My Candida Diet

So a while ago I told you guys that I was going on a Candida diet (here's the original post). It was part of my whole health regiment and it was supposed to help me with my energy levels, cravings, and digestion. (Here's the definition of yeast candida if you've never heard of it)

I've read a lot of different versions of this diet out there, and a lot of people have to go on it for at least a year to really kill of the Candida, but my doctor said that in the right way, with the right supplements I could just do a month "diet" or "cleanse". Of course at that point I was willing to try anything, so I went for it, a month really didn't sound so bad.

Here's what I did. Like I said there are lots of different variations (and here are a couple for you to check out) and I wish I could tell you each vitamin I was on but I think there's no "one size fits all" with any cleanse or diet so I'll just tell you the basics (and the vitamins I remember! Some of them had weird names!)

1) No sugar, and when I say sugar that means fruit, sugar, honey, molasses, Spenta, stevia, corn syrup etc. Anything that is or will turn into sugar in your system.

That includes anything with sugar in it too. So items like jam, salad dressing, rice or soy milk, bread, and well, most things have sugar in them, so if you are going to be serious about this diet you need to spend a lot of time reading labels and going to the natural and organic sections of the grocery store.

2) No Dairy - no exceptions.

3) No white or refined flours or grains. That means no white anything. And a very small amount of grains to begin with. Maybe 1-2 servings a day. I usually just had around one.

4) Lots and lots of veggies, around 6 servings a day. And there's only certain veggies I could have but I wouldn't list them all here, that would make a super long post. My list was pretty restricted but here's recommended veggie list.

5) Odorless garlic three times a day

6) Omega three liquid pills, two times a day (this is the omega I take, it's great!)

7) 8 glasses of water a day

8) Lots of protein. I had to have 40 grams a day (through meat or a protein shake, which was hard to do because most protein powders have some form of sugar in them).

Here's a protein intake calculator if you are interested. I don't know if I totally agree with their calculations but it's a starting point, and will at least give you an idea if you are close.

9) Have a super strong pro-biotic. For this I had to have different doses at different points in the diet so I'm not going to list a certain amount

10) Nothing with any form of yeast in it. With all the things listed above you would think that wouldn't be too had, but you would be surprised how many products I found with no sugar but that had yeast in it.

I had about three to four other vitamins on my diet but you get the idea (Sorry, I don't remember the names, and they were special order that you can't just pick up in any store). A lot of variations of this diet say you can have dairy and fruit but I don't believe to truly get the yeast out of your system you can eat them.

The month was ruff, and I didn't enjoy not being able to have the things I wanted or was used to. Each meal had to be super planned out and planned ahead. I couldn't just grab anything but I think it's worth it if you're serious about this and have a problem with yeast.

For me after the month I still had the cravings, and I still had head aches and was tiered but it was for sure a step in the right direction and those issues weren't quiet as extreme and looking back I was feeling a lot better. (All my issues have been around for years so it would have been silly for me to think that a month long diet would fix everything)

The number one thing that I noticed was weight loss; I lost 16 pounds. It was funny how it happened. One day in the diet I was getting dressed and caught myself in the mirror and realized how much thinner I was. Then I paid a little more attention to my clothes and I really had lost a lot of weight. I was only 126 pounds and I'm 5'4 1/2'' so 16 pounds was a pretty substantial amount for someone my size.

The second thing that I noticed was my digestion. I had been having trouble with being regular and having my system work well on it's own. If I didn't have a very specific high fiber breakfast my system just wouldn't function, and trust me I tried a lot of (natural) things to remedy this. Now I'm like clock work every day and it's wonderful.

All and all I would highly suggest this diet. To me the extremeness of it is for sure not sustainable but it's good to get you cleaned out and get that yeast out of your body. More then a month is likely needed for most people and I'm sure for me there's still yeast in there, but I am happy either way that I did it.