My Candida Diet Disaster

So, about a week ago I started a candida cleanse using an herbal supliment to eliminate candida and a probiotic supliment to replenish the "good" organisms. In addition to the suppliments, I went on a "cleansing" diet that basically consisted of no sugar, no yeast, no cheese, no refined flours, no coffee, no caffeine.

Giving up coffee and sugar at the same time has been one grueling experience! I have brain fog, head aches, depression, fatigue, brain fog, head aches, depression, fatigue... Did I mention brain fog?

These are the foods on the "do not eat" list:

• All sugars and sugar-contained food including table sugar, fructose, corn syrup, honey, molasses, maple sugar and date sugar.
• All white flour and white flour products.
• All yeast-containing pastries, breads, crackers, pastas, etc.
• All cheese except ricotta, cottage and cream cheese. Artificially sweetened drinks and food products.
• Avoid alcoholic beverages.
• Avoid all fruit juices, fruits (fresh, canned, or dried) until yeast is abated. Fresh lemon or lime may be used in water, or as a substitute for vinegar in salad dressings.
• All coffee and tea (even herbal). Except pau de arco tea.
• Chlorinated tap water.
• All processed meats such as bacon, sausage, ham, hot dogs, luncheon meats, corned beef, and pastrami.
• Old leftovers. If food has been in the fridge for more than 3 days, do not eat it. Leftovers may be frozen.
• Obvious fungus foods: mushrooms, blue cheese, etc.
• Peanuts and peanut products: peanut butters. Use almond butter.
• All vinegar-soaked products or vinegar dressings: pickles, pickle relish etc. Lemon juice may be substituted from vinegar in recipes.
• Brewers yeast B vitamins made from yeast, yeast breads, pastries, cracker and pretzels that contain yeast.

It's harsh isn't it? What a shock to my system! People at work were practically begging me to stop it because I was so obviously impaired! (brain fog - remember?)

So now I have a refrigerator full of healthy food that I don't have the energy or the mental capacity to prepare. It's a conundrum!

I think that maybe I took on more than my body could handle. It occurs to me that it would be a good idea to back off a little bit. I don't want to admit failure or defeat - so I think I'm going to regroup, cut my losses, and formulate a new plan. In the mean time, I'm back to the caffeine (so I can think), but staying off the sugar (because I don't want it to all be for nothing).