Rough dieting day

Today was overwhelming. The kids were pretty whiny in the morning, because they were so hungry. But it wasn't the usual whiny when they want something they don't need, but a true pleading: mommy I'm hungry. It's hard to watch them detox. They were lying around like dead flies today, even took a nap. Typically super hyper Ezra just shuffled around the house. They refused the soup again, so I applied some ABA and said that if they just had a little bit of soup I would let them watch one episode of Winnie the Pooh. I got a whole cup of soup into them. They both said it tasted and felt good. I think of lot of their taste issues are in their heads.
I'm missing fruit right now, and I'm a bit hungry too. I should go down and have more broth. We won't be eating any fruit for the next few weeks. I also am starting to realize what I've really gotten myself into. I wanted to throw in the towel several times today, when I realized that I would be responsible for cooking, and preparing everything. Right now for example, I should be downstairs preparing fermented vegetables and some more broth.
I should explain: the introduction to the GAPS diet is a phase during which all fiber is removed so the intestines have a chance to rest and heal (heal and seal). You're supposed to drink home made meat broth made from organic, preferably grass-fed animals for every meal. To that broth you add some fermented vegetable juice, or fermented yogurt, or whatever. Those two together help coat the intestines, and restore good bacteria to the gut. At the same time depriving our body from fiber and carbohydrates, helps eliminate the bad bacteria. However home made meat broth is essential, and although it doesn't take much work to make it, it does take time to cook (like 24-36 hours). This requires forethought. I have up until now not been very good at making and sticking with a meal plan. One of the reasons was that I simply got tired of making meals my kids wouldn't eat. 

Another hard part was that I spent 54 Euros for meat at the organic butcher. 3 organic chicken breasts cost me 19 Euros! It's insane. I got through that episode by thinking of the $10,000 we had to spend because of Aaron's kidney cancer, and about how a year in an autism school costs $75,000. Or supplements, or chelation, or all these other treatments cost so much more, than simply eating organic healthy food. And perhaps if more people did, it would get cheaper.

Then at dinner Ezra had a full on melt down and tantrum. It lasted about 30 minutes. I made sausages and "rice" which is cauliflower shredded to the consistency of rice and boiled in salt water. It's rather tasty, actually. I just put the cauliflower on his plate. He didn't want it there, so he started screaming and throwing some food. He ate his two sausages and wanted more. I made him have a bite of his cauliflower before giving him a slice of sausage. I remained calm and kind during the whole tantrum, but I still had a hard time seeing him like that. In the end what got me through this day was thinking
of how he threw a tantrum in the restaurant when we were on vacation, and how he refused to eat anything but sausages and fries at every place we went to. I thought of how short 2 years really are compared to a life time, and last but not least I thought of all the other mothers out there with picky eaters, and autistic children, who might come across my blog, and perhaps could find hope that it's possible, if I could only hang in there long enough to prove that it is. So I'll do it one more day. Off to pickled some cucumbers now.