Lots of people have been asking how the GAPS Intro is going for my family. Well, I need to confess to all of you–we moved through it rather quickly (3 weeks) and we’re now on Full GAPS again!
Ideally, I would like to go through it slower. Honestly, I didn’t plan to do the Intro at a good time.
- We’re way too busy right now. Once a week, the kids and I spend the entire day OUT. I usually make hard boiled eggs for lunch that day, and we bring organic applesauce cups or fruit or something. Or, we stop at our local New Seasons and get some of their pepperoni sticks & slices of cheese and some fruit. Or sometimes they have a soup that’s GAPS legal (there was a tomato soup about a month ago that was amazing…). But since I can’t count on their soups to be GAPS legal, and soup is a big part of the Intro, I would have to make soup–and bring it in the car–and figure out how to feed it to the little ones (4, 3, 2, 1)..in the car. I wasn’t up for that!
- Every day after the little ones go down for nap, they get a snack. They have a couple of options: raisins, dried nectarines or pears (which we dried in our Excalibur
), or fresh fruit. They usually eat raisins. I can put a “big boy” (10, 8, 8 ) in charge of snack time, or even let our 4 year old manage scooping raisins out of the jar into little cups. Then, I can get other things done (you know–laundry–cook dinner–those kinds of things!). Since dried fruit is not allowed on the GAPS Intro, I was roasting carrots in broth every single day, and that was snack. And since I was taking time to do something that I normally don’t spend any time on, I was getting less done…
And also…
- When I don’t eat dairy, I feel like I am lacking something. My mouth is little, and chewing meat is a chore for me. If I were to rely on meat to sustain me, I’d have to be eating all of the time. I just can’t get enough in me in one sitting to sustain me until the next meal or snack. Cheese, sour cream, and yogurt are easy for me to eat & quick sources of fat + protein + other nutrients I obviously need. Plus, I couldn’t possibly cook enough meat in a day (budget wise and time wise!) for our family plus for my nutritional needs. I cook at least 4 lbs of ground beef, stew beef, etc. per meal, or 2 to 3 chickens. We go through a lot of food around here!
A GAPS Intro where my body is totally satisfied would mean cooking all of the time. I don’t have time for that right now. - Preparing ahead doesn’t work as well when you have a family of 9. We will eat an entire pot of soup at one sitting. How do you freeze an entire pot of soup? A pot roast feeds us for one meal, it’s not like I can cook some today and save some for tomorrow. There is no such thing as leftovers in this house, that is for sure!
And the biggest reason…..
- I am leaving for the Weston Price Conference TOMORROW! I totally forgot about that when I planned to go on the Intro. I can’t tell you how giddy I am about the FOOD at the conference. I get to go to a conference with my kind of people who eat my kind of food! I’m going to a dinner on Thursday night that is advertised as a “GAPS Legal Dinner”! Can you believe that? Wowie zowie, this will be like heaven on earth for me! Good food, prepared by somebody else? All weekend? Sign me up! So yeah…I didn’t want to be on the Intro at Weston Price…
I’ll be back again though. I believe in this diet. My family has the will power to do it. It’s just bad timing for us.
What’s your story? Are you on the GAPS Intro? Thinking about it? Tried it before?
