ICYMI >>> I started my second round of GAPS last week.
Apart from the grandma-level bedtimes and lack of social life (if there are restaurants serving GAPS Intro-friendly food, I do not know of them), it’s going extremely well.
Energy took a dip the first week but it picked back up around day 4. Sleep is better than it has been in over 6 months. And I had my first 28-day cycle in over 2 years! (<<< seriously celebrating this one!) I can’t wait to see what further improvements I see as time goes on. 😀
(for more on why I’m doing GAPS and what improvements I saw on my first round, you can read last week’s articles about it here)
I’ve received such great feedback from many readers over on Instagram as I’ve shared my day-to-day food and a topic that keeps coming up is >>>
How to tailor GAPS to your body individually?
I am a firm believer that no healing protocol is a one-size-fits-all and that whatever WOE you’ve chosen comes with the privilege of listening to your body and learning what works and what doesn’t — then following that without any shame for deviating from the path another person has chosen.
I’m tailoring GAPS to fit my body by reintro-ing foods in the order I feel I’ll do best with them (based on doing GAPS previously and also years of Paleo), while still staying mostly within the guidelines recommended. I’m also adding a few foods earlier than recommended if I truly miss them and feel the program will be more sustainable for meif I have them back. To do this, I watch very closely to how my body reacts to foods. This means eating slowly and keeping close eye on how I feel for the hours (sometimes up to 24 hours) after eating.
When a food isn’t serving you, it can manifest itself in many different ways. No two people will have the exact same reactions to the exact same foods. A few of the symptoms I’ve noticed in myself and others are:
- increased heart rate
- warmth or flushing in your face, chest, or arms
- sudden appearance of rash or itchiness in small spots throughout your body
- fatigue (may hit within an hour of eating)
- joint pain – often reappearing in same joints
- significant bags under eyes despite sufficient sleep (indicates heavy, dailyexposure to food intolerances)
- nasal congestion (common with dairy intolerances)
(Of course, there are the more common symptoms of bloating, diarrhea, constipation, etc but I wanted to point out a few lesser-known ones here.)
You will hear me say over and over that elimination diets are so powerful because you learn so, so much about your body. Paying attention to how the foods you eat affect you physically has a huge payoff when it not only helps you heal but also gives you freedom to “break the rules” when doing a program like GAPS because you know exactly what helps you and what hurts you.
