An Even Bigger Adventure or Countdown to Thanksgiving

In 2003-2006, I was working for a state agency that required me to travel between a third and a half of my life. Dad died in 2001, we'd sold my parents' house in 2003 and Mom was in a nursing home, then passed in 2004. My husband had a seizure in 2004 and was told he couldn't drive for six months. And I got the crazy idea in my head I could get by on less than six hours of sleep a night.

Needless to say, my immune system was a wreck. My asthma started acting up, the allergy tests came back I was allergic to EVERYTHING (seriously!), I could not lose weight and my family doctor kept pumping me full of antibiotics, because I have a heart murmur and there was concern if I let my near-constant strep throat go untreated, it would damage the defective heart valve further.

So, yes, it sucked to be me. This continued on until 2011. I finished my eighth (that's 8 folks) round of antibiotics last week and I got fed up with it all. I'd asked my doctors about a systemic yeast infection several times before and both smiled, with the unspoken "Don't worry your pretty little head."

I did massive research and found said systemic yeast infection has the side effects of bloat/inability to lose weight, high blood pressure (taking a med for that), high cholesterol (taking a med for that) and inflammatory allergies, most specifically mold (took three allergy shots a week for seven years). Jeez, Louise, does that sound familiar? This correlated over multiple sites, not just the ones selling supplements and stuff.

TOMORROW, I am starting a "colon cleanse" specifically designed to get rid of that yeast infection. I will also be taking a pro-biotic to repopulate the good bacteria in my gut. I will also be starting a diet that is more strict than the South Beach Diet. This is the tough part.

I will be eating lots of salads, vegetables and lean meats. I will NOT be eating:

Breads, grains, cereals, corn, rice, pizza crust, pasta, etc. My husband took me to say goodbye to pasta last night at Olive Garden's "never ending pasta bowl" promotion. The nix to starches includes potatoes. *sigh* I also won't be eating:

Yeah, that includes the extra cheese I had them put on the pasta and the pizza buffet I ate at Old Chicago Friday, saying "goodbye." Now, they have several things I can still eat, as does Olive Garden, but I sure will miss it. I can, for whatever reason, still have butter.

Another thing I'm supposed to avoid is fruit. This is killer. I got one apple, one pear, a small container of watermelon and the smallest package of cherries at the store yesterday to savor today. For tomorrow, the sugar in the fruit would feed the nasty yeast in my gut. *sigh*

Another thing--what uses yeast to make it yummy, besides bread? That's right, kids, beer and wine. Now, my parents were alcoholics, so I rarely indulged, but better believe that I had a glass of wine at Olive Garden.

The hardest, most difficult, suckiest part of this whole thing is:

That's right. No CHOCOLATE, no refined sugar (Stevia is the only sweetener I'm allowed), no Hersey's Dark Chocolate with Almonds, no DeMet's Treasures Dark Chocolate with Carmel, no Mounds bars, no--I think I'm going to cry. :::pardon while I have a moment of mourning:::

I SWEAR I can do this, because you know what? I only have to do it for eight to ten weeks. I can eat lean meat, lots of salad (most dressings have vinegar and sugar, so I got some hummus and will flavor some mayonnaise). What's at the end of November, kiddies? That's right, Thanksgiving! Oh, the mashed potatoes, the pies, the dressing, the, well, everything! And I'll be feeling better, I'll have lost weight, I won't have to take three prescriptions a day, my allergies will be better (Fall is bad because of, you guessed it, leaf MOLD and pollen) and I'll be "cured" of my sugar cravings.

So, I promise not all of my postings will be about cravings or how my doctors will probably call me crazy, listening to hacks on the interwebs. I will challenge them to re-test me after this is done to see if it works. But, after all these years of doing it their way and trying to fire up my immune system, I'm going to try to soothe it down. This is also called an anti-inflammatory diet. It will help prevent stuff later on, like, well cancer.

Pray and think good thoughts for me, okay? I'm going to need help to not dream of chocolate for a while....