Tuesday 27 February 2007

A wee bit confused ...

The last few days have been a bit of a puzzler for me. The first week or so of this diet had been so profitable. The progress I had made in a short period of time made it easy to avoid eating foods that normally would challenge my will power. My eyes were clearer, my mind was clearer and my energy levels were continuously improving. Then, on Sunday I had a wee dip in energy that got me down a little, but in the evening it came back and I was fine. Yesterday I was feeling ok in the morning, but the wind was quite bad mid-afternoon (albeit not as bad as it once had been) and continued until bed time. Today, I just feel terrible. My eyes are bloodshot, my arms and legs are heavy and I have the brain fog again. I have not had any of the foods I am meant to avoid so what does this mean? Does it mean that Candida is not the (main) problem? Is it just another period of adjustment that my body needs to get used to this diet? Is it perhaps that the problem is a food intolerance - I have been avoiding a particular food for a week and then inadvertently consumed it in the last few days?

These are challenging questions and the setbacks - I say setbacks because they are not full blown crashes, no where near - have thrown niggling doubts into my will power. Am I avoiding these goodies, things that give me pleasure for no reason? Is it sheer coincidence that I felt better for the first week?

I have to be strong and give this diet the full month to do its job. I have also finally been able to order the high strength acidophilus (biocare replete) that is meant to complement this diet.

I will also make a note of what I have eaten in the last few days incase I need to find patterns for a food allergy later. For now, though, keep the chocolate away from me....

Sunday

breakfast: Live yoghurt with oats
Lunch: Russian savoury mince with leak and potatoes
Dinner: Red lentil and coconut soup with rye crackers and oat cakes.

Monday

breakfast: Live yoghurt with oats
Lunch: Red lentil and coconut soup with rye crackers and oat cakes with walnut, tofu and aubergine spread
Dinner: short-grain brown rice and pepper stir-fry with pork

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

David,

I think it is often the case, in my experience at least, that when you try new things you may feel worse for a while before picking up again. Sounds like you are really giving the diet a good go though - well done.

One other thing, this may not be relevant to you, but I found avoiding dairy above all else made the differece. Proteins in cows milk can be really difficult to digest and often causes eczema. I had developed eczema on my hands since being ill and it all cleared up when I cut out milk.

I also found that wheat was the worst for bloating me up like a balloon. Perhaps try avoiding it?

Regarding the candida possibility, I went to a good local health shop and the herbalist who works there suggested this to try and diagnoce whether or not you have candida. Have a full glass of water by the side of your bed and first thing in the morning spit into it (sounds gross I know) and then leave it for a while and notice if the saliva goes all stringy as it sinks down. Not sure how accurate this is but I tried it with my partner's for comparison!

David Elsweiler said...

Thanks for your advice Sarah.

The points about the dairy and wheat are interesting and I will definately bear them in mind later. However, I want to give my current diet a good chance and if I add to any of the restrictions I will have very little to eat!

I will definately give the spit test a go tho. You're right it does sound disgusting, but if it provides some more evidence then what the hell.

Thanks again

Dave