What I Ate Today (and Skin Update)

Hey y’all,

First things first, so I did the Candida Spit Test again this morning, and I am officially out of the woods with Candida Overgrowth! Yay!

Now, for what I ate today. BTW, this is how I plan to eat from here on out, but we’ll see. First, I swigged down a glass of water, because hydration is so important. As for food, I started this morning off with my Powerhouse Smoothie (inspired by Cara Brotman).

This smoothie makes a massive 2+ quarts; I have to make it in batches and combine it in a big container. It’s about 1,000 calories for a full recipe, which is good for me since I can swig this all day and only have to prepare dinner.

This smoothie contains pretty much all the vitamins and minerals one would need, and after having it for only 3 days, I’ve begun feeling so energized. I feel like a superhero.

To make a full recipe of this smoothie (and I customized my own version, so I’ll put the important nutrient/food group beside each ingredient), combine all the ingredients below in a blender:

-1/2 c red cabbage (cruciferous vegetable)

-a leaf/handful of kale (greens)

-1 c soybeans/pinto beans – I find that these beans don’t add that much bean flavor to the smoothie (protein)

-2 bananas (creaminess, ease of digestion, natural sweetness)

-1/2 c berries (antioxidants)

-1/4 c raw cashews or 1 avocado (creaminess and healthy fat)

-1/3 c papaya (helps with digestion and high in vitamin C)

-1/4 c green apple (malic acid)

-1/4 c sunflower seeds (vitamin E)

-1/4 c flax seed/flax seed meal (Omega-3 fatty acids)

-water to blend (in total, I probably add 2-3 c – half or this can definitely be swapped for a nut milk or a fruit juice if you prefer, but maybe not apple juice, I feel like that wouldn’t work well)

This makes one powerhouse of a smoothie, and it tastes ok, too. It’s definitely not like eating ice cream, but it’s pretty ok. And with all the nutrition in it, that’s perfectly fine with me.

I put this smoothie into jars and stick them in the fridge to have throughout the day. The little extra in the glass, I gulp down before I go on my daily walk.

I walk for 20-30 minutes, and then I drink one of the smoothie bottles, along with having some type of snack/breakfast food. This morning, I had a small bowl of cream of rice with a bunch of blueberries – there were actually more blueberries than cream of rice.

Then, I work until 4 or 5 pm, and I come home and eat a big salad (I often put about 1/4 c of shredded chicken/turkey on top, but I’m going to hold off the next few days since Thanksgiving is this week) and drink my other smoothie jar.

Today I had dessert (which was a bowl of marzipan with a little freezer chocolate), but I’m panning to keep dessert special and only have it once a week or so. Most days, I will probably not have anything else, or I’ll have some plant-based main course.

That’s what I ate today, but I also didn’t try to force myself to eat a huge salad tonight. Not only does that leave me feeling stuffed for hours, I also learned some interesting things about monkey vs. human digestive systems.

Monkeys and humans do have the same digestive length to spine ratio, but monkeys have longer colons and shorter small intestines while humans have longer small intestines and shorter colons. This equips monkeys to better digest lots of fiber, because colons absorb nutrients from fibrous plant material while small intestines absorb nutrients from fats and proteins. Monkeys also have a fermentation organ within their digestive system to further break down fibrous food, whereas humans do not have this type of organ. Humans do have a colon, so we can break down fibrous plant foods, but we’re not equipped to eat as many. Some cooking can also be beneficial. Cooking things like beans or tough vegetables helps to break down the plant fiber and can serve as our “fermentation organ.”

I did make this slight adjustment to my diet today (which was basically just eating a smaller salad pre-dinner instead of a huge salad as my dinner), and this is the first day in 3 days that I haven’t felt stuffed to the point of almost being sick for several hours in the evening (I would feel great after digesting everything, but not so great during digestion). Part of the reason for that is that eating A LOT of greens tends to slow your metabolism since the body is busy digesting (koalas and sloths eat a lot of greens, and they have very slow metabolisms).

Ok, I know this post is getting long, but I want to show off some skin pics of mine. I started a Candida-protocol diet about a month ago, but I’ve been eating my Monkey Diet for 3 days, and my skin health picked up at that point (because I’m getting so many more nutrients). All the pictures on the left are from when I began my Candida-eczema-diet protocol, and the pictures on the right are from now (the middle bar slides). I’m definitely still healing, but my skin is so much better!