Saturday, March 31, 2012

Day 35 Which way?


Welcome Stage 6!?
Sour Cream
Raw, peeled apple slices





Well, we welcomed stage 6...of course Eric is excited and I'm still sitting here thinking maybe we should drop back a few notches. Clayt and Wyatt seem to be really bloating and still reacting to the grass outside. Eric's reacting to outdoor allergies a bit more than he was the first couple of weeks. I hear if it is a reaction or intolerance it will just get worse...and if that's the road we gotta take, well lets skip on down and at least have an answer! Even if Eric wasn't ready to move on forward, I'm not even sure what to take out. In the other direction.....Still trying to figure out how to move onto Full GAPS...lots of new stuff, more advanced foods....what comes first?


Today's Meals
Breakfast- scrambled eggs
Lunch- little boys had fish sticks (made from cod)
big kids had roast
Dinner-Hamburger helper GAPS style- onion, celeriac with butter, olive oil and a bit of sour cream. Eric and I also had a salad with cucumber and lemon-honey vinaigrette. Kraut...and apple slices.
Snacks-Almond Bread with butter and boys had sunbutter as well
Guac-cicles and meatballs.

Today's Prep
Got some of the almonds out of the dehydrator and turned into flour for our double batch almond bread.
Put the sour cream into the fridge (it fermented 25 hours)
Have our Easter ham thawing and trying to figure out how to brine it
Have ribeyes, a small roast and some marrow bones thawing for tomorrow


I was back to 129lbs this morning...feeling skinnier than I have been the past few days. Period is light. I didn't eat much today...very snacky type meals. I had a fish stick (singular) I thought they turned out really good, but not quite enough to go around, I only set aside a small amount of fish so I could experiment. No juice today either. I can't remember if I took my supplements....so lack of food and possible supplements probably contributed to having a draggy day today. Didn't get hardly anything done and still felt worn out. Had a slight tinge of a headache, and I think it showed up after eating the almond bread....still not sure if its the almonds or the butter. Maybe I should try a muscle test....hmmm. Oh decided to wait for the New Moon on the Gallbladder cleanse so another 2 weeks before I do that.

ETA: Wyatt woke up just after 11:00 in a rage....screaming and fit throwing, wanted nothing to do with being held. We let him run around and scream for a few minutes, he went to the garage door and banged on it, and Eric let him go out there and see, didn't seem to help though. He laid on the floor and did leg-lifts (slams). I tried letting him sit in my lap and he just tried to reverse headbang me. So, I changed his wet diaper, anointed him with oil (digize) on his tummy and put him back to bed. He was quiet after about 5 seconds, and only making occasional noises for the next 5 minutes, now all is quiet.

Dinner tonight was an Eric-throw together, it turned out very tastey...but that's not surprising. I really enjoyed it and chowed down on Wyatt's rejected food. Clayt and Wyatt don't seem to be too sure of the celeriac.



I think the only pooper in the house today was Wyatt and he had 3 poopy diapers. The last one of the evening was more watery, the others were his normal. Still didn't call and get the poop scoop from my mom about yesterday.

Nothin from me today. I did at least look up the emotions attached to Constipation and the Bowels....but didn't really study any of it. At least the book got off the shelf!

Friday, March 30, 2012

Day 34 Fish for Dinner

Stage 5
New Foods: Sunbutter


Today's Menu
No Juice
Took supplements with a bit of applesauce and a few bites of roast.
Scrambled Eggs for the boys
Lunch: roast, beets applesauce and almond bread
Dinner: Codfish with carmelized onions, butter, parsley and lemon. ACV Soaked cucumbers with leaf lettuce salad and homemade Honey Lemon Vinaigrette. Fermented Beets.

Today's Prep
Chicken Neck Stock


Well, I was a bit afraid to eat after all the trips to the pot yesterday....so I took it pretty slow with the eating. I had a colonic at 10:15 which went well. I believe we are seeing some improvement. I think I'm ready to move forward and do the Gallbladder and Liver Cleanse. I need to read up and see which day I should start. Thinking Sunday...

I was gone for several hours and didn't quiz my mom on the toileting happenings, so no update for the boys today!

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Day 33 Bellyaching



Stage 5
No new foods

Man! Something is messing with my midsection!






Today's Meals
Juice: Cabbage, Carrot and Beet + raw yolk (2 yolks + 1 egg for me)
Breakfast: Scrambled Eggs- Boys
Lunch: leftover Meatball soup & Daddy had Chicken Soup
Dinner: Grilled Han-ga-burger patties topped with caramelized onion and red bell pepper + pink Kraut
Supplements: FCLO for me and the little boys. Biokult 1 capsule for the boys, 4 for me & Eric. 1 iodoral, 3 raw B complex, 2 Zinc...bedtime: Life 5 and Omega Blue and 2 Sleep Essence.


Today's Prep
Crock Pot Applesauce
Freezer Treats
a bag of Chicken Necks for stock Thawing










First I woke up menstrual crampy with a backache...enough to grab the heating pad and hang out in my recliner for most of the morning. Then it was an intermittent stabbing pain in my 'upper mid-section" which has been an all day thing, then a little bit of gas (burping and toots) and the big surprise of the day was diarrhea! I haven't pooped on my own in about 80 days (without the use of either a salt tea cleanse, Natural Calm to bowel tolerance, or the enemas. The only thing I had eaten before it happened (2:00) was the juice that I drank around 10am and a cup of stock around 1:00. I didn't eat much other than that except for dinner, which I ended up back in the bathroom around 5:00, 8:00 and a gain around 11:00. Oh....after dinner I could not stay awake. I was sitting with Libby and she was reading and I was litterally nodding off....I was so tired! Then about 15-20 minutes later I was fine (obviously, consiering it's midnight and I'm still up....and still on the POT! UGH.

Corban- Pooped today at naptime #4-5. Did not take any nap. He came out after 20 minutes and said he took a good nap. I let him stay up and he was pretty good for a couple of hours but went down hill for the evening until daddy got home.

Seriously I can't remember about Wyatt or Clayt....I really have no clue. No chart printed off either! Wyatt woke up ANGRY at about 10pm. I have no idea what his problem was but he was screaming mad. I put some peace and calming oil on him and Daddy took him outside and that helped. Let him toddle around a bit, changed his diaper and put him back to bed. He laid down good.

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Day 32 Perfect Pooper


Stage 5
No New Foods

The boys have been playing outside a lot and are a tad pink...today I noticed that both of them looked a little splotchy on their upper chest....not sure if that from the sun or if is a rash showing up. Neither of them complained about it itching or anything. No naps at all today. Clayt was SCREAMING MAD about So. Many. Issues. Today. I think it must be die-off. On the other hand, Clayt has also been saying SO Many cute little things lately. I really need to write them down....but they are more "in the moment cute" it seems like when I try to retell it, it doesn't do the moment justice. We haven't noticed any delays in his speech, other than some stuttering/repeating words that both Corban and Clayt seem to do on occasion. It is random, and not all that often. Clayt is about 1 month out from his 3rd birthday, so common timing for a boost in vocabulary. Its so fun hearing him express his thoughts! (the cute ones, rather than the demanding mad little-man ones)



Today's Menu

Juice: carrot and celery + raw yolk (2 yolks and a whole egg for me, no breakfast)
Breakfast: Scrambled Eggs
Lunch: Chicken Soup, 1 slice of almond bread with honey butter + pink kraut
Meatball soup + pink kraut
Late evening Snack: Squash Souffle with honey.
Supplements: Forgot the FCLO...but gave the boys their probiotics before bed with a spoonful of applesauce. I took 1 Iodoral and 2 zinc tablets...Eric and I both took: biokult, life 5 and Omega blue

Today's Prep
Made Butter
Put away dehydrated Almonds
Made 3lbs of meatballs (put them all in the soup for dinner)



Corban had a perfect #4 poop today!
I didn't take a picture, but for a passing moment I thought about it! I sure told him about it though! He had to go around nap-time today.

I got my family poop chart made, but I need to print it off so we can fill it out. Clayt and Wyatt both pooped today but I don't remember any of the details. You're Spared. Oh...but there's still MY stuff.

I noticed my head starting to hurt after dinner. So I decided to make it an impromptu Coffee Break. I did halve the amount of Coffee since it was already 7:30 when I got started. Pretty sure I noticed my headache going away during the salt water and EO (marjoram and peppermint) rinse....but the coffee was already mixed up and ready so I went on ahead. Here I am after midnight, still up, but not too wired. Period is pretty heavy today. Slightly crampy and backache until after the Coffee Enema, I noticed that went away too!

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Day 31-Bare Basics




Stage 5
New Foods: Peeled Cucumber and Lettuce



Well, having trouble recalling all the details of the day, brain fog still seems to be an issue. Although I do not feel like I"m totally dragging energy wise. I was in bed by 10:30 last night. Slept okay, woke up a couple times and felt wide awake. I thought I might have trouble falling asleep, but it wasn't too bad. Got out of bed at 7:45.

Eric was GRUMPY this morning...he didn't sleep well at all. Allergies acting up after being around a lot of mowing going on. We also did add that 8billion "whatevers" in the BioKult Probiotics.....could be die-off. He's locked up as far as breathing goes, runny nose and itchy throat and eyes. I think he needs to slow down on the peanut butter each day, although the honey and coconut oil are healing ingredients. He's also semi-boycotting the FCLO I think....btw honey, you can drop down to taking 1tsp of the nasty stuff since we have been doing the higher dose for a couple of weeks.




Today's Menu
Juice: 1lb carrots, 1 small beet, 1 bunch celery + 1 yolk for boys. 2 yolks and 1 egg in Juice for me....took 2 zinc and 1 iodoral
Breakfast: Scrambled Eggs, Stock (boys)
Lunch: Chicken Soup, Almond Bread with Honey butter
Dinner: Grilled Chicken Wings, Lettuce Salad with garlic olive oil, lemon juice and salt. Peeled Cucumber in ACV, water and salt. Kraut
Snack: Applesauce

Today's Prep
Beet Kvass
Fermented Beets prepared
Almonds still in the dehydrator
Added some chicken bones to the stock.


Wyatt had 3 poopy diapers and ran a 101 fever in the evening. Woke up around 10:00pm and temp seemed nomrmal. He took a morning nap from 10-12 and afternoon from about 3:30-7.

Corban has been saying his tummy hurts after drinking juice. Today he pooped (#5) right after Drinking the juice. I gave them a little less juice (about 4 ounces) I added a bit of water since their stools have been loose. He took a great nap, didn't get out of bed once! Corban thought he needed a detox bath after his poop today...so I took him up on it, and plopped Corban, Clayt and Josie in the tub. They played for a bit. Corban was itchy after getting out (I used 2c epsom, baking soda and h2o2) He wouldn't let me rinse him off though.

Clayt had 2 poops, after Breakfast and just before naptime, both 5-6. Took a good nap as well. He's been getting pink from playing outside...need to up the coconut oil internally for him.


Enema afternoon for me... I was able to fit it in during nap time and done by 3:30, hoping the coffee doesn't effect me.! Period started late this morning making my cycle only 25 days....my last one was 38! Wondering what that means. Maybe the slight headaches I've been having were from my period gearing up? Had no idea it was coming, not crampy or anything.

Hope to head to bed very soon, its already 11:30...took my sleep essence about an hour ago (plus Omega Blue and Life 5)

Monday, March 26, 2012

Day 30



Stage 5
No New Foods

We didn't get to bed until after 12:30. I took 2 sleep essence and I think they helped but I did not sleep well at all (although I didn't feel the need to get up out of bed either, pretty sure it was the coffee that caused the sleep issues), I had a bad dream, and a bit of a headache all night....but plenty of energy to get out of bed and get breakfast started. I passed out probiotics, then stock, fried eggs and made some juice for Eric and myself. Eric reacted to the 2 carrots worth of juice I gave him (strait juice about 2ounces) I tried a new juice today- Orange and Celery with 2 whole raw eggs. I'm feeling jittery and anxious at the moment (while finishing the last of my juice. Took 1 Iodoral tablet and a zinc supplement. I wonder if it was the orange juice?

I opened up the blog and tried to work on some answers to my questions from yesterday....made a few posts on various GAPS groups....don't really have any new ideas or plans of action. Maybe tomorrow I will get it figured out!


Today's menu
Juice: Celery and Orange for mama, and Celery and Carrot for the boys. Carrot for daddy.
Breakfast: Fried Eggs, kraut and stock
Lunch: carrot soup, almond bread with Honey butter, kraut, stock
Dinner Rump Roast, Green Beans & Onions, Kraut, and Stock
Snacks: meatballs, applesauce (1-2T) and freezer treats


Today's Prep
Made Almond Flour with nuts from the dehydrator
Made Almond Bread with the flour
Started 6 cups of soaked nuts in the dehydrator
Baking Beets to lacto-ferment tomorrow
Package of Wings thawing
Peeled 2.5lbs of carrots
2nd round for the chicken bones

I've had a bit of a headache all day, kind comes and goes, I think maybe it is just die-off. We went on a family walk this evening and let the boys play on the school playground it was almost dark when we got home. Eric was a tiny bit stuffy...someone by the school was weed-eating.

Took 2 sleep essence again tonight, plan to get in bed at 10:30.



That poop chart I said I needed to make did not get made. So....pretty sure Corban pooped during naptime. Its getting closer to #6, so not sure what I need to do differently...not sure if that is technically diarrhea or what. I think Clayt may have only gone 1 time today....not sure about that and Wyatt was poopy this morning when we got him up (I think). FOGGY TODAY! I did not go, not really much of a surprise. I may see if I can give an enema a go tomorrow while my helper is here....so I'm not dosing myself up on Coffee before bed. We'll have to see how the morning goes.


Oh and one more little side note: for the 2nd day Wyatt has taken a 5 hour nap (slept from 9-2:00) instead of a morning and an afternoon nap....in my experience this usually means we are headed for only one nap time....not sure If I'm quite ready for another schedule change!

Sunday, March 25, 2012

time for making lists... Day 29




Intro Stage 5
New Foods
1 BioKult Capsule for Boys-sprinkled in 1tsp of Applesauce




We got a bit off schedule with our introductions last week and piled a few new foods on all over a few days. I'm seeing some small reactions here and there and with all these new and YUMMY foods the meal planning is feeling a little chaotic and the urge to make lists and prioritize is ever increasing. I have a few questions that will require more researching.

  1. What are the 85% foods?
  2. What are the 15% foods?
  3. How much does 15% equate too when it comes down to serving sizes?
  4. What reactions are we having
  5. What is CAUSING them or are they simply detox?!
  6. Which symptoms are a priority and what is the GAPS action to treat them.
Today's Menu
Breakfast: Leftover Casserole, Fried Eggs....
I just had GAPS milkshake cause I slept in until 10!
Bottled juice from yesterday + 2 yolks and biokultx4capsules
Lunch: Carrot Soup, Chicken Wings, Kraut and Almond bread with Whipped honey butter
Dinner: Chicken Wings, Hamburger steak, kraut-no stock

Food Prep
Made 500 meatballs (4lbs of ground beef)
Almonds in Dehydrator
Almonds soaking
Roast in Crock Pot (was supposed to be dinner but wasn't ready)
Made butter

Eric had 1T of Carrot juice and...................NO REACTION! WAHOO!

I had little headaches several times today. I'm pretty sure its something in the Freezer Treats. Will have to start trying out the ingredients one at a time. I'm starting with coconut oil and hoping that is the problem, cause that means its likely just detox. :)

Clayt and Wyatt both Grass rashy today. I notice Wyatt seems to get rashy around his neck line (in back) Clayt more on his tummy. Both of their bellies are really bloating and they are both eating a TON OF FOOD and Peeing a TON!

Gave the boys a detox bath today (2 cups of Epsom Salt 2 cups of baking soda)


Poop Files
I'm really gonna have to have a chart...because I just can't remember. I'd like to keep track of the type and time of day, so we can see if there are any patterns. All of the little boys are having #5-6 types of BM. Corban and Wyatt went once, and Clayt went 2-3 times.
Tonight was an enema night for me. I'm so thankful I figured out how to handle gas during the enema, the last week or so it seems that I've had a lot of rumbling going on....don't ever notice it until the enema though.





Saturday, March 24, 2012

Day 28: Variety Means WAY MORE WORK!


Welcome Stage 5-
New Foods
-applesauce
-walnut butter
-almond bread (kids, Eric and I had our first slice last night ;)

First things first....woke up, shoved the casserole in the oven because I wasn't sure how I'd convince the boys to wait 45 minutes for their breakfast. I wasn't too tired after staying up super late, knowing that my DH expected me to get up with him and the boys in the morning...no sleeping in for the night owl.... Who-o-o, Who-o-o. I think even though I did the coffee enema around 6pm last night, it still effected me, and I was up until at least 2. The baby woke up first, at 7:15, I was up an at'em and left hubby snoring in the room. He was up much sooner than I thought he'd be, and joined me with in 10 minutes.

By this evening I was tired, but along came the trusty ol 8:00pm Second Wind. At least it helped me get some of the kitchen cleaned up. There is plenty of prep that still needs to be done for tomorrow...starting with menus so I can set something out to start thawing. Feeling kinda limited in our options, Eggs, chicken and beef everyday....We really need to sell off some of our beef and get some piggy.

So, I'm starting to think that maybe all this new variety isn't so awesome after all. First off, nearly everything requires extensive preparation...Butter, Ghee, Almonds...soaking, dehydrating, grinding.....and then there's the ever growing List of goodies to get in regularly. Wasn't daily making 2 GALLONS OF STOCK ENOUGH? Don't forget actually finding a container large enough to hold 8lbs of vegetables to soak overnight to prepare for juicing and remembering to thaw enough meat to feed a small army of toddlers who are eating double adult portions and asking for food 6 times a day.

Secondly, most of the wonderful stuff we want to fill our bellies with is supposed to be limited to 15% of the daily intake. My brain is so foggy I can't even begin to start figuring what that means serving wise. Everything we want seems to fall into that 15% category...nut flour, nut butter, applesauce...and then there's all the things we are dreaming of from the Full GAPS list. I think the fact that it is homemade with good ingredients makes it all that more easy to indulge. I'm sorry, but it doesn't matter how much coconut oil is in our nut butter fudge...eating 4 small bowls of it each day is still way too much. I'm really struggling to keep out of the freezer treats, and find my self getting just a little taste as many times as I think of it! Then there is the honey that I want to put just a little bit with, but after we've had some with our FCLO, in our applesauce, and the most delicious honey butter spread for our almond bread, freezer treats...the list is just getting longer day by day!

We didn't have any Crispy Almonds ready and we were OUT of almond butter AND freezer treats! I checked the freezer and we had some Walnuts that had already been soaked and dehydrated so I tried my hand at making Walnut Butter today. I was SHOCKED when it was finished in 2.5 MINUTES! That sure beats lots of scraping down almond dust, 15 minutes of chopping and overheating the processor! Eric even liked it!

I noticed a couple of times that after having a couple freezer treats that I would get a slight headache. I'm hoping its just detox from the coconut oil. I need to try the Walnut butter plain and see what happens I guess.







Wyatt- 1 time #5-6
Clayt - 2 times today #5-6 Afternoon and Bedtime
Corban-1 time #5-6 After bedtime
Me- nada
Eric- confidential ;) but stinky gas tonight! SHEW!



I noticed that Corban had a pimple looking spot on his cheek and a red spot under his bottom lip. He said the spot on his lip hurt, not sure if that was a bunp/rash or just an owie. No nap for Corban but he did stay in his bed for a little bit.

Clayt was a bit rashy from playing outside today. He also got a bit of sun on his shoulders.

Wyatt has been pretty happy as long as you are giving him food and replenishing before it runs out. It doesn't matter how much you give him, there is a body slamming fit in his high chair when the food is gone. His belly looks so big after he eats., not sure if its just SO full or if he's dealing with some bloating.


I just realized that I never really got into the swing of giving the boys their probiotics. They do eat sauerkraut each day and love the juice, but I'm gonna have to figure out a way to keep it in stock and not end up with several jars of dry kraut in the fridge!

Eric and I are working to get into the swing of taking our Bio-Kult first thing in the morning...I told Eric that we are supposed to gradually increase the amount we are taking until we get to the full dose. He asked what the full dose was...I said 4 capsules and he popped 4 out and down the hatch they went. So much for going slow....I'm not much better considering I took 3. We have been regularly taking Young Living Life 5 , Omega Blue and Digize before bed for about 3 weeks now. If your interested in why we chose these products I love to chat oils! Shoot me an email @ wateroilsfoodforlife.gmail.com

Today's Menu
Juice- 3lbs Carrots, 1 bunch Celery, 1/2 head of red cabbage and raw yolks
Breakfast: Casserole 24 eggs, 2lbs ground beef, 2 onions, 1 bell pepper and a large celery root
Lunch: Carrot & Cauliflower soup with hidden avocado & butter. Almond bread with honey butter. Sauerkraut on the side.
Snack: Freezer Treats Walnut Butter, Butter, Coconut oil and honey.
Dinner: Grilled Chicken legs and wings. Steamed broccoli with garlic infused olive oil Sauerkraut on the side, Stock

Prep for tomorrow
  • almonds still dehydrating
  • starting a second tray of almonds in the dehydrator
  • soaking more almonds
  • thawing hamburger to make millions of meatballs...okay maybe just 1000.
  • thawing Roast
  • Chicken Bone broth bubbling in 3qt crock

Friday, March 23, 2012

Day 27


Stage 4

New Foods

Butter

Almond Bread (just Daddy and me)

Hmm, cant I even remember this morning...a bit of a blur. I remember the little ones making several messes in almost every room of the house. Oh yes, that was because I was busy juicing. Our juice was a nice purple today, got a bit more red cabbage in there with the carrots celery and raw yolks. I put 3 in mine and remembered to take my Iodoral. The boys liked the juice just fine. Corban said his tummy hurt and didn't quite finish all of his. We missed our dose of FCLO. Lunch was kinda flying by the seat of my pants...I had a bit of leftover ground beef and liver that ended up mostly burning in the oven and I made our standard squash pancakes at lunch....except we put honey-BUTTER on them>>>>YUMMO! Yay for intro of RAW Homemade BUTTER!

The boys fought nap time, Corban didn't sleep at all. At the beginning of nap-time I started noticing that my head was very slightly starting to hurt...my first thought was OH NO NOT THE BUTTER! Then I realized the date...and It seems like it could be getting close to that time of the month. My older kids were dropped off at the house for the weekend, which worked well because I was going to have to load up all of the babies to go pick them up, it was nice to not have to. The headache was getting stronger so I decided before it got even worse I'd try a coffee enema while it was still early. While I spent 2 1/2 hours in the bathroom the older kids watched the littles and helped tidy the house. Eric came home and started on Dinner and the gravy was perfecto! Not sure if all the work in the kitchen got to him, or what...but all evening he's been a bit.....grumpy. Its been a long hard day, so I don't blame him. He's done about 10x his share of the work, but I still wonder...die-off?

I made almond meal and turned that into Bread. Eric and I tried out our first slice tonight. Two thumbs up. Now the trick is to stick to just 1 piece a day and gradually increase! I slathered it with honey butter.....and so far no headache, so I'm ruling out butter as the cause for now! ;)

It took a little while, but the headache is GONE! THAT doesn't happen! Normally it will lessen to barely nothing, but is still there. Rarely does it just "go away". I think the coffee helped. I just hope it wasn't my brain asking for coffee after the night I had the day before yesterday...or was that just yesterday? Hopefully 1 quart of coffee couldn't cause the brain to EXPECT more caffeine THAT quickly.

Poop Files: Clayt and Wyatt both went. Corban no. Me: did the enemas and got hardly anything. I used pink salt with Grapefruit EO and about half a drop of peppermint. Took about 3 quarts. Then, I did a quart of coffee.

On the peeing side of things....Clayt and Wyatt are peeing a TON. I thought buying special "night time diapers and pullups (even got the size 4-8 for my 2 year old) and they SOAKING TWO each night! Wyatt is drinking a ton of stock, so I"m pretty sure that is what his is all about. Clayt loves to drink water....but they both have the big ol' 3rd world country looking bloat bellies. Not sure if theres another underlying issue there or not...I keep seeing something about oxalates being mentioned. Haven't had the energy to study what its all about.


His Story:
Made a gravy tonight to top our beef short ribs, I wanted to test my theory on beef stock making better gravy, it really does...the color is lovely compared to the unappetizing pale yellow of the chicken stock gravy. I appreciate the depth of color in a good gravy, it just seems more MANLY!! Anyway......I carmelized some onions in butter with a little salt and pepper along with some garlic infused EVOO and added it into my cauliflower/beef stock mixture and blended it in, Erica had to dip her finger in and taste it before I could offer her a taste. The boys (after finishing 3 helpings of beef) had three more servings of just gravy.....I need to attempt a french onion soup in this manner. One downfall, I didn't get a plate...... we had all the kids here and I knew there wouldn't be enough if I did so I skipped dinner and started on breakfast, a caserole with a mixture of hamburger, onions, red bell pepper and chopped celery root and after it cooled I poured on 24 eggs to cover to put in the oven in the morning. If that doesn't feed everyone at the table I don't think anything will. Then I made butter.......twice, peeled and cored 6 apples and made applesauce for the morning. Erica also made our first batch of almond bread tonight, I bet I could make some killer apple butter jam with that applesauce to top the bread with our home made butter. I am beat, I have been cooking for 5 hours since I got home from work!

Gut Psychology....a lot about POOP!

G.A.P.S stands for Gut And Psychology Syndrome

Lets go over a couple of terms so you know what your coming up against while reading these posts.

gut [guht]
noun
1.the alimentary canal, especially between the pylorus and the anus, or some portion of it.
2. guts, the bowels or entrails.


psy·chol·o·gy[sahy-kol-uh-jee]
noun, plural -gies.
1.the science of the mind or of mental states and processes.
2.the science of human and animal behavior.

So put those together and you will understand, we're talking a lot about digestion....and after digestion comes POOPING. Yes, I said it pooping. There is a whole world of information out there about pooping and we are not being told the truth. The majority of our Family MD, pediatricians, OBGYNS, and even those in specialized GI fields don't know crap about proper elimination habits. They are often the same medical professionals that believe diet doesn't really matter if your eating off the USDA "plate". The industry who train our doctors have their own agenda in mind and it is not to provide healing but to "maintain" health. There is a HUGE difference. We want to be well, not maintained.

Gut Sense
is a good place to break the myths being spread around by our modern medical professionals. Starting with the truth about fiber.

So be forewarned posts will likely contain detail about the contents and or the experience of bowel function. As odd and somewhat embarrassing as it is, I'm sharing this information because understanding bowel health is so important, and as a general rule people are largely misinformed because they have been told their bathroom experience falls in the "normal" category or are given "treatments" that do not reverse the problem and only "maintain" it.

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Day 26


Stage 4

New introductions: Grilled foods!




Well My weight has held at 129.5 two days in a row (although that is first of the morning after I pee weight ;) , but it seems that the movement of the scale was not only from the vomiting and enemas! Hooray! This morning was HARD. I was really feeling like I was heading back to Square ONE with the adrenal issues. I had no energy to do anything, haven't wanted to eat (just kinda snacking around while I feed the boys). Feeling like a failure of a mama because I can't "handle" the boys without being angry...questioning how in the world my biggest desire in life is to have more kiddos when I can't "deal with" the ones I have. I do see all these thoughts for what they are....they are the sickness talking (with the enemy jumping in on the bandwagon too). I decided this afternoon to take a nap. Slept for about 11/2 hours and felt SOOO much better when I woke up!


I got juice made (although, only for the afternoon) took my FCLO, made some squash casserole for "snack" got the dishwasher loaded. I noticed about 1 1/2 hours later I was starting to loose energy, but I've done okay for the evening. I have not felt "wiped out" like I was this morning. Eric did all of the dinner prep and cooking. It was wonderful as usual :) We had grilled chicken legs (thighs/legs) green beans and tried our first celeriac (hash style). We used a half a 32oz jar of Ghee today! WOWZERS! The boys were sooo cute at dinner tonight, they kept smelling their chicken and saying it was Barbeque! I even got the sauerkraut and stock served with dinner! Full course GAPS intro meal!

All of the boys pooped today....and for the first time in a LONG time Corban pooped 2 days in a row! I added some cabbage in with our juicing today, I think that may been what helped. Both the little boys pooped within an hour of having their juice. Corban's moved from a #3 yesterday to a #5 today with a bit of #6. I even had an actual poop (still used an enema, but it was at least different from what's been happening the past 2 months!)

So glad today is ending better than it started!

I'm having that slight "pain" again....and the coffee seems to want to stay.....been waiting over an hour and nothing is happening! Wow...spoke a moment too soon! Its about time! So much for going to bed early tonight.

I guess that coffee stayed too long in my system, because I am WIDE AWAKE. I tried laying down a bit after 1:15 and my head was just swimming with thoughts. So....I got up after a bit. Just a few minutes ago, Corban woke up crying. He was sitting in the floor fussing, kinda "fit like" he does that when he needs to pee in the middle of the night. So I picked him up (against his wishes) and took him into the bathroom because even though he said he needed to pee, he wasn't headed to the bathroom. We get to the bathroom and I pull his pull up down and stood him at the potty and he continues to throw a "fit", says he wanted to walk in the bath room. Proceeds to walk out of the bathroom with his pull up half way down, pulls it up, goes into his bedroom to exactly where he had been previously standing before I carried him out, sucking his thumb, turns around and calmly walks to the bathroom, and goes pee then heads back to bed. Interesting, but not uncommon behavior for him.

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Day 25 Crazy Lazy Day




Stage 3



I am D.R.A......G.G.I.N.G......I just can't get much done each day. I'm feeling a lot like I did before I started GAPS :/ Another day of not juicing, but I did make the almond butter. I'm tired during the day and then 8:00pm hits and I not tired when bedtime rolls around. I noticed a couple times after eating (even just a snack) I get slight indigestion. It hurts in the middle of my chest in the soft spot under my chest bone. Is that gallbladder/liver?
I seem to be craving fish lately....which is not good for the budget! Fish is so expensive here!
Almond Butter Treats (freezer treats)
‎6ounces of crispy Almonds-made into Creamy almond butter
1/8c of honey
1/4c of coconut oil (splitting this 50/50 with butter is good too)
few pinches of salt

blend well and chill in the freezer for an hour

These melt pretty fast but the boys eat them even faster!

I let the boys have about 4 "letters" worth of the Almond treats...and soon after our 2 year old started being very naughty/mischievous. He got into the shaving cream in the bathroom cabinets (above the toilet), put it in his hair and on the carpet, Playing in the water in the sink, putting it on his baby brother....and While I was cleaning that up he went to the kitchen and dumped baking soda on the floor. He was also jumping off the couch....although he does stuff like that sometimes daily....actually I think he's had a pretty good streak lately, it stood out to me that he was doing so much all at once. My knee-jerk reaction is to think maybe it was the honey. Suppose it could have been the Almonds though. They have been having honey on their pancakes which we have had daily. But nut butter they haven't had so much. We were eating the organic fresh grind Almond butter from whole foods, but this batch was from our really raw Crispy nuts that I made at home. Today they had honey on the egg/squash souffle then again with the almond butter treats. (although I only put 1/8of a cup of honey to the 1 cup (aprox) of almond butter. So, not sure what we are dealing with there. All little boys pooped...and Clayt pooped 2 times! Corban's was definitely a #3 this time...going the wrong way on the scale....but haven't been drinking our juice, so that could be the culprit!


Monday, March 19, 2012

When Will they STOP EATING? Day 24

OH MY Goodness! They.Will.Not.Stop.Eating!!! It is 3 minutes before bedtime and they are asking for MORE food. They have been eating for 2 1/2 hours. We started with a snack...which was going to be pancakes, and I decided to just pour the batter in a pan and cook it all at once in the oven. Pretty tastey! Then on to Chicken soup, which they sat at the table and made "carrot sandwiches"....now they are eating then ends of the chicken bones left over from making stock.

Clayt Final bone count: 16
3 bowls of chicken soup
2 shot glasses of kraut juice
1/2c serving of kraut



Oven "pancakes". Turned out pretty delicious!

10z pureed Squash
4 Eggs
1 TBS of Ghee
Baked in the oven at 350* for 35minutes.


Corban's "carrot sandwich" (there's an onion in the middle :)



Stage: 4- No new foods today.
Well, today was better than yesterday! Eric stayed home so I could rest since I was up so late with that nasty migraine last night. I weighed this morning....and broke the 130s, down to 129. I suppose there IS a benefit of vomiting and pooping for 4 hours. I decided to start the morning with another Coffee enema...and see if I got better result in the morning....it was about the same. My teeth stopped hurting and the swelling in my gums went down. I didn't get anything to eat until lunch time. We had chicken soup. I noticed that I got pretty sleepy after eating. Not enough to go lay down, but I probably should have. I'm trying to decide what to do about that stinking liver cleanse....supposedly this week is supposed to be the best week for cleansing the liver because of the spring equinox.....but starting it would mess up intro, and based on the book, it seems that your supposed to continue doing the cleanses once a month. Its basically a week of drinking lots of apple cider then drinking an epsom salt, grapefruit and olive oil concoction...at certain times on the 6th and 7th day. Doesn't sound fun at all! I wish DrNCM gave some better instructions for doing a liver/gallbladder cleanse, its seems its a common problem among GAPS "patients" I've read through all the FAQs about it...just doesn't seem like very many answers, especially at this stage of intro....so much of the advice is conflicting with other parts of the book.






  1. roast in the crock pot
  2. almonds in the dehydrator
  3. Beef stock in the small crock
  4. about 3 gallons stock that needs to be strained and put away


He Says : T-minus 706 days till pizza and beer!!! Actually......Erica and I have a vacation planned to one of our favorite cabins, we like to stay in a cabin or go on a cruise when we get away together and we're planning to celebrate GAPS completion victory at that cabin. The lady who owns it also cooks breakfast and dinner there and the dining room overlooks a beautiful small river in the Kiamichi mountains, just a lovely place.