Week One on the GAPS diet!

We decided to change our family diet due to some toddler food aversions. Read more here about our picky eater. I though it would be interesting to document everything that my family ate this week. Below is a complete list. We didn't eat out at all this week. Dane stopped for lunch on his own and picked up some Kombucha, chocolate bars, and beef jerky listed at the end of this list. Dane and I also drink coffee daily (not listed). 

The cranky two-and-a-half year old picky eater did a complete 180 this week. He did not receive anything sweet, except for some raspberries mixed in plain yogurt and a few dehydrated banana chips. He ate almost every meal without a fuss!! Even our two caregivers cooperated with our requests to eliminate sweet foods. He is still a toddler, and of coarse we had several tantrums throughout the week, but most of them were not related to food. It feels really good to have a toddler who is cooperating at meal time!

Everything we ate this week

• 5 lbs. onions
• 2 lbs. butter
• 2 gallons chicken broth
• 3 whole chickens
• 4 lbs. carrots
• 2 lb. celery
• 4 cups of oatmeal
• 1 lb. mozzerella cheese
• 1 jar marinera sauce
• 1 spelt pizza crust
• 1 pork shoulder
• 2 cups of rice
• 6 Gallons raw milk
• 24 ounces plain whole milk yogurt
• 10 ounces organic raspberries
• 1 loaf ezekiel bread
• 1/2 loaf Ezekiel raison bread
• 18 eggs
• 1/4 lb. cheddar cheese
• 1/4 lb. asiago cheese
• 12 ounces almond butter
• 8 bananas dehydrated
• 2 lb. pecans, soaked and dehydrated
• 8 North Mountain Pastures beef sticks
• 6 fig bars
• 4 clementines (not GAPS approved)
• Dane (2 kombucha)
• 2 pieces grass fed jerky
• 2 Endangered Species dark chocolate bars
• 2 cups chocolate chips (mostly Dane)
• Earth Fed Muscle Protein shakes (tough to count how many)
• 2 dozen GF home-made cookies (definitely not GAPS approved)

What did meals look like?

We ate some version of chicken soup for dinner on most nights. I made a pizza one night which is not a perfect version of the GAPS diet, but it was consumed along with some chicken broth and veggies. Snacks and lunch consisted of bread and butter, milk, beef sticks, carrots, almond butter, yogurt and pecans. This was a surprisingly easy transition for the kids. Breakfast was eggs, oatmeal with butter and a few frozen raspberries, or plain yogurt with cinnamon.

Here is how we failed

My mother-in-law makes really good cookies, and somehow two dozen of them ended up at our house. Sanderson didn't know they were there, and it was easy to eat them when he wasn't looking, but the rest of the family (including Lincoln) had a few. We also ate some chocolate chips after the kids went to bed, and Lincoln had a few in his school lunch mixed with some pecans.

How things changed...

There were a few things that changed in our bodies and our behaviors in order to make this work. I needed to plan ahead with cut veggies to snack on and meals were not so frantically last minute. This was a really good habit to get back to, and continuing to stay more organized with food prep will definitely be the key to keeping my family eating healthy. Our picky eater seems to be coming around. He is spending more time at the table eating, and less time complaining. He still tries to dictate what is coming at meal time, but he is increasingly more cooperative when he receives something different than he requested.

Stay tuned for the next blog discussion on one huge change that we were not expecting!!