Tuesday, February 14, 2012

WHY GAPS

We are doing the GAPS diet because we are tired of living with disease. Change the syllables around in the word DISEASE and it is simply becomes DIS-EASE. Yes, Allergies, Asthma, Anxiety, Behavioral Issues, Constipation, Depression, Migraines, the list goes on and on...these are not "diseases" the way we are told to think of them. They are something we choose to live with because we have been taught that they are just "part of us" through genetics or personality. Which just is not the case!

If someone had come to me 4 years ago and told me about GAPS, I probably would have thought....yea that's good idea for YOU. I've eaten fast food and the typical American Standard Diet (SAD) my whole life and I'm healthy enough.
Now, here we are about 3 1/2 years into our Real Food journey. It all started as Corban (now 4 years old) started solids. I was all about saving a little money and I had heard that making your own baby food just tasted better and it was more nutritional to boot! Well, around 11 months when he self-weaned (I was 6 months pregnant) and we started switching over to milk he started having digestion issues. I of course started researching, took him to our pediatrician, who was at least helpful enough to say he didn't know anything about digestion issues and nutrition. He set me up with his nutritionist, who was just giving me a slightly altered version of the USDA guidelines....which was not helpful. I kept researching and found the Weston A Price Foundation Holy COW was I in for a re-education, I gobbled the information and started making changes. Corban went dairy and gluten free for about 6 months and we started seeing improvement. He turned 2 and the symptoms had all disappeared. We kept making baby-steps in our food journey, as moving to a traditional food diet is not something many people can do over night. It requires sourcing healthy, nutrient dense food sources from plants and animals who are raised in their natural environment and fed their natural diet. Learning to prepare the INGREDIENTS you use for cooking and turning every bit of food knowledge that has been drilled into use since elemenatry school, and turning it on its head, because it is about as backwards as it could get!

Fast forward to the beginning of 2012. I was diagnosed with extreme adrenal fatigue, thyroid problems, migraines were back and Oh yes, I'm constipated and learning that its something I've lived with my whole life (I thought that's just what normal pooping was!). My ND put me on a no grains, no sugar, no fruit "diet" with a list of natural foods to FEED my body and give it the strength it needed to heal. I did that for about 45 days.

In the meantime, Eric started back to working in the wood shop and had several allergy "attacks" which usually led to major sinus issues that would last weeks on end. I'd been telling him about GAPS for a little while, but he's never been ready to take the plunge. The issue that tipped the scale....again, was Corban. He is also suffering with constipation. Usually it was just a hard poop every once in a while, but he moved on to withholding. He would start whimpering and walking in large circles in the living room until the urge passed...play for a while and then the cycle would repeat. Eventually he would have to make his way to the toilet because his body just couldn't take it anymore. He would sit on the toilet for 30min-1hour SCREAMING with TEARS ROLLING down his face....trying to not go because it hurt! This happened several times, over the period of a couple weeks.

I was not seeing the changes I would have liked with the food regime my ND "prescribed" me, so I asked her about starting GAPS. She gave me the green light and I started GAPS Intro Stage 1. Soon after another episode in the bathroom with Corban, Eric said Lets do what we gotta do, we can not keep putting him through this! I say we because we are the ones responsible for feeding him, and he has a digestion problem....the food he's being fed is doing this to him, we are responsible to find what his body needs. So Eric started dumping the cabinets of all the "junk food" and we made a plan to finish off the "still healthy" but "GAPS illegal" foods in the house, and 10 days after I started GAPS, the rest of the family started GAPS Intro Stage 1.

This blog is the day by day story of our Journey. It is our testimony to what can happen when we decide to stop eating and begin nourishing our bodies.

*the posting dates of this blog have been changed to accurately describe our Journey...even though I'm starting the blog 37 days "late"