A few years ago I found a book called "The Body Ecology Diet" by Donna Gates. It's a great guide to ridding your body of an overgrowth of yeast, called candida, recovering your health, and keeping your mind and body young and healthy. It basically describes a step-by-step process, guided by 7 principles of eating healthy. I'll explain the details as we go along, but when I first started this diet, I had been on a steady diet of Jack Daniels and Coca-Cola for about a year. I woke up one day with a very painful and strange looking tongue. After some research, I discovered that my sick looking tongue was due to the alcohol and I was on my way to doing some serious damage to my liver. This scared me sober, and onto The Body Ecology Diet, which until this point, I had been dabbling with but had never gotten serious about.
I'm happy to say that I recovered my health, and my liver and was actually one of the healthiest people I knew for a couple of years. When I moved in with my boyfriend, however, it was really difficult to stay fully on the diet, and I slowly stopped eating according to the healthy principles. Over the last year, due to personal problems, lack of work and just plain laziness, my eating habits have really gone south and I've gained a little extra padding! Also, I just feel tired and worn down, so I have decided to start Ms. Gates wonderful, healthy diet again, because at age 40, I still look pretty young, but I want to continue to look and feel as young as I can for as long as I can!
One of the principles on the diet is the principle of step-by-step. In a nutshell it says to get on this diet little by little, because it's really a pretty big lifestyle change. Anxious to get going and lose some weight, and remembering how great I felt when I was on the diet before, I mistakenly thought that I wouldn't have to think much about that principle this time...you know, I had been on the diet before, so surely it would be easy for me to jump right back in.....boy, was I wrong!
I started this morning with the best of intentions...Drinking plenty of liquids first thing in the morning. A mixture of apple cider vinegar and raw local honey first (which really isn't allowed, but it helps my allergies, so I figured "A bit of honey will be ok for now"), then a cup of tea with a little stevia instead of coffee with a tablespoon of sugar...(Again, black tea not really allowed, but "It will transition me easier into the herbal teas that are.") Then my breakfast...I hadn't done my shopping to buy the things I really needed for this diet, so I settled for a serving of millet with some steamed broccoli and a little low sodium soy sauce. I didn't remember if the soy sauce is allowed or not, but I needed some flavor, so again, "It'll be ok for now."
It sounds pretty funny, making those little excuses and exceptions, but that's exactly what the principle of step-by-step is...getting there a little at a time. I really thought I could do it all at once, but that would be nearly impossible, and that's ok. I'm only human.
As a matter of fact, a little while after my breakfast, I started getting quite a headache...the black tea had not quite done it's job replacing the coffee after all! I actually had to go ahead and have a (small) cup before I went to work. This relieved my headache almost immediately! Talk about addiction!
During work I did pretty good, I drank water, a coconut water and ate a greens bar. Unfortunately, late in the day, I discovered that I would have to stay later than I had planned, and I was getting pretty hungry and my energy level was dropping. Food was coming, they said, and I winced, thinking of what awful things they might be bringing for me and the crew to eat..."Well..." I thought to myself, trying to at least stick to the principle of food combining, "I'll just remove bread from a sandwich and just eat the meat, or avoid any rice or noodles". By the time the food was there I was starving and I heard the horrifying words of my boss..."Come and have some pizza everyone!"
I sighed, and went to investigate. There was nothing I could do...circles of crust (not allowed) mounded with gooey cheese(not allowed) and loaded with pepperoni and various other meats and veggies awaited me. I picked the healthiest looking one I could find...ham and pineapple. (Which actually, now that I think about it was probably the worst one because fruit doesn't digest well with other things at all, and should be eaten alone...and pineapple is one of the sweetest fruits there are!) I took a small piece and chewed it very well, praying the day would be over soon and I could go to the store and buy some yummy veggies to bring with me to work tomorrow.
When I was finally released, I did just that. I went home, baked some salmon and veggies, made a little salad and redeemed myself. Ahhh...my first day is over.
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