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Meal Plans Week of 11-27-11, GAPS Update

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Thanksgiving is over. I have mostly reclaimed my refrigerator. Almost all of the leftovers are gone. The house is cleaned up. Some Christmas decorations are up. And it’s finally Sunday. It feels like we had 3 Saturdays in a row 😛  Back to life as usual.

Last week was focused on Thanksgiving. I didn’t do a letter with Rebecca. We just did Thanksgiving crafts and got the house ready to host. We had a wonderful celebration with my family. It’s a lot of work, but I enjoy it. We also had lots of family time over the weekend. That sure was nice. Just time to relax and take it easy. We went swimming on Friday morning. And stayed home to decorate and play yesterday. I was even able to finally organize Rebecca’s closet a bit. You can actually see the floor now 😛  We all loved having Justin home for a few days.

I was busy in the kitchen with all of the Thanksgiving prep. And then busy afterwards being creative with leftovers 🙂  I’ll update my Thanksgiving post with some ideas of how I used leftovers. I don’t think anyone got sick of turkey…that means success. I also made a batch of turkey broth. And a couple batches of baby food. It’s nice to have a little stock of that in the freezer. And of course our weekly dairy products.

This week is a pretty normal week. Today is church. Monday I don’t think we’re going anywhere. There is a chance I’ll be doing milk pick up, but I don’t think so. Tuesday is Kindermusik. Friday is MOPS. That’s about it. Sounds nice! I might try to make a trip to Target. Both kids need winter boots and some other odds and ends. And it wouldn’t hurt to get going on Christmas shopping. We started a little online shopping yesterday. We have a ways to go. I also need to work on Christmas cards. The fun part…addressing them all 😛

Kitchen work will include our weekly dairy products – kefir, yogurt and sour cream. I might try butter again this week. We’ll see. I had issues with it last time. And I had a hard time making whipped cream last week. Not sure if our cream isn’t that heavy or if I’m just not skimming it very well. Since we’re doing the letter L I want to do some L foods/meals. Not sure about any baking projects. I might try finally making another GAPS ice cream recipe. I need to make a new batch of fermented vegetables. And possibly some mayo (we’re out, but not sure I’ll need it this week). I’m working my way through some of the baked goods in our freezer. Lots of stuff that either needs to be eaten or tossed. Then I can start some fresh baking! When I’m not working in the kitchen I’d like to do more organizing around the house. Rebecca’s closet is done, but I still need to work on her room. And Abram’s closet is still a disaster. The basement could use some work too. I’m in the mood to clean, organize and get rid of stuff! Good thing to do before the Christmas presents come.

On to my weekly update (beware…this is a long one). It’s been a long week of ups and downs. Lots of trial and error. I made a batch of sour cream using mostly yogurt (like usual) but a little kefir as well for more probiotics. Wow! That sure gives it a kick. Not sure I’ll be doing that regularly. I know it’s healthy. But I just don’t like it that much. I tried to increase my fat and vegetable intake (as I mentioned in my GAPS gravy post), but it didn’t seem to help me much. So I decided to add more raw/fibrous food to my diet. I’ve been eating lots of salads the last few days. Friday I had salad for breakfast, lunch and a bedtime snack! Before I would have noticed a reaction with just eating one salad. But even after eating lots of salads my gut did not seem any different than it did while eating pureed foods and mushy veggies. Kind of frustrating. It seems that I do need more raw food in my diet now, including juice (hoping for a juicer some day). My body seems to be tolerating it just fine. No major gas or bloating or anything. Which is a big change…and gives me hope that my gut is healing. One thing I did do this week was add carrot juice to my diet. Although I don’t have a juicer I did find some pure carrot juice at the store! It’s not quite as good as freshly pressed, but it’s better than nothing. I can’t say that it tastes good. But I hope it will help. I’ve been trying to drink some a couple times a day mixed with a little fruit juice to get it down. I can also tell I feel better when I eat beets regularly. So I’ve been eating roasted beets every day. Carrots and beets are the two vegetables the GAPS book mentions most often. So I’m trying to get those daily. I continue to debate about taking a magnesium supplement. And about trying the Betaine again for stomach acid production. I have not come to a conclusion yet. I’ve been eating lots of Russian custard…for breakfasts, lunches, snacks. A great way to get more egg yolks down. I mix it with berries, nuts and sour cream. My body seems to tolerate it well. And I’m drinking plenty of warm lemon water. I also made my first cup of ginger tea yesterday. It tasted fine. Not sure if it did anything for me, but it didn’t hurt. I’ll keep trying it. I did some more reading a couple places about needing to do what works for your body…and listening to your body. If you are really craving something (that is safe/legal)…you should just have it, even if you are not at that stage of the diet yet. Your body knows what it needs. I really think this is true. I noticed it this week. One day I would crave sweets/starches and want custard for every meal. The next day I would really want fresh, crunchy, raw foods and eat salad after salad. It seemed like my body wanted something different every few days. And normally I love turkey (or any meat) and picking stuff off the bones after cooking a bird. This week I really didn’t care much about it (of course Thanksgiving week :P). Not that I didn’t like it. I just didn’t crave it like usual. I actually had a hard time doing the deboning and clean up. It was kind of gross to me. Strange. In general my body was craving more fruits, veggies and dairy this week, not meat. Which is a big change for me. And I had days where I could not tolerate broth/stock. I just wanted fresh foods. I did really crave dairy. So I had raw cheese on my salads. And drank a little raw milk. I think I did pretty well listening to my body. It seems to rotate needs/cravings every few days. It knows how to keep everything balanced. In the end, though my gut functioned about the same all week…regardless of what I ate (which gets frustrating when you keep trying different things with no change). I think it all boils down to a couple things. First, my gut is healing! And I need to wait and see what my new normal is. Which is very difficult for me. It makes my OCD and anxiety really flare when there is change. It takes away my control. And then I start comparing and over analyzing everything. But I have been pleased with how I’ve handled it. No major anxiety attacks. I get frustrated and annoyed. But I don’t panic. I’m trying to be patient. And figure out what truly needs to be changed/healed yet and what is just mental. It seems my gut has really calmed down from how it has been for many many years now. So I’m not used to that. Now I need to figure out how to stimulate it again. It is exciting to be able to eat more raw food again at least! The other major factor is the miralax. This is probably the biggest one. After taking it for 5 years my body is definitely dependant on it. And doesn’t know how to function without it. So as I decrease it, my body doesn’t really know what to do. Regardless of what I eat, my gut doesn’t function. When I first started decreasing miralax I could tell, but I was still taking enough that my body worked. Now that I’m down to a 1/4 dose some days…closer to elminating it totally, my body is not sure what to do. Some days I want to give in and just go back to my full dose and say I guess I’ll take this forever. Not really what I want. Some days I want to just cut it out cold turkey and do one big adjustment and get it over with. I’m guessing that’s not too smart either. That could be painful and dangerous for me. I don’t want to undo my surgery. So I go back to what I’m doing…a little at a time. And do my best to be patient. My body will figure it out eventually. I know in the long run I will be happy I did this. But for now it’s tough. Especially as I get down to the really low doses. All I can do is wait. I do my best to eat right and drink a LOT of fluids to help out. Give my gut plenty to work with. And adjust to my changing needs. So that’s where I’m at. I will try to keep up with lemon water, carrot juice, beets and raw foods for simtulation. And fats, vegetbales and broth for healing. Plus my daily sour cream, sauerkraut and fermented vegetables for probiotics. And focus on eggs for protein. I still have a hard time with most meat (especially muscle meats). So I’ll try not to overdo with those. And try to be patient as my body figures this out. Hopefully I’ll be able to keep decreasing the miralax and continue this healing process. I’ll take it one day at a time and trust that God will guide my decisions and actions. He has a reason for this season of my life. I’m learning to be patient and trust in Him.

I’d better get on with the menu for the week. Trying to incorporate my needs with foods that we can all enjoy. And a few separate meals becuase of activities and trying to use up leftovers. Oddly enough Rebecca requested split pea soup the other day! Yes, my daughter that used to gag on it and literally almost puke when asked to eat one bite. She is now requesting it. I will very happily oblige 🙂  I’ll even let Abram try some.
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S (church, nursery, separate dinner)
  L – cp maple dijon chicken (Justin), leftover squash and turkey soup (me)
  D – salad w/ cucumbers, beets, avocado, turkey, raw cheese, nuts, raisins and homemade dressing with egg yolks added (me), scrambled eggs, toast, fruit (Justin)

M (prep dinner, make fermented veggies)
  D – pea soup, whole wheat bread

T (skim cream, make sc, make yogurt, KM, soak lentils, make caramel dip)
  D – salad (me), tacos (Justin)

W (cook lentils, Target, make kefir)
  D – lentil burgers/hamburgers, roasted potoes, peas

Th (make sc)
  D – loaded baked potatoes

F (clean, MOPS)
  D – baked bacon and eggs, beans, bread

S (laundry, shopping, make ic)
  D – stuffed squash w/ lentils, bacon, chicken liver and vegetables

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