ND Visit: Sometimes it's not what you think it is; and The Most Lenient Ever Candida Diet!

I went to the ND yesterday and had a good talk. He had more data for me and it turned out that his hypotheses for the symptoms that I mentioned in my last post were quite different from mine and were nothing to do with either PUFAs or increased fruit consumption (although he did gently chide me for the chocolate-eating, which never seems to have good effects on me).

So, talk about moving targets! It seems like we seldom have all the data, even listening acutely to our own bodies. It turns out that it's quite possible that my perceived nausea reaction to chia or flax in my morning smoothies was a false correlation: there are several bad bacteria in my gut right now that are more likely responsible for the various recent stomach upsets. As for the less-than-perfect skin, he thinks that that is far more likely to be residual toxin elimination after all the chelating, as well as the elevated testosterone that I'm currently manifesting. He says that my hormone lineup is consistent with polycystic ovaries, and that this is a not-infrequent longterm ramification of having had a serious eating disorder or been very underweight for a very long time. If you look it up on Wikipedia, you'll see that most people with polycystic ovaries are either insulin resistant or obese or both (and I'm neither). Aside from the questionability of such a generalized source as Wikipedia for something so specific, of course there are exceptions to this, but the more I explore in this area, the more I see the cruel irony manifested that long-term problems post-anorexia mirror problems of obesity so closely. Thank goodness for all the tools I have to keep from freaking out about all this.

As I mentioned earlier this week, I'm taking a writing class this weekend with the wonderful Peggy Shumaker, with whom I've studied before at the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival and will in the future as she's on the faculty for my MFA program. It is a great opportunity and feels so good: it also means that time is even tighter this weekend, so I'll keep this short.

It's finally time to deal with the 'yeastie beastie' issue!

candida culture

Almost a year ago, I wrote on here about all the different yeastie beasties partying out in my guts. There were five different species then: now, after a year of all kinds of other rebalancing, chelating, etc, preceded by an intense yeast cleanse, there are only two! I've been treading water on this issue for a while and it feels so good to be getting ready to kick it to the curb. So I'm taking some pretty intense herbs and chemicals, as well as probiotic supplements. My ND warned that I'll likely feel lousy for the first four weeks, but that this could be mitigated by spending more time doing saunas or steams...

I wrote last summer in detail about how much this helped me with the chelating process. This is the same principle.

What about the diet? Well, I've been put on the most lenient candida diet I ever heard of. Not even close to Rainbow Green Phase I that I was doing last year (more like Phase II actually). There are very few things that I'm regularly eating that I have to avoid completely for the next three months. He's said that I can even have five servings of fruit per week (as green apples and berries with skins)! Kombucha and water kefir are out for the next three months, but kim chee and coconut kefir are still on the table. Stevia and xylitol are fine: xylitol has even shown some promise as a yeast-inhibitor. He says eat as many yams, peas, raw carrots as I want (now bear in mind, he knows how much (or little) this is likely to be. He tells me to eat lots of things that he doesn't tell other people!) Maca, mesquite, carob are all fine. Obviously no caffeine, but the only caffeine I consume is chocolate and I needed to quit that anyway for other reasons.

Something I might not have guessed if we hadn't talked about it: he said to avoid dried tomatoes or canned tomatoes: anything that concentrates the sugars and might allow for fermentation. Otherwise, I'll have to share my leftover birthday cake without indulging further, since it has some coconut nectar and cacao (and dates in the crust), but I can make other delectable things!

I can make more of these...

...and other coconut/stevia-based delectables...

And I can replace fruit and berries in my smoothies with more irish moss and with peas, and make lots more like this one.

My ND's absolute most important point was that I shouldn't allow myself to go back into restriction mode or get into depriving myself at any point in this process. Phil teased me that that would be a disappointment, that I want to give up stuff--there's an element of truth in that, I suppose. I'm glad of all the positive work I'm doing within myself to help me feel good about this mood of abundance.

So, I may be feeling lousy for a month or so, and am tweaking my diet in yet another way for three months, but right now I'm feeling positive, excited, happy and optimistic about this whole process.

What do you think: is that a crazily lenient diet? Do you believe that optimism makes success more likely?

Have a beautiful weekend!