking experience and leave it at that.

On December 29, I finally made the magical connection: Vitamins? Produced/consumed by gut flora. Neurotransmitters? Controlled by gut flora. Hormones? Controlled by vitamins. For the first time in my life I saw cause and effect instead of pills. With astonishing timing, my mom's copy of the GAPS book arrived the next day. I consumed it and, for the most part, it made sense. It was magic, I tell ye, magic. I looked out and saw three options:

• Ignore it all, continuing to lose quality of life until I died of a heart attack/cancer/diabete/strokes at age 45.
• Supplement the heck out of my system and force it further and further into disequilibrium while plunging into poverty to the sound of my insurance provider's laughter.
• Try GAPS.

The rest is history. Or technically—the rest is the future.

What's your motivation in the GAPS journey? This is not exactly something one stumbles into accidentally. Comment about it!