Quitting Coffee

I am now in the process of quitting coffee, yet AGAIN! The last attempt was disastrous; hideous cravings, headaches, sluggishness galore! But, here comes the but, I have been feeling lightheaded and strangely tired and have linked these feeling to coffee (I drink coffee, I feel bad, I don't drink coffee, I feel better). Time to quit AGAIN, sigh....

I was pretty good for 4 days and then got up and felt the need for a little lift and met Miss Scilla and her husband Mike at Starbucks and promptly wreaked myself on a Venti peppermint mocha latte, extra hot with whipped cream and sprinkles. Bad.... bad Emily. Michael even nudged me into picking up a Starbucks card, which I am glad to say, I didn't load up with money. To make matters worse, I went back yesterday and got a decaf Venti peppermint mocha latte, iced this time and felt rotten and couldn't even finish it.

Back off coffee....

Hopefully this time my boycott will last longer than 4 days.

Greek Chicken Bake

 4 organic chicken breast halves
 
1/2 C. green olives - no pimento - chopped
1/4 C. lemon juice
1/8 tsp, hot pepper flakes
6-7 large pepperoncini peppers - minced
1/2-1 tsp Greek or Italian spice blend
butter
salt and pepper to taste

You can add a bit of the juice from the olive and pepperoncini jars if you want to. This will really pack a wallop of flavor!

Put the 4 chicken breasts in a baking dish. Combine the remaining ingredients in a bowl and mix. Pour over the chicken. Top each breast with a pat of butter.

 Bake in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes.

This dish doubles very well if you want to please a crowd!

Procrastination

Have you ever been intimidated by your own blog? I think my fear of failure has been keeping me from posting for quite awhile now and I'm going to make an effort to get past that. Let me try to bring you all up to date on what's been going on since I last left a posting.

1. The Body Ecology Diet works pretty well. It's not a cure really because when I eat badly my symptoms come back. I tried to go off coffee (as she recommends) and had a HUGE backlash of cravings that knocked me off the diet for several weeks. Failure number one. 'Twas not too pleased about that. I decided that coffee will just have to stay until I'm better and can cope with the withdrawal. I did this for a month or so before I got going on the probiotics, etc.

2. Dr. Ohhira's probiotics are very good. I got some obvious results by taking them. It cut down on the pasty tongue and cravings. I was on them for a couple months and then went off them for 3 weeks as I ran out of money and the pasty tongue came back a bit so I'll be going back on them soon.

3. Candex. I took it with the Dr. O'Hira's, so I'm not sure if  it's necessary or not. It didn't bother me and I quit taking it when I ran out of money so I may take it again. Not sure yet... I may try to use it topically to combat my vaginal yeast infection, which is still with me. Grrrrr....

4. The Terminator II Zapper. I haven't said anything up till now about the zapper, which I found out about from David Wolfe. He says he has been using one for years and found it to be VERY helpful for eliminating candida and parasites. Per David, it's best effects come from long term everyday use. I decided to go for it and I have to say that it really cut down on my cravings to the point where I feel more normal around food. My usual normal is to start eating and then go crazy with the cravings until I go to sleep. Now I can have a meal and feel OK until several hours later when I need to eat again. This is VERY new for me! I cannot eat anything bad (i.e. stuff with high fructose corn syrup or MSG) without getting cravings but to be able to eat regular food and stay sane is just heavenly!

The short explanation about the zapper is that it kills candida and parasites by sending a mild electrical current into the skin that makes the blood more alkaline. Apparently candida and parasites thrive in an acid environment.

It doesn't hurt to use it as the current is very mild. It will start tingling if you leave it in one place for too long. I move mine around a lot. It's only design flaw is that it's bulky, doesn't have a device to strap it on with and is impractical to wear out of the house if you're a woman. Mine keeps falling out of my bra, as I tend to bend over a lot. David Wolfe wears his in his undies! That just doesn't work for me. More on this in another post....

6. The Barefoot Connections grounding sheet. Another find from David Wolfe. He's just full of interesting info! This sheet plugs into a grounded wall socket and recreates the electromagnetic effect of sleeping on the ground in connection with the earth's magnetic field. The short story on this is that we need to be grounded to the earth to stay healthy. Since so many of us wear rubber/plastic shoes, live in cities and never go to the beach or play barefoot on the grass and are bombarded with other electromagnetic fields all day, we are becoming progressively more and more messed up.

I haven't slept well for about 10 years and usually I toss and turn all night and wake up feeling clubbed, groggy and grumpy. Not a particularly nice way to get up and go through the day. I have large dark circles under my eyes and almost never feel rested.

I thought, if I could get a good night rest I might just have a chance at improving my health in a very dramatic way so I want ahead and bought one. The first two nights sleeping with this thing were uneventful. Then on the third night I practically passed out as soon as I went to bed and was out cold until I woke up the next morning. Ahhhhhh, it worked! Right now I'm in LOVE with the thing. I'll be taking it with me when I go visiting this summer. I'll be using it forever....

7. I'll be designing a workout/meditation room and starting up a exercise routine in the near future. Sigh.... that should be interesting (do you hear the sarcasm dripping off this last remark?). Don't get me started....

I have a bunch of recipes that I'm getting ready to post soon (cold poached salmon ceasar salad, ginger soy and a spicy slaw dressing and a Greek chicken bake) and will be looking into DMSO and MSM.

That's enough for now.....

My arsenal against Candida

Here are a few goodies that I hope will be instrumental in helping me kill off my candida problem. All of these products (except the Candex, which I found myself) were recommended by Truth Calkins and were products that he used to rid himself of Candidiasis. His information can be found on David Wolfe's subscription site - The Best Day Ever.

• Kyolic Garlic helps with liver toxicity (which you have if you have candida, as it produces ugly toxins), immunity and improving the cardiovascular system. It also helps to maintain healthy cholesterol levels already in a normal range, enhance circulation, support immune function, help fight stress and fatigue, and maintain health function of the liver and nerves.
  
  
• Candex uses fiber digesting enzymes to break down the cell wall of candida (and all other fungal organisms). They claim that this allows for the yeast to be destroyed with little die off symptoms because the enzymes in the candex "eat" the yeast and this means that your body doesn't have to "clean up" the dead yeast cells.
  
  
• Pau D'arco is a bark can be used as a tea, tincture or powdered and capped up. It's anti-fungal, antiviral and antiparisitic. It can also be used to treat cancer. Pau d'Arco is known to strengthen the body's immune system. It's is a known treatment for: candida and other fungus, viruses such as polio and influenza, arthritis, diabetes, parasites, bacteria, cancer, liver disease, fever, venereal and rheumatic disorders, skin disorders such as eczema, herpes and the mange, and more.
  
  
• Dr. Ohhira's probiotic uses 12 strains of friendly bacteria, naturally occurring FOS (prebiotic nutrient important to intestinal well-being), 4 organic acids (helps establish the proper pH environment in the colon) and important micronutrients, including vitamins, minerals and amino acid to restore the balance of intestinal microflora. This is very important to a healthy immune system and overall good health. The ingredients are hand-gathered from the mountains and seas of Japan. These various vegetables, fruits, seaweeds, roots, mushrooms, barks, leaves and herbs are blended using ancient Japanese traditions and are naturally fermented.
  

My sister had a problem with Dr. Ohhira's probiotics. It gave her ugly mood swings, so she had to give it up. I had my first two yesterday and haven't had any noticeable problems yet.

I have a few herbal things coming in the mail yet too; horsetail, reishi, a pau d'arco powder and goldenseal, all of which I plan to cap up and take as an anti-fungal. I have still to locate Spilanthes and black walnut powder. I may just take a black walnut tincture which I have already. I'm also looking into Calendula and lemon grass.

I was going to implement everything at once, but it was too stressful to wait any longer to get things going, so I'm just going to incorporate each new item as I get them and can figure out how to crow bar them into my day.

Right now I'm taking 1 cap of Ohira's and 2 caps of Candex first thing in the morning and right before bed. The key for both these products is to take them on an empty stomach and with a full glass of water. I'm making 2 caps of the Kyolic garlic and taking them with 2 meals a day (that's 4 caps total).

I'm going to do this for a week and see if I get too much die off. If all seems well, I'll add back my earlier Hydrogen Peroxide protocol. It wiped me out earlier, but I'm going to give it another go. Die off be damned!

Food, Inc.

Food, Inc. (2008)
Director - Robert Kenner

"The food we eat has changed more in the past 50 years than in the past 50,000 years" That is the opening statement from the movie Food, Inc. The movie then proceeds to prove it to you with an impeccably researched selection of facts, laws and interviews. Since I'm already a convert, Food, Inc. was preaching to the choir for me, but I learned a few things I didn't know already about the food industry.

One big problem seems to be the subsidy on corn (allowing it to sold for less that it costs to produce) and the over reliance on corn and corn products in our foods. Not to vilify corn, because corn is not evil of it's own accord, but the practice of corn growing, feed corn for animals and highly processed corn products are the root of so many of the problems we have today with health, farming and food production.

Particularly enlightening was the discourse on how the big food corporations manage farmers with constant requests for upgrades to their farms and equipment in order to stay in business with them. The one woman who allowed the movie makers to film her chicken house was fired by her employer for not upgrading her chicken house to the sort that has no windows. Personally I can't imagine spending an entire life in the dark but this is what most chickens have to go through these days.

Not so surprising, was the use of lawsuits to keep 'rogue' farmers in line. Monsanto (the geniuses who invented Roundup pesticide) in particular seems to have made an art out of this approach. Even farmers who never even bought their seed got sued for patent violation when their crops were contaminated by neighbors crops. And, keeping the seed from your own crop was a violation as well. I'm still a little outraged over that one. I mean, if you buy something, isn't it yours? Apparently not....

Food, Inc. got into some of the key players at the FDA and USDA as well. Many of the top jobs are being held by those who have been employed by the big food corporations. The government is populated by them as well. Donald Rumsfeld was a CEO for Searle (bought by Monsanto), John Ashcroft, a Missouri Senator, received record contributions from Monsanto, and Robert Shapiro, one of Clinton's advisers, was a CEO for Monsanto. Even Clarence Thomas (you know, supreme court judge Clarence Thomas) was a Monsanto attorney. He is the judge who wrote the majority opinion on forbidding farmers from keeping their own seed.

For anyone who is not so familiar with the business practices of Monsanto, lawsuits are their premier way of beating their competition to death. Click on the Monsanto link above to see a video on what horrible things they have been doing (compliments of the Organic Consumers Association).

The bottom line in all of this is that these big corporations are using their power to control the food supply to our detriment. Obesity, diabetes, cancer and a whole plethora of diseases are becoming epidemic in our country and it's becoming clearer than ever that the cause is the food we eat.

For a truly enlightening experience, go buy or rent Food, Inc. And then exercise your power and go buy something organic! Even big corporations have to bow down to the power of the pocketbook (err, wallet)!

Candida Killing Plan - In Process

It is beyond self evident to me at this point that unless I get rid of my Candida problems that going raw will be just keeping me ill as there is too much carbohydrate and sugar in a truly raw diet. And, since it is the carbs and sugars that feed the yeast, raw is going on the back burner for 6 months or so while I do the diet from The Body Ecology Diet book by Donna Gates. That is NOT to say that I won't be eating anything raw, I just won't be so heavy on the raw (fruit is going to go bye-bye too).

Ms. Gates promises that if you follow her advice, your health will improve. I'm going to take her at her word and give this whole business six full months to prove itself. If it doesn't work, I'll know by then (and probably far sooner than that). Truth Calkins also used her advice and diet to get himself out from under the Candida thumb. Click on the link for Truth above to see a video of him making a chocolate/coffee ice cream mousse concoction. Yum!

OK, so this is the plan, so far. I'll be following Donna Gates advice on what to eat to starve the candida to death AND I'll be following Truth Calkins advice on probiotics and minerals and things to rebuild my immune system. I got his information on Candida from my sister who has a subscription to David Wolfe's site, thebestdayever.com. For those of you unfamiliar with David Wolfe, he is one of the leaders in the raw movement/community. A brilliant lecturer, David has been at the forefront of the alternative health/nutrition world for over a decade. Definately worth checking out!

So, over the course of the next month I'll be quitting coffee (yet again!) and slowly easing my diet over to what Donna Gates suggests. This will set me up to be fully on the diet from the 1st of the year until my birthday in June. At that point I'll be reevaluating my situation and deciding if I need to stay on her diet any longer or if I can begin transitioning back over to the raw.

Expect the step by step outline of all of this soon. I'm busy taking my notes from the book and researching products online and will bring you all the gory details as they emerge.

Return to the RAW!

After what has seemed like an interminable absence, I'm now getting back on track. My excuse has been that I moved from my apartment into a darling house! I wasn't exactly planning to be AWOL for 2 months, but that is what it has taken to find the new place, pack up, move and then unpack. And, I'm still not totally done with the unpacking. I expect a few more weeks of cleaning, pondering and re-organizing before I can heave a sigh of relief and get back to a normal schedule.

And of course, (well, not of course, but in my case it was inevitable) I ran my diet off into a ditch and have been slowly getting it back on track. Not quite there yet as I'm still fussing over a few issues and having icky withdrawal symptoms from cooked and non-organic foods. I still haven't open up my juicer and Vitamix either. I intend to remedy that this afternoon. I hope to pull the kitchen together TODAY!

My sister came across some very interesting information from this guy named Truth Calkins about bringing candida issues under control, which I'll be trying out and sharing with everybody as soon as I can get myself under control and back on track. She gave me her notes on his lecture and it's full of good information on how he managed to rid himself of a candida infestation. Check him out on YouTube talking about his flu virus tonic and all sorts of other raw and health related goodness.

Truth has a tonic bar in the Erewhon Market in LA and now also has a company, Jing and Co. selling a yummy chocolate and jing herb brownie that helps give you energy. Lord knows I could use more of that! I hope to try them out and see what they're all about soon. You can pick up a 12 pack (with free shipping) for $57.95 (that's $4.80 a piece).

Have a groovy day babycakes, I'm off the organize the kitchen!