Happy almost-Friday! Despite my sad week, it has still managed to move along rather quickly. Thank goodness! 
So lately, I’ve been kinda re-thinking of my raw food goals… I think I was a little too ambitious wanting to jump into an all-raw diet. It may be great for some people, but not for me. At least not right now. This past week, I could feel myself gravitating towards dense, nut-based raw treats, and worse– having thoughts of falling off the wagon all together and diving into a bag of chips! That’s what happens to me when I feel too restricted. Not good. Not good at all.
The more I thought about it, it doesn’t make sense to avoid foods like steamed broccoli and baked sweet potatoes! They are still light and easy to digest, so it makes more sense to include them in my diet, rather than diving into a jar raw almond butter (something I’ve been known to do when eating all-raw… don’t judge) 
Plus, including cooked food in my diet will ensure that I don’t over-cleanse– a common reason why people get sick when they jump head-first into a raw diet.
So for now, I’ve got a new game-plan, and here’s my guide book:
If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you already know that I’m a huge fan of Natalia Rose. Her first book, The Raw Food Detox Diet, was the first health book that “clicked” with me. She argues that eating high-quality, well-combined meals are much more important than trying to eat all-raw. Her books are filled to the brim with useful information, so I highly recommend you read them!
In her latest book, Detox 4 Women, she tailors her plan specifically for women– who often suffer from yeast overgrowth. Since it is a very common problem, thanks to the standard American diet, I have a feeling that my own body may be a bit over-yeasted as well! So, I will be following her plan laid out in this book for the next 5 weeks! (The plan is for 4 weeks, but why not aim for an extra week?)
Here are some very basic guidelines:
1. No fruit, except for low sugar fruits such as grapefruit, berries and green apples.
2. No nuts or grains.
3. No sweeteners of any kind, except stevia.
4. Eat well-combined meals (no mixing starches, proteins or fruits!)
There is so much more advice in her book, but I don’t want to give away all of her tips! Also, there’s a lot of reasoning behind why she recommends eating this way, and I would have to write a whole book myself to explain it here on this blog! So if you’re interested in learning more, buy the book.
I decided to take my yeast-fighting up a notch, and started taking Candex this morning:
Two in the morning, and two at night, in addition to a low-sugar diet, are supposed to fight the yeast even faster! You know those sweet and starchy cravings that we women are famous for? That’s the yeast in your body, wanting to be fed! They feast on sugar! (yes, even natural sugar) So the less sugar we eat, the more yeast we starve off. Take that, yeast!
After taking those little yeast-fighters, I sipped on my hot water with lemon, as usual. When hunger finally struck, I made a juice similar to the one I had yesterday:
A head of Romaine, beet greens, 1/2 pound organic carrots, 1/2 fuji apple, 1/2 lemon and a slightly bigger piece of fresh ginger today. I also played around with how I put the ginger in the juicer– yesterday, I put the ginger in on top of the beet greens, on the “low” setting of my Breville juicer. Today, I put the ginger in between my apple and lemon pieces, and juiced those on the “high” setting. I definitely tasted it a little more today (but not too much! whew!), so I think that worked best!
The juice still wasn’t that tasty, but I think I’ll drink just about anything when I know that it’s good for me. You’ll notice that I’m still using half of a non-green apple, which isn’t really on the plan, but I’m not going to waste the apples I have in the fridge! So until they’re all used up, I’ll be using a half-apple (rather than a whole) in my juices. I figure, since I’m cutting way back on sugar during the rest of my day, I don’t have to worry about a little fruit sugar for the time being.
I just made my first cup of green tea for the day, so I’m going to sip on that and get back to work! I’m currently working on St. Patricks’s Day cards for 2011! I’ll probably be burnt-out by the time St. Patrick’s Day gets here next month!! That’s the way this business works I guess…
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Oh girl you know are issues with yeast!! Best of luck.
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