Started 8/18; Late Introduction

[shii]

Hiya!

 

I'm Shii and I've been a sugar addict most of my life. I knew I had hit pretty much rock bottom when I consumed 2 whole boxes of Berger Cookies (a Maryland specialty, made in Baltimore; basically fudge-covered sugar cookies) in 4 days. Between that and recurrent health issues that are most likely related to my sugar consumption (candida infections over and over again), I decided that something had to change.

 

I started the anti-candida diet on August 14th, 2015, and was intending to simply do a meat-and-veggies diet for a few days to get me back on track. I was poking around the internet and found the Whole30, and on August 17th I decided that maybe I should try to use the structure of the Whole30 to stick to the anti-candida diet. They overlap nicely, and the anti-candida diet just asks you to cut out a few more things (no fruits, no potatoes/starchy tubers, no caffeine, no nuts).

 

I hadn't been able to successfully commit to a diet change that lasted more than 2-3 weeks in about 5 years, and I figured that I should try my darndest to commit to at least 30 days of change! 

 

I found out a few days in that the precooked chicken breasts I had gotten for convenience had soy in them. Whoops. So, my whole30 became a whole34. Okay, I can do that.

 

Then, I went hiking (in the desert) without enough water or electrolytes on day 10. I made it back to my car, and made the poor decision to go into the nearest grocery store and buy whatever electrolyte solution I found - it had sugar. Okay, so, now it's a whole40.

 

BUT - since then, everything has been going well. I'm now scheduled to finish my Whole40 on September 26th. I will admit that the extra restrictions of no caffeine, no potatoes/starchy tubers, and no fruit have made this journey a bit frustrating at times, but I've been doing it! I have 10 days left (counting today), and really, the thing I'm looking forward to most when I finish is a bowl of strawberries. Or maybe an apple sliced and dusted with cinnamon. 

 

I've bought the book "It Starts With Food," and I'm hoping to convince my spouse to do a Whole30 with me a week or two after my first one ends. This has been a pretty enlightening journey, and it's certainly forced my spouse and I to do a lot more home cooking - which has been incredibly delicious.