The moment we've all been waiting for -- YES, I am parasite-free!!! Yipee!!! Whew, the milk cleanse and all the food restrictions for the past two months have paid off. My energy is significantly better, according to the doctor. Best of all, those pesky parasites are gone. Now I'm just dealing with their aftermath.

The gas and bloating still linger, annoyingly, but the doc thinks it's because I still am dealing with fungus/candida overgrowth. My liver is still a bit congested, so I'm having trouble moving all the toxins that have built up, creating the fungal party. So it's time to shut down this party!

I await the next program in the mail - one that includes another round of Olive Leaf Extract and some more pills/tinctures (hopefully more tinctures than pills). But this time with the following things added back:

• Cooked oil
• EGGS
• Alcohol (distilled only -- time for the Mexican Martini)
• Sunflower seeds

I'm so excited to come up with some more recipes with these things! I'm also to add more vegetables and squash, as well as rotate the protein between chicken and fish. Oh boy, this pescatarian is going need help with the chicken.

So, here's what I had tonight, in hopes to inspire me to get through the next two months of more liver/candida cleanse program.

Salmon with leeks and lemon zest, grilled asparagus, acorn squash and sticky rice
with aduzki beans (beans and rice courtesy of Steven's mom!)

Last but not least, I think I found one of the culprits of the gas and bloating -- the oat milk I've been having with cereal has 19 grams of sugar (what?! how did I misread that?). So that much sugar everyday when I'm not supposed to be having ANY sugar. Well, we'll see in the next couple days if that was it.

It's the home stretch until I find out if I got rid of the parasites! My appointment is Friday with the doctor. I'm really trying not to get my hopes up too much, even though I keep dreaming of ice cream (coconut bliss sweetened with agave, mind you) and wine. And looking forward to trying to make that Mexican Martini I had in Austin. Something tells me I'm not going to be able to go back to ALL the foods I used to eat.

But as long as I have the motivation to cook stuff like this (no oil was used cooking this!):

Salmon with roasted beats, beet greens, carrots on a bed of quinoa,

I think I'll be OK for a bit longer.

Since the last post, the intestinal gas has not gotten any better. In fact, it got worse when taking the homeopathic remedy the doctor prescribed to take until Friday (nux vomica). I stopped taking it and it has evened out a bit. It became a really odd type of bloating -- distention that felt like it extended all the way to my solar plexus. What helped, besides not taking the nux vomica, was going to this breathing class on Sunday, with audio accompaniment by the Gameltron.

The Gamelatron!

What is the Gameltron, you ask? Its website calls it "the marriage of Balinese sonic and ritual tradition with modern robotics. The video interview from Wired magazine does not do it justice! The composition creator Tayler Kuffner premiered during the class went beautifully with Baja native Peter Domecq's Dynamic Hatha Yoga breathing exercises. These exercises can be quite challenging and with the undulating rhythms of the Gamelatron, flowing much like the wave of breath in the ideal state(s) of the exercise -- sometimes chaotic, sometimes soothing  -- really aid in being with what's happening in the moment. Imagine lying down, out-breaths like a sigh, in-breaths happening naturally, with no pauses. It's harder than it sounds.
Much like my experience with the didgeridoo, it got some things moving!

I've been bad. Not only about posting, but also with the cleanse. I knew it was coming -- the week I would "cheat" when I went to a friend's wedding in TX. Ft Worth, TX of all places, nicknamed Cowtown. Not an easy place to find dairy, sugar, yeast, cooked oil and vinegar-free foods. I asked the doctor which of those would be the worst to ingest. She said, 'do the best you can.'
I had ALL of them at some point over the week. Cheese, sugar, butter and oil were the biggest culprits. All that amazing, mouth-watering REAL Mexican and Tex-Mex just does not come without cheese. Unless you're ordering from Taco Cabana (<3). But then it does not come in a corn tortilla. Only flour.

But first, I cheated with butter. Even though the crab buckets said "Naked Crab" there is no doubt there was at least some butter in that water used to steam 'em. Along with the new potatoes and corn on the cob. YUM.

Steven at Eat at Joe's in Irving, TX
(my pic didn't turn out as well)

The rest was a whirlwind of Tex Mex from Taco Cabana (3 times) and Taco Bueno (only once -- I was desperately hungry and it was after 10pm when EVERYTHING closes down in Ft.Worth except for the bars), sushi (surprisingly good, actually, but def had the sushi rice cut with vinegar and sugar), Indian food -- hello SPICY cooked oil and some not so good indigestion -- and twice cooking at our friend's house. That was a life saver. We cooked them homemade marinara one night (no oil, no cheese!) with spinach. I had quinoa pasta while everyone else had the norm. They loved it, yay! I think I inspired them to try cooking their own tomato sauce, too. For breakfast, I had oatmeal with blueberries and Starbucks coffee every morning. And once for brunch/lunch curry-spiced potatoes with greens sauteed in ginger and garlic over brown rice.
The worst day was 4th of July, though. Although Steven got to sample real Texas BBQ (not the crap they serve at Dallas BBQ, mind you). Real brisket with sauce on the side that he said was not too sweet. I was stuck with an iceburg lettuce salad and too many bites of mac and cheese that I immediately regretted. The green beans had bacon in them (of course). No, I didn't eat them.

Backing up a bit, there was the wedding, where I had 1/2 glass of wine (it was SO sweet!), salad (yep, I brought the dressing I made earlier), buttery mashed potatoes, oil slathered grilled vegetables and two helpings of some amazing jalapeno cornbread. And cake. Half of the grooms cake and half of the lovely towering Bavarian bakery goodness.

Who can resist this yumminess
(don't think I can quit you forever, sugar)

I knew that was going to hurt later. I did the best I could, really! Seeing family and old friends was a great distraction from the reaction I was dreading following the wedding day/night. Luckily, most the reaction came as being incredibly tired all the time, headache-y sometimes and feeling bloated until the coffee helped to flush that all out. Unluckily, I am now officially addicted to morning coffee.


Now the good stuff (kinda). Austin!!!! Where more amazing Tex Mex was consumed. And a gluten free gingerbread pancake from Kerbey Lane. I only put butter on it -- no syrup! Made up for it by having black bean and guac tacos with no cheese. And corn tortillas. So good and fresh! But then came another misstep: the Mexican Martinis at Baby Acapulco after a day of chillin at Barton Springs. Food was OK. But that drink was one of those things unavailable anywhere else. An Austin specialty, so I'm told. And oh, yes it was tasty -- who would have thunk tequila and olives with a twist of lime are good together?

Now, one of the best we had in our short day/overnight trip: Polvos!
Three different salsas and guacamole. Now this is real chips and guac! Corn tortilla chips were also quite the staple of my cheating. Not a one was from a bag -- all were freshly fried up. Mmmmmm. The tamales I had, yes TAMALES, were OK. One was bean with no cheese, but I was ecstatic to have vegetarian tamales available to me (at least I think, not sure what the beans were cooked in).

OK, now I've been back and am now back on the cleanse while adjusting/trying to cycle through all the bad stuff. Yep, I'm paying for it with some painful intestinal gas, bloating and headaches along with some phlegm from the dairy (or the plane) that I'm hoping will subside by tomorrow. And I know I did not drink enough water. That could be one of the main factors -- not enough water to flush out the hard to digest things that I have not been eating!
So expect more food shots like this until the end of this month (hopefully):

Breakfast this morn: lox with grapefruit and strawberry arugula salad
Bran crisps for some crunch factor