GAPS Update and Insomnia

The other day I posted that my body odor quickly disappeared while on GAPS for only a few days. Yesterday it came back on the right side of my body, which means that I am already detoxing something.

Amazingly, the dress that didn’t fit quite right is fitting pretty well again. I mentioned that I believe the bread had done me in due to weight gain and renewed aches and pains. Well that is not all the bread could have done.

I visited my Doctor of Oriental Medicine yesterday due to about two months of insomnia that had gotten really bad (one to two hours of sleep a night for about two weeks – I hadn’t been that bad in about 11 years!). The insomnia is related to financial challenges, layoffs and the job market. I thought I could beat it on my own, but it became quite clear I was losing, as some minor premenopausal symptoms were back, signaling adrenal fatigue, and the lack of sleep seemed to affect me less and less. In fact, I had an overabundance of energy through parts of the day. I couldn’t meditate, TAP, or exercise my way out of it.

Why couldn’t I beat it on my own? My doc thought I would have had a good chance except for the bread. He said that the external job-related challenges were coupled with me feeding myself something that internally challenged me, and the two combined could have pushed me over the edge so that I couldn’t conquer the insomnia on my own. He said it was like I formed a log jam which was keeping my energy channels open and not allowing them to shut down at night. I said I was amazed at how much energy I had, as if I permanently pushed past being sleepy. He said it is incredible how much energy the human body has – more than people realize.

He treated me with acupuncture and a machine that operates at a frequency that promotes healing and regeneration. It took about 10 minutes and all of a sudden my right foot jerked like I was falling asleep. Then my body slowly began to relax and sink into the treatment table. After about 40 minutes my stomach let out a great big long rumble like thunder that keeps going and going. My doc was happy to hear it, as he explained that my digestion had pretty much stagnated and now it was moving. I said that I hadn’t had hunger since the insomnia started and I just ate because it seemed I should. He said that was a good thing, as I have been hypoglycemic for awhile, and I didn’t know it. That explained the weakness I felt.

As the treatment went on my stomach rumbled more and more. By the end of the treatment I was getting nauseous. My doc said to go straight to Whole Foods (he chose Whole Foods because it is literally a couple of block away, not because he thinks it is a great place) and get a high fat, high protein snack. By the time I paid for the treatment and the special tea and Adrenalcalm cream, I said I needed to eat a whole dinner right now (again, Whole Foods is not the best place to eat, but I was STARVING!) He said go for it.

Wouldn’t you know, Whole Foods doesn’t have high fat food at the food bar. Even so, I had to eat something as my nausea, sweats and shakes grew. I settled on BBQ Chicken and potato salad. Then I went home, ate more chicken, a bunch of raw cheese, a beef hotdog, more raw cheese, raw milk…and I was still hungry! It took awhile for it to all digest and for my hunger to go away.

How did I sleep? Only a couple of hours again, but it was a deeper sleep. I also woke up with the sneezies that I always get when I don’t sleep enough. I haven’t had those sneezies in about three weeks. They are a welcome sign that my body is heading in the right direction.

The human body is amazing in what it can do, how it can take what we do to it, and how it excels when we treat it well.