Saturday marked the end of my eighteenth month on the GAPS diet. I can’t believe I’ve been on GAPS for a year and a half. In some ways it feels a lot longer than that, but in other ways I still sometimes feel like a beginner.
I’ve been somewhat reluctant to write this post because I feel like my healing on GAPS has sort of stalled in the past couple of months. I realized that it’s just as important to share the challenging parts of the protocol as the happy healing parts, though, so here goes.
Acne
I wrote in my 15 months on GAPS post that GAPS dramatically improved my acne to the point that I was only dealing with a handful of breakouts a time. A couple weeks later, however, my skin started breaking out a bit more and has remained more broken-out ever since. I’m still pleased with the overall improvement, as my skin is still amazingly better than it was pre-GAPS, but I admit I’m disappointed that it’s worsened lately instead of constantly improving.
I’m not really sure what’s causing the recent decline in my skin. I think that it may be largely hormonal, as I definitely notice fluctuations throughout my cycle. I also mostly break out on my chin and around my mouth, which I have read is usually due to hormonal issues. (Although I don’t really know how true this is – anyone else heard the same?) I know I have some hormonal issues, as I still get painful cramps during my period. I bought some supplements to help my hormones, but I haven’t yet gotten into the habit of taking them regularly. (Isn’t that always the hardest part?)
In the meantime I’m pursuing a couple of topical methods to see if they help at all with the breakouts. I’m still determined to solve the root cause of my acne, but dealing with a lot of breakouts really hurts my self-confidence so I’d be happy to find some natural, non-toxic topical treatment that could help in the short-term.
Digestion
My digestion has also not been as good as is normal for me on GAPS. It’s still a lot better than it used to be, but it just doesn’t feel as settled all the time. This did seem to get better after I omitted eggs, however, so possibly that’s just been affecting me for a while and things will be better now.
I am disappointed about the egg thing, though, as I mentioned before. I feel like I should be able to eat more foods, not less, as time goes on. I think I will try a little bit of egg yolk soon, to see if that might go better than the whole egg.
Energy
I think my energy is improving. I’m still not what I would call energetic, but I seem to have a lot fewer days where I feel exhausted. This is interesting, considering that my other two main issues seem worse lately. I wonder how to explain that.
Sticking with the Program
I think part of the reason I’m experiencing some setbacks may be because I haven’t been implementing all aspects of the GAPS program. I adhere to the food lists, of course, but more recently I haven’t been good about getting in enough fats and eating my fermented vegetables with every meal. For a while I was doing really well with taking regular detox baths, but I’ve also lapsed in that department lately.
I want to get back on track. I think incorporating all of the aspects of the program gives your body additional tools to heal so I’m probably shortchanging myself by slacking off. I’m actually on a break from my child care job for the next couple of weeks so I think this will be a good chance to try to reincorporate some of those habits I’ve been skipping lately. Wish me luck!
This post is part of Fat Tuesday, Real Food Wednesday and Fight Back Friday.
How is your GAPS journey going?
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