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!

Do you ever wake up angry and just can’t explain it?

Do you ever wake up angry and you just can’t explain it? That is until you start walking around the house after your husband watched the kids last night (while you were working) and realize that things are in total disarray? Then you think about when he asked you yesterday what you did all day (while he was gone fishing), almost in a tone that says “wow this place looks like shit WHAT did you do all day?” The fact that your daughter finally decided to do her laundry last night but didn’t put it in the dryer, then when you open the dryer to put her clothes in you realize that she put YOUR clothes in the dryer and not all of them belong in the dryer.  Then you look outside as you are coming upstairs from the laundry fiasco to see that she left the baby stroller outside last night and it rained. There are dishes to be done, diapers to wash, oh yeah and number 3 decided to pee in bed again, so that means stripping the bed AGAIN and washing everything on the bed AGAIN, which really means two extra loads of washing because you can’t wash it all at the same time. No wonder I can never get ahead on laundry! Then there is payroll that needs to get done while I try to breastfeed a clingy baby all day. Don’t get me wrong, I love my family, they just drive me a little crazy sometimes. I find myself getting more and more frustrated as I walk through the house; drink glasses left on the table, baby food (that I took the time to make for the whole week) got left out on the table (which means I have to make a new batch for the whole week), jeans left on the chair, sweatshirts on the couch, no clean towels left in the house… It goes on and on. Everything that I need to get done today is not stuff that is visually noticable so when the husband gets home today from taking number 3 to hockey practice he’ll probably ask “what did you do all day” and I’ll probably take it the wrong way and blow up. Some days a girl just can’t  get ahead!

Freaking Out

I just had a major meltdown about an hour ago, I’m still coming down from it I think. Maybe it was a combination of pregnancy hormones, hunger and stress but it was not good whatever it was. I’ve had an open invoice from a catering that we did back in March, trying to get paid has been a  nightmare because it is with a government contract. Anyway, I was finally able to access the website and get registered. See the way these contracts work is you have to submit your invoice to the pay officer, they submit it for contracting, then the vendor (me) has to jump through all sorts of hoops to actually get paid. You have to register at this website to get a code, then you have to register at that website to get another code, then the person who has to submit the contract needs these little codes to submit another form. Just when I thought everything was submitted I got another email saying that I needed to go to another website, register my vendor information and then I needed to submit my invoice so that the contract person can push a button to send the money to my bank account. This has been a HUGE headache for me! Luckily I’m somewhat aware of how these military contracts work because of my work experience but it is still frustrating. Anyway, back to the freaking out… I was on the phone with a customer service representative from this new website that I needed to register on, my youngest child (age 3 1/2) has yet to learn not to bother mommy on the phone. The oldest two (9 and 8) are chatting it up in the other room, I’ve continued to remind them that I’m on the phone and need them to please be quiet. I manage to get registered on this really confusing website but the noise is escalating, my patience level is running low, I’m hungry, I really can’t seem to figure this f*&^ing website out. I yelled at the kids to go outside until I get this figured out but they managed to sneak back inside. Finally I’d had enough, I started yelling screaming at my kids, then my youngest (who had a pacifier in his mouth even though he’s only suppose to have one at bedtime) said he hated me (something that he learned from his older brother). I freaked out, grabbed the scissors and cut up all of his Nuks. This only led to a meltdown from him, me shaking in anger, me screaming at my older kids. I did not feel good about my behavior, I had lost control, snapped at my husband and made my kids all feel bad. I did finally end up getting my invoice submitted (I hope) and I’m feeling a little better (even though I could just about cry). Why do some days have to be so complicated? It’s like all of the pent up aggravations decide to come out on one day, like a great big volcanic explosion.

This all alludes to my idea of getting into some sort of routine, I’ve been doing a cleaning routine for a few weeks that seems to be working pretty well, but some days I just can’t seem to get focused when it comes to everything else. I’ve tried routines in the past but they have all seemed to fail. I think it’s because my husband and I are so totally opposite. I need a plan of attack, I write lists, when we go on vacations I plan out a flexible itinerary, but Will is the opposite. He seems to just fly by the seat of his pants all the time. I get really frustrated when he wants to go on errands with me because I’m very methodical, I go to the bank, to the post office, I do anything else that I need to get done in town but he often forgets half of the things he needs at the house, I end up driving back home to get his wallet or whatever it was he forgot. Then he talks, talks, talks; meanwhile I’m thinking “I’m on a schedule, I have things to do”. I try to go alone when I need to get things done to avoid the frustration but some days that just doesn’t work. I’ve been doing a good job of keeping up on my book keeping while events are going on at the Ballroom, but sometimes the noise is very distracting (if only I could sound proof my office). I don’t like to bring my work home because I need the separation of home stuff and work stuff. Everything ends up pilling together and I get really stressed out from the clutter. I’m getting more organized but it is a slow process and the days when I have to work away from home sometimes throws me all off. I’ll just have to look for some ideas about a flexible routine that I can actually stick to but for now I’m off to see Magic Mike (I really need to take a break today)!