I went along pretty well for a week after my last post. The main exception was a chili cook-off; how can one make chili without sampling said chili? And that led to a downhill slope of sampling all chilis, and then having a full bowl of a couple chilis. Interestingly, the effects weren't as drastic as I was expecting. I blamed it on my body needing a "carb reload" and continued on my way. At the end of the week I visited my boyfriend's house; here I fell into another slump. I even brought my own food, but what's that compared to grandma cookies?
Which brings us to the beginning of last week. I'd had it. I was tired of the off-again on-again thing, and I finally pinpointed the root of many of my slips out of GAPS (and subsequent plunges). In addition to learning some lessons about eliminating this root, which I'll discuss more in a post about sacrifice, I started keeping a count of perfect days on my mirror in eyeliner:
Today is day 8! Woohoo! Why 50 total? Haven't the slightest idea, it sounded like a nice achievable number. Since this calendar, I've only had one bad day. (Ok, two; but I excused one due to helping a friend, skipping lunch, and ending up incredibly hungry.)
Much more importantly: as my tally counted up and I began to feel more in control of the GAPS style, my mother and I reached an important conclusion. I've decided to go off my meds and supplements for six months—minus thyroid hormone and hydrocortisone, which are subject to scrutiny. Why?
Because I've decided that over the next six months, I want to discover what it means for me, personally, to achieve my optimum health without intervention. (At the end, we'll reassess the intervention options.) This means working through GAPS. This means low stress and lots of sleep. This means some structured exercise, a whole lot of walking, and active play time.
In college. Yep. I'm crazy like that.
As for what my daily GAPS diet looks like, it's something like this:
- All meals: soup w/egg yolk and kraut, seasoned with turmeric, cayenne, and fresh basil
- Some ginger/honey concentrate
- One meal: seaweed (nori) in the soup
- Most meals: chocolate yogurt (yogurt, coconut oil, vanilla, and cocoa powder)
- Snacks: broth, almonds, cooked veggies
This puts me somewhere between stages 2 and 3 of intro. Turmeric is just an awesome spice all around, and cayenne is listed as a candida-fighter (which, after all, is a cousin of GAPS). I know Dr. Campbell-McBride doesn't recommend nori until Full GAPS, but I put it in for the iodine to support thyroid since I'm diagnosed hypothyroid. From what I can tell, cocoa is also normally Full GAPS; you could call it my treat to keep myself sane.
The plan is to keep to this til the end of the week and then, hopefully, bring on full stage 3. Where I'm really lacking in insight, and wish I could have some professional advice, is with candida. I've had mild but chronic thrush in my mouth for years, and one of my goals is to get my tongue to a nice healthy pink. What I'm unsure of is which stage of Intro to stop on while I wait for this to happen. Ideally, I'd rather not go full stage 3 til my tongue is healthy; but I don't really see this happening by the end of the week. On the other hand…this stage is getting old…! I shall post again when I have a better feel for the best decision.
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