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:
Intro to Flog
Read Me
Archives
Laura's IBS log
SCD Web Library

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.

Fans of Flog (this site), ibslog, and scintillating sage: yes, we're working on a book about IBD, IBS, and how we work to maintain nirvana of peristalsis. It is due out during 2003.

Will it be recipes alone? Tips, travails, and tactics alone? A combination? It could be anything! Write us and tell us what you want to read in our book!
mhs@20:10

Dinner: sauteed organic Swiss chard with onions and sesame oil, steamed artichokes, leftover sole in an almond crust.

Lunch: leftover veal roulade from Cibaria in Oro Valley. Snacks: nut and raisin mix, banana, orange.

Breakfast: homemade yogurt and applesauce, banana.
mhs@20:01

Friday, March 28, 2003

Lunch: leftovers from dinner last night. Lesson learned: leftover pan-fried catfish is decidedly not as delicious as it is fresh. Oh well.
mhs@12:53

Breakfast: homemade yogurt and applesauce, Lois Lang's nut bread with honey.
mhs@06:08

Thursday, March 27, 2003

Dinner: brocolli rabe with lemon and garlic, oven roasted asparagus, pan-fried catfish.

Lunch: tossed salad, chicken stir-fry with veggies.
mhs@20:59

Wednesday, March 26, 2003

Wow. It has been a week since my last Flog entry. What have I been doing? Eating delicious SCD foods! :-)

My parents were in town for 3 nights, and we had fun cooking and eating and exploring the Tucson area. Some of the foods included: pan-fried turkey burgers, curried collards, goat-cheese stuffed roasted poblanos, grilled salmon, lentils, banana muffins, and more!
mhs@06:42

Wednesday, March 19, 2003

What if I hadn’t been diagnosed with Crohn’s? I pondered this question as I was driving home from work today, listening to NPR’s interview with Jeremy Armstrong, who was imprisoned in 1997 at age 15, sentenced as an adult for reckless homicide (for murdering his father’s room-mate and drug dealer). Prior to that he had been a straight-A student in Catholic school…

At any rate, Jeremy has learned quite a lot during his imprisonment. He is now in a medium security prison. As Jeremy told his story, I realized that here was a very talented person who faced huge challenges in prison. He bears his burden mightily. He is involved in sharing his experiences with others to help them. He has work translating books to Braille. He really seems to have turned out to be quite a special, talented, insightful individual.

The interview really made him sound special, and the interviewer (Robert Siegel) asked Jeremy to ponder whether he would have turned out the same if he hadn’t made that mistake so many years ago. Jeremy says he has mulled that over many times, pondered the question “What if…?”.

I was 16 when I was diagnosed with Crohn’s. I took so many tests, so many drugs, most of which didn’t really do much for me (and arguably might have done plenty against me). Despite these challenges I have maintained a steady remission since 1997, drug free. I credit changes in diet (the SCD), stress management, positive attitude, and a support structure with my success to date. I also credit years of drugs with having probably gotten me to a point of stability from which these changes could do their best.

I believe that each of us has our own challenges, demons, barriers to overcome. We, our families, our managers at work…give us challenges to help us grow. With proper guidance, support, tools, and the right attitude we overcome and succeed, making ourselves and the world a better place.

It isn’t easy, but one can really do well to see IBD not as this awful stroke of bad luck but seek to find the kernel of purpose that is hidden within it, cultivate it, and use it to learn, grow, and share with others. This burden can be quite a crutch, but it can be discarded with healing and lots of work. So, instead of “Why me...?”, we can ask ourselves “What if…?” and ponder how we might best use this experience to help ourselves and others. We can also ask ourselves "What if I didn't have this burden? What would life be like? What would I be willing to change, what would I be willing to do to achieve intestinal health?" Finally, how would we use this experience to improve the world?
mhs@19:42

Sunday, March 16, 2003

It's Sunday, which means having fun in the kitchen, cooking up a lot of food. I've enjoyed cooking all day Sunday since I shared an apartment with my friend Brian in NYC. We would watch the cooking shows on Saturdays and go out Sunday in search of ingredients. We'd then spend the day cooking up a storm, filling our bellies and the refrigerator with food.

Dinner: Saffron-poached halibut with tomato fennel sauce on a bed of roasted fennel, steamed artichokes. Also: I installed a rotisserie on my grill and roasted a chicken for lunches/dinners this week.
mhs@19:54

Breakfast: banana, nut bread, an apple.

Dinner, yesterday: turkey burgers, brie and manchego cheeses, curried collard greens, stuffed baby bell peppers with goat cheese. Dessert: pear-apple crisp.
mhs@09:14

Saturday, March 15, 2003

Breakfast: homemade yogurt and applesauce.

Lunch, yesterday was a bowl of chili and a bowl of ratatoille from Brueger's (a bagel place). I've had the ratatoille before without problems, but both, together, was not a smart thing. I've been burping chili since lunch yesterday! :-)
mhs@07:10

Friday, March 14, 2003

Dinner: leftover collards with curry and ginger, squash puree, and some chicken.
mhs@18:48

Sunday, March 09, 2003

Dinner out on the patio under the lights: spaghetti squash; stuffed baby bell peppers with goat cheese, garlic, and herbs; collards frittata.

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away... 1990's New York City, actually... One of my favorite appetizers to make was a bacon-wrapped stuffed radiccio with a ricotta herb filling. Carefully cooked in a pan, this was one deliciously fatty and wonderful appetizer. Anyway, these peppers tonight whooped my old favorite quite nicely. In fact, I think that the stuffed peppers with a bit of SCD legal cheese and dripped yogurt, and baked with a tomato sauce might make a wonderfully delicious SCD-legal substitute to stuffed shells! Stay tuned, I'll be trying it out someday soon...the recipe will appear in our book if we like the result. :-)
mhs@20:09

Friday, March 07, 2003

Dessert: caramelized bananas with homemade yogurt.

Dinner: tossed salad, pan-seared turkey burgers with ginger and Indian spices, grilled eggplant with garlic and black pepper.
mhs@19:56

Thursday, March 06, 2003

Dinner: halibut en papillote with organic baby pea plants (not the sprouts, not the pods...just the baby plants.
mhs@19:58

Tuesday, March 04, 2003

Most Americans love, even crave, sugar and processed foods. Here's the latest from the World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization: WHO/FAO release independent Expert Report on diet and chronic disease -- Less saturated fats, sugar and salt, more fruit and vegetables and physical exercise, needed to counter cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes and obesity.

Back when I was first diagnosed with Crohns (1981) I was told that it was a "western disease" that is most common in the U.S. and among the more well to do in Europe. I was also told that "diet had nothing to do with it", which certainly seems to be untrue. Food isn't the whole cause of CD, but it can certainly play a large role. If the "less well to do" in Europe have the same genetic predisposition to Crohn's as the more well to do, then as their diet becomes more and more laden with processed foods (too expensive for them, until recently) they will see an increase in CD as well. These previously "unprivileged" will become further unprivileged by joining the world's masses who consume the wrong foods simply because they are foisted upon us, marketed to us, and oddly, often cheaper than more healthy options.
mhs@06:12

Monday, March 03, 2003

Dinner: grilled eggplant and red peppers, tossed salad with Greek lemon dressing, almond-crusted chicken cutlets with a lemon sauce.

Lunch: leftovers from dinner last night.
mhs@19:46

Breakfast: sliced Fuji apple, almond-banana muffin, homemade yogurt.

Watch out for those beets! They're delicious, you'll want to eat more and more of them. For many people, beets have a laxative effect...watch out for those beets! :-)
mhs@06:06

Sunday, March 02, 2003

Dinner: Laura invented another dish! :-) Bored with our homemade balsamic beets, Laura used honey and fresh squeezed orange juice with some ginger on our orange, ginger, organic beets, and greens. Also: red snapper with an almond-thyme-parsley crust. The snapper was good, but decidedly better in a sauce, such as a Veracruz style sauce, or in a curry style sauce.

mhs@19:37

Lunch: tossed salad, leftover grilled salmon.

Breakfast: homemade applesauce and yogurt, a banana. Snacks: a fresh batch of honey jumbles.
mhs@13:50

Saturday, March 01, 2003

Dinner: baked cauliflower, sauteed Swiss chard with scallions and ginger, grilled salmon with walnut-cilantro pesto.
mhs@19:56

audblog audio post
mhs@09:41

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