Yeah, I know. The “Best Food” ever? Not exactly the kind of description you would expect for someone writing about going through the GAPS Intro diet. After all, Intro is this horribly scary, super-depriving bout of self-torture where you’re stuck in a state of utter anguish ingesting nothing but hot soups and soured cabbage, right?
Erm, no.
My not-so-secret secret? (if you’ve been following on Facebook or Twitter…)
I kinda really like Intro.
One of the things I like about it the most is that it has completely changed how much I desire and appreciate food. For one thing, my appetite is still through the roof — which is a great thing for me, because my body never had an appropriate appetite before.
But more than that, food has just never tasted so good to me in my LIFE. Everything that I’m allowed to eat just sounds delicious — to the point where I don’t even care about not being able to have the other stuff yet. And I get SO excited to introduce new foods. Sensitivity test, wake up, new noms to eat. It’s like GAPS Christmas, every day!
I do want to say here, though, that I know this is not everyone’s experience. Some people report continued loss of appetite, along with other icky die-off symptoms like nausea at the sight of food. That just hasn’t been the case for either PH or I, though.
Uh, are we doing something wrong?
I really started to wonder. Were we not eating enough ferments? Not doing enough detox strategies, like juicing and baths? Not taking enough probiotics, maybe?
Well, we didn’t introduce our BioKult until late in the second week, which could possibly account for our lack of die-off symptoms. We also didn’t have our fermented cod liver oil until a few days later, which being such a potently nourishing superfood, has the potential to kick up the cruddy die-off feelings because it aids in detoxification.
Wait, maybe those bad bugs are dying, after all
Actually, it turns out that my mega-appetite actually may be a die-off symptom in and of itself. A GAPS-experienced blogging friend of mine explained that since the pathogenic flora are no longer getting to dine on a steady stream of starches and sugar, they will instead just tell your body to keep shoveling down everything in sight, in hopes that they get what they want before they keel over.
Meh, well, I’ll take it. I love eating. Which is actually something I used to not be able to say.
And PH did start to experience some insomnia, however, he wasn’t convinced this was really anything out of the ordinary for him, or that it would not have been happening if we weren’t going through Intro.
He’s been under a lot of stress with work, and says that he was waking up in the middle of the night or very early in the morning to go pee (understandable, given the extraodinary amount of broth we consume, and dinner time is no exception — we go to bed not long after we eat dinner so we can get plenty of sleep) and then was unable to go back to sleep because he had so much on his mind.
This thoughts-spinning-around-in-your-head thing is a symptom of neurotransmitter deficiency, and is fixable with amino acid supplementation. You can read more about how to do this in The Mood Cure by Julia Ross. So, since we’re not doing any other supplements than the FCLO and Bio Kult, we’re holding off on continuing amino acid therapy til after Intro.
But as for me, I’ve been sleeping great, and as long as I go to bed early enough, I have plenty of energy during the day. Especially when I get my morning juice. PH’s sleep troubles seem to have gone to the wayside the last few nights, and he says he feels like the juice gives him a good pick-me-up in the morning as well.
Basically, we pretty much feel awesome! Let’s move onto all that good FOOD we’ve been getting to eat!
Casserole <3
Some of our favorite dishes from the What Can I Eat Now? handbook have been baked casseroles — something I rarely used to make. With layers of meat and veggies, with broth poured over, we don’t even miss the cheese all that much!
One we really love is the Taco Salad Casserole (totally-not-doing-it-justice picture above). We used a really tasty sirloin steak layered with tomatoes and onions, and a chili and garlic mixed in, topped with guacamole when it was served. Amazing!
Nut flour bread.
Oh heavens. We had been really looking forward to this one, and it did not disappoint. I made my own almond flour (I’ll put up a post about how to do that soon), and used butternut squash. Somehow that, mixed with eggs, salt, and ghee, turns into this unbelievably amazing bread-like egg bake delight. I guess really, it’s not very bread-y, which is fine cause eventually we’ll be able to make much more believable bread alternatives with other ingredients, but for now, this was just perfect! We also loved it with zucchini, and I left some of the almonds kind of chunky for a little crunch.
And honey! We got to introduce honey in Week 3 as well. Spread on top of our beloved nut bread, as well as those squash pancakes we couldn’t stop eating, was such a treat! We also started dipping our crispy walnuts in honey for a snack. Tastes like candy!
Juicing!
Oh, man do I have a new love in the kitchen. My cheap little juicer! (Under $30 bucks!)
Juicing begins in Stage 4 of Intro, starting with a little bit of fresh carrot juice. I’d never had carrot juice before, but now I just cannot get enough! Once we started adding fresh mint to it — aah! Even better. In stage 5, we get to add in fresh fruit to the juice, too. Really excited for that!
Juicing is important on Intro as both a detoxification method as well as a way to give your body a jolt of healing vitamins and nutrients, as well as carbohydrates. And energy, like I mentioned earlier!
Fresh salad and my new olive oil obsession
Ahh… we got to have our first taste of RAW food, finally! A fresh salad with soft lettuce and peeled sliced cucumber was suggested in What Can I Eat Now?, the Intro handbook we’ve been following. And wow, was it refreshing.
As a dressing, we were to use our Olive Oil and Fresh Herb Blend recipe from the book. It was amazing in the salad, but we started adding this stuff to everything! Olive oil is supposed to be added to every meal once it’s introduced. Which I’m more than okay with, because mixed up with fresh garlic and herbs from our garden, it’s the best thing ever! I mix up a fresh batch about every couple of days.
“We’re so normal right now, it’s not even funny.”
This was the conclusion we came to eating a three-course dinner of a cup of vegetable soup, fresh green salad, roasted chicken drumsticks, caramelized onions and asparagus spears, drizzled with herbed olive oil, and a side of nut flour zucchini bread with honey butter (ghee). What about that sounds even the slightest bit restrictive or like we’re missing out on “normal” food? Yeah that’s what I thought! SO normal, y’all.
The Home Stretch
We’re already now into our (most likely) last week of Intro. I’ll be putting up our Week 4 update next week, and before we know it, we’ll be on Full GAPS!
In case you missed it, here’s how weeks one and two went for us.
What about you?
Are you thinking about giving this GAPS thing a try yet? You’re in for some amazing-tasting food, I tell ya. Share your thoughts in the comments!
The Casserole Dish Looks so darn yummy.I wish I could cook like that.I think I can do It If I develop more patience in cooking.
What a great reminder of all of the great food you can eat on intro! That’s encouraging to me as I get ready to start intro again in a couple of weeks. I so remember the excitement of adding new foods! I think we even had some friends over for dinner at about the stage you are on and I felt like I was actually serving a real dinner. 🙂
So glad to hear this is encouraging to you, Mindy! And that it’s been a reminder that the really soupy, mushy, boiled stages are over pretty quickly –before you know it you really are in “real dinner” territory! 😀 Keep me posted on how this next round of Intro goes for you!
You’re really making me want to do this now. If I do, I think the 30 days of meal plans you’ve got would be invaluable.
I’m glad you’re feeling so good on GAPS. I hope this is the beginning of good things for you and pre-hubby
Thanks so much, Emma! I’m really glad this has been encouraging you to think about giving GAPS a try. Having the 30 day handbook has been a huge help, for sure. And those 30 days really fly by pretty quick!
Hi Emily,
Thanks for linking to me 🙂
I want to say that you have been an inspiration to me with your GAPS intro posts. As you know I did a gluten challenge after about a year on GAPS. The gluten thoroughly messed me up. Coming back to GAPS was something I was looking forward to, but the rest of my family is solidly on the full diet and over the year we had really slipped with regard to things like juicing and detox baths, and even making sure everyone ate their broth all the time.
You’ve reminded me of how important those basic things are. Last night I took a nice long epsom salt bath. I’ve been having a hard time regulating my sleep since Kelsy had to change her schedule (last month she started student teaching high school early in the morning). Of course magnesium is good for that.
I also had been a bit off track with my digestion still, and reintroducing my carrot juice took care of that for me. I love the ginger-carrot flavor first thing in the morning.
As for the eating, I know I said ravenous appetite can be die-off, and it can! However, increased appetite in the long run is something that can happen, too, as you finally start to enjoy food, and your body is not fighting so hard any more.
That’s what happened to our daughter. Of course she had her sugar withdrawal, but then she started liking eating. You can read all about it in my Picky Eaters post.
We’re still trying to figure out why she’s so small. We thought that surely going from a few bites of sugar and dairy to full plates of healthy fats and protein and all kinds of veggies would make a big difference in her size, but it hasn’t. It has changed her mood and her ability to think clearly, though.
I recently read The Mood Cure, too. Interesting stuff. I tried L-tyrosine (when I was having issues with mild depression, lack of motivation, inability to get out of bed in the morning) but it triggered hypomania so I quit. I talked to my naturopath and she said we can get the body in good enough shape that it will create what it needs. We’ll see 🙂 One thing I know for sure… those amino acids really can make a difference. When sugar cravings have been bad we’ve used L-Glutamine with great success.
Hey Joy! I’m so happy to hear that the juicing and baths have been helpful! Your Intro posts were really encouraging to me as I was digging into all this, and it makes me so glad to know that mine have inspired you too!
So, I think my appetite is already starting to normalize a bit. I don’t feel like I’m going to wither away if I leave my house for an hour or two now. It still *feels* like a huge appetite compared to what I used to have, but really I think this is more what it should be. Plus the variety of things I want to eat is so much better, and I know that’s an improvement into sphere of normal and appropriate eating habits I needed as well.
But Kodiak hasn’t gained weight then? I’m a little bummed to hear that! I’m still hopeful to get to my goal weight, especially since I haven’t lost any weight on Intro, which I’m really excited about since I know that it’s typical to lose at first. Actually, I have a little secret — I’ve gained a tiny bit! More on that next week. 🙂
Yeah, Kodiak has gained a bit of weight but nothing close to what would be expected of a nearly 13 year old girl who is now eating more than 3 times what she used to!
Her bone age is very delayed and has been getting more and more delayed. She has not followed the growth curves of kids with her bone age, either. She falls in comparison. She has never been ON the growth chart, she hovers below it and doesn’t follow the trend any more, either.
It could be just a constitutional growth delay. I was a late bloomer, too. She’s thin but not super skinny, so for her height at least she’s a reasonable weight.
The only thing strange in a whole slew of blood work was an elevated B12 level. This is very unusual, because the body normally eliminates excess B12. She also has issues that indicated a potential deficiency. Deficiency symptoms with elevated levels could mean that the B12 that is available is not getting used correctly. We do eat a lot of B vitamins on the GAPS diet, but I want to look into it further. Of the things I’ve read it can indicate, autoimmune liver issues seem the most likely (those can also cause growth issues), but I need another appointment, probably with some sort of specialist, to find out what other tests to look at to rule that out.
She is also going to get a growth hormone stim test done (where they put a hep lock in and check levels all day long) to see if she’s making/responding to hormones correctly. But first, we have an appointment with our pediatric endocrinologist’s dietitian. (Thursday). I have high hopes she’s not going to send us to the USDA for recommendations :/
You make the diet look so fun!! I guess I would enjoy more if it were just me and hubby. We are doing it for the whole family-boys 7 & 9 and baby girl. Baby girl loves gheed squash and blueberries. The athletic rowdy boys hate soup. Spending a fortune and getting nothing but grief! Love reading your experience!! : ) the 25 pound bag of almond meal is going to make them happy-going to make some brownies now-
Would you be willing to share the bread recipe? It is the one pictured above.
I have started GAPS and am really new to it. I’m on week two, it is going well. I’m in stage 3-4 and am looking forward to having bread soon!
Thanks so much!
Gina
Hi, Gina! Almost all of the recipes I used while I was on GAPS Intro were from the What Can I Eat Now? handbook, including the bread pictured here. You can click on that link to check out a free preview of the book to see if you think it would be helpful to you. I don’t know how I would have gone through Intro without it!