Re: How limited was/is your diet?

[Guest guest]

Thank you, Marilyn. I'm gonna print that out, along with any other

responses I get, so I can refresh periodically.

I was really dreading going back to Chicken Soup, again. I kinda had

a lot of it last time. And giving up fruit for a week, at least. But

I was reading an old version of BTVC yesterday and now I am more

motivated to " just do it " .

Orlinda - OR

Celiac - 2006

SCD - Sept. 2007

> I had been edging into SCD for a couple of months

> before I began it formally. I was dealing with an

> " unknown " issue -- unknown because the GP was too

> stupid to recognize that side pain + yellow skin

> + itching & skin lesions = gallbladder disease.

> The skin specialist he sent me to took one look,

> ordered and liver panel, and when it came back,

> said, " Go directly to a surgeon, do not pass go,

> do not collect $200.... " Two days later, I had

> surgery, only they overdosed me on the

> anesthesia, and what should have been same-day

> surgery resulted in a four day hospital stay

> because I passed out every time they tried to get me on my feet.

>

> I was too sick to make yogurt, although I ate

> some of what I'd made before going to the

> hospital. The rest of the time I was using acidophilus.

>

> I determined that I could tolerate beef roast,

> pork roast, steamed zucchini (first with butter,

> later with shredded cheese), and soft boiled eggs.

>

> Harry peeled and sliced zucchini and put it in

> bags in the fridge. We kept a pan with water for

> the eggs on the stove. He also roasted, under my

> direction, the beef and pork, and sliced it, and put it in bags in

the fridge.

>

> It took me weeks before I wasn't sleeping all the

> time as my body detoxed from the anesthesia and

> eliminated the sky-high liver enzymes. (Surgeon

> later told me the enzymes were so high, he

> expected to find end-stage liver cancer.) I would

> crawl out of bed, stumble up front, set the water

> to boiling, check the SCD-list, put the eggs on

> to boil, scoop them, eat them, and crawl back to

> bed. A few hours later, I would stumble up front

> and grab a couple slices of meat, eat them, and

> stumble back to bed. A few hours after that, I

> would steam some zucchini. Then I would sleep,

> then have some more meat. Then more zucchini.

> Then more eggs.... and on around the clock.

>

> After about a month, I had to get back to work,

> and I had the energy to make yogurt. I couldn't

> QUITE eat every two hours, but I could manage

> every three. Same foods for the next month.

>

> Sent my system into a tizzy two ways at Christmas

> -- Christmas dinner had foods way too advanced

> for me. Christmas Eve, my parents took us out to

> eat, and when my food wasn't prepared properly, I

> wasn't brave enough to send it back. Very nearly

> missed the Christmas Eve candle ceremony that I love.

>

> Got back on track after Christmas. Began to add

> vegetables... green beans and spinach. I was

> getting beastly tired of zucchini! Also added

> grilled chicken breasts and other forms of cooked eggs.

>

> Although I had almond flour in the freezer, I

> don't think I made anything with it until around mid-February.

>

> So, meats, veggies, eggs, yogurt. First four months or so.

>

> Which is not to say that I was a perfect SCDer. I

> made mistakes, like inadvertently getting hold of

> some bifidus in the yogurt, or using pre-shredded

> cheese dusted in potato flour. Or substituting

> carefully washed cottage cheese for DCCC because

> I couldn't find DCCC and no one told me I could use yogurt cheese.

>

> But considering that pre-SCD, I'd gotten to the

> point where we were doing Some Kind of Meat Plus

> Rice Plus Cheese casserole 3-4 nights a week and

> eating fast food the rest of the time, the

> limited menu was actually an expansion of what

> I'd been eating. (I remember the evening Harry

> came home with a pair of whoppers and fries for

> us, and I was carefully grinding organic

> vegetables to put up for the Dachshund Duo to

> eat, and we looked at each other and said,

> " There's something wrong with this picture.... "

> It was around that time that I got a copy of BTVC and began edging

into SCD.)

>

> Now I wouldn't trade SCD for anything.

>

> Most of the time, we Keep It Simple: grilled

> meats and steamed veggies. I make yogurt and

> crackers. Occasional desserts. Periodic forays into Fancy Cookin'.

>

> Make a list of what you typically ate in an

> average week or weeks pre-SCD. I bet you'll find

> plenty of repetitions.... you're focusing on what

> you can't have, rather than what you can have,

> and figuring out creative things to do with those ingredients.

>

> You CAN do it!

>

>

>

>

>

> — Marilyn

> New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

> Undiagnosed IBS since 1976, SCD since 2001

> Darn Good SCD Cook

> No Human Children

> Shadow & Sunny Longhair Dachshund

>