My GAPS Diet Week 1

WEEK1-01

When I first started my 2014 Healthy Transformation, I was really hesitant to share my journey publicly. Then I remembered I am a blogger and I have no secrets!

I began my journey of health many years ago to loose weight. Lose the weight I gained in college. I never would have imagined how deep this rabbit hole goes. Or how much I’d know about health, nutrition and the human body 15 years later. 

Still I don’t have all the answers, but I do know that Gaining Weight is just a SYMPTOM of a much larger problem. And I’m sure there are millions of people out there with the same frustration I have had over the years. Each of our path a little different, yet very similar.

I’m very intelligent. I’m motivated and active. If any of the modern theories of weight management worked, I’d be a slim 110. “Eat Less & Move More”… “Calories In vs Calories Out” … “Low Fat”… “High Fiber” ——- What a crock of SHIT.

You feel me?

I’ve grown increasingly tired of folks making small dietary changes and losing weight.. “I started drinking more water and lost 10 pounds” Go F@*$& off. Honestly.

Now, I’m not knocking any of you who those theories work for but only voicing my frustration… publicly.

Not that long ago I did a 60 day Work Out Challenge and focused on working out 3 days a week and eating clean paleo – yet gained weight steadily (and don’t give me that building muscle BS, muscle doesn’t jiggle!)

I eat real food, lots of healthy fats, less carbs, not too much, I’m active, no processed junk, no sodas, lots of fermented goodies, I’m active, I get enough sleep…. I could go on and on.

I live the life of a healthy person, trapped in a chubby body. And it makes me sad 🙁

Please don’t confuse my little rant with an assumption that eating healthy and being active won’t get you where you want, because that’s not the point. This isn’t about YOU, it’s about ME and my journey. We are all incredibly unique and need to find our own path. Find what works for each of us individually.

As I became more and more immersed into natural health over the years and trying to figure out why my body is so damn difficult – I learned more and more about Leaky Gut and how it could precisely explain many things I was going through.

What Causes Leaky Gut Syndrome?

Leaky gut syndrome results from damaging the cells of the small intestine so that the spaces between them become larger and allow incompletely digested food molecules and ‘waste’ particles to pass through.  Many things can damage these cells, causing or aggravating leaky gut syndrome.  Below are the most common culprits:

  • Antibiotics
  • NSAIDS-non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (e.g., aspirin, ibuprofen, acetaminophen)
  • Birth control pills
  • Steroid drugs
  • Chemotherapeutic agents
  • Antacids
  • A diet high in refined sugar and flour, processed foods, chemical food additives such as artificial colours and flavours, alcohol (yes, that includes beer and wine), soda pop and caffeine act on the body like toxins.  They place a heavy load on the body’s immune system, overburden the liver, and irritate the intestinal lining.
  • Inflammatory conditions of the intestines such as Crohn’s Disease, colitis, celiac, and pancreatitis can not only cause increase intestinal permeability, the increased intestinal permeability can in turn aggravate these conditions.
  • HIV/AIDS can also create a leaky gut as can the medications used to manage the disease.
  • Candidiasis
  • Cancers of the gastro-intestinal tract
  • Food Allergies that cause an immune response along the gastro-intestinal tract
  • Liver disorders and poor liver function
  • A Stressful Lifestyle
  • Nicotine use

I’ve known about the GAPS diet for several years and never thought it was something that I NEEDED to do. Not something someone like ME needs to do. I don’t suffer from any mental disorder, I don’t have digestive complaints…. However last year I found out that I have Celiacs as well as several food intolerance.

It just kind of happened. Even though I had been dead-set to complete another long juice fast after the first of the year 2014, I realized that my gut needed to be healed more importantly. So I thew caution to the wind and decided to jump in feet first and start on a GAPS diet journey. Dedicating myself as long as it is necessary to fix my leaky gut, even if it takes years. This is my best option and even if it isn’t specifically the weightloss miracle I’ve been looking for at least I’ll be the healthiest version of myself possible! The funniest part is that even though I decided to start, I didn’t really know what all was involved, luckily it wasn’t as bad as I thought.

What is the GAPS Diet?

The GAPS diet is a temporary diet that eliminates hard to digest carbohydrates, toxic food additives, and foods that are difficult to digest.  These foods are removed to heal the gut. By healing the gut, chronic conditions such as autism, celiacs, food allergies, environmental allergies, eczema, and autoimmune disorders are all healed.

The GAPS diet starts with a more restrictive, but intensely healing Introduction Diet, and then moves on to Full GAPS diet which is much less restrictive.  The entire diet is outlined in the book Gut and Psychology Syndrome by Dr Natasha Campbell-McBride.

My First week of the GAPS Introduction Diet

There are 6 stages in the GAPS diet Introduction. You can move through the stages as fast or as slow as needed for your body. Refer to the book Gut and Psychology Syndrome for more information on each specific stage.

Now The GAPS diet isn’t about loosing weight per-se and this was totally unexpected. However I think that we can all agree that when you are nourishing your body with gentle and soothing foods – perhaps it could drop a few pounds along the way!

I began GAPS on Monday, January 6, 2014 and one week later I’m so extremely elated to share that I’ve lost an atsonishing 11 POUNDS.

Did you hear me?? 11 POUNDS

Yep! 11 Pounds in 7 days! And all y’all nah-sayers can keep your negativity to yourselves! I deserve this bragging and no this isn’t a dangerous fad diet. Don’t hate the playa’ Hate the game 😉

What I ate on my first week of GAPS:

So, now I’m sure you are wondering what I ate in my first week, here’s a general outline.. Keep in mind I’ve added foods that worked for my body and moved through the stages as it felt right for me. I’ve also added herbal tea but it isn’t specifically an allowed food but I tolerate it perfectly fine.

  • 6 am Warm Lemon Water
  • 7 am Probiotics, Fermented Cod Liver Oil & Raw Liver
  • 8 am Mug of Homemade Bone Broth with splash of sauerkraut juice
  • 10 am Herbal Tea
  • 12 pm Bowl of soup made with Homemade Bone Broth, veggies (onion, garlic, carrot, broccoli, cauliflower and/or zucchini) boiled chicken and a splash of sauerkraut juice or dollop of sour cream
  • 2 pm Herbal Tea
  • 4 pm Mug of Homemade Bone Broth with splash of sauerkraut juice and 1/2 avocado mashed
  • 6 pm Herbal tea
  • 8 pm Sleepy Time Herbal Tea and Probiotics

I averaged 1 quart of bone broth per day (chicken, beef, pork or venison), 3-4 mugs of herbal tea, and 1/2 gallon of room temperature water.

I plan to keep following the same basic menu outlined above for week 2, increasing the amount of fermented sauerkraut juice and sour cream, maybe adding in an egg yoke a day since my skin test didn’t show any intolerance.  I hope to be worked fully into Stage 3 by the end of my second week.

I feel GREAT eating these foods and don’t have any desire to add more foods in yet. Additionally I have amazing ENERGY and am sleeping very deeply with vivid dreams.

Have you ever thought about going on the GAPS Diet? Do you think you have a Leaky Gut??

Click HERE to see My GAPS Diet Week #2

 

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12 Comments

  1. Thanks for sharing your progress so explicitly. Can you tell me, however, how you eat “Probiotics, Fermented Cod Liver Oil & Raw Liver” at 7am? Do you make it into a smoothie? Plug your nose?

    1. probiotics comes in a pill form, the FCLO is a flavored liquid that you take in a syringe (shoot into mouth) and the raw liver is tiny bits froze and swallowed like a pill. Easy Peasy.

  2. Hi Hayley, just on my first week now and have had been through some tough challenges already – grandmas bday party with all sorts of delicious food:) How did you feel the first days?

    1. Aneta – I didn’t feel much different since I already ate 90% gaps when I started. However I am constantly surrounded by tasty foods that I can’t have and find strength in knowing it’s a necessity for my health!

  3. Hi Hayley! Congrats on your GAPS journey! I am almost finished with week 1, and have a question for you. How do you take your raw liver???? Thanks for your imput!

        1. Brenda – I promise it’s really pretty easy – really!! I take raw liver and cut it up into little pill size pieces, then freeze them.
          In the morning I take out enough to fill a shot glass about 3/4 full and add water. Once the frozen liver pills are soft I just SHOOT’em down like a shot! They are smooth & slimy and slip right down 🙂 The key is to take them while they are just soft not forget about them and take them an hour later – the longer they sit the more flavor they seem to have in the water – after just thawing enough to be soft (maybe 5-10 min) they don’t have any taste 🙂

          1. Thanks Hayley!! Your right, does sound easy!!! At least, much easier than the way I was trying…. 😉 Keep chugging away!!!

  4. I am glad to hear someone with the same experience as me! I started GAPS on Jan. 1, 2014. I have lost 17 pounds in 20 days (yay- I still have a lot more to lose), but I have not been able to move past phase 1. This is good to read someone else’s journey of the same thing! Thank you for sharing your story.

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