Good-bye Crazy Year. Onward & Upward!

So, it's now been a year since I got sick.  This anniversary has really made me think about everything, and count my blessings.  I know it's kind of weird, but I'm grateful for this trial and what I've learned from it.  Here's a list of some of the things I've learned:

1.  You can live as healthy as possible, eating all the "right foods", cutting out all things that are bad, and still get sick.  Really sick.  Nothing is guaranteed.  And?  I need to chill about the eating.  Balance is good.

2.  I've learned to think more seriously about the statistics that are thrown around.  For example, when they say only 1% experience this or that side effect, you think it will never happen to you.  Well, I was one of the .0001 % who get Guillaine-Barre Syndrome (GBS).  The small percent is real.

3.  I've learned to have more sympathy for others who have any sort of illness.  I hear their stories and I feel more sympathy & compassion than I would have before.  I think this is part of the Lord's plan as we go through trials-  to experience something and become more empathetic.

4.  I've learned that doctors don't know everything, and sometimes you need to go with your instincts.  If I hadn't gotten treatment when I did, I could have gotten to the point of paralysis and recovery could have been so much worse.

5.  I've learned that my love for researching things on the computer can really come in handy (it's how I figured out my symptoms of numb hands, feet, and lips were probably GBS).

6.  I've learned that the psychological healing can take longer than the physical healing.  Until recently I haven't been able to go back to super healthy eating.  The thought of it would give me major anxiety.  Last week, though, for some reason I was able to wrap my head around going sugar-free again, and I've been fine with it.  In fact, it's been kind of easy.  It doesn't take any extra work to take something away, so I figure it's a great start.  I've lost a couple of pounds... we'll see if it's lasting or temporary.

7.  I've learned that going back to eating sugar & gluten can make you gain the weight back... and fast.  I gained back the 25 I lost plus 5 more.  Frustrating, but humbling.  I'm hopeful that sugar-free eating will help me get back to a healthier weight.

8.  I've learned more appreciation for really good friends, who have stuck with me through my recovery.  They really helped me out, especially as I was going through the worst of it last year.  This past weekend we were able to run the Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay together as a team, and it was a lot of fun.  Love these girls!

9.  I've learned that some people in the "whole foods" world are extreme, and are living in denial.  I feel they can be as bad as those "evil"  people they preach against.  That's been part of the psychological struggle for me- knowing who to trust.   And getting over the hurt for feeling betrayed.

10.  I've learned that I can be strong and healthy, even when I'm 30 pounds heavier than I want to be.  In the  relay I did 3 legs:  4.8 miles, 7.7 miles, and 4 miles straight up a mountainside.  I felt great!  I could only speed walk the hill, but I still went pretty fast.  The reason I'm putting this one is that I'm learning to love my body at any shape, not just at the ideal weight.  I still want to lose weight again, mind you, but I'm learning to accept myself more.

I plan to start writing in my blog more, and document the trip back.

Gluten/Processed Food-Free on Vacation?! How?

Last week was great.  We packed up the fam and went to the happiest place on earth, DiSnEyLaNd!


It was great, and lots of fun, but more difficult than I expected to eat the right way.  I prepared by having my friend Cindy cook up a bunch of good quality snacks for me.  She made a bunch of grain-free treats for me to take:   cowboy cookies, a honey/molasses carmel corn that tastes like cracker jacks, two types of pumpkin muffins, a cranberry/dark chocolate bar.  I took fruit I could snack on, and water.

This worked out pretty well on the trip down, plus while we were in the condo.  But there was a lot of eating out, and that was tricky.  We ate at three different buffets, which was enough to last me for a year!  I've always hated watching people go crazy eating a bunch of unhealthy food, and now it's even worse.  I was usually okay if I stuck with the salad bar, but that got old.  At Disneyland I was able to get gluten-free buns, which was good, but usually gluten free bread has a lot of sugar in it.  I found it interesting that In-N-Out Burger had a grain-free option for a hamburger where they wrapped the burger in lettuce.

I know that I ate things here and there that I reacted to, because I started to itch all over, and still am.  My gut is sore, too, like I shocked it.  I did sneak a few bites of no-no's here & there.  I had a few skittles, a few licks of a lolly pop, and even had some cheesecake at a buffet! I didn't eat the graham crust, so I thought it would be okay.  Nope.  My family has made great strides in the last 3-5 months, but this vacation was a big step back, nutritionally.  Live & learn.  I guess I'll just have to pack all of my food to everything, all the time.  It's so inconvenient, but I'm still searching for the answer!  There's got to be a way.

And Today I'm Eating....... My WORDS!!!

Ha ha.  I'm just up & down, aren't I?  I found the GREATEST book last night!  It's called "Detox for Women- An All New Approach for a Sleek Body and Radiant Health in 4 Weeks", by Natalia Rose.  It is exactly what I've been searching for.  So instead of getting more restrictive, which I talked about yesterday, I'm branching off in a bit of a different direction.

As you know from my past posts, I haven't been happy the last few weeks with this diet change.  I know it is necessary, but haven't seen any benefits, and I just feel deprived.  Natalia's book talks about Candida, and goes into depth on why it has become such a problem in our society.  She talks about struggles people have going on a typical "Candida starving diet", and why people fail (like I felt like I was going to do nearly every day!).  She talks about a lifestyle change with diet that shows great results, and helps you feel better than ever.

There is a recipe section in the book with great recipes, mostly simple with ingredients that are doable.  She even allows herself cheese-  goatsmilk cheese.  Now if I can just find that around here.  She also allows herself a small square of extra dark chocolate (over 70% cocoa) each night, and sometimes goat's milk ice cream.  The fact that I can still have a few treats makes a huge difference to me, mentally.  I went to Real Foods today & bought some extra dark chocolate, and I couldn't find goats milk ice cream, but I found a coconut milk ice cream that will do until I find the other.  I ate a little tonight, but didn't feel like I needed big gobs of it.  I just ate about 5 spoonfuls, and then I was good.  Enough to take a way the craving!

One way this book is different from other things I've read is that she emphasizes what foods are eaten together.   There are acidic, alkeline, and neutral foods.  Acidic:  foods with high amounts of protein.  Alkeline- starchy foods.  Neutral-  vegetables.  I'm still trying to grasp this completely, but in summary, you're not supposed to eat acidic & alkeline foods at the same time, but you can combine them with any neutral food you want.

She also has you initially avoid foods that are hard to digest:  nuts, grains, most dairy, red meat, and fruits.  Once a high degree of detoxification has been reached you can reintroduce them.

She lays out a plan of what to eat every day.  Something that she is very big on is juicing.  I have never done that, but I'm going to buy a juicer now.  I'm going to do that for my breakfast every day.  I'm excited, because it's something that I can do for the kids that they'll probably like, too.  Especially Grace, who normally doesn't like to eat breakfast.  The author addresses the concern that you won't have enough energy if you only drink juice in the morning.  She says on the contrary, it helps you have greater energy. 

Last week I watch the documentary "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead" on Netflix. 

It show's a man's journey of going on a 8-week juicing fast.  In the end he lost lots of weight, and was able to go off of most of his meds that he had been taking for years.  That peaked my interest in the juicing when I read about it in this book, too.  Now I just need to get an extra refrigerator for my garage that I can put all this produce in I'm supposed to buy.  I'm also curious on how much my grocery bill will go up each month.  That's okay.  It's a great investment.

Doing everything it takes to start her program will take a little while to get ready for.  My plan is start it in full force on September 1, but in the mean time maintain what I've been to this far.  (Although I am going to indulge in a small bit of chocolate at the end of each day!)

Oh!  And another cool thing!  She addresses marathoners.  First of all, she doesn't recommend it.  She says it is too taxing on the body.  But she tells you how to eat natural things for refueling rather than "Gu" or "Shot blocks"!  Very cool.  At this point I'm still going to run, but I think I'll tame it back to 4,4,4, and 6.  I've got to let my body heal.



salad. salad. salad.

Today I'm getting even stricter with my diet, and I won't be eating brown rice or dairy products (except butter).   This is only for four weeks, so I know that I can do it.  One thing is certain, though.  I need more variety in the things I'm eating!  How boring.  Salad twice a day is boring.  And now that I can't put cheese on it, :(

I'm reading up on recipes that I might be able to tie in.  I want to find some main dishes that can work for all of the family, rather than just make a seperate meal for me.  I've found a few meat dishes that will work.  I'll just add rice, potatoes, or bread to theirs for a starch.

Weight update:

I didn't lose any weight last week.  Seriously?  Not even one meesley pound?  I guess I can handle that this time, but next week better be different!  When the kids are back in school I plan to start doing some weight training twice a week, and that should help, too.

First Social Event- Arrrrrrrghhhhhh!

Tonight we fed the missionaries.  I kept it simple- rice, grilled chicken, orange dream salad (cottage cheese, cool whip, orange jellow, and mandarin oranges-  NO, I did not eat!!), and green salad.  I cooked regular rice for everyone else, and cooked brown rice for myself.  Yum- with butter & salt & pepper.  I can have unsalted butter... not sure why, but the Dr. said.

The kicker was dessert.  I'm still struggling a bit.  No, make that a lot.  I let Janessa make Spice cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, and they also had vanilla ice cream.  Talk about WILL POWER.  Holy cow.  I keep telling myself how many thousands of people choose to eat the way I am right now, but it doesn't make it any easier.  It's simply torture.  I want to make healthy eating a new way of life, but it's hard to imagine getting over my love of sweets.

Journaling like this helps, though.  I know that I have to report back, and I'm determined to succeed.

Another excitement to report about-  I was able to run 8-miles today!!!  I wasn't sure if I would have enough energy because I've cut out so many carbs, but I just took it nice & slow & I did fine!  Phew.  That is a stress to me.  I'm not going to be able to do the Top of Utah marathon that I planned to do in September, but I'm grateful for my health & ability to still run for health.  I just invision myself running my races next year feeling lighter, stronger, and with more energy.  All this agony will pay off!  (right?:)

Rough morning

I woke up hungry today.  I think it is because I didn't have any protein with my dinner last night.  Anyway, I made my kids breakfast first (pancakes), and that smelled really good.  I wasn't really tempted to eat any, but I was hungry. 

I got them fed, then I made myself two eggs, using our farm fresh eggs today.  Once I ate, I still felt really hungry, and even worse, I felt that yucky coating all over my mouth again.  So yucky.  So then I started trying to figure out what I was going to eat, and then I kind of panicked.  I opened the fridge & looked at all of the vegetables, and I thought "I'm going to starve!"  Nothing looked good.  I felt horrible!

I ended up getting some chicken breast out of the freezer, thawing it, and then cooking it with some Montreal Steak Seasoning.  Once I had that in my system I was okay.  The rest of the day has been fine, too.

I went to Real Foods and stocked up on some foods I can eat.  I got some sprouted pumpkin seeds, and got some little snack bites that have sesame, flax, and pumpkin seeds, and are perfect for what I need.  I'm definitely going to have to find some recipes that can make this more economical, becaue $5+ for a little bag of snack bites isn't going to cut it.  I'll definitely have to budget more for the food in the future.  I also got some raw milk.  Some of the things that I have read say no to milk, but my dr. said yes to raw milk.  So for my sanity, I'm going for it.  I had some tonight, and so far so good.  Oh- and I forgot to mention that I bought some Redmond Clay there, too.   I mixed 1 tsp in water & drank it tonight.  Didn't taste great, could be worse.  It's bentonite clay, and it's supposed to have some great healing properties.

OK- I'm new to blogging, so this is just the bare bones.

Hey!  Thanks for joining me on my 3-month sugar-free challenge!  I tried doing this a year & a half ago, and it lasted about a week.  But this time I'm GOING to do it.

I'm determined to make it work this time, but the more of you I have with me on this journey, the better!  I need to be held accountable, and I want to know I'm not alone with it being hard.

So to be blunt, the main reason I finally decided to do this is because my doctor told me I need to.  I had some bloodwork done, and last week I got the results back.  I thought I have might thyroid issues, but it turns out I've a major overgrowth of CANDIDA (yeast) in my body.  They rate the amount in your blood from 0- >100, giving it a classification of I (3-10), II (10.1-25), III (25.1-50), IV (50.1-100), or V (>100).  My reading is >100! 

My doctor prescribed a couple of medicines, but then I've also got to cut out all sugar & starve it to death.  I know it will be hard... when I tried last time I felt like CRAP, and it was messing up my running.  But I've decided that now's the time, and that in the end I'll feel better.   (I have to admit... I'm kind of excited about the weight loss possibilities, too.  I'm going to keep track of that on here, too.)

My bloodwork also shows that I'm allergic to milk & gluten, so I'm also cutting those out for 4 weeks, then gradually adding them back in (raw milk, baby!).  That will make this process tougher, but I have some good recipes lined up.  Maybe I'll post my weekly menu tomorrow.  And I'd love all the advice & knowledge you guys have, too.

Here's to good health!!!!