Improving: Day 10 Clean

 Today is Day 10.  Assuming that I make it through the weekend, I'll be more than halfway to my goal of 21 days of drinking water only.  

Concerns:

I still do have a bit of residual crud.  It's mostly just a stuffy nose with very little phlegm.  Over the long haul, that is of no concern.  It may hang on for another week or so but it will be gone.  The abdominal pain is almost completely gone.   The big concern is that I still do have the candida rash on my armpits and above my ass.  It still itches from time to time.  How long will that last?  It's really more of a nuisance than anything else.  I figure that if need be, I can use a cream to control the itch if it gets really bad.  

I am concerned about this because it's a sign that the candida is not completely dead yet.  What if it mutates and learns to survive or grow without the regular supply of sugar?  Seems unlikely but I don't know what I can do if that does happen.

My energy is improving (more on that later) but I did need a nap on Friday evening.  I was in bed from 6:30-8:00 and was out cold for about an hour.  Not surprisingly, I could not get to sleep when it was time for bed.  Of course I must listen to my body and give it the rest that it needs but this sort of thing cannot happen with any regularity.  I've noticed that I've been sleeping deeper and had a couple of vivid dream the last 2 nights.  One involved urinating on a chair because I honestly thought it was a toilet.  

Improvement:

The biggest positive is that my energy is starting to come around.  I feel noticeably better EVERY DAY and yes, it translates to the track.  On Tuesday, I struggled through a 4:00 lap at Montreat (12:00 pace) and had stabbing pains in the belly with every foot strike.  By Thursday, I was down to 3:30 (10:30 pace).  On Friday, I went to the track to try a full Mile at Vestavia.  I simply hoped for a sub-10 but finished in 9:35.  1st half: 4:53, 2nd half: 4:42 and each lap was slightly faster than the previous one.  

Today (Saturday), my time was all the way down to 8:20 and I managed a 1:59 last go round.  Normally, I'd never celebrate something like that but considering where I was just a few days ago, it's pretty impressive.  I'm now within 40 seconds of my reset PR.  Still too soon to get my hopes up.  If I can avoid a relapse and get my time down to around 7:15, I may begin to believe.  

Perhaps the best news of all is that I am seeing VERY LITTLE impact from the pills.  I took 2 Probiotic pills, which were completely INTOLERABLE on a previous attempt. This time, NOTHING.  It didn't seem to matter one iota whether I took them or not.  Same with the Curcumin.  I'll still take both occasionally for preventative maintenance.  I've also gone 48 hours without Zinc or Thym-Adren with no problem.  In fact, the big improvement from Friday-Saturday came after having NOT taken any pills.  I know that I still need them and won't be surprised to see an adrenal spike in the near-future but being freed from extreme dependence could be YUGE!