I write this post with great hesitation. I have been asked and asked and asked and asked and asked about what we ate on GAPS intro. and what our menu was soooooo many times that I decided I am sticking myself out there and making it public. So what’s the big deal? Well, I’m human. Someone somewhere is most certainly going to find something that I did wrong. I’m a tad nervous about that.
When I started checking into real food, and trying to get Ellie going on GAPS, I found some blogs that really messed me up. Bloggers are like teachers – if you are not careful you might leave out some important bits of information, or you might pass off your own personal perspectives as facts. Yes. We are all human. Myself certainly included. But no matter the venue, there is an unspoken responsibility that comes with the sharing of information and act of teaching. Bloggers who profess to educate are not excused.
My vow as a professional educator has always been to teach the truth. No matter the subject. Nothing but the facts, man. Education is power. The truth is power. The truth does not need to be manipulated. The truth.always.wins.
*ahem* Sorry. Distracted there.
Back to the point of the post.
We were on Full GAPS for over a year prior to doing intro. When I pulled all refined foods from my diet I became one sick mama for awhile, and had my head in the toilet for a few days. I really wanted to jump the whole family into GAPS intro, but I could not figure out how to get it done. All of my energy was being spent trying to keep Ellie alive. I could not imagine how sick I would be on the Introduction diet, and how I would manage to take care of her. When I finally took the plunge I was surprised. It really wasn’t as hard on my body as I had expected. I do believe it is due to the length of time we spent on Full GAPS before hand. Yet I also really wish we had just started earlier because we would be almost done by now instead of just getting started!
My motivation.
Here we go:
I did my best to list things as we ate them for breakfast, lunch and dinner, but realistically we did eat all day long on some days.
We are a family of four, and I tried to cook enough quantity at dinner to have leftovers for the next day, as well as send some to work with the hubby for lunch. He also took a large thermos of broth, and his own kraut for the office fridge.
Our goal was to spend the first 7 days on stage 1. No, this is not ordained anywhere. No, there is no set or established time. We did stage 1 until we felt our bodies were ready to move forward. This is what worked for us, and toward the end of the first week some of us were ready to move on before others.
We primarily ate chicken broth, and it appears that I did not write down each time I had to cook a new chicken for broth or to make soup.
Once introduced, we used lots of ghee and butter in everything. I also had expeller-pressed coconut oil on hand and used that.
We all had nightly detox baths. We had kraut juice with every meal.
Things I learned:
The easiest thing to do was to keep at least one kind of soup in a pot in the fridge at all times. When anyone was hungry I just pulled it out and stuck it on the stove top.
It worked best to have dinner done by 3 o’clock, because by then I was exhausted and needed an earlier bed time. (yeah, my adrenals are jacked)
Unless serving soup we had a cup of broth with every meal, and one for morning and afternoon snack. The goal was at least 5 cups a day, with smaller cup sizes for my 7 year old.
Cup ‘o broth
One Day Before Starting:
– Already had beef meat broth in the freezer
– Made chicken broth from whole chicken, and deboned chicken. Kept bones and meat in separate containers in fridge.
– Ate Turkey Meatball Soup and had left overs
Day 1:
Breakfast:
– leftover turkey meatball soup
– boiled onion. I sliced up onion and put in a frying pan on the stop top. I covered it with broth and put on a lid to boil it.
– kraut juice (purchased)
In the morning:
– ghee
– mint tea
– ate more soup. In fact we pretty much ate all day every day for four weeks.
Lunch:
– chicken soup: broth, chunks of chicken, cubes of spaghetti squash, carrots, onions. I served this by scooping veggies and meat onto a plate, and putting broth in a cup.
– kraut juice
Dinner:
– beef stew: in the crock pot I put 3 pounds of stew meat and covered it with broth and water. After a couple hours of cooking I added in carrots, garlic, turnip, onion, salt and pepper. The result was a soupy boiled stew instead of a standard thick stew.
– kraut juice
In the evening:
– sensitivity tested for ghee
I had an incredibly huge craving for garlic. I finally roasted and sat and ate 2 full elephant heads of garlic without much consequence the next day (maybe a little gas).
Day 2:
Breakfast:
– stove-top boiled hamburgers and boiled broccoli, using beef broth from freezer.
– kraut juice
– probiotic (We were already using a probiotic prior to doing Intro. so we just added it back in on day 2.)
Lunch:
– leftover Day 1 soup stew
– kraut juice
Dinner:
– butternut squash soup
– broccoli beef soup from 30-day GAPS intro e-book
-kraut juice
Evening:
-sensitivity test for ghee
I had an incredible craving for coconut oil. I can not handle straight fat. However, I proceeded to down about 2 tablespoons of coconut oil and felt much better.
Me. Christmas morning a couple years back. Not on GAPS intro. But this was pretty much the expression you would have found on day 3 if I had taken a picture.
Day 3:
This day was the worst. Days 3 and 4 were the hardest. We really wanted something to chew. I remedied this by making the Mommypotamus Gummies without the honey, and with only chicken broth. Then I made a batch with 1/2 chicken broth and 1/2 lemon juice (no honey). Not the treat of the year, but certainly got us through and were not bad.
No one had a reaction to the ghee sensitivity test! Hooray! We started adding it in to foods.
We added in lemon water.
Breakfast:
– left over dinner, boiled cauliflower and carrots, boiled meatballs, cup of chicken broth, kraut juice
– probiotic
Lunch:
– leftovers…..kraut juice. Every meal. From now on. The rest of my life. Kraut. Go kraut. (Not noted in following days so don’t think we didn’t eat it.)
Dinner:
– Russian Borscht (pg. 181 in GAPS book) with leftover chicken
Evening:
– sensitivity test for butter
Day 4:
No one reacted to butter! Whoo hoo! We started adding it in to broth and foods.
Breakfast:
– frozen peas (boiled), cup of chicken broth, cauliflower mash, leftover butternut squash soup
– probiotic
Lunch:
– leftover Borscht
Dinner:
– cod fillets boiled in oven covered with chicken broth
– broccoli, onion, garlic, boiled and blended in chicken broth using an immersion blender
Dishes, oh dishes.
Day 5:
By day 5 I had found I was feeling pretty good on low to no carb. All of the butternut soup had gotten me over the hump, and my body was wanting me to do without. My 7 year old was asking for frozen green peas for every meal. We also were eating a cup of broth and kraut juice for each meal, unless serving soup.
Today’s kitchen chores included: making more ghee, making yogurt, making sour cream, and yet more dishes.
Breakfast:
– boiled meatballs and carrots
– probiotic
Lunch:
– meatball soup
– butternut ginger soup (no one liked this. ick)
– peas (these are high in sugar and kept my older daughter going, but were too much for me. )
Dinner:
– leftover meatballs
– boiled green beans (these killed me. At this point peas, carrots and green beans were not agreeing with me, and all I wanted to do was drink broth all day. Foggy head was clearing and I was sleeping much better.)
Evening:
Started doing magnesium supplement spray on everyone at night. My 7 year old was complaining of leg cramps.
Day 6:
Breakfast:
– chicken, zucchini, butternut squash soup, green beans
– probiotic
Lunch:
– leftover meatballs, broth, squash soup, zucchini
Dinner:
– stew (see day 1). This time I threw in onion, tomato sauce, carrot and turnip.
Day 7:
I learned my lesson. No detox bath or magnesium spray and I was up with leg cramps. Ouch!
We decided that the hubby and Moriah were ready for stage 2. They were doing fantastic.
Me….not as much. I was having a ton of side and back pain. At one point I could barely walk up right and finally figured it was liver based. While I ate meals with the family I did not eat the vegetables. I ate meat and broth and felt great.
Today I made ghee and kraut.
Breakfast:
– chicken broth and leftover stew
Lunch:
– chicken soup
Dinner:
– cod boiled in the oven, and vegetable medley boiled/baked in oven
Evening:
– sensitivity test raw egg yolk, sour cream, and yogurt
What I ate:
broth, meat, GAPS milkshakes, ghee and honey combo, gummies
Want to know what we ate after stage 1? Stay tuned for part 2. And remember….
Hope is contagious. Pass it on!
~ Nichole
photo credit: jasleen_kaur
I needed this! I’m on day one of intro and feel like the Joker. I shift between fits of rage and uncontrollable laughter. The gummy bears have me in stitches! I’m sorry you had to endure this, but it’s getting me through tonight. Thanks for sharing :).
Thanks for the specifics laid out here! My husband and I are thinking of going through this with our four kids (yikes). Two questions:
1) is it important that the meat/veggies are organic, or does that matter, since you’re boiling the heck out of it?
2) how does the cost of all this compare to a regular diet free of processed/boxed food?
Hi Raia!
The diet can be done with conventional foods, and the results will really depend on the severity of the individual. Using conventional produce will add to the already toxic load you are attempting to heal, and is not recommended by Dr. Natasha. If you can’t source all organic produce, or you can’t afford it, I would recommend you certainly stay away from those that might show up in the ‘dirty dozen’ list. The cleaner the diet the better.
As for cost, that will really depend on where you are. Going GAPS really changes how you view purchasing food and what you prioritize. I have found that it took about a year for me to figure it out, but now our diet costs about the same as when we ate a Standard American Diet. We do have more expenses in the area of things like probiotics.
Thanks for answering my questions! I know we can afford some of the things organic, and we have a garden, so that helps! I know that this is going to need to be a priority for our family, so God will provide!
What kind of probiotics are you taking? Are the ones found in the kraut and yogurt/kefir not enough?
Wow! Wonderful! Thanks for sharing!