A Regimen for Remission
This log tracks my regimen of attitude, exercise, stress management, and SCD foods. Since I started this regimen in 1997, I've been able to keep my Crohn's in a drug-free remission.

Monkey-see,
monkey-don't
Even though I may have experimented beyond the SCD from time to time, one must remember that everyone is different. Follow the intro diet for 3-5 days, and stick with the SCD until you are completely symptom free for at least one year before experimenting.

Be sure to read:
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Laura's IBS log
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Permalinks:
The linked timestamps are your permanent links to individual log entries.

Get the book:
Ready to get your shit together? Got the intestinal fortitude? Yearning for a nirvana of peristalsis? Buy Breaking The Vicious Cycle! Written by Elaine Gottschall B.A., M.Sc., the book includes guidelines for dietary relief and sustainable remission of Crohns, Ulcerative Colitis, and other IBDs.

Feel free to contact me if you still have questions.

Lunch: chicken soup, tossed salad with a mustard vinaigrette. Snacks: pecan and organic raisin mix, bananas.
mhs@13:25

Breakfast: an apple, some SCD yogurt. I'm very tired because after yoga class I came back home and stayed up late to watch the Diamondbacks game. I ate a pile of food while I watched the game and had a tough time sleeping. Also, a neighbor somewhere was making a bunch of noise at 2AM, woke me up, I went into another room to sleep. And I'm excited about changes at work. I'm looking forward to relaxing this weekend!!

Dinner, yesterday: a bit of black bean soup and cheese before yoga. Afterwards, the last of the curried chicken and vegetables, spinach, celery and peanut butter, a glass of sherry.
mhs@05:42

Tuesday, October 30, 2001

Halloween is upon us. Most of us are surrounded by chocolates, candies, and other non-SCD temptations at work, at home, and at school. Do you cave in and eat that candy? Do you hold strong and avoid it like the plague? Do you bring your own SCD goodies and enjoy them yourself? How do holiday temptations affect you?
mhs@16:21

Monday, October 29, 2001

Dinner: black bean and vegetable soup, salmon, tossed salad.

Lunch: tossed salad, chicken soup, a banana.
mhs@21:00

Breakfast: fruit, SCD yogurt.

Dinner, yesterday @ Westward Look Resort: a lovely dinner on the Gold Room's deck, watching the sunset with my wife and my parents. I had a salad of baby spinach with goat cheese and sun-dried tomatoes, and a medley of grilled seafood with organic baby vegetables.
mhs@05:57

Sunday, October 28, 2001

Breakfast: fruit, SCD yogurt.

Dinner, yesterday, with my old friend Mark (visiting from Atlanta): grilled salmon, tossed salad, steamed broccoli, and a glass of merlot. Dessert: Laura's apple crisp.
mhs@07:08

Saturday, October 27, 2001

This post is coming to you from blogBuddy, a free Windows client that allows posting to Blogger web logs without launching a browser. Kewl!
mhs@12:32

Lunch: tossed salad, leftover curried chicken with peppers and onions. Dessert: a Jennys macaroon.

Breakfast: fruit, nuts, and a 2 mile walk, followed by a nice nap.
mhs@12:14

Friday, October 26, 2001

Lunch: tossed salad with tuna.
mhs@13:25

Breakfast: oh-so-soothing apple and SCD yogurt. I ate too much dinner a bit too late last night, went to bed too soon afterwards. The result, waking up in the middle of the night and having to go to the bathroom. I'm tired, but feeling OK otherwise.
mhs@06:13

Thursday, October 25, 2001

Dinner: steamed yellow squash, sauteed radishes and scallions in a chicken broth, curried chicken with sauteed onions and red peppers. The big toad is still out...

mhs@21:12

Lunch: tossed salad, bean soup, havarti cheese, and some delicious pumpkin pie!
mhs@12:28

Breakfast: fruit, SCD yogurt. Exciting news at work..stay tuned.
mhs@05:54

Wednesday, October 24, 2001

Dinner: leftover curried trout, white bean soup with autumn vegetables. Afterwards, a walk around the neighborhood; we saw the big toad! It's still coming out at night! It's amazing! Feel our excitement!
mhs@19:47

Lunch: chicken salad from Tamalez.
mhs@12:40

Linux as a foundation to Windows: Lindows.com.
mhs@07:58

Breakfast: SCD yogurt, fruit.

Dinner, yesterday: white bean soup with autumn vegetables, tossed salad, grilled salmon with a choice of cilantro-walnut pesto or a garlic and black bean sauce.
mhs@06:10

Tuesday, October 23, 2001

Lunch: chicken soup, tossed salad, havarti cheese, and a Jennys macaroon.
mhs@15:37

Breakfast: fruit, SCD yogurt.
mhs@06:05

Monday, October 22, 2001

Dinner: omelette of egg, kohlrabi, and apple; navy bean and autumn vegetable soup. Dessert: Elaine's pumpkin pie (we made it with the SCD yogurt instead of our usual dry curd)... awesome!

Lunch: tossed salad, navy bean soup, a few samples from the SpartaCom Technologies Chili Cook-Off.
mhs@20:30

Breakfast: SCD yogurt, fruit.
mhs@06:09

Sunday, October 21, 2001

Dinner: Soup of navy beans and a medley of autumn vegetables (acorn squash, turnips, celery, carrots, red pepper, tomato, cilantro, and basil); julienned kohlrabi with granny smith apples; grilled trout with curry, coconut, and butter.
mhs@20:24

Go D'Backs! We're off to the World Series! :-)
mhs@20:22

Elaine Gottschall's NYC schedule:

ELAINE GOTTSCHALL, author of "Breaking the Vicious Cycle: Intestinal Health through Diet" (the book on which the Specific Carbohydrate Diet "SCD" is based) will be visiting the New York City area, beginning next week, and making several broadcast and personal appearances. Here's a schedule of what Elaine will be up to while she's here:

Tuesday evening, 10/23 - Elaine to be interviewed on Dr. Ronald Hoffman's "Health Talk" radio program on WOR (710 AM), which airs from 8:00pm to 10:00pm ET. The program may possibly be heard outside NYC via the internet at http://www.wor710.com

Wednesday morning, 10/24 (tentative) - Elaine to be interviewed on Brian Lehrer's "On the Line" radio program on WNYC (820 AM & 93.9 FM), which airs from 10:00am to noon ET. The program may possibly be heard outside NYC via the internet at http://www.wnyc.org

Thursday evening, 10/25 at 7:30pm - Elaine to appear at a book signing at the Barnes & Noble at 380 Walt Whitman Rd (Route 110) in Huntington Station, Long Island. Call 631-421-9886 for more information.

Friday morning, 10/26 - SCD brunch with Elaine and SCD-listserve members at a restaurant in Port Jefferson, Long Island.

Sunday afternoon, 10/28 at 3:00pm - Elaine to be the featured speaker at an "Afternoon of Intestinal Health Awareness and Inspiration" in Boro Park, Brooklyn, at 1362 49th Street. We will also hear from a local physician who has been successfully using the SCD with his patients, and will share his observations. Admission is free.
mhs@15:42

Saturday, October 20, 2001

Lunch: tossed salad, grilled turkey burgers, sliced organic avocado.
mhs@15:15

Way cool! Check out Ed from the Netherlands' intestinal health game!

Ed's idea made my brain spin, I thought of a board game (like Monopoly or Chutes And Ladders, for kids) where we go around and around, and get charged 'negative points' for eating the wrong things, internalizing too much stress, not getting exercise, etc. Finding a proper way to balance diet with drugs and other treatments will require a delicate balance (as many folks need to follow more than one therapy for awhile). The point is to eat the good things and avoid things that will cause long-term damage (bone loss, etc.). What could make the game truly unique would be that one could get extra points for helping the other players through the 'challenge points'. The personal goal would be health, with a overall team goal of getting a high 'team score'. It might even be interesting to have the players not know what disease they have for a few 'rounds', and include Crohn's, colitis, IBS, Celiac, as well as other things like excema, allergies, etc. as the 'diagnosis' they uncover and then get to deal with for the remainder of the game.
mhs@07:23

Friday, October 19, 2001

Dinner: salmon, broccoli, eggplant, and a glass of merlot.

Lunch: roasted chicken and vegetables, fruit.
mhs@19:12

I got an email from a person who thinks it will be too difficult to remove all milk products from her diet for a period and to keep a log of her symptoms (this person has been diagnosed with Crohn's). The SCD certainly seems impossible for this person.

Thinking back to the questions I was asked before I resolved to find ways to get my CD into remission, a few come to mind: Given what you've read and what you've been told, what will your life be like later? Will you undergo surgery? Will you wear a bag? Will you still need to go to the toilet 10+ times a day? Then the focus of the questioning changed.

What would life be like without Crohn's? What are you willing to try to achieve intestinal health?
mhs@06:09

Breakfast: as I write this I am enjoying SCD yogurt with my first Roma apple. Ever? I'm not sure, but I think so. I prefer Braeburn apples in the morning, but this Roma is pretty tasty, too! It is more tart than the Braeburn variety, which probably makes it good for baked apple recipes as well. It has a very colorful skin which actually soaks into the fruit of the apple and onto the plate when it is sliced. The Roma skin is a bit tougher than that of the Braeburn, and therefore almost definitely not for introductory-phase SCDers (unless it is baked, which might help break it down a bit).

Dinner, yesterday: grilled salmon, grilled eggplant.

Lunch: tossed greens and spinach salad with gorgonzola cheese.
mhs@05:43

Thursday, October 18, 2001

Breakfast: yogurt, fruit.
mhs@06:15

Wednesday, October 17, 2001

Dinner, after a bit of yoga: tossed salad, steamed broccoli, oven roasted chicken and vegetables.
mhs@20:38

Lunch: chicken chimichanga with salad from Tamalez (without the wrapper), fruit.
mhs@13:19

My very own copy of Relax For The Fun Of It is coming in the mail; in the interim, I'm relaxing my way to continued good health!
mhs@06:08

Breakfast: SCD yogurt, fruit.
mhs@06:05

Tuesday, October 16, 2001

Dinner: tossed salad, leftover turkey burgers, leftover chicken, leftover curried monkfish. Dessert: a Jennies Macaroon...a SCD-legal snack made of "unsweetened sulfite free coconut, honey, egg whites and rum flavoring" (hmmm, maybe that last ingredient is questionable). "No artificial flavor and no chemical preservatives. No salt added."
mhs@20:09

Breakfast: SCD yogurt, fruit.
mhs@06:04

Monday, October 15, 2001

Dinner: leftover monkfish in a curry simmer sauce, butternut squash puree, tossed salad.

The big toad that is usually found during our after-dinner walk was not there today; the dry air has probably driven it underground until the rains resume; we did, however, spot a small toad.
mhs@20:38

Lunch: leftover lamb shank and roasted leeks, tossed salad, and a banana.

Breakfast: SCD yogurt, an apple, dried figs.
mhs@13:45

Sunday, October 14, 2001

Dinner: grilled salmon (a fatty piece, from the Atlantic), baked acorn squash with honey, and roasted vegetables. I also grilled up some turkey sausages and a whole chicken; there will be lots of food to enjoy all week! :-)
mhs@19:37

Lunch: an awful salad from Souper Salad (we were out, we were hungry, there wasn't anything else in sight...)

More breakfast: scrambled eggs with onions and red peppers. Hey, and no reaction to the eggs! I think that eggs on an empty stomach are the problem.
mhs@18:06

Breakfast: a cup of warm herbal tea with honey, an apple, cheese, nuts...

Dinner, last night: tossed salad, butternut squash and ginger puree, monkfish in a curry simmer sauce.
mhs@07:47

Hmm...reblogger or blogback? Or bloggerbot? Still pondering...
mhs@07:44

Saturday, October 13, 2001

Current reading: The Paleolithic Prescription, another explanation of how a regimen like the SCD can address 20th and 21st-century intestinal health issues, and The Wild Blue: The Men and Boys Who Flew the B-24s over Germany, by Stephen E. Ambrose. Yet another enthralling book by Ambrose!
mhs@08:35

Breakfast: fruit, cheese, nuts. Laura and I are off to a home show of environmentally-conscious homes (passive and active solar, rammed earth, straw bale, and more!) this morning. It should be a lot of fun, lots of food-for-thought.

Dinner, yesterday @ Wildflower: a glass of dry red merlot; a salad of baby spinach with toasted pecans, apple, and blue cheese; roasted lamb shank with leeks and a medley of baby vegetables. Quite good, but not as good as it could have been (for the price).

Lunch, yesterday: salad, prosciutto, provolone from Cafe Milano.
mhs@08:31

Friday, October 12, 2001

Jacqueline (in Switzerland) has a wonderful SCD page, complete with quick-reference cards of allowed/not-allowed foods (in English and in French), links, and more.
mhs@06:09

Way cool: a multilingual food dictionary! Did you know that the German translation for 'Durian' is 'Stinkfrucht'?! But of course! :-)
mhs@06:06

Breakfast: fruit, nuts.
mhs@05:56

Thursday, October 11, 2001

Question: How far can a dog run into the woods?

Question: If someone is following a prescribed regimen and is symptom-free for a year, and then follows the directions which permit adding previously-disallowed foods after the aforementioned symptom-free year, then is one still following the prescribed regimen? If not, what is this new stasis of remission called?
mhs@19:59

Dinner: chicken topopo salad @ El Charro, in celebration of a great sales quarter at SpartaCom/Linktivity.
mhs@19:42

Lunch: leftover turkey burgers and sauteed Swiss chard. Dessert: monster cookies!
mhs@13:13

Breakfast: fruit, monster cookies.

Dinner, yesterday: roasted beets, sauteed Swiss chard with garlic, grilled turkey burgers with cumin, cayenne, and diced onion.

Lunch, yesterday: tossed salad with leftover roasted chicken, red lentil and butternut squash soup.
mhs@05:46

Wednesday, October 10, 2001

Check out Jane Brody's article about everyday health risks in the New York Times.
mhs@05:50

Breakfast: dccc with honey, an apple, a banana.
mhs@05:45

Tuesday, October 09, 2001

Dinner: leftover roasted chicken, tossed salad.

Lunch: a pathetic chicken caesar salad from Deb's Coney Island Grill, fruit.
mhs@20:22

Breakfast: dccc with honey, an apple.

Dinner, yesterday @ Sheila's house: red lentil and butternut squash, tossed salad, and monster cookies for dessert.
mhs@06:01

Sunday, October 07, 2001

Dinner: autumn delicacies on a cool, cloudy Tucson evening! I decided to roast a chicken and make Suneeti's red lentil and squash recipe. Here is a photo of the work-in-progress.

We loved it! :-)
mhs@20:45

Lunch: roasted beet tops, grilled leek with butter and olive oil, leftover grilled salmon, leftover grilled steak.
mhs@14:53

Breakfast: fruit, dccc with honey, cheese...

Dinner, yesterday: leftover grilled salmon, steamed veggies, cauliflower "mashed potatoes".
mhs@07:24

Saturday, October 06, 2001

Lunch: delicious leftovers from last night. Beforehand: yoga. Afterwards: planting a fall/winter crop of tomato, basil, cilantro, parsley, and Swiss chard in the garden on a lovely overcast and drizzly afternoon!
mhs@16:48

Interestingly, I posed the egg question (see yesterday morning) on the crohns-colitis support group newsgroup. 2 of 7 responses indicated some kind of problem with eggs. One woman even wrote "I get gas from fried eggs, but I eat them anyway a couple times a week for breakfast...."

I don't find any of these results to be conclusive, but interesting food for thought. Or, like the chicken-and-the-egg, is it thought for food? :-)
mhs@08:18

A big cup of hot organic peppermint tea with honey to warm me up on a cool Arizona morning in the fall! Delicious. Food will follow later, as I really am not hungry yet. Why not? Well, check out dinner!

Dinner, yesterday @ Cafe Poca Cosa: a huge plate (so big I had to get a doggie bag) of delicious, succulent, spicy roasted pork loin on a bed of spinach and greens, with fruit on the side. Awesome!
mhs@07:33

Friday, October 05, 2001

Lunch: a delicious tossed salad with prosciutto @ Cafe Milano.
mhs@12:54

Breakfast: fruit, nuts, dccc with honey.

I got a nice email from a guy who is dabbling with diets for intestinal health. I have written here in the past that eggs usually bother me, and he writes that eggs usually bother him as well. He thinks raw eggs in a shake or something may be tolerated better than cooked eggs, and I would say that I agree (in my own case). For me, fried eggs for breakfast are especially problematic in that I get D for most of the morning, and lots of burping. The D is especially annoying since eggs are the only thing that really cause it anymore. So, is it eggs on an empty stomach? Is it the way the eggs are cooked? Is it the percentage of egg to other foods at one meal? He will hopefully attend the upcoming Conference on Intestinal Health Through Diet, and report on his experimentation and results!

What about you? Let's hear how you get along with eggs! :-)
mhs@06:13

Thursday, October 04, 2001

The great horned owl is back! Hoot hoot!

Dinner: grilled salmon, tossed salad, cauliflower "mashed potatoes".

Lunch: tossed salad, leftover steak.
mhs@20:35

Breakfast: an apple, a banana, some dccc with TJ's mezquite honey. I really liked NBC's West Wing last night. The special episode did a great job at exploring the many sides of prejudice, terrorism, and plurality.
mhs@06:13

Wednesday, October 03, 2001

Dinner: tossed salad with a mustard vinaigrette, sliced avocado, grilled porterhouse steak.
mhs@19:40

Lunch @ Cafe A La C'arte: caesar salad with grilled salmon. Delicious!
mhs@13:49

Breakfast: fruit, nuts, and a few new questions (with answers!) to the SCD FAQ page.
mhs@06:22

Tuesday, October 02, 2001

Dinner: grilled whole trout with butter, salt and pepper; steamed summer squash; sauteed kale with garlic.
mhs@20:30

Lunch: a huge bowl of homemade chicken soup, some Gouda cheese, and a plum.
mhs@13:21

Breakfast, an hour ago: an apple, a banana, some cheese. I'm hungry already, but I brought some snacks to munch on.
mhs@07:56

Monday, October 01, 2001

Have you seen this post and question? I am feeling just fine now, thanks. I got a bunch of interesting email from readers who visit this page daily or almost daily. Thanks to all of you for your kind words of support and shared experiences! I'll probably post the replies here (anonymously) in a few days. That said, the quick summary is: stress is a common trigger for most people with IBD, irregardless of the form(s) of treatment one is following. In fact, according to the research contained in the Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine, a 'social readjustment scale' developed by Holmes and Rahe indicates recent personal, national, and worldwide events certainly play a role in increased symptoms. And as I have been able to prove time and again, returning to SCD basics, using exercise and yoga to deal with stress, maintaining a positive attitude, and listening to my body have enabled me to get back on track without having been off it for more than a few days. These critical success factors help me every time! :-)
mhs@20:52

Dinner: chicken in a spicy vindaloo sauce, steamed yellow squash with salt, pepper, and butter, steamed broccoli.
mhs@20:31

Lunch: tossed spinach salad, leftover escabeche chicken. Snack: raisins and pecans.
mhs@13:02

Breakfast: fruit, nuts, dccc.
mhs@06:00

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