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My children have had Nintendo for many years and I have never had much interest in playing the games. I never could figure out how to make anything work.

But since the Wii came out, I really love this system! If my youngest son ever moves out, I will probably invest in one to keep at home for me and our older son to use.

Today is my second day to do a workout using the EA Sports Active. I saw a review for it, and decided I would get it and try it out. I’ve wanted to try the Wii Exercise game that has the balance board, but it costs a lot more (close to $100 last time I looked).

The EA Sports Active doesn’t need the balance board, which is also a plus since it would probably be hard for my older son to use.

We both did a workout yesterday, and I didn’t realize when I did my first workout that I could omit running from my “easy” exercise routine that I’d picked. I actually had to run for like two minutes!

But you know what?! I was able to do it!! I had to stop and put on a sports bra, but I was able to run! I was a little sore today, but I went ahead and did the second workout.

We had my older son’s “new” birthday today, finally. Now I have replaced the photos that I lost of his birthday a few months ago. I did quite a bit of housework today, and I started packing my suitcase. I think I have almost everything ready. I’m drying one more batch of blueberries, the last of the 24 pints that hubby brought home.

I have been having some pain in my left thumb which feels kind of like arthritis. I’m not too happy about it, and I think I must be deficient in something.

I was also thinking I am going to try to make a point to take a detox bath every night, and also be sure to take my cod liver oil and everything else that I can which will help me to tolerate our busy vacation.

Too bad I can’t take the Wii with me! But I probably won’t have a lot of spare time to workout with a television. OH boy. It’s getting close. I’m trying not to get all excited, that’s not so good for my adrenals.

Night!

Tonight for dinner my husband is having something he has frequently: hamburger burros.

Since flour tortillas contain wheat and therefore gluten, I do not eat them.

What I usually have is taco salad. But that means cutting lettuce, washing it, spinning it dry, peeling and dicing a cucumber, etc., etc. I was up at 4:30 this morning, and am ready for bed already. I’m tired.

I don’t feel like I got anything done today, and it’s my last weekend before we leave on vacation.

I have come to the realization that I am not going to get much sleep next weekend. Thankfully I will tolerate it much better on GAPS. I know I will tolerate it better because when I don’t get enough sleep, and have to work the next day, I’m able to get through the day quite well.

Prior to GAPS when I felt tired I would drink 1/2 cup coffee [affiliate link] with 2 sugars and 2 creams to perk myself up. I needed to, or else I’d be falling asleep at my desk. I like coffee if it’s sweet and creamy. But since coffee isn’t good for my adrenals, and fake creamer and sugar isn’t allowed I stopped drinking it at all when I went on GAPS back in December. And in spite of not having that little perk me up available, I’m able to cope when I get less sleep. That is a blessing all by itself.

Today I started another batch of beef jerky, and this time I wrote down the recipe and took photos so I can share what I did. I also used the FoodSaver Vacuum Food Sealer my boss gave me a couple of months ago (she is just too sweet to me sometimes) to vacuum seal the blueberries, almonds [affiliate link], bananas and apple slices that I’ve dried.

Tomorrow I’m going to soak cashews and start them drying, along with more blueberries.

Did I tell you about the blueberries? My hubby was doing some work for one of his customers and they got in a shipment of blueberries and gave him two cases. Twenty four pints in all. I wasn’t sure what to do with them but then I realized I could dry them. That’s too many for us to eat before they go bad, and no one uses them once they are frozen. I used to have fruit and kefir smoothies, but I’m not on dairy and trying to avoid fruit much of the time.

I’m beginning to get excited about our trip. I will be packing after work on Tuesday, so I hope to have everything ready by then.

I’m sorry I haven’t been posting regularly! This upcoming vacation just seems to be taking away a lot of my posting opportunities.

How is your GAPS journey?

This past week I haven’t had much time left over for blogging, hence my absence. I still had one thing left to do tonight, but I thought I’d just log in here and get a quick report typed up.

First of all, I should confess that I cheated on my “fruit fast” today. I decided to dehydrate fruit to take with us on the trip, and of course I had to taste the product to make sure it was done. I dried apples, bananas and blueberries. I had probably five slices of dried banana, two slices of dried apple and a blueberry.

Tonight I ate dinner, then I wanted more. And then I wanted more. We had hamburgers (made from London broil which I ground), topped with spring onions [affiliate link], green beans with butter and salad (lettuce, avocado, cucumber, garlic, olive oil, raw apple cider vinegar).

Then I remembered how eating fruit seems to make me hungrier and I seem to want to eat more food.

It seems to have happened tonight. Or maybe it’s all my imagination. Or maybe I just didn’t eat enough food today. At any rate, I’m curious to see how my sleep goes tonight. I hope the spring onions don’t do me in. I cooked them in chicken fat until they were translucent and they were delicious. They may have been too sweet, and that along with the fruit might cause me to have insomnia. I hope not.

I think a lot about being on GAPS, and wish I had more time to put my thoughts into written word.

I am on a mailing list put out by a family member and the include information about a weight loss thing that they are participating in. I don’t want to be on the list, but I haven’t taken the time to unsubscribe. They probably don’t even know I’m on the list. It’s not like they are targeting me only. If they are targeting me, they probably feel like I do when people won’t look into GAPS. They probably wonder why I won’t give it a try. Of course like I wonder why THEY won’t give GAPS a try. Even when they see the success I’ve had. Because they see the “hard” part where they won’t be able to eat “normal” food.

“Normal” food meaning SAD (Standard American Diet).

I am starting to think I will never be able to eat the way I used to eat. I mean… what I mean by that is I don’t think I’ll be able to – say for example, pasta – ever again. When I used to think that, I would feel terrible and full of angst. Now it doesn’t seem to be a problem. Although I do hate the thought of never having Spinach and Noodle Casserole ever again. Probably my most favorite dish for my entire life.

Maybe after I’ve been on GAPS for two years I could have it once every six months or so.

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This next week I am planning to do something that we should have already done years ago… write a will. It will help me feel more comfortable flying. I hope if I just get SOMETHING together it will be better than nothing.

I wrote down a long list of things I had to get done for our trip, and things I wanted to order to be ready to leave. Now I just hope the things I ordered show up before we leave! I was just reviewing my list today and I am doing great, I have mostly everything completed. Except for the will.

I wanted to also tell you that I made crunchy almonds [affiliate link]! I have never made them before. They are pretty good! They taste different than raw almonds. Much better. I soaked them in salt water for seven hours, peeled off all the skins and dried them for twenty four hours. Then I dried the fruit, and right now I have almost four pounds of London broil in the dehydrator. Oh, I never did post about the food ideas I got from the list. I’ll try to do that this coming week. These dried foods will be for quick foods to take with us on our trip. I’ve also ordered some coconut flakes [affiliate link] from Azure for a cookie recipe that was shared on the GAPShelp list.

Well, I have to get up early tomorrow morning, so I should get to bed.

How are you doing on your GAPS journey?

Today has been a continuation of discomfort from yesterday. My period has not started, and my back is hurting. It is most likely caused by holding the babies and rocking and swaying them while I stood for quite a long time. Before GAPS, my back would have been hurting and I would not have been able to rock and bounce the baby in my arms. I would have had to sit down.

Maybe I just overdid it.

My husband keeps teasing me and saying, “Those babies kicked your a$$!” And that always makes me bust out laughing to think of three little four month old babies getting the best of me.

For breakfast I had leftover zucchini with butter. For a snack I had two teaspoons of peanut butter [affiliate link] with about the same amount of butter and one teaspoon of honey [affiliate link]. Very yummy and creamy. I just wanted something a little sweet. Then for lunch or more like an early dinner I had spinach and then I cooked some ground beef that I’d seasoned to taste like sausage for breakfast a couple of mornings ago. And I added in the leftover onions [affiliate link] I’d cooked a few days ago. I guess something wasn’t exactly in the best condition because my stomach is a little weird. Not really queasy, but just doesn’t feel right.

I was also up during the night again last night. I am stumped. I have not been eating any fruit, and have not been eating any high carb vegetables. Now what is causing this insomnia? It must be hormones. I just hope I am able to sleep through tonight because I have to get up and go to work in the morning and that is not going to be any fun if I wake up at 1:30 and have to get up at 3:30. During the night I was tempted by the banana lying on the counter. I came so close to peeling it and eating it with some almond butter [affiliate link]. But I decided against it. What did I end up having? I think some leftover salad.

Argh.

I think my sore back is from rocking the babies. When I lay down on the couch it feels so much better. It feels like the muscles are tensed up when I’m sitting.

My hubby has to work later than usual this evening so he isn’t home yet. And I don’t feel like making dinner. What to do. What to do. He’s not a big fan of leftovers. I really wish I could go straight to bed. But if I went to bed now, I’d go to sleep and then I’d wake up at 6:30 and not be able to sleep until 10pm.

It’s so hot out. It is really hard at this time of the year to keep a garden going. The only thing I have out there is sunflowers, tomato plants, eggplants, pepper plants and a watermelon plant. I wish it would just rain hard enough that I wouldn’t have to water for a week. But that’s just not how it goes here in Arizona.

I wonder if I am going through die off.

It is weird because I feel like I am going through a phase where I want to dump all the things that I’ve been doing and hanging onto for years which just aren’t a good way to spend my time. Like my water kefir. It’s so hit and miss. I hate when it turns alcoholic and sometimes it just tastes too sweet and worries me that I’m getting a lot of sugar. I just drink a swig or so every once in a while.

And today, horror of horrors… I asked my husband if he’d really lost the number of “that guy” who took half of our herd last year. Because he said if we ever wanted to get rid of the rest of our herd, just give him a call. I am so tempted. And my youngest son brought home store bought cow’s milk! He has always said that the goat’s milk tastes delicious in comparison. Well, if he isn’t going to drink the goat’s milk then what is the point of all this work I’m doing every day to milk? It’s just too bad. I feel my girls are valuable since they are consistent milkers and have proven that they can hold their lactation over many years. Two of them have been lactating constantly for four years with only one freshening. Granted they aren’t giving me a huge amount of milk, but I guess it’s really common for goats to dry themselves up within a year of kidding and so you are forced to breed them again and have kids to deal with. Not that the kids aren’t cute, but if you have a hard time getting rid of them or putting them in the freezer they sure do eat a lot of hay.

It’s really like throwing your money out onto the ground in the form of goat berries.

As for my garden… the sunflowers already have big heads of seed, the tomato plants seem to have some weird disease where they have tiny black spots all over the leaves. The peppers seem to need a lot of water and don’t taste very good. The eggplant are not heirloom and they also seem to have those black spots. The watermelon has huge seeds and I’m not eating fruit. It’s like I’m spending my time and pouring water into the ground really for nothing. And it’s so danged hot and muggy out. And I’m tired.

Hubby keeps saying, “You did have a big weekend, and those babies, well, those babies, you know, kicked your a$$.” I did go visit my mom and was out in the muggy heat for hours.

Maybe. I just hope I get a good night’s sleep tonight. I’m sure that’s not helping me feel any better.