Day 31- Disappointment rears its ugly head

So I feel like I should be excited that I've finished a month of the RepairVite program for Leaky Gut Syndrome but I'm not.  I wanted to feel a little improvement after 30 days of torture. I am still having generalized abdominal pain, bloated, gassy, tired, depressed and now also really frustrated and hungry. The alterations I've made to this diet so far are cutting out fruit and adding quinoa and eggs. Since my symptoms look like a Candida overgrowth, I have reduced my sugar intake to the minimum. In order to survive, it was suggested I could replace a small amount of grains (GF of course) since they are less liked by Candida than fruit. I know I am not eating enough because I am hungry all of the time. It's not that I don't want to eat, it's that I spend so much time trying to come up with an idea of what to eat that I feel like I spend my entire day planning, cooking, eating and cleaning up.  My kitchen is in a constant state of disaster, yet I'm still hungry. So struggling with getting enough food, I have lost more weight. I am at the lowest weight I've been in my adult life, but sadly I don't feel skinny because my belly is always distended. So at this point I am experimenting with adding a new protein- eggs. I had eliminated eggs in a previous elimination diet. I had suspicious but not definitive results so I just avoided them. I have toyed with the idea of adding in some animal protein but after thinking about it for weeks, I still feel uncomfortable and the mental aspect would most likely overcome any physical benefits. I am hoping to not have any obvious results as it is difficult to add something new in when I am already bloated everyday. But here's hoping...

As part of sugar withdrawals (I am guessing), I am having some terrible mood swings, headaches, more abdominal pain and tenderness and noticeably increased lethargy.  I wish I knew that it was the sugar deprivation and that when I get over this I will feel better. I am uncertain if it's part of the detox, a reaction to the eggs, sugar withdrawal or something else.  Either way, it's a lot worse than I had expected and I feel worse than before I started the program. So I'm either doing a good thing and my body is releasing toxins or I am doing a bad thing and making my body worse. Hmmm....




Food Journal Day 30 Wednesday
Breakfast: protein shake with carrot juice, cultured coconut milk, spinach, fresh ginger, stevia 
Snack: hard boiled egg 
Lunch: quinoa with broccoli, tilapia and avocado 
Snack: beet chips, kombucha 
Dinner: egg scramble with salmon, spinach, avocado and onion

Food Journal Day 31 Thursday
Breakfast: protein shake with carrot juice, c.c. milk, spinach, kombucha and stevia
Snack: hard boiled egg, kombucha
Lunch: vegetable broth soup with spinach and leftover tilapia
Dinner: basa fillet in cilantro pesto over spaghetti squash

Last 3 Food journals

Baked tilapia and broccoli

my fave carrot juice- 4g sugar

Food Journal Day 27 Sunday
Breakfast: protein shake with carrot juice, cultured coconut milk, spinach, frozen acai (protein=20g, sugar=8g)
Lunch: coconut lime basa, wilted spinach, kombucha
Snack: kombucha
Dinner:garlic and onion baked tilapia, steamed broccoli






Food Journal Day 28 Monday
Breakfast: protein shake w/carrot juice, c.c.milk, spinach, frozen acai, fresh ginger, stevia
Lunch: quinoa, broccoli, avocado, mini pickles
Snack: sweet potato fries, salad with hard boiled egg, lemon oil dressing
Dinner: lime coconut shrimp and chard

Food Journal Day 29 Tuesday
Breakfast: protein shake w/carrot juice, c.c.milk, spinach, frozen acai, stevia
Lunch: leftover tilapia, quinoa, broccoli, avocado, ginger tea w/stevia
Snack: avocado with beet chips, quinoa with cinnamon and coconut milk  
Dinner: scallops with scrambled eggs and spinach

Candida thoughts

I always have the best of intentions when I wake up then as the day progresses I can't follow through with my positive ideas. Like today for example, I thought to myself, try not to eat any fruit until later today. Then I saw the other half of a grapefruit and planned to eat it after breakfast. I am my own worst enemy.
I am going to give away the rest of my fresh fruit and stick with frozen acai for my morning smoothie in place of fresh fruit. It only has 3g sugar as do the coconut yogurt and carrot juice so my entire breakfast is less than 8g of sugar. I think that should be acceptable.
From the research I've done on Candida at this point, I am really hoping that is what's wrong with me because it fits. I've gone through needing a diagnosis to accepting it may never happen back to wanting a diagnosis. There are a few tests that seem to help determine if I have a yeast overgrowth but I don't have any professional opinions about them yet.
First, a spit test. I failed this one. I've also been told since it is part of the normal flora, it will always show positive signs. Jury is out.
Second, a blood test to measure the response of your immune system to Candida (antibody levels).
Third, a stool test looking for evidence of dysbiosis, an unbalanced flora.
Finally, a urine test measuring the waste product of yeast.
Reference web site
So I am interested in finding out some opinions about getting these tests performed, why are they beneficial, what are their drawbacks and is it worth it?
I feel as though it would be easier for me to follow a no sugar diet if I knew I was on the right path, not just another experiment that led me to another dead-end. It seems crazy to say out-loud but the Candida diet looks way easier than the one I am on right now.
Here is a website that I learned a lot from -Candida info

I made a very unsuccessful attempt at grain free crackers. I was inspired by some pictures of a few blogs I follow but not being able to use flour, they never made it to a cracker existence. I used seeds- pumpkin, sesame, sunflower, and hemp, herbs and tried to bind it with olive oil and hemp butter. I rolled it out 1/4 inch thick on parchment paper then baked for 25 minutes at 350F.  It never found solid form and exists as burnt crumbs. Hmmmm, I'm not very good at this stuff but it is fun to experiment.  Any ideas?

Food Journal Day 25 Friday

My disgusting breakfast today

The best fish I've made yet

Breakfast: protein shake with new pea protein, carrot juice, cultured coconut milk, spinach, banana, stevia (this is fairly disgusting, had to chase each sip with kombucha, need to work on recipe) (28g protein)
Snack: plain coconut yogurt, blueberries, flax meal, hemp seeds
Lunch: quinoa, sweet potato, wilted spinach, kombucha, grapefruit (hour later)
Snack: coconut leather
Dinner: coconut ginger lime marinated Basa fillet, gingered chard

Food Journal Day 26 Saturday
Breakfast: hot quinoa cereal with coconut milk, hemp butter, hemp seeds, sesame seed, kombucha (protein=10g) 11a
Snack: grapefruit 2p
Dinner: sesame crusted ahi tuna salad, lemon basil dressing, tea 5p
Snack: artichoke, avocado lemon oil, kombucha (10p)
Snack: applesauce (just enough to take with pills)