Sugar & dairy free, Day 4

Yep, you read that title correctly. I have been (mostly) sugar, dairy & gluten/yeast free for 4 days. Loosely following the Candida Diet my naturopathic doctor is always telling me I need to do. Holy crap, who'da thunk I'd actually go through with it?! The shortest term goal was to keep it up while Jay was away. (He's away for work and back late tonight.) I figured if I could make it through 4 days with the kids all by myself, I could make it through anything. Next goal is 2 weeks, which takes me to December 1st. Long term goal is 6 weeks, but that's probably unrealistic as it extends beyond Christmas. But if I can keep it up for 4 1/2 weeks, to the end of the last week before holidays, then I should have a good idea of how well this detox is going. And then, maybe, I can ease myself back into things. Wheat/gluten isn't as huge a problem are for me, except that I gobble down grain products like no ones business. But hey, who am I trying to kid? I gobble down everything like it's my last meal.

*Breakfasts over the last 4 days have consisted of some combination of oatmeal (steel cut or instant), eggs (hardboiled) and a piece of fruit (pear, apple, banana), plus coffee with plain soy milk.
*Snacks have been almond butter, popcorn, corn chips, Ryvita crackers. Lots of herbal tea and water. Whole plain almonds. Feta cheese (but only because it was about to expire and I didn't want it to go to waste. Mmmm, salty goodness.) Baby carrots.
*Meals have been veggie wraps, soups, rice noodles, meat & potatoes. (I'm shoveling in a large potion of Shepard's Pie as I type.)

So yes, lots of fruit sugars in there, but I figure it's better than what I was eating before. And hopefully I can wean myself down to one piece per day. And I'm allowing myself to make my Freezer Fudge again today. I have a good supply of almond butter, which will be yummy in it. Now, the test is to make sure I don't eat it all. Maybe 2-3 pieces a day. It's made with pure maple syrup, so at least it's unrefined, but it's still sugar. Maybe I shouldn't make it?

I almost screwed myself up big time by making Chocolate Avocado Pudding on day 1. I found the recipe in the Deceptively Delicious cookbook and it looked intriguing (a GFCF version can be found here.) I only had 1 avocado on hand, so I halved the recipe. Still, it had 1/2 cup of icing sugar in it (YUM!) but, luckily for me, the avocado taste was too overpowering and reminded me very much of my extreme avocado aversion days while prego with Elliot. Ugh. Vomit memory is a terrible thing. So I only had a few bites. Felix tried one tiny spoonful, squeezed his eyes shut, shook his head vigorously and pushed it out of his mouth with his tongue. Elliot loved it and ate every last bite in 2 sittings.

You know what I'm craving the most right now? I figured it would be chocolate (and let me tell you, borrowing "Curious George Visits a Chocolate Factory" for Elliot from the library on day 1 of this adventure was a dumb move on my part!), but surprisingly, it's yogurt. All I want is creamy, fruity yogurt. Blueberry. Or peach. Which probably means my body wants some calcium, so I should take a supplement or eat some more leafy greens. Or maybe I can find a good sugar-free plain yogurt. Or goat yogurt. That might take the edge off. I've always been able to tolerate plain yogurt better than any of the flavoured ones. Hmmm, is this true of all lactose intolerant people or just me?

Other than a wicked headache last night, I've been feeling good. Happier and more patient with the boys, which surprised the crap outta me, since I've been on-duty non stop since Tuesday. I remember getting sick somewhere around day 5-7 each time I've done this candida diet in the past, so we'll see how I'm feeling in a few more days. Though, to be fair, I'm not sticking to it as strictly as I have before. Not sure if that's to my benefit or not. But we'll see where I end up.