GAPS v.2017, Week 1 Intro

we're a bit waterlogged from all the rain we got over the weekend

I've known for months that I needed to get back on GAPS, but I've been putting it off. First there was Halloween coming up, then Thanksgiving, then Christmas and New Years. All involve chocolate and yummy food that I didn't want to give up.

And I was still breastfeeding Ocean, and didn't want to mess with that. But lately he's been losing interest, and my milk supply has been drying up. He turned 18 months old last week, which is 6 months longer than Sunshine nursed and 2.5 months longer than River nursed. So I'm ok with him being done. This puts me at just over four straight years of being pregnant and/or nursing- not something I would have predicted happening even two and a half years ago.

I've also been gradually removing one food after another from my diet over the last few months: potatoes, rice, corn... Even chocolate had to fall by the wayside. I was becoming so sensitive to it that if I ate any after 3 pm I couldn't sleep that night :(

Having to give up chocolate was the last straw.

I was already so close to GAPS, that it wasn't that hard to start. The hardest part was talking myself into just starting. I only had to cut out sweet potatoes, my grain free bread (which was starting to be problematic as well), and dairy. I do miss cheese and yogurt, but I'll be able to add homemade cheese and yogurt back in soon.

I was reviewing my notes from the first time Sunshine and I did GAPS, more than four years ago, and it was a very different experience from this time around.

It's a lot easier this time.

Part of why I put it off so long was because I knew it wouldn't be easy and I wasn't looking forward to all the side effects: brain fog, crankiness, feeling crummy, food cravings, and so on.

So it was a pleasant surprise to realize that's not the case this time. I had a touch of brain fog early on, but nothing bad, which is really good since I've got lots of work to get done and need my brain working properly. I haven't had any real cravings, though I got close Sunday night when we got home late from church. I made the perfect grilled cheese sandwiches for the kids' dinner before starting on my soup, and I was so hungry that I was seriously tempted to snitch half of Ocean's sandwich. I restrained myself and made sure there was lots of fat in my soup, and I was fine.

Another thing that struck me when I reviewed my notes was that I didn't mention weight loss. I have no idea if I lost weight then. I must have since GAPS can be low carb and I mention at one point that I was struggling with the effects of being too low carb, but I didn't track that weight loss.

This time I am, since a major goal of doing GAPS is to finally lose weight. That will only happen if I heal the damage to my intestines and get my PCOS under control. GAPS will help with the first and should also help with the second.

In my first week of GAPS, doing Phase 1 of the Intro diet, I lost 5.8 pounds. Woohoo! I don't expect that to be the case every week, but it was definitely a good start. I'm sure most of that weight loss came from drastically lowering my carb intake.

I originally planned on just spending three days per phase of the Intro diet, but two days in I decided to stay on the first phase for a full week. I was feeling good and felt like it would be a good decision, so I did it. Last time we spent a full week on each phase, but I'm not sure that will be the case this time. I'll decide during each phase how long I want to spend on it; a minimum of three days but probably not more than a week.