I suspect that those in the alternative health profession would attribute today's experience as a symptom of "die-off," a process wherein the bad bugs in the gut die because they're being starved and then release toxins as they decompose that the body can't deal with because of the sudden large quantity. I would dispute this. While I think the whole concept has merit, I personally think that this is too early in the process for it to be a problem: I had complex carbohydrates and alcohol as recently as two nights ago, making it only about 36 hours before today's problem, so I'm sure that the bugs had plenty to eat. And given the fact that these bugs supposedly have a 14-day lifespan, well, the whole die-off thing this early just seems implausible to me.
I suspect that my problem is more a matter of a radical diet change. I went from eating a completely vegetarian diet (except for three meals during the week prior to the start) to eating a diet consisting of chicken, ground beef, eggs, and pureed carrots. I'm sure my body was just saying, "What the hell has come over you? Here's how I feel about this!"
But enough of that. I thought I'd share a few thoughts I'm trying to hold onto as I make this transition to eating meat.
The first is that I'm trying to remember to be thankful in a sort of Native American kind of way. I've always sort of appreciated the rituals -- at least as far as I've seen them portrayed in the popular media, which, admittedly, might not be all that accurate -- surrounding killing animals for food. I realize that the whole Christian "grace" concept is similar, but I don't find a lot of deep-felt emotion there: it seems like it's more about thanking God for food, not honoring the fact that we had to kill something to get it, and that that killing is a sad thing. I don't have any conventional religious beliefs, but I'm still thankful that I'm able to try this path to heal my gut, and at the same time I'm sorry about any animals having to suffer death in order to provide it.
Another thing that I'm keeping in mind is that sometimes, medicine is not pleasant. It's also not always a guaranteed cure. For me, this approach is medicine, and I don't know whether or not it's going to work. But I'm willing to try it to find out.
Speaking of thanks, I got a phone call tonight from a wonderful friend who wanted to know how the whole thing was going, and she offered to come over and re-introduce me to cooking meat since I seem to have forgotten just about everything I ever knew. I thought it was very sweet, and appreciate the fact that I have friends like that.
Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day. Getting a wart on my foot frozen won't be pleasant, but at least it won't affect my gut (and hopefully my gut won't affect my ability to keep my doctor's appointment!). The intro phase of the SCD is supposed to be 2-5 days, and, after today, I'm definitely sticking with it for at least 3 days, maybe 4 or 5.
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