Plugging Away on GAPS

It's been a hard month. We've experienced die off on and off over the months, but this was a wave similar to what hit us at the beginning of GAPS intro and then again about 6 months after GAPS intro. Extreme fatigue, a general feeling of un-wellness and gloom and doom. We know something's happening for sure because just like the previous especially bad boughts of die off, we dropped weight drastically. Under a couple of weeks, Todd has dropped 6 lbs and myself, 4 lbs. On my 5'2" frame, it's significant.

Todd tells me this is something most girls would envy, but it's difficult for me. We've been terribly chemical sensitive, so other than Whole Foods, we've been purchasing everything online. Well actually, Whole Foods and the post office to drop off returns. I've been slowly replacing my wardrobe since purchasing clothes online can be a lot of trial and error, but discovered I've shrunk yet another pant size. I'm truly too tired to find more pants and run more return boxes to the post office. Some things will just have to fit loosely for awhile. And it's encouraging evidence of the revolution going on in our guts.

Die off is a bit exacerbated by the late fall/early winter weather. All the rain and short days mean less sun and no walks in the woods. Being outdoors and getting some sun always cheers me up. It gets easy to become mopey and self-pitying all cooped up.

Last week was the final week of our CSA. The final week was actually two weeks ago, but our CSA had extra produce so offered to extend for an extra week for those who were interested. I ordered a robust share for the extended week, glad to extend the season a bit longer before resigning to supermarket produce. I am so grateful to my CSA farmer for providing such quality produce that I now find the organic lettuce and squash at Whole Foods tasteless. I'm not putting down organic produce at Whole Foods as I am a loyal patron of the store. It's just that local produce grown with love just tastes so much better.

I have quite a bit of fermented and frozen produce stocked up in my fridge to help get through the winter:
5 gallon sized bags of frozen winter squash
4 gallon sized bags of frozen peeled, deseeded, halved tomatoes
3 jars lacto-fermented pickles
3 jars lacto-fermented eggplant
3 jars lacto-fermented radish
2 jars lacto-fermented baby bok choy
2 jars lacto-fermented stem medley (fibrous stems from chard and bok choy that I decided to ferment)
1/2 gallon sauerkraut

Although the sauerkraut is a ferment staple for us and I'm actually getting ready to make more. Okay, well, this blog was mostly a random ramble for me, but it feels good to get back to blogging. Hope to post again soon.

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Die Off on GAPs

I just noticed that I haven't blogged in over a week. It's hard to blog when you have die off. Actually it's hard to feed your cats too. Or take a bath. Or heat up dinner. Things you normally do everyday become hard.

Die off symptoms appear when your body is detoxifying and when bad microbes, bacteria or yeasts are being killed. The GAPs diet is designed to balance out gut dysbiosis by removing all foods that the bad microbes feed on, and use good bacteria and yeasts in the form of fermented foods and probiotic supplements to kill off the bad bacteria and yeasts. Also, certain facets of the GAPs diet like avoiding stress and environmental chemicals, eating only foods the body can handle, and supporting it with lots of minerals and nutrients via bone broths and vegetable juices can trigger the detoxification of old toxins and bad substances it may have stored up over the years.

Die off symptoms can manifest as every illness imaginable. Just Google die off symptoms and you'll get pages of articles and blogs describing die off symptoms. No need to rehash it here. Bee has a good article on her site about die off symptoms.

We've had die off on and off ever since starting GAPs almost 11 months ago. In the beginning, it was a week of die off followed by a few days of feeling pretty good. Ever since starting the intro diet, it's been more like a week of die off followed by one day of feeling good. Continuous die off is hard. Some days you can barely muster up the energy to dress yourself. You feel like you are depressed and have the flu at the same time. Except it's not exactly depression or the flu. You just feel not quite right and really fatigued and achy all over, but you don't have the flu and it doesn't pass like the flu. And you drag yourself around and don't want to do anything like someone who was depressed but you're not really exactly depressed. And you become endowed with super hero senses in terms of smell and hearing. The least bit of noise bothers you. Your neighbor at the office annoys you when he shakes his leg cause you can hear the rattling. Your coworker that you've eaten lunch with for two years suddenly gives you a headache because you can smell the fabric softener on his clothes. Some days, you find that even though you have an English degree, your vocabulary has been diminished by 75%, leaving you with the eloquence of a stuttering fool and the spelling capacity of a grade school student.

Yet, I still feel we are on the right track. The other day, I happened on some blogs from cancer patients on the Gerson Therapy. Well, if I thought GAPs die off was bad, it is mild compared to what these people were going through. The laws of the universe are not all clear, but it seems that many people embracing natural holistic therapies encounter die off at some time or other. I feel in my heart we are well on our way to healing. 

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