The biggest key to my success so far I have found is being prepared. Having food ready is an absolute must. These have been my staples so far (warning you, some of it's weird because it has to be :)
Breakfast- Sweet potato with homemade turkey sausage (with safe spices I can have), a little coconut oil, sometimes a few berries if I have some fresh on hand, and I am trying to find a tea I can have, but every time I buy one I think I can have I get home and see one ingredient that I can't so this week I just made it up....coconut milk with some cinnamon and ginger. It's not coffee, but it suits its purpose!
Lunch- Fruit and veggie smoothie (the kids get this too and I hide a few of our supplements in these in order to get some into Alex. I typically also have a salad with spinach/kale, grilled chicken, avocado, and plain apple cider vinegar which I am finding is surprisingly perfect on salads. I thought I would have a hard time with dressings, but this is seriously just fine!
Supper- Either another salad or modified versions of what he rest of the family is having- I am trying to keep our protein safe for me to eat, and have a hot vegetable at supper that is on my approved foods list as well (I did green beans one night and that meal turned into the biggest pain in the butt ever....something as simple as spaghetti is no longer simple anymore! I have to make a spaghetti sauce for myself that doesn't even have tomatoes in it, and though it tastes ok was not worth the time and effort I put into it...at least not at this point in the game!) Here it is in all it's glory...."No-Mato" sauce, no grain meatballs, and sauteed zucchini..
Again...not sure that sauce was worth it. Next time I will just eat zucchini and meatballs: The rest of the family typically has a carb with gf/corn free options for Alex.
Snacks- I keep a big crockpot of homemade chicken and veggie broth in the fridge so whenever I am hungry I can grab a bowl of that (Bone broth helps to seal the gut lining back up from damage that has been done to the interstitial cell spacing in the intestines aka Leaky Gut).
One of my new favorites is actually roasted cabbage #1 because it's cheap, and #2 it is so delicious! I like cabbage, but I had never tried it this way, and well....only getting to eat a handful of foods forces you to try new things to have variety. Hands down this is one of my new favorites!
Dessert- Sliced apples sauteed and steamed in coconut milk and cinnamon (so yummy!)
New things I tried for the first time.....I am extremely geeked out because I just made my first batch of homemade water kefir. Mostly due to cost. Water kefir grains are safe for me because they don't have dairy like milk kefir potentially can, and they add lots of probiotics into my diet at a fraction of the cost of buying them in the store. SO I mostly did this for financial reasons, but to say I wasn't excited about my little science experiment would be a lie :)
I may become a little more adventurous as time goes on. I like beets a lot, and also brussel sprouts. They just haven't made it onto the menu yet. Was trying to keep things simple, but I am sure they will be soon. Fermented foods are huge for me, so once I feel like I have a handle on the diet in general, I am going to try my hand at making homemade fermented things. I will probably start with something simple like cucumbers or cabbage, and stick with those before I get too crazy! I can't buy the canned ones, because those have lost all the beneficial probiotics in them. Doing it myself is cheapest option so I guess I will have to try it that way :)
Symptom wise I have had some of what they call "die off" symptoms. "Die off" also known as Herxheimer reaction is something that occurs when yeast are killed rapidly within the body, and they start releasing by products into your body. Your body processing these by-products is what causes the reaction. Typical symptoms are brain fog, lethargy, flu-like symptoms, low grade fever, nausea, diarrhea, achy joints.
Mine wasn't too severe, but enough to feel it. (TMI alert- stool was almost back to normal before starting antifungals, and probiotics, and I saw a bit of a backslide, but I think it's just die off symptoms and my body adjusting to new things). I have been more lethargic, and weak- I typically work out 4-5 days a week, and was having a really hard time having any energy at all this week. I did all of the sudden feel some of my achy joints come back, and also experienced some brain fog as soon as I started my antifungal meds. I was worried at first, but each day seems to be a bit better. I suppose the same will go with my strength and energy as well. For now I am trying to focus on listening to my body- sleeping if I need to sleep, choosing not to exercise strenuously if I feel like I can't, and just let myself have time to heal. Stress is a huge part of this too....I have to decrease stress to heal so forcing myself in a time when I need to step back and rest is not going to help me at all.
Alex updates- Things are going well. The key here is to be prepared! I had lots of Alex friendly snacks, and had a conversation with Abbie about how we may need to save special snacks that are her favorites for naptime or something so Alex will have an easier time adjusting. If he was older I would probably just coach him more to learn to deal with it, but he is 2....it's really hard to watch your sister get something you can't have, and he doesn't understand why he could have it 2 weeks ago, but can't now. He also has had several solid stools in the last 2 days....I may have cried out with joy...that's progress!! We had a slight mix up when a sweet friend told me xantham gum has corn in it (and I used that to make his GF bread)....well what the heck! Seriously! So I had to remake his bread, but everything else he is on should be good now.
Prayer requests...
I am having a really hard time handling day to day normal stuff right now, because so much of my time is spent preparing food. I feel guilty a lot...guilty for not spending time with the kids, or ignoring them again, because I have to make sure all of our foods are safe, and it's hard. Really hard. I need to give myself grace, but it is because of this that it's hard to make time for other simple things....all the sudden getting dressed is no longer necessary (not that I was great about getting out of my PJs before 9AM anyway, but it does help me feel better, to get ready for the day, but food prep has taken priority, because when we are hungry...we get ANGRY so I have to stay on top of it.
I'm also struggling to know how to balance life in that- all activities outside of the home sound overwhelming to me right now...playdates, appointments, friends, etc. I am feeling myself withdraw which is not a good place to be. I typically do that because I then put everything on myself to get everything done, but in reality...I need people to be ok with my messed up self. I need people period. So pray that I can see through that fog to know what is ok to say "no" to and what I need to say "yes" to.
So I guess prayers for grace for myself, and prayers that this would become second nature to me. That it wouldn't be something I fear, but that it would be something I accept as part of God's role for me. To not begrudge that, but to accept it with grace. Pray against my anxiety, and ultimately that this works. Healing would be great, but more so that even if huge diet changes are the rest of my life, that everything we have done- money spent, supplements taken, food sacrifices made will not be done in vain. That there will be healing so that both Alex and I can be ourselves again even if there are certain foods we can never eat again.
Not sure I will have updates every week, but I thought some of you may be interested to know how things are going! Thank you so much for your kind thoughts when I shared about this struggle. I seriously hesitated posting that blog post. It was so long, and I feared many would be bored to tears reading it, but I knew I couldn't openly talk about this part of my life right now unless I gave the details. All of you were so supportive, and many of you have some similar struggles! I pray my journey to be persistent and not give up, can encourage and motivate you to do the same!
Blessings,
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