Minor Setbacks --> Big Commitments

I haven't written in a while, but as I have no followers yet I have no one to apologize to but myself. I've encountered some minor setbacks with my disease recently.

Firstly, I thought that after three months of strict diet I was set to start reintroducing foods. That's exactly what I did (although it was more like 4 months). I was much less strict with my fruit intake and even allowed some sugar and gluten in. Keep in mind, my sugar intake was far less in comparison to most people but for someone who's suffering with Candida it was overkill. When I went to the doctor again in July and had blood drawn I was sorely disappointed. I found that I was still not close to curing my Candida and still had a long way to go.

Secondly, my blood test was also conclusive on the facts that I am allergic to eggs, chocolate, milk, and almonds. Life seemed a little unfair and I had a rather large breakdown. I wish I could say this made me stick to an even stronger diet, but it threw me off track and I continued to eat things that fed my Candida.

Well, now I'm three weeks into college and I had been mostly strict with myself again. But I got a surge of motivation to completely get over this -- hence I am on a cleanse.

The cleanse I'm doing is specifically for Candidiasis and is found here.

I'm not going to lie, this is one of the most awful things I've done in my entire life. I am currently on day 3 and symptoms of die-off are kicking in hard. This morning was nausea, dizziness, fatigue, and elevated heart rate. The past three days I've had a constant headache. My mood swings have been everywhere - my roommates have dealt with my angry rants about how stupid this is and then, less than 30 seconds later, my crying about how I can't do it anymore. I'm weak and it's hard for people to relate why I'm doing this or why I feel the way I do.

My mother and sister-in-law have been my best friends the last 2 days. They have been extremely suppportive. Another source of support I've found is through Candida webpage forums. It's so much easier talking to people who have already done this sort of thing. I'm not sure if I can last another 4 days, but I sure hope I can because from what I've heard it will make me feel a lot better.

I'm ready to be healed and I want to kick this Candida out of my body, so I'll drink (more like gag down) volcanic ash nutrients and fiber twice a day. I'll eat only raw or steamed vegetables. I'll drink another drink with ginger and garlic burning my throat every night.

My heart truly goes out to anyone who has done this cleanse, and please contact me if you need help or support if you plan on doing the same thing. Much love.

Homemade Almond Milk

What you'll need:
1 1/2 cup of raw almonds
4 cups of water
1 tablespoon of *sweetener (add more according to taste)
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
Nut-milk bag**

Start by soaking the almonds in water for 8 hours, or overnight, so they are soft enough to blend. Once they are done soaking strain the almonds and place the almonds in the blender. Add 1 1/2 to 2 cups of water and blend until it's somewhat like a paste. Eventually blend in the rest of the water unless you want the milk to be thicker and more creamy, then don't add all 4 cups. Put in the sweetener, vanilla, and salt and blend. Make sure to taste it and see if you want more sweetener and/or salt.

Once the flavor is how you want it, open the nut bag over a bowl and pour the mixture into the nut bag, allowing the milk to run through. Squeeze and massage the remainder of the liquid out. (If you want to save the contents of the nut bag and freeze them you can make your own almond flour.) Then pour the milk into the container of your choosing and refrigerate.

You will have to shake the milk before using it.

Enjoy!

*I'm currently living in Tokyo so the sweetener options are a bit different than those in America. I used a sweetener called trehalos, but lakanto or xylitol would work as well. Stevia is another option but if you add too much it will be bitter. It really depends on you're preference.
**Click here for the nut bag I used. It's reusable so it's worth it. Some say you can double or triple a cheese cloth, but it seems simpler to just use the nut-milk bag.

Helpful Hints

For those of you who don't know, which I'm sure is most people, I am on a strict diet known as the anti-candida diet.

Just as a slight overview this diet means going sugar, wheat, gluten, and yeast free (for more information visit this website.) That includes a lot of foods and the diet can seem pretty overwhelming. Trust me - I wanted to cry (and did many times) because finding foods and flavorful recipes isn't simple.

Here are a few simple tricks that I've learned over the past two and a half months.

1. Stevia. It will be your best friend. It's an herb used as a sweetener and it's safe - unlike Splenda which is better known as sucralose. In the research I've done on Splenda it does not seem completely safe to use. Anyway, Stevia will not effect Candida and can be used to sweeten almost anything: plain Greek yogurt, teas, shakes, etc. My one piece of advice with Stevia is not to put too much. If you're using it as a sugar substitute make sure the recipe is good. Too much stevia = bitter. It will leave a weird after taste, so if you plan on adding a lot of stevia to something, taste whatever you are making along the way.

2. Cinnamon. Obviously natural herbs and spices are allowed on this diet. Personally, I'm a cinnamon lover, but still adding this sometimes saves my foods. The two biggest things I add my cinnamon to are 1) plain greek yogurt with a packet of stevia and 2) my spinach smoothies. I'm still working on perfecting my smoothie because, truth be told, it is not the most flavorful. But when I find that a smoothie I've made is too bland I put some cinnamon in and it makes it more edible.

3. Tamari. This is pretty much wheat and gluten free soy sauce. I was raised in Asia and without my white rice and soy sauce I'm feeling pretty deprived. I can't tell any difference between Tamari and soy sauce, and this can be used as a substitute in recipes.

4. Xylitol. It's a sweetener, similar to stevia but has some special characteristics. It's better used in baking (we made my birthday cake with it, and it turned out wonderfully). The best thing about xylitol is how good it is for you - and it actually helps kill candida (not to mention if you have it in your gum it's great for your teeth.) The down side of xylitol is that you have to use it in moderation. Thankfully the people at the health store warned us before we cooked anything with it, but if you eat too much it will turn you inside out. I don't know how to say that in a more polite way. It will taste a lot like sugar and you'll want a lot but limiting yourself is important. The example we first heard - the lady at the health food store made a peach pie using xylitol. Her husband thought it was so delicious that he ended up eating half the pie. He spent the rest of the night in the bathroom. However, you will become more tolerant of xylitol so be patient and maybe in time you can eat half the pie.

5. Almond milk. Granted you have to take it unsweetened which may be a little funny at first. I'm not a huge fan of soy milk - especially when it's unsweetened - so this has helped me a lot. My mom and I are planning on experimenting with making our own almond milk. I'll keep you updated on that.

Food Blogs. It took a little searching and pinteresting, but after many hours and discussions with my sister-in-law (and personal trainer) we have found a couple of websites that are life savers.

• Supercharged Food - a recipe site about eating wheat, gluten, yeast, sugar, and dairy free. She has worked hard to find good recipes, and if you go to the original website instead of the recipes section she has many other helpful ideas. Her other site (here) might be easier to navigate for some of you. 
• DAMY Health - another great site, although for the candida diet it takes a bit of navigating. She has a lot of healthy snacks and options. This is more helpful for those just wanting to be healthy and not following the candida diet because she uses a lot of fruits. 
• Oh She Glows - another great website, but some no-no's are included so just be aware you can't use every recipe. Raw and vegan recipes are a great place to start though. 

Okay now the most important thing right? Dessert. Yes dieting sucks, especially when your doctor tells you that you have to do it. So we crave sugar, sweets, and desserts more than ever once we can't have them. Well here are some solutions:

• Chocolate Covered Katie - the healthy dessert goddess and her blogs. There are still some recipes that are not allowed (bummer, I know) but if you look under the special diet recipes section you will find she has separated things by gluten-free, soy-free, sugar-free, high protein, or raw recipes. All of her recipes are egg and dairy free. She's very allergy conscious and she's a definite life saver. 
• Diet, Dessert, and Dogs - a sugar/gluten free, allergy friendly, anti-candida site with more great recipes.

There are two books I've become familiar with that have been quite helpful as well. 

1) The Body Ecology Diet. She recommends a lot of her own products, so unless you want to purchase all of them, pay no attention. However, she knows a lot and has important ideas for anyone wanting to live a healthy lifestyle to understand. 

2) Eat Free by Rhiannon Lawrence. She has great recipes. It was about $5 on my Kindle app on the iPhone. Beware - she suggests agave quite a bit. I've done my own research on agave and have decided against it (as has my physician) but you may do your own and decide if agave is okay for you or not.

Now I'm sure there are more resources and helpful hints out there so if you have some to share with your fellow healthaholics, please be generous. 

Welcome to the Blog

Alright let's be real - not everyone is interested in being healthy or hearing about healthy. However, due to medical conditions, being healthy has taken over my entire life. So in order to keep my fellow bloggers interested (yes, a whopping 15 followers) I have decided to create a page for my health endeavors and recipe successes (or failures) that is separate from my personal blog.

We'll see whether this will last or falls flat on it's screen.