GAPS Full Diet

View from the upstairs loft in a log cabin we looked at while visiting my sister. It's a model home for a company we've had our eye on for years. Since it wasn't far from my sister, we went for a little drive to check it out.

Read why we're doing GAPS here.
Read about our GAPS Intro Week 1 here.
Read about our GAPS Intro Week 2 here.
Read about our GAPS Intro Week 3 here.
Read about our GAPS Intro Week 4 here.

Read about our GAPS Intro Week 5 here.
Read about our GAPS Intro Week 6 here.

I should have posted this before Christmas, but that obviously didn't happen, so I'll ramble on about our food for the last month.

Since completing 6 weeks of GAPS Intro, I have to say that I'm not really sure that the Intro phase was necessary for us. Our diet was already pretty close to it, and just adding broth and probiotics probably would have been enough for us.

On the other hand, we are eating a lot more veggies, which is good, and I've gotten over my aversion to veggies for breakfast (my old excuse for still eating GF rice crispies for breakfast).

We didn't do a whole lot with food our first week off the Intro phase. We finished up that first week of full GAPS just before we headed to my sister's house for Christmas, and I didn't want to worry too much about adding anything new in right then. We did cheat a bit while on that trip- partly to see how we'd react (mostly better than we have in the past) and partly because I just wasn't ready to figure out how to eat GAPS legal food while driving in the middle of winter (suggestions anyone?).

After returning from my sister's we went back to our full GAPS diet for a week or so before heading to Disney. While we were at Disney we did some more cheating, but I really don't see how it's possible to eat GAPS-legal food without a kitchen. Or at least a hotplate/camp stove. If we hadn't been on a tight schedule, we would have driven the trailer to Florida and stayed at the Disney Fort Wilderness Campground. That is why we bought the trailer, after all: so we'd be able to prepare our food when we traveled.

It was encouraging to note that while we reacted to some of the foods we ate (dairy, potatoes, and corn were the biggest offenders), the reactions were not as severe as they have been in the past. In addition, I didn't get glutened, despite multiple opportunities. Part of me hopes that my system is already less sensitive to gluten, and maybe I was exposed to it but I didn't react because of the healing that has taken place. At this point, it's hard to know for sure without going and eating something with gluten in it, but I'm not willing to do that.

We're now back on our version of full GAPS, with no trips planned for the next few months, and we're committed for the long haul. We haven't been able to add back in any of our problem foods, but we'll try them again in awhile, and one of these days our bodies will have healed enough to add things like nuts and dairy back into our diet. Looking forward to that day....

GAPS Intro Week 6

LMS during her Irish music class recital back in December

Read why we're doing GAPS here.
Read about our GAPS Intro Week 1 here.
Read about our GAPS Intro Week 2 here.
Read about our GAPS Intro Week 3 here.
Read about our GAPS Intro Week 4 here.

Read about our GAPS Intro Week 5 here.

So, we finished Week 6 more than a month ago, but with Christmas travels and our Disney trip I didn't get this written and posted.

I'm trying to remember what exactly we added the 6th week: I think it was just fruit- apples and oranges.

We could have added in ghee and cultured dairy products, but I'm holding off a while longer before we add them in. I also held off on the beans (there's a few beans that are GAPS legal) that we could have added in.

We didn't do a lot of juicing- I don't really love the flavor, and the sugar content is a bit high for me. I've realized I react to fruit sugars more strongly than I react to some other sugars, which I find interesting. Given how much fruit LMS has consumed, I'm thinking she reacts in a similar way, unfortunately. It triggers the urge to keep eating and a sense of being hungry, even when we've already eaten a good size meal.

I also spent some time experimenting with cooking down and dehydrating broth to take with us on our Disney trip. 

GAPS/Gluten Free Disney World & Universal Studios Trip

we saw lots of princesses and other characters, but LMS only got a pic with Ariel- she had a really short line because it was the end of her shift

We finished the 6 phases of the GAPS Intro Diet back before Christmas (I still need to finish that post), but since we went to my sister’s house for Christmas, I took advantage of that time to do some judicious cheating. I knew our Disney trip was coming up and I wanted to gauge how we would react to eating non-GAPS approved foods. We still reacted, but it wasn’t as bad as it used to be, which shows that we have made progress- YAY!

Since we wouldn't have access to a kitchen, we couldn't just cook all our meals. I thought about our options and made a plan. GAPS foods for breakfast, gluten free park food for lunch, miscellaneous gluten free restaurants for dinner.

Breakfast

I cooked down and dehydrated 10 quarts of chicken broth (following directions I found here) to make homemade chicken bouillon that we could take with us. I prepared butternut squash, divided it into baggies, and froze it. I blanched some broccoli, lightly sautéed some zucchini and summer squash, then froze baggies of them and some green peas. I also chopped up and divided some roast chicken.

For breakfast, I walked up two flights of stairs to the nearest microwave, where I heated up some squash, some chicken, and some veg, and made some broth using the bouillon. Not ideal, and I could have sworn there was an in-room microwave, but it all worked out.

The last two nights we were in a different hotel (more on that in another post), and there was no microwave available.  We ended up using a one cup coffee maker to make cups of broth, and ate fruit for breakfast. The coffee maker worked surprisingly well, especially compared to microwaving it.

The dried broth turned out great, though I didn't double check the instructions before starting to cook it down. I should have scooped all the fat off, but only remembered after the fact. I kept the bouillon in the fridge just to make sure it didn't go rancid, and it was fine.

The zucchini and summer squash ended up kind of soggy when reheated, so I think I'll stick with broccoli and peas in the future.

We didn't end up eating all the food we brought, but I'd rather have too much than too little.

Lunch

For lunches we ate at counter service restaurants in the parks. I tracked down the updated gluten free lists beforehand, which was helpful. Unfortunately, they made some changes in the last year, and they don’t have dedicated fryers for gluten free fries anymore L They’ll bake them for you, but they take forever, and everyone else’s food is getting cold and the little one is getting impatient….

Monday we ate at Pizzafari in the Animal Kingdom. LMS and I ordered the gluten free pizza. I don't remember the brand, maybe OMG It's Gluten Free? Whatever brand, it was disgusting. The pizzas were very small and tasted like pasty cardboard. Gross! They came with caesar salads minus the croutons and dressing, but we didn't eat them- I found multiple bread crumbs in the salads. I don't think they picked croutons off, I think the cheese or lettuce bin was contaminated with bread crumbs. Not worth the hassle to get them replaced, so we gave them to the guys. Our meals cost the same as the guys' pizzas and salads, despite the drastic difference in amount of food, and were grossly overpriced.

Tuesday we ate at Liberty Inn in Epcot. LMS and I ordered gluten free hamburgers and grapes for her and an OMG It's Gluten Free brownie for me. The wait was long, but the food tasted pretty good, though I had to save my brownie for later since it was still frozen. It tasted pretty good once it defrosted.

Wednesday we ate at Fairfax Fare in Hollywood Studios. LMS got a kids meal turkey sandwich, applesauce, and Enjoy Life gluten free chocolate chip cookies. They used a gluten free bun for the sandwich, but it was still frozen and very stale. Yuck. I ordered a half rack of ribs with slaw and baked beans. They weren't on the gluten free list because of the potential for cross-contamination, but I decided to risk it. The flavor of the sauce was good, but the cut of meat was substandard- very gristly and not at all fall-off-the-bone tender. I didn't get glutened, so I was happy.

Thursday morning we picked up our race packets, and weren’t actually in one of the parks yet, so we went to 5 Guys for burgers and fries.

Friday we went to Islands of Adventure at Universal Studios, but I hadn’t been able to find any gluten free info ahead of time, and nothing looked promising while we were there. So we made do with some snacks (Butterbeer is quite tasty!) and ate a late lunch/early dinner at PF Changs. I’ve heard good things about PF Changs in general, as well as their gluten free options. I’ve never eaten there because we don’t have one nearby, so when I found one in the Orlando area, we decided to give it a try. It was quite yummy, and a nice change from our other dinner choices.

Dinner

We ate at Outback one night- we’ve always had good luck with their gluten free menu, though it does get pricey. We also ate at Chili’s several times, but that started getting old. We ate at 5 Guys a couple times, and we did Chipotle for lunch Saturday after the races.

End result
13 meals not prepared by me, but no gluten! Unlike last year, when I got glutened two days in a row. Whether this was because there was truly no contamination or because my intestines have made progress, I don’t know, but I’m not complaining. While LMS and I did react a bit to what we ate (dairy, rice, and potatoes were the major offenders we ate), it was a lot less pronounced than I was afraid it was going to be.

Overall, our experience eating gluten free at Disney World was quite a let down after last year, when we had a much better experience. I know suppliers and options available are always changing, but having a wider variety of options that taste good would be nice.

I’m really glad I brought the broth. Before we left, we were getting sick, so I did some research and found a suggestion here to add kudzu root starch to our broth to help us get over our colds quicker. I actually had a bag of kudzu root starch in the cupboard, so I added it to our broth all week. I really think it helped LMS recover quickly and shortened my symptoms. Though running a half marathon and fighting a cold was a bit too much for my body to handle at the same time, so I did relapse a bit.