Oh hello there. You’ve found some very old content. Please read the disclaimer on this page before thinking I’m still a total sheep who has been sucked into a bone-broth worshipping fad diet. Been there, learned from that and am now a much less rigid human.
Well sweet friends, those of you that have been reading this blog for a while may remember how In late January last year I began my GAPS healing and what a learning curve it has been!
I began the protocol at a time where I wasn’t actually doing all that badly on the health front. My liver function tests were in the healthy range, I was fit, thriving and loving life (no mental health issues).
However …
I was still taking immune suppressants and my doctors weren’t all that eager to ween me off of my current dosage. I was 18 years old and thought “I don’t want this to be my ‘normal’ … I want to be medication-free!” (immune supressents aren’t exactly sugar pills after all!).
My digestion was also suboptimal. Goodness help me if I nibbled on berries or grapes. Ouchies. Cramps! I was okay if I stuck to a very limited diet, and I was happy to, if that’s what it took to feel great, but I kind of wanted a little bit more (whole food-based) leeway.
I remember GAPS coming up on my radar several times towards the end of 2014 and I was intrigued by this idea of reversing chronic disease (for good – rather than a strict band-aid approach) with nutrient-dense foods and low-chemical living.
So, on Australia Day 2015, I bid goodbye to my beloved green smoothies and groovy Kombucha tea and swapped them for mugs of pumpkin soup and sauerkraut with cauliflower mash.
I honestly thought that I’d spend 6 or so weeks on intro and then cruise into a pretty varied full GAPS eating plan for the next 18 months or so (the rule of thumb is one month on GAPS for each year you’ve been sick, and I figured, “well I was a C-section baby so lets do one month per year of life, just to be safe”). LOL! What an idealist I was. Turns out I had more healing to do that I’d previously thought.
Now that I’m transitioning off GAPS and introducing a few starchier options and thriving on the increased variety, I thought it would be fun to ponder the GAPS highs (successes), lows (frustrations) and lessons (a-ha moments) from the past 20 months.
GAPS – The ‘Highs”
1. Coming off my medication – I honestly think I was well enough to come off before GAPS, but this gave me the sense of security I needed to stand up to my doctor (as he was quite happy for me to just stay on a low dose for the rest of my life).
I wasn’t naive and didn’t want to come off my medication if my gut was still permeable and the risk of autoimmunity was still there.
However, after almost a year on GAPS (including 7 months on intro) I figured I was probably well enough to put the challenge out there. My doctor wasn’t thrilled with my idea, but to his credit, he admitted that it was my choice because it was my body.
It’s been about a year since I stopped suppressing my immune system with azathioprine and my liver function tests are still healthy. Considering that at fourteen years of age I was sitting in my doctors office with him debating flying me to Melbourne for a transplant, this is the stuff of (gut-healing) miracles!
2. Glorious Poos – Having a highly congested liver, coupled with long-term steroids and immune suppressants, was a recipe for sluggish and toxic bowels that sometimes alternated and became loose and urgent (yes, I did shite myself in public more than once #justsayin).
They say its the simple things in life that make us the most happy and to that I reply “a-freakin-mean”.
I no longer live in fear of “not going” or alternatively, being in public and finding myself no where near a bathroom.
Cheers GAPS – the combination of intro, full GAPS and now the transition back to safe starches have all come together to give me what too many people take for granted. To my beautiful readers with robust, regular pipes … please BE GRATEFUL FOR THEM!
3. Healing my Candida Overgrowth – I had a chronic candida overgrowth (the reason I was so sensitive to sugar pre-GAPS) that had gone under the radar or been put down to something else such as gluten, dairy, FODMAPS, stress or my changeable bowel habits.
It wasn’t until I was on holidays in Queensland last July and relying quite heavily on cashew cheese in meals and snacks (this is what happens when your Air BnB unit has a smelly, untidy kitchen that repulses you) that the candida reared its ugly head for the first time in 6 months (stage 1-4 of intro was too low in starch, sugar and yeast-susceptible foods and thus my symptoms had been band-aided).
It took me a while to figure out what was wrong (I thought I’d just picked up a bug on the plane or something) and so, finally, in November I began a very low starch/sugar version of GAPS to starve the fungi. It was restrictive, brutal and induced a short-term detox, but by April 2016, I was finally okay to start eating fruit, drinking coconut water and loading up on my beloved butternut pumpkin once again. Vibes.
4. My mental health staying intact, despite some stressful health challenges – I’ve struggled with a rollercoaster of depression, anxiety and panic attacks since I was 11, going away when life got happier, coming back when challenges arose.
Well, GAPS and gut healing must have helped keep me sane this year because gallstone attacks (and I’ve had at least 14 this year) are enough to drive anyone to depression. Being able to maintain a Pollyanna approach most of the time, keep my job and still pass all my uni subjects is something that I attribute to the nutrient-dense foods that supplied my brain with the nutrition to stay cool, calm and collected.
GAPS – The ‘Lows’
1. Candida – It was so disappointing to go 6 months with regular bowel movements, no stomach cramps, little flatulence, no brain fog or fatigue and a comfy tummy, to all of a sudden become constipated, bloated, smelly, vague and forgetful.
Having to take a pretty extreme eating protocol to an even more restrictive level was tough mentally and made me really question what I was doing. However, like I said above, if it weren’t for GAPS I may have stayed with my band-aid approach forever and never gotten my gut back into balance. Plus, I have a very promising future in using nutrition to treat patient’s presenting with systemic fungal infections.
2. Gall Stones – you may remember how unwell I got after my liver biopsy in January (the one where I found out that my liver was in remission). And then in June I realised that the pain, sleepless nights and vomiting episodes that never went away after the surgery were gall stone attacks.
I don’t know 100% what happened – did the anaesthetic somehow block bile flow? Did the surgeon accidentally hit my bile duct? Did my liver get irritated and my gallbladder took the burden? Did I bleed into my bile duct? I don’t know! All I know is that in November 2015 an ultrasound showed a text-book perfect (no stones, no sludge, no inflammation) gallbladder and after the surgery … stones EVERYWHERE!
I am currently doing everything I can to avoid gallbladder removal and there are some hopeful signs that the stones are dissolving. However this delightful process is causing cramping, flatulence and bloating. There are days where even though my gut ecology is balanced and my gut lining is sealed, I still feel ‘blah’.
However, and I say this touching all the wood, now that I’m transitioning off GAPS and introducing some plantains and sweet spuds, my tummy troubles have reduced, despite the fact that to the best of my knowledge, the stones are still in the process of leaving me.
And on the bright-side, I’m now less reliant on broths, meats and animal fats which means my diet is cheaper, quicker and higher in fibre, which my bowels just luuurrrrvvveee – see high #2.
The ‘Learnings’
1. To be careful how I phrase things in interviews and blog posts – When I went low-carb to get rid of candida, I was overwhelmed (and flattered) by the number of people that contacted me asking for advice;
“should I stop eating carrots?”
“do I need to do coffee enemas?”
“what colour should my pee sticks be?”
I was humbled that strangers trusted me to give advice, however it freaked me out. There are times where I question whether I really needed to be so extreme in my approach and worry whether in others, it do more harm than good?
I have learned to put disclaimers on blog posts and be more measured in what I say on podcasts, so that you lovely readers/listeners don’t think that what I’m saying is ‘generalised’ or ‘one-size-fits-all’.
Even the way I talk about GAPS now is positive, but cautious. If I’ve learned anything its that when we are sick or in pain we get desperate. We want a solution and we want it now. If we’ve been to several practitioners and none of them have been able to help, we will most-likely reach out to a blogger, podcaster or online support group (no judgement … totes been there) for answers.
However, we are all so unique and as much as I wish to empower you with knowledge, and point you in the direction of further research, I never want my words to be seen as ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. They are just my experiences, wins and misadventures. If they can help you or give you a missing piece to your health crisis puzzle, then snaps – that’s the intention. There is no one diet cures all – despite what I may have believed 20 months ago. Blame the teenage hormones.
2. One size DOES NOT fit all – following on from that last one, this has probably been my biggest lesson on my (for lack of a better word) health “journey”. Can someone please create a new word for journey, cheers.
My diet has changed direction many times throughout GAPS as my body has gone though different stages.
There have been times where bone marrow was the only thing that could satisfy me and days where bone marrow made me want to gag.
Times where I wanted to put avocado on everything (even avocado on avocado) and times where avocado brought on a gallstone attack (haven’t touched it since … “dear gallstones … please stop putting me off my favourite foods …”).
Times where I looked forward to “desserts” of animal connective tissue with salt (am I even human?) and then weeks on end where I couldn’t handle even the idea of animal products.
This has really evolved my psychology.
I no longer think ‘Oh fats are amazing … eat ALL the coconut oil” or “Oh dear LAAWWWDDD what if sweet spud brings the candida back?”.
I have learned the art of taking each day at a time and really listening to my body. Some days my body will respond super well to starches and electrolyte-rich coconut water, other days I’ll find coconut water “too sweet” and crave a more savoury option of broccoli coconut rice and steamed salmon.
And not to bring up poop again (but to bring up poop again because lets be honest I am Rachel Favilla and my headstone will probably read ‘here lies Rachel … she loved a good turd’), I find that the more varied my diet is and the more regularly I include tubers (plantains and sweet spuds), the more satisfying my morning dump is. Aces, right?
So, those are some of my reflections from my rocky but worth-while GAPS journey. I may write a little more in the future (no doubt after I hit that post button I’ll think of another 20 or so other things I could’ve mentioned) but for now, I’ll leave you with some of my most popular recipes (that funnily enough all fall in the baked goods category) which may not be here for us all to enjoy if it weren’t for my GAPS experience …
Let’s be honest. Sometimes we just want something to slap avo smash on (#3), or at the very least, we want the nutrient density of eggs and good fats, but in a more creative vehicle (#2). And who doesn’t love a buttery muffin (#1) waiting for them after (yet another) serving of soup?