GAPS: The Good and The Bad

This is the post that I naively started on January 1, 2015, the first day on the GAPS Intro diet:

"Happy New Year!  2015 is officially here.  We spent New Year's Eve eating lots of things that we were going to have to give up, which was fun and tasty.  Say goodbye to old habits (brownies and cookie dough) and hello to the new ones (soups, fresh meats, veggies)!

Along with ushering in the new year comes our GAPS diet.  I will admit that I still feel overwhelmed with all of the work and prepping that goes into preparing our meals now, even with all that I did beforehand to be ready.  I got up this morning with determination and a loose plan:

Breakfast carrot-squash soup

Drink my mineral water
Make breakfast soup:
Assemble ingredients for other soups and get those started
Make coconut honey bites--a mix of 1 C unrefined solid coconut oil and 2 TBSP raw honey
Attempt a new batch of sauerkraut--Picklemeister
Clean the kitchen as needed, keep washing dishes as used

Whew!  On top of that, I also needed to clean up the kitchen, take out the trash from last night, rearrange the pantry to make some more room for things that were going away for a while, get down our Vitamix that my in-laws gave us, and try to find a place to store the microwave, which is now on the do-not-use list.  I'll miss that convenience.

Veggies prepped for the freezer, for using in soups

I probably won't post daily on this, because time just won't allow it.  I'm keeping a journal, and I might post a once-a-week update and summary of how things are going, along with recipes from the week.  I can honestly say that if it wasn't for this dairy intolerance, I wouldn't embark on this lifestyle change.  But I need to heal it, so here we are.  I truly appreciate my husband's willingness to go through this with me, and I know that we'll feel better.  The first step (and first day) is always the hardest when trying something new and completely unfamiliar, so patience and planning will be essential to our success.  It's not that the food isn't good; I thought my breakfast soup was tasty!  I'm just used to toast and orange juice or cereal for breakfast, and I'll miss those things, at least until the bad bacteria is gone.  I'm looking forward to the good things that we'll be able to eat soon, and I think the coconut honey bites will be a necessary snack for right now."

Oh, that's so cute. 

Since I started that post, I've had literally no time to do much of anything besides sleep, work, cook, eat, shop for more food, and do dishes.  I have had no time at all to post anything here, which I correctly predicted 11 days ago.  I have kept a journal, though, and tracked not only the foods we've eaten, but also our transitions through the first phases and the probiotic dosages that we've been having.  I won't lie, it's been tough.  I'll probably never want to eat soup again when this is all over.  But we're starting to introduce other foods now, which is helpful. 

I'll try to post a few updates for the stages (we're currently in Phase 3) in a few days, just to give anyone new/unfamiliar with all of this an idea of what it's like.  But for now, I have to go make dinner!