Detox...it's a Love/Hate Relationship

I've been missing for a while. What have I been doing? Detoxing, and detoxing HARD! It's been a while since I have detoxed, and I almost forgot what it felt like for me.  The last two weeks, I have been incredibly fatigued, I've experienced intense back and neck pain, foggy brain, some insomnia and a new one, some major ANXIETY. The anxiety was the worst part about it. I felt so out of control, and I wasn't sure how to deal with it. I feel bad for people who have chronic anxiety, it's awful!

I started looking back at what I had eaten. The only connection was a new brand of coconut oil. (Coconut oil is incredibly detoxifying and has to be approached slowly when doing the GAPS diet). I thought maybe this coconut oil was more potent. So I stopped eating it.  2 1/2 weeks later, I was still detoxing hard, so I decided it couldn't be the oil.

I kept thinking, what else could it be? Then I realized, that I had started using Frankincense Essential Oil. I had been to an Essential Oils class recently, and I remember them saying, "Just start using the oils, start getting them into your body." Most of the oils I had, I used from time to time, but not frankincense, which is revered as the "gold" of all oils. So, I started about 2 1/2 weeks ago to apply it on my body or throw it in my bath every once in a while. That's when I started to get sick. The frankincense was detoxing my body. I didn't realize it at first, and kept using it sparingly. I forgot to use it for about three days, and noticed I felt much better. The next day, I remembered about the oil, and used more than normal, to catch up on the days I had missed. BAM! Another "no good" detoxing day. I finally made the connection. Thank goodness!

Frankincense can do so many things for the body (even fight against cancer), so I'm not exactly sure what it is trying to target in my body, but it was definitely powerful for me. I've liked the results of the frankincense (not the detoxing part), so I will continue using it, but maybe just twice a week, one drop, and work my way up to a higher dosage.

Detox, (or for GAPSTERS, we say die-off) has been very interesting for me. The first several months on GAPS, I experienced non-stop:

exhaustion
body aches
headaches
nausea
dizziness
heart palpations

I was trying to decide when it would ever end! Then we decided to back off a lot of the detoxifying protocols, and go slower. Things got better! Over the summer months, I experienced

A couple Kidney Stones
Pink Eye
Hair falling out
Major BO ( I know it's not very lady like to talk about your BO, but before gaps, I never sweat, I never smelled, I rarely had to wear deodorant.) Guess what, not good! We need to sweat, to get rid of junk in our bodies. I remember sitting one night, and actually my husband and I both stunk and he said, "In the 10 years of marriage, I've never smelled you before, and now you stink!" We both started laughing hard, because I did, and I showered like three times a day, with no avail. Luckily it went away!

(It was a mild summer, thank goodness!)

As I started upping my detoxing protocols, I started detoxing EMOTIONALLY. I had no idea I had crazy emotions locked up way down in my body reeking havoc. I've gone through a few emotional cleanses, and there kind of scary, because you don't really know what is going to come out, but I always feel so much lighter and better when they are over.

So now, lately, the detoxing is definitely more spread out. When I feel good, I feel REALLY good, like a brand new person. It's awesome!! That's why detoxing for me is a LOVE/HATE relationship. I love it, because I know it's helping me purge junk out of my body, but I hate it, because it's no fun going through it. I guess, NO PAIN, NO GAIN!

As I was really struggling through this last detox process, I stumbled upon a website that a lot of gapsters recommend, called healingnaturallybybee.com. I felt like this was a little "tender mercy" from the Lord. Her protocol is very similar to GAPS, but she has detailed papers written specifically about what detoxing/die-off is, what is considered a healing reaction, and how are body will retrace through old symptoms and emotions that have already occurred in our life. I felt a lot of comfort as I read through her pages, that I would not feel horrible forever, and that I need to push on...slowly. I do want to relate one story that was told, that painted a good picture in my mind, of what retracing is.
One doctor wrote that when your body is going through a deep detoxing protocol, it will retrace through past symptoms. If you think of a staircase, and Health is at the top, the next step down might be headaches, then the next step down might be fatigue, the next arthritis, the next an ulcer etc. As you start to heal your body, you start going back up the stairs, experiencing even more intense arthritis, then gone, you take another step up, and you go through fatigue, and so forth, until you are at the top again with good health! It's totally weird and crazy to me that this is happening to me, but it is, so I go with the flow as well as I can!

Although I'm getting good at seeing my kids reactions, it is easier to see my own healing. This gives me hope that my children's bodies are changing for the better as well, and that's all I can ask for! :)

Keep eatin' fat!

Brittney

Get your D on!

I can't believe it's December tomorrow, and I wore shorts and a short sleeve shirt outside today. What a beautiful day!

My oldest son is deficient in Vitamin D, along with over 60% of Americans! Vitamin D is soooo important for overall health! Why are we so deficient? Because we live inside. With the computer age, we all of a sudden didn't have to go anywhere. We can bank online, pay our bills online, shop online, and even grocery shop online. Most of us work inside, and if we do go outside, we slather ourselves and our kids with sunscreen. I used to do this as well, until I found out that skin cancer is really a weakening of our cells caused by toxins and chemicals that we ingest or that seep through our skin. Sunscreen is just adding to the total toxic burden.

When I really think about it, humans have lived outside for millions of years. We were meant to be outside. I don't think the sun would be so huge, cover the entire earth and shine brightly for many hours a day, if we were suppose to hide from it. I also think of other living things like plants. They need the basics; water, food, and sun in order to grow and live. I'm pretty sure we are the same.

This entire blog post was written for me, to rededicate myself to getting outside. We had done pretty good for a while, but preparing for birthdays and holidays the last couple of months have kept me inside for the majority of time. Today we got out, and it felt great!

For us, we will get out daily, at least 30min. to an hour. Work up slowly, so you don't burn. For me there are exceptions for sunscreen use. I would never go to the beach for 6 hours without it, but I would try and find a sunscreen with the most natural ingredients and take plenty of big umbrellas for shade.

So enjoy! Go outside, ride bikes, go for walks, play with your kids, and for those of you in cooler weather, go snowboarding, or have a snowball fight! Don't fear the sun, enjoy the sun!

...and I hear, that the more good fats you eat, the less you burn, so keep eating fats!


Brittney