What I’ve been Up to – Update for April & May 🙂

Recap of My Recent Germany Visit

I spent a few days in the Rhine valley visiting friends whom I hadn’t seen in years.

This is me in rainy Ingelheim am Rhein with Marc Oliver (we used to live together in Bonn/ Germany for a couple of years when I was a student).

He kindly bought me “protein bread” so I could have a proper Candida diet breakfast while I was away, cool!

I’m pretty sure they don’t have that in the UK though what a shame, it agreed well with me. It has less carbs apparently, it’s made with flax seeds, soya and beans flour I think – either way it was delicious.

Then I went to Cologne, my second favourite city (my first one is Hamburg ?, where I visited my mate Carsten and his girl friend Steffi (and yes that IS a cocktail that you see me holding there, uhm…)

We’ve been friends since school days (considering what a wee nipper I am that must be coming up to 19 odd years ? I spent a footloose and fancy free  half a year in Cologne in my twenties working for a media lawyer (who would have thought haha).

Another one of my old mates, Frank, he lived above me when I lived in Bielefeld where I did my first law degree. Here with his charming wife Janna and sweet baby Paul

It was good to walk down memory lane — since I live in the UK I only rarely get a chance to see my German friends as they live quite far away from where my parents live.

This was shot near the “Externsteine” – one of my fav walks near where my parents live.

Now onto the “Candida diet Unsuitable Foods” I enjoyed whilst in Germany:

• Bread rolls (whole wheat bread rolls made with yeast from the local baker — “Weltmeister Brötchen” with poppy seeds and sunflower seeds, very nice toasted!) Only had one on two occasions but without allergy symptoms.
• Pumpkin seed bread (again from the shop, not homemade so it had yeast in it – I did bake my own Candida safe version too, though).
  

• Cheese! Proper cheese! The first real cheese in over three years, whoa did I enjoy it I ate some cream cheese (that I augmented with spring onion) and also had a few sandwiches with young Gouda
• White flour, potato  & yeast dumplings (Klöße – delicious little things)
• My mum’s black cherries jam with Quark as bread roll topping for good measure
• Strawberries with Vanilla sauce (and sugar)
• Salad sauce with sugar (my mum’s doing, I had no idea she had put sugar in it, argh!)
• Strawberry and custard cake (with Xylitol, Stevia and Coconut sugar – still better than sugar I guess!)
• Chocolate pudding (extra made it with Stevia and Xylitol — and then ate it with my mum’s sugared dairy cream, nice one Sandra!)
• other than that I had tons of fish and meat dishes which were all very Candida diet friendly, phew… ?
  

Biggest Changes Since Previous Months:

• I slept really well (I needed it!)

Might have been to do with the fact that it was rather idyllic (here’s the view from our kitchen window – baby deer and all – the little devil later sneaked into our garden though and munched my mum’s roses…!)

• I had very little worry in the world.
• I lived in a warm, dry climate with zero mould spores in the air.

Result:

• I felt great (not whelmed like in my last blog post here ? I woke up every morning with so much energy that I could go through a yoga/ QiGong routine and lay the breakfast table without feeling hungry or crotchety.
• I had no Candida symptoms (even when I ate foods that would normally cause a reaction).
• I had no food sensitivities (even when eating wheat/ gluten or dairy).

What I typically ate this month:

• Breakfast: Hot Rice Cereal/ Ground Rice Pudding, My Healing Cabbage Stir Fry or Gluten free Oatmeal
• Lunch: Spelt bread and Omelet or Lentils dish with brown rice or gluten free bread
• Dinner: Gluten free pancake with veggies and bacon or potatoes and fish

What I snacked on & drank:

• Strangely I didn’t need a snack except for the strawberry cake perhaps (The months before I ALWAYS needed something to pick me up mid morning and mid afternoon. I can now go for much longer periods without food in other words my mood is stable and I don’t seem to be mineral deficient.)
• Had a few cups of coffee with skimmed milk.
• Also had a sip of naturally probiotic fresh Sauerkraut juice before lunch most days (yes yikes! But it sure does promote regularity ?
  

Just to Recap what was going on the previous month (April):

• It was a constant battle to keep Candida in check in between social events where I  had foods that I wasn’t supposed to on the diet.
• I overstepped the dietary boundaries on a regular basis as in once or twice a week (think cakes (with fruit and sugar, late meals, the odd cocktail).

• Made peace with the fact that a few Candida symptoms came back — enabling me to go to Social events and “feel normal”. The beginning of the year is always bad for me in terms of food temptations — almost every weekend there’s a family get-together or birthday celebration where I despite best intentions somehow end up eating things that don’t agree with me.

Since this happened to me a lot these past two months, all the time in between the cakes rich Social outings was taken up with repair work — going back to a restricted low carb diet/ Candida diet stage 2/3 including special health routines to cleanse certain areas of the body that are prone to get Candida symptoms.This way I was able to maintain my level of health without getting a full on Candida relapse (despite eating a few things with sugar in them).

Health Issues:

• A few days after I consumed sugar I noticed an increase a bit of thrush that was quickly controlled with the yogurt trick. 
• Every now and again sinuses pain, which only went away after I had taken a headache tablet and a Sudafed or inhaled with olbas (essential oil blend with eucalyptus).
• Feeling anxious and low for half a day or so (especially noticeable every time I had a few bad nights of sleep in a row).

What Supplements I took:

• In stressful phases I always ramp up how many supplements I’m taking – hence this past month I ramped it up a notch and added Colostrum back into the mix. I have taken it before when I felt very run down and exhausted from too much stress and hardcore exercise. My impression was that it strengthened my immune system and helped me recover faster (and from what I can tell the little milk sugar in it had no effect on me in case you were concerned) – all in all exactly what I needed in preparation of my strenuous upcoming travels to Germany.

(In the photo you see a side alley of where I went to school btw

• I’m still taking Gelatin with my green juice in the morning. I’ve also started adding Spirulina for extra energy.
• Rotated oil of oregano and olive leaf capsules.
• Back to taking the strongest probiotics I know (CP1 probiotics), twice per day. Other than that, the usual multi vit, Vit C, magnesium, chlorella, barley grass powder and Evening Primrose and Fish oil capsules.

To recap what I learned:

• This is the best I have felt after coming back from Germany, certainly after Christmas. That tells me two things:

No.1:

The strong probiotics and Gelatin created a solid basis for my immune system to work from. So even when the microbial balance in my gut changed for the worse through my change in diet this didn’t affect me as the goodies seemed to have had the upper hand.

No.2:

The absence of stress in combination with a few nights of good sleep makes ALL the difference. If you get those two right you won’t have to watch your diet as much.

Update 1 Week after my return from Detmold where I was born:

Now almost a week after my return I experience the first “die off” symptoms (not strong, could be mistaken for being run down), but still there. I guess if I hadn’t taken anything I’d still think everything was fine.

That’s the danger zone where you think you can get away with eating sweet stuff, when you can’t!

So How Does this Apply to You?

• In times of stress, travel and a change in diet be sure to take strong probiotics.
•  I’d also take some herbal Candida pills (I took Candiclear with Paudarco, Thyme and lemon balm) with food whenever you eat/ drink something sugary outside the scope of the diet. That will prevent the worst.
• Get plenty of rest, do things to calm your mind, exercise and go to bed early. If you do that then the Candida management becomes a breeze. But start taking antifungals again after you return – to be on the safe side (otherwise you might not notice a yeast overgrowth unless it’s already too late and you’re lumbered with a series of symptoms).

•  Don’t focus on the things that could be better. Give yourself credit for all the temptations you resisted and for all the little things day in and day out that you live healthier than you used to.

That’s a great achievement, and I am proud of you

This is my parents’ home where I grew up btw.

What Else Was Going On? Exciting New Direction in My Life!

This is a bit off topic but directly tied into what was going on in my life so I briefly mention it here before I go into more diet, health and Candida related stuff.

Business wise I Joined a Master Mind Group — for a more “business savvy me” ?

• It’s called “Academy of Greatness”, you might have heard of a Podcast with a similar name “School of Greatness” — I regularly listen to the inspiring interviews on the show here.

• The idea is to learn from people who are running a successful business online. And there is of course a big element of setting monthly and 6 month goals and keeping each other accountable for achieving them, which I love!

I am super chuffed I made it into the group which wasn’t easy as I had to fill in a questionnaire first, proving I had entrepreneurial experience and I also had to go through a skype interview. So exciting to be surrounded by all these successful people.

It showed me how powerful it is not to go it alone — same with the Candida diet.

You are much more likely to stick with it if you follow the diet with like minded people who are in the same boat.

Best example is my FB group “Detox buddies” where to this day almost 100 fellow Candida sufferers are motivating each other to embrace a sugar free lifestyle. Come and say hello, it’s free! 

Leave a comment below the sign up box with what you’ve been up to (you are signed up to get my updates, right ?

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