A Healing Journey for Mom

Dear Family and Friends,

I am writing this letter to let you know that I am about to embark on a Healing Journey by following the GAPS Diet Protocol for at least a year.  The GAPS diet was created by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride to work on healing psychological issues (using her son with Autism as a guinea pig) by dealing with issues of digestion.  Her research showed that by healing and sealing the GUT lining and reintroducing good flora, you could heal many other health problems.  Her work has helped people suffering with Autism, Depression, Anxiety and many other psychological issues as well as people with physiological and physical issues.  These physiological and physical issues include auto-immune diseases, IBS, joint pain, Celiac Disease, food allergies, heart disease, seasonal allergies and so much more.

I am taking on this new way of life to help with my physiological issues.  I have both Thyroid and Celiac Disease and hope that this healing diet will help to heal some of my "leaky gut" issues and that I will start to feel better than I am feeling right now.  I am hoping for more energy, a stomach that doesn't hurt after eating and the ability to absorb vitamins.  Right now eating is difficult, even with the gluten, dairy and legumes removed, and I hope that this diet is the answer.

I first heard about The GAPS diet two years ago.  Many of the Natural Food Blogs I follow have written about it and I would usually skip over these posts.  A year ago, I read a little about the program but still thought it wasn't what I needed in my life.  In February of this year, after a month of giving up gluten, my stomach pains were back and I was feeling just terrible.  After a little research online I found that just giving up Gluten is usually not enough for Celiac Patients and that eliminating all grains is usually the answer.  Much of the research papers and blog posts that I read said that it was important to heal the gut lining that the gluten had been damaging for so long. The GAPS diet was mentioned again and again and so I decided it was time to seriously look into it.

As I have said in the past, I do not just jump into things.  For the past month I have been reading, researching and listening to hours of podcasts about the GAPS diet.  I have read and heard many success stories as well as stories of people who struggled on the diet.  I have decided that this is something I need to try and I am hopeful that this good and nutritious food will assist me in my healing.

The rest of the family will not be joining me on GAPS at this point but will be eating many of the foods that I make.  The picky kids are already in the mix of shifting their diet and are so far being good about it as long as I am slow.  I know that the whole family would benefit from this diet but for now I am going to pioneer it alone.

Two things I can still enjoy on occasion

So what can I eat??  I can eat meat (and have added red meat back into my life after 20 years), broth, non-starchy vegetables, ripe fruits, raw honey, nuts and seeds (I can't do nuts for now but hope I will soon) and fermented dairy (including aged, hard cheeses).  So this means I will be cutting out grains of any kind (corn included), sugar, most legumes (this includes soy), starchy vegetables like potatoes and non fermented dairy.  It will be a bit of transition and a lot of work but something that my body and mind are ready to do.  I am starting off with the GAPS Intro on April 15th, which is very restrictive, and hope to move through that in a month or two.  By summer, I hope to be on FULL GAPS and as I said will likely be on the diet for a year or two (if not life).

I do not plan to talk about GAPS much on this blog.  I might update you from time to time on my progress but do not want to spend too much time documenting it here.  There are so many great blogs out there with amazing resources as well as some great podcasts to listen to.  I will list some below if you are interested in checking it out for yourself.

I hope that you will support me with positive energy in this journey.  Please understand that for awhile it will be hard for me to eat out at restaurants and that I might need to bring my own food to your house if we share a meal.  I can drink red wine on Full GAPS (as well as tequila shots) so girls night out should not be affected ;)

Hugs to you all and thanks in advance for your support!

J

Resources to Check Out if You Are Interested in GAPS

-Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride's Official Website
-Free Gaps Diet Resources - A great list of blog posts to check out
-GAPS Diet Journey-Blog and Podcast
-GAPS Myths by Cheeseslave