Mental preparation

I was going to kick off April with some serious detoxing and healing. Still hasn't happened. BUT, I am planning to get myself (and maybe hubby to cure his seasonal allergies) on the GAPS intro diet as of Monday. Why? Because I finally want to deal with my own health issues, and I feel that I am ready. When I first read about GAPS I had so many flashbacks and lights went on all the time, I just knew that this explains so much about everything. But I felt frustrated because the information and guidelines on how to pull through the very restrictive intro-diet and later adhere to the GAPS-diet for over 2 years just did not seem doable. I had never heard of Kefir before I and I wasn't much up for cooking meat stock all the time either. I had no clue were to find organic bones, nor how to prepare liver for that matter. And, the biggest problem of them all, I didn't find the time to stay completely isolated from external food offerings at friends' place or at work.

As I now went back to the yellow book to find some answers to my persistent problems, I realized that in the past year I have gone through a sharp learning curve, and I felt confident that I can at least pull through the intro diet in 1- 2 weeks. The book recommends 6 weeks but since we have been eating something similar for quite a long time I thought I might just shorten the intro stage. Also, right now our social activities are quite low and the focus is on the house that we will be moving to, not on meeting up with friends, and during the day I can even run home to have a home cooked lunch instead of eating out. Another reason that this isn't so overwhelming is that now the focus is on myself, not my children. I recognize that also they would be in need of some gut healing in order to permanently get rid of their sensitivities but the focus will not be on them, the focus is on myself. It is easier to control myself than everything surrounding the kids. If I manage to pull this through, they might be up for a short GAPS intro for a couple of weeks in the summer.

What is GAPS? Never heard of it before? Simply put, the GAPS diet is all about healing the gut lining and curing the body from allergies, food sensitivities and behavioral issues (it has been "invented" by a medical doctor that cured her son's autism with this special diet). You can read more about it on the pages of some "real experts", like the doctor herself: Natsha Campbell-McBride, or Cara at health home happy who has been working with GAPS for several years with her autistic child, or even Domestic Divas who promote a GAPS influenced diet to cure eczema.

So this weekend I start preparing with week planning of meals as well as some serious bone broth cooking!