When It's Time to Change...

Have you ever read something on the internet and thought "Wow. It would have been really nice to have known that a year ago?" Well the last few weeks have been that, over and over again for me. I am still on the GAPS diet, plugging away but I have been making some BIG changes. After 12 months on the GAPS diet I figured that I would be feeling pretty great and that I would be well on my way to recovery. The problem was, however, that I felt terrible. I felt worse. How was this even possible with all the work that I had been doing. So I kept plugging along at it, never understanding why my symptoms never got better and others appeared in their place.

The candida infection never left. It would get worse and then get better but it never totally went away, no matter how low carb I went. I felt tired all the time; depression would creep in at every little disturbance especially foster parenting stress would put me into a tailspin; my appetite disappeared both for food and sex; I got terrible PMS symptoms of incredibly tender breasts, acne and spotting a week before my period; my cycles were irregular;  and I started to put on a lot of weight even though I wasn't eating any more calories. What was going on?

I have been following the Cheeseslave blog for a few years and while I don't always agree with her, I think that I was absolutely meant to read the posts she has been writing recently about what being low carb did to her and it was like reading my own story. I had NO idea that being low carb for too long could be dangerous. Everything I had read, like on Mark's Daily Apple, said that if you stayed between 100-150 carb grams per day, you were golden for life! I was afraid of adding too many carbs for fear of my candida beast and the possible effect on my insulin resistance. It was just easier to restrict my carbs since I had been doing it for so long so I usually stayed somewhere between 50-100 net carbs a day.

Now it is like EVERYBODY, even Paleo/Primal bloggers are coming out with these studies about how being low carb for too long with stress your adrenals. Matt Stone was writing about this long ago but his style can be so abrasive that I generally ignored him. Now, however, I am paying more attention and what he has been saying has been backed up so many times that I think I can say that he knows what he is talking about. 

So now what is my game plan 15 months into the GAPS diet and feeling no better than when I started? Well, number one, I started eating more carbohydrates and more often. To repair adrenals it is best to eat 3 meals and 3 snacks a day, but it is really hard for me to do that on GAPS without spending my life in the kitchen. To boost my carbohydrate intake, in the last two weeks I have added some GAPS legal legumes (split peas and lentils) and I have also been eating more fruit and honey. While the extra carbs do aggravate the candida, it wasn't going away anyway and it doesn't seem to be getting worse so I will press on. I am supplementing with Adrenal Stress End which is a blend of adrenal cortex and some herbs that was recommended by another GAPS blogger in a similar situation. I do not like that it containes Betaine however since it gives me heartburn. I am also supplementing with Magnesium oil, Magnesium Citrate, B-Complex, Vitamin C and Zinc Piccolinate, all of which are supposed to support the adrenals. In addition I started to brew my own Rooibos Kombucha which helps with detoxification and should help with the candida.

Matt Stone recommends overfeeding and a lot of R&R to repair stressed adrenals, but unfortunately for me as a mom and especially as a foster parent I just don't have that luxury. I have been going to bed earlier; a bedtime between 9-10 pm is recommended as well as naps throughout the day (again, that really wouldn't work for me). Stress reduction is a HUGE but the only way I would see that happening is if our foster baby went home, which would make me sad.

So that is what I am doing and where I am at. So far I am feeling better and I am no longer constipated which is what always happens whenever I get stressed. I have been waking up less groggy and without arthritic-like pain in my joints. Those are good signs so far and I am hoping for even greater improvements in the next few weeks.

Retracing One Year

It is now just over one year since I went on my grain-free, soy-free, sugar-free, starch-free, preservative-free, processed-free etc. diet in a quest for healing. To recap my year, I started with a very strict diet/supplement regimen and did that for about seven months before switching to the GAPS diet and have been much happier since. When I found Bee's Candida Control diet it sounded like the perfect solution for me, and it may have been at the time, but then she started to change things, becoming more inflexible and wandering into the uncharted territory of what I have since learned is Scientology. The over-reliance on supplements (I was spending $170/month on supplements) and the seemingly random diet altering decisions made by Bee propelled me in the direction of the GAPS diet. GAPS is actually based on science and is a healing program involving certain steps vs. Bee's diet which consists of very strict food restriction based on someones (She never explained how she came to this) ratio of fats/protein/carbs. I did heal on Bee's diet but I also think I went through unnecessary suffering and deprivation as my body struggled with the toxin overload. While the GAPS diet does have supplements (mainly strong probiotics) it isn't necessary to take them if you can't afford it. Food probiotics such as fermented veggies, yogurt, kefir etc. can also give you the same benefits. At this time the only supplements I am taking are Magnesium Citrate, Zing Piccolinate and fermented cod liver oil and my cost is down to less than $35/month.

The GAPS diet has been less challenging in many ways but I have still had my setbacks. In March when I switched to GAPS I decided to add dairy and added it much too quickly which gave me an itchy eczema/detox rash around my eyes and it wasn't until I did the GAPS Introduction diet, removing all dairy, in early September that the bumps went away and I saw very serious improvements in my digestion. The GAPS diet is supposed to take around two years of healing but the second year is supposed to be the best as far as seeing results goes. I am hoping that by June I will have been able to have slowly added dairy again to the point that I can eat cheese. At this point I am only eating ghee with small amounts of butter every so often. Coconut yogurt (homemade) has become a food staple and as soon as I can get a culture I am going to add coconut kefir.

So, how about my symptoms? This last summer was very stressful for me with being a foster parent and I think I suffered some setbacks because of that. In June I think I even had a hysterical pregnancy but that was probably not related to the diet at all so much as the frustrations of having a newborn in my home being raised by a 14 year-old. One thing that has bugged me was that my cycles have been a bit off since June varying between 28 and my usual 33 days with the flow being much heavier. I have also been having really intense PMS symptoms, the most irritating of which is extremely tender breasts for a week or more each cycle. Ugh. BUT the yeastie-beastie's have mostly gone. I get a flare every so often but it goes away in a few days. It seems that my body is switching to detoxing through the skin which I have read is a good sign because the skin is the body's largest detox organ. Once I stop detoxing through my skin so much it should be a sign that my endocrine/lymphatic systems are up to par. 

One of the anecdotal natural healing signs is called "Retracing." This means that your body will "retrace" injuries/illnesses that you have had in an effort to heal itself. For example: If you had a major episode of illness years ago you will have the ilness again sometime during your healing, albeit less severely. I am not sure how much credence I can give to this theory but I was wondering about it this morning. Last week I was horribly sick for over a week with Bronchitis/Sinusitis, which is much longer than I am normally sick, and it really kicked my butt. I had a thought this morning that I could be retracing an episode seven years ago when I had my very first combined Bronchitis/Sinusitis which held me captive for two months and left me with damaged lungs and sinus' prone to infection. Now every time I get a cold I often get both and end up quite miserable. It would be nice if that was a healing episode because if it was it most likely won't happen again (so the theory goes) unless I let my health go. By the way, I treated the infection with raw apple cider vinegar; 2 tbsp. in 6 oz. of water as often as I could stand it. It worked quite well.

So that has been my year. It hasn't been very exciting or fun but I am glad that I am doing something to try to get my health where it needs to be so that I can conceive and carry another pregnancy. It is nice that I feel much better most of the time and as an added bonus, the food is seriously so good.

Holy Cow! 9 Months!

Just a little update because I have some fabulous news and you probably won't even believe me. The GAPS diet is steadily moving forward. I am ever so slowly healing and learning the rhythms of how my body heals. Bodies are weird. When I started GAPS I developed a new symptom: tiny little painful pustules around my eyes accompanied by eczema. I had never had either of these before so I felt like my diet was a lost cause. Thanks to the Interwebs I discovered that for some reason or another (detox?) the pustules commonly appear with the addition of dairy to the diet after a long hiatus. Aha! Eventually they just go away but in the meantime I am treating them with a healthy dose of topical coconut oil.

And now for the fabulousness: I healed a cavity! You heard me right! In December I had a cavity that my dentist wanted to fill right away because it was pretty bad. It was way back on one of my last molars in between the teeth where food has a tendency to get caught. Well, aside from the fact that I didn't like the guy in the first place, I strongly believed that my dietary changes would allow my teeth to heal themselves and refused the filling despite dire warnings against my choice and guess what? The cavity is gone! Hurray!

I am starting to feel like this diet is going to be something I stick with for the long haul. The more time I spend eating this way, the easier it gets. All the food prep can be daunting and having a teenage foster daughter who refused to eat anything not heavily processed made things even harder but now that she is gone my time in the kitchen feels easy peasy.  I still can't eat most fruits without a bad reaction, but berries don't seem to bother me at all. I also recently added dairy kefir and raw honey and I am okay with them in small doses.

Healing is wonderful! Today I learned that my mom was just diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes and my first thought was "I will not follow suit." With all the healing that I have felt so far on this diet, I really believe that I won't. Right now I am feeling so grateful that I have had all these health problems at such a young age when change doesn't seem insurmountable and infertility is a HUGE motivator. I never thought I would say that I am grateful for my various maladies but with this diet and the healing I am experiencing the future seems so much brighter! 

Is It Supposed to Feel Like This? Month 6

I feel really great! Well, most days are good and that is a serious improvement! This last month has been tricky trying to adjust to being on GAPS/SCD instead of Bee's diet. I went a bit crazy at first jumping into all the things that I hadn't been allowed before like yogurt, cheese, berries, honey and nuts. Too much, too fast. Now I have slowed down and am working on phase 3/4 of the GAPS Introduction Diet. I keep getting stalled on the dairy and nut flours but I have found that I can tolerate soured raw cream very well and the introduction pancakes. The key is going slowly, adding a little bit more every 2-3 days and paying attention to what my body is telling me.  Healing the gut takes a lot of time and energy on the part of the body and I have to keep reminding myself of that when I get impatient to add another food that I miss.

Adding fermented veggies to every meal makes a HUGE difference and I love them.. I am loving daikon pickles and kimchi especially. As far as fruit goes I am only eating cooked berries at this point because they are easier to digest and don't seem to give me any negative reactions. The only thing I will never add to my version of the GAPS diet is the juicing (because of the candida) and the probiotic BIO-KULT (because it is expensive).

I continue to do weekly enemas which are very helpful along with dry skin brushing. What it comes down to is that I feel really great. I am getting so much done! Every day I am so grateful and full of awe when I think "Oh! So this is how everyone else can do so much!" I feel like every minute of my day is filled to the brim and I am happy. I am no longer looking for excuses not to do things because I feel so tired and achy. Every day is different, and I still get bad days, but they are getting fewer and farther between. Food heals!

Making Some Changes

My last post about my 5 months on the diet was dire. I was feeling awful and wanted to give up. It turned out that my gallbladder was about to pass a bunch of gallstones, so I know why I was feeling so bad. While it was really uncomfortable and even painful at times, it was such a relief to know that my gallbladder was just detoxing. When things got really tough I did some coffee enemas and they made a big difference. I also only wanted to eat hard boiled eggs and drink bone broth, so I went with that. I am a big believer in following the body's cravings, except when it relates to sugar and high carbohydrate foods (then the body is saying it needs instant energy and there are better ways to feed it).

While I was going through that ordeal I decided that I needed to move in a different direction and have been drawn to the GAPS/SCD diets which are similar but much less strict. As far as GAPS goes, I find its system, especially its intro diet incredibly confusing, plus they advocate a very expensive probiotic that I doubt the efficacy of. On the other hand, I found that with the Specific Carbohydrate Diet probiotics are not necessary but probiotic foods are highly encouraged and that is more the direction that I want to go. On a SCD website I found an introduction diet specifically for sufferers of candida and I believe that is how I want to go, though I won't follow this exactly because I do not want to include juices or anti-fungals. It is in three stages and it is simple for me to follow. I am going to work on increasing my intake of fermented vegetables and also probably start culturing yogurt soon, making sure that I get a serving of fermented foods with every meal.

Here are the changes:

• Adding 1 oz. hard cheese a week ETA: It appears that I cannot tolerate cheese yet 3/23
• Adding 1 cup. cooked berries every other day
• Slowly add in small amounts of plain 24-hour fermented yogurt every day starting with one spoonful
• Decrease coconut oil to no more than 2 tbsp/day to help with the detox symptoms
• Occasional almond flour or almond butter
• Maybe some lentils?
• Maybe some raw honey? ETA: Honey is a no-no 3/24

I will continue with a modified Bee's diet with these small additions until my symptoms improve enough to move on. I may need to remove aspects of these changes depending on my reactions to them and it is a good idea not to eat ALL the news foods at the same time. Ideally they should be spread out 3-5 days or as much as a week. SLOW introduction is key to knowing what I should and should not eat. I also want to limit the amount of supplements I am taking. Wish me luck!

Saved!

 This Isn't My Lemon-Curd

What's a girl to do when the lemon curd curdles? Whip out the stick blender of course! Dessert saved.

Stevia Sweetened Lemon-Curd -I eat this like a pudding while it is still warm. Delicious!
3 Egg yolks, beaten slightly
1/8 c. fresh lemon juice
1/4 tsp liquid stevia
1/4 stick of butter (4 tbsp) OR half extra-virgin coconut oil and butter

I don't really have a good method for this. Sometimes it turns out, sometimes it doesn't. I usually combine the first 3 ingredients and then when the curd begins to form I take it off the heat and add the butter and stir it in like crazy. Tonight it didn't work so I emulsified it, mayonnaise style and it turned out silky and lovely. Here is a really interesting article that says it is fool-proof and because it uses whole eggs and not just egg yolks I might just have to modify my method. The author says to cream the fats and sugars (or in my case stevia) together and then add the eggs one at a time, as if you were making a cake. Lastly add the lemon juice. Pour the mixture into a heavy bottomed sauce pan and cook over low heat stirring constantly until it thickens nicely. The full recipe can be found here. 

Enjoy!

3 Months In, RESULTS & A Recipe!

FYI: I talk about poop in this post. If that doesn't disgust you read on...

These past few weeks of the diet were probably the most difficult. Christmas was brutal. I did pretty well staying to the diet but became incredibly constipated and got a kidney stone because I was eating too much protein and not enough fat. I was MISERABLE. Luckily for me, Bee had a plan for those who needed to get back on track. Liquid foods for 9 days and colon cleansing enema's every day. Sound fun? You know, it actually wasn't so bad! Towards the end I was getting really bored with the liquid diet but my digestion improved significantly and the enemas? I heard about the benefits of colon cleansing enemas in April 2010 and even bought an enema bag that sat, unopened until this episode. Oh my goodness, they are awesome! I didn't enjoy doing them but I loved how I felt afterward.

Now I am back on track and beginning to see results! I went to my fabulous doctor for my yearly physical last week it went really well. Everything was where it needed to be, and my blood pressure has finally gone up. Aside from being diagnosed with Fibromyalgia, which I knew was probably the case, I have a clean bill of health. The best part? My blood test results arrived today and my fasting glucose was perfect! That hasn't happened without medication since my diagnosis of insulin resistance in 2007!

I am so very encouraged by these very tangible signs of improvement. Though I was disheartened to hear that I most certainly have developed Fibromyalgia I am so confident that I can beat it with this diet. There is no cure for Fibromyalgia; and medical treatments (antidepressants and pain medications) have only been mildly successful but both diet and chiropractic have shown great promise in controlling the symptoms and even, (dare I say it?) curing, Fibromyalgia.

And now, a recipe I created during my liquid diet. This is a wonderfully nourishing recipe with nutritious eggs, mineral rich bone broth, B-Vitamins from the Nutritional Yeast and wonderful fats from the butter. This is very easily digested and would be ideal for someone who is sick. Seriously, this is delicious! It is fast and you can make as much or as little as you need. My whole family loved it, even the toddler. Enjoy!

Nourishing Egg Drop Soup
1 egg per cup of chicken broth (preferably a mineral rich bone broth)
1 tbsp. Nutritional Yeast Flakes (NOT Brewers Yeast!) per cup of broth
1 tbsp. butter per cup of broth
Salt and pepper to taste

Bring chicken broth, nutritional yeast flakes and butter to a boil. Gently beat the egg just until the white and yolk are combined. When the liquid is at a rolling boil slowly stir in the beaten egg(s), salt and pepper to taste and serve warm. I like to add extra butter or coconut oil at this point 1-2 tbsp.   

The Empty Womb

"Empty But for Love"

When I miscarried last August I wasn't ready to get pregnant right away. A nagging feeling kept telling me that it was a bad idea. Right after the loss I set a tentative date of January 2011 as the time when we would probably be ready to try to conceive again. And yet, here we are in January and there is no baby making going on, nor any in the foreseeable future.

At the moment not being pregnant just sucks. It seems like everyone that I know and love is pregnant (even my favorite blogger recently announced a pregnancy) and it hurts. I doesn't hurt in a jealousy kind of way; more in the way that I felt when I was infertile. It is lonely. That is why I titled this post "The Empty Womb" because that is really the only way to describe the feeling. Having experienced a pregnancy before I sometimes feel "ghost kicks" or muscle twitches/gas bubbles/whatever you want to call them that remind me that at this moment I would be less than a month away from my estimated due date and instantly I am overcome by sadness at my lost experience.

I just found out that one of my best friends is expecting a girl later this year. On Facebook. This is the same woman who told me she was pregnant the first time before she even tested! While I am not sure this is the case, I wonder if she would have told me earlier if I had not miscarried. I hated learning through a website. If I wasn't on Facebook would I have heard about it ever? Maybe next year we would get a Christmas card from them and there would be a baby! Surprise!

While I am still occasionally bitter and sad, I am growing to appreciate my currently empty womb. It has given me an opportunity to work on healing myself that I wouldn't have had if I had been pregnant/nursing. The empty womb has opened doors for us and the journey that Andrew and I have been on in the last few months has been amazing in so many ways. It has been so difficult and yet we know we are now on a path that we would not have otherwise gone to if we had not lost the pregnancy. I might even dare to say that this is a better path...but more on that later.

What on Earth do you EAT?!

Yes I am still on my diet and I survived Thanksgiving! I even made a primal pumpkin pie which tasted a lot like curry but was still delicious. Whenever someone I haven't talked to for a while hears about my diet the question of what I can eat invariably comes up. Basically I eat the same thing most people do, just modified. For example, instead of eating a starch at dinner I will eat a double portion of veggies. My husband and daughter might have a starch or fruit as a side with their meal, but for me meals must solely consist of protein, lots of fat and a vegetable. So here is an example of what I eat in a week:

Breakfast is almost always eggs so I don't really need to go into that too much. Lately I have been enjoying them sunny side up with a sliced avocado but I have also been known to eat them scrambled, hard boiled, poached, you name it. Lunch is usually leftovers so let's get right into dinners shall we?

Sunday: Polish sausages, sweet and sour red cabbage
Monday: Guacamole Beef over cauliflower rice
Tuesday: Spaghetti squash with marinara (Boves makes a great low-carb sauce) and meatballs, nutritional yeast, steamed broccoli
Wednesday: Roasted chicken with fennel and green salad
Thursday: Swiss chard and tomato frittata, green salad
Friday: Buchons au thon (modified to be primal w/nutritional yeast and 1 extra egg), buttered sauteed green beans
Saturday: Primal chicken "noodle" soup with cabbage noodles and primal crackers

Some of the things that are really helping me on my diet right now are Pau d'arco tea, which helps with die off and is also an anti fungal and stevia sweetened coconut macaroons which make a great snack. While I can't say that I am that creative in the kitchen I am always finding new recipes to try out. For example this coconut macadamia bark is calling my name and if you happen to know of a good chicken liver pate recipe that doesn't include booze or dairy please pass it on!

The Primalness

 Soy-free, low(er) Carb Chocolate!

Two weeks on the full on Candida control diet are over! I gave up the dark chocolate two days before Halloween and I wanted to die. Seriously. October 30th will stand forever as the day of infamy in our marriage where I blew a gasket so large that if it was a physical object it would have blown the roof off along with my head. Candida die off/withdrawls are REAL and they are scary, just ask my husband. Overall things are going pretty well. There was the one day that I ate half a pound of bacon but given that bacon is only 45 calories a strip I don't think it did much damage.

One of my friends expressed worry that I am starving myself on this diet but I assure you (and her), that I am far from starving. I am eating like Grok of Primal/Paleo lore. That is right, I am eating like a cave woman. Since I already try to eat seasonally I feel much more primal than most people on the primal diet. At this time of year greens and plants from the cabbage family are abundant, as are root vegetables by the way though I am not allowed to eat them. Swiss chard has found a permanent place in my kitchen. Roasted fennel is lovely. Bok choi entered yet again sauteed in butter with a little bit of garlic. I am really enjoying the fresh veggie variety in our diet!  

Mostly, I eat a lot of eggs. As a family we go through about 3-4 dozen eggs a week. This wouldn't be a big hit on our budget if it weren't for the fact that the pastured eggs we buy are somewhat more expensive. Happily, they are quite a bit healthier though. Speaking of eggs, because I am not allowed to have soy or any other processed oil, I have to make my own mayonnaise and I did it on my second try! Here is a tutorial of the method I used but I won't share a recipe until I perfect my own.

The most difficult thing about this diet has been eating out and with extended family. My mother-in-law has made a valiant effort to try to make food that I can eat. Otherwise I end up not going to family gatherings or eating out. Seafood and Steak House's tend to be pretty safe for me to eat at but they are also more expensive. At fast food I can usually get a garden salad if I pick out the cheese and carrots and bring my own salad dressing. It is REALLY annoying to go somewhere and have to pay full price for a menu item that you are not able to eat half the stuff off of!

As far as symptoms are going, I feel happier and my moods seem more stable. Things stress me out less, especially making meals. My candida infection symptoms are easing though not quite gone. I am still in the detox stage so I am not sure what is going to be my new normal. My skin looks great! My husband says that I have been more loving this week, which after the yeast die-off week of hell, I am not sure that is saying much.

The Start of A New Journey

So long, farewell! Photo credit

This last year has been one of learning and preparation for me. As I gently waded into the world of Real/Traditionally prepared foods I knew that I was barely touching the surface of my journey to health. Initially I started being drawn to traditional foods because of my daughters difficulty in digesting food and then as I began to learn and research, the pieces of the puzzle came together for me as well. All the years I struggled with feeling weak and useless could be traced back to one source: Candida albicans.

When I learned about the havoc that Candida can do to a weakened immune system it was made clear to me that all the symptoms I had been experiencing were related. Test after test with no result over the course of years were so frustrating! My Dr.'s said that I was in great health, but I could not understand how it could normal to feel achy, fatigued and irritable ALL the time. I played with many different diets: vegetarian, vegan, gluten free, grain free and now I think I have finally figured out what I need to do.

Enter, Bee's Candida Diet. I tried a different Candida cleanse earlier in the year and failed miserably. It was awful and had a colon cleansing element that I could, very literally, not stomach. Bee's diet is the most intense I have ever seen, but it is also the most comprehensive. The diet is on board with traditional foods preparation so I don't have to change anything and Bee's website has helpful tools to manage what you are eating. The diet can be broken down into a few key elements:

• The Diet: NO grains, dairy (except butter or ghee), fruit (except lemons and limes), sugar or sugar substitutes (except Stevia), legumes, nuts or seeds, vinegar (except raw/unfiltered ACV), starchy vegetables. LOTS of good fats! LOTS of protein! Eating a strict diet will keep the Candida from growing. I will modify by allowing some low carb. nuts and seeds in moderation and some berries as well unless my body tells me not to.
• Supplements: This element of the program along with eating lots of good fats is intended to repair your immune system. In addition to the Cod Liver Oil I am already taking I will need to add: Nutritional Yeast flakes for B vitamins and Niacin, Calcium Citrate, Magnesium Citrate, Vit. C and Vit. E.
• Time: People suffering from Candidiasis are often born with it if their parents also had it so Bee recommends that you stay on the diet for 1 month for every year of your life. For me that means twenty six and a half months.
• A Healing Balance: The website gives you information to help individualize your diet plan, which is one of the reasons I think this will work for me. According to my calculations I need to be eating 80 grams of protein, 200-280 grams of fat, and ONLY 64 grams of carbohydrate a day. I use FitDay to keep me on track.

One of the things I especially love about this diet are that there are NO awful anti-fungals (Oregano oil, ick!) and NO colon cleanses. Bee says that you can do at home colonics if you want but they are not required for the diet. Phew! I also love that this program is provided at no charge; that is a rare occurrence these days.

What will this mean for my family? Not a whole lot. Since I have been mostly grain free for about a month now I have learned to make substitutions/snacks for myself and when it comes to family meals, I just make sure to either make meals primal/paleo OR I put grains on the side so I can abstain if I wish. How about dining out? Today when I went to lunch with my father-in-law I ordered egg-drop soup and shrimp with bean sprouts, no rice. Last week at a different restaurant I just got a salad with chicken (I will need to bring my own salad dressings however).

Bee recommends keeping a journal to keep track of your progress and I think I will do that here now that I have my own personal blog space. I hope that you won't mind. The first step is list all of the "Symptoms, diseases, and malfunctions you have before starting the program." I am afraid to list all of these for all the world to see, but here goes:

• Chronic vaginal yeast infections. This is probably my most annoying symptom in that it is hard to ignore. Before I got pregnant this spring I could get an infection and cure it with topical cream or other natural cures, which I was doing every month; now, however, I cannot cure them with anything. It is very depressing.
• Chronic and extreme fatigue no matter how much sleep I get
• IBS symptoms: gas, bloating, occasional constipation/diarrhea with no known cause
• Abdominal cramps after eating
• Tinnitus, or ringing of the ears that never goes away
• Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome
• Sugar cravings
• Insulin Resistance/Diabetes
• Hypoglycemia
  
• Insomnia
• Depression
• Extreme irritability
• Cold hands and feet
• Itchy skin
• Acne
• Foul body odor
• Hot flashes
• Numbness/tingling in hands and feet

Yeah, this is a long list and most will probably be skeptical that they can come from a simple yeast overgrowth. Remember, though, I have been tested over and over to determine the medical cause of these numerous symptoms and aside from being diagnosed as insulin resistant there is no known cause. Doing this strict of a diet is daunting but I feel like God is leading me in this direction and has been for a while. I desperately want to be healthy for my family and my own sake. Starting next week, I go into full on Candida diet. Wish me luck!