Hello Out There

Not that I ever had a very wide readership here, but I fear that with my infrequent and increasingly boring posts, I may drive away the few of you that still come around to check in on me. Sorry about that, but I've only got what I've got. And right now it's not much time for blogging and not always a ton of inspiration.

I'm on day three of a candida yeast kill-off. Candida yeast can become overgrown in your body, and once it does it can give you all sorts of problems. Things like skin problems, fatigue, depression, trouble losing weight, and a ton of other stuff. I've suspected for a long time that I had a candida yeast overgrowth, but all I knew to do about it was a diet so strict that I didn't think I could manage it at the time. Last year I found out about an herbal product that speeds up the process of the yeastie beasties getting killed off, without having to do as extreme a dietary restriction. I've kept it in mind for when I felt like I could take the plunge. I decided to wait til after all the temptations of the holidays were over, so now I am on day 3 of this process.

Starting this anti-candida yeast campaign coordinates with the other things I'm doing to try to get my health and weight under control. I've gotten back on the exercise bandwagon, and am even doing the very strict candida yeast diet that I thought I would not be able to do. It just happens to fit other goals that I had for myself, such as getting off of sugar, and not eating high glycemic foods. So, basically, for the time that I am going through this process I am eating veggies and meat/chicken/eggs. What I'm not eating is:
-sugar
-fruit
-grains in any form (no pasta, bread, crackers, or ANYTHING!)

As the yeast starts to die off you experience cravings for the foods that would feed the yeast (sugar and yeast, basically). So, now that's it's day three it's starting to feel rough. Add in sugar withdrawal and I'm headed for a tough couple of days.

Fortunately, I've gotten off of sugar before, and know that after a day or two of intense cravings, it becomes very easy. I can remember being so unaffected by sugar that I could go to a church pot luck and pass by the dessert table without feeling even one little pang of wish that I could eat something from it.

The hardest part about doing this is that my food options feel very limited, and also that there is absolutely nothing "fun" that I can eat! In the past when I got off sugar, I still had my fruits and breads and honey. Now I have nothing. It ain't easy!

I'm really looking forward to feeling better and resolving some health issues that I believe are caused by this yeast issue, though. It will be well worth my efforts.

Since I'm eating so little food plus exercising extra, I hope that I'll be tossing off some weight too. It was a severe bummer to see pictures of myself from Christmas and realize how really, really bad (fat!) I look. I think that in my imagination I was still thinking of myself as looking a lot better than I do. The truth hurts, folks. I've gotten weepy about it almost every day since seeing those photos.

There are some other health issues that I believe have been standing in the way of me feeling good and being able to lose weight. One is some pooped-out adrenals, the other is a messed up thyroid system. I am getting to work on both of those soon too. After that, I'm going to give Hoodia a whirl. I'm normally very skeptical about weight loss supplements, but as I've learned more about what Hoodia is and how it works, I think it's worth a try. Basically, it's from a plant, and it helps you lose weight by both acting as an appetite suppressant, plus burning up excess fat for fuel. Lord knows I've got plenty of extra fuel here to burn up! Burn baby, burn.....

Looking at weight loss from a holistic standpoint makes so much sense, I don't know why it's not done more often. I am looking forward to going through this process both for my own health benefits, as well as to learn first-hand so I can help others down the road. So many people have a very hard time losing weight, and if their body systems aren't functioning well, they are not likely to have much success. It would be so great to be able to help people be healthier all the way around!