Looking up

Several weeks ago I wrote about my health. My health has been a normal topic of discussion in our household and amongst my family members in the last 5 years or so. I've come along way since being diagnosed in 2007 with Celiac Disease but lately I have been suffering from some not-so-fun consequences of the illness.

This past fall I switched doctors and was retested in many areas. I (following my dr's advice, of course) am concentrating on trying to improve upon these four main areas:

Vitamin D Deficiency: Things are looking up! yay! I've been vitamin D deficient for many years but thank goodness things are turning a corner. Normal vitamin D levels are between 50-70 ng/mL. My doc said he'd like to see my levels around 65 or 70. This past fall my vitamin D levels tested around 20. No bueno. :( This week they retested and I'm at 40! They upped my dosage from 10,000 units to 15,000 units/per day so hopefully I'll be in the 70's in no time. I'm thinking a little beach vacay with plenty of sunshine might just get me to the normal levels. :)

Candida Yeast: I am still doing a yeast free diet.... 99% of the time. I'll admit that I regularly sneak in a cup of coffee (or 2) per week but overall the yeast free diet is helping a lot. The main difference I've noticed is my face has really cleared up. My muscles aches and pains have eased up some and my cravings for sugar has decreased dramatically. I'll be staying on this yeast free diet for a little bit longer. I may just have to find a gluten free king cake for Mardi Gras though and have a cheat day. ;)

Thyroid: I'm still having some thyroid issues but my numbers are getting better....slowly.

Adrenal Gland: I haven't been retested on this yet. I still get really exhausted and feel fatigued most of the time but this probably is because my vitamin D levels are still low.

So why am I giving you a complete medical history? Believe me, it is definitely NOT conclusive, but I do want to record my progress along the road. Hopefully one day all of my lab tests will be 100% normal. I can look back and read about my journey of how far I've come physically and it will all be worth it! :)

Rice Cake Anyone?

Oh, and in case you were wondering how I'm feeling about my yeast free diet... these two clips from one of my favorite show (Designing Women) pretty much sums it up.

Yeast Free: Day 1

I looked at the numbers on the scale one more time because that was the last time I would see numbers that big... ever again. You see, Candida yeast is in all of us. It is a fungus, a form of yeast, that live in your mouth and in your intestines. Candida is kept under control by the amount of good bacteria that live in our gut. So what happens when we don't have enough friendly bacteria? Yup. You guessed it. Candida yeast grows, like the fungus like it is, out of control, destroying everything in its path and making you (or me, in this case) feel miserable. Too much Candida can damage your body tissue, organs and destroy your immune system, not to mention release actual poison into your bloodstream.

So what's a girl to do? Attack. Yeast needs sugar to live. So cut off all yeast and sugar and the Candida dies. It's a slow & painful process to your body, but something that must be done. Many have described it like going through withdrawals from an addiction to drugs or alcohol. My doctor warned me it will get a lot worse before it gets before. But this is normal. This is the yeast cells dying inside. I am not looking forward to the "die-off" period but I am willing to go through it for the final results. I long for a day when I wake up with no headache, backache, bloating, fatigue, stomach ache, itchy skin, etc. etc. etc.

Day 1. You gotta start somewhere, right? Today I woke up feeling sore physically. The feeling of aching muscles is something I have become accustomed to. Mentally, I am ready. Let's do this. I have never been a soldier at war or even a very competitive person for that matter, but I am going into battle. Candida yeast is going DOWN! I think that's the only way to look at this. Every bite of sugar or yeast I put in my body, I am basically just giving yeast the weapons to destroy me...because that is exactly what it's doing.

My plan of attack:: Be prepared. I already have a menu prepared for the week. Here's what today looks like. (Don't worry. I won't blog about what I'm eating everyday.)

Breakfast today: Egg white omelet with spinach

Lunch: Grilled chicken breast and sliced raw cucumber

snack: green apples slices with almond butter

Dinner: Tuna steaks, brown rice and broccoli

I'm excited about the journey ahead and check back in about my progress toward the end of the week! Thanks for all of your support!

PS. Check out this site for more information about Candida yeast. I've been doing a lot of reading and found this site to be very helpful.

Am I ready?

As I sat down to write a new post that I thought was going to be on eating a yeast free diet, my kitty Charlie hopped into my lap as he always does at this time of night. Sometimes it's annoying to try to type with 7 pounds of fur laying across my arms but tonight I just listened to him purr. Sometimes I look at my animals and wonder if the only mom I'll ever be is to them. Will I have kids of my own? I wonder what they will be like. Will they look like me? Will they play sports like Buie? Will they have their mother's math skills? (Let's hope not)

There are so many questions when thinking about kids, like the big one: Are we even ready for kids? (I mean, who is really ever ready? Am I right?) Are we mentally prepared for the change? Quite possibly no. Are we financially ready? Um... how much do babies cost again? And the million dollar question: Am I PHYSICALLY ready for children? The answer my doctor so clearly gave me last week was NO. I am not physically ready for children. So why do we want what we can't have? Ever since then, I can't stop thinking about babies. In the last week I have found myself in these random places like BabiesRus and the toy section at Walmart.... of course it could very likely be that I am an aunt now and was just Christmas shopping for my niece and nephew. Speaking of nieces and nephews, I blame them, you know.... for this whole baby thing. It's all their fault. If they weren't so darn cute, I wouldn't want a baby. Sigh.

So.... originally I was going to write about starting a yeast free diet. Tomorrow I start the diet. Be looking for more about cutting yeast out of your diet.

Yeast Free. PLUS the already Gluten Free & Dairy Free. Shouldn't be too hard, right?

Don't I sound excited? I plan to blog about my progress along the way. Wish me luck!