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It’s Day 13 of GAPS. Two things of interest to report about this morning. First, my feet are not hurting when I walk barefooted. I have had to wear these dorky looking men’s casual shoes for at least the last year, every waking moment. My feet have been hurting less, but I am not fully convinced it is a result of eliminating certain foods from my diet.

The second thing is huge. Last night was the second night in a row that I was able to sleep for nine straight hours. For many years, since I had pneumonia back in 2000, it has been impossible for me to sleep more than 7 – 7.5 hours. The reason is that my back would become so painfully stiff that I was forced to get out of bed before I’d had enough sleep.

I also dreamed about eating off limit foods, and not realizing I had done it. It seems I had several of these dreams.

I don’t remember if I wrote about this, but I had my Youngest Son check my weight last week. Oh dear, I guess I didn’t say anything about it so I’m going to say it was last Saturday, the 12th. I asked him last night if he remembered my weight, he says he did. I am not sure if I want to get the number from him. I think not. I told him to be sure to remember, because in a month I will probably weight myself again, and maybe I’ll just subtract the number. At any rate, it seems likely that I have lost a bit of weight, as my pants seem a bit looser than they have been.

I went back to bed around 8 am. I read some of Dr. Natasha’s book. I am glad she is a doctor. So many people won’t believe anything if the information they are getting does not come from an actual doctor.

12:16 pm. I slept until 11:30, then got up again. I have only had my broth today. And some water a few minutes ago. I don’t feel hungry, but I think I’ll feel better if I eat something.

12:50 pm. I cleaned off the stovetop (wiped it clean, removed the burners and cleaned under those), then made zucchini scrambled eggs [affiliate link]. Quite delicious.

I am still feeling tired a lot.

My husband is also feeling much tireder than he normally does. He has eliminated dairy products, and is not eating bread. I am not sure how far he is taking it with no grain products. He has not yet stopped eating Gobstoppers which I cannot believe he is eating them all day long! He is an ex-smoker and he used to eat sunflower seeds all the time, until I made him aware of just how many calories and sodium is in one 16 ounce bag, which he used to eat every day.

I have no idea what is on the menu for dinner. I actually feel like going to bed again.

9:46 pm. We reheated the leftover roast and greens beans from last night and dinner was around 5:30. Youngest Son brought home pre-washed salad mix, so we had some of that, too. Iceberg lettuce, purple cabbage, shredded carrots. I don’t like buying the pre-washed stuff, but well, it was there.

I made a salad dressing by putting 1/4 cup of cold pressed olive oil into a measuring cup, then pouring in red wine vinegar until the cup measured 1/3. Then one clove of garlic, crushed. Mixed and poured over the lettuce mixture. I like this dressing nearly as much as I like my homemade ranch version. Which I can’t have, because it uses dairy. I could probably come up with something using mayo, but I don’t have the ingredients yet to make our own mayonnaise.

I actually ended up totally pigging out on the salad, so I got the entire 1/4 cup of olive oil myself. I ate a couple bites of the roast beef.

I wonder if I’ll sleep 9 hours again.

Quick update while at work. I scooted into the kitchen while I knew my boss was busy and heated up my leftover roast and green beans. I put a lot of butter in with them, and a couple tablespoons broth. Maybe 1 to 2 tablespoons of butter. Delicious!!

On the counter there was a two pound box of See’s Chocolates. I could smell them from a couple of feet away, but avoided having any. One of my coworkers (the one who brought them in) asked as she was walking by my office, “Still being good?” and explained that the box had come from family and she and her husband can’t eat that much chocolate. I did manage to avoid them. Yes! Not really difficult at all. I guess it helped a LOT that I had already eaten my roast beef, butter and green beans.

On the way to work I had my broth again. Youngest Son wanted to stop for breakfast at Jack in the Box, and I had no bites. Am I lying to myself? I truly don’t feel that I wanted any of the JITB. I had cashews after I got to work and then had lunch at 11:30. I meant to bring some Clementine Cuties.

I am so grateful for the work I have been doing over the years, because I am well practiced in keeping myself fed, and keeping food with me to that end.

Weird thing happened this morning. I crawled into bed right about 8pm and fell to sleep shortly after. Slept hard. At 4:50 this morning, hubby gets up and says, “Hey, it’s 5 o’clock.” It was actually 4:50, and I usually leave at 5am to get to work by 6am. Youngest Son overslept, too. The weird thing is, I slept NINE hours straight through. I think I might have gotten up around 10pm to turn off the kitchen light, but other than that I slept straight through. Usually my back is KILLING me by 7.5 hours in bed. It would be an awesome blessing if my stiff back problems subsided on GAPS. I have already been feeling like my feet aren’t hurting as badly. So we’ll see.

More later.

7:55pm. Dh milked for tonight. He really HATES milking, so that is a really nice thing for him to do for me. He made baked chicken legs and thighs for dinner, with white beans and salad.

Everything was pretty good. I was very hungry. But I noticed, this hunger isn’t as strong as it used to be. I was mildly hungry. Before starting on this “diet”, I would be ravenously hungry, my blood sugar would drop, I’d become cranky and irritable, and then I’d wolf food down as soon as I got near it. It didn’t feel that way this time.

My hubby also baked a butternut squash, but something went wrong. It either got dried out really bad while baking, or he didn’t bake it long enough, something. Maybe too hot a temperature. At any rate, tomorrow I will try to cook it longer and see if I can get it to turn out like it’s supposed to.

Not too long ago I learned to love butternut squash, courtesy of one of my heroine bloggers, The Pioneer Woman. She makes THE best butternut squash, and I believe it is actually full GAPS friendly, if you use honey [affiliate link], instead of maple syrup. I am a huge fan of PW, but I am saddened that I can’t eat most of her recipes at this juncture. But, her butternut squash recipe is legal, well, at least for full GAPS! The secret, I think, it in the process of pureeing it. Delicious stuff. It is very much like pudding, and even delicious cold.

I’m very tired. It’s 8:02pm. Night.

Just a quick update.

Today was a work day. I told two people I was on an “elimination” diet. Two people who might bring me food and expect me to eat it. I told them mainly to head off  my having to reject any food.

I had my cup of broth on the way to work, munched on cashews until lunch when I had leftover chili verde. I ate it cold since I feel weird about using the stove at work. I’m worried that my boss is going to call me on it, because I know she thinks I’m a little weird because I don’t have a microwave in my home.

I had a few more cashews after lunch. I had to stop at the bank on the way home, and bought some more Clementine Cuties. Ate two of those.

Dh put a beef roast in the crockpot this morning, along with carrots and onions [affiliate link] so that was ready for dinner when I got home. I milked, then we came back in and had dinner. We also had steamed green beans. Dh found a deal on frozen vegetables. The steamer packs, 11 and 12 ounces, marked down to $0.50/pack. He bought 26 packs. The green beans we had for dinner were fresh green beans. I figured we’ll use fresh ones first, and save the frozen ones for another time.

I also had some broth with dinner. There was some bits of fat – white pieces of fat –  floating on top that I went ahead and drank down. This is something that ten years ago I would have gagged. But I have noticed my tastes changing over the past couple of years to where I’m not so picky, picky, picky about fat with my food. I even once recently ate a piece of steak with fat on it, accidentally ate it and wow, it tasted good. I usually can’t stand to put fat into my mouth. When I was a kid, I hated fat. Hated the dark meat on chicken, hated the crispy chicken skin from baked chicken (or turkey), now it is so delicious I gobble it down when I can.

I swallowed some broth the wrong way and coughed and coughed. I didn’t finish my broth after that. I’ll save it for tomorrow morning.

There is plenty for leftovers for lunch tomorrow. I only work M-Th so only one more day, and then I’m home for four more days.

Well, not much more to say. I am glad I only have to work one more day until I’m off. I’m contemplating doing the Introduction starting on December 26th or 27th, when I’ll be off work for ten days. I read on another blog that the family only did Intro for three days. I need to read the books more. I thought we were supposed to do Intro for six weeks. Or maybe I read something about until symptoms subside (like diarrhea or constipation).

I am seriously craving a bath. I am not a “bath” person, but I am seriously wanting to take a bath. On occasion, I crave to take a bath. Like now. But my bathtub has a hole popped in it (we live in a manufactured home and the tub is made of some kind of thin plastic). The other bathtub is the one my sons and husband use, and would need a good cleaning before I could actually have a comfortable soak in it.

I like to get into the warm water, then run the hot slowly until it keeps getting hotter and hotter and hotter. The half of my body under the water usually turns red. In the past, I have taken baths with epsom salts, but now come to find out it’s a detoxing thing! I did not know that. I bathed with epsom salts because I know it’s helpful to aching feet, and just liked to put some in my bath.

I am still experiencing a lot of tiredness. I had hoped to see some change in my energy level, but I guess that can’t be expected when my body is working so hard to rid itself of the toxins.

I wonder if I can successfully stick with this for one month. I am not sure what Christmas Day will be like. I would like to see only full GAPS on the table, and thankfully it is just our immediate family. We have never been big on going to family gatherings, and are generally thought of as being hermits. 🙂

Okay, I must get to bed. It’s 7:40pm, and 4:00am gets here very early!