Saturday, July 31, 2010

A special note for my hubby

Jeff,

I just wanted to write and give you a solid pat on the back for your support of Karen through this process. It richly blessed me to read how you are aiding in cooking "legal" food. As I told Karen, I do believe this is a first! Most all women that embark on this journey are left in the kitchen (even those that are not normally found in there as "cooks") to scrounge out legal foods for themselves and their families. So hat's off to you, Jeff!

Blessings!
Deborah

I love this man!

Friday, July 23, 2010

And so the yeast free journey begins! The first week!

Day 1:  Very ready to get this started!  I have gone to the store and gotten everything I need.  Being prepared is vital to this!

Day 4:
oh- 5 pounds lighter today than Friday!  spit test still steaking down and very cloudy.....day 4 is off and running!  I will tell you that I have NEVER made it past day 3 on the other diet- the cravings were so horrible I couldn't stand it.....now I know why!




Day 5:
7/27/10
ok- so tonight we had our first grass feed beef- cooked in in Amy's marinara sauce....tried to do the squash noodles but failed miserably!  I think I definitely needed bigger squash- but seeing how this was my first time EVER buying squash...what did I know?  I cooked noodles for the boys to eat with it( and Jeff ate that since the squash was a flop).  I mixed up a bowl of the beef/sauce and put snow peas in it with a little bit of mozzarella cheese on it.  not bad....never thought I would eat such a meal!

Jeff bought some almond meal at Trader Joes- so I am googling things to do with that.

I also bought some grass feed tenderloin steaks for me and Jeff.  

day 5 is almost over!!!  had several cravings today- but was able to push them away.  it's interesting- with the other diet( that I have tried off an on , oh, about 20 times, in the past 2 years) I was always soo concerned about the scale and my day would be dictated by what the number said.  if I didn't loose, it would through me into the opposite mood- I would want to just give up and I would eat more.  With the yeast free- I am so much more focused on my health, not my weight.  the weight loss will happen as a byproduct of eating this way- but I don't have the urge to weigh myself all the time.  My marker is not the scale but the spit test!

Jeff's ph was blue this morning... stinker!  Mine is still green( dark) but my spit test this morning still was streaking down and cloudy....but it did take about 4-5 seconds to move!  big improvement over the first 2-3 days in which there was no millisecond wasted before it started going down!  

Day 6:
Day 6 may just be the day I hurt someone!!!  Oh, my I am cranky!!! No patience with the kids, irritable,headache, hungry,  feel panicky.....think I will go lay down for a while to see if it will resolve...

"This too shall pass".........
You are so NOT alone! 

Here is an oldie -- but goodie!  Crank it up ---and "let it rise" within you!


HUGS!
Deborah



Made it through day 6!  whew!  

Thanks for the song- I love that one.  made me think of yeast, though...."Let it rise"!!  Just where my mind was today!  
But Jeff made a "fried" chicken with the olive oil and  almond meal/egg batter- the kids loved it!  he cut it up like chicken nuggets.  
almond meal fried chicken

Wow- I can't believe tomorrow is day 7- I never would have thought I would have made it this far!  


So- what can I eat on a yeast free diet?

Here is a list of the foods that I can eat.

EGGS
FRUIT:   berries, grapefruit, lemon, lime, green apples, avocado, fresh coconut
MEATS:  virtually all meat including fish, poultry and grass-fed beef
VEGETABLES:  Most fresh vegetables and _freshly_ made vegetable juice (no bottled or canned juices!)
BEVERAGES:  Bottled or filtered water, non-fruity herbal teas, stevia sweetened fresh lemonade or limeade, freshly squeezed carrot juice (SPARINGLY!)
VINEGAR:  apple cider vinegar
OILS:   olive, grape, flax seed, cold pressed virgin coconut oil
NUTS:  raw nuts, including pecans, almonds, walnuts, cashews, and pumpkin seeds. Stored nuts tend to gather mold, so be careful!
SWEETENERS:   Stevia, Stevia Plus, birch tree extracted Xylitol
DAIRY:  Organic Butter, Organic unsweetened Yogurt
             (use the following very sparingly: cream cheese, unsweetened whipping cream, real sour cream)

Fungus 101

That's right.
Fungus
Yeast

It had overtaken my body.  It was causing my body great pain.  

It was the root of all my illness.

So what was I going to do about it?  That's where Deborah Kirby came in.  She taught me all about mycology- the study of fungus.  


It's not even taught in medical schools anymore.  It's not something doctors even know to look for.

From http://www.knowthecause.com: Doug Kaufmann
Fungi can parasitize man. A parasite is an organism that


 lives on or in an organism of another species, known as the 


host, from the body of which it obtains nutriment. Some 


parasites form symbiotic relationships with other species 


wherein both species live comfortably with the other. In 


human-fungal symbiotic relationships, according to


 researchers, fungi are always the dominant partners. Soon,


 a person infected with fungus begins craving foods that 


satisfy the fungus more than the person. Fungus must have


 sugar in order to thrive. Grains supply not only sugar, but 


additionally since many grains we Americans eat are


 impregnated with fungus, grain becomes a double-edged


 sword. Just as some foods we eat perpetuate fungal growth


 and proliferation, other foods actually contain potent 


antifungal properties


From http://www.womentowomen.com/digestionandgihealth/candida.aspx:


When Candida proliferates, it changes form, morphing from a simple, relatively harmless one into one that is capable of penetrating the intestinal lining. This elicits low-grade inflammation in the gut and causes breakdown of the boundary between the intestinal tract and the circulatory system. Known as leaky gut, increased intestinal permeability allows incompletely digested food particles and yeast cells to pass through and enter the blood stream. The immune system soon identifies these large particles as foreign, and ramps itself up to deal with them.


Uncomfortable digestive symptoms like bloating, gas, and bubbling in the gut arise because an overgrowth of yeast leads to the fermentation of foods instead of the digestion of foods. Along with these unpleasant symptoms, yeasts ferment sugars into alcohol, which destabilizes blood sugar and leads to intense cravings for more sugar


I find it fascinating that these tiny organisms can get us to do exactly what they want us to do — eat more carbs and sugar!

Common symptoms associated with systemic yeast:

Generalized: Fatigue, lethargy, migraine headaches, weakness, dizziness, sensory disturbances, hypoglycemia, muscle pain, respiratory problems, chemical sensitivities.

Gastrointestinal: Oral thrush, diarrhea, constipation, rectal itching, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), flatulence, food sensitivities.

Genitourinary: Yeast vaginitis, menstrual irregularities, PMS, bladder inflammation, chronic urinary tract infections (UTI’s), cystitis.

Dermatological: Eczema, acne, hives. People with yeast overgrowth can also be prone to fungal nail infections, as well as skin infections such as athelete’s foot, Tinea rash, ringworm, “jock itch” and dandruff.

Psychological and emotional: Confusion, irritability, memory loss, inability to concentrate, depression, insomnia, learning disability, short attention span.


Yeast thrives on sugar- from ANY source.  This includes most natural sugars as well like fruit/fruit juice.  This also includes ANY starchy foods-even “ starchy vegetables”, carbohydrates, breads, cereals, pizza, sweets, dairy foods, soda.. a small amount of sugar(1tsp) can produce millions of colonies of yeast/fungus!


Yeast actually attach to your neurons and rewire them to suite THEIR needs, not yours.  So all the carb and sugar cravings are coming from the yeast demanding to be fed.  They can also mimic things in our body.  They are parasites that will take over and cause more illness than I can write down!


Fermented products such as soy sauce, ketchup, vinegar, beer…add to the yeast growth
  
Here me on this one....it's crucial, important and it's something you have never heard before:


Corn has been genetically modified over the years so that it is impossible to ever kill the fungus from it.  


Avoid all corn products- always- even if it is organic.  This includes: popcorn, corn oil, corn syrup, corn starch…….ouch...I know, this one hurts!







Peanuts and soy- same as corn- they have been genetically modified to the point in which the seeds contain thousands of different fungi which cannot be killed off even by autoclaving. 


Peanuts are known to produce Aflatoxins- another poison not intended for your body. So- that includes peanut butter, peanut oil…another big ouch!

Eating corn, peanuts and soy products are the same as just putting fungus right into your body. And because they have been "universally" modified...there are no new seeds that can be harvested to create a "non-fungi" product. 


Amazing!  
Depressing!  


But something we all need to know- but the food industry does NOT want us to know.





Thursday, July 22, 2010

Enter..... Deborah Kirby

Desperate for change, I emailed my friend Deborah Kirby.  She had been teaching classes on health issues for a while and invited me several times to come.  I wanted to- but you see, I was always too tired!  I could never muster up the energy to go.  I didn't even really know what her "talks" were about.  But on July 22, 2010, she came to my house and sat with me for 2 hours.  It was an amazing life changing 2 hours.  God sent her to me at just the right time.  I was finally ready to listen to what she had to say.  


 I was ready to take all that information and do something with it. God brought me to this place.  His heart had been aching watching me "perish" with illness right there before His eyes.  He has the answers.  He has the cure.  He used Deborah to feed me His truth and redirect my path to a life of "living" instead of a life of "dying".   I was to the point in which my health was going down hill so quickly...it was scary.  

I was dying. 

The Lord brought me to a place where I knew I had to do something. 

For a while, I thought it was other diet plans.  I bought into them- but failed at them every time I tried it.

 They didn't get to the root of the problem.... they just tried to fix the branch. 

 I had to get to the root- that is the part that was killing me.  

 Little did I know that the ROOT of my illness was fungus.




Wednesday, July 21, 2010