Full-Gaps Day 74 (Pre-Intro)

Breakfast:
-fresh nectarine 
-coffee, with honey

Lunch:
-leftover Roast Beef
-leftover coleslaw

Snacks:
-crispy walnuts & hazelnuts
-raw kefir

Dinner:
-leftover Roast Beef
-leftover coleslaw
-Bubbies pickles

Supplements:
-1 tsp Magnesium Citrate (Natural Calm) with breakfast
-1 tsp Magnesium Citrate (Natural Calm) with dinner
No foot or leg cramps last night.

Dairy:
Week 5 of dairy reintroduction: introduced raw kefir last week
Both The Fiancé and I are doing well on raw kefir. I did a second fermentation and it was really good.
How To Make Your Kefir Taste Extra Yummy
Ripening Kefir under AirLock

Energy Level:
OK.

Mood:
Good.

Brain Power:
Good.

Back pain:
Low back is getting better. I put it out last week by sitting on a chair wrong. Gotta love that.

Foot pain:
Very mild in both feet.

Knee Pain:
A bit in the left knee when sitting.

Heartburn:
None.

Day of cycle:
4 (.)

Last nights sleep:
Good.

Anxiety:
Oh boy, a new category.

Anxiety is my newest most annoying Adrenal Fatigue symptom. It's especially annoying as it has decided to manifest itself, not as a panic attack like in a normal person, but as diarrhea. Yep, the joke's on me. Why, oh why, oh why, oh why does it have to be that? No idea. It is what it is.

I've been reluctant to talk about this, as it's a tiny bit (= A LOT!!) embarrassing, not to mention really gross. I'm not a good public pooper and what's been coming out of me is far from normal, so I've been pretty much homebound. There are little things I get out to do, within range of my toilet =] Groceries and such. But longer excursions, yikes, they come at a risk. I've had to turn down so many fun events and visits because of it and it really sucks.

I was really, super-duper hoping GAPS would address this sooner rather than later, but it hasn't. If anything it might be worse.

So, I'm about to do something drastic. I'm weaning myself off coffee. Oh dear coffee, I love you so. It's a necessary evil. It'll get The Fiancé off my back, as I shouldn't be drinking it at all with Adrenal Fatigue and he loves to remind me of that daily, and it will answer the question lurking somewhere in the back of my mind... Is coffee part of my poopy problem?

The other thing is that I really should be recording when it happens. Don't panic, I'm not going to be describing anything here, I'm not that gross. Well, actually I am, but I'm still not going to post it. I mostly want to see the frequency and what days it happens on. I'm hoping to see a pattern emerge. Something that will clue me in to the inner workings of my weird brain and help me figure out why the heck this is happening. I'm ready for my life back, please.

So in the spirit of documenting my progress on GAPS...
(d) x 3

Comments:
Missed a few days of posting again, oops!
Hurt my back last week and couldn't sit comfortably to type. Then I got busy. Then I was a lil' bit hungover. The truth hurts.

Lots of fun stuff going on with our Milk Share. To make life easier for our new Agister, I've put our share back to "normal". This means we'll be messing up our reintroduction schedule and will have raw milk to "bathe in" this week. (I secretly can't wait!!!! I miss it soooooooooo much!!) I like kefir, but I don't want to "bathe in" 4 litres of it a week. I was intending to wait and bring raw milk back last. It's not even officially GAPS legal, being a more advanced "bath product". Whatcha gonna do? At this time I feel it's more important to support the cause, our Agister, and our herd, so we'll be "bathing in" raw milk before I'd planned. (secret YAHOO!!)

Besides, I'm confident we won't have any negative reactions to it. We've been "using" it for 3 years and had no problems with the dairy we've reintroduced so far. The Fiancé reacts instantly to pasteurized dairy. His nose runs, he sneezes, and he even gets asthmatic at times. Scary. He's A-OK on raw dairy.

Ontario raw milk farmer takes over Home on the Range cows

Full-Gaps Day 56 (Pre-Intro)

Breakfast:
-fresh peach
-coffee, with honey

Lunch:
-cantalope
-raw yogurt

Snacks:
-more cantalope
-more raw yogurt

Dinner:
-bison pepperoni (GAPS legal)
-raw carrot sticks
-Beef broth

Supplements:
-1 tsp Magnesium Citrate (Natural Calm) in the morning

Dairy:
Week 4 of dairy re-introduction: raw yogurt
Lovin' the yogurt! No negative reaction for me.

Energy Level:
Getting better.

Mood:
OK.

Brain Power:
OK.

Back pain:
None!

Foot pain:
Very mild in both feet.

Knee Pain:
None.

Heartburn:
None.

Day of cycle:
22

Last nights sleep:
Good! Lights were out at 11pm, I fell asleep right away, and I woke naturally at 7am.

Comments:
Yah. I'm not gonna get around to posting the missing days. I don't remember much from them anyway. 

The day of the wedding we brought crispy nuts, pepperoni, carrot sticks, dried fruit, and a homemade vinaigrette dressing.

I was able to eat the salmon they served for dinner, cooked carrots, and the plain raw veggies and fruits. Everything else was a no-go.

I was so buzzed from adrenaline high I barely ate anyway. By the time I got all the pictures done I was done. I drank enough red wine to kill my aches and pains, and then had a little more :-)

All that week I was running to the bathroom, anxiety induced downstairs digestive disturbances, and now this week I'm back at it. Grr.

I'm glad for the improvements I've experienced thus far, but I really can't wait for this diarrhea thing to be done and over. There are days I literally can't leave the house for fear of accidents. TMI?

The days following the wedding were very low energy. The kind of low where it feels like gravity has tripled and the simple act of lifting an arm feels impossible. My adrenals were fried from the stress/anxiety and I'm sure the truck-load of wine didn't help me out. Although it sure felt like a good idea at the time.

Full-Gaps Day 49 (Pre-Intro)

Breakfast:
-coffee, with honey
-Leftover Thai-ish Coleslaw with Crispy Walnuts

Lunch:
-Leftover Lemon Roast Chicken (specialty chicken) from Choices
-Leftover Thai-ish Coleslaw

Snacks:
-none

Dinner:
-Spicy Meatloaf
-Leftover Thai-ish Coleslaw 
-Steamed green beans with raw butter and meatloaf "juice" (yes, I siphoned off all the fatty goodness and spices that cooked out of the meatloaf and poured some on the beans)
-beef broth

Supplements:
-1 tsp Magnesium Citrate (Natural Calm) in the morning

Dairy:
Week 3 of dairy re-introduction: raw butter
No reaction for either of us that I can tell.

Energy Level:
Very low.

Mood:
Not great.

Brain Power:
Fuzzy.

Back pain:
Whole body aches and stiff neck from not sleeping. I feel like I have the flu.

Foot pain:
Very mild pain in both feet through the day.

Knee Pain:
A bit of pain in left knee when sitting or climbing stairs.

Heartburn:
None

Day of cycle:
15

Last nights sleep:
Horrid. Last night was nite 3 of no sleep. I was awake until 6:20am and then must have fallen asleep because I woke up just after 7am and remembered a dream.

Comments:
While lying in bed last night I realized that the not sleeping thing is anxiety. I'm going to a wedding this weekend. Not only attending, but shooting it. Not sure if I've mentioned I'm a photographer... yah, the blog with no pictures is written by a photographer. Ha ha on me.

I stopped doing weddings last year due to the stress I would feel when a job was approaching. I never realized it was anxiety at that point. I didn't know what the heck was wrong with me. I focused on portraiture and told myself I didn't like shooting weddings, they were too much work, blah blah blah. Except that when I first started out doing weddings I loved them. I loved the fast pace and the thrill you get from the pressure to not screw up. I loved meeting people and especially enjoyed bossing them around ;-p

The wedding I'm shooting this weekend is for a family member and I agreed to do it as a wedding gift. I had no idea that I was going to react this way. I will survive, but I expect to be wiped out for at least a week or two after it. My adrenals are freaking out. 

I think my anxiety is amped up due to being on GAPS as well. The dream I had this morning was about carrying our cooler into the wedding reception with all of our GAPS legal food in it. OK, when I woke up even I thought that was funny... and kind of a good idea.

I know I'll get it done and I'll do a good job, but my adrenals are going to be taxed. I plan to drink copious amounts of wine at the reception to help them rebuild. (yes, I'm joking... not about the wine though)