Getting Real About Candida

Hi friends,

I hope you’re all well and enjoying this beautiful Friday evening or Saturday morning. Last night was a blast, with Anthony’s cousins Tenille and Mark coming over for dinner.

Tenille brought a lovely bottle of red wine

Bird dog – how cute is that?

We started with a gorgeous salad filled with chickpeas, baked tofu, sunflower seeds, tomato, and red onion, with a homemade dressing of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, lemon juice and mustard.

Then, we sat down to our amazing Ethiopian stew. Yes, it was so good that we remade it. I’ll post the recipe soon, but it was chalk-full of red lentils, tomatoes, chicken, onions, ginger, and all sorts of other yummies. We had it on top of quinoa. It was totally to die for.

I mention all this because I woke up this morning physically very uncomfortable, for the approximately 193rd day in a row (not joking.) I have been battling with candida (also known as the dreaded yeast infection) for over six months. It has come and gone in that time, but never has stayed “gone.” I have tried naturopathic remedies, home remedies, and three western remedies. I am half-way through my fourth bout of western treatment (an anti-fungal medication) and so far, very very little improvement.

For those uninitiated, Candida is a natural yeast that always is in the body. Sometimes, it goes out of wack in it’s proportion, and runs havoc through your body, causing itching to skin and nether-regions, but also tons of other symptoms, including mood-swings (got-em bad!) headaches (sometimes) mental fog (yup) and fatigue (got it!) While I am dreading the food changes, I really look forward to see what clears up with the yeast clears out.

So, the time has come to get on what I have dreaded for months but had a feeling was coming – the anti-candida food plan.

The food plan is basically a stricter form of paleo in terms of sugars, but less restrictive in terms of grains (although still insanely restrictive.) Meals involve protein and vegetables, with some healthy fat. That’s it. You can have 1/3 cup grain OR sweet potato per day. Besides that, and beans (which are debatable, but I am keeping in for now) nothing else sweet. (I’m also keeping in carob and possibly re-introducing stevia.)

It scares the crap out of me. Even though I haven’t knowingly had refined sugar in 7 years, and gluten for at least four, I eat rice cakes, sweet potatoes, fruit, tofu, beans, corn, and all sorts of other “nos” on the plan in some combination a few times a day, at least. I love vinegars and soy sauce, and not to mention, a few glasses of wine per week.

That being said, I am so sick of being in pain and constant discomfort. It has affected my life (and relationship – use your imagination) in far too many ways, and I am ready to try anything to feel healthy, well, and sane again.

I am going to follow this food plan for at least a month, and see how it goes. I am grateful it has a little flexibility. My brother-in-law did the same one, and had an occasional glass of wine and still drastically improved, so I will probably keep that in my plan, just for sanity’s sake.

My whole food-plan is currently a bit up in the air, as I think I am terrified of being hungry while having to be so restrictive. Case in point:

So far today, I’ve had a (one-serving) can of tuna fish with 1/3 cup of lentils and baba ganoush.

Then, I had some ABU (amazing, amazing, amazing ABU) with a small handful of almonds.

I just had what I know will be a mainstay meal of my time in Candida land, and I am so excited to share it with you. As I took the first bite, I thought to myself “Girl could get used to this!”

Zucchini Pasta “Carbonara”

This meal was gobbled too quickly to be photographed, it it was totally delicious and “woah” filling!

Grain-free, dairy-free, sugar-free, yeast-free, vegetarian, candida friendly

Prep-time: 2 minutes

Cook-time: 4 minutes

Total-time: 6 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 raw zucchini
• 1 tbsp tahini
• 1 egg and 1 egg white
• salt
• lemon-juice

Cook the egg and egg white until the eggs are cooked through and the yolk is still runny.

Spiralize or peel the zucchini into thin strips, making noodles.

Blend tahini, lemon-juice, and salt with a folk.

Pour over zucchini, top with egg.

Break yolk to make sauce.

Enjoy.

I am on anti-fungals, and the truth is, if the irritation is GONE by the time the anti-fungals are done, I will assume it’s cleared up and I don’t need to do this drastic a change. However, for the next week, I’m going to stick with it, even just to support my immune system and the use of the anti-fungals in kicking some yeasty ass. Wish me luck!