Starting GAPS

It doesn't look like much all set out on the table here, but I've been gathering information and ingredients to start the GAPS intro for the past couple weeks. I have, a bowl of my crockpot chicken, GAPS Guide, Gut and Psychology Syndrome, Breaking the Vicious Cycle from the library, glass jars of chicken stock (what the intro portion of the diet is based on), milk-free sauerkraut, a jar to keep the fat from the chicken in, fish oil, cod liver oil, bio-kult probiotic, an immersion blender for making blended soups, Klean Kanteen (the only way I've gotten my little one to 'eat' soup), and some organic broccoli, carrots, and cauliflower.

The GAPS Intro is outlined here. I would rather hold real books in my hand than only have them on the web, so I bought the GAPS Guide, which does have the introduction diet in it and I'm using that. I read through the website before deciding to buy the books, though.

GAPS starts out with a diet based on meat and veggie soup, and slowly adds in other easily digestible foods (no grains, though, for a long time). The idea is that it gives the gut nourishing healing foods, and allows it to repopulate good flora (the kind of bacteria in yogurt and lactofermented veggies), which helps our digestion and absorption of nutrients, as well as keeping nutrients that aren't broken down all the way from passing through to the bloodstream prematurely. I think it's fascinating. It's almost like setting the 'reset button' on your gut flora after a lifetime of antibiotics and toxins. I'm curious to see how it works, I'd love to get rid of my milk allergy, and maybe even improve my handwriting (which looks like chicken scratch- thought to be related to dyslexia) and spelling ability (I rely heavily on spell check).

My baby is nearly a year now, and I'll continue to nurse him through GAPS. It's supposed to be more baby-friendly than other cleanses, more gentle, so I think we'll be okay. Of course if I see any bad symptoms in him, I'll go ahead and stop.

Feel free to ask questions in the comment section. I'm not an expert in GAPS at all, but I have been reading quite a bit about it lately. I'll most likely be posting about non-GAPS related things during this since the diet is very simple and not a lot to blog about ;)


More:
Books I've been reading recently
A post here and here by Kelly on GAPS.
Kelly is also hosting a giveaway for a premium water filter.
Chicken Stock is nourishing and warm, whether you're doing GAPS this winter or not. Here are pictures and instructions.
Keeper of the Home wrote about a different cleanse that she was doing over here, must be the season!