Does anyone else feel like someone they love isn't open to the idea of healthy living? I have made it a high priority to research healthy lifestyles so I can prepare the most healthy meals and snacks for my family, and I get excited and share with anyone who will listen :-) Then, it can take the wind out of my sails when someone you want to see improve their health, purposely do the opposite of what you've been talking about.
I am not a nutritionist. I have a degree in psychology and education, not a degree anywhere related to health and wellness. I am self-educating by researching and consulting with people who DO have medical and nutritional degrees. When I learn something new, I want to apply it to our lives as soon as possible so I can slowly learn how to adjust our lifestyle. This way is best for me because I can be kind of a perfectionist to the point of quitting if I mess up. The "start it and continue to learn" method works for me because I'm OK with making mistakes as I'm learning more information about the lifestyle change.
The first adjustment I made to our diets was avoiding gluten. It took me months to feel familiar enough with places gluten hides to make confident purchases at the grocery store. At about the same time, I reduced the amount of dairy. We used vanilla almond or soy milk for cereal. (The girls called it ice cream milk because the vanilla flavoring reminded them of ice cream.) We still don't do much dairy, but we do have milk with the occasional bowl of cereal. My kids LOVE cheese and our ND said that our bodies process cheese more easily than cow milk because of the way it's processed. He suggested goat milk instead of cow milk. Apparently goat milk enzymes are more compatible with our bodies.
Then I looked into Paleo. Let me just say, that if you are a person who is conscious of the chemicals that are in boxed, canned and bagged foods, Paleo is an easy way to go. I was so stressed out while I was grocery shopping, checking labels for toxins and the 60 names for each toxin, and different names for gluten contents! For a while, I literally had a list of all the chemical names in my purse to check before putting something in my cart.
Then, when I decided Paleo was even better of an option than gluten-free, my stress moved from looking at the chemical contents in everything to the cost of everything. I no longer had to worry if I missed one of the ingredients, or if there was an ingredient name that wasn't on my list but also wasn't familiar to me. It was SO EASY! If I could buy it "as is" from an organic farmer or grow it myself, then it clearly didn't contain all those things I was looking for on boxed and canned foods. However, I was concerned about pricing. Organic fruits, organic vegetables and meat from animals that live as naturally as possible can be pretty expensive. But, what I noticed is that I wasn't spending money on gluten-free waffles, chips, and snacks; so, when the final bill came at the register, it wasn't any different than before.
Next I looked into the Alkaline diet. At that time, I had some skin issues and suspected candida albicans overgrowth was responsible. I tested my pH frequently and was always EXTREMELY acidic (prime breeding grounds for things like candida and disease). So I tried to merge the Alkaline diet into the Paleo as well as the Candida diet. Oh deary me! I probably could have done a 3 ring VennDiagram and would've only had broccoli and asparagus that was acceptable on all 3 diets. How frustrating!
Finally, I talked to my ND, got confirmation of my candida suspicions and asked for diet suggestions. Candida is a yeast/fungus that is naturally in our bodies, but when intestinal flora is out of whack can allow the candida to kind of take over. It feeds on access sugar, so people on the Candida Diet don't eat sugar and sometimes don't even eat fruit because of the high sugar content. When I expressed my frustration with my ND about finding a proper lifestyle, not just a diet, for our family, he suggested Trim Healthy Mamma. I put the book on my Christmas list and found a copy at the library to hold me over until Christmas! I have not read the 600+ page book, but from talking with our ND, it makes sense. Our body's reaction to foods depends on a lot of things, including what other things we eat with it. For example, he said that if you eat a meat and a starchy carb like potatoes, it causes a bigger spike in our blood sugar and stimulates our pancreas more than if the carb was eaten separately. This book is all about the glycemic index. If there's no excess sugar in my body, the candida has nothing to feed off from, right? Plus, it also seems to be 99% Paleo friendly, using organic, natural and preservative free foods.
SO... what I've decided is this: I'm going to try out the Trim Healthy Mamma lifestyle and keep you all posted :-) From what I have been reading on different blogs and on the THM website, my husband probably won't notice any difference in our diet! We'll be eating meats, fruits, veggies, eggs... all the stuff we were eating honoring the Paleo thought process, but the food items will be paired more intentionally. There are even some great recipes for sugar-free desserts and even CHOCOLATE!!! Now, I haven't had much of anything sweet since I found out about the candida. Let me tell you, if I can't have it, it's not coming in this house. If there is any kind of sweets in my house and I know I'm not supposed to have them, I eat them. Plain and simple. I have great self-control at the grocery store, so I don't buy sweets. If there are any sweets in my house, they were gifted to my husband or children, most likely by my in-laws or one of my grandmas. Point being, I'm looking forward to these new recipes that will satisfy my sweet tooth without feeding the candida.
I'll keep you posted and might even share some recipes :-)
No comments:
Post a Comment