Steve’s SCD Healing Journal: Week 13 – 90 Day Milestone!

Co-Founder of SCD Lifestyle Steve Wright has finally broken down and started his path to intestinal healing.  After many years of undiagnosed digestive warfare in his body, these series of weekly posts will take you through his experiences, thoughts, and struggles on the SCD diet.  Check back and follow his progress:

Week 13 Summary

This past week was pretty epic, I added a few new foods and didn’t cheat at all LOL, no really but I did officially pass 90 days on the SCD diet!

It’s been an interesting 90 days, I learned much more about myself and body than I ever could have imagined.  Physically and Mentally this diet has been a great blessing when I stick to it.  It’s because of that I will continue on for at least another 100 days (I like to chunk big goals down) and then reevaluate my situation.

So what has changed in the last 90 days?

• I live in a new city with new doctors
• I can make my own goat’s milk yogurt (yogurt can be homemade? who knew?)
• There is Poop Score Card!
• Bought, Cleaned and Cooked 10 different fruits and vegetables I had never used before
• Now eat more beef and fish than chicken (previous diet was chicken and…. well chicken)
• No more Stomach Aches or afternoon energy crashes!
• Gas is pretty much non-existent and not-smelly (kind of a big deal for me)
• I’m averaging a 3 – 4 on the Bristol Stool Chart compared to previously playing the entire range of the chart 1-7 each week

So What Now?

I’ve come along way in just over 3 months but there still is a ways to go.  I haven’t always been the most “fanatical” in my adherence to this diet and that has most defiantly set me back from a healing standpoint. During those trying times, I’ve learned a ton about my body both physically and mentally.  I would have never guessed that processed foods and sugar affect my mental state so much.  Also, the amount of physical, continuous energy and better sleep I get when eating REAL FOOD is amazing.

I’m also starting to get into this cooking thing.  As I’m adding more and more foods into my diet I’m starting to experiment more and actually make recipes which is fun.  Now if only I could find some self-cleaning pans and counter tops…

Basically I’ve decided that while I’ve come far in 90 days, I haven’t been the strictest and honestly, my digestive system has been fighting a losing battle since my L. Bifda overgrowth almost 5 years ago.  There is no way that in 90 days I’ve come close to correcting 5 years of damage.

So I’m making another commitment to the diet.  But this time its going to be 100 days and absolutely no cheating.  It seems like to me that there are two different groups of people who try the SCD diet, the first just jump right in and for many reasons never cheat or think about cheating.  The second group tends to have more problems with the diet, sometimes even starting multiple times.  I don’t think that you’re any worse off by being in the second group, actually I think it may be a blessing.  My hypothesis is that the people in the second group probably have less intestinal damage than people in the first group.  Now, obviously I’m in the 2nd group and I need to do something different this time to help me stay fanatically adhered.  I’ve decided to experiment with some different charting and journal ideas as well as set a reward for my commitment.  All in the hopes that I can keep myself more committed and more on track than ever.

So Where Is The New Ground Zero?

Last week I added mushrooms, green peppers and I’ve been flirting with tomatoes on and off over the last two weeks.  After trying them all separately I made an amazing meat sauce concoction that I put over spaghetti squash.  I did have some weirder than normal noises at first with the mushrooms and tomatoes but so far so good after the initial uneasiness.

I am up to using 2 digestive enzyme pills after each meal and I started the anti-fungal from Thorne.  So far I’ve been dosing it 2 pills twice a day in between meals.  The directions from Thorne are vague so after some internet research I’m going to shoot for 200mg of undecylenic acid a day and adjust from there.  I slowly worked my dosage up 200mg and have been there for 3 days.  Honestly I’m disappointed I was expecting to feel some kind of die off symptoms, but so far I haven’t noticed anything different.  I’m going to stay at 200mg for the week and maybe I’ll increase after next week.  I’m still supplementing with one 10 billion probiotic pill per meal and varying the amount of betaine HCL (600mg – 1200mg) I take before each meal depending on the protein content.

I’m still taking Freeda mult-vitamins, B-complex, and calcium at standard bottle dosages daily.  I’m also still supplementing with GI Pro Health Vitamin D3 at 5000IU a day and Fish oil at 4 grams a day.  I really wish I could find a different multi-vitamin and calcium supplement because I loathe Freeda’s shipping times and their non-gelcap ways!!!

I’m going to continue progressing through the phases of the diet, I’ve almost tried all of phase 2 foods, so I will be looking over the phase 3 diagrams and possible pulling in some lower salicylate phase 3 foods.  I also added a small amount of goat cheese to the diet and will continue to experiment with it.  I haven’t tried any cheese since the bad reaction i got early on in the diet (admittedly I probably ate too much to fast 🙂 who doesn’t love cheese?).

To sum it up, Today is Day 1 again, but this time I’m wiser and starting much higher on my health climb.  How is yours going?