It has been difficult, to say the least, to stick to GAPS while on vacation. I came, more than prepared, thankfully. However, I struggle with feeding the kids "the same 'ol same 'ol" when we're in a different place with different foods, tastes, sights -- experiences to be had! Every experience is a learning experience. Just yesterday we had dinner on a porch in front of a marina. My oldest asked questions about boats and the youngest would 'find' and point them out. Not something that would've been done sitting in the kitchen. True, we could have packed up and picnicked there . . .
The hardest part of sticking to the diet has been vacationing with non-GAPSters. Vacation food to me is not having to prepare anything from scratch (it's all made and frozen). Vacation food to non-GAPSters consists of chips, pretzels, candy, pizza, ice cream, etc. Even after 3 months of not eating it, seeing this stuff everyday -- I'm only human. I gave in. Now I'm in the trenches trying to pull myself back out. I liken the 'need' for caffiene, processed flour, sugar to the 'need' for drugs by a drug addict. You do it 'cause it feels good. It's really not about the taste.
Fortunately (trying to see the brighter side of things amidst my failure), the girls are still on the diet. The 'cheating' that they've been allowed has been mostly vegetables to which they have food sensitivities -- broccoli, tomatoes, cauliflower, green beans. This is because we have been going out to eat and most restaurants have limited vegetable options. I take what I can get.
My dear oldest daughter, the one with the worst of the allergies/sensitivities, LOVES all vegetables. A lot of kids would be glad to not have to eat broccoli or brussel sprouts. Mine cries for them! Even though she was 'so so happy' (her words) to once again enjoy these offenders, her little body wasn't quite ready for them. Surprisingly, her body did not react in it's usual way which would be an eczema flare up about 10 minutes after ingestion. Instead, red areas appeared on her face and have not disappeared. The area adjacent to under her eye is a little red and puffy. Her cheeks are also a bit spotty -- asymmetrically, no pattern. She doesn't seem to have purple circles under her eyes, which is a very usual symptom for her.
The other 'cheating' has to do with not going as slow as we should with adding foods -- mostly fruits. It hasn't been too bad, just not as 'slow and methodical' as I would have liked. Moved into GAPS Intro, Stage 6 without thinking!
My youngest daughter, who's now 18 months, has had an eczema flare up for about a week and a half now. No real change with it regardless of the new vegetables.
Both girls are having GAPS legal fruit. Bowel movements are just fine -- better than fine. I'm trying to have them have soup/stock at least once a day. I'm juicing about every other day.
Kids' menu today (I'll leave mine out till I get back on the wagon -- with head hung low!):
Carrot juice, diluted with added fermented cod liver oil
Scrambled eggs and sausage ala Daddy!
Pumpkin seed bread with ghee
Yogurt with cantalope
Frozen fruit smoothie from GAPS friendly restaurant
Asiago cheese
Little bit of yogurt
Salad with olive oil and lemon and salt
Sharp provelone cheese with roasted peppers
Broiled salmon with fresh fruit salsa (tomato free and very much a condiment)
Summer squash, zucchini, peppers, broccoli, broccoli rabe
I do need to pull the offending vegetables from my oldest's diet and give her body more healing time. I expect to do an integrated GAPS Intro/Full GAPS diet on our return home. Want to up the soups and stocks, get back into ginger tea meanwhile enjoying a bit of fruit, nut or seed breads, roasted meats, etc. Also smoothies with raw egg.
I'm needing to incorporate more of the healing foods.
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