I'm on the slippery slope to 40 and I'm working my way to being as healthy as possible in mind, body and soul. I have an awesome husband and three fluffy kitties. I love to run, cook and help others, but I'm always looking for more ways to improve my life and the lives around me. I also have a weird sense of humor, so be warned.Meat Detox
Over the weekend, Tim and I had a “cheat” night where we went out for our favorite tacos at our local Mexican restaurant. We normally get the “tacos de carne asada” which is simply marinated, grilled and finely diced skirt steak on three corn tortillas with pico de gallo and tomatillo salsa on the side. There’s also a side of refried beans, but I usually skip eating those.
In the grand scheme of Mexican food, these are pretty healthy: no cheese, no sour cream, no guacamole (although guac would be amazing!) and no flour tortillas.
But the next day and partially into Monday, we both felt blah. Lethargic. Bloated. Gross.
It’s amazing that it’s been a few weeks since we started focusing on eating less meat and one week of not eating any meat at all. Yet, our bodies have seemed to have adapted rapidly to this new diet and now any meat seems to make us feel lousy.
However, it’s quite possible that we always felt like that when we ate meat, but it’s only now that we’re noticing the effects!
It was also a long weekend of wine. Which has gotten me on the topic and research about detoxing.
Now I’m not talking about a detox in the sense that I’m going to drink cayenne lemon water for 5 days, I’m talking about just eliminating certain things from my diet and adding other things that will be of some benefit.
Leanne over at Healthful Pursuit has been posting on Facebook foods that help fight candida. Now being curious, I started reading up on what candida even was!
Yogurt!
As a skeptic, I read everything I found with a grain of salt. However, if there is something to it, then it fits a lot of my symptoms of late. I’ve been having some digestive, joint, and “girl” issues and my normal remedies to alleviate these issues haven’t been working.
In the interests of science, I’m going to do a small experiment and eliminate or drastically reduce things that contribute to candida growth. I’m also going to eat yogurt for breakfast and take an acidophilus supplement – both with probiotic cultures which are combatants of candida. If I see results, then I might be onto something!
I’m also going to switch from coffee to green tea. I know I’ve tried to do it before, but I don’t think I was in the right place mentally to make the switch. I mean, if you would’ve asked me 6 months ago that I would be switching to a vegetarian diet, I would’ve called you crazy and taken another bite of my burger. Same thing with coffee. But, I just feel like it doesn’t have a place in my diet anymore, at least not on a daily basis. Drinking 3-4 large cups of coffee every day can’t be good for anyone, right?
But, that might be the least of my worries!
My family has Thanksgiving this weekend, so this will be the first big test of our new vegetarian “not-a-diet.”
The turkey, the sausage dressing, the turkey gravy, meat trays, and so on. I come from a meat-eating family, heck, a meat-LOVING family, so there’s always a lot of it around! I’m always in charge of the crudites, so I’m going to ensure I have plenty of carrots, celery, cauliflower and cucumbers to munch on, along with the normal pickles and olives. I also need to come up with an alternative to the dressing, so I think I’ll pick up a package of Trader Joe’s cornbread stuffing and make it along with the other sides and also bring a big salad. More veggies!
What are your plans on keeping on your own personal health track this holiday season?
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In a shocking turn of events, I’m done Xmas shopping for Tim! Shocking because I typically don’t START shopping until the 2nd week of December! 
