Anyone who knows me and DH know that I still eat like a college kid, while DH eats healthier. Like, he's two steps away from being vegan. Now me, I will likely never give up meat. Or dairy. Or eggs. So I would make a terrible vegan. :) But for the past year or so, I've noticed every now and then that I eat a whole crap load of sugar. At one point, I was pretty sure that if I got my blood drawn, it would be mostly made up of sugar. And it started to cause a problem. I will go ahead and warn you that if you don't want to know gross things that people go through in life, just leave now. I'm not shy about it, and I don't mind if the world in general knows. But you might not care to know. Just don't say I didn't warn you.
Back to this problem. It started about 6 months ago, and has been a pain in my butt ever since. Almost literally. I am a victim of almost constant yeast infections. Monistat clears it up for maybe a week, two tops. Went to the clinic to see what was up and make sure I didn't have vaginitis or something else (nope), and they gave me some meds to get rid of it. It lasted a month. Tried more Monistat, and same old story. So I looked up recurring yeast infections, and the term "candida overgrowth" popped up quite a bit. That's where the naturally occurring candida in your gut, well, overgrows. It can spread to other parts of your body and cause lots of problems if it's not controlled. Ever heard of thrush? It's most commonly found in nursing babies, but it's basically a yeast infection of the mouth. If you have candida overgrowth, you might get thrush. I don't have thrush, and I hope to not get it. Migraines and acne are also on the list of things it can cause. I have problems with both of those. Coincidence? Maybe. Maybe not.
Anyway, in researching it, I've learned that OTC meds and even meds that they prescribe you to get rid of a yeast infection don't actually cure it. They only really get rid of the main physical symptoms of one, like itching, burning, & discharge. But the yeast, or candida, in your gut, is still there and flourishing. It will quickly reestablish itself, as I can attest.
Now, I'm not saying I for sure have candida overgrowth, because I'm not a doctor, nor have I been to one about it. And the cynic in me believes that if I even went to my doctor to talk about it, she'd give me a weird look and pat me on the head. But regardless of what I may or may not have, I know for an absolute fact that I have a serious sugar addiction and that needs to be broken. So about a month ago, I did something crazy and didn't buy any more Mountain Dew when the last one was gone. I no longer buy candy whenever I go grocery shopping. Not only have I NOT bought sugary things, I have greatly reduced my consumption of them. Some days I only have 1 glass of orange juice and then maybe something small later on in the day, like a cookie. Some days it's just orange juice. Some days I get lax and drink orange juice for breakfast, a pop at dinner, and some ice cream for dessert. The next day, when the symptoms reappear, I immediately regret my transgressions the day before.
But the surprising thing is, it hasn't been too terribly hard. I expected sucky withdrawals, but then again, I still consume some sugar. Just not tons of it like before. At some point, I'm going to try a hard line kill off diet, where there's NO sugar in any form (((orange juice))) for a week or two. After that I'll add some back in, in moderation, like now. It'll be like Phase 1 of South Beach. There are other things I'm doing for the yeast infection, but this is just about getting the sugar under control for now. But never fear, if things don't work out like I hope, I will go in to the doctor and get some more testing done to see what's up.
