Third Week on Candida Diet

Well, it is the beginning of my 3rd week on this diet. It hasn't been so bad. I've lost about 6 pounds, so that's great!! I cheated a little bit this weekend, by having a few glasses of whiskey, two nights in a row. Either than that, I've been pretty good. I have had NO sugar at all for 3 weeks, except for one cherry Lifesaver this afternoon, which I couldn't even finish! It was too sweet! My taste buds seem to be changing - things that previously didn't taste sweet now taste sweet.

Health wise, I'm feeling ok. The first 2 weeks, I was really feeling groggy without caffeine. Like I mean head not working groggy. So I've started having 1 cup of caffeinated tea in the mornings. I figure having ADD, I need some sort of stimulant (Ritalin works because it is a stimulant).

Anyways, I've also been a little bit moody, but I'm not sure if that's because of the horrible weather (no sunshine!), or the cleanse. Maybe a combo. Cleansing can sometimes bring up emotional messes from the past.

My psoriasis might be clearing up (it's hard to say), so that's good. And my tummy is definetely flatter, and I've hardly had any tummy aches! I usually get quite a few, so that's nice!

That's about it!

Later skaters.

Seven Things About Me You Might Not Know

A friend (Courtney) emailed this to me, quite awhile ago now. But I thought it would be fun. Perhaps you'll disagree and think I'm a loser now. All well! hehe


A) Four jobs I have had in my life:

1. Barista at Starbuck's

2. Mail Girl at a Life Insurance company

3. Clerk at a Private Golf Course (I met Ross Rebliatti there, or however you spell his last name, and Brother Jake from Rock 101.1 FM was a regular too...oohh...so impressive!)

4. Temporary 'Jane of all Office Trades' at the Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine, Huntington's Disease Centre in Baltimore, MD

B) Ten movies I would watch over and over:

1. Anchorman

2. Love Actually

3. Life Is Beautiful

4. Zoolander

5. Titanic

6. Elf

7. Dodgeball

8. Dangerous Beauty

9. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

10. My Fair Lady

C) Places I have lived.

1. Ladner, BC

2. Vancouver, BC

3. Baltimore, MD

4. As a vagabond, back-packing in Europe

D) Four TV shows I watch:

1. 24

2. The Office

3. My Name is Earl

4. Scrubs

E) Websites visited Daily (not quite daily, but often)

1. Gmail

2. serendipitousjen.blogspot.com

3. Google

4. MyLangara

F) Four of my favorite foods/meals:

1. Beef or veggie lasagna with ricotta cheese, garlic bread, and caesar salad

2. Chocolate

3. Cheese

4. Almost anything Mexican

G) Four Places I would rather be right now:

1. Italy

2. Greece

3. Paris

4. At home, cuddling with Rob

---What about you??

24 Obsession

OK, so Rob and I have officially become obsessed with the TV show 24. We started watching Season 5 when it was on TV, about half way through the Season. We quickly became addicted, and began faithfully watching the show every Monday (which is something I can rarely do with TV shows, simply because I don't have the attention span to remember what night they are on, let alone what time!). There were many things that we didn't quite understand, but we got the gist.

As soon as the season finished on television, we went out and bought Season 1, so we could get the background, and answer the biggest question we had: why did Jack get grabbed by the Chinese at the end of Season 5??? We knew we were missing something...

Then we bought Season 2, 3, 4, and finally 5. Watching Season 5 from the beggining made a big difference. So many main characters died just in the first episode that we didn't even know of when we watched it on TV (I mean we knew they died, because they made reference to it on the show, but we didn't know who the heck these people were). Anyways, watching now, after getting to know those characters from Season 1 on, it was very sad! I cried. A lot.

So now Season 6 has officially started. After the 2 night four hour Season Premiere, I have so many raging questions...and seriously, this is getting ridonculous! I am dreaming about it and everything!! But seriously, did Curtis die last night??? That would really be sad! And where's Audrey? And what happened to President Logan and Martha, and Aaron Pierce? Argh...so many un-answered questions! I forgot how frustrating a new Season of 24 can be! Because in between seasons, usually 1-2 years go by in Jack's world. So during that time, all the loose ends from the season before are wrapped up, and then many of them are just forgotten about, or quickly brushed over with a brief discussion, on the next season. Like in season 2. Jack apprehends the terrorists and figures out the big bad plot, as usual. But he seems to maybe find happiness after his wife's death in Season 1, with Kate Warner, whose sister turns out to be one of the terrorists. However, in Season 3, they barely mention it, except for a brief phone call between her and Jack in the 1st episode, where we get the hint that they tried at a relationship, but it didn't work out. Blah! They appear to be doing the same thing now with Audrey!! GRRR!!

And seriously. Is Curtis actually dead??

First Day of Candida Treatment Diet

So, starting this morning, I can not eat/drink any of the following:

Sugar (any form of it, even most fruits)
Yeast (trust me, it's in EVERYTHING)
Caffeine
Alcohol
Mushrooms
Cheese, except occasionally, soft cheeses like feta or ricotta
Anything refined/processed

So far, it hasn't been too bad. Although I did miss my coffee this morning! I started off with a glass of warm water & lemon juice when I woke up. Then I made a glass of fresh carrot & beet juice, with my brand new juicer. It was totally delicious, and my juicer seriously rocks!! I'm SO excited about it!! I have an old juicer, but I never used it because it takes forever to make the tiniest bit of juice, and it's so hard to clean up. But my new juicer is very easy to use (you can shove a whole apple in there, peel, core, and all, and it will juice it!), and easy to clean too. I was very impressed!

Anyways, then I had a smoothie, with Vega powder (for protein). Vega is a great product: very nutritious. Rob & I have been using it for about a year now every morning. It's yummy too! For more information, see the website:
http://www.myvega.com/

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So I was doing the above post, and had to save it as a draft before I could finish it. Now it's 2 days later, and I'm finally getting a chance to finish it!! hehe

I'm still doing the cleanse. Today is day 3. It's been pretty hard, but not as bad as I thought it would be. I've really been missing coffee, and have had a few episodes of extreme sugar cravings. The no yeast has been ok though. I bought this soda bread from Capers, with no yeast, and it's really yummy, so that's warding off the cravings.

I made this Digest Aid Soup, with black beans, brown rice, and a whole bunch of veggies and herbs and spices. It really does help with the digestion, let me tell you!! It's not too bad tasting either. My new favourite snack is as follows:

2 Pieces of Soda Bread
1/2 an Avocado
Squeeze of lemon juice (on the avocado)
Pinch of sea salt (on the avocado)
3-4 slices Goat Feta Cheese

Just squeeze the lemon juice and pinch the sea salt onto the avocado, and then mash the avocado onto the soda bread. Add goat feta pieces where wanted! Yummy, and nutritious.

Right now I feel very tired & hungry, but it's been a good 3 hours since I last ate, and I think I have hypoglycemia, cause whenever I go more than two hours without eating, I get this really foggy head feeling, a headache, and I become very dumb feeling (disconnected). So yeah...that's how I'm feeling now...Yay! But I get a food break soon, so hopefully I can make it!

I'll keep you posted on my health, and let you know if this is a worthwhile diet to try. I'm also taking a couple of extra supplements, but I'll have to talk about that another time.......

-Jen

Little Miss Sunshine

My fiancee and I rented this movie over the holiday, and it was fantastic! One of the best movies I've watched in a long time, for sure. It was funny, heart-warming, and a little bit sad too. It was a very smart comedy. I HIGHLY recommend it!

Want to know what it's about? OK, I'll tell you! It's about a little girl named Olive who desperately wants to be a beauty queen. Unfortunately, she is not exactly beauty queen material. But she doesn't know that, and her family is too dysfunctional to realize it themselves.

Take her Father (Greg Kinnear), a self-help wanna be who can't quite make it, but won't stop preaching about his failed nine step program, her Brother (Paul Dano) who read Nietzsche, took a silence vow, and subsequently hasn't spoken in nine months, her Mother (Toni Collette), who just wants everyone to be happy, her Uncle (Steve Carrell), an intellectual who is staying with the family after a recent suicide attempt, and her Grandfather (Alan Arkin), who was recently thrown out of his retirement home for smoking crack. Put them all together in a VW van for a trip from Albuquerque to Los Angeles, for the Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant, and you get this fantastically funny movie.

Please see my recommended movie list for a link to this item on Amazon.ca(for purchase), and a review by Amazon.ca, which you may find lays it out a little more coherently than I!

-Jen

Happy 2007!

Hi there:

Just wanted to quickly say that I hope you all had a wonderful holiday, and that 2007 is looking to be a bright one for you! (I don't know who you "all" are, since I don't think anyone actually reads this yet...but whatever!).

I'm getting married this year, in August, so I'm starting to get pretty damn excited!!!!

Anyways, I've decided to do a Candida yeast cleanse. I've done mild forms of this before, but never very fully. It's a very complex diet that involves severely limiting sweets, yeasts (ie: all bread products), fungi, dairy, and processed foods. But I figure I could use it, and if I could quit smoking (which I did last year), I can do this (although I'm pretty sure this will be harder). I thought I'd track my process here, and share some of the resources I find about it. I will probably not be starting this diet until next week.

Hope you have a great day!

-Jen