Candida

jennaroberts

Balance Act: Walking the Intestinal Tightrope

Simple steps to feeling good
Simple steps to feeling good

Paleo, Gluten-free, Sugar-free, Vegan, SIBO, SCD, FodMaps . . . There are so many ways to manage your gut health through diet. After you taper off of any of these control zones, there is almost too much freedom. It’s easy to slip into old habits and find yourself relapsing into a slice of pizza with soda.

Rather than bouncing between free-for-all and extreme restrictions, I am now seeking out a more refined golden ticket, that of balance. Perhaps this will protect me from the prison of strict limitations in the future. In the meantime, I might even feel better everyday.

Crappy Feeling vs. Crap Food Cravings

Each of these diets has taught me lessons about what foods make me feel good, and which ones lead to belly aches or jittery highs. For each, I seek out a quantity of allowance that lets me relish a treat without much suffering.

Coffee is not actually required to be alert, and I do not enjoy the panics that come with it. Maybe a few times each year, though, I will let myself sip on a friends’ mocha, or I’ll order a decaf.

The rush and crash of sugar highs are exhausting, but I am not giving up on ice cream for life either. Nirvana it’s not, but I continue to practice more control than, say, a 12-year-old at a slumber party.

Shall I eat gluten again? Oh yes, I shall. I simply have decided to wait until they have better regulations on Round Up in wheat harvesting before I test out my physical response to eating it again. I just don’t want that crap in my system anymore.

Thai restaurant carb loads of rice noodles and sugary sauce are delicious. So is Thom Yum Soup though, and I can choose this option that will not leave me speeding home like a tuk tuk in Bangkok.

Self-Flagellation leads to more Flatulation 

Every food choice is an opportunity to allow myself to feel better the day after, or to treat myself. If I need a moment of celebration or self-pity, maybe I will allow a whiskey with a decadent dessert. It’s essential to simply ensure that every week does not manifest a new reason to earn an aberration from a path of healthy eating habits.

The goal is to not beat yourself up for choosing unwisely here and there. It only creates more self-pity party possibilities. Studies have shown that feeling guilt while eating treats actually increases the ill effects on your system. So relish and enjoy when you make the choice to fulfill your inner snack fiend.

The Dance of the Cold Turkey

Some food choices become an easy habit of conscious choice; the benefit of how I feel afterward outweighs the itch for fake food. In my case, I have decided to remain totally gluten-free, mostly dairy-free, sporadically sugar-free, and avoid most processed foods.

Other restrictions, like sugar, give me insight into the daily challenges of heroin addicts. In these cases, I will do the dance of cold turkey until I find the sweet spot of appreciating sweets with an ease satisfaction.

The Gobblin’ Grooves

How to do the dance: Cut out an impulse food completely for a month or more. Then gradually allow it back in to gain control over the addiction.

If you find yourself killing that box of brownies in two days, you might want to take brownies off of your shopping list options. If one beer becomes five without much forethought, maybe move to kombucha for a month.

Keep a journal on how much you eat of it and how you feel. When you feel lousy, maybe taper off it if. Even if you have outside circumstance that may result in your feeling lousy, just make a new system that you are only allowed this treat when you are feeling good. This protects from emotional eating habits as well as your overall health.

Becoming your own Best Parent

It’s up to you to be your own best guardian when it comes to dietary choices. You can do it with positive affirmations and healthier replacements, rather than Catholic School rulers and repressing all snacks. Find the zone where you feel good and enjoy eating.

Finally, don’t go hating on people who dip Cheetoes in bacon mayonnaise and swish it back with diet soda. That’s their choice, so save the lectures. Be your own best self. Trust that you are on your path, and they are on theirs. Your path will most likely need a lot less toilet paper down the line.

YOU CAN DO IT!

jennaroberts

Crack in the Sugar Cube

Sugar Skull CubeMy father still eats like a pre-teen on vacation. He will go through bags of cookies and chocolates, washed back by sodas, then refuse dinner. He rejects the idea that his arthritis or fibromyalgia will be affected by a change in his diet, or by a more active lifestyle. He isn’t fat, pills regulate his acid reflux and gerd, and his stomach doesn’t ache from the candy. So he doesn’t associate the sugar with the suffering, or, like most, he chooses not to.

When I think of his eating habits and health, I feel grateful for that little protozoan parasite that forced me to face my food. Due to candida and SIBO challenges, I have had to remove sugar from my diet multiple times, including all carbs that can be turned into sugars that feed yeast and bacteria. Amazingly, no matter how much fat I eat in the form of nuts and meat, I lose weight whenever I quit sugar.

Internal Guardians

This week, I ate my first pear in 6 months, and it was sheer decadence. As I ease slowly back into allowance, I notice how quickly my mind impulses for ice cream and chocolate. I am still just a child who yearns for her treats. I simply have also grown into the mother who sets loving boundaries.

There is a part of that motherly self who is scared that I will slip back into old habits someday. This makes me feel like an addict. This, in turn, makes me feel like a control freak. It is likely a bit of both.

America’s Fix

Sugar is the innocent party drug that soon becomes the all-consuming heroine. America is hopped up on it far worse than any narcotic. Then the subsequent candida’s neurotransmitters add to this vice by creating an actual urgency to consume more of the sweet stuff. Our country is being controlled by a fungal parasite that is causing far more actual anxiety than any terrorist threat.

This is not true everywhere. When I gave my Taiwanese elementary students a taste of Jelly Bellies, they made faces of disgust and said, “Tai tien!” for ‘Too sweet’. Can you imagine American children, or even many adults, uttering those words?

People try to lose weight by going “low-fat”, only to find hopeless results. The cruelty of American diet foods is that they are often higher in sugars, or worse, chemical sugar substitutes. It is nearly impossible to quit sugar without quitting all processed foods. It might be mind boggling to have that much time to cook, but it is the most effective way out.

Dependence Enablers

Mainstream doctors often refuse to see this association between food and health, and do not request that their patients make a dramatic diet change. It’s “cheaper” and easier to take a pill. I have been told that I would need to take Prilosec every day for the rest of my life. I went on the anti-inflammatory diet for a month and that particular health issue went away. A dermatologist recently informed me that eczema has no relationship to food. Then why does my skin get more red and itchy after eating certain items?

This blindness confounds me, especially from those who have taken the Hippocratic oath. Doctors today are afraid to ask their patients to do something that they themselves cannot conceive of doing. Have more faith in yourself than they have in you.

Anything You Cannot Quit, Owns You

It has been one of the greater challenges in my life to give up sugar. Over time, I will most likely return to this sullen mistress, and then build up the will power to tear myself away again. I may even delay until the necessity arises if my system loses a fight with the side effects of high sugar intake again. I aim to make peace with balanced choices as I move forward.

If you consume sugar daily, be brave enough to face this slave driver head on. You can start slowly, by maybe taking one little month off of only refined sugar. Even if you still allow carbs, fruits and honey, you will notice a difference. Anything that you cannot quit, owns you. Take your body back.

sugar coffee skull