From Dr. Natasha Campbell McBride’s site:
• If all the previous foods are well tolerated try to add cooked apple as an apple pure: peel and core ripe cooking apples and stew them with a bit of water until soft. When cooked add some ghee to it and mash with a potato masher. If ghee has not been introduced yet add duck or goose fat. Start from a few spoonfuls a day. Watch for any reaction. If there is none gradually increase the amount.
• Add raw vegetables starting from softer parts of lettuce and peeled cucumber. Watch your patient’s stool. Again start from a small amount and gradually increase if well tolerated. After those two vegetables are well tolerated gradually add other raw vegetables: carrot, tomato, onion, cabbage, etc.
• If the juice made from carrot, celery, lettuce and mint is well tolerated, start adding fruit to it: apple, pineapple and mango. Avoid citrus fruit at this stage.
I haven’t had a chance to update lately. I went through a bad patch last week. Experiencing depression, which I believe was related to die off.
I really don’t have time to make a good update tonight. The depression peaked on Saturday and I wrote a plea to the list for help with what was wrong with me.
I got back several supportive and helpful replies. I hadn’t had a detox bath in days, so I determined that was one thing to do to help myself. Of course our water heater timer is off its schedule, so there was no hot water. I had to turn it to the on position (bless my dear husband for putting the switch right next to the electrical panel instead of by the water heater which is where I thought it would have to go originally) and wait about twenty minutes. I used epsom salts.
I also remembered to take Kava Kava. Before starting on GAPS, I was taking Kava Kava frequently, sometimes every day for several days in a row, and sometimes twice daily. I had to order three bottles from Amazon (best price but at the rate I was going through it I figured may as well stock up)!
However, like I said, once I began doing GAPS, I have only had to take 5 or 6 capsules. This is a great testament to the fact that I am feeling much less stressed and depressed. I’d totally forgotten how much Kava Kava I’d been taking prior to GAPS.
I also realized I had been forgetting to take my Flovent (asthma inhaler, corticosteroid). I have not had the chance to see if coming off this medication can cause depression. I know the corticosteroid stimulates/aids my adrenals, and I know the longer I am without it the worse my breathing will get so I started up on it again.
My hubby had a bad week, and I thought he was upset at me, and he thought I was upset at him. After we determined we aren’t upset at each other, but I’ve been depressed and he had been in pain all week, he invited me out on a movie date for Sunday afternoon. Well, I’m always disappointed when I go to movies. I rarely like what I see, and it costs so much money and duh, the smells of popcorn are nearly too much to bear. I mean, why put myself into the situation when I can’t have any? Plus, my husband hates just about any movie and he will go with me, but I know he’d just as soon not.
So… I decided to ask him if he wouldn’t rather help me work on weeding my garden, which is one of the reasons I was feeling overwhelmed.
On Sunday morning, we spent two hours and we got a LOT accomplished. Of course, my husband works twice as fast as me, so what we accomplished together would have taken me three weeks by myself. See, I went out and bought plants, which I haven’t done hardly ever. I usually grow anything from seed, and I have plenty of seeds to plant! But it just got too late so I decided to just go the buy the plants route, spending $24 on plants, and nowhere to put them in the garden due to the weeds! We have had a lot of rain this year and they were just out of control.
Let me see if I can put in just one set of before and after pics:
I didn’t do the best job at getting exactly the same photo before and after, but close enough. Almost hard to imagine it is the same area, isn’t it?
Here is the best part of this… two years ago, when I began gardening again after a three year hiatus, I was in such horrible shape physically that my back hurt just walking OUT to my garden. My feet also were aching horribly, so I could not stand and bend and squat like I needed to be able to do, for more than fifteen minutes at a time without having to take a rest.
Now last year I was decidedly better, but I do recall needing to take breaks.
This year, having been on GAPS nearly three months, I stood, bent over, squatted for two hours straight without sitting down once, and furthermore, I didn’t sit down after finishing and take a break before going into the house like I would normally need to do.
My poor husband, on the other hand, had to sit down and rest his feet.
It was then he agreed to really make an effort to go to full GAPS for two weeks, to see if he can get his feet to stop hurting, like mine did.
I have had raw cucumber on Stage 5. The days have just zoomed by, so I am not even sure what I need to do or eat next.
Well, I had better get off this computer. I want to take a detox bath tonight.
How are you doing on GAPS? Where are you at in your journey?
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