Sunday 2 September 2012

New beginnings...

Hi!! I'm stepping (very quietly) back over the line from only-a-little-bit-GAPS, to quite-a-lot-GAPS-but-I'm-not-perfect-so-don't-quote-me-on-that...
You see, my darn sister just had the most divinely beautiful little girl I've ever seen in my WHOLE LIFE.   And I want one too. A pink one. Just like her...but cuter cos she's mine right??
So... I need to lose weight and I need to be healthy and I need those things done by May do I can start my preconception care to start trying in September.
Sounds like a plan.
Speaking of which, I have one. However I'm too tired to write it all down right now as I've been getting up at 5.30am for the last 3 days for a convention. But that's another story...
Night chickens!

Tuesday 29 May 2012

Prep is beginning...slowly but surely...

OK.  We are back at mum's now.  I have been trawling thru the internet for GAPS recipes for the last 5 weeks, and have come up with quite an impressive list for my cook books.  I've just been copying and pasting them into different folders for my own use.  I am a planner, and I need to know what I'm doing far in advance.

For the last few days, it has gotten really cold, and my elbow, which got broken when I was in my early 20's, has been absolute agony, with major pain in the joint, all over, when I bend it, straighten it, just all the time basically, and today the pain is radiating down my arm and causing me a lot of distress.  So tonight I decided to  buy some of the fermented cod liver oil/butter oil so I can get some fish oil into me and hopefully take away this paaaaaaiiin!!!  I got 2 bottles of the royal capsules, 1 packet of biokult, 2 bottles of positive outlook (for brain fog and energy when you start GAPS) for when we start Intro.  I will start taking the royal capsules now but save the rest for when we start intro.  I bought them from gapsaustralia.com.au.

I have been reading a couple of blogs by people who are doing GAPS, one is The Joy of the Home.  Christina has just started intro with her and her hubby and her 6 kids are doing full GAPS including fruit.  She lists what she eats every day and makes it really simple by basically eating the same thing for breakfast and lunch or lunch and dinner some days, which I think I'll do especially at the start of intro.  She also uses her slowcooker every day for her dinners which for me, is a smart idea, as by dinner I'm running and tired and over it so to have dinner already done is awesome.  I have written down everything she ate for the first 30 days and will use that as my guide for my initial month.  The other blog I am reading thru is GAPS Diet Journey.  Starlene started slow and did full GAPS at first then did Intro later.  I am reading it from cover to cover.  It's good to see others experiences and see what they ate etc to help you along the way.. There needs to be more GAPS blogs detailing their progress I think and then more people will hear about GAPS and how wonderful it is.

The next thing to do on my list is order some grass-fed organic meat.  I need sausages that don't have rubbish in them as my hubby needs more than eggs in the morning to feel full, and on intro, he won't be able to have eggs, so if he can have sausages, and take some to work along with his thermos of stew, it will help keep him full and happy =)  I'm looking at Spencers Brook Farm for my sausages, and Merribee Organic Farm for my meat. I will need a new freezer I think too to hold all this meat as buying in bulk is the only way I can afford organic meat.

So now all I need is for my friend to go into labour so I can go help her out for a few days, and then get back home and onto final intro prep!!

I bought two of my friend's a GAPS book each the other day, I recommend bookdepository.com they have free shipping and the book is so cheap!

Oh oh!!  In other highly exciting news, one of my close friends has just told me on my fb page that she is going to be starting GAPS very soon.  This makes my heart happy as she is not a well girl, with PCOS, Insulin resistance, depression, anxiety, among other health problems, and has had multiple miscarriages and is desperate for a baby.  I am going to be there for her and support her all the way and cannot WAIT for that magic phone call when she tells me she is pregnant and she isn't afraid of losing it because she is healthy and well again!!  The whole world is going to hear me screaming for joy!

Thanks for reading everyone.  I will try to keep this updated more, it's funny that I don't write more blog posts as I'm pretty much living, breathing GAPS at the moment lol.

BYEEEEE!! Lov Lissi xx

Wednesday 18 April 2012

Intro postponement

Intro has been postponed until I'm in my new house around June/July now as a stressful family situation has exploded and I don't think I can concentrate on it at this point.

Sunday 15 April 2012

Preparation for Intro...again!

There is one week until we move from mum's to my in laws house to house sit for them while they're in America for 5 weeks! This week I plan to pack for that five weeks, and for the first week while we are there, I am meal planning and batch cooking for us to do intro for a month while we are staying there!! I know! Huge but we need to do it. I'm seeing huge things happen in Pixi which I will detail in a later post.

Saturday 17 September 2011

Day 1 and Day 2 of Intro-Sept 2011

Well, day 2 is down and we are on our way to day 3.
We have decided to introduce eggs tomorrow, so we will see how we all go on that.  For day 1 we had broccoli and onions simmered in chicken stock with a bit of salt, then meat mince patties also simmered in stock for lunch which the kids loved. 
Breakfast was a butternut pumpkin and chicken stock soup which they hated and neither of them ate. Dinner was much the same as lunch, although I used the hated pumpkin soup as the base and cooked up the meat patties, onions and some more pumpkin cubes in it.  I liked it, kids didn't, but they had been starving an hour after lunch and I had made them GAPS shepherds pie- mince simmered in stock, covered in a pureed carrot, cauliflower and stock sauce, and topped with mashed cauliflower that had simmered in stock also.  They ate that one happily so I wasn't too concerned about them not eating dinner.
Day 2's menu was very similar to Day 1's, I added some chicken stock, onion and leek slowcooked soup to the bases for the simmering too.

Today was a definate die-off day.  Maddox was extremely aggressive and angry, he was yelling and screaming and throwing things.  Mostly about how much he hated GAPS and how much of a bad mum I am for making him do it..I tried to remain calm, I explained that this was the bad bugs talking, because they are getting angry because they aren't getting fed what they want, and eventually he simmered down after I plonked him in a chair in the middle of the loungeroom and told him to stay put for a while.  I got a few menacing looks while I plodded around doing things but he did eventually calm down, and was back to his happy self soon.  He refused breakfast, and almost refused lunch until I reminded him that Phenix was on his way to 2 stars today already and he had none.  (for every meal they eat or almost completely eat, they get a drawn on star on their chart.  If they get at least 3 stars in that day, they get to put a gold star sticker on that day, once they get 15 gold stars, they get to choose a non food prize)
So he ate most of it, Phenix ate about half his, which was a good effort for him considering he is my fussy eater.  He was very lethargic and whingy today, and had gotten a cold overnight, which I think lurks in the back of him all the time, so hopefully we're getting rid of it for good this time!
Wade and I both had low grade headaches all day concentrated around the atlas, or upper neck, where the head meets the neck.  That's a good sign as Wade never gets headaches, and I think it's good for him to see some die-off happening, as even tho he is overweight, he still considers himself really healthy. (Is it evil that I want him to have die-off..? heehee..) 
I and the two boys all had a detox bath this morning with a cup of Epsom salts and Wade gave me a massage this arvo which helped my headache, I also had a sleep this arvo as I was really tired and headachey.  We've all had a lazy day.  I think we needed it.
I put on some nuts to soak in salty water tonight-cashews, almonds, and walnuts.  I will dehydrate them tomorrow after the markets, where we're stocking up on good eggs from Ellah...
So, tomorrow, we move to eggs.  We are doing it very slowly, introducing one food at a time to see how we go. 
Until next time...night!
Lov Lis xx

Thursday 2 June 2011

Day 4 Intro

So, I'm a bit confused. I'm not really getting much die-off, apart from the headache, no digestive upsets or anything, and the headache was gone today. I upped my sauerkraut, to even eating pieces of it, and nothing. nada. zip.

I'm starting to wonder if the state of my gut is as bad as I thought it was. I'm doing an experiment tonight. I just ate 2 small crust pieces of pure organic spelt bread (obviously with no rubbish in it) with butter, vegemite and sliced banana, and a cup of tea. Let's see if that does anything. I don't want to wreck my hard work, but I want to see if I'm doing this for a good reason, or if I just need to keep away from the white stuff. (well we all need to keep away from the white stuff but will that be enough to make me feel well?)

Time will tell, I'm off to bed.  Had a good rest day today with the kids at mum's, even went to the shops with hubby before we picked them up and felt ok.  Headache was dull this morning but is all but gone now.  No panadol today.  

Wednesday 1 June 2011

Day 3 Intro

I was really tired this morning, Pixi woke me at 10.30 to ask me to make him a bottle, and  was dragging myself around.  I went back to bed but then they started coming in every five minutes to ask me to put things on the computer for them to watch on you tube so I got up.  Mum came over at 2, I was very cranky, the poor kids had to deal with that.  I went back to bed a few times but only stayed for a few minutes before I had to do something else.  I wished mum had taken them yesterday, as I thought this was how it was going to be today.  I'm usually a gentle mum and I hate the way I've been treating them, yelling and getting angry.  I didn't want them here for that reason.

Still had a hideous headache, couldn't take it anymore, and took another 2 panadol rapid, which dulled it to bearable.  Had a cup of soup, a bowl of very fatty soupy stew, with 2 teaspoons of ghee and two teaspoons of sauerkraut juice added.  Also had scrambled eggs with ghee for breakfast.  Tonight I really wanted something else so I looked at stage 4 and that had GAPS bread, so I looked in the Gut and Psychology Syndrome book for the recipe, and made the GAPS cake!  almond meal, eggs, ghee, honey, dates and walnuts. Oh my! so yumm, especially slathered in butter!!  Didn't seem to affect me yet so I'll have some more tomorrow.

I'll try the roasted meat too, which is also stage 4.  Maybe i'll go get a chicken..mmm

We're looking around for a dehydrator but can't find one for the price we can pay so am thinking about looking at thehealthyhomeeconomist.com to see if she has a way I can do it in my gas oven...  I want to soak and dehydrate some nuts so I can make nut butter in my sister-in-law's Thermomix and then I can make the nut butter crepes featured on Stage three.  They are butternut pumpkin, eggs and nut butter. Sound loooovely with butter and honey hey??!

Panadol has well and truly worn off now, and the headache is a very dull ache so that's good I think.  Hope it doesn't get any worse overnight.  I was going to do a yoga class tonight but there's something wrong with the TV and hubby has unplugged it for some reason, so I'll do it tomorrow during the day hopefully. Hubby gave me a neck and shoulder massage tonight even tho he was really tired and cranky too.  Poor luv, I can't wait to be done with me so I can start him, he so needs this too.

Kids have gone now to mums so I'll hopefully sleep a lot tomorrow, I feel like I need it.

I feel like I've maybe gotten over the worst of it..?  We'll see.