Do you feel foggy?
Do you struggle to think clearly?
Do you suffer from recurring thrush?
Do you experience itching in your anus? Charming 🙂
Do you suffer from sinus congestion?
Do you have postnasal drip?
Do you have recurring outbreaks of exzema?
What about diarrhoea, constipation and headaches?
These are not very fun symptoms, are they!!!
As I crashed to my lowest point in October 2010, with severe adrenal exhaustion, the stress in my body produced a myriad of issues, one of which was candida. Over the past few years this has been something that has occurred in my system on and off, leaving me tired and with all of the symptoms mentioned at the top of the post.
This is not something that is often talked about, but really is a rampant issue with many people.
The main issue with candida is a digestive system that is not working optimally, and very often the cause of a digestive system that is not working well is amongst other things, stress (physical and emotional) and an inadequate diet. As you may now know, adrenal fatigue comes about most often from emotional stress, and so very often those that are stressed, very often have issues with candida.
A couple of months ago, as I was still struggling with the symptoms of candida, I decided I needed to take this area of my healing to the next level.
I had been familiar with the work of Donna Gates for about 12 months and I had heard her speak of The Body Ecology Diet on her www.hayhouseradio.comradio show.
She has formulated a diet specifically for issues with candida and for repairing your digestive system and restoring the Body Ecology so the number of good bacteria begin to thrive in your system.
There are many principles to The Body Ecology Diet, one of the main principles being to not combine proteins and carbohydrates and starchy vegetables, but rather to eat each them, only with non-starchy vegetables.
So,
Proteins with non-starchy veggies
Carbs with non-starchy veggies
Starchy veggies with non-starchy veggies.
Donna also suggests leaving 3 hours between switching from proteins to carbohydrates.
One of her other suggestions is to eat fruit on its own, and leave 30 minutes for it to digest before eating anything else.
Some other valuable ideas are to drink water on its own, use coconut oil and add raw apple cider vinegar.
The whole idea is to aid the digestive process. Apparently, when we do things like combine proteins and carbohydrates, the way it digests contributes to more bad bacteria being produced in the system. This didn’t sound great to me 🙁
So, I have been building these changes into my way of eating, and with great effect. Eating in this way definitely took some getting used to as my blood sugars were dropping too quickly initially. I believe that for me, this was still some of the effects from adrenal fatigue (dropping blood sugars is a common sign of adrenal fatigue). However, after a few weeks I adjusted to this new way of eating and my blood sugars stabilised once more.
I am very happy to report that after some initial detoxing (which is common), my system feels much, much, healthier. I have a lot more energy, I have dropped 3-4kgs (returning to my pre-burnout weight of 3 years ago) and my digestive system is beginning to function much better.
There are still a few detoxing symptoms going on, and I am yet to build in all the principles of The Body Ecology Diet, but what I have done so far feels right for me. It is so important to trust your own guidance as to what way of eating feels right for you.
I don’t believe that I would have tried this way of eating at my lowest point, my system needed protein with every meal and snack to keep my blood sugars stable, and that definitely felt right for me at that time.
What I do know is that we are all unique, what works for one person doesn’t always work for another. Always trust your intuition as to what feels right. Sometimes we just need to try things out, to see what is right for us.
So, I just wanted to share my very positive experience with this change, and leave you with an option to consider if candida has indeed been an issue for you.
All my love
Lisa.