Oh my goodness I pigged out on my Thanksgiving Dinner. And it is such a miserable feeling. Before GAPS I used to overeat regularly, often daily. It is uncomfortable and I'm glad it happens rarely now. But I figured it's Thanksgiving, and I was still trying to stay fairly low carb to stay on the leptin reset…

Plus I was tired because I was up most of the night. I had a doctor's appointment yesterday and didn't get home until 6pm and my husband had to leave after I got home to do some shopping for our Thanksgiving meal. I went to bed at 8:30 and woke up at ten minutes to two and found he wasn't in bed so I called him. He was home, but outside, digging a hole. Yes, digging a hole. He was transplanting a tree. He asked if I would help him by pulling the tree with one of our vehicles. We worked on that for about an hour and finally came into the house. When we finally got to bed about 4am by then I was so overtired I was unable to sleep. I finally decided to get up at 8am.

I hadn't really planned on making a big elaborate meal… my youngest son wanted a “real” Thanksgiving meal so he asked me to make the potato rolls I have made every single year for Thanksgiving until starting on GAPS. I honestly never liked them THAT much, and I've lost of a lot of desire for that kind of food I did agree to make them for him. He made several of the traditional dishes we always had… it was a carb-fest. He grilled the turkey so that the oven would be free for other baking. He made real mashed potatoes and gravy from scratch, bread stuffing, cranberry sauce using real cranberries and sugar, green beans almondine and traditional pumpkin [affiliate link] pie. No one in our family really likes eating at the table so he took all his “illegals” into his bedroom and had his meal in there.

I wasn't done with the meal I was preparing so my husband and our other son and I ate a couple hours later.

I was attempting to stay under the 25 grams of carbohydrates but I did not meet my goal. I have not yet calculated my meal… and it is going to be some guesswork  but I think I stayed under 50 grams carbs. Oh actually I just went and calculated and to the best of my ability it looks like 53 grams carbs for the day. That is still pretty low, yes? I only had two meals, breakfast and dinner.

• Turkey
• Ribeye steaks
• Zucchini Almond Flour [affiliate link] Muffins
• Mushrooms
• Faux-tatoes
• Green Beans Almondine
• Salami
• Ruby Sauerkraut
• Mushroom and Cauliflower Gravy
• Stuffed Baby Portabello Mushrooms
• Ranch Dressing made with Homemade Mayonnaise
• Veggie Tray:  Black and green olives, celery, carrots, pickles, cauliflower

Now the 53 grams carbs included dessert!

I'll include a photo, and I'll share the recipe soon, hopefully tomorrow. I am pretty wiped out right now. I was on my feet a lot today, and my legs and calves are aching, this is a contrast to last year at Thanksgiving. Tonight I was flipping through the channels on television and came across a reality show starring Toni Braxton. I have loved her songs for many years, nearly two decades. Anyway they said something on the show about her being sick, so I googled and found she has lupus, and also a child with autism. Two diseases caused by gut dysbiosis. What was interesting to me though was the post I found which said that people don't understand when you're sick and you look fine. My youngest son cannot “get” that I'm not well. It is so very frustrating, because I had pinned so much hope on GAPS healing everything. It is such a radical change of life. But that is okay. I'm doing my best to weave my way through the process of finding out how to best help my body heal. I'm trying not to get my hopes up, but I do hope the leptin reset works for me.

Not to say that GAPS has not, it has definitely helped me!! I have been healed from a lot of symptoms, it is just that I'm still not having much energy and I really want to feel better. Plus things were exacerbated with the Attack of the Jalapeno Peppers.

I'm going to take a detox bath and relax and read on my Kindle. I hope you had a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving. Sending love to you and yours, Starlene