Why is the candida diet so hard to stick to? This question comes to my mind at about 5:45PM as I am trying to prepare a candida diet appropriate meal for dinner. The thought vanishes pretty quickly as I am armed with the Candida Control Cookbook by Gail Burton, one of my favorite candida diet cookbooks, and am trying to find a recipe that may work for tonight’s dinner. I find one that doesn’t seem too complicated, so I decide to go for it.
Now the race is on to get dinner to the table as quickly as possible. I begin washing, chopping, measuring, sauteing and turning, all while helping my second grader with her spelling sentences and my 2 year old with her ABC puzzle. As I am tending to some minor recipe details a fight breaks out over a box of crayons, I think. I find myself screaming at both children and wondering why I did not just grab some Hamburger Helper, Chef Boyardee or Kraft Macaroni and Cheese for dinner. The time is now 7:30 PM and dinner is just about done. We sit down and eat which takes about 30 minutes and then the race to bed begins.
I dare not look at the sink full of dishes and hurry off to do baths, stories and tuck ins. I make my way back to the kitchen and pack up the leftovers, load the dishwasher and make the kids lunches for the next day. Finally, I am done but it is minutes to 10 and I am exhausted. I put on the tea kettle so that I can prepare a cup of Pau D’Arco tea. I sit on the couch with my tea in hand and as I begin to sip I think to myself again “Why is the candida diet so hard to stick to?” Pondering this question leads me to thinking about how much easier the night would have gone if I had just prepared something quick. You know a 30 minute Campbell’s meal, Velveeta, Stovetop Stuffing, Stouffer’s Skillet Sensations, Banquet Pot Pies, frozen pizza and/or fish sticks. These are just a few of my favorite quick meals that I, in the not so distant past and with the best of intentions, was preparing for my family. Obviously I would add some frozen vegetables to make it “healthy”, but in the back of my mind I knew that I should be preparing better meals for my family. Additionally, this behavior was only adding to my yeast problem and not setting a very good example on how to eat for my children.
I am sure that there are many reasons that people find the candida diet hard to stick to but the most compelling reason for me is that it is just not convenient. I am a single mother of two and I strive to make things as simple as possible in order to have the most possible quality time with my children. This is usually how end up failing on this diet. There may be a night that we get home late and I am just not prepared to make a candida diet meal. Lack of ingredients, lack of time or just pure laziness may reign and I end up at the pizzeria, Subway, McDonald’s, Wendy’s or Popeye’s with the kids. It it hard to get back on track after this. Blatantly cheating once makes it much easier to cheat again and again.
So is there anything we can do to make the candida diet more convenient? I do believe that there is something we can do. We have to prepare for those moments of weakness. I believe we still need to have convenient, candida diet friendly of course, foods around the house to be successful at this. I realize that you may not think that convenient candida foods exist but after careful label reading I believe that at least a few do. My new found favorite is the fully cooked, ready to eat rotisserie chicken found at many grocery stores. You do have to read the ingredient label though. Some of the brand name chickens have additives and flavoring that are not candida diet approved. The only ingredient that you want is Chicken. If the ingredient label includes anything more than this you may inadvertently be breaking the candida diet.
My local Shoprite sells these chickens for $4.99 ($3.99 after 6 PM). These chickens have saved me from cheating on the candida diet at least twice in the last 3 weeks. I served the chicken with brown rice and vegetables. As I continue on this journey to regain my health I will be posting other ideas for quick candida diet meals. If lack of convenience is also your barrier to success on the candida diet I hope that my ideas will help you to suceed. Please feel free to comment on other reasons that the candida diet is so hard to stick to. I would love to hear your thoughts.
Bon Appetite!
Tennille
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