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So each day my hands get better and better. I can pick things up with my fingers, I can open jars. I can turn on the water faucets outside and water the animals without pain. Tonight when I watered the pullets I was able to pick up their waterer and take it to the other pen and carry it back full without pain. It’s lovely to not have pain. There were so many things that were hard to do with my hands when they were hurting.

I’m pretty sure it was the Vitamin C… once again, I did two things at once… tapered down and off the Vitamin C, and started Intro. So… it could be that I have been eating nothing allergenic, but I suspect strongly that it was the Vitamin C. Especially since my hands started getting better the less Vitamin C that I took each day.

I have to say I feel really stupid. I feel like I made a huge mistake by taking so much Vitamin C, and causing myself all that pain. What if I had gone to a doctor? I probably would have been diagnosed with arthritis and what if I was someone who wants medicine for any little problem? I’d be on medication, when all I had to do was get off the Vitamin C.

My hands aren’t 100% perfect. I wonder if they will continue to get better every day? Maybe I do have arthritis or carpal tunnel syndrome but it’s really mild.

Anyway, I guess when you take too much Vitamin C it too can cause inflammation.

I am kind of failing at doing Intro again. I had broth and chicken and cooked vegetables for the first and second days. On Wednesday I worked until 6pm and didn’t get home until 7:30pm. Lunch was at 12:30 earlier in they day. I was able to make it home and I ended up eating lima beans, and I’m not sure which stage beans are allowed on. Then on Thursday night I went to Costco and had to do some shopping for my job and also bought my son some salami, one of my favorite things from Costco. I didn’t get home until about 6:30pm, was very hungry when I got home with no options of anything to eat right away and I ended up eating about ten slices of the salami. It contains nitrates. I also bought avocados, forgetting that I was a couple of stages from having them, and figured since I’d eaten the salami, may as well indulge in an avocado. I did find some sausage to buy that says it has no MSG, no gluten and no nitrates. Aidell’s is the brand, and it was the chicken and apple version. Okay, this is going to drive me crazy. I just looked at the website for this product, and the ingredient list says nitrates.

Then tonight I made stir fry with pork and vegetables, and… I’m pretty sure this is an advanced stage of Introduction, too.

So… maybe I did stage one Intro for two days. Agh. My main intent though was to move back to simpler foods to see if I could get my hands to stop hurting. Maybe it wasn’t even necessary. Something worked.

I need to put together a new batch of sauerkraut, my last batch is just about gone.

I’m feeling pretty good overall. The other night I needed to trim my toenails and I was reminded of how one of the first things I noticed when going on GAPS was that I could easily bend over at the waist while seated at my desk and reach down to get something on the floor. Before GAPS, I remember any time I bent over it would feel as if my lungs were being pressed into to the point where it was hard to breathe.

I’ve stopped telling people about GAPS. I feel like no one wants to hear about it. They aren’t willing to give up any foods. I can only say it is so worth it. I wish I had known this a decade ago.

Would you ever do GAPS?

Popular buzz words for dieting nowadays: portion control. I hate this phrase. While I understand it’s good to eat smaller portions, I don’t think it’s good to eat set amounts of food. I think it’s better to eat until you feel satisfied. On one day you might get more exercise, you’ll burn more calories and your body will need more calories to function properly. The next day you might spend the day in front of the computer or watching television and won’t need as many calories. There’s really no way to know what your body needs except for going by your hunger.

We did go to my in-laws for Christmas. There was a lot of diet talk. My in-laws have been on the new diet since September. It is low-carb, but it is also low-fat and they are trying to keep their sodium intake very low. They don’t understand that there are different kinds of salt and that our body needs salt. Especially if you have adrenal issues. It was frustrating for me, because while GAPS is naturally low-carb it is certainly not low-fat. Additionally, it is happens to be a low fiber diet. It is not touted as such, but many of the off limit foods are fibrous. There was also a lot of talk about fiber intake. Even the baby in attendance who was not yet one-year-old was being discussed and they were saying he needed more fiber. There were so many people talking about fiber and how it’s needed in order to keep us “regular” that I didn’t bother to say a word. In fact I wasn’t part of the conversation, so I just left the room.

My father-in-law was trying to impart some words of wisdom to me. He was extolling the virtue of portion control. He was saying if the amount of meat on your plate was bigger than a deck of cards you simply don’t eat it. I’m glad he wasn’t at the table where I was eating Christmas dinner. I ate two chicken thighs and two chicken legs. As you can imagine this was much bigger than a deck of cards. The chicken was from Costco and it probably contained some illegals (ingredients not allowed on GAPS). In fact, for the next two days my sinuses were clogged which seems to happen when I ingest certain illegal ingredients.

But back to my subject, I have never understood calorie counting or portion control. Simply the reason being, how do we know how much food our body needs for the day? The other problem is that your body will adjust to less calories and your metabolism will slow down and hang on to those calories. I hate to admit it, but the Weight Watcher method of using points does seem to be a good idea. If you start out at say, 300 pounds, then you need more calories. If you decide to go on a starvation diet and only eat 1200 calories a day in your body is going to respond as if you have landed on a deserted island and there is a serious shortage of food. Weight Watchers has you start out at higher calories for your weight. I have never done Weight Watchers myself, but I know the you start with more points at the onset and as you lose weight your points are lowered. In this way you gradually take in less calories instead of eating a very small amount and triggering your body into survival mode.

With GAPS, you concentrate on getting good nutritious food into your body. There is no mention of portion control or calorie counting. For me, this worked out great. As the months have gone by, I have made a point to try to stop eating when I felt satisfied. Now let me tell you I have been trying to do this for many years – for at least a decade. However, I now understand due to the consumption of carbohydrates I was unable to stop or rather I had a difficult time stopping at satisfaction. Even when I did stop when I felt satisfied, I ended up with bloating which made my stomach feel very full and uncomfortable. I used to ask myself why I was doing this? Why was I hurting myself like this? Why can I stop before I was too full?

Also when I began GAPS, I had to eat many small meals or snacks each day. If I didn’t, I would get shaky and nervous and grumpy and just feel terrible. In this last month, I have learned that it is possible for me to be three meals a day. This has made me so happy. No longer do I have to cart a bunch of food with me. All I need to bring is lunch! Sometimes I am hungry earlier so I eat a few bites of my lunch and then I’m good until around noon.

Sometimes it is surreal how easy it has become to avoid the foods I am not supposed to eat. Yesterday was our staff potluck party at my job. As usual, there was a lot of junk food and other items that I am not allowed to eat on GAPS. Actually sometimes I think we’re stuck in the 50s at my job. Which is not a bad thing necessarily, but when it comes to food, meaning the food I’m not allowed to eat, it’s not such a good thing.

I knew in order to have something to eat, I would need to bring my own food. The only thing that I could eat that was bought by someone else was some plain green leaf lettuce. Alongside the lettuce, there were several bottles of salad dressing, of course none that I could eat. It was actually nice that someone brought the lettuce, because I was able to add it to the chili that I brought.

One of my coworkers loves food that is extremely spicy. I told my boss that I would bring chili to the potluck. Tuesday night before the potluck, I had a brainstorm, and decided I would make two versions. One mild, and one extra spicy. I based my spicy recipe on the version I found on the Internet called Walt’s Insolent Chili. I didn’t follow the recipe exactly, but it did use the amount of cayenne called for, which was 1 tablespoon. My coworker rated the chili on the hotness factor a 6 1/2 on a scale of one to ten.

When I was growing up I lived in South Phoenix. As a Caucasian I was in the minority. There were a lot of Hispanics and African Americans (sorry I don’t know the current politically correct term to use). One of my best friends was black. She loved my long straight hair and was always braiding it. Anyway, the black girls called us white girls, “white patties”. So I told another coworker not to worry, I was making a “white patty” version of chili.

I also brought my Avocado Mayo Dressing (no eggs [affiliate link] version), and zinged up with Italian Seasoning which I let my boss tried a couple of weeks ago. She really loved it so I thought there would be a vegetable tray that I could use to dip. I also brought a fruit platter with whipped cream which had been sweetened with honey [affiliate link] and flavored with vanilla [affiliate link] extract. The whipped cream was not touched. It was disturbed at all. My boss was the only one that tried the Avocado Mayo Dressing. She actually begged me to take home the leftovers, and asked for the recipe.

Usually I’m one of the first people in line to get my plate. This time, I was one of the last. I’m not sure why, it just turned out that way. I suppose part of the reason is due to the fact that I knew I wouldn’t be able to eat most of the food.

It’s still weird to me, that it has become so easy to avoid the foods that I’m not eating. I’m very grateful for that. Some people think I have really great willpower. It’s not about willpower. It’s about being nourished properly. When the foods we eat satisfy us, it’s easy to avoid the foods that are known to cause problems.

My hands continue to bother me, so I’ve decided to break down and try Dragon NaturallySpeaking Home, Version 11 again. The first time I tried to use it was about 10 years ago when I first started my job. Supposedly it is much more reliable now. I have composed this entire post using Dragon NaturallySpeaking. It is cumbersome, mostly in that I realize what I’m talking and typing my thoughts come out differently.

I’m trying to work up my nerve to see a physician or at least a chiropractor, about my hands and my wrists. I actually called my insurance company and had my doctor switched. That is a big first step for me since I hate going to the doctor so much. I’m afraid that I am going to have to find a way to give my hands, fingers and wrists a rest and time away from the computer. I’m hoping using Dragon to do some of the typing will help. I still have to wash dishes, chop vegetables, open doors, pull on my clothes, fasten my bra, button my jeans, steer my car, and other things that seem to put a strain on my hands and wrist. I’m still just very disappointed that I’m having a problem at all.

Well, I had better go for now. It will soon be time to milk and I haven’t even done one thing in the house today. I actually didn’t get enough sleep last night, and went back to bed for several hours this morning.

Now the next party I have to get through is the one at my mother-in-law’s. I understand my MIL is doing the Atkins Diet, which is similar to GAPS, but only in that they are avoiding carbohydrates. So I will probably have to bring my own food to that one, too. She did say she will make a turkey along with the ham. As long as she has plain salad, plain vegetables, and plain fruit, I should be okay.

I’ll keep you posted.

I’ve been busier than normal lately, hence my absence here.

And okay. I confess. I’ve been a bit depressed. It’s frustrating and disappointing that my hands hurt. I guess since I’ve had so many aches and pains vanish since being on GAPS, I assumed it would be that way as long as I was being faithful to this new way of eating. I was going through a difficult time, feeling very upset, and one of the people in my life who should be my most reliable support flaked on me. Then I ended up getting into a very uncomfortable conversation with one of my sisters, who I believe should be doing GAPS, but she absolutely refuses to consider GAPS. What hurt the most is I felt horrible for even saying anything at all because she had to become defensive. I apologized, and I cried. It’s just hard because she talks to me about feeling tired and wanting to figure out what is wrong with herself. I guess I need to just bite my tongue. It’s not like we talk that often. It really hurt me that she rejected GAPS so adamantly. It hurts to feel like I have the answer, but she isn’t willing to try it for any length of time.

Anyway… last Friday was our Christmas party at my job. I felt so much better this year, compared to last year. I even managed to get the Santa photos that I took at the party, cropped, photoshopped and uploaded to Costco for developing.

But I won’t make you wait any longer for an explanation to my post title. This week we have been on break at work. This means the clients aren’t coming in for classes and there is a lot of cleaning going on by the kitchen personnel. When the clients are attending, we have lunch every day. When there are no clients, the cook isn’t expected to cook. Instead they go out for fast food. On Tuesday it was Burger King. On Wednesday it was Jack in the Box. Today it was Wendy’s.

I can still remember the inner struggle I used to have, the feeling of being torn between not wanting to eat junk food, and wanting and eating junk food.

Now it’s just off limits, and that’s the way it is. So much easier! There is really no need any longer for me to say no because I am no longer asked if I want to partake. But I am still saying no. I am still making a stand. On Tuesday and Wednesday I warmed up my meat and vegetables slathered in butter, and ate with all of them.

And I was perfectly fine. At the client Christmas party, the same. No desire whatsoever to have any of the foods that were served. I made sure I brought enough food to last me throughout the day, and enough to have something for dinner as well. And I was great. I had energy to last into the night, and then I drove home and was not exhausted.

One of my coworkers today said that I had tons of willpower. Not really. Seriously. If doing GAPS was so hard that it necessitated tons of willpower, I’d have failed long ago. For years I fought against the idea of not eating carbohydrates. I didn’t think it was natural. I thought it was ridiculous, and why would you ever want to stop eating pasta? I was thinking on the way home tonight. It’s worth it. It’s worth never having pasta ever again to feel like I do. Now I don’t yet have the energy of a toddler, but I can get through the day on five hours sleep and think clearly and get my work done. Without coffee [affiliate link]. That’s a big thing.

So tomorrow I have to go into work for our staff Christmas potluck party. This will be a real test. There will be mostly junk food and illegal food. I am bringing two kinds of chili. One is spicy hot since there are only a couple of people at my job who can tolerate spicy foods. The rest are sissies so I’m making them a sissified batch of chili.

I also tried making the Pecan Pie from Sarah’s Thanksgiving Limited Diet Menu Planner that I never got around to making at Thanksgiving… I guess I didn’t follow the instructions, or something. It just didn’t turn out so good. Actually, I think I might try making just the filling sometime. Since almond flour [affiliate link] is SOOOOOOO terribly expensive, I couldn’t just let the pie go to waste. I ended up putting more honey [affiliate link] and butter into it, with some cinnamon [affiliate link] and baked the mixture into cookies. Not half bad.

I am very tired. I have been up since 3:30 this morning. And that with only seven hours sleep. It’s such a miracle to me that I have so much energy.

Hey, my Epsom salts came in with my Azure coop order. Fifty pounds of Epsom salts! I am CRAVING a detox bath, I have not been able to take one for days. My husband has been working a lot lately, many long days and when he’s working long hours I have to take up the slack at home.

Oh, one more thing. We decided to keep our goats for a few more months… we almost got rid of them. We actually put the buck in with the does on December 13th so we might have kids next May. My husband observed the buck covering one doe, but we are not sure about the others.

I must go to sleep. Sorry it has been such a long time since my last daily report. It has just been very busy lately, and having had the bout with depression didn’t help. I should also mention that I had started eating some fruit and nuts again, and also ate some deli ham (nitrates/nitrites), so maybe that helped to cause the depression.

Good night.