I want to introduce you to my new friend, Lauren!

Lauren is almost the same age as me. She is also a blogger, be both do online college (she might even do NTA too!), we have some of the same problems and are fixing them with GAPS….how coincidental! Do you think we were destined to be friends?  Lauren and I enjoy catching up over Skype every week to talk. Even though we live in 2 different states, we can still be good friends! I can’t wait to meet her in real person..someday. (The hard part is, we both don’t travel so well!)

Show Lauren some LOVE and give her blog a “like” on FB (right here). While your at it, comment and say hi to her! (bloggers love comments!)

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Let’s give it up for the amazing writer behind the blog Empowered Sustenance!

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Hi Gutsy Readers!

I’m Lauren, author of Empowered Sustenance, and I’m excited to share a bit of my healing journey with you all. First, though, I want to tell you about my serendipitous introduction with Caroline.

No–I don’t randomly dance on logs in pointe shoes. This is my high school senior picture from last summer!

Meeting Caroline

I used to be skeptical of relationships started over the internet. “How does chemistry happen with just a few similarities typed into a form?” I always wondered. As of July 2012, however, I became a believer.

I first found mygutsy.com through Caroline’s guest post on Kelly the Kitchen Kop. A few days later, I met Caroline in the Real Food Media Forum. We exchanged a couple of emails, at first discussing our two main commonalities: our age (I’m 19 and Caroline is 18), our experience following the GAPS diet, and our blogs. I knew we were soul mates, however, when she explained that her health issues prevented her from traveling with her family. “Finally!” I thought. “Someone who understands being home alone during summer vacation!”

My Real Food Transition

Five years ago, as a freshman in high school, I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis. For a while, I held my colitis under control by obliviously popping pills to suppress any symptoms. Unfortunately, my colitis advanced aggressively while prescriptions muted my body’s attempts at communicating with me. “You are probably looking at a colon resection in the future,” my doctor solemnly told me. Horrified tears streamed down my face as I promised myself that I would never lose my colon.

Last fall, with that vow, I left for college–armed with potent immune-suppressing medication and a plan to eat and sleep well in the dorm. During that first semester at college, my colitis flared constantly. I struggled to mask my health issues, but I could no longer hide my dwindling energy or humiliating hair loss caused by my medication and distressed intestines. At the end of the fall semester, I signed up for online college courses, headed back home, and ditched my medication. I threw myself wholeheartedly into treating my colitis with nutrition.

I submerged myself in healing books in an effort to treat my colitis without medication

Healing with the GAPS Diet

For months, I consumed healing doses of broths, raw butter, and traditionally prepared foods, but I still couldn’t tame my colitis. Finally, after starting the GAPS Diet four months ago, I experienced immediate relief from many of my colitis symptoms.

The Low Carb Mistake

Shortly after starting GAPS, I read The Body Ecology Diet and freaked out. I realized I was a prime candidate for major candida overgrowth, after years of mega-doses of prednisone (a corticosteroid) and antibiotics for my colitis. In an effort to reduce candida, I cut honey from my diet, reduced starchy vegetables, and ate only one serving of fruit a day.

In an effort to avoid honey, I started sweetening my desserts with only stevia, such as in this Lemon Souffle Cake

Get this yummy recipe here!

Suddenly, I experienced debilitating dizziness. I would collapse on my bedroom floor after getting out of bed in the morning. I needed to clutch the rail as I slowly climbed up stairs to maintain balance. My equilibrium had disappeared–which was bad news when it came time for pirouettes in ballet class. Unfortunately, it took me a few weeks before I realized the correlation between the dizziness and my limited carb consumption.

Sticking with GAPS

Kendahl, of Our Nourishing Roots, discussed how she also went too low carb on GAPS. She decided to stop the GAPS diet and try Matt Stone’s RRARFING: Rehabilitative Rest and Aggressive Re-Feeding. This anti-diet technique works by raising body temperature and metabolism.

I’m happy to hear how well it worked for Kendahl, but I cannot follow Matt’s dietary regimen. I know that avoiding certain carbs, like the grains and sugar prohibited on GAPS, is the only way to keep my colitis under control. Hopefully, after a few years of intestinal healing on this diet, I will be able to re-introduced properly prepared grains.

The GAPS Carb Solution

So how am I solving my carb problem on GAPS? As soon as I realized my dizziness correlated with my low-carb consumption, I increased my fruit and starchy vegetable intake. Now, I enjoy all-banana ice cream or creamy fruit smoothies every day. I eat squash, carrots, and beets for a GAPS-legal carb feast. And I choose raw honey over stevia. Nothing beats raw honey drizzled over fluffy GAPS coconut flour pancakes.

My ultimate coconut flour pancakes provide protein, healing fats, and GAPS-friendly carbs

mmm…Recipe right here!

One thing at a time

I’ve discovered that super low carb doesn’t work for my body, and I’ve learned how to get enough carbs on the GAPS diet. But what about the candida? Perhaps, when I get off GAPS in a couple years and can eat properly prepared grains, I will try reducing honey and fruit temporarily. For now, I’m focusing on healing my gut–the foundation for whole-body health. I have a feeling that when my gut flora balances and digestive tract heals, the rest will fall into place. I hope to see you soon at Empowered Sustenance!

~Stay Gutsy, Caroline