Monday May 9, 2011

Weight: 126.6


Really struggling right now.  Physically, my body does not feel right.  Nothing major, I can just tell that I don't feel quite right.  I am incredibly tired and lethargic all day.  I sleep 7.5 - 8 hours at night, skip my workout and by 8:30 I want to take a nap.  Forget about my afternoons while all three girls are at school - while I normally get a whole lot accomplished during those three hours, lately I haven't been able to muster enough energy to get off of the couch... for the entire 3 hours.


This is not normal for me.  At all.  I'm a very energetic, self-motivated person.  I don't sit on the couch and do nothing.  But for the past couple of weeks that is exactly what I've been doing.  So I get nothing done during the day and then by 8:30 at night I'm wasted and ready to go to bed.  I suspect that I have a slight candida overgrowth as a result of my antibiotics for strep a couple of weeks ago.  I haven't felt right since taking them.  


Candida overgrowth is a pretty unrecognized condition - as in traditional, western medical people do not recognize it.  However, I just can't shake the fact that unexplained fatigue is one of the symptoms and it can be caused by antibiotics.  So in light of that, I started a detox/fast this morning: sugar/alcohol/yeast/caffeine.  I promptly broke the caffeine fast at 9:30 and had a cup of coffee...  I couldn't shake the headache and was not thinking clearly and decided that caffeine was probably the least of the possible candida issues.


Dave and I have committed to this for only 2 weeks.  I want it to be doable - and saying that I'll give up pizza for a month is a death sentence.  Two weeks is doable.


I also picked up some acidophilous & a high-potency multi-vitamin in the hopes of introducing some good bacteria into my body and getting some additional iron.  I looked at an iron supplement as well, but decided to wait it out and see if the multi helps - if I don't notice a significant increase in energy after the 2 weeks, I'll get the iron supplement, too.


So hopefully the change in diet and the additional supplements will do the trick.  I'm sick of being so tired & I'm sick of my head feeling fuzzy and unfocused (another symptom of candida overgrowth).  I have a lot of stuff swirling through my head at any given moment and I know that part of my fatigue could also be attributed to the mental energy that I'm expending in trying to make sense of what I'm thinking.  But if I can't focus long enough to have a coherrant thought (again - so not like me), then I can't get a handle on expending that mental energy.  


So far, today has been good - with the exception of the coffee.  I think part of the headache issue was remaining hangover from Saturday night when I drank way too many beers in anticipation of the fast :)  Energy levels felt much better today.  My mind is clearing and I feel better.