Mind the GAPs stage two: taking stock

It’s been a week and a half since I stumbled into GAPs, having grown exhausted of looking and feeling like shite, my skin itching and flaring every time I eat. With doctors drawing several blanks as to what might be up with me (no allergies appaz; no Celiac, although I avoid gluten like the plague, and a second test from Crohns deposed the original positive) I turned to diet to try to solve my skin problems.

More and more people had been. recommending GAPS to me, partly because of autism’s links to gut health. GAPS is diet protocol that aims to heal your gut lining, starve out parasites and bad bacteria and repopulate your stomach with the good stuff,

I began with gusto last week, following a weekend on the sauce and sore skin round my neck that looked as though I’d been engaging in auto erotic activities (which I can safely testify I have not).

GAPS, which stands for gut and psychology syndrome, makes the connection between gut health, auto immune disorders and mood.

The intro diet, is not for the faint-hearted. It starts with several days on broth made from boiled chicken carcasses – and not much else. Luckily, we had concentrated homemade stock in the freezer, which was easy to transport and rehydrate with hot water- microwaves are banned.

Homemade chicken stock contains healing enzymes, which calm inflammation in the gut while you essentially starve all the crap that lives in you, while increasing your intake of probiotic foods like kefir to reintroduce good bacteria.  (I use Nourish @nourishkefir, and have recently bought some of their kefir cultures so I can make coconut rather than dairy kefir for cheap, rather than the rather expensive Rhythm Kefir I’ve been buying from my local health food shop)  – as well as plain old store bought yoghurt and capsules, which is a bit of a cheat, but who actually has time to make their own yoghurt – not me!

In a bid to heal my skin, I’ve done anti-candida diets before. I can tell you, the die-off reaction can make you feel pretty crummy, with headaches, and fluey symptoms, bad breath and a host of other temporary nasties, leaving you feeling the worse for wear for a day or so.

This time, having been fairly ‘on it’ with the probiotics, and off the grains for a while now, it really wasn’t so bad, although I did need to go home early from work with a bit of a migraine on day two of stock taking, whereupon I promptly fell asleep on my sofa and slept for fourteen hours.

By day three, I was feeling good but low on energy, so I supplemented the stock with soft boiled broccoli and butter (really tasty) and gradually introduced yoghurt, and ginger tea and honey, as well as adding finely chopped parsley and spring onion to give the stock a bit of body.

Having started on Tuesday, by Friday I was starting to flag, especially when all my work colleagues went to the pub.

After one water on ice, I headed home on my bike to Tom and the kids eating homemade burgers, while I settled for broccoli, coconut kefir and more stock. I watched Gogglebox, sulked, and once the kids went to bed, had a spliff (sorry, but it cures cancer apparently, and helps me sleep, and unlike booze does not contain sugar – one of the offenders for fuelling the bad guys that have been living in my gut since long-term antibiotics taken in my teens and early twenties killed off much of my microbiome).

Saturday, as detailed here, I was so high on fresh air and sunshine, I continued apace, stomach shrunk to within an inch of its life, and therefore no longer peckish at all. But on Sunday, after a trek around Kew Gardens and vegetable soup for lunch, I was ready for some real food.

I entered stage two by wolfing down lamb shank and butternut squash stew that had been sat in our oven on low all day, plus some chicken skin from a bird that had been roasting for the kids (and to make a new batch of stock) for good measure. I was satiated after a small bowlful, and joy of joys, the kids loved it too.

Bouyant at Kew

I ate stew again at work on Monday, with more coconut kefir and Greek yoghurt that had been hanging around in the fridge taking the edge off at breakfas.

With Tom away, I had to make my own broccoli, now with garlic butter (really nice) although nagging the kids to eat up their breaded fish, mash and veggies was a low point of the day, as temptation dug in to gobble up their leftovers.

I resisted, thanks to a pot of ginger and honey tea , supplemented with some soda water and lemon and a dollop of blackstrap molasses for energy and nutrients (not strictly GAPS legal, but hey, it returns your hair to its natural colour apparently, so on that scientifically unsound advice,  who am I to say no?)

In any case, when I woke up in the morning, the frown lines that have been etching between my eyebrows for years had all but disappeared. Not to mention the fact my waist is more defined, hip bones, pleasantly jutty and chin pointier than it has been, all in all, I’m pleased with the results so far.

This week sees the inclusion of fermented fish like Swedish Gravalax*, pickles and more stew, as well as the stock and probiotic foods from Stage 1, with an egg yolk added for good measure, before heading onto Stage Three, which includes things like nut butter and squash pancakes and other much anticipated delights – thank Christ my husband’s a good cook or else I’d have wasted away by now.

That’s not to say I haven’t fallen off the wagon very slightly over the past week and a half. I’ve caved to the odd cuppa (weak coffee is ok, but in large amounts is a gut irritant, so not suitable when you’re healing), and I’ve had a couple of cheeky Vogue Slims – again, no sugar, but yeah, I know.

I’ve definitely been fairly lavish with the honey in my tea. That aside, the heartburn which had been plaguing me for weeks has disappeared. I’m still feeling positive, energised, and looking at least five years younger than last week and much less rashy, so on that basis, I can keep up almost anything (short-term, at least.)

*however, having eaten Gravalax and pickled veg for lunch I can safely say I had a reaction to it, which supports my belief that I have histamine intolerance, which will make following the GAPs protocol more difficult as many of the foods included contain high histamine response foods.

Gah! Will keep you posted.