cleanse

I have this amazing lady in my life, Joline Wondergem. She's my amazing health mentor. She speaks my language. She has coached me through learning about my body, the foods I consume and why, and she has now taken me to a whole new level of health. Joline is a raw foodist and has taught me many of my now personal diet consumption. She's amazing. You can find her website here.

She recently suggested I do a really strict cleanse. You see, I have had rashes somewhere on my body my entire life. My mom called me "diaper rash queen" when I was a baby, as a teenager I had rashes under my eyes, behind my ears, between my fingers, my mission I had rashes between my toes (not athletes foot), and recently I've had a rash in the corner of my mouth and bottom lip for over 6 months now. And all of the listed rashes would stay for several months at a time. I just assumed I had overly sensitive skin. Which is still true, but my mentor suggested I try something new. The rash on my mouth had gotten to the point where it would split if I opened my mouth even the slightest, it would itch, get inflamed and take over my bottom lip. It got serious. I started to think that I was allergic to something because I did notice it would get inflamed with certain foods (wheat) but I wasn't convinced because I wasn't feeling sick.

My mentor thought I could possibly have candida, which is an overgrowth of yeast in the body. Not to get all medical on ya, but it basically causes the rashes, bloating, crankiness, hyperactive, craving for sweets (CHECK), excessive fatigue...etc. This made a light bulb go off in my brain. In looking at pictures on Google, my mouth looks the same as several other pictures.

So this is where I started the 15 day cleanse. NO fruit, NO wheat, NO sugar! These are what candida thrives on and also makes you crave these items. Obviously, everyone craves sugar and pasta. But I would have these weird cravings like I HAD to have it right then. Like someone who smoked "needed a cigarette" only, mine was "I need sugar. like NOW!" As J said "that's the candida talking".  Ekk I was nervous. The cleanse would alter everything. But I surprisingly did really well and felt AMAZING the entire time. Only a few times did I actually feel like I was cleansing. I was able to work out to my regular intensity (however I did leave a turbo kick class early because it was the most intense class I had been too, and I was cleansing). Along with the intense eating, I took these essential pills from doTerra, 3x a day. These were to help kill the candida.

What I ate daily: I juiced veggies every morning (because a smoothie was much harder to drink with no fruit). I juiced carrots, red/yellow peppers, cucumber, chard, kale, spinach, beet, cilantro and lime. I really started to enjoy it and continue to juice when I don't feel like a smoothie. I ate every 3 hours religiously (which I normally do) but if I didn't while cleansing I was starving, cranky, and tempted to eat something I shouldn't.

I ate pretty close to how I normally eat, I was just really strict on the 3 No's. For snacks I would eat my favorite brown rice tortilla with almond butter and maybe a handful of nuts. I made my regular brown rice bowls for dinner, or quinoa salad... all classic dishes of mine.

Although, my new favorite additions were the chia see pudding (for a treat) and homemade oatmeal with peacans and stevia (sometimes I would add some protein powder).

Chia seed pudding
grind in vitamix:
1/2 cup chia seeds (if you don't have a blender that will grind them, get already ground chia seeds)1/4 cup flax seed (I added these because I had it)
dump into bowl
Add 3 cups of almond milk to vitamix
Add chia seeds
couple drops of liquid stevia
I added raw coco powder
Blend
Pour into 3-4 cups and put in fridge

Anyway, my rash on my mouth started to clear up. It is no longer cracking which is HUGE! But I probably haven't killed the candida yet (if that is what I have). This will be a long process and will alter my eating habits. I will probably have to do the cleanse several times over the next few months. I'm in testing period to see how my body reacts to a little bit of wheat and sugar in my diet. Candida really plants itself well in your body, and sticks to your intestinal tract, so I will monitor my eating and how I feel.

But, I feel amazing! I feel so motivated now that I have a vision as to what I could be trying to get rid of. Next step is I'm going to take a food allergy test to see if that gives me any more answers. Another huge thing for me is that I seriously feel amazing in my skin, in my own body. I feel me. I feel comfortable. Before I was feeling blahh, sluggish and cranky. I'm still wearing the same size clothes, I am 5 pounds less which is amazing but doesn't change things drastically. and I feel like a new woman!

One more thing I've incorporated Lymphatic brushing. My friend told me her sister specializes in it and it has done amazing for her body. Check out her sister's instructions for a home brushing session. She lives in Utah and from what I hear, gives amazing Lymphatic massages to help move toxins out of the body. Her name is Bobbie, and I will definitely be seeing her when I'm in Utah next!

Thank you for all the support from friends and family, and especially to the husband who even did most of the cleanse with me. He's a good sport!