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Two more things to note. I was experiencing bloating after eating some foods before starting this “diet” and I am not experiencing that. Also, my ankles would sometimes be swollen. No sign of swollen ankles in the last three weeks.

I am stayed fed, and when I’m hungry, I eat. On the other hand, today my husband admitted he is starving most of the time on this diet. He says he goes to bed hungry, he wakes up starving, he’s hungry throughout the day and he feels exhausted. He works hard and is one of those people who can pretty much eat what he wants and stays at the same weight, although he has grown a belly in the past few years. We are going to work at getting him fed better. I began looking into GAPS specifically FOR him to try to heal his ulcerative colitis, so we need to make more of an effort to keep him fed.

He tends to grab for meat when he’s hungry, and he’s having to work at eating cooked vegetables. He really prefers his vegetables raw. We definitely need to work at keeping him satisfied so he isn’t tempted to cheat.

I have been tired today. I didn’t sleep well last night, I went to bed hungry, and I usually cannot get to sleep if I’m hungry. There wasn’t really anything to grab quickly to eat, and I didn’t feel like cooking so I grabbed a handful of walnuts [affiliate link]. That helped, but I still had trouble sleeping. I was also up at least six times during the night to go pee. I am not sure what that was about.

One of my milkers has a milk stone. I heard back from my goat mentor and apparently these “peas” can have a “tail” attached inside the wall of the udder. The milk stone is basically a piece of calcium. She gave me the solution to the problem, which involved a tiny steel crochet hook… I’ll spare you the details. We were unable to solve the problem, but I was able to milk her out a bit on that side to provide some relief to her fullness. Thankfully she has a very capacious udder and the fullness is nowhere near feeling tight. I will make another attempt at detaching the “pea” tomorrow morning. In the meantime, it is causing me some stress.

Since I didn’t sleep well, and woke up famished at 4am, I went back to bed around 5am after eating zucchini scrambled eggs which I shared with dh. He’s been very receptive to all the different dishes I am coming up with. After all, his retort if we complain about what he cooks is, “Food is food! Just eat it!”  😉  I slept until 9. Thank goodness I’m off work most of this week. I couldn’t think of, didn’t want to spend the time finding/making something to eat, so I went out essentially on an empty stomach about 9:45, which is never good for me to get into a stressful situation on an empty stomach. I felt very drained after the failed attempts to detach the “pea”.

Once we got back in, I made another meal for dh and I. This time I sauteed cabbage, breaded some pork chops with almond flour [affiliate link] and egg (didn’t work so well), served with a tiny little glass bowl of Bubbies sauerkraut.

Speaking of sauerkraut, I put up another batch of sauerkraut, this time Latin American sauerkraut, Cortido. The ingredients are cabbage, carrots, onion, salt, red pepper flakes and oregano. I am not using whey to ferment, although Nourishing Traditions does call for whey in most (all?) of its fermentation recipes. From left to right: Cortido Sauerkraut, Sauerkraut and fermented radishes. I am sure this desire to start more fermented foods is largely due to my having been off work this week. Although it might be that I’m feeling better. *crosses fingers*

I went back to bed around 1:30pm and stayed there until 4:30, even though I had to get up twice to handle an issue at my job.

We milked at 5:15. I had already decided to give my milker a break from any more “surgery” until tomorrow morning, but I did milk her out on the side that is okay, and managed with the help of the crochet hook to relieve the pressure on the other side. Basically the hook is inserted into the teat canal, which is not difficult at all, this pushes the stone/pea back up into the canal so that I can squeeze the teat and get some milk to come out. It is cumbersome, as I have to hold the crochet hook just so, inserted just a few millimeters, and milk at the top of the teat. This girl’s teats are about as big around as a pencil, and about one inch long. So there is not a lot of room to work.

Hubby put chicken thighs in the oven for dinner, and after we came in I heated up some frozen green peas, sauteed fresh mushrooms, and made a salad.

I used what was leftover of the Avocado Mayo Dressing. I was thrilled to see it kept it’s lovely green color. I assumed it would darken somewhat, even though I did put apple cider vinegar in it. It tasted less tangy and less garlic-y. I guess it mellowed out overnight. I was very pleased with dinner.

YS stopped at Costco and I asked him to pick up some avocados and mushrooms. He mentioned cherries, and I thought they sounded delicious. I have been limiting my fruit intake to just the Clementine Cuties, and I think the cherries were too sweet as I found myself having some cravings tonight.

I had an avocado, and then a bunch more cherries. Gosh, I hope cherries are full GAPS.

I guess that’s it for today. Thanks for reading and I love comments so if you feel so inclined, let me know you stopped by! 🙂

I am decidedly happier. I find myself smiling more.

Today I cleaned up a little bit in the living room, enough to vacuum the floor. Washed some dishes, made dinner.

Hubby put a roast in the crockpot this morning. I steamed carrots and cauliflower. Very happy to see ES getting nice big helpings of the veggies.

I told my husband, “You know he really looks to you for what you are eating. When you would eat bread, he’d get a couple slices.” Dh wasn’t really aware.

I had more black olives last night. Probably could be considered a breach.

My right thumb is hurting. The joint. Not sure why. One of my milkers has a milk stone in her teat, maybe strained my thumb trying to squeeze it out. It has completely sealed her orifice, I’m worried she will dry up on that side since I cannot milk her. I have written to my goat list for suggestions. I hope my goat mentor has some ideas.

It stressed me out quite a bit. I felt limp after trying to milk her. Felt like giving up. Wished we didn’t have goats.

I did find my kefir grains in the fridge and get them into some fresh milk. They look okay, we’ll see how they progress.

Did I say yesterday that I started some radishes fermenting? They are beginning to bubble and gas releases from the jar when I unscrew the lid.

I had salmon patties for breakfast. No broth today, or yesterday. I need to get back to drinking broth! I also don’t think I drink enough water. Sometimes not even one glass a day.

I did the yeast spit test this morning. I had gunk on the bottom of the glass. Strings initially, and floaters in the water, but in the end, just gunk in the water. Here’s some commentary on why it isn’t always conclusive. I also took this comprehensive yeast symptoms test, and scored 73.

I keep forgetting to take my cod liver oil. Hubby brought home some chicken hearts and gizzards. I do love chicken hearts, always have.

Wow, this day went by fast.

I had leftover salmon cubes for breakfast. I cheated and ate canned black olives, one of my favorite favorite foods. They were there, I ate four one time and four another time. Olives ARE on the approved list, but probably not the brand I ate, so I’m not going to consider this too bad of a breach.

I found out today that my husband is having trouble with nuts. They hurt his stomach, so we are trying to come up with ideas on what he can have to eat that’s quick and easy to get his hands on. He’s thinking maybe a bunch of hamburger patties, so he can just grab them and go.

I also found out, I guess it takes me a little time for this all to absorb, what we are doing. Apparently what we’re doing is what Baden recommends in her book, which is to go to Full GAPS (which is anything on the approved list of foods) and then eventually do a period of Intro. I would say I am on a modified Full GAPS, since I am also avoiding dairy, except for butter.

I noticed that I was having some trouble breathing this morning. Not bad enough to use my Albuterol, and not quite wheezing, but almost there.

YS brought home this Febreeze type stuff, it’s a store brand version and has sprayed it a couple of times. I can’t stand any kind of air freshener or anything like incense or scented candles to be burned. The Febreeze stuff got me started sneezing earlier tonight.

Around noon, or maybe it was 1:30, I went out to see what dh was up to. He’s building a work area for his equipment. While out there I decided to water my garden, pull some weeds, pick all the green tomatoes I could find (about a 3# coffee [affiliate link] can worth), pull all the overgrown radishes (the purple ones I planted in September were larger than golf balls and not pithy at all!), pick some Swiss chard, spinach and a few beet green leaves.

I pulled something, my back is aching a bit in the shoulder area. I brought everything in. I washed the radishes and put them in the food processor to grate them. I’m making them into radish sauerkraut! 🙂   I have never tried it before, but I hope it turns out. I used Alyss from Nourishing Traditions recommendation on how much salt to use for cabbage fermentation. She says salt until it tastes just a bit too salty. If it’s just good salty, add more salt until it’s too salty. Now I have two pretty jars of fermented veggies going.

I am about out of my Bubbies, so I hope they hurry and get fermenting! I think I might have to put them both out on the porch in the direct sun so they can heat up a bit. It is pretty chilly in our house.

Dinner tonight was chicken breast sauteed in butter, steamed cauliflower and steamed beet greens, swiss chard and spinach.

I was so happy to see ES with a huge serving of cauliflower and greens on his plate.

I talked to dh about not doing intro for ES right yet, but to keep on slowly removing foods we don’t want him eating. We have got him weaned off cheese, and other dairy products. We actually still have some commercial plain (some healthy brand) yogurt left and he uses that in place of sour cream. I noticed tonight he wasn’t hacking profusely, which is a great improvement. Poor guy, he usually comes out of his room to join us for dinner, and then he starts with the hacking and spitting. He just doesn’t “get” that it’s not a socially acceptable thing to do. It was great to notice that he was not hacking tonight.

I didn’t get my detox bath last night, and want to be sure to indulge myself tonight, so I should get off this computer.

Oh, and one more thing. Me working in the garden? That means I had a little more energy. I have really been dragging the last few months. I did better at my garden last winter, and it took a heck of a lot of work to get it back in shape after a three year break on gardening.

Now I don’t know if this having more energy is due to GAPS, or whether it is because I have been off work for three days, and know I have three more to stay at home and relax. Well, at least not have to go to work.

Until we meet again. My detox bath with Epsom salts awaits.