I’m feeling fantastic!
I haven’t had coffee in a week and a half. Insert shocked emoji here…
That is, until I went to Starbucks this morning and got a decaf with soy milk and sugar free vanilla…. THAT was my first, though! LOL I guess I should say I haven’t been caffeinated in a week and a half.
I tried flavored water and smoothies and mushroom coffee and sitting with the craving until it passes and I just haven’t kicked the craving for the real deal yet, although I do feel it slipping away because I can go days without no problem-o. Thank heavens for decaf espresso *claps*.
In all seriousness, I haven’t felt this good in a really long time. It’s been 1.5 weeks since I kicked majority of the foods from my diet and replaced them with candida-cleanse-friendly options. I’ve lost 3 lbs, regained most mental clarity, and (knock on wood) haven’t felt sick.
On my first or second day, I thought I’d be fine to eat two matcha key lime bars (sweetened with maple syrup) and I’m not sure if it was the caffeine or the sweetener, but I went to bed with a stomach ache, regretting it for sure. The only other time I truly broke the cleanse guidelines was Sunday evening; we were not in the right mind for cooking so we went out for vegan burgers… I skipped the burger and just had fries with no issues. Griffin said he respected my commitment but besides coffee I truly haven’t had cravings for anything but greens and quinoa. It’s easy peasy to say no to anything else, especially knowing they’re going to make me feel terrible. I told Griffin I’m going to see how long I can live on a strictly quinoa diet :’D
How I’ve actually been following the dietary guidelines
I’ve followed the diet guidelines pretty closely besides the addition of one extra serving of easily digested low-glycemic fruit a day such as blueberries, green apples, peaches, or plums. This is because a typical candida cleanse basically calls for certain meats and greens… but being vegan and not eating meat I’d essentially be living on greens for at least two weeks, and I wanted to swap in some nutrient variations.
(Disclosure: I received the following Probiogen probiotics free so I could share my honest opinion of them with you.) If you follow my Instagram stories, you’ve seen I added a vegan collagen builder, digestive enzymes, digestion support probiotics and stress/mood support probiotics to my daily regimen. I’m madly in love with these. It’s really hard to find plant-based, non GMO, soy free, gluten free probiotic capsules with no artificial binders or fillers!
Probiogen ticks all these boxes, is super affordable compared to so many probiotics I checked out before reaching out for this partnership, and is easy to find in stores like Target, GNC, Bed Bath and Beyond, and others, making it easy to grab one off the shelf when you’re out picking up other stuff. My favorite thing about the two probiotics I’ve tried from Probiogen is that they give a boost to healing my other gut health symptoms from stress and mood to digestion. This isn’t something they claim to support but don’t follow through with, I can genuinely tell a difference, and that is invaluable during this journey!
Where to go from here
Let’s talk about that, too… I started this with the expectation of cleansing and healing myself for two weeks and immediately picking up my old diet back up. I didn’t see that I could really break the habit of craving certain things regularly, and I thought these two weeks would be pretty strenuous. That’s the farthest thing from the truth though!
The new plan is to still finish the strict diet in two weeks, but implement a lot of it’s concepts for years to come. The thing is, when you feel freaking amazing on a certain diet, it’s the easiest thing in the world to maintain. You will not want to go back to what was previously hurting your health.
- These include remaining grain-free, gluten-free, refined sugar and mostly sweetener-free, and keeping the higher glycemic-index foods low, such as carrots, tomatoes, sweet potatoes and squash.
- I’ll try to steer clear of potentially moldy nuts such as peanuts and cashews and foods that definitely send gut bacteria balance out of whack like certain mushrooms and starchy foods like potatoes.
- I’ve also decided that gluten and tomatoes make me feel crappy, so I’m testing the theory that I might be allergic.
- I’m cutting back on coffee and switching strictly to decaf.
- I’ll keep the digestive enzymes and probiotics in my life for as far into the future as I possibly can! I’m in love!
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