The Candida Diet

Sorry, no cute pictures of Lila on this one. This post is all about the candida diet- I had e-mails, FB comments and messages asking questions about the diet. Here's what I know, and a little bit of history that led me to start the diet.

SO................. I'm on day 2 of the candida diet. And it pretty much sucks so far. Nobody's forcing me to do it, this I know, but I'm prrrrrrrettttttttyyyyy sure I need to do it. For 13 months I was misdiagnosed with urinary tract infections. All of my symptoms were consistent with urinary tract infections and the quick urine test that they do supported that as well, so I was given antibiotics. 9 separate prescriptions in 13 months. During this time I was being seen by a urologist. I had a bladder scan and a CT scan. The urologist told me to take my time urinating, ensuring that I had emptied my bladder, and gave me instructions to take cranberry and vitamin C. Done. (There were other instructions too but I'm fairly certain that everyone reading this is probably pretty familiar with them.) I did everything she told me to do. It seemed like I couldn't catch a break- I just kept having the same symptoms over and over. But I finally did get a break when I was seen by a Physicians Assistant instead of a urologist. After talking with me she told me that she thought that I had a yeast infection and hadn't been able to get over it because I kept taking antibiotics which were just making the yeast infection worse. One dose of Diflucan and my symptoms totally went away! Yikes! I wish I had seen her at the beginning of the process! She talked to me about the excess yeast in my system, exacerbated by the antibiotics, and that I probably needed to do a cleanse. Yeah, yeah. I'm busy. Then I talked to my sister Donna and she told me the same thing. I really had every intention of doing it but I was looking for the perfect time to do it- when I had basically nothing else going on. Never. going. to. happen. Then I came across a list of symptoms associated with candida.

• Frequent stomach pains and digestion problems
• Skin problems (skin infections, eczema, psoriasis, acne)
• Foggy brain / Trouble concentrating
• Constant tiredness and exhaustion
• Anxiety
• Mood swings
• Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)
• Anger outbursts
• Irritability
• Headaches
• Intense cravings for sugars, sweets, and breads
• Itchy skin
• Inability to lose weight

These can obviously be symptoms of many other things but...... I started thinking that some of my symptoms really became obvious when I started having the "urinary tract" infections! And the more antibiotics I put into my body, the worse some of these symptoms got. Constant tiredness, headaches, inability to lose weight, foggy brain, and the cravings..... what's all that about? I'm a food person- a meat and potatoes girl. I'd much rather have an extra helping of potatoes than dessert. But all of a sudden I want chocolate, bread, brownies, and cake. I don't even like cake!

Exhibit A: Here's a picture of Tiffani, Lila and me 2 days after Lila came home from the NICU. That would be 7 weeks and 4 days after her birth.


Exhibit B: Here's a picture of Nick and me taken about 2 weeks ago.

Okay, so it's difficult to see what I'm talking about but you can see that I've gained weight. About 15 pounds worth of weight to be exact. The whole point is that 80% of the clothes in my closet don't fit me. Not just that they're not flattering, I can't button or zip them. Something's gotta give! So I'm doing this candida diet in hopes that I will feel better and that I will not have to give all of my clothes away. Here are links to two of the best websites that I have found explaining the candida diet.

www.yeastinfectionadvisor.com/candidadiet

www.womentowomen.com/digestionandgihealth/candida

I'm warning you- it's not easy. And when the website says you won't be hungry? Don't believe it for a minute.

But...................Enough about this. There are much happier things to tell!

Linda