Chocolate Coconut Cashew Clusters

4 heaping tbs raw cashews
3 tbs unsweetened shredded coconut
2 squares Ghirardelli 82% dark chocolate (22 grams extra dark chocolate of choice)
1 tbs coconut oil
Drizzle of honey (or 2 dates to make it Vegan)
Pinch of salt

Place all ingredients in a food processor and blend till gritty texture. Transfer to refrigerator for at least 1 hour. This helps it set better. Remove and using spoon or ice cream scoop create balls of yumminess.

Sweet Potato Breakfast Pie

1 medium sweet potato, cooked and cool (3-4 ounces)
3 egg whites
1 tbs chia seeds
2 tbs unsweetened shredded coconut
1.5 tbs almond flour
Dash cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
Pinch salt

Preheat oven to 350F. Remove skin from sweet potato and mash flesh in a bowl. Combine remaining ingredients (make sure to mix very well so the egg incorporates and you don't get scrambles). You may add stevia if you want it more sweet, I opted for no sweeteners. In an oven safe bowl/ramekin, either spay with cooking spray or coat with coconut oil. Pour batter into ramekin and bake for 30min or until set. Let cool. It tastes even better chilled but if you don't have the patience for that wait time it's good hot too (because I had ZERO patience this morning and ate it hot. Kellen liked it warm too).

As I mentioned in previous posts I haven't been eating any sugar or using sweeteners so this was plenty sweet for me. However, if you like sweet then you can add some stevia or honey.

Finishing the 10 Day Cleanse

Yesterday was the final day of the 10 days Candida Cleanse. To recap, days 1-3 I had horrible headaches in the afternoon/evening. Days 4-5 I felt pretty good, my energy was a tad low but nothing I couldn't handle. Days 6-10 were NOT GOOD. I had horrible diarrhea, a couple headaches, extreme lethargy and mood swings. After doing some research and reading others' experiences my symptoms were not uncommon. But they were still none the less uncomfortable. I stopped taking the GX Assist (DoTerra Essential Oils Blend for liver detox) and began using a Activated Charcoal supplement to help with the diarrhea.

I'm slowly going to start implementing some foods back into my diet but will continue to eat primarily a real foods/processed free lifestyle. My birthday is coming up on Thursday and I want to be able to eat a little something off limits, but not too crazy. Sadly, I will not be eating any birthday cake that day. The one thing I will not be adding anytime soon is sugar. No sugar, no fruit, no honey, no sweeteners. There will be ONE exception to the rule, and that's Stevia. Stevia does not "feed" candida so it's ok to use, however, this will be used very sparingly. I must say, after 10 days of absolutely no sugar or sweeteners everything tastes very yummy. I had a PLAIN sweet potato yesterday and it tasted like heaven. Seriously, like a sweet potato pie! My vegetables are also tasty, I sprinkle just a small amount of salt on them while grilling and that's all they need. Eggs taste awesome, however, I'm still working on making my chicken yummy. I did try cooking a large batch of chicken breast in the crock pot with tomatoes and salt on low for hours, which definitely helped.

As for the workouts, they've been "meh". With all these toxins being dumped into and out of my body I've definitely felt a difference in the gym. I stuck to my workout plan, but everything seemed so much heavier and more exhausting. I had a hard time keeping up with my usual pace. Even friends in the gym who see me on a regular basis mentioned I wasn't acting like my energetic and spunky self. Phew, last week was a doozy.

This week I will continue to stick to my workout plan and begin slowly implementing more starchy carbs (potatoes, beans, quinoa, rice etc) back into my diet. I will still be leaving out dairy and gluten for now and of course no sugar. The one exception will be my birthday lunch at Otto's Italian in the Venetian. Not sure what I want but I will try not to stray too far as I don't think my tummy will permit.

Butternut Squash Hot Cereal

1/4 large butternut squash, cooked
3/4 cup almond meal
1 cup unsweetened almond milk
2 egg whites
Honey, unsweetened shredded coconut and Chia Seeds (optional)

Pour the almond milk into a small saucepan and bring to boil. Meanwhile, place the 1/4 cubed butternut squash in a food processor and blend until smooth (or you can mash it up in a bowl). After the milk comes to a boil, add in almond meal and butternut squash. Turn heat to medium and cook until it is thick. Turn heat to low and pour in egg whites stirring constantly to help thicken cereal and prevent any scrambles. Keep stirring until egg is cooked. Turn off heat and pour into two bowls, sprinkle with sea salt. I topped my cereal with chia seeds and shredded coconut. Kellen preferred his with a drizzle of honey.

Not the Time To Set A New PR

Wednesday I woke up very tired and lethargic. It was one of those days when I forced myself to get out of bed and go to the gym. Just before I arrived at Golds, I received a message from my husband that our short sale was finally approved! I was so happy and excited from the news that I got a sudden burst of energy and motivation to hit the weights HARD. It was leg day so I just kept throwing one plate after another onto the squat bar. I completely forgot that morning I woke up exhausted. Until set 5 when I realized my heart rate was high and it wasn't coming down even between sets. I began to slow down even though my motivation was high. My body was saying, "NOT TODAY!" I took a couple of longer breaks and tried to push myself on the hack squat but my legs started shaking and I began to feel light headed. Definitely my sign to slow down and take it easier. The rest of my day was exactly like my gym time. Every time I walked up the stairs my body screamed to take it slower, relax a little bit.

Thursday was no different. I ended up taking the day off from the gym and just spending the day with light cleaning around the house, I even took a nap. Reflecting on both Wednesday and Thursday, I really feel like my body is exhausted from the cleanse. I'm eating sufficient calories and I'm not overtraining, so I believe all the toxins from the "die off" are effecting my body processes.

I used to regularly see an acupuncturist in San Diego. Her name was Erin, and what she taught me has stuck with me since I saw her 4 years ago. Erin always believed you should listen to your body, back off when it was asking for rest. The way she explained it made so much sense to me. Sometimes Eastern Medicine just makes more sense. She always said that I needed to slow down, and listen more to my body. I was way to hard on myself, and she was right.

And speaking of white tongues, because that's one of the reasons I chose to do the cleanse. The first day I met with Erin she asked to look at my tongue. It seemed strange to me but I showed her. She smiled and said, "it looks great, nice and pink!" I'm currently working toward getting my tongue back to NICE AND PINK with this cleanse. And it's working. ;)

What The Heck Is That!?

So what the heck am I eating these days? (and go ahead and laugh at my heck, I picked it up the 7 years I lived in Utah) It's very similar to the Paleo diet but without fruit and without starches (potatoes). I've been having to get creative in my kitchen again so that I don't get bored eating the same things over and over. I do have my staples on this diet; eggs, turkey bacon, chicken, eggplant and almonds. I've been eating these everyday. I try to rotate the vegetables to keep things fun and flavorful. And boy have I ever used my salt shaker these last 5 days! Here are a couple of the pictures I've taken. I like things simple and fast. When I'm hungry I'm HANGRY so it's got to be quick. I've really been liking scrambles and my turkey bacon every morning. I was a oatmeal or quinoa for breakfast gal so giving up my carbs first thing in the morning was hard. Not to mention giving up that cup of black coffee! And great news, absolutely no headaches today!

INFECTED!

Like the blog entry title? Hahaha, I'll explain. So about 2 days after my previous blog entry it was brought to my attention that I may have a candida infection. I decided to research a little more into the subject and discovered I had many symptoms that were connected to candida. My biggest and most prevalent being recurring infections, headaches, digestive issues (diarrhea), heartburn and... The dreaded white tongue! Candida can become a problem when diet is poor, you're a smoker, antibiotics have been used (antibiotics kill both good and bad bacteria in your body), stress, and other various lifestyle factors. Considering I've been through 2 rounds of antibiotics in the last 3 months and my stress is through the roof I figure the likelihood of having an infection for me is high.

I will still be performing a cleanse but it will look a little different. The cleanse will be void of any grains, gluten, dairy, sugar (even fruit), legumes, caffeine and alcohol. All these can feed the candida, so by removing them you are "starving off" the yeast. Supplementation with DoTerra Essential Oils to help cleanse the liver and further detoxify will be added to my daily diet. A probiotic is also used daily to help repopulate my digestive system with the "good guys".

On Friday I began the diet and started off my day with an ancient Eastern Medicine colon cleanse. Upon waking I drank 1 quart warm purified water mixed with 2 tsp of Mediterranean Sea salt and consumed within 30 minutes. About an hour later the "cleanse" started. And boy was it a cleanse! This colon cleansing method is compared to the efficiency of a professional colonic, and I believe it. I won't go too much more into detail, because it quite TMI but if you're interested further go ahead and google it. ;)

Both Friday, Saturday, Sunday and today I've had sufficient energy. However, I have been experiencing "Candida Die Off" which has been unpleasant. Headaches are common because as the yeast dies it releases 79 different toxins into the body. Fridays headache was so bad by the evening that I went to bed at 8pm to try to sleep it off. Saturday was a little less severe, Sunday was almost non existent. By today (Monday), no headaches! Also, my tongue is a lot less white. I know I should have taken before and after pictures of my tongue but I didn't think of that until today when I noticed more pink.

I'll continue to keep you posted on my progress through my 10 day candida cleanse. So far so good. But I must admit I miss my sushi and coffee. Boo hoo!

The Cleanse & My New Workout Program

Next Sunday I'll be starting a 7 day cleanse as well as a new workout program that I've put together. I'm incorporating both traditional bodybuilding lifting as well as yoga into my weekly split and I'm starting the whole thing off with a modified whole food cleanse.

The Cleanse is explained as follows:
Days 1, 2, 6, 7:
Upon Waking large glass of purified water with fresh squeezed lemon
Breakfast: Quinoa. Topped with chia seeds, sunflower seeds and craisins
Lunch: Brown Rice, unlimited vegetables, 4 ounces chicken
Snack: Vegetables with hummus dip
Dinner: Same as lunch

Days 3, 4, 5:
Upon waking water with lemon
Breakfast: Large Bowl of Fruit Salad
Lunch: mixed plate of chopped vegetables
Snack: smoothie with vegetables and low sugar fruit
Dinner: vegetable Soup

No caffeine, alcohol, dairy, gluten, or oils (with exception of coconut oil for its healthy fats and anti fungal benefits).

As for the weekly workout regime:
Sunday: Power Yoga
Monday: Ashtanga Yoga
Tuesday: Traditional Bodybuilding Lower Body
Wednesday: Traditional Upper Body Push (chest, shoulders)
Thursday: Traditional Upper Body Pull (back)
Friday: Gentle Ashtanga Yoga
Saturday: Hiking or Gentle Yoga

I'll post my experience after I complete the 7 day cleanse. I'm both excited and nervous but looking forward to experiencing the benefits.

"Sizing Up" the DTP Program

Yes, that was a play on words.

4 weeks ago Mike and I started the lifting program DTP. DTP stands for Dramatic Training Principle and was created by Kris Gethin. You can find this program and many others by Kris on bodybuilding.com. I choose to try this particular program for a couple of reasons. First, it only required 4 weeks of dedication. Second, it was unlike other lifting programs I'd tried in the past because he focuses on a higher repetition range unlike the usual 6-12 for strength and hypertrophy. Third, it was more in line with what I want to achieve in the gym currently which is strength and muscle growth.

Basically, it breaks down your lift week into a 4 day lifting split. Because our schedules couldn't follow exactly how Kris lines up the split, we had to switch around the days. We performed Chest/Back on day 1, Legs on day 2, Shoulders on day 3, Arms on day 4. 2 other days of the week were cardio days. Mike performed cardio on the treadmill while I opted to tackle a class of Power Yoga (believe it or not power yoga is very cardiovascular!). Each lifting day you have 1 or 2 supersets. The entire workout is only 10 sets but each set can range from 5-50 repetitions. Mike and I never go above 12-15 repetitions per set regardless of what body part we are training, so to go up to 50 repetitions on leg press we were a little out of our comfort zone. I'll write out the leg day as an example. It is compromised of only one superset, Leg Press with Calf Raises.

Set 1 Leg Press 50 repetitions superset with Calf Raise 40 repetitions
Set 2 LP 40 reps superset with CR 30 reps
Set 3 LP 30 reps superset with CR 20 reps
Set 4 LP 20 reps superset with CR 10 reps
Set 5 LP 10 reps superset with CR 10 reps
Set 6 LP 10 reps superset with CR 10 reps
Set 7 LP 20 reps superset with CR 10 reps
Set 8 LP 30 reps superset with CR 20 reps
Set 9 LP 40 reps superset with CR 30 reps
Set 10 LP 50 reps superset with CR 40 reps

By the 10th set our legs were toast and pretty well exhausted. Kris stresses going to failure each set. All training days resemble this type of workout with 1 or 2 supersets totaling out at 10 sets for the entire day. Sometimes the repetition range changed, but only slightly.

Now onto my assessment of DTP. I liked that DTP was different in a sense that you had a higher rep range and we were challenging the muscle out of the traditional 6-12 rep range we use. I did see noticeable improvements in my strength. For example, on leg press day at 10 reps I maxed out the first week at 220lbs (not including sled weight). The final week I maxed out on the same set at 270lbs. That's a huge improvement! I didn't see an improvement on chest/back but I did see a small improvement on shoulder day of 10lbs on my max 10 rep range. While I did see some improvements, I was ready for the program to be over. It is because all 4 weeks you use the same 7 supersets. For me, this was extremely monotonous. I'm used to a variety of up to 5 different exercises each day, 4 days a week, totaling up to 20 different exercises in a weeks time. Each week is also different for me so in a given month I could be choosing 80 different exercises a month. This program was 7 exercises for that same month time frame. So for me, I was getting bored by the final week. I would recommend this program for someone who usually performs reps in the low range, needs a new challenge and doesn't mind performing the same routine for 4 weeks.

I will be starting a hybrid exercise regime next week and will go into more detail in the following post.

And Now I'm Confused

After the ultrasound the technician informed me the results would be sent to my doctor no later than Monday. So on Tuesday January 29, I called my doctors office. The receptionist informed me they in fact did receive the findings from my ultrasound and someone would be contacting me back to explain results. On Thursday I had not received any phone calls so I again contacted the office. The receptionist informed me the doctor has 72 hours to contact me. On Friday (72 hours after my first call) I again contacted the office. The receptionist apologized for no one contacting me and said she would have someone, whether it be my doctor or her assistant, call me by the end of the day. At 4:30pm, I had not received any calls so I again called the office. I was then informed mostly everyone had left for the day but a message would be delivered to my doctor immediately. Fast forward through the weekend and today (Monday) I call the office for the fifth time. I explained my annoyance and requested someone immediately call me back. 2 hours later, I finally get a call from my doctors nurse informing me that my ultrasound was completely normal.

First of all, why did it take so long for someone to deliver as great news as "normal"? Second, what do you mean normal! Something has got to be wrong!

Yes, I'm very happy that the ultrasounds show normal results, but in the same respect, why am I bleeding all the time? What is causing all my symptoms? My husband assures me this is great news, and that it must be a combination of my PCOS coupled with stress that is causing so much of what I'm experiencing.

Regardless of my results, one thing is for sure, I'm changing doctors. I've been to the doctor 4 times in the last 5 months. Each time I've sat in the waiting room for over an hour (these were scheduled appointments). Not to mention waiting in the examination room naked only covered by a thin paper robe for over 30 minutes. One particular visit I didn't have a babysitter and Mike was at work so I brought Kellen and was reprimanded by a Nurse Practitioner for not finding a sitter. After my third visit it took a week for the doctors office to contact me informing me I in fact did have an infection and to go pick up my prescription. Then this, waiting a week to get a call back from my doctors office with results on my ultrasound. I'm extremely unhappy with my care and will be leaving "Women's Specialty Care of Las Vegas" for a midwife.

I still have uncertainty as to what I'm experiencing. I'm unsure whether I should keep searching to figure out what's going on or if I should just take PCOS & Stress as the reason.