Making Progress!

So, today is  Day 9 of my Candida Diet Take Two.  Really, I have done it a couple times in between the first BIG time, but this is my second BIG time.  I HAVE to do this.

Today is my anniversary!  Nine years of putting up with my hubs :)  And nine years of him putting up with me.  I met him two months after my second major abdominal surgery.  He had no idea what he was getting with me.  At that point I was 8 weeks out of surgery, feeling good and definitely had cabin-fever!  He never knew me sick...until May of 2007.  Weird things started happening to my body when we found out we were moving.  I fully see that it was the stress that caused it, but since May of 2007, I have been through the ringer. My pain has been so incredible at times that I can appreciate how fantastic it will feel to die and enter the gates of Heaven where I will be healthy again...and forever!  It is a scary feeling to hurt so much that you want to die.  I can say I have been there.  That is the WHY for this diet.  If for nothing else, my boys need me...all four of them!  And that is a GREAT feeling to be needed so much you want to live!

Each morning I wake up and feel just a little bit better.  I get REALLY hungry REALLY fast.  It makes sense when I am eating the most perfectly digestible food.  It doesn't hang around in my stomach for very long.  (Here's to praying that the inflammation in my stomach that was PHYSICALLY keeping my food from emptying is well on its way to healing, as well.)  When I say I get hungry it is painfully hungry.  I have to have food ready at all times to prevent me from cheating.  I get nauseous and many of my pains in my stomach start to return.  As soon as I eat something, I perk up again.  My favorites perks are scrambled eggs and my protein shakes.  Man, they work fast.  I also keep raw almonds with me when I leave the house. There is nothing worse than being with 3 kids away from home and all of a sudden, I start winding down.  It's like my battery dies.  I cannot function.  That is why I have to have some food with me at all times.

 I don't think I have mentioned my protein shakes before.  Here's the deal.  I love Maximized Living's products because nothing has sugar in it. They are made with Stevia.  Music to my ears.  All the ingredients are made from grass-fed animals with no hormones and antibiotics used.  This is IMPORTANT!  Even in protein powder.  I have both the chocolate and vanilla flavors and I mix it with some ice and almond milk in my Magic Bullet and Voila!  A quick pick-me-up. And they really do taste good.  If you follow the Advanced Plan from the Maximized Living book, you are even allowed to throw some berries in your shake.  NO other fruits.  But berries are allowed.

Needless, to say, Babe and I won't be going out for a fabulous meal and drinks.  We can't even go for coffee.  We might just go somewhere and sit :)  If you have 3 children, boys at that, you might understand that just sitting actually sounds dreamy!