I saw my Kinesiologist today, she opened the door and said WOW.
It's a weird one isn't it that when you change something about you it takes a long time for your brain to catch up, well it does for me anyway!
13 years ago when I first saw an eating disorders counsellor for my body dysmorphia and bulimia she told me I had a sugar addiction and I did nothing. I told her that having lost weight I look in the mirror and see the old me, the new me is hiding and I struggled with that. She told me that I was tiny, my brain needs to catch up and I need to be able to love myself. So I tried it and what do you know I started to see me. All was going well and then I got ill and was on steroids and the side effects lasted for years. In hindsight I probably let them as it was easier.
Fast forward 13 years to the here & now and it's a variant on that story but not as extreme. I know I have abused my body with rubbish diet (all the time kidding myself that it wasn't all that bad), poor lifestyle choices, laziness, medicines, alcohol, burning the candle at both ends, a spoonful of sugar in one of my 8 coffees of the day, a bar of chocolate after filling up the car with fuel, a bag of crisps whilst hanging around waiting for the children, all of those things were instant gratification but they were unwittingly increasing adding to my misery.
Seeing the Kinesiologist again was something I was looking forward to as she would surely notice the changes but I was always mindful that perhaps the Candida hadn't gone and I had to prepare myself for that. Thankfully it didn't come to that and she said "you've done it, you've got rid of the Candida, well done". And I cried. Not a massive cry but a few tears of relief escaped from my eyes. I had done it. Through diet and looking after myself I had made myself well.
In the 7 weeks of following the diet I had taken 1 Ibuprofen, had drunk no caffeine, alcohol or my favourite orange fizzy drink. Instead I drank water, just water. Sometimes with a slice of lemon or a few chunks of ginger, often with fresh Thyme or Rosemary. Hot or cold it went down. I was reaching for the tap and filling up my glass or mug with water, something I would drink here and there.
We discussed what I was eating and I reeled off a list of all the foods I had enjoyed, I still can't get my head around aubergine but I have since found a recipe for an aubergine dip which goes nicely with my celery and peppers, if I add in some chilli it's like hummus. She said I could introduce a food group and suggested potatoes. Well I did that and felt grim the next morning, I got ahead of myself and had an apple the next day which I could only eat half of so Arthur was pleased. The following day I had gluten free bread which was ok but I didn't savour every moment of it.
When I spoke to her and told her how grim I was feeling she said that I have run before I could walk and had to go back to basics, which surprisingly I did. Where did this willpower come from? For another 2 weeks I was on my basic diet and it wasn't hard, I had conditioned my clever brain that this was it. On Tuesday I decided to introduce potatoes but didn't fancy the food hangover so just had potato skins - happy to report that I have had no adverse reactions so I can try a new food group tomorrow.
What to choose? I'm quite tempted to give bacon a go. Then cheese. Then put them all together and I'm going to treat myself to Tartiflette.
Tartiflette
Love it. This is the ultimate comfort food in our house!
Parboil the potatoes, meanwhile fry the lardons or bacon with leeks and set aside. Slice the potatoes and layer the bacon/lardons and leeks in a big dish. Pour on the melted fondue cheese (I buy it ready made), pop some reblochon on the top and then throw in the oven. Take out when you think it’s done and serve with green salad & vinaigrette and large culfs of bread. I'll go with the bread but I will savour every mouthful!