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Okay, I need to get serious about moving ahead with the stages. I actually misplaced both my books, and in the busy-ness of life haven’t taken the time to review the intro at Dr. Natasha Campbell McBride’s site.

I’ve been eating some fruit. I had citrus on the 29th and 30th and it gave me quite a rumbling tummy. My husband brought home these gorgeous looking navel oranges and I just couldn’t stop myself from having some. On stage 5, I am supposed to be avoiding citrus. Whoops. My husband also has been buying strawberries, which are on sale $1 a carton. He has brought home eight cartons! They smell glorious and I ate two on Thursday, about five yesterday and eight today! I think berries are added in after stage six.

I haven’t had cooked apple. Two evenings ago I couldn’t stop myself from eating salad, which was made with iceberg lettuce, cucumbers, avocado, olive oil, and apple cider vinegar. I am glad to see adding lettuce is on stage 5. I tolerated the salad very well. The peeled cucumber went over well also. I had some raw carrot today. Now I need to add these vegetables raw: tomato, onion, cabbage.

I have all those on hand so will work those in over the next couple of days. So far I have tolerated all foods well. Except the citrus did affect me.

Tonight for dinner I had fresh steamed Swiss Chard from my garden, with steamed carrots, and I made my meatloaf burgers. I need to share that recipe soon, if only to keep from forgetting the recipe myself.

I was thinking a couple of nights ago that even though I don’t feel like I have any excess of energy, it is noticeable that when I don’t get enough sleep I am able to continue functioning, i.e. I can drive to work without falling asleep, and I can function at work without needing to drink coffee [affiliate link]. I have never been much of a coffee drinker, having learned how easily I become addicted to it when I was a teenager. But throughout my life, I have used it as a pick-me-up, never more than 8 ounces at a time.

It is amazing to think of how many days it has been since I have had certain foods, like pasta… it has actually and really been 119 days since I have had any. No soda, not that I was a big drinker, but I would have an occasional cream soda or root beer, or Dr. Pepper.

My water kefir is pretty tasty. I’ve been doing a second ferment with slices of fresh ginger [affiliate link] and it is delicious. This last time I dropped in about eight frozen cranberries so there is a bit of a cranberry taste.

My milk kefir grains are multiplying like mad. I have not had any dairy products at all for 31 days. My goal was 6 weeks, so I have 11 more days. After that, I hope to introduce dairy.

I should start with ghee… I still miss butter. I can just taste it.

I actually found myself looking forward to having a kefir smoothie made with fresh strawberries and my kefir made from our raw goat’s milk! And I have never been a fan of kefir. Wouldn’t it be fantastic, if like the many children on the list turn into such good eaters, my taste buds changed too and I will like sour kefir?

I do seem to notice the strawberries are causing me to eat more.

And I finally broke the seal on the almond butter [affiliate link] that my husband bought me a couple of weeks ago, inspired by Vanilla Almond Butter over at Elana’s Pantry. This almond butter was $12.99 normally, on sale for $9.99 and my husband bought me a jar. I couldn’t believe it, and wanted him to take it back, but he has not gotten around to it.

I wanted to take a nap today, but decided not to… instead I worked on our income taxes. I doubt that we will be ready to file on the 15th, I will need to file an extension. I just can’t seem to make myself get down to business and work on our taxes!

I want to just sit and knit, and watch movies! And I rarely watch television! The last couple of months, it seems like every weekend I end up having to go somewhere, which really wears me out. I need to stay home each weekend, all the days if possible. I am probably needing to veg out and relax because Thursday was a very long day… my friend who has now been delivered of her triplet infants had hoped (and we had both been trying to find a time that worked for the three of us) that I could get photos of her and her husband together with her huge belly. She was put on bed rest for the last couple of weeks, and we decided to just take photos at the hospital! But her hubby couldn’t make it for the first photo shoot. Then I emailed her and asked if I could come on Friday, and she wrote me back to let me know they were planning to deliver her at 8am. So… I had been up since 4:15am (thankfully I’d gotten a full eight hours of sleep) but I had to take my son to get his car out of the shop, go home, milk, eat dinner, then at 6:30pm (almost my bedtime!) head back into the big city about 70 miles away. Here is just one of the photos we were able to get. I just love it! 🙂 Anyway, I didn’t get home until 11:30pm. It was a long day.

And on Wednesday evening, I found a fantastic surprise in my garden – my Sweet Pea flowers were blooming! These were planted from seeds I’d harvested from last year’s flowers, obviously all the seeds that came up were the maroon and purple variety. They smell so amazing.

One evening soon I have to plant my squash and cucumber and tomato plants! Hopefully tomorrow evening. They need to get into the ground.

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From Dr. Natasha Campbell McBride’s site:

Intro Fifth stage:

• 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?

GAPS DIET JOURNEY is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to AMAZON.COM. GAPS DIET JOURNEY is an affiliate for several companies and may be compensated through advertising and marketing channels. Therefore, this post may contain affiliate links.

Goodness! I think I can finally move to Stage 5 tomorrow. I made the nut bread tonight and had a couple slices and no adverse effects.

One of my readers asked why I was taking HCI. Well, in reading the books it says that GAPS people often have low stomach acid, and I also was reading in a book on asthma and allergies that low stomach acid can cause fatigue.

So I thought I would try the HCI.

I stopped taking it a couple of days ago, because I just got tired of having to worry about it.

I now wonder if it WAS causing some die off, because I was so depressed. But I was also on my monthly, so it could have been the hormones from that.

My son made cookies today. I abstained from eating any. Good for me. I did good. It wasn’t too hard. They did smell delicious. He asked what kind of nuts should I put into them and I said walnuts [affiliate link].

Anyway, it is very late now and I have to get up very early in the morning. It has been a busy weekend, once again. On Saturday I tried something new with the computer. I set a timer for 30 minutes and had to leave the computer every half hour to work in the kitchen. I managed to spend three hours on the kitchen and it wasn’t even THAT bad. Just every counter was cluttered with stuff, and there were a couple loads of dishes sitting around the counters. The floor of course was a mess and the stove had to be wiped down. I even pulled out the stove though, and cleaned behind it and on the sides of it.

That means I had some energy on Saturday.

I need to start tagging these “energy” days as they seem to be showing up a little more frequently. Although I’m still waiting for that superhuman burst of energy that’s going to be with me every waking moment for the rest of my life as long as I stay on GAPS.

One of my sisters told me over the weekend that she is getting stiff. I wish I could have told her about GAPS. I think I have mentioned it to her before, but she was not receptive. Or maybe my mom mentioned it to her. Anyway, I am going to bide my time and wait it out to say much to anyone. The proof will be in the pudding, as they say. Mmmm, pudding sounds good. There is some cashew pudding I’d love to try.

Oh… my hubby bought me some raw almond butter [affiliate link] and I am making him take it back to the store. It was an 18 ounce jar on sale for $9.99!! I cannot almond butter at that price! No way.

So tomorrow I should be embarking on Stage 5.

Good night my friends.

GAPS DIET JOURNEY is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to AMAZON.COM. GAPS DIET JOURNEY is an affiliate for several companies and may be compensated through advertising and marketing channels. Therefore, this post may contain affiliate links.

This weekend I plan to move into Stage 5.

I can’t believe it’s already 9pm. I had one of those nights last night, where I felt like I was just laying there, awake all night long. I am sure I slept, but I woke up so often it felt like I wasn’t sleeping.

I went to bed at 8:15, having taken a detox bath, only to wake around 9:30. I tried to go back to sleep, but seemed to be hungry. Very hungry. So I got up, scrambled two eggs [affiliate link] in coconut oil [affiliate link], and a green chili (hot!) and an avocado. I felt satisfied and went back to bed, only to lay there all night (so it seemed).

So it was very difficult to get up this morning.

I sure wish I’d start feeling some energy. I want massive amounts of energy, you see. Not just little spurts. I am aware of tiny spurts of energy, so that must mean I’m making progress.

My jeans are beginning to feel loose. I switched to this pair early on in my journey and they have been fitting just about perfectly. My belt seems to need another notch poked into it. So this is promising.

OH. Today something happened that totally blew my mind when I realized it had happened. I had my two cups of broth for breakfast. I still had about a cup of broth left once I got to work and sipped on it until I was done with it.

Then about 10:30, I felt hungry. I’d brought some leftover asparagus. No fat, just steamed and it was cold. I ate it in my office. Then I got real busy with work and the next thing I knew it was 2:15 and I was starting to feel a bit hungry. But I had gone all that time without eating (or drinking any water) and had been able to concentrate and work just fine. Not that I think that’s a good practice, I won’t do it again on purpose. But normally I’d get a low blood sugar drop and my thinking would go fuzzy after not eating for that long. Again, I am not saying this is something I plan on doing again, but it seems a good sign to me that I could go that long without eating and have no adverse effects.

I had to keep working steadily until 3:30 when I could finally go home, but I ate an avocado that I’d planned to have for lunch. That held me until I got home.

My water kefir turned out very good, so I have been having about 4 ounces of that when I get home from work (and sometimes upon getting up in the morning). I changed my clothes and went out and milked. We had to stop at two banks on the way home, so we didn’t get out to milk until 6pm. I got back in around 6:30 and then I cooked dinner.

Chicken breasts fried in coconut oil. Okay, totally a cheat for Stage 4, but I was pretty hungry. I also had leftover steamed broccoli and carrots. I had some Tabasco sauce with my chicken.

And now it’s after 9pm and I have another big day tomorrow so I had better get to bed now.

GAPS DIET JOURNEY is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to AMAZON.COM. GAPS DIET JOURNEY is an affiliate for several companies and may be compensated through advertising and marketing channels. Therefore, this post may contain affiliate links.

I was thinking I should have stated what each stage of intro is as I started it, if for nothing more than a reminder for myself. Maybe I’ll go back and do that when I find some extra time.

I had my carrot juice this morning. So far I seem to have tolerated it perfectly fine.

I baked three chickens and a butternut squash this morning and made a big pot of chicken stock. I put the pulp from the carrot juice into the stock.

My juicer is by GE, it seems to work okay, but there sure was a lot of pulp. I think I juiced 5 large organic carrots and only got about 1/2 cup of juice.

I took 3 HCI with Betain earlier in the day, but took 4 with dinner. It seems like my stomach was a little upset from that many. My hubby also took four. He’s not really doing GAPS though, I mean, he’s still eating grains and cookies and candy. If I could quit my job and become a full time homemaker, taking over the grocery shopping, I think I could get him onto GAPS. Maybe. I think he’d be more apt to do it.

I had some olive oil on my food today (as recommended for stage 4).

I got nine hours of sleep last night, and was still tired today and had to take a three hour nap. I’m just glad today was Sunday.

Dinner was the chicken pulled from the baked chickens from this morning, I also made Avocado Mayonnaise Dressing, and steamed fresh Swiss Chard from my garden.

Tomorrow I’m going to juice carrots again. I’m supposed to work my way up to one cup of carrot juice a day and then I can start adding other vegetables.

It’s time for bed again.

GAPS DIET JOURNEY is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to AMAZON.COM. GAPS DIET JOURNEY is an affiliate for several companies and may be compensated through advertising and marketing channels. Therefore, this post may contain affiliate links.