First, a correction: After Francesca read my post, she said that she’s only sensitive to store-bought dairy, not the raw dairy we get from the farm. Sorry! So I updated yesterday’s post. Also, the updates are a day behind. I write them the next day so I’m well into Day 4 right now.

Intro GAPS – Day 3

Francesca is still doing really well. She is now in Stage 2 and so added egg yolks and ghee to her broth and fresh veggie juice with no ill effects or changes. She had her first sort of craving, if you want to call it that. She had a taste for fruit, but not a huge desire for it. This is probably because she had been eating a lot of fruit prior to starting Intro GAPS. Dr. Campbell-McBride describes the differences between cravings and desires in her book, among a whole lot of other topics besides just GAPS. She includes the different metabolic types, the importance of cholesterol and interestingly enough, how we’re not all able to thrive on the same foods. “A food, that makes one person healthy and well, can make another person ill.” There is a wealth of information beyond the food as she dives deeper into healing your gut. So even if you have no interest in following GAPS, I still highly recommend reading her book. Also, most of you know that I have a huge appreciation for Dr. Weston Price and Dr. Norman Walker and I was pleasantly surprised to see that she references them both in her book!

As for me, I am still in Stage 1. On Day 2, after having a cup of plain broth for my third meal, I later had some water and then went to bed. Day 3 has been very difficult for me. But I need to back up for a moment and explain a few things before I continue. It took a long time for me to heal from pericarditis. The pain was so severe that I often said to my family that I’d rather go through labor and push out another human than go through that pain again. It took about 8 months to heal and I’m still under the care of a specialist for it. Fast forward to a few weeks ago and I was munching on some baked corn. A lot of corn. I usually eat corn about twice a year, if even that. This is what caused the stomach pains the week before. I have many other food sensitivies which I’ve talked about in my videos over the years so I thought this was a good time to just start. I have been off of grain, sugar and processed foods for over a year too, so I knew I wouldn’t have withdrawals. I also eat broth, meat, veggies, fermented dairy and veggie juice frequently anyway (which are staples of the GAPS diet) so I thought I could handle it.

So then today, I woke up with the pericarditis pain. I was shocked. And scared. I followed the diet very carefully. I felt like my body was doing really well, in the sense that I didn’t have any withdrawals, I didn’t have any cravings and other than some discomfort/bloating in my stomach, I was okay. So even though I was still in Stage 1, I decided to have fresh veggie juice because my mind instantly went to the foods I ate to heal my pericarditis the first time. These were: ginger, eggs, salmon, raw milk/cream, coconut oil and vegetable juice. I started with lemon water which I’ve always been fine with but now it burned my insides. I next drank the juice which was a little better. I then drank 1/3 cup of coconut oil which was a lot better. I shared my concerns with Joe and waited a few hours to eat anything else. I eventually felt like the pain was mild enough to try and eat another bowl of broth but made sure to not drink it plain. I added boiled vegetables, chicken meat and whey. Half way through I started to not feel well. Then the pain in my chest became severe. (For those unfamiliar, pericarditis is when the sacs around your heart become enflamed.)

I was really surprised this was happening and since it was difficult for me to do anything productive (garden, film, cook, etc.), I decided to do some research online and reread parts of the book. The first time around I was so focused on the diet itself that I didn’t absorb all of the great information after that, specifically the chapters called: one man’s meat is another man’s poison (covers the metabolic types), vegetarianism and more plant gaps. No, I don’t believe the answer to my inflammation is plant food (because I am just as sensitive to many plant foods), however it’s in those chapters where she explains why we all don’t thrive on the same foods.

The rest of the day the only thing I consumed was a couple of mugs of ginger tea and two snowballs (which are just balls of frozen coconut oil and honey). At this point I knew I couldn’t continue the Intro GAPS the way I was doing it but I was still determined to figure out a way I could. To be continued…