Yeast-Cleanse Diet: free, immune system boosting, uses Latin botanicals, yes you’ll lose weight
Written by Rivka
This yeast cleanse program is the best diet and health restoration plan I've ever tried, and I'm posting it here because it's great knowledge that should be shared. It drives me crazy that people charge for such things. This is a basic life information formula and it should be free, not exploited.
I'm about to tell you a failsafe way to shed 20 pounds (no vanity coma, I promise). Here's why my guru is credible: I'm 43 years old, I weigh 117 pounds, I'm 5′5″ and I eat whatever I want, drink red wine in considerable amounts, and am not a gym slave.
But it gets better than that: I have a seven year old daughter, so she comes home from school with all sorts of virii and bacterial infections. I rarely catch what she has, and if I do get sick, it's not for more than 24 hours, no matter what it is.
This was not the case in August of 2007. In August of 2007, I weighed 137, felt bloated all the time, had eye strain headaches, a shorter temper, I kept getting lower backaches, neck pain, and whatever was going around the school hit me hard. Now, 137 is not a lot of weight generally speaking. But for my frame and body type it wasn't meant to be and it zapped my energy. It also kept my eye color from being what it should be. I know that sounds ridiculous. Here's how I know all this:
I woke up one morning and saw blood in my stool. I completely freaked out, called Steven, whom I've known for a while. He's better than calling any doctor I've ever had. And I'm not against doctors or modern medicine. Don't get me wrong. I need to know there are hefty pharmaceuticals should anything go really wrong. I had already made an appointment with an M.D. I like to compare what they say to what Steven says (not always at odds, but Steven is always right, and I find it interesting to see when the M.D.s are wrong - usually when something is subclinical and they have no knowledge or toolset to figure it out. Steven is trained in Chinese methods, among other things, so he doesn't get stumped).
Steven said: "You have digestive yeast. Yuck, a lot of it. [You need to realize that he said this over the phone.] I've told you that before. I've asked you if you were hitting the sugar."
"But the doctors say it could be an intestinal disease or something."
"They're wrong."
And then he gave me the following prescription, which is a must-do plan for any adult, whether or not you have alarming symptoms. What I love about Steven is he just shares what he knows because he can. He doesn't exploit people and charge a fortune for his diet, like everyone else. And he could. Any adult should do this diet, which is a complete yeast cleanse. Especially people who struggle with bloat, sluggishness, or extra weight; they all have yeast issues in their digestive tract. We eat too much sugar, and not just dessert sugar. Sugar in everything. What was great about my alarming symptoms, which went away as soon as I started Steven's program and which have never come back, is that blood in the wrong place is so terrifying you stick to the remedy. I'd never stuck to a diet in my life.
STEVEN's 3-MONTH DIET PLAN
First of all, it will take three months. It will work. Don't cheat it though. It's worth it. I have weighed between 115 and 118, fluctuating only during my period, for an entire year, with zero effort after three months.
First two weeks eat no sugar at all. None. Not even carrots or apples. No carbs -no pasta, no breads, no grains, not even whole ones. No fruit. Learn what sugar is and don't eat it. Sugar is the food for digestive yeast. You must starve the yeast, kill it off completely and reset your digestive system to grow a varietal of thriving flora. If you do that, you will stay thin forever, and curb some of your aging signs. (Obese people tend to have only a couple varietals of flora, so everything sits in there, stagnant, bad bacteria growing like weeds. That's where bloat comes from. Thin people tend to have more varietals of flora and their systems whip everything out - even sugar. That old saying about just being born with this or that metabolism. All nonsense. )
What you can eat: meats, tofu, eggs, lots and lots of greens. Nuts if you're not allergic. Dairy if you're not allergic. You will get bored. You will feel like you're eating the same foods over and over again. Once you learn how to snack differently, though, it'll be okay. You may drink coffee (that was lucky for me, because I would not have been able to stop, blood or no blood.)
Along with the diet, take the following, all of which you get at a health food store. This is the cool secret. Steven has so many of them. And what I love about him is that he just tells you because he knows and shares. Google diets on the Internet and look at all the people exploiting this need and charging money for dieting information, most of which is garbage.
HERBS AND SUPLLEMENTS-DON'T LEAVE THESE OUT OR THE PLAN WON'T WORK:
FIRST 2 WEEKS:
First thing in the morning, one a completely empty stomach, at least 20 minutes before food or coffee: One really good probiotic . And not just plain acidophilus. You want a mix, and you want the sort they keep refrigerated if you buy it at the store. The stuff on the shelf is largely dead and it's living bacteria that you're supposed to be taking. And it's not enough to just eat yogurt. You'd have to eat gallons a day and only plain. Any sugar in yogurt - the fruit on the bottom-completely counteracts the effect of the probiotics in the yogurt. Good bacteria is the flora varietals I was mentioning. You want to populate your digestive system with good bacteria. I still take one of these every morning and will forever; and I give it to my daughter, too, who is 7 so of course eats a lot of sugar. You'll be wasting money to get the shelved stuff, unless it's earth based. That gets complicated (fodder for another nutritional blog post, which I will do), but I take an earth-based probiotic, called Body Biotics, which I order from a Houston company called Life Science Products (lifescienceproducts.com). I am not recommending them over any other earth-based probiotic; I just don't know of any others.
With food in the morning: 2 capsules of Pau D'Arco. This is a tree bark - an anti fungal whose job it is to help kill off the yeast. If you take it without food, it will just go into your blood stream and not target and clean the area you want, which is your digestive tract. Any herbs you take that have a job to do, send directly to the area they need to work. Even if you just eat lettuce with the capsules, it will send the Pau D'Arco through your digestion.
Space any supplements you take 20 minutes apart. After food, take one capsule of zinc citrate. Do not take any other form of zinc. If they don't have it in the health food store, ask them to order it. Or go somewhere else. Zinc citrate will help curb the production of yeast. Here's a neat test with zinc: If it makes you feel sick to take zinc on an empty stomach, it's because you still have a lot of yeast in your digestive system. It used to make me nauseous. Now I can take it on an empty stomach just fine, because I have no more yeast.
Take 2 more capsules of the Pau D'Arco midday with food - always with food.
Take 2 more capsules of the Pay D'Arco in the evening.
Three times a day for the Pau D'Arco.
Don't eat after 8 p.m. if you go to bed at 11 or so, but if you have to, eat celery or leafy greens.
Summary of daily supplements for first two weeks:
I probiotic
I zinc citrate
2 capsules of Pau D'Arco three times a day.
FOR THE REST OF THE 3 MONTHS
Add Cat's Claw Bark capsules to the mix. Another bark, this is another antifungal as well. Take 2 capsules in the morning, with your Pau D'Arco, with food. Take 2 capsules in the evening, with your Pau D'Arco, with food. So yes, you're taking four capsules at a time -2 Pau D'Arco and 2 Cat's Claw Bark-morning and night. At midday, only take the Pau D'Arco.
If you don't keep to the regimen of the supplements the diet won't work. I've passed this diet onto friends. The ones who do the supplements are successful, the ones who get tired of them, get out of the habit after a few weeks, call or email and say: Hey, this isn't working as well anymore.
FOODWISE AFTER THE FIRST TWO WEEKS
As Steven would say: Eat like a caveman. (I have to keep giving Steven credit for this diet because he cracked the code of my body, not me, and I wouldn't have in a million years, even though I know a lot about nutrition.)
First of all, eat breakfast, preferably before coffee (personally I'm incapable of this, but it's supposed to be great for your metabolism, so try). And eat protein for breakfast. You will if you're on this diet, because that's one of your two food groups. If you eat fat, eat it with a bowl of leafy greens. No cholesterol worries if you do this. Steak, eggs, and a salad is a perfect breakfast. Small portion of steak (4 oz). I eat eggs and salad for breakfast all the time. Just add salad at every meal. Eat everything as a salad. I grew up with Mediterranean parents, so this wasn't even weird to me. You get used to it, then you'll crave it.
Add some fruit. Some fruit is good. Except for blackberries. Steven claims more than 90 % of people are allergic to blackberries. I have no basis for proving that, except that I believe him.
Watch the carbs. Have some, but not a lot. Not every day. Do this: if you eat the Italian hoagie one day, don't eat carbs the next. I have to say I ate no pasta, French fries, or pizza for three months. I have a 7 year old. It was hard. I did eat sandwiches, but once you're in the habit of eating everything with salad, you start to be very aware of all carbs, and cut them down. Remember, you don't want to feed yeast while it's still in your body.
I drank red wine the whole time. I made sure the next day after drinking red wine that I didn't eat carbs or sugar, so the fermentation, set up to become yeast, didn't get fed. Steven would not recommend lots of wine consumption on this diet. This is the Rivka what-the-hell-is-the-point-if-I-can't-drink-a-glass-of-wine variation. I'm no worse for wear. I did not drink white wine, which has inherent sugar.
I cheated once in a while, too. If I were out on the town, I'd eat dessert. But not more than once a week. And not within the first two weeks.
One great addition to this diet, in my personal opinion (not Steven's recommendation): Yoga. Once a week, even. It helps.
THESE WERE THE THREE WILDEST THINGS
- The weight came off so fast it was alarming. That's how I knew it wasn't meant to be on their in the first place. First two weeks, 8 pounds gone. Every few days after that another pound, just kept shedding it. I started the diet on Aug. 4, 2007, by mid October I was 20 pounds lighter. Not even three months. The quick weight loss in the beginning is why some people stop the supplements, though. They figure the job is done. But it's not. I couldn't believe I lost 8 pounds, had no intention or idea that so much more would come off. I didn't do this to lose weight. It was not meant to be on my body. And that's why you need to go through the entire three months. To see what is meant to be on your body. I weigh what I weighed as a teenager.
- Here's one disgusting thing that happens, so don't be alarmed: About a month into it, my breath started smelling AWFUL. I mean, awful. I could brush my teeth and eat mints all day, and I could barely curb it. Steven laughed, and said it was good, my flora was changing. Bad breath is always about what's in your gullet, not a clean mouth. It lasted about a month, maybe a little more. It was scary, I was starting to think it would never go away. Then it did. It's like all the rotting fungus in there lifted out of packed in, entrenched places, and flushed out. Once the bad breath was gone, so was the yeast.
- Three: my eye color changed. I'm not kidding. I used to have brown eyes with a little green in them - hazel. But now people tell me my eyes are mostly green, with a brown ring around the green, and even a little blue. Not kidding. It's wild. I can see it myself. The first person who told me this, a girlfriend who has known me for a long time, said while we were having lunch: "Wow, I never noticed you had blue in your eyes." I thought it was light in the café, or the shirt was I wearing. But then a few days later, someone else said it. Then someone else.
That's it. After 3 months, I resumed normalcy, though my habits have changed. If I eat a lot of sugar one day, I don't do any sugar or carbs the next day. I'll tell you why: I notice how tired sugar makes me. I feel sluggish and almost hung over the day after a lot of sugar. But if I have a day without it, I bounce back. For those who have extreme weight issues, two things can apply:
- It may take more than three months for this to work. Use your breath as a gauge.
- A maintenance diet can be to alternate carb/no carb days: Eat carbs one day, not the next. Keep sugar intake low. Ideally, Steven recommends to have something sugary and desserty once a week. Really go for it once a week. But do allow it, and the carbs, at some point, or you'll binge.
I have recommended this diet to friends and watched it work on women, men, people of different body types and constitutions. You'll look younger too. I keep recommending it because people ask me what I did. They ask because I'm thin, I have no headaches, neck aches, backaches, and I don't get sick.
Like I said, I do still take the probiotic daily, zinc citrate once a week or so, and if I'm on vacation, or travelling and I'm eating more sugar than normal, a lot of carbs, I take Pau D'Arco periodically. But that's it. (I take other select vitamins, like B complex daily, but no other diet maintenance supplement). Pau D'Arco comes in tea form, too, which is great to drink once in a while.
-Rivka