Monday, March 11, I was diagnosis as having candidiasis, which is "a fungal infection caused by yeasts that belong to the genus Candida. There are over 20 species of Candida yeasts that can cause infection in humans, the most common of which is Candida albicans. Candida yeasts normally live on the skin and mucous membranes without causing infection; however, overgrowth of these organisms can cause symptoms to develop. Symptoms of candidiasis vary depending on the area of the body that is infected." (http://www.cdc.gov/fungal/candidiasis/)
When I found this out, I wanted to dance for joy! Because you cannot fix something if you do not know what the problem is. The problems I was having were low energy, being diagnosed as bipolar and having to take crummy medications and seeing a shrink 4 times a year just so he could ask me the same stupid questions (are you suicidal? No.) That along with struggling with my weight for over 20 years. I have not been under 200 pounds since I cannot remember when. Hard to believe I was ever svelte! I have 4 children and each pregnancy I just got fatter and fatter. (On Feb 16, 2013, I recorded my weight at 265 pounds. As of today, I am writing 257 pounds. My scale is horribly inaccurate, but when you got a lot of weight to lose 5 pounds either way makes really no difference.)
Turns out I am not bipolar, thank God. I am not off my prescribed mood stabilizing drugs and feel wonderful. I am taking Nystatin to kill off the Candida and have changed my diet dramatically.
I have been tracking my food intake since February at SparkPeople.com. The first thing I discovered was I was not getting enough protein intake. As I read other peoples' posts, first I came to grips with the fact that soymilk is really not that good for me. So I stopped drinking soymilk. Then I kept running across the word "paleo." Looked into that and thought, hey that makes a lot of sense. So I started eating the paleo (paleolithic aka cave man) way, which means no grains or legumes. Immediately started feeling better. It was a week after that I saw my new doctor and got the above diagnosis. The anti-Candida diet takes the paleo diet one step further in that the first month no sweet food at all, even stuff like sweet potatoes. Half your plate is protein and the other half vegetables. Since eating this way, I came to the conclusion I was eating way too much sweet stuff (like sweetened creamer for my coffee, even too much fruit). It has been an interesting transition.
The best part about this is that now there is hope! If you have ever struggled with a chronic problem, you know what I mean. It turns out the reason I could not lose weight - even though I was eating what is considered to be a normal healthy diet - is I was not feeding my body what it needed, namely protein and fats because I had learned about 20 years ago is that fat makes you fat. LOL. So not true! Carbs make you fat, especially carbs in the form of flour (bread, cereal). Not only that, grains and legumes cause auto-immune problems. More on that later.
Blessings to all. Kat
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