Laziness? Or a Change in Priority?

A few weeks ago we talked about consistency being the secret sauce. And that is very true, it is. But I have found that it is incredibly difficult to be consistent in things that I don’t really believe are important. And I think this goes beyond a mental game. To be on the GAPS protocol, or to follow any health choices that are contrary to the mainstream, you have to have a strong mental game. I think all of you show a tremendous amount of will power; I’m not worried about your mental game! Could it be something else?

Consistency... It's the Secret Sauce

On my own health journey, I have found that I will keep a habit consistently (like a detox bath every single day for over a year) and then, all of a sudden, stop doing it. I don’t make a conscious choice, I just start forgetting to do it. Has that ever happened to you? Why do you think it happens? Did you (like most people) beat yourself up for being lazy or undisciplined?

I used to do that as well! But now I have a new theory! I think that it’s more than just getting “thrown off” by a change in routine, or losing our mental “game.” I think that often we stop certain things because that habit has ceased to be a priority. Our body (“innate intelligence”, “subconscious”, or “body-partner”) stops pushing for that behavior because something else has become a priority.

Let’s use the example of a detox bath, because it has made this idea most clear to me. Although I am a fairly disciplined person in general, there was another reason why I took a detox bath every night. Namely, if I didn’t, I would get a migraine the next day. Almost guaranteed. So of course I prioritized taking a detox bath. But, when I stopped taking them every night, the migraines didn’t come! My body was better able to handle detoxing, and no longer had to rely so strongly on the assistance of detox baths, so it “stopped being a habit.” Now I would say that I stopped taking a detox bath every night because I no longer needed to take one every night. There were other things that my body knew was more important to do with my time and energy. It could handle the toxins.

I imagine some of you are practically jumping out of your chair right now in protest, and shouting: “Are you saying that we don’t have to work at all to begin or maintain habits? We should just do what feels right and easy?” Ok, maybe you aren't quite doing that...but maybe wondering what I mean?

This is not quite what I am saying. Of course we have to be purposeful and invest energy in habits, especially new ones. And yes, there are times that we (wrongly) stop doing good and necessary things just because it’s easier or more comfortable. We were given will power for a reason. And there are times when we need to use it.

What I am saying is that some of the habits we choose, and put tremendous energy into, are not best for our body. These are the ones we failrepeatedly in our attempts to establish. Sometimes they are rightly not a priority for us. And sometimes they are actually bad habits disguised as good ones (that’s another blog post). And sometimes we need to power through and do them. It depends.  

So stop beating yourself up for failing again. Evaluate the habit and see if it’s actually a priority for your body. (Stay tunes, next time we will talk about how to do that.) Then work with your partner (your body) and use your energy and will power to maintain the important habits. You will be kinder to yourself, and feel and experience more success in your journey towards better health, which is the real goal!

Onward!

A New GAPS Book Almost Published

It has been somewhat of a secret project, not because it needed to be, but because I had no idea if or when this would actually happen, but now it has! There will soon be some new resources to those on the GAPS diet... I am excited to announce... I am about to become a published author! I have been quiet (alright, absent) on this blog for a little while because it has been crunchtime for the book and journal that are about to be published.  

Here is what you need to know..

Both of these GAPS resources will be available this coming Monday, November 28th (Cyber Monday) on Amazon.

Introducing: Notes From a GAPS Practitioner: Using Diet to Unlock the Body's Healing Secrets, available in paperback or Kindle In her review of my book, Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride included this (see the entire review here):

"Amy was able to combine her personal experience with the clinical observations from her patients. That is why her book has an unmistakable quality of genuine information, from a person who knows what she is talking about."

I am also publishing My Daily Insights: A GAPS Journal on Amazon. It will be available in paperback (because you can't journal on Kindle), also beginning November 28th. My vision with this journal is not only to give you a place to keep track of so many useful things in one place, but to provide a place for people on this health journey to build community. You can read more about how here.

Please take a moment to like these fan pages on Facebook!

Notes From a GAPS Practitioner

My Daily Insights: A Daily GAPS Journal

Making the Vegetable Medley

One of the most important ferments in the GAPS™ diet is the vegetablemedley. You can find this recipe in Dr. Natasha Cambell-McBride's book, Gut and Psychology Syndrome. Her recipe is for a bowl ferment, but you can also make it in a jar, which is how I prefer to make it. And this is the recipe we are going to do today! This recipe contains five different vegetables: beets (good for liver and blood cleansing), cabbage (stimulates digestion), carrots (contain vitamin A), and cauliflower (makes it taste better, believe me), and garlic (good for immune support). It makes a very rich and flavorful liquid, which is also a wonderful probiotic drink.

No matter how delicious this is, and how much you like it, drink only a little bit in the beginning to avoid die-off. Respect the ferments, man!

Ingredients and Supplies for Vegetable Medley

• Glass jar, 1/2 gallon

• Sea salt, 3-4 TBS

• 1 Medium beet

• 3 Carrots

• 1/2 Cauliflower

• 1/2 Cabbage

• Garlic (5-7 cloves), fresh or fermented

Instructions for Vegetable Medley

To a clean half-gallon jar, add about 1/2 cup of each vegetable. You can add them in any order you like. The main purpose of the vegetable medley is to drink the liquid, so make sure the ingredients you add only fill the jar half way (or a little more). This will create enough liquid to make it worth it!

Add the beets. Then the carrots. And so on...

Last of all, add the garlic. When all the ingredients are in the jar, it should be less than 3/4 full.

Create a brine of the salt and about a 1 cup of filtered water. Swirl and shake to dissolve the salt.

Add filtered water, to the shoulder of the jar.

Finally, add a cabbage leaf or two to hold all the ingredients under the water. I add a pinch of salt after the cabbage leaves are in place to discourage bad bacterial growth. All that's left is to tightly screw on the lid and leave it on the counter.

After 7 days, move the jar to the fridge and consume the liquid until it's gone, and eat the vegetable pieces. This can be a perpetual ferment. To do this, daily drink what you need, then replace that amount with filtered water, and continue to leave it out on the counter. Keep up with this process until the vegetables are spent (they turn grey and tasteless).

That's it! You have successfully made the veggie medley! Once you get the basics down, you can experiment with different vegetable combinations (eg. broccoli instead of cauliflower). Let us know your favorite combinations!

Onward!

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Print

Vegetable Medley

Author: Amy Mihaly

prep time: cook time: total time:

ingredients:

• Glass jar, 1/2 gallon
• Sea salt, 3-4 TBS
• Medium beet
• Carrots (3)
• Cauliflower
• Cabbage
• Garlic (5-7 cloves), fresh or fermented

instructions:

How to cook Vegetable Medley

1. To a clean half-gallon jar, add about 1/2 cup of each vegetable.You can add them in any order you like. The main purpose of the vegetable medley is to drink the liquid, so make sure the ingredients you add only fill the jar half way (or a little more). This will create enough liquid to make it worth it!
2. Add the beets
3. And carrots
4. And so on...
5. Last of all, garlic and salt
6. When all the ingredients are in the jar, it should be less than 3/4 full. Add filtered water, to the shoulder of the jar. Finally, add a cabbage leaf or two to hold all the ingredients under the water. I add a pinch of salt after the cabbage leaves are in place to discourage bad bacterial growth. All that's left is to tightly screw on the lid and leave it on the counter.
7. After 7 days, move the jar to the fridge and consume the liquid until it's gone, and eat the vegetable pieces. This can be a perpetual ferment. To do this, daily drink what you need, then replace that amount with filtered water, and continue to leave it out on the counter. Keep up with this process until the vegetables are spent (they turn grey and tasteless).
8. That's it! You have successfully made the veggie medley! Once you get the basics down, you can experiment with different vegetable combinations (eg. broccoli instead of cauliflower). 

Created using The Recipes Generator

When the Sheets Get Washed Every Day...

Science-y article ahead... readers, ye be warned!

"Don't drink toomuch before bed..."

"Did you go to the bathroom? Well, try again..."

"You should go to that sleep-over. You can go in the bathroom to put on your pull-up, your friends won't know."

For many parents, these are everyday conversations in their house... with their 10 year old (or older) child. According to Up-To-Date, a resource that gives current, evidence-based practice treatment guidelines, bed-wetting occurs in 16% of 5 year olds, and 1-2% of children will still be wetting the bed at age 15!

Bottom line, if your child is under the age of 6, mainstream medicine has no concern about bedwetting. It is common enough, even through middle school, that many providers reassure parents that it can still be normal.

But is it?

Bed-wetting, or nocturnal enuresis, has happened through recorded history, earliestreports in 1550 BC. Various methods have been used to "cure" the person of this problem--from boiled mice to electric shocktherapy. You can see more about the old and recent treatments here. Aren't you glad we no longer use most of these methods?

An article by Michael Salmon, published in 1975, walks us through the reasoning, knowledge, and treatments used in various places in history. If one reads closely, you will notice that there are two main areas of discussion. The first is the debate between laziness and pathology--meaning is the child 1) doing this to be defiant, or 2) is there an underlyingproblem that is causing this? The second area of discussion is the link between mental and physical health, and bed-wetting. In 1870, a link between incontinence and epilepsy was suggested. In the late 1800's, two separate articles found a probablelink that children who struggled with late bed-wetting had a higher risk of developing a form of "insanity" (mental health issues, severe depression or anxiety, OCD, schizophrenia, etc.) later on.

Adams addresses laziness versus physical condition in 1844, saying:

None of the brute creation will lie in their urine if they are not tied or penned; then why do we attribute this practice in the rational being to mere laziness? Simply because some physicians are not able, by a careless or superficial examination, to find the cause, and well knowing that their reputations will be at stake if they do not account for the act, they too often condemn the helpless child to daily floggings.

So if there is a cause to this, what's the link?

According to Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, the link is unhealthy gut flora. This is consistent with the link suggested of bed-wetting to mental illness, epilepsy and insanity. When the gut flora is abnormal, the flora of the entire body becomes abnormal--including the groin and bladder flora. In bed-wetting, cystitis, frequent UTIs, urge incontinence, and other similar conditions, the root of the problem appears to be the same. Healthy flora makes the pH of the bladder low, keeping pathogens from adhering to the gut wall. Unhealthy flora allows an overgrowth or bad flora, leading to urinary tract infections. The leaky, damagedgut allows a build up of irritating toxins, which often accumulate in the bladder. As the toxicity in the bladder increases, the bladder is stimulated to empty. While awake the person will usually be able to answer the sudden urge, but when in deep sleep the bladder dumps the toxic urine, whether the person awakens or not. So she suggests that the cause of mental illness is not bed-wetting, but rather, both are caused by abnormal gut flora (Gut and Psychology Syndrome, 2011, p. 102-103).

If this is true, then there is a hope of curing bed-wetting, cystitis--and preventing or treating many other possible illnesses that are worse.And it is for this reason it is so important to address the root of this and other health problems. Putting a band-aid on it will not make it better, or make it go away. To enact lasting change we must fix the problem.

Congratulations! You made it through this technical article! I hope you learned some helpful things! I am so excited each time I learn another symptom or problem that will be helped from addressing unhealthy gut flora!

And we learn, and continue...

Onward!

References:

• Campbell-McBride, Natasha. (2011). GAPS Practitioner Training Manual. Medinform Publishing, Soham, Cambridge.

• Salmon, Michael, A. (1975, July). An Historical Account of Nocturnal Enuresis and its Treatment. Section of the History of Medicine, 68, pp 443-445.

• http://www.uptodate.com/contents/bedwetting-in-children-beyond-the-basics