GAPS Intro, Stage 2 - Day 6

I'll try to catch you up on our progress over the past week or so:

Day 1 (Stage 1) was the meat broth cleanse, and my first post was all about our first day.

Day 2 (Stage 1) we had more chicken meat broth, chicken, carrots, green onions, broccoli, and beef.  All of this was boiled in soup.  I felt just okay, not great.  Lots of pressure/pain in my ears, joint pain, muscle aches, abdominal pain, which is all par for the course.  I was also more irritable and I talked less than I normally do.  My DH on the other hand, was feeling good (that coffee enema really helped him feel better!) and he was cheerful and more talkative than normal.  We worked a half day or so on Day 2.

Day 3 (Stage 1) we had planned a full day at work.  We both woke up pretty miserable.  Instead of a full day of work, we had a rest day … stayed in our PJs all day, watched movies, and cooked a lot.  It was what both of us needed.  We both did coffee enemas.  I did two of them, five hours apart.  I probably would have benefited from one more but I was too tired.  We added cauliflower, squash, beets, and chamomile tea (just me) on Day 3.  

Day 4 (Stage 1) we both felt better, and we decided to go into work to make up for our lost day.  We added spinach, ground beef, and beef meat broth.  We did pretty well until the afternoon, when we ran out of food but we still had more to do at work.  So we ended up going too long without eating.  We both got crabby and felt pretty bad.  I started to crash at about 5pm and I struggled to stay awake.  When we finally got home, I cooked, ate, and went to bed.  I also tested egg yolk sensitivity on our wrists overnight.  I'm skeptical on this method, but I'm willing to try it.  What does it hurt?

Day 5 (Stage 2, first day) I woke up to a restless night of anxiety dreams.  I think that had to do with general die-off reaction than it did the egg yolk.  At least I hope so.  Both DH and I woke up with no irritation on our wrists, so we added egg yolk to our morning breakfast soup.  We both seemed to do just fine with it.  Neither of us experienced any new symptoms, at least not yet.  I was itchier than normal, but I am almost always itchy and the temps dropped to WAY cold here (coldest it's been in 20 years), so I guess I'm not overly alarmed by this.  My appetite increased A LOT yesterday morning and I ate about three meals in the course of about two hours.  I had been eating a pretty normal amount for me this whole time - so this increase in appetite was notable.  We added egg yolk, green beans, and mint tea.

Today is Day 6 (Stage 2, second day) and I plan to have two egg yolks today, and I'll probably add another vegetable or two.  We'll also try the new "Stage 2" way of cooking (casseroles).  

Also, I have been taking 2 tsp of sauerkraut juice every day since Day 2.  DH has been doing one (if he remembers) because he felt like die-off on Day 3 was just a bit too strong.

We've both been doing coffee enemas every day.  I've done a detox bath every day except yesterday.

My weight today is 184.6, which means I have lost 8.4 lbs in five days.  I do like losing weight, but I want to make sure I'm not losing too fast.  This early in the program, I'm not too worried.  But I'll keep an eye on it.  

As for our general mood, we're both doing pretty well.  I would say we go through more mood swings than normal.  Sometimes we're really irritable and lash out more than I think we normally would… And other times we're cheerful and talkative and singing.  Unfortunately, we're not always experiencing these things together, at the same time!  (Wouldn't that be nice?)  I do hope that as we progress, we'll tend more towards the cheerful side.  :)  Even despite our mood swings, we are both feeling pretty content at this stage of the protocol.  Although I'd love to have more food choices, I don't feel any great need to move on.  I actually feel like my body is telling me to take it slow.

As a matter of record, I also wanted to mention:

• We've decided to avoid dairy for at least four weeks.  At that time, we'll introduce it via the GAPS dairy protocol (start with ghee, then whey, etc.).
• I'm also avoiding nightshades for both of us.  I haven't told DH about this yet because there's no "GAPS" reason to avoid nightshades, but they give so many people a problem that I wanted to do a little experiment.  I'm definitely avoiding nightshades for myself (autoimmune, joint pain) but I'm curious to see if it will help DH too.  He'll have nightshades on January 19th, due to a work function, so he'll get a pretty big "challenge" at that point.  I'm not sure yet if I'm going to tell him about this or not.  Now that I'm writing it out, I think I'd better give him a heads-up before he gets there.  I'm trying to avoid them for at least 6 weeks, if not more.
• And finally, I'm also avoiding my MRT/LEAP testing result foods, just for the time being.  I'm not sure when I'm going to add them back in.  

GAPS Intro, Stage 1 - Day 1

I'm back.  :)

The last couple of months have been busy with holiday celebrations and work obligations and mentally preparing for the GAPS journey.

In August, my husband and I decided to start the GAPS protocol together, after the holidays.  We decided to start on January 1st.  Most of our holiday celebrations are complete, and starting at the top of a month/year makes it really easy to remember when you started and how many days you've been on each stage, etc.

So today's the first, and I wanted to get some things written down for my own personal journal of this experience.  If it helps anyone else out there… bonus!

I started the MRT/LEAP diet on June 29th, 2013.  Here's what I listed as my symptoms:  "Main symptoms:  Joint pain (specifically ring finger on my left hand, pointer fingers, ankles, knees), stiff ankles, mid-afternoon fatigue (took a brief nap), slight headache.  I also experienced mid-severe intestinal/abdominal pain after dinner (beef roast with olive oil and salt, sweet potato)."

Whoa.  Add to that ear pressure/pain, dry and itchy skin, and muscle aches, and it's almost identical to how I feel today.

Last night I made some plain chicken meat broth, using a chicken back and sea salt.  We went to a friend's house last night to celebrate the New Year, so I took it along in case we needed something to tide us over in the morning before we left their house.  We left pretty early, so we didn't have any until we got home.

We both had a cup of broth when we got home.  Oh my gosh was it good!  We've had chicken meat broth before, but for some reason this batch turned out perfectly!  I know it sounds weird, but it tasted like a "clean" version of Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup broth.  We both LOVED it.  

After our broth, DH took a nap and I rested.  We didn't get much sleep last night, since we were having a lot of fun.  :)  While DH was napping, I had a couple more cups of broth.  It was SO good.  I was reading up on GAPS stuff when I started to get extra symptoms that I hadn't woken up with:  headache, ear aches, dull nerve pain in my left arm, stomach/ab pains.  And extreme sleepiness!  

I fell asleep in my recliner with my computer on my lap.  A bit later, my dog woke me up to go outside.  So I woke up and I started reading again, and fell asleep AGAIN!  Falling asleep mid-day is pretty unusual for me, and usually I can't be awoken for HOURS if I do end up sleeping.  Once I'm woken up (for example, from a dog wanting something), I usually won't go back to sleep.  So doing this twice in one day is quite odd for me, even with my reduced sleep schedule from last night (six hours or so).

Once DH woke up, I offered to make some Intro soup, but we were both content with just the broth.  It felt good to both of us.  So we just decided to finish out the day with broth only.  We didn't plan to start this GAPS journey with a broth cleanse, but it feels right to do it today.

Since I had developed a headache and other symptoms, and also just because I wanted to get off to a good start, I did a coffee enema.  I did two 2-cup "sessions".  I felt like it went pretty well, except that I couldn't hold it very long.  About six minutes the first time, and about nine minutes the second time.  Despite that, my headache went away.  My ear pressure/pain is down to just ear pressure (no pain), and I haven't noticed my nerve pain over the past couple of hours.  

In the past hour or two, I've noticed a marked increase in itching around my neckline.  I associate this with a candida rash I had awhile ago.  I don't know if it really is, but that's my intuition.

DH has been very resistant to enemas.  This is kind of weird, because we used to do home colonics all the time.  (I haven't been very good about updating my health story, but it included colonics.  We only got out of the habit because they are so time consuming, and they are very difficult to do in our current house.)

Last night was New Years Eve, and we went to a friends house.  They had champagne for midnight, and DH ended up drinking about 3-4 glasses.  He woke up today with a hangover, which has been pretty par for the course for the past year or two, whenever he has any amount of alcohol.  Bummer.  

He asked this morning what would help with his hangover, and I told him a coffee enema.  He really didn't want to do it, so I dropped it.  Then tonight after my detox bath, I asked if he wanted me to run a bath for him.  He said yes, if I thought it would help him feel better (he is feeling pretty miserable).  I thought about it and hesitated and then said yes, I think it will help.  So I started to run the bath, but then I thought about it and I hate to lecture him, but at the same time I hate when he feels miserable, too!  So I went back out to the living room to tell him that I do think it will help, it's just that an enema would be so much better.  He agreed!  He just came out to tell me it went pretty well.  :)

Tomorrow we'll start introducing food.  I think I'm going to start with the following foods:

• Chicken
• Lard
• Broccoli
• Carrots
• Cauliflower
• Leeks
• Onions
• Pumpkin
• Winter squash
• Chamomile tea
• Sauerkraut juice

Of course everything will be boiled until it's very well cooked.  

Now that I see that list, I meant to add in 1 tsp of sauerkraut juice to our last cup of broth for tonight.

We didn't have any supplements today.

Foods ingested today:

• Chicken meat broth
• Sea salt
• Sauerkraut juice, 1 tsp

Additional protocols:

• Coffee enema (for me and DH)
• Detox bath (for me and DH)

Overdue Update & Lessons Learned

Well, it's been about three months since I posted.

After introducing dairy, I realized I was reacting to it.  Within a week, my old abdominal pain (deep aches) came back.  I knew I needed to eliminate it for longer.  In addition, Minnesota was in the middle of a huge heat wave.  It got HOT.  And all I was eating was soup.  I don't do well with heat, so the soup really started to bother me.

The beginning of the end happened on August 23rd; I was performing on stage and during my piece, I completely spaced out.  It was a busy day and I had not had time to gulp down some soup.  So I just hadn't eaten.  Directly after my performance, I knew I needed to eat something - and fast.  I grabbed the only thing available to me - a cookie.  I only had a bite.  It was too sweet, and I didn't even love it.  But I knew I needed something to eat, and that's what I had.

It's funny.. shortly after that, I couldn't control my appetite.  The next day I was craving sweets and pastries again.  Because of the heat, my slip-up, and my own frustration with not seeing improvement in joint pain - I decided to go off the diet for awhile.

My husband also noticed reactions to dairy, and decided he'd be interested in GAPS too.  So we gave it some thought and decided to do it after the holidays are over.  We'll be starting GAPS January 2014.  Most likely on the 1st.... even though it is so cliche!  But it makes counting the days easier, and all the holiday celebrations will be over at that point.

In the meantime, we are doing a bit of a modified GAPS intro, prior to Thanksgiving celebrations.  Through this, and my first experience with GAPS intro, I have learned a few things:

• Be prepared for die-off:  When I'm sick, I just don't feel like cooking.  I need to have meals pre-cooked for each stage of the diet, so I have something quick to grab.
• Be prepared for stress:  Last weekend, we got a call that my husband's dad had a gun accident.  Thank god he was okay, but one of the first things my husband said when we were figuring out when to go visit was, "I can't stay on the diet, I'm too stressed."  If we are going to seriously do this long-term, we need to have a plan in place.  There will always be emergencies or other stressful events to deal with.  We have to have a plan in place.  Again, this comes down to being prepared.
• Move quickly:  The first time I attempted GAPS, I took three weeks on Stage 1.  I did this because I was hoping my joint pain would lessen before I moved on.  I wanted to know what foods might be causing my pain.  However, it's so important to move quickly so that you can get to the stages where you can eat more food.  This way, you don't get bored and you end up being more satisfied.  I hadn't moved on because Stage 2 is all about EGGS, and eggs can sometimes be implicated in joint pain.  I haven't figured out what to do about this yet - skip eggs and move right to Stage 3?  I think I also might want to avoid nuts too, since I haven't done well with them in the past either.  Argh!

Also, I wanted to keep a quick note of the foods I'm concerned about:

• eggs - joint pain, digestive distress?
• nightshades - joint pain
• dairy - dull abdominal pain
• nuts - acute stomach pain
• zucchini - blistering of skin
• honey or anything with natural sugar - brain fog

Day 16 of GAPS continued...

I forgot to mention a couple of unexpected "side effects" of GAPS:

1. For as long as I can remember, I've had bumps on the back of my arms.  This used to really bother me... It still bothers me, I guess, but I've learned to live with it.  But since starting GAPS, the bumps seem to be lessening.  Yay!  Even my husband noticed.
2. Also, like countless other women, I have cellulite on my hips and thighs.  When you lose weight, sometimes it can make the cellulite seem worse because it becomes more pronounced.  But with GAPS, it seems like the cellulite is lessening too!  I think it might be all the collagen, gelatin, etc. that I'm eating with the broths.
3. I no longer want to watch TV all night!  Up until a few years ago, I really didn't love to watch TV.  I would get bored and go do something else.  Which is how I prefer it.  But these past few years, I've really just wanted to "veg" in front of the TV, no matter what was on.  Sometimes to the detriment of what I needed to do (work, house stuff, etc.).  It was depressing to me!  I'm happy to say that I pretty much have no interest in watching TV anymore!  That was DEFINITELY unexpected!  I wonder if "vegging" in front of the TV released some hormone that calmed me... and I don't need it anymore?  Huh.  Any thoughts?

My yogurt just got done and I ate some about 30 minutes ago.  I was so excited!  I really hope it goes well.  BUT... I may be noticing the following symptoms:  ear ache, skin itchiness, possibly an irritated throat, and a bit of a tummy ache.  I have no idea if I'm imagining it since I'm watching for every little thing and sitting here just thinking about it!  So I will give it some time.  I started with a half cup.  The GAPS book says to start with a teaspoon.  I was like - OMG no.  How in the world would I limit myself to a TEASPOON???  :)  I thought limiting to a half cup was pretty good.  I also mixed a small little bit of honey into it.  Yum!

Prior to eating the bowl of yogurt, I quickly tried a small little bite of the cream cultured with yogurt.  It was good!  I probably ate about a 1/2 tsp, just for a quick taste.  :)  If all goes well with the yogurt, sour cream will probably be next.

Day 16 of GAPS (48 days into LEAP)

I'm long overdue for an update.

The first week of GAPS - I felt pretty good overall.  My digestion improved a lot and very quickly - within a day or two.  I still have "deeper" pain in my abdominal area.  But the really sharp pains I would get have gone away.  I didn't have cravings and I felt pretty satisfied.  I really tried to make sure that I was eating enough food and that I didn't get overly hungry.  I feel like my appetite decreased a bit over the week, but nothing drastic.  I think all the fat on the diet really helped me feel full.  I still had joint pain at the end of Week 1.

My story for dairy this week - I had decided to add dairy in on the second week of GAPS.  With the LEAP diet, I have been off dairy for five weeks, so I felt like it was time to add in good raw yogurt.  I ordered some from our farm (where we are members) and it was supposed to be delivered last Tuesday (day 6 of GAPS).  I have to make 24 hour yogurt, so it would have been done fermenting late on Day 7, which would have been perfect.  Well, for some reason the drop got screwed up - someone picked up our products, or something.  So I didn't get it that day.... I was SO disappointed!  So later that week, we decided to head up to the farm on our way up to my husband's 20th reunion.  Well, work ran late, and it took forever to get packed, and by the time we headed up there, it was going to be close to 10pm by the time we got up there.  I texted our farmer and she said, okay the porch light will be on until 10pm, if the lights are off, that means she's gone to bed and it's locked.  WELL, we didn't want to drive an hour out of our way and then show up and have it be locked (we were really cutting it close on the timing!).  So we decided not to go.  Then she texted us and said to come anyway, she'd make sure we could pick up.  But we were already about 10 miles past our exit.  It was getting so late, we decided not to go.  I truly could have cried!  That's how emotional I was about this damn yogurt!!!  It's been so long since I've had food variety, I was REALLY looking forward to it!  So I just thought - I'll order next Tuesday, it's not that much longer to wait.  And of course on Monday, the farmer texted and said her daughter had gone into early labor and the milk would be delivered on THURSDAY!  What????  Aaahhhhh!!!!  I thought I was going to die.  Okay, so FINALLY we got yogurt yesterday and I got it fermenting ASAP, and it will be ready today around 7:30 PM.  THANK GOD.  So I will actually be starting dairy into my third week on GAPS.

The second week of GAPS - I decided to stay on Stage 1 until I could introduce yogurt.  As you can see, that has turned into quite a fiasco.  So I went through my second week of GAPS, still on Stage 1 (minus yogurt) and I just felt like I was at a plateau.  I'm not sure if that's because I am on Stage 1 for too long, or if my body is just working through things, or what.  My joints still hurt and that is disappointing.  So on Tuesday night, I realized I hadn't done some of the *extra* things on GAPS - things like detox baths, enemas, castor oil compresses, etc.  So I did them all on Tuesday night.  Yikes!  That was a mistake!  I woke up on Wednesday and felt terrible!  I could barely get to work and make it through and hour and a half of meetings.  So Wednesday night, what did I do - well, I decided to do it all again - enema, detox bath, castor oil compress.  I thought that I might as well get all that bad stuff out!!!  As you probably guessed, Thursday I woke up feeling even worse!  Again, I just made it through some meetings at work and then came home.  I was lightheaded/dizzy, weak, nauseous, had blurry vision and a headache.  And I was EXHAUSTED.  All day.  I hope since feeling terrible corresponded with the extra detox things I did, I hope and assume it was die-off.  Because if it was die-off, maybe I will eventually feel a lot better!  Today (Friday), I do feel better than I did on Wednesday and Thursday.  I didn't do any of the detox things yesterday, I was quite literally too exhausted.  But -sigh- I still have joint pain.  I still feel achy.  I still have "deep" pain in my abdomen.  I am still constipated.  I still lack energy.

There is conflicting advice out there - Leave Stage 1 as soon as your immediate digestive concerns settle down (which happened to me within 2-3 days), but no longer than 7 days no matter what.  OR Stay on Stage 1 for as long as it takes for your major symptoms to subside.  For me, that's my joint pain.  I have been concerned about eggs and nightshades for my joints.... and Stage 2 adds eggs right away.  Nightshades come quickly thereafter.  So I am left with this dilemma...   Stay on Stage 1 for a long time (how long will it take?) or take a risk and move onto Stage 2, trusting that if I'm healing my gut, my joint pain will resolve itself in due time.  After a lot of soul searching this week, I have decided to move to do the latter, and move to Stage 2 early next week.  This is truly not because I am wanting more food variety (well, I am.... but that's not why I'm moving on).... I feel like my body is telling me it needs more nutrition.  And since I was on LEAP for a full month before this, I've been off of eggs and nightshades for 6 weeks.  Theoretically, that should be enough time to tell a difference.  Except that my joint pain hasn't gotten better, so how am I supposed to know if eggs/nightshades make a difference?  Ah!  I'm pretty frustrated.  Okay, but I'm pretty convinced I need to add new foods.  So here my progression so far, and what I plan to do:

• Day 1-15:  I ate meat broth, boiled meats, animal fats (no dairy yet), and boiled vegetables - only carrots, leeks, onions, broccoli, cauliflower, winter squash.  Sea salt for seasoning.  Questionable foods (made my stomach kind of rumbly):  cauliflower, leeks
• Day 16-18:  Introduce 24-hour fermented raw goat yogurt.
• Day 19:  If all goes well with yogurt, move to Stage 2, introduce egg yolk first.  If the yogurt doesn't go well, I will eliminate it again, let my digestive system settle down, and then move to Stage 2 without yogurt.

I have read that it is safe and healthy to stay on Stage 3 indefinitely.  So my goal is to try to get to Stage 3 (still going slowly with the introductions in Stage 2) and stay there until my joint pain subsides.  

I have also realized that I probably have not been getting enough natural probiotics.  I am supposed to be having sauerkraut liquid and/or fermented dairy everyday.  Well, I've really been doing neither.  I ran out of sauerkraut liquid probably about a week ago, and I really need to make more.  Actually, I'm going to buy more... There's a woman at our local farmers market that sells THE BEST lacto-fermented sauerkraut.  I'll be going on Saturday to get some.  I cannot wait!  This stuff is amazing.  And the yogurt will definitely help.  It brings up the point that this stuff takes a long time to make (waiting for it to ferment), so preparation is key.

It's also been a long time since I've posted my measurements.  I am FINALLY losing weight, remember that last post where I explained how I dropped so quickly.... yeah, well I've been losing since then!  Not that fast of course.  Actually, I've really needed to make sure that I'm eating enough so that I don't lose very quickly... So here's where I'm at right now:

• Weight:  173.9 (started at 191.7, down 17.8 pounds)
• Clothing Size:  14 (started at 16, down 1 size)
• Waist:  40.5 (started at 43.25, down 2.75")
• Hips:  43.25 (started at 45.5, down 2.25")
• Upper Arms:  12.375 (started at 12.75, down 0.375")
• Upper Thighs:  24.375 (started at 25.75, 1.375")
• Calves:  15.625 (started at 15.875, down 0.25")
• Bust:  39.5 (started at 41.5, down 2")

That's a total of 9" lost!  I can really feel it of course.  I am solidly in a Size 14 now, and I finally was able to ditch some jeans and a belt that I got when I was my biggest.  That felt good!  I will keep donating clothes as I lose weight.  But I won't ditch anything smaller than a Size 12 until I know I'm going to stay down.  I don't want to have to buy a whole new wardrobe!  My regular adult size should be about a Size 8.  So if I could get down to a Size 10 again, I'd be pretty darn happy.  So I'll make sure I stay there for at least six months before I donate any Size 12s.

Well this has been a long enough post!  I haven't posted much because I've been busy with work and I haven't introduced foods.  I'll try to post again sooner!

Day 35 of LEAP, Day 3 of GAPS

Thumbs up so far for GAPS.  My digestion is definitely improved.  I do seem to notice a bit of issue with cauliflower, so I'm going to leave it out for the next day to see if anything changes.  I haven't noticed any changes with joint pain though.  It's only been a few days, and I read a blog posting from someone else who said that their joint pain went away in two weeks on GAPS.  So I guess I'll keep trying.  :)

A couple of things of note:

• I forgot to mention that about 27 days into the LEAP diet, I still hadn't lost much weight... Maybe three pounds.  Although my weight fluctuates enough that I would still call that negligible.  On Day 28 and 29, I had some very.... shall we say... unpleasant..... uh, movements.  Although going to the bathroom is an unpleasant topic, I still am a firm believer that it should actually be talked about more.  I mean, the digestion system has so much influence on our overall well being.  And... well, everyone poops!  Plus, when you're looking for answers on the internet, sometimes you really just need to hear the truth.  So here goes... I'll try to be brief and to the point.  But close your eyes if you don't want to read this.  For two days in a row, I had poops that were very close to diarrhea but with hard chunks in it.  There were also "stages" during the same "session" of very soft stool too.  It was very unpleasant and I actually felt kind of sick.  I probably spend about 10-15 minutes on the toilet, which is quite unusual for me.  Although I've had abdominal pain and stomach discomfort for a long time, I haven't really had "bad" bowel movements.  This was new for me.  Well, anyway, each day once those were done, I felt normal and went about my day.  A couple days later, I had lost SEVEN more pounds, bringing my total weight loss to about 10 pounds.  I finally went down a half a pant size (I say half because women's clothes are so strange - I'm wearing pants I didn't fit into a week ago, but they still say size 16.  I'm also wearing some of the "larger" 14's that I have.)  I'm convinced those bathroom experiences had something to do with me dropping weight in such a short amount of time, after having held on to the weight for close to a month.  I was eating such a clean diet, and I still was not losing weight.  Something happened - a detox of sorts, I guess - and I suddenly lost a bunch.  It's still too early to tell, but it appears to be continuing.  I'm down 11-12 pounds now, depending on the day (since I still fluctuate).
• Day 1 of GAPS was pretty darn easy for me, since it was so close to how I was already eating.  The main thing is that my digestion liked it better.  By the end of Day 1, I was pretty tired and just wanted to get to bed.  On Day 2, I woke up feeling worse, still fatigued and achy (my joint felt worse), and I think I was having a bit of a "die off" reaction.  Later that day, my husband and I were working in the kitchen and all of a sudden I was like - I have to go to the bathroom right now.  It was very loose and chunky again, but I had a surge of energy after that, which lasted until 1 AM, when I forced myself to go to bed.
• Today is Day 3 and I'm feeling pretty good, despite lack of sleep from some commotion outside our house last night.  I'll try to keep you posted.

Discouragement... And the Will to Continue. Day 34.

I haven't written in a really long time.  The truth is that I've been incredibly discouraged about this whole thing.  Plus, I got really bored of writing the same thing over and over again... I would eat the same things, feel the same way.

After two weeks on Phase 1, I realized I needed to try something different.  My joint pain hadn't been relieved, which from my research I guess is to be expected.  But more tellingly, my digestion issues hadn't eased up AT ALL.  And maybe had gotten just a tiny bit worse.

So I tried following my nutritionists advice to cut out fructose.  She had told me that if I didn't see relief from symptoms, I should either cut the foods out that I had added from other phases (e.g. lettuce was on Phase 4, but she had let me add it right away so I'd have better variety), or I should cut out fructose.  So I did both.  I researched ... Of the foods I was eating, which ones should be avoided on a low fructose diet (basically FODMAPS).

One day was all I could stand.  My stomach issues got so severe I was literally doubled over in pain after eating.  I specifically remember getting terrible pains after eating a cucumber spear.  However, when I would eat meat, I wouldn't get such bad reactions.

The next day, I tried an all meat diet, just as an experiment.  Just meat patties and bone broth.  Virtually no stomach issues.  The next day I tried the same thing, but added in some cooked beets.  My stomach issues were still pretty good.  Then I added in sweet potatoes.  Not as good as the beets, but still I was feeling better.

I didn't want to maintain this limited diet without some kind of a plan, so I hopped on the internet to see if this new discovery would give me any clues to why I feel so crappy.

So I did a quick google search for something like "feel fine eating meat stomach pain eating raw vegetables."  So scientific!  :)

The search came up with countless stories of Crohn's Disease.  Hmmm....  when I had my colonoscopy last year, it showed inflammation of the terminal ileum (classic Crohn's) but "not enough" to warrant a diagnosis of Crohn's, according to my doc.  In addition, I didn't have the classic diarrhea or weight loss associated with Crohn's.  But I do have severe joint pain, and the stomach issues of course.

So I started diving into researching Crohn's.  Had I just caught my Crohn's early?  Since I have been struggling with health for 25+ years, and have used diet to manage my health, was I just more in tune with my body than other people?  Do other people maybe just ignore these nagging symptoms, or take something to cover them up?  Do I have "pre-Crohn's"?  Did I just make up that term?  I think so.

I have been very familiar with using diet to cure or manage Crohn's, since I had read quite a few of Jordan Rubin's books.  It got me thinking.... What did he do to get better?  What research did he do, and what books was he reading, and who was he talking with?  I realized that Crohn's was just another manifestation of a leaky gut... Which is why I had done the MRT testing in the first place.  I really need to fix that damn thing.

I'll make a long story a little shorter and just get to the end... I decided to continue on Phase 1 of the LEAP diet, while following the protocol for GAPS intro diet.  If you haven't yet heard of GAPS, do a quick google search and you'll find a plethora of info.  I started it yesterday.

As a wrap up to this post, I just wanted to list the foods I at over the couple weeks of "Phase 1", and what I'm eating now.  Note the expansion of foods, especially fruits, from what I was eating before.  The reason I did this (kind of had to do this), is because I had a week of teaching a kids camp, and working 14+ hours a day, and I couldn't get by without some quick hand foods and quick energy.  It was already three weeks into the protocol anyway.  All the foods listed below are still in the Green area on the MRT testing.

For the past month weeks, with the "very limited" being in the last two weeks:

1. Beef
2. Turkey
3. Chicken
4. Elk, Buffalo, Wild Game, Etc.
5. Sweet Potato
6. Oat
7. Quinoa (very limited)
8. Beet
9. Spinach
10. Aspragus
11. Carrot
12. Cucumber
13. Broccoli
14. Cabbage (very limited)
15. String Bean
16. Celery (very limited)
17. Lettuce
18. Cantaloupe (very limited)
19. Olive
20. Apple
21. Cherry (very limited)
22. Raspberry (very limited)
23. Pear (very limited)
24. Banana (very limited)
25. Watermelon (very limited)
26. Grape (very limited)
27. Pineapple (very limited)
28. Strawberry (very limited)
29. Olive Oil
30. Sunflower Seed Oil
31. Honey
32. Unsweetened Raw Cocoa Powder

Now on the GAPS Intro diet, this is what the diet calls for on Stage 1 (3-5 days).  In blue, I also listed the corresponding LEAP diet result and how I plan to modify for my use.

Meat or Fish Stock

• I plan to stay with meat stock, since MRT indicated that I react badly to fish.  Beef broth and chicken broth will be my staples.  I'll see if I can find other soup bones at the farmers market this Saturday.

Boiled Meats (turkey, beef, chicken, wild game, etc.)

• I shouldn't have to modify this much for MRT.  Beef and Turkey are Phase 1, Chicken is Phase 2.  Since meats tested so well for me, I think wild game will be okay too.

Well boiled broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, onions, leeks

• Broccoli is Phase 3
• Cauliflower is Phase 2
• Carrot is Phase 1
• Onion is Phase 2
• Leek is Phase 2
• Should have no problems!

Squash, winter and summer

• Squash, summer:  Here's my biggest conflict.  Zucchini is in the Yellow Zone, so I will avoid it.  Does that mean I should also avoid yellow squash (which shows up in Phase 4 in LEAP)?  How about pattypan or crookneck?  I'm just not sure.
• Squash, winter:  Winter squash is also related to summer squash.  Which, if we want to get really technical, is also related to cucumbers and melons.  So do I avoid winter squash too?   It makes up the bulk of the carbohydrates on this diet and I don't want to go into ketosis.  I'm still undecided on this one.  I think I might try a few days using butternut squash... If I'm not experiencing relief, I'll cut it out for awhile to see if it makes a difference.

Sea Salt

• This is what I've been using for LEAP, so I see no problems.

Lacto-Fermented Sauerkraut Juice

• This is a natural probiotic, and they have us ease into it very slowly (1-2 tsp per day), so I don't anticipate this being a conflict with MRT.

As you can see, the GAPS diet integrates pretty darn well with my MRT testing, at least in Stage 1 of the Intro.  The biggest issue is the summer squash - I think I'll avoid it all together.  The winter squash I'll give a go, if I need to, I'll back off.  

I figure if it works, I'll continue to GAPS Intro Stage 2, with the same thought given to staying within the confines of the LEAP diet.