Are you thinking about doing GAPS intro or working your way through it now? I created a quick reference guide infographic that lays out the GAPS intro stages and includes some important notes. …
GAPS intro
Detox Baths: Recipes to Calm the Inner Beast and Whiny Children
Photo Credit: Dennis Wong
This week, we’re talking about detox baths. Lovely, healing, make-you-feel-human-again detox baths. As a holistic practitioner, I heavily recommend them for a gentle method of pulling toxins out of the skin when the detoxification system is compromised.
Don’t forget to read the first post on Baby Step # 2 |Detox Baths| if you missed it.
There are a wide variety of healing agents like herbs, salts, essential oils, and even foods that can be added to a bath to make it another healing tool in your toolbox. Let’s focus on some that provide a gentle detox, are allergen-free, and use ingredients that can do double duty in other areas of your home.
Method
Tub
- Drink 12-16 ounces of water during the hour before to be sure you’re hydrated.
- Fill tub with very warm water (no more than body temperature for children). ‘Very warm’ should be comfortable. Let’s say a happy medium between room temperature and scalding that makes you say Ahhhh when you sink down into it. …
What Is a Rotation Diet? {Part 1}
Eat a wider variety of natural, unprocessed foods while allowing your body to heal.
You have seen meal plans and heard the words ‘rotation diet’ thrown around here at 20 something allergies for quite awhile now. Are you still a bit unclear on what it is or the benefits to them? Let us help!
The basic premise of a rotation diet is to rotate foods in such a way that you do not eat the same food more than once within a 4 day period. A “day” is a 24 hour period and not just Monday to Tuesday, because you need at least 96 hours before consuming that food again. If you eat an apple on Saturday afternoon at 1:00, you would wait until at least Wednesday afternoon at 1:00 to have any other food that contains apple.
An allergy rotation diet takes it a step further and groups foods into plant families. …
Bedtime Yoga Routine for Amazing Sleep
A good night sleep is essential to a well-grounded productive day. It resets your body processes and restores body and mind. Practicing a short – or extended – yoga routine specifically designed to relax your nervous system and calm your energies is the perfect way to transition out of the rush and exhaustion of the day and into a restorative sleep. …
GAPS Re-Intro Day 7, Stage 1 to 6 or Somewhere In Between
I have to say today was not our best day. I started with low blood sugar. I didn’t eat enough fat, since I don’t have a stockpile of various fats to rotate yet and can’t have chicken schmaltz too often. I wish my ducks would hurry and thaw! Then, detox settled in and I was cranky as could be. Hubby was headachey, had joint and lower back pain, felt sick, and was also cranky. Then we have little miss Katie who is reacting to an allergen. Of course I overdid it and gave her a few new things in quick succession – the new digestive enzyme, onion, honey, and coconut cream -. Nice job mom. :eye roll: Her symptoms have been hiccups, frustration with the world, and yelling…very, very unlike her. Hubby felt much better after finally taking a Redmond Clay detox bath (1/2 cup in full tub of water). Katie felt better after a beet kvass bath (1/4 cup in full tub of water) but still had the previously mentioned symptoms. I just took a little time to myself to rest and read as I was too tired for a bath by the time I could take one. I’ll take my bath tomorrow while Katie’s at preschool. I started freaking out about my food options, and Katie was pretty miserable too, so we dove back into some raw food. After stuffing ourselves with some treats, I felt quite a bit better. I had quite dark under eye circles and Katie’s were darkening also as the day went on. Once we ate some raw food, they have almost disappeared. We have had big issues with the lack of raw food each time we have tried intro. I feel like I’m failing if I can’t go through intro as described, but I have to listen to my instincts and our bodies’ reactions over the protocol laid out in a book. Luckily, Dr. Natasha agrees. Katie’s bellyaches are few and far between already (SUPER YAY!!!!), but we still have much healing to do and hubby is just starting his journey. I need to find a path close to intro that we can stick with and works well for us.
Overall, I can definitely tell we’re all healing and improving well enough for me to be satisfied with the progress. My favorite thing about today is that Katie and I learned we LOVE goji berries! With her severe vitamin C deficiency, I’m happy we have rose hips, acerola cherry powder, and goji berries to rotate through now. Once she can digest raw veggies well, they’ll factor more into the equation too. I may juice occasionally, but that’s mostly on the back burner right now until i get the urge to.
Here’s my new game plan:
- Full GAPS but an allowance for small cheats up to twice a month if desperately needed
- GAPS intro soup for at least one to two meals daily
- One baked/sauteed meal per day
- Raw foods kept to two servings a day at most (may need to be reevaluated and Katie may only be able to have one)
- Stick to the rotation diet and repeat foods no more than twice a week (this is too new of a feature in our diet, so I’m leaving wiggle room here during the learning curve)
Today’s soups:
- Hamburger, carrot, S.O.L.E. onion, and turnip in bison broth; tomato paste added to mine [the acid in the tomatoes was a much welcome addition to cut the well-cooked foods]
- Bison roast, rutabaga, and fresh spinach in bison broth
Today’s foods: crockpotted bison chuck roasts with carrots, acerola cherry and elderberry juice, raw honey (Katie), raw honey and coconut oil (me), leftover broccoli soup with one raw garlic clove and freshly-cracked black pepper (hubby), rice congee, raw goji berries, soaked and deydrated raw pecans, and coconut cream.