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.
