Candida what?

Shortly after I stated my plan for waking up at 5:30 every morning I had a visit with my midwife. It was my yearly lady physical and when I showed her the rash on my arms she suggested that I had a problem with yeast overgrowth. I told her that my chiropractor had mentioned the same thing a few weeks earlier and so she recommended I started a Candida Diet for a while until I get my yeast under control.  It has been a nightmare. I did what I do best and started researching this diet and began eating the prescribed items. Which is basically just vegetables. Then I began agonizing over all of the things that I couldn’t eat! I’m trying to have a better attitude but it has been nothing short of torture. Getting up early was not going to be an option for a while.

“It is easier to change a man’s religion than to change his diet.” -Margaret Mead

I don’t know if it’s only a man thing because take away this woman’s chocolate and someone might get hurt. No dairy, no bread, no pasta, no beer, no sweets…pretty much everything that I eat on a typical day is no longer okay for me to have. I like vegetables and I’ve been telling myself that I need to adopt better eating habits. The funny thing about God is when you ask for something He gives it to you even if that means an overgrowth of yeast in your body.

It has been a few months now since I’ve started this Candida Diet, I do allow myself to eat treats occasionally otherwise I end up binging and feeling like crap for about four days. I have noticed a difference, especially when I eat something that I shouldn’t have. Today for example I ate two hot dogs from the gas station, nine hours later and I’m still feeling like crap. I wish I could just throw up and start over but I can’t and now I have to wait this yucky feeling out until tomorrow. Feeling like crap is motivation in itself to eat better.

I know that I have a long way to go because I still have cravings. What I have learned is that when you are having a craving, that craving is your body’s way of telling you that you need something. Have you ever craved a banana? That means you need potassium. Have you ever craved steak? You need iron. When you have a candida overgrowth the yeast craves sugar in a bad way. The sugar feeds the yeast and the cycle goes on and on. Add some stress to the mix, a few doses of antibiotics and now you have an overgrowth of candida yeast.  Then once you start starving the candida you get these horrible “die off” symptoms that make you want to just give up and eat the cupcake. The symptoms that I have felt are fatigue, nausea, body aches, headaches, moodiness, pretty much feeling like shit bad all the time until the yeast dies off. There is a little more to it but that sums it up.

I’ve have found a few different sources of information on the subject but I’ve found the book titled The Candida Cure by Ann Boroch to be the most helpful, along with www.thecandidadiet.com. Also, for some food inspiration (because you can only eat so much chicken, rice and veg) I’ve been following different hashtags on my Instagram account, check out #candidadiet, #candida, #plantbased.

On a different note, anyone who may be following this blog can find me now at www.ismomhome.com. I’m trying to step up my game a little bit and try out this self hosting business. Hopefully everything switches over but I’m not quite sure how to get all of my posts transferred. So far I’ve learned everything by watching videos on YouTube and I really haven’t had much luck in this department!

5:48AM

5:08AM. Molly wakes up to eat. “OMGoodness, I have to get up in like 20 minutes, ugggh”. I plop her on and let her eat while I drift back into slumber for the few more minutes that I can. My bed is so warm, the house is so quiet, I’M SO TIRED.

5:48AM. After pushing the snooze button on my phone for the third time I come to the conclusion that, yes, I really do need to do this now. But it’s so cold and I’M SO TIRED.
“Get up, get up, get up, get out of bed Tiffany, just get up… OK I’ll get up already!”

I lay Molly back in her crib and cover her with her fuzzy warm blanket.

I drag my sorry but down the hall and into the kitchen to start myself a pot of coffee. It couldn’t possibly brew any slower but I did it. I’m awake before 6AM and I’m out of bed. So it’s 30 minutes later that I had hoped for but baby steps, right?

So, now that I’m awake, where am I going to start? Maybe the leaning pile of papers on my desk? Maybe I’ll read? Maybe… I’ll just enjoy sitting in my office, drinking my coffee and enjoying the silence while it lasts…yup that sounds good.

Motivation

I am not a morning person. I’ve never been a morning person, my (older) kids learned at a very young age how to make themselves a bowl of cereal and turn on cartoons so that mommy could sleep a little longer. Well we no longer have cable and we have four children, so cereal and cartoons are not really an option anymore. I have been saying to myself that I need to just get out of bed and get my day rolling much earlier. When I get up earlier I feel like I have more time to get myself going before the kids rise and all hell breaks loose. Most days I feel like I fall out of bed and then I’m falling behind all day long. Maybe this is why my motivation levels have been way down.

This morning was no different than any other Monday, I wake up, lay in bed as my mind is telling me “just get up dummy, you can do it, get up, take a shower before everyone else starts waking up and needing something from you”. But I didn’t get up, I lay in bed trying to get just a few more minutes in.

Finally I get up because little man is looking for underpants, look at the clock and realize it’s go time and I need to get him off to daycare before the phone starts ringing. I rush out the door in my pajamas, with my wild morning hair and get him to daycare before 9:30. Once I get back home my plan was to take a shower and get ready for the day. As I write this I am still in my pajamas. I attempted at making myself some breakfast but between the baby trying to eat, the phone ringing and sick kids down the hall I finally managed to make some juice and a peanut butter sandwich. This is my life, every day I’m rushing around trying to get everything done and nothing seems to quite go right.

I need to get up earlier!

As an effort of procrastination (something I’m really good at doing) I went on to zen habits habits. I found something about motivation and read that a good way at motivating yourself is to publicly announce that you’ll be doing something to keep you accountable. So here it goes…

I will get up, out of bed by 5:30 am every day for the next 2 weeks!

Victory!

Today I did it, I put on my skinny jeans and they zipped AND buttoned! I did a little victory dance in the bathroom and continued with my morning. It isn’t a great surprise to me because I was able to fit back into my pre pregnancy clothes all around the two week marker. I didn’t mentioned all of the goodness spilling out of my jeans and they are not by any means comfortable but they fit! I feel like that is a step in the right direction.

I’ve been doing a few exercises (only recommended by my midwife) and trying to get my back strong again by doing some of the physical therapy exercises given by my chiropractor. I’m anxious to start working out but I’m so tired that I don’t think it is a good idea at this point. I have a post pregnancy yoga workout that I will probably start doing in the next few days. I’m really excited and motivated to get back into shape!

After I had Willie it took me a long time to get back into working out regularly and I never felt like I got into shape. Sure I lost the weight fairly easily but I never had that defined body that I wanted. Eating habits had a lot to do with it and we were really focused on our business development at the time. Will and I both gained a bit of weight during the first few years of owning our business. Now I feel like I am comfortable with my contributions at the ballroom and better able to juggle things at home.

I have an appointment with my midwife next week and I’m hoping she will give me a thumbs up to begin a workout routine!