We are challenged in our family with far too many health and well being issues so in order to try and rectify them we are going to do GAPS

Tuesday, November 29, 2016

GAPS again


Sage and I are going back onto GAPS, he has been asking me for quite some time to do it as he feels it is the best healing diet for him and that he is healthier, happier, thinks much more clearly and his body feels better when eating this way and sticking to it all the time. I also believe it to be a very healing and nourishing way to eat for me.

Eating this way is a lot of work, I need to be organised, I need to plan well and shop so we have all we need on hand.  I need to keep up with basics like stock- we will need around 10 liters of home made stock a week at this stage of GAPS.  I need to keep supplies of kefir, cultured cream,  yoghurt, fermented vegies ready and flowing. WE need to be having vegie juices so need loads of those suitable vegies. The fridge also needs to be stocked with handy snack options for Sage to eat and to pack and take when he is out. Good options we have relied on in the past are vegie sticks, salads, boiled eggs, chicken wings or drumsticks, meat balls.
As we progress through GAPS we can add more food options like nuts, smoothies, fruits etc.


RESET


I am planning a personal retreat in Jan 2017, this is a time I am setting aside for me. My goals are to nourish myself and focus on self acceptance, self love and self nurturing. I want to get my mind and body healthy and work on increasing all of that by the time I hit 50 in October.

Key Areas-
 Healthy habits-
Eating clean- we started Nov 30 and will do GAPS into bu Dec 1.
Drinking loads of water- and no alcohol or coffee.
Silence- I am going to sit in silence at least 2 hours every day, most likely early mornings.
I am switching off from internet and all social media.

So what will I do with all of this time and space I am opening up in my life?
Journal-
I am planning on starting each day with silence and contemplation in this time I will be using oracle cards and morning pages and heartjournalling.
Move-
Walking, swimming, dancing, yoga, working with my drum.
Art-
I want to work at my easel every day.
Intentional Creativity to dig deep into my self.
Read-
I am going to be reading a lot some of the books I have selected are-
Becoming Animal- David Abram 
Awakening to the Spirit World- Sandra Ingerman
Thinking Like a Mountain - John Seed 
Wild- Jay Griffiths
If Women Rose Rooted - Sharon Blackie
The Secret Life of Bees- Sue Monk Kidd
Braiding Sweetgrass- Robin Wall Kimmerer
One- Richard Bach 
The Shamanic Drum - Michael Drake
Goddesses in Every Woman - Jean Shinoda Bolen
I am also reading Jung, Rumi, Jamie Sams, Clarissa Pinkola Estes and anything else I am drawn to.
Time Out-
Camping alone for 2 or 3 nights around full moon - 12th and new moon - 27th.
River walks
Morning silence
Connecting-
I will call people who want to be in contact with me in this period.
Do something special with my boys - every day I  have the opportunity with them to.
Sage- trip to Bodhi's
- making sauerkraut together
- beach, river
- bbq with friends
Jarrah- bbq with friends
-drives

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Traveling Fare


Master 11 and I need to do a trip to Sydney and will spend one day travelling there, stay overnight and drive home again it is pretty crazy but needs doing.

Food is an issue as our standard travelling fare are not options, and Master 11 can be ravenous or not hungry at all. Buying food on the road is not an option so I don't mind if I come home with leftver. I do mind if he or I are starving, so I will load the esky with-

roasted garlic chicken drumsticks 
baked meatballs
boiled eggs
garlic yogurt dip
vegetable sticks
kimchi
almond bread
cold stewed apples
fresh fruit salad
cultures cream
kefir
pples
bananas


Thursday, October 9, 2014

Winding Up Intro


Its been a month and a day and I was surprised to see we only have stage 6 left of intro and really that is just raw apple and Master 11 can not wait, he was pretty keen to have one for desert tonight but we managed to put him off till the morning. 

So we will very soon be transitioning to full GAPS and that is so exciting, the amount of foods we can have is much expanded. One thing we have both noticed doing GAPS is how fresh and yummy everything tastes, we must have reset our taste buds I think.

I went to the Dr today to get my results from my blood tests, mamogram and ultrasound. There is n sigh of the lump the Dr found in my breast so we think it must be something to do with the detoxing , and the gym excercises getting things moving. I guess that is a good thing. My blood tests were very good, everything was well within normal except my cholesterol and when she mentioned that I was a bit worried as I have been eating so much more fat than ever before but the funny thing was my cholesterol was low including my omega 3- low so I need to eat more fish and fish oil. We will soon be starting our GAPS supplements so that will address the omega 3 with cod liver ol. 

Saturday, October 4, 2014

Day 26 Intro


We are still here and progressing through the stages of intro, we are on stage 4 now and will probably go to stage 5 this coming week. Master 11 is dying to get to his all time most favourite and most eaten food all his life - Apples! Stage 5 introduces stewed apples and he ccan'twait.

Food wise I think I am finally on top of it, I think the severe restrictions totally challenged me and then following on and introducing certain things at certain stages kept me struggling but I am finally starting to feel like I am managing better. We have introduced quite a few new tings now, the first day we had carrot juice was a highlight, it was like ambrosia for the both of us and has become a real treat to start the day with. The ground almond bread is also nice, just to have something baked adds a whole new texture to our diets. We are also having gelatine jubes and coconut butted drops so a sweet treat is very welcomed.

Master 11 is doing really well. He is much better emotionally turning into a normal pre teen boy now and I suspect his hormones were contributing to some of his emotional challenges, he has also improved physically a lot and is looking so much better- he is really aware of his body now too and if anything upsets his body can tell me straight away. 

Me - I am struggling emotionally with a whole host of issues so I need super GAPS to sort my emotional stuff, health wise I am tired, so tired I was hoping I would gain some energy but I am fighting to stay away till 10 every night and don't have much energy in the days.

Sunday, September 28, 2014

Maintaining a GAPS household


Since starting this healing journey 
I have really struggled with the workload 
and the state of the house is not what I am comfortable with.

 Even though I have always been one to cook everything from scratch and we have always eaten most of our meals at home the kitchen hours have challenged me enormously, so much cooking and so much washing up but I do think we are getting a little better in this area. One thing is Master 11 is taking over some of the cooking, mainly because he is eating so much and no matter how much I cook he still wants more, so will steam a dinner plate of veggies for himself at least once a day and will also poach chicken fillets in stock. It is great to see him stepping in and taking on this independent role and it is also an indicator to me that he is healing, a couple of weeks ago this would have been too much for him. 

 What is keeping me so busy? - making stocks and bone broths, making fermented vegetables - ginger carrots, sauerkraut and about to do kimchi, making kefir and kefir cream cheese and kefir sour cream, cooking for every meal - meatballs, poached chicken, lots of different stock based veggie soups to get the stock in as Master 11 will not drink stock, casseroles and stews and the endless washing up and storing food. I am also needing to go and shop a lot more often as we are going through massive amounts of vegetables and chicken so trying to get to markets to make our dollar go further and source organic produce.

As time goes on I am discovering some better ways to manage the food side of things.
 I bought a stack of large coffee jars at the op shops to store the bone broth and stocks in, these take up less room in the fridge and are so much easier to clean the fat from than the plastic boxes. 
I am trying to only make enough soup for our lunch time meal so I don't need to tore more in the fridge- this is tricky because we are both hungry and Master 11 is quite often ravenous so judging the correct amount is still a bit hit and miss. 
I keep shredded chicken in the fridge at all times,
 I make chicken stock from a whole chicken and when it cools I save the bones and skin for bone broth and shred the chicken into a container so we can add it to soups or Master 11 will often have a snack of shredded chicken and sauerkraut or kimchi.
We make a pot of ginger tea and both of us like it hot or later cold.
Master 11 is really missing water kefir and Master 15 is drinking it everyday so it was a cause for grief for my little one- I bought him sparkling mineral water and he has this with a slice of lime.

As for the rest of the house it is a bit of a wreck, I am trying to squeeze 3 gym sessions in a week and Friday morning has traditionally been our house cleaning day where the three of us pitch in and clean the whole house, the last 3 Fridays I have been in town so have missed these days but my amazing boys have stepped up and done the whole house without me. It is not quite to my standard but we would be living in squalor without their efforts and I so appreciate them. Master 11 has also taken over all the lawn mowing off his own bat so the yard is pretty good. They have left my bedroom / studio and it is chaos but I am hoping to get it clean and tidy very soon. 

Once my bedroom is sorted I am hoping to start sorting out other areas in the house and garden, we need t do a big whipper snip around the house and have a general clean up out there and I am keen to move the chooks very soon further away from the house. I also need to find my groove and get a new routine sorted so I can manage all the things I need to do. 

Friday, September 26, 2014

Detox Baths


Detox baths are recommended for easing die off symptoms and Dr Natasha Campbell McBride recommends you have one every night. The lad and I have been experiencing quite a few die off symptoms so I have been researching detox baths, only problem is we don't have a bath so we need to improvise, I think we will use a foot bath and stand in it in the shower so we will be having detox foot bath showers.

Dr NCM suggests a variety of things to add to the detox bath- sea salt, apple cider vinegar, epsom salts, baking soda and seaweed and I have recently been seeing a GAPS practitioner who suggested a few others like magnesium chloride and borax so we went shopping for things to add to our detox baths and started with them last night.

I had a big nappy bucket in the shower with hot water and magnesium chloride and stood in it in the shower for 10 minutes or so doing a bit of lymphatic drainage massage  then I turned on the shower and stayed in my foot bath as I showered - I felt good afterwards better than I have in days. Master 11 had a foot bath just before bed and he is feeling much better now as well, super hungry but much more calm and happy and the cravings and feeling like he is missing out on so much seem to have passed.