Preparing

Stock. Stock. Stock. I jarred and froze 25 cups of chicken stock the other day and am making another batch today to keep in the fridge for starting Intro on Friday. (At least starting Friday is the plan!) I'm hoping that all this prep work will make our first week on Intro flow much smoother so that we can get into an easy rhythm.

This is what I've done to prepare:

-Made Chicken Stock, froze in 1, 2, and 3 cup increments in mason jars.
-Froze bags of Chicken meat (meat left from making stock)
-Sliced 4 Butternut Squash (into chunks and fries) and froze in 2 cup increments.
-Roasted 2 Buttercup Squash, froze in 1 cup increments.
-Froze peeled cloves of Garlic (I bought an already peeled bag of Garlic from Costco and split them up in pint-sized freezer bags. They can be crushed through a garlic press straight from the freezer.)
-Minced ginger & froze in ice cube tray.
-Peeled and sliced 5 lbs of Apples, froze
-Made homemade sauerkraut, (roughly 3 heads of cabbage worth, and bought some jarred)
-Made homemade yogurt and jarred the whey
-Made homemade kefir
-Made and froze chicken soup in portioned sized ziploc containers

I've had a great helper too :)

She loves being involved and I'm hoping that her help in prep (which gives us a chance to talk about what we're doing and what we will be eating) will help her accept the food more easily. Just today I chopped up some more cabbage for sauerkraut, she asked what I was doing and I told her. She said she wanted some sauerkraut so I got her excited to try some, opened up a jar in the fridge and gave her bite. Her response: "Mmmm!!!" And she actually wanted more. So we made up a sauerkraut song and dance, which she loved...and then we made one up for soup and broth. I'm hoping silly little things like this will be a tool to help get her to eat when she won't want to.

I still need to go grocery shopping for some fresh veggies, and I'm a little nervous about the fact that I don't have beef/beef bones yet (the plan is to get some Saturday!) as I'm sure we are going to get real tired of Chicken stock very quickly!

Along with Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride's book, I have purchased and read the 30 Days on GAPS Intro Handbook. I almost didn't buy this, but decided last minute that it'd be nice to have some extra recipes and a basic outline of Intro (even though Intro is/can be different for everyone.) I'm glad I got this and had it printed and bound at Office Max. This was helpful for my husband to look over because I knew he was never going to read Campbell's book. This helped simply outline some of the important things, giving him some basics about how Intro was going to flow. This book lists each stage in 5 day increments, I am not sure if each stage will take us 5 days or if it'll take us longer (or even shorter.) Ultimately we are going to listen to our bodies and the stages may vary depending on how we react and how quickly our bodies heal.

I have made a fairly large effort to follow the full GAPS diet in the past couple months, with a few exceptions. My diet has been extremely limited already and I am hoping that will help make Intro a bit easier on my body. Intro is cautioned for pregnant or nursing mothers because of the toxins released in the body can affect the baby. I may/will likely incorporate full GAPS foods into my diet so that the die-off effect is not so drastic. I'm hoping that giving my body preparation over the last couple months will help that process and that I can stick as closely to Intro as possible.

My baby has already suffered from months of me consuming foods that bother my body (and as a result, him.) Because of my leaky-gut he has been bothered by toxins from my body's inability to digest food properly, particles that have leaked into my blood-stream and acted like toxins resulted in getting into my breast-milk. That is why I believe he cannot tolerate the same things that I can't, they are toxic to me, and as a result, toxic to him.

In turn, we have also started him on a bit of solids and are following the GAPS suggested outline for that. I am excited about it, and hope that it'll help improve and heal his gut as well. He has been having homemade stock for close to 2 months now, I try to give it to him at least three times a day before I nurse, (just a couple teaspoons.) He also has been having a puree once a day made with a mashed veggie and homemade stock, and I mix in a bit of animal fat/coconut oil (so far I've only added coconut oil) and a probiotic. He tolerates it well, and loves it. In fact, I can see an improvement in his digestion as he gets used to food, I cheated pretty severely over Christmas with eating and even though it bugged him, he tolerated it better than he had a couple months before. So I think already his gut is improving which makes me even more hopeful that Intro will help the rest of us significantly.

As Friday approaches I am having mixed feelings. As I mentioned before, I am ready and hopeful, but today and yesterday I have been feeling overwhelmed and terrified. Which is how I felt when I first started researching GAPS. I think I am just re-realizing how much work this is going to entail, and how hard its going to be...and that makes me nervous! It's hard to be so strict, especially since we are people-people and get-togethers are often centered around food. It's been hard to restrict myself over the last few months, but this is going to be even more restrictive. I'm used to being in the kitchen a lot, so the food work doesn't necessarily scare me, it's the planning ahead--and the diligence it will entail, and the fact that we all are going to be tired of soup and broth in a matter of days! I also think it hasn't helped that I've slept poorly the last couple days. Maybe once I get my fridge and freezer a little more organized and get some quality sleep (hopefully!) I'll feel much better.