The Fungus Among Us

So Joey and I are three days into a Yeast-Free Diet. Ok, I know right now most of you are going, um what? What the heck is that? It goes a little like this:

For one month:
Foods allowed: Meat, Veggies, Nuts, Eggs, and Fruit and Butter (after two weeks)
Foods to avoid: Dairy, Sugar (this means bread, pasta, grains, potatoes, alcohol, etc.), hydrogenated oils, and vinegar

It's so easy a Caveman could do it. No really, cavemen did do it. It's pretty tough the first time you try it, but it does get better the more often you do it.

Wondering why we are doing this? Well, turns out yeast can take over your digestive tract if it is allowed to. It's a microorganism that is pretty darn resilient. Given an inch, it will take a mile. And it can make a huge difference on your body when you have an overgrowth of yeast. It can manifest itself in the form of eczema, rashes, yeast infections, athletes foot, gastrointestinal problems (you know what yeast does to bread making it rise? same sort of thing happens in your body), fatigue, sensitivity to products containing yeast, etc. The list goes on. We want to avoid this list. Oftentimes, IBS, Krohn's, Leaky Gut, etc. are caused by a yeast overgrowth.

What can cause an overgrowth of yeast? Try having an antibiotic once in your life. That's all it takes in addition to eating the American Diet. It kills the bad bacteria causing the infection, but in the process it also kills your good bacteria. So you've got an imbalance. Birth control pills and steroids can also exacerbate yeast.

In order to level the playing field and get things balanced out, you've gotta stop feeding the yeast in your system. It lives on sugar. You also have to take something to kill the yeast, which we get from a vitamin store and supplement with a probiotic.

So that's why we're doing it. I had antibiotics about a year ago for wisdom teeth and Joey is doing it annually. It's not easy, that's for sure, but you feel SO good when you're on it! Are we going to be perfect at it? Um, probably not. I'm a recovering junk food addict so the road to recovery has been a long one for me and there are things that I don't turn down, such as pizza, cheetos, and Mexican food. Weakness. Now that I've mentioned it, please don't bring these near me! I love chocolate and yummy food with the best of 'em. But, we've done well so far and have tons of energy when we're not eating all the bread.

I'll keep you posted on our progress. If anyone's interested in more info, please let me know! Oh and did I mention you might lose a few pounds in the process? :)