Welcome to GAPS

Intro

The GAPS lifestyle is so streamlined and easy once you learn. It’s like anything else, it seems overwhelming before you learn. But it takes the confusion out of health and wellness!

The protocol is 4 parts, as Monica Corrado explains. 

1. Removing harmful foods
2. Healing and sealing the gut
3. Repopulating the gut
4. Detox

You Need a Cookbook

Gratefully, we began GAPS with Becky Plotner, dormit in pace, and we still suggest her book with the caveat that you leave nuts alone until a tremendous amount of healing takes place. And don’t cook with honey; always use honey at room temperature, and rarely. Focus on the core foods only. Nuts, honey, and fruit should be treated as an occasional treat, and only after much healing has taken place. Additionally, most people need to use very little to no vegetables unless they are fermented. You can have more vegetables if you are buying from an organic farmer than if you are getting them from the grocery store. But even then, less is usually better for most people.

Campbell-McBride suggests using Monica Corrado’s book, and that is the book she wants us to learn with.

You will need a cookbook. You will need to know which foods must be tolerated before moving onto the next stage. We think it is good to do Intro before doing Full GAPS and doing Intro again after a year or two might be beneficial as well. Some of the exceptions are if you are pregnant, breastfeeding, have constipation or an autoimmune disease. However, Full GAPS is also good for those who haven’t been cooking and need time to learn (and also for big families 😄). We all do Intro at some point so there is no need t rush into anything; going too fast can make the protocol more difficult. Make the decision based on your needs and understanding. In time you will know if you need to do one of the variations of GAPS (No-Plant GAPS, GAPS Ketogenic Diet, More-Plants GAPS). You may even find the desire to do GAPS Liquid Fasting.

Core foods & Habits

We eat as much of these foods as our body asks for:

• meat stock¹
• organ meats
• egg yolks
• meat on the bone
• oily fish
• animal fats
• fermented raw dairy
• ground meat
• mineral salt
• fermented vegetables

Also helpful:

• fermented cod liver oil
• iodine

We detox with:

• proper baths
• sunshine
• bare feet on the ground
• enemas

We may make adjustment to these things temporarily due to individual tolerances, but over time they should all be introduced at some point.

Go Slow

Sometimes we introduce foods with a toothpick dipped into the food and then dipped into something we are already tolerating. And sometimes we introduce it on the skin first.

Use Monica Corrado’s stair-step method:

• Introduce
• Find amount tolerated
• Stay there for a few days
• Increase

We don’t rush through the protocol.

Resources

As far as getting access to good information goes, you would be wasting your time using Google. Use GAPS (GAPS Diet Group) only for opinions, and see if they line up with GAPS principles. There is a lot of misinformation on this group.

Watch the videos that Monica Corrado puts on YouTube. This is a good one to start with: If your stomach acid isn’t on point, you won’t be healing.

Only use trusted sources for information:

Read the blue and yellow book as you go. Reread them. 

Conclusion

You can DIY the protocol if you really learn all the information you can from good sources.  You can work with a coach or practitioner as well. If you get stuck, sometimes you need to meet with a coach or practitioner, and it may only take a few appointments. Do get help when needed from someone directly trained by Dr Campbell-McBride.

We understand that healing happens in layers. It’s like an onion, as NCM teaches. You may feel great for a while and suddenly have difficult or old symptoms arise. This is because the body has experienced enough healing to deal with these issues. It is always good news! Support the body and give it the rest that it needs, knowing you are experiencing healing.

Make sure you have your foods prepared, understand die off and detox and are ready to push through hard times. Unless you have a MASSIVE reaction, this is where a lot of  the healing lies: on the other side of tough times! You may need to back off, stand still for a bit, and support the body to move forward. Moving forward will look different at different times. Understanding die-off and detox is crucial!

Rescue Remedy by Bach Flower Remedies can be helpful. Homeopathy and herbs can be helpful. Supplements should be mostly avoided. 

If you are very overwhelmed and want to begin but feel very intimidated, begin with Full GAPS. If Full GAPS even seems too difficult, we have an article to help you implement GAPS without truly beginning for a year.

Good stuff.