Yesterday was my three month anniversary on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet. I'm still very happy with the outcome so far, although the past several days haven't been ideal. I tried a peanut butter experiment last week, and kept the rest of my diet neutral in terms of foods, but I was eating a bit more fruit mixed in with my yogurt and had an occasional additional piece of fruit, and I was eating a bit more cheese than previously. So I'm still not sure whether it was the peanut butter (a small amount each day over three days), or the additional fruit, or just random timing that has seen my gut slightly unhappy. Still, "slightly unhappy" is substantially better than it used to be, so I'm not worrying about it.
My body has seen substantial changes over the past few months. I've lost enough weight to go from a 33" waist to a 30" waist; I'm not sure how many pounds that represents, because we don't have a scale in the house, but I imagine it's around 15. I look really thin, but I've always had a pretty slight frame, and I feel fine, so I'm not concerned about the weight loss at all. I've read that substantial weight loss is very common in the first few months of the SCD, and that it's not hard to gain it back after your body adjusts.
My back is smooth, so my dietary change seems to have had a positive impact on my mild eczema.
Most importantly, my gut seems to be functioning much more normally. I hope to see continued improvement over the next few months, since I plan to continue on this path for the foreseeable future.
Since I still think that sugars are more of a problem for me than anything else, my plan is to continue to introduce more vegetables over the next month and not experiment much with fruits (fruits right now amount to an over-ripe banana in the afternoon, and a small bowl of homemade applesauce at night followed by some dates stuffed with dry-curd cottage cheese). Spinach seemed to be a problem early on, so I've left it out of my diet. I'm going to try it again soon, as well as other leafy greens, like bok choy and kale.
I'm also very eager to try nuts again, although I've read that introducing nuts and peanuts too soon is a common mistake. It didn't go well a couple of months ago, so I'm going to hold off on whole nuts a little longer, and simply add in something made with almond flour occasionally and see how that goes.
As I was eating breakfast the other day, Jenny said, "Another very colorful breakfast. I think you get more vitamins than anyone else I know!" I think that's true: I think I'm eating more vegetables now than I was when I was a vegetarian! Usually two different kinds at every meal, sometimes three, and fairly large servings at that. I'm trying to be very conscious of the amount of meat that I'm eating: while I think that it has helped me, I'm still not altogether happy about it, and I think that 1/4lb. to 1/2lb. of meat or fish at each meal is more than enough. I hope to decrease my meat consumption to 1/4lb. per serving over time.
There have been other changes related to this diet as well. Having one meat-eater and one vegetarian in the house has been a challenging transition. Our food bill is much higher than it used to be, as my taste in meat is rather high-end: I recently bought a tuna steak at $25/lb. (fresh ahi was so much better than canned albacore!), and my favorite cut of beef is a NY steak, recently on sale at $16/lb. (however, the food bill is at least partially offset by the fact that we don't go out to eat nearly as often as we used to). I'm sure it would be cheaper at Safeway, but I think the quality is much higher at Whole Foods. Of course, I buy cheaper cuts as well: I've become much more cognizant of the cost of different cuts, and look carefully before buying. But having been disappointed by a few cheaper purchases, I'm still willing to pony up for something I know I prefer.
So there have definitely been challenges. But overall, I'm pleased with the progress. So on I go.
Monday, September 9, 2013
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
Recent developments
I haven't posted anything recently because not much of note has been happening. I thought I'd take a moment to share a few minor changes and insights as I near my three-month mark.
I'm continuing to do very well, with only occasional, very mild, IBS-D symptoms. I think my gut is behaving very similarly to how it was behaving for most of my life prior to the appendectomy, or slightly better (less gas).
There's not much new in the meat area, although I've been experimenting with marinating chicken before grilling it, and I've been really happy with the results. I'll definitely try some more of the marinades that are in the Weber's Real Grilling book that I recently picked up at a used book store.
I've added some vegetables back in, making sure that I kept the rest of my diet stable while adding them one at a time, and adding them for four or five days before adding the next one. My vegetable rotation now includes carrots, butternut squash, zucchini, green beans, broccoli, cauliflower, and asparagus; less often, it also includes other squashes like yellow crooknecks, and bell peppers. On the fruit side, I'm regularly eating tomatoes and avocados at meals (still weird to think of them as fruits!), and for sweeter fruit snacks I'm having a banana a day, homemade applesauce several times a day, and dates. I also recently got some oranges and had some fresh-squeezed orange juice (it was heaven), and I've had a couple of plums recently. Olives, one of my favorite foods, are also back on the menu. Infrequent items have been cucumber and homemade pear sauce, and neither seems to have been a problem.
I've been eating much more cheese than I thought I would ever eat. Several types of cheese actually have little or no lactose, and are permitted on the SCD: swiss (I've been eating Emmentaler and I like it, I'm going to buy some Jarlsberg next), gruyere (which I love!), and cheddar (since this one has a more variable amount of lactose, I've stayed away so far, but plan to research which types/brands would be most suitable). I've also been buying dry-curd cottage cheese, which is similar in flavor to regular cottage cheese, but is made in such a way that it is free of lactose. Jenny suggested stuffing some dates with dry-curd cottage cheese, and I loved it, so it's now part of my nightly dessert: a small bowl of homemade applesauce followed by 5 stuffed dates.
I continue to believe that the one item that has had the most profound impact has been homemade yogurt. The first few batches I made I used the YoGourmet lactobacillus acidophilus starter; the yogurt is quite tart (which I like), and seemed to help a great deal. Then I bought a bottle of starter from GI Pro Health -- without noticing before I ordered that it uses lactobacillus casei, not lactobacillus acidophilus. The l. casei yogurt isn't nearly as tart, and it has seemed to me that I'm just very slightly more susceptible to old familiar symptoms than I had been, so for the batch that I just finished this morning, I went back to the l. acidophilus starter. I'll see how things are working over the next few days before deciding whether or not to stick to the l. acidophilus variety. At some point, I'll also stop eating yogurt and take one or two l. acidophilus capsules a day to see if the benefit is the same: I bought them to test so that I'd know whether or not it would be something I could use instead of homemade yogurt while traveling. I realize I need to do this test for future traveling reference, but it's hard to get excited about it when I know what the outcome will be if the test is a failure!
Most recently, it seems that a few symptoms were triggered by wine. I'm not happy about this, as a glass of wine with dinner was a pretty regular thing for me. But I have to be honest with myself about what caused the problems, and make decisions accordingly. It doesn't mean I'll never drink wine, it just might be a much more infrequent activity than I'd like.
In a few days I'll hit the three-month mark. Transitioning to this diet was not easy, but I can't argue with the results. I'm posting about it frequently at ibsgroup.org: if I can help even one person decrease their symptoms from any sort of gut dysfunction, I'll be happy!
I'm continuing to do very well, with only occasional, very mild, IBS-D symptoms. I think my gut is behaving very similarly to how it was behaving for most of my life prior to the appendectomy, or slightly better (less gas).
There's not much new in the meat area, although I've been experimenting with marinating chicken before grilling it, and I've been really happy with the results. I'll definitely try some more of the marinades that are in the Weber's Real Grilling book that I recently picked up at a used book store.
I've added some vegetables back in, making sure that I kept the rest of my diet stable while adding them one at a time, and adding them for four or five days before adding the next one. My vegetable rotation now includes carrots, butternut squash, zucchini, green beans, broccoli, cauliflower, and asparagus; less often, it also includes other squashes like yellow crooknecks, and bell peppers. On the fruit side, I'm regularly eating tomatoes and avocados at meals (still weird to think of them as fruits!), and for sweeter fruit snacks I'm having a banana a day, homemade applesauce several times a day, and dates. I also recently got some oranges and had some fresh-squeezed orange juice (it was heaven), and I've had a couple of plums recently. Olives, one of my favorite foods, are also back on the menu. Infrequent items have been cucumber and homemade pear sauce, and neither seems to have been a problem.
I've been eating much more cheese than I thought I would ever eat. Several types of cheese actually have little or no lactose, and are permitted on the SCD: swiss (I've been eating Emmentaler and I like it, I'm going to buy some Jarlsberg next), gruyere (which I love!), and cheddar (since this one has a more variable amount of lactose, I've stayed away so far, but plan to research which types/brands would be most suitable). I've also been buying dry-curd cottage cheese, which is similar in flavor to regular cottage cheese, but is made in such a way that it is free of lactose. Jenny suggested stuffing some dates with dry-curd cottage cheese, and I loved it, so it's now part of my nightly dessert: a small bowl of homemade applesauce followed by 5 stuffed dates.
I continue to believe that the one item that has had the most profound impact has been homemade yogurt. The first few batches I made I used the YoGourmet lactobacillus acidophilus starter; the yogurt is quite tart (which I like), and seemed to help a great deal. Then I bought a bottle of starter from GI Pro Health -- without noticing before I ordered that it uses lactobacillus casei, not lactobacillus acidophilus. The l. casei yogurt isn't nearly as tart, and it has seemed to me that I'm just very slightly more susceptible to old familiar symptoms than I had been, so for the batch that I just finished this morning, I went back to the l. acidophilus starter. I'll see how things are working over the next few days before deciding whether or not to stick to the l. acidophilus variety. At some point, I'll also stop eating yogurt and take one or two l. acidophilus capsules a day to see if the benefit is the same: I bought them to test so that I'd know whether or not it would be something I could use instead of homemade yogurt while traveling. I realize I need to do this test for future traveling reference, but it's hard to get excited about it when I know what the outcome will be if the test is a failure!
Most recently, it seems that a few symptoms were triggered by wine. I'm not happy about this, as a glass of wine with dinner was a pretty regular thing for me. But I have to be honest with myself about what caused the problems, and make decisions accordingly. It doesn't mean I'll never drink wine, it just might be a much more infrequent activity than I'd like.
In a few days I'll hit the three-month mark. Transitioning to this diet was not easy, but I can't argue with the results. I'm posting about it frequently at ibsgroup.org: if I can help even one person decrease their symptoms from any sort of gut dysfunction, I'll be happy!
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