Focus on which?

In the past 2 days I've had a perfectly wonderful experience and a perfectly terrible experience.  I decided to start with the terrible one (although it happened after the wonderful one) because I want to leave you with the wonderful experience running through your brain after you leave my little spot in cyberspace.  I'm hoping that you'll focus on the wonderful one but the terrible one has it's lessons to learn from too.

I'm sure that by now you are aware that I am pondering switching to the GAPS diet.  I haven't read all the information that I have here yet, but I am convinced that this diet WILL heal not only my gut but everything else that remains to be healed.  Here is a video from the founder of the GAPS diet.  Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride used this diet to heal her son of autism solely through the process of healing his gut.  Please take a moment to listen to her thoughts on how the gut gets sick in the first place.



Now, I will say that I have been pretty convinced that this is the way that I want to go with my eating for the next 2 or 3 years until my gut heals.  I already have been avoiding grains/starches for the past month that I was preparing for and then implementing the Master Cleanse.  However, the other night I got home from Bismarck around 10:00 and I didn't have time to fix anything grain-less just then.  The guys just got home from the field and they were HUNGRY too!

 I put a pizza in the oven and thoroughly enjoyed the first wheat I'd had in over a month.  I had exactly one piece of pizza plus a forth of my second piece that I cut up and shared with the guys.  I know that most of you couldn't care less what I eat, but there are those out there who are pondering going on GAPS too so I share this experience for their sake. 

  In less than 8 hours I was so miserable that I could hardly get out of bed yesterday morning.  I ached as badly as the worst day of tractor driving will produce.  Worse still, was the depression that hung over me.  I couldn't care less that it was Preparation day with much to be done to prepare for Sabbath.  Poor Cora had to drag me out of bed at 9:30 and harp at me all day to keep me realizing that there was work to be done!

Now, in retrospect, here is the most interesting phenomenon which I observed while in the state of wheat intoxication.  When I looked in the mirror yesterday morning, my heart just sank.  I looked to myself as if I weighed in at 500 pounds.  When I weighed myself I had indeed gained 3 pounds over night.  However, my perception of my body was as though it had quadrupled from the ingestion of 1 and 1/2 slices of pizza.  This was after a couple of weeks of feeling quite pleased with the way my body was slimming down on the Master Cleanse.

There is no doubt in my mind, after this experience, that Dr. McBride IS right.  Having an unhealthy gut can deeply affect us not only physically but emotionally as well.  In fact here is a list of symptoms that can be caused by an unhealthy gut. 

These are the main physical symptoms of gut dysbiosis:Chrohns, colitis, diverticulitis, celiac disease, cystic fibrosis, chronic diarrhea, rheumatoid arthritis, eczema, non-anaphalactic allergies, asthma, gas, bloating, psoriasis, diarrhea, constipation, colic, reflux, vomiting, heartburn, dyspraxia, urinary and fecal incontinence, malnutrition, tummy pains, stool abnormalities, and symptoms of autism. 

Emotionally the body responds to grains negatively when having this condition in these ways: depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder; schizophrenia, attention deficit (with or without hyperactivity) disorder; anxiety, night wakings, behavioral problems, learning disabilities, feeding difficulties (including picky eating), and hyperactivity.

The main point to get here is that an imbalance of gut flora can cause any or all of the above.  The good news is that, by following the GAPS diet, countless people have had ALL of their symptoms disappear.

Once I could think a little again, I wondered something that you may also be wondering.  Now, I have eaten TONS of wheat all my life.  We Germans have wheat at LEAST 3 times a day.  In addition, most Germans that I know also have potatoes or rice with their meal which also can throw people off as starches may all be contributors to this unhealthy gut condition which affects so many of us.  Now, being I have eaten wheat all of my life, how could one and 1/4 pieces of pizza throw me into such agony, both physically and emotionally, as I suffered from all day yesterday?

I found the answer to that question in the GAPS GUIDE on page 57.  The question asked was, "Why after starting GAPS, do I react to foods that I didn't react to pre-GAPS? 

The answer was: "More than likely, you were reacting to them previously and just didn't notice.  While consuming our trigger foods regularly, our bodies typically display low-grade issues (headache, joint pain, sadness, fatigue...).  When we give the body a sufficient break from trigger foods, then reintroduce them, we often experience an INTENSE, obvious, acute reaction (migraine, rashes, depression...).  One has actually been reacting all along, but with chronic ingestion, the body is so pummeled it can't even get up the gumption to scream at you anymore."

The good news, then, about how rotten I was feeling yesterday is that I can see that my body IS now strong enough to scream at me, "Don't eat any more wheat/grains/starches until your gut is healed."  Believe me, I DID GET THE MESSAGE YESTERDAY!!!!!!!

My prayer, in sharing this with you, is to inspire you to check out the GAPS diet if you hear your story echoing in mine.  That's why I decided to share the series of videos that Dr. McBride has on You Tube for you to listen to.  If you don't want to wait that long to listen to them all, feel free to search them out for yourself.  GO FOR IT AND MORE POWER TO YOU!

Now for the wonderful story that I promised to leave you with.  I smile every time I think of how God brought me a new client this past Thursday.  I wasn't sure what to do when Denise didn't show up at 5:00; 5:15; or 5:30.  Being I had my nose in the GAPS GUIDE, I kept reading and waited another 15 minutes telling myself that I'd leave if she hadn't come by 6:00.

About a quarter to 6:00, a lovely middle aged woman came to the door and I let her in.  She apologized for being late stating that her new boss called a meeting that she could not get out of.  She had forgotten to write down my cell number and I had forgotten to write down hers, so we were even.

I liked Denise right away.  Getting into the session a little further, I realized that Denise is a lot like me in many ways.  I wasn't surprised, then, when she shared that she had a childhood very similar to mine. 

I was doing Reiki on her shoulder injury when it came out and I said, "I seem to draw women like you to me as it's not something that is intimidating to me to talk about."

Denise said, "I KNOW that I was drawn to you.  That door just wouldn't leave me alone."  With just a little prodding, Denise told me this story of God's leading in her life.

Being Denise works directly across the street from my office, when she leaves her parking lot she is looking right at my building.  I can't recall now how many days she said that her eyes were drawn to the door to my office building.  "Finally," she said, "I just knew that I HAD to go in there to check it out."

Denise told me how, one day after work, she excitedly entered the door that had been calling her (of course it was the Lord who had been telling her to go through that door).  Denise said, "I paused by the massage therapists door but did not feel that this was where the Lord was leading me."

I got excited as Denise described how she went up the steps to the upper level and was drawn to my door.  She said that her heart was beating with excitement knowing that she would get the help that she needed in that room.  Denise immediately wrote down my name and number; called me; and had her first session with me on Thursday.

I praised God then (and have every time that I think about it) for leading Denise to me that day?  Oh yes, and what were the results of our hour and a half spent together?  Denise summarized for me after the session was finished, "Well, my head feels more clear; my back hardly hurts at all; my shoulder hurts about a forth of what it's been hurting me for decades; and the lump in my throat seems to be about half the size it was when I came in here."  WOW!

BodyTalk + radionics sessions work miracles and I praise God for bringing them to me.  How I long for the whole world to experience this healing for themselves.  Now I know, though, that I don't have to do a thing and God Himself will bring folks to me at just the right time for them.  Say, do you think that makes Him my secretary? or perhaps my PR man?  One thing is sure, I'm glad that He has a sense of humor.  ;)

Happy Sabbath everyone.  I'm off to read more of the GAPS Guide and then on to the REAL manuscript on the topic: Gut and Psychology Syndrome by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride.  On the front cover there's a sign post with arrows pointing to dyspraxia, autism, A.D.D, dyslexia, A.D.H.D.,
depression, and schizophrenia.   To think that all of those very serious issues can be caused by what we're eating....

Here's to health at whatever the cost--even no more wheat!

Dawn