Monday, January 20, 2014

Smoked salmon salad with lemon cilantro yogurt dressing :)

After washing my 3rd world veggies, I started on the salad dressing before cutting.  


For a nice dressing I used plain plain plain yogurt (no sugar plus lots of probiotics) then I added lemon juice, finely chopped cilantro, basil and salt.  It wasn't tangy enough so I added a tbsp of apple cider vinegar... Plus a little more salt and basil.  Yummy dressing! 


Then plain lettuce, chopped onion, and tomato were spiced up with some smoked salmon and my dressing and a handful of raw cashews!  




Delicious, safe, and healthy! 


Bon appetit!!!!!

Rebecca 


Thursday, January 16, 2014

Fasting

So yesterday was a fasting day for our ministry.  I drank hot water with lemon and ginger in the AM (my fave) and then fasted the whole day with water.  I prepared a meal around 6pm of curry sauce with some chicken and added tons of veggies.  Unfortunately I had a bad reaction to it and ended up sleeping it off for 2 hours.  My physical health feels exactly like when I had food allergies in college.  I was allergic to everything under the sun.  Its bizarre and I don't know the relationship.  I'm planning to contact a nutritionalist I trust back in the states to talk through it.

Other than that...I'm doing well and fully confident I will stick to the cleanse diet!

Here's to my health.  All bad stuff has to die in Jesus name!  :)

Peace
Rebecca

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Day what?

So I'm into this fast full force.  It has been another slightly hectic day.  I cancelled all my meetings this morning and slept in until an unheard of time in missionary life.  It was fantastic.  I felt horrific though ,most of the day.  After an omelette and ginger tea for breakfast, I had a salad with some chicken for lunch with sundries tomatoes, and then I decided to splurge and got a chicken curry which I made sure was dairy wheat sugar and everything else free.  Um delish.  I'm planning to toss some veggies into the leftover sauce tomorrow.  

Today I was so tired almost the whole day.  I even asked the server why he brought me a half empty bottle of water (that would be not cool) but actually he had just poured it into a glass sitting right in front of me.  Wow.  I'm a space cadet lately.  The die off symptoms are very real but I'm gonna get better slowly right?  Speaking of being tired I'm falling asleep typing this.  Good night!  Day 7. 

Sweet dreams.
Love
Rebecca 

Die-Off

Die candida die!  The die off has gotten worse!  :P. but I'm thankful it is dying!  

Yesterday was great and on some level I am really enjoying the cleanse/fast.  
For breakfast I had a small omelette and ginger tea. For lunch I had another delicious salad.  I added a little bit of chopped raw garlic for an extra kick and it was fab.  Dinner was delish.  I didn't know what to make but decided to make a tomato sauce with fried zucchini and purple eggplant chips (it was kinda heavenly). 

First I chopped up 3 garlic gloves an onion 2 tomatoes a couple pieces of cilantro and half of a green chile.  Then I sliced thin slices of eggplant and zucchini. 

I put the garlic onion chile and cilantro into the pan in a little olive oil then after cooking til golden I added the tomatoes and mashed them until they were saucy and added salt.  

For the squashes I used a crepe pan and put one layer into the pan added salt rosemary and basil with a tsp of olive oil.  I fried them both until golden brown and a little crispy on the edges!  Full of flavor!   

I also had a few olives and almonds in the evening as I was feeling hungry!  I also drank lots of water today.  

The die off:  
Oh man.  The cravings.  But the worse part of it has been the mornings.  Today I cancelled my morning appointments because I felt so bad.  

I used to be allergic to almost All foods and when I had an allergic reaction I would have heart palpitations where my heart beats extra hard and fast.  This has also been happening especially upon waking up and today was the worst.  

I'm super excited about this cleanse and I know it is going to have multiple beneficial effects on my body!!!  I am really pressing in to go the full course! (No pun intended hehe).  It is going to be really healthy for my body and I am also certain that at the end of it, my diet will have permanently changed in a lot of ways.  Here's to health strength and vitality! :). 

Love and health 
Rebecca 



Monday, January 13, 2014

Washing veggies!!!

I confess over the last few years here I have only used tap water to wash my veggies sometimes with a lot of luck and sometimes not!  I really love to eat fresh cool salads in these tropical temperatures and they are super yummy, full of minerals, and abnormally fresh. "Straight from the garden into the saucepan" is our motto around here!  However the veggies could also have bacteria and parasites so we need to wash them with a little more than tap water so here is a safe way to eat clean in the tropics!  

Stuff you need: 

1. Fresh veggies
2. Clean water!!!! You can boil filter or buy bottled water.  I usually just buy big bottles of mineral water for really cheap!  :) 
3. Hydrogen peroxide and apple cider vinegar 
4. A big sauce pan, bucket, or other bowl that can fit all your veggies to be covered in water.  

Step 1: 
Cut off any super dirty roots, peel onions, and cut off any bad parts of the vegetables! 

Step 2
Prepare your wash by filling your washing bowl with water!  Add 2 caps of hydrogen peroxide and 2 caps of vinegar.  You can also just use vinegar but I like the extra peroxide to really kill stuff. :P 

Step 3: 
Put your veggies in the wash and soak for 15-20 minutes!  :) 


Step 4: 
Pour out the veggie wash and fill the bowl with clean water.  Rinse the veggies in the clean water! 

Take them out and let them dry and refrigerate or eat em up!  ;). 

Hope this helps!  I did it today and had a very delicious salad!  

For a salad dressing, lemon juice, olive oil, and salt or Italian seasoning is delish and very healthy!  

Happy healthy eating,
Rebecca 

Day 5 of cleanse:  
Today I had an egg and avocado for breakfast with ginger tea.
A salad and part of a hamburger patty for lunch. 
I drank a detox drink of water vinegar lemon juice and cayenne pepper! Wowza! 
I stir fried garlic onion cilantro tomato and left over hamburger for a little Mexican stir fry for dinner!  

Today I enjoyed the cleanse and my meals a lot but I'm a little hungry at the end of the day.  Gonna munch on some almonds.  I think I need to pre plan my meals a little more!  :) 

__ Jeremiah 30:17a — “‘For I will restore health to you and heal you of your wounds,’ says the Lord….”  (NKJV) 


Saturday, January 11, 2014

3rd world living: candida cleansing #1

This blog is dedicated to third world missionaries sacrificing so much for the love and joy of the call!
I am not a doctor or a health professional but I just want to share the little I have learned and my experiences over the last 6 years working and living in East Africa.  The joys outweigh the sacrifices (on most days) but we have to learn in the throws of third world living to take care of ourselves and to stay strong and healthy so that we can continue the work!!!  A lot of what I will share will likely be a help to those not in third world nations as well! :)

My Journey
Over the last few years, my health has suffered tremendously on the mission field of Uganda.  Going into the deepest darkest slums, hospitals, and villages, we encounter the worlds most feared diseases, bacterias, and parasites etc.  no sweat for us we usually think!  Fearless bold and set on fire, but lets be realistic!  I don't think there is a missionary who has been on the ground for more than 2 years who hasn't been on at least a round of antibiotics for a nasty stomach bug! 

A year ago I was diagnosed with a high level of amoebas in my gut.  The docs pumped me full of strong antibiotics which triggered a shingles outbreak!  Oh my this was not fun.  My immune system was so compromised that the docs put me on bed rest and refused me to travel in writing!  A strong independent missionary who is a mom to 19 kids and an overseer to a school of 400 and boss to 25 staff, I was literally like a vegetable and for the first time in my life experienced fear concerning my health.  I was supposed to be heading back to the states to return to a ministry training school but instead I was forced to rest.  Lets be honest I needed it on every level but fought it on every level as well.

Six months later the amoebas resurfaced (they often go dormant) and another round of antibiotics did not kill them.  Two weeks later another round of antibiotics and I was not sure if they were gone or not because of a mixture of symptoms!  I went back to the states and tried to figure out what was happening!  Most western medicine doctors are not well versed in tropical medicine so luckily I found an international health clinic a few years back.  After tests they found..... Nothing.  Symptoms persisted.

I did a Chinese medicine herbal cleanse with a restricted diet which helped a lot but didn't fully kick out whatever it was! I confess I didn't stick to it very well though.  No sugar didn't last very long!  Chinese medicine is fascinating stuff though...

Candida ...yuck! 

A year after the first amoeba diagnosis, and voila!  Another diagnosis... Mass yeast overgrowth in my gut!   When I had been in the states, a friend told me she thought I should do a candida cleanse but I was just coming off the Chinese herbs cleanse and it was FALL in AMERICA!  It takes a soldier to fast through pumpkin pastries and pecan pies and chai lattes plus all the other foods I never see in Africa like sushi, decent hamburgers, Mexican food, etc. etc. etc. I was too weak.  ;-) 

So here I am in the middle of a 3rd world country and I am on day 4 of a candida cleanse.  After researching, the general guidelines of a candida cleanse look something like this:

1. A week of veggies, spices. and oils only fasting
2. A week of veggies plus a few proteins and oils
3. Continue the diet and add antifungals
4. Continue the diet another week.
5. Add probiotics
5. Continue the diet up to 60-90 days adding in a few grains like brown rice, quinoa, and barley until healed.

The reason for such a gradual lead up to the antifungals is to reduce the die off symptoms of fatigue, needing extra sleep, headaches, irritability, digestive problems, anger flares, etc.

My journey with candida:::

However because I was diagnosed with such a high level I started my antifungals right away as I began the cleanse.  I did a liquid fast day one and then went to two days of veggies only with one or 2 eggs per day.  However I found myself very hungry so decided to go ahead and add meat in. 

 I am now on day 4 of antifungals and day 5 of the cleanse.  I have definitely had die off symptoms such as light headaches, heart racing, very tired upon waking up, stomach discomfort, and some light sugar cravings.  I am drinking hot water with lots of ginger and a squeeze of lemon juice in the mornings in place of my usual sugary hot tea.  

I will be writing about the rest of my journey on the cleanse!  Here is my plan:  

Week 1: antifungals + candida safe non starchy veggies, water, eggs, minimal natural meats like chicken, beef, and fresh fish, olive oil and spices such as ginger, garlic, salt, cinnamon, basil, rosemary, thyme, sage, oregano, cilantro, and curry 

Week 2: continue the above diet. 

Week 3: continue the above diet.  Add probiotic capsules + probiotic rich foods such as plain no sugar yogurt and kimchee.  

Week 4: continue week 3. 

Week 5: continue week 3. Add brown rice and maybe quinoa and barley if I can find it here.  

Week 6-8: continue week 5 until finished!  

This blog is in part to share what I learn and also to help me in maintaining this fight.  

It's gonna be a long uphill journey!  I'll be sharing some missionary health tips, recipes, and natural remedies along the way.  Here we go!!!! Here's to getting strong and healthy again!  :) 

<3
Rebecca 

1 Corinthians 6:19-20

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.