As for a lot of people, I discovered the GAPS diet when I was at my wits end. My son had been suffering from eczema for a long time. We had tried lotions and potions, doctor referrals, food elimination, changing washing powder and every cream I could get my hands on.
NOTHING WORKED
It was a serendipitous encounter that opened my eyes to the GAPS protocol. A lucky scroll (more like the Instagram algorithm) and I had stumbled upon information about the GAPS diet. Desperate for anything, but not holding out any hope, I immediately ordered Dr. Natasha’s blue book. I googled everything, obsessively searched on instagram for stories similar to my own.
To begin with, I was overwhelmed: so many things to process. Some parts of the protocol were ok – some things I already had in place, such as proper pans for cooking, filtering my water, sourcing good, wholesome food.
I learnt a lot. Things that I had mistakenly regarded as healthy actually were not. Luckily I love cooking and was already used to cooking from scratch for my family. I just needed to teach myself to cook differently. Cooking for GAPS isn’t difficult; the foods are nourishing and use traditional cooking methods. However, they do require planning and perseverance in the early days. There is nothing more disappointing than meat stock that hasn’t gellified!
Anyway, I began to incorporate meat stock into my son’s diet and religiously stuck to the introduction diet. Whadda y’know… things began to change.
He stopped scratching his skin.
He stopped wetting the bed.
He lost the dark circles under his eyes.
He was able to bend his legs when he walked (peak eczema resulted in the backs of his legs being a giant scab and every time he walked the skin would break).
His hair grew and wasn’t patchy.
He became more confident.
He started to properly live.
The GAPS protocol is not an overnight success. It is a marathon that requires dedication and trust to complete. As with anything that is worth doing, the hardest part is starting. Almost immediately changes are present. This spurred me to keep going. And encouraged my son to trust we were doing the right thing.
After I had been following the introduction diet for around a year I wanted to learn more. I was obsessed with the GAPS diet and wanted to share this dynamic information with everyone. The opportunity to do the certified GAPS coaching arose and I jumped at the chance.
The training is life changing. There is so much information packed into the fifteen week course I’m sure my brain grew. Hearing how others found and implemented the GAPS diet and the successes they’ve had is awe inspiring.