In my last post, I
outlined a bullet point list of unhealthy foods that are Candida triggers,
mainly packaged, canned, and bottled foods that are high in sugar and
salt. If your diet consists mostly of these foods, it is going to be next
to impossible to radically change your diet by cutting out all of them at once, so you start out by identifying foods you can live without.
Take a look at your
cupboard. Chances are there
is an old box of instant mashed potatoes, a can of fruit, or a package of jello
shoved way in the back that will exist there for eternity, until some random
mood blesses you with the motivation to clean out your cupboards. These are exactly the kind of foods you want to
think about. They are the kind you can take or leave, and the kind you can live
without.
Because you can live
without these foods, there is no reason to ever buy them again. Maybe they were
bought on a whim for a recipe. Make a mental note
to buy fresh potatoes and fruit the next time you make that recipe, or find a
healthier recipe that doesn't call for processed foods.
Other foods you won’t be
able to live without, and you will know these foods because they are the ones
you will break down and buy at a gas station in the middle of the night. It’s important to write them down. Use a Post-it or piece of scratch paper and
attach it to your refrigerator. If the list is
long, do not despair, you don’t even have to list all of them as long as you
have something. Just think about the
list when you plan your grocery shopping and your meals. Focus on replacing one food on the list with a
healthier option.
For example, when I
first started, my list looked something like this:
Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups
Bread
Bakery Foods: Cookies, Pies, Cakes
Soda
Cereal
I highlighted cereal and
went from there. I had never been a fan
of the sugary kids’ cereals, but I did like Honey Nut Cheerios and Corn
Flakes. I started by exchanging
my Honey Nut Cheerios for Regular Cheerios and sugar free Corn Flakes. I bought fresh berries to go over cereal:
blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries. At the time, I used Almond Milk and Soy
Milk, but if I had to do it over, I would have used either sugar free options
of these milks, or just plain hormone and antibiotic free Cow's milk. It was only when I switched to milk, that I
began losing interest in Cheerios and Cereal. I ended up giving up cereal for smoothies I
blended myself with berries and vanilla yogurt. I then went to eating plain oatmeal with
fruit. After some research, I switched to steel-cut oats, and then to
alternating between quinoa, millet, and buckwheat. Amaranth is another good option. I don’t particularly like it, but you might, so
it is definitely an option to try.
For Bakery Goods, there
were not many options for substitutions, so I started baking banana bread with
sugar in it. After a while, I
replaced the sugar for vanilla yogurt and apple sauce with sugar in it. I then
went to plain yogurt and sugar free applesauce and added sweet spices
(Cardamom, Cinnamon, and Nutmeg, Ginger) for flavor. Now, I make a variety of breads (zucchini,
pumpkin, carrot, banana) for special occasions and I don’t have intense
cravings for the bakery goods available at the grocery store.
For Reese’s, I bought
Andes Chocolate Mints because I did not crave them as much. Because my cravings for chocolate were so
intense and I was so addicted, I did not include the Andes on my grocery list.
I kept chocolate out of the house as much as possible, and bought it only when
I broke down and drove to the grocery store for a single trip. With this arrangement, and with some help
from my boyfriend, I was able to combat chocolate cravings by rationalizing
staying home and eating other foods, like fruit and yogurt.
I will focus on other foods I struggled with as well, which I will be detailing over the next few weeks. This post is to give you an idea about how to
approach some of these problem foods, and successful ways of cutting them out
of your diet and replacing them for healthy options.
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