SCD Day 7

John:

Medication: 10MG Prednisone, 40MG Lialda, SCD Probiotics, ProZymes

Passings: 1
9:10AM It finally came all out of me, and I experienced urgency, but not the diarrhea type of urgency. When I finally went, everything came out pretty normal looking, but there sure was a lot! All of the food I ate finally caught up to me and came out at once, but it looked like a good Bristol 4 in some chopped up bits, so I was happy about that. I don't think I saw any diseased looking parts to the stool.

How I Feel: I'm hoping things will keep evening out. The goal is to NEVER see undigested fat or yeast in the stool. Sometimes I feel and hear my stomach making noises, and though I know it's nowhere near as bad as before the diet, with every little noise, I am always a little worried that something is going wrong in me. It's not fun tweaking the diet, but I suppose it's necessary. For example, I would like to keep eating honey and fruit sauces and drink grape juice. It would bum me out if I had to cut back on the amount I've been consuming, which isn't even a lot. Since my passings are leveling out to once a day or so (which is a blessing of course) the thing that stinks about that is that you have no idea what your next stool is going to look like, and it's always exciting to see if you're getting better or worse from the looks of it. Pretty gross, but besides frequency of going, actually seeing the stool is the only way to know what you need to tweak in the diet or try differently. It's the only way to know what you need to hold back more on, or how much more you can get away with. I'd love to up my fruit intake.

Food: Eggs for breakfast. All we do is scramble them since that's basically the easiest way to make them. Lunch was Tilapia and jello. Dinner we bought chicken breasts which were great, but sadly the portions weren't big enough. We also made apple sauce with cinnamon and honey. It came out AMAZINGLY! We figured apple sauce is the same as pear sauce, so we went ahead and made that to eat instead of pear sauce without waiting those 4 days to try a new food. The book basically showed that apples basically had the same "phenol" rating as pears. Tastes better anyway. Tomorrow we will introduce Homemade Almond Milk. I'm excited about that, and hope that everything goes well with it!

SCD Day 6

John:

Medication: 10MG Prednisone, 40MG Lialda, SCD Probiotic, ProZymes Digestive Enzymes (2 per meal)

Passings: 1
3:20PM It was nice to go more than 24 hours later than my last bathroom visit. I can feel my body returning basically to normal where a normal person has a passing maybe every 20-30 hours or so. That sounds about right and how I used to function before my disease kicked in. The stool was surprisingly small, and there was a bit of undigested fat still, which was expected. Also the slightest bit of a yeasty look, but nothing too alarming. I'm still counting on the digestive enzymes to take care of most of that, but I'll watch my sugar intake also. I wouldn't say I'm abusing the fruit sugars, but I will have a small spoon of honey about twice a day. So the only culprits continue to be undigested fats and too much sugar, which I believe will keep itself in check from now on now that I'm religiously taking the digestive enzymes.

How I Feel: Great. It's always great, so unless I feel not great, I'll just talk about new experiences or things learned. The diet is already working splendidly, but small tweaks always seem to be needed, such as watching the sugar intake of honey and fruits, and taking those digestive enzymes. 2 pills of the digestive enzymes are to be taken per meal, so that's basically 6 pills a day. There was a warning that those pills at that dosage amount can cause a stomach ache, but I have continued to report that we are not suffering from those side effects. They say to ease into taking up to 2 pills per meal, by starting at maybe half a pill and working your way up over the weeks. My experience is just a slight burning tingle in my stomach, but it really isn't bothersome at all. I suppose other people may have a worse reaction. I just want to dive in and take the appropriate amount and not have to worry about weening my way into those. Glad I'm adjusting well to the Digestive Enzymes. I think they will really work from here on out.

Information Not Easily Found: Here is some information that wasn't thoroughly explained in the books "Breaking the Vicious Cycle", and "SCD Lifestyle: Surviving to Thriving". I found the extra information by emailing the staff of the SCD Lifestyle website.

• Honey is legal from Day 1 of the SCD diet
• Almond Milk can come in at Phase 1 of the diet
• Don't try dairy of yoghurt of any kind until being on the diet for at least 30 days.
• ProZyme Digestive Enzymes should be taken for at least 90 days, then weened off of. Another source said go 6 months.
• Almond Flour would probably be best introduced in Phase 3 of the diet with the other nut flours listed in Phase 3. My email responder said Phase 2 would be alright, but I really don't like that idea. It wasn't specific enough in the SCD Lifestyle Book.
• Phases last as long as you think you should wait until progressing into the next Phase. But basically anywhere from 3-4 weeks per Phase. I wouldn't go any less than 3 weeks before progressing though. For me, will go exactly 3 weeks per Phase.

Food: Scrambled eggs and jello for breakfast. Lunch was leftover Pork Chops and Pear Sauce, which was still delicious. Dinner we were going to go with Tilapia, but we saw an amazing piece of Salmon staring at us, so we bought both and had a bunch of Salmon for dinner again. My mouth is watering right now just thinking of it. I'm a huge fan of Salmon. We'll have the Tilapia for lunch tomorrow ;) Usually the grape jello is snacked on throughout the day and had for dessert along side a little mouthful of honey. 

SCD Day 5

John:

Weight: I'm still hovering around at 141 and I don't think I will really budge from that for a long time, especially with all the long distance running I'm doing. I'll post my weight every 10 days.

Medication: 15MG Prednisone (Get to lower the dose 10MG tomorrow!) 40MG Lialda, SCD Probiotic, started ProZymes Digestive Enzymes.

Passings: 1
9:10AM This passing got a bit worse than the previous couple of days. It became more of a Bristol 5 on the stool chart. After doing some research on "Fatty Stools" and making comparisons, I have decided that it is most likely too much undigested fat going through my body. That makes me happy, because it means I don't have to cut out eggs or lower my fruit/honey intake. I just need to keep taking 2 pills per meal of Digestive Enzymes which have finally arrived today and was first taken at dinner time. I expect my next passings to not be perfect Bristol 4's for the next day or so, but I'm fine with that. I'm counting on those digestive enzymes. I feel like I COULD use the bathroom right now at nighttime, but I think I can hold out until the morning, so 1 passing for the day it is then, and that's a fantastic thing to say.

How I Feel: Very good. It's nice to be able to sleep on my stomach. I couldn't do that at all for the past 6-8 months so easily, or not even at all, and that got pretty depressing. I think everyday that my gut heals, it'll continue to get easier to sleep on my stomach. I'm happy because the ProZyme Digestive Enzymes we've ordered have come in the mail today. 2 per meal must be taken. That should fix my fatty stools and the pills also claim to help the healing process of the digestive organs. Tomorrow I get to take 5MG less of my prednisone, which is the good news. I suppose the bad news is that the digestive enzymes have to stick around for awhile. Recommended for 90 days with those, but I don't mind too much. Could even need to go for 6 months before tapering off, but that is also ok. Whatever works works. Can't wait to be completely off of Prednisone in 2 weeks. After I finish college in May, I will find myself a Gastrointestinal doctor in my new home area and figure out how to get completely off of medication. My goal for getting off of all meds is within 6 months of starting this diet. I think that will be plenty of time to heal, and that's such an amazing goal to think about and reach for. The diet is still working, and the only thing I'm tweaking right now is taking the digestive enzymes, which I have a VERY good feeling will help after all of the research I have done.

Food: Breakfast was scrambled eggs with some meat patties, jello, and pear sauce which I think my body is reacting just fine too. I haven't felt any churning. And by the way, WELCOME TO PHASE 1 OF THE DIET, AND BYE BYE TO THE INTRO DIET. I was getting pretty tired of the intro soup. We bought some more Salmon and had that for lunch, which was way better than our first batch, and for dinner tonight, we purchased enough Pork Chop Tenderloins to last through lunch tomorrow, which is what the SCD Lifestyle book recommends. Cook in bulk at dinner so you can eat the same thing for lunch the next day by simply microwaving the leftovers. The meal came out SO GOOD! It tasted great in the pear sauce too. We actually added a bit of honey and cinnamon to the pear sauce, and things seem to be going fine still, so we're happy that adding cinnamon into the diet so early hasn't caused any problems. The next food we will try to introduce in the next 4 days will be Homemade Almond Milk, which I would LOVE to have. Water is getting boring, and it'd be nice to have something other than diluted Welches Grape Juice to drink.

SCD Day 4

John:

Medication: 15MG Prednisone, 40MG Lialda, SCD Probiotic

Passings: 1
10:50PM Not as good as the previous two days, but I suppose it was still like a Bristol 4. A little more broken up, and I'm wondering if I'm seeing some yeast. The parts that look like yeast isn't as bright, and there's not very much. I'll want to consider the digestive enzymes still, which should arrive tomorrow, and/or cutting down the diluted grape juice intake. I had quite a bit of jello and drink.

How I Feel: Pretty good! Not much rumbling and churning around in my gut. The Salmon that I made was a good pick me up. I ran my fastest 5 mile run in years, and am getting back into running shape! 5 miles in under 40 minutes. I'm pretty happy about that. The diet is definitely keeping things in check and keeping my body healthy too, I think. I just really hope I don't backslide into any yeast problems, and I'm hoping my passing tomorrow is better than the one I had tonight before bed. Hopefully I can keep up the night time passings. It'd be nice for my bowels to be on a good clocked time each day.

Food: Had eggs and jello for breakfast, along with a bowl of the Intro Diet soup which we are now out of. Had Salmon for both lunch and dinner, as well as some meat patties. Digestive enzymes are coming in tomorrow, and I will be taking about 6 a day, 2 pills for each meal. I'm hoping my future passings look more like the ones from the last two days and less like the one from tonight. Maybe it was all the fat I saw on the fish today after we pulled it from the refrigerator. At least I'm still at once a day. I don't think I'll budge from that at all. Tonight, I made Pear Sauce and threw in some honey and cinnamon. I'm not too worried about spices, and I won't eat too much of the Pear Sauce tomorrow. We just taste tested it so far. Might have added too much water to the sauce. I hope I'm able to digest it and all of the fruit doesn't promote anymore of the bad bacteria!

SCD Day 3

John:

Medication: 15MG Prednisone, 40MG Lialda, SCD Probiotic

Passings: 1
10:20PM Another perfect passing.

How I Feel: This morning my gut felt a little funny, and I was wondering if there might be yeast building up in me, possibly either from a bigger portion of diluted grape juice consumed yesterday, or from a fatty soup that we were unable to scoop a lot of the fat out of. I felt constipated a bit all day, and finally used the restroom at 10:20PM. It was a perfect passing (Bristol Type 4), so I'm fine by that! Heck, I'd love to go once a day right before bed every night if I'm able too. Something that hasn't been mentioned yet is cravings and missing regular tasty foods, drinks, and treats. All food everywhere that I cannot have looks to die for. But I feel strong and I'm in this 100%. Symptoms are looking fantastic, especially since I only had to go once today, so the intro diet will run it's course for one more day tomorrow before entering into Phase 1 of the SCD Lifestyle diet. (We cut down the Intro Diet from 5 days to only 4, which is fine as long as we are fine. And I'm more than fine :D ) Tomorrow night I will prepare some Pear Sauce as our first different food to introduce into our diet! I'm super stoked about such a simple thing such as that. I feel like I'm a video game character that is upgrading myself as I go along, getting to upgrade to one food after another at a time. It's very rewarding, and I love how my body is reacting to this diet. I am witnessing the fact that the bad bacteria in me has been starved out, and I am able to proceed to get things balanced in my gut again! Just so people can get a clue as to what my gut looked like when I got a colonoscopy in January of last year, I'll post the pictures below this paragraph! I feel like those don't look as bad as other people who suffer from Ulcerative Colitis, but hey, no matter what, that's still a diseased colon, and I'm going to cure it with this diet. I feel pretty confident that I will! I already feel so good! In two years, I want to post another colonoscopy picture of my cured gut!

Food: The usual Intro Diet food, but tonight was pretty special. I made Salmon tonight and added butter on top. I felt like the butter made me feel pretty bad immediately, but that was only to my stomach and heart area. Nothing with my small or large intestines. It just felt kind of pressury. Cholesterol problems or something? It was like my body was going into shock because it hasn't had butter in so long. I don't know, but it cleared up soon after and I'll probably still play with butter every now and then. From what I researched, there is no lactose in butter. It's mostly made out of milk fat and water, which I believe is fine enough. We'll see tomorrow. We made a bunch of salmon, so I'll be going to town on it for lunch again tomorrow. Phase 1 will begin Tuesday! One more day on the Intro Diet! Woohoo!

SCD Day 2

John:

Medication: 15MG Prednisone and 40MG Lialda, SCD Probiotic

Passings: 2
1:40PM Perfect passing. No yeast. Type 4 on the Bristol Stool Chart. I don't think I could have asked for a better poop. Maybe like, 1 percent yeast, but I doubt it.
8:20PM Perfect passing. Absolutely no yeast. Not even one percent to play it on the safe side. Type 4 on the Bristol Stool Chart

How I Feel: Terrific. Maybe I can say that I felt 5% of my stomach churning earlier in the day, but it was barely noticeable. It seemed like the growling came more from being hungry from my stomach than from my small or large intestines. I feel that the intro diet has worked wonders and I've killed off all of the bad bacteria by the end of this day. I'm hoping that my passings continue to be Type 4's on the Bristol Stool Chart. I will probably cut the Intro Diet down to 4 days instead of 5, depending on if my poops continue to stay the same and at most twice a day.

Food: Boiled eggs, diluted Welches Grape Juice gelatin, meat patties (both ground beef and ground turkey), pureed carrots, and intro diet soup. Today I also tried 50/50 grape juice and water before dinner. I think that should be fine and I won't have to worry about too much of the fruit sugars causing any troubles and building up any bad bacteria. I'll keep my eye on that for tomorrow though.

SCD Day 1

John:

I am 25 years old, and am 5 foot 8 inches. I weigh 142 pounds currently, which is way too low for my liking, but I got this way from my previous flareup in the middle February. Diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis in January, 2015, but felt the symptoms coming in over the summer of 2014. I've basically had 3 flare-ups ever since, with my most recent in the middle of last month. No thank you anymore to those flare-ups. Those consist of upset shedding intestines, massive amounts of yeast, blood from shedding my intestinal lining, which leads to my being severely malnourished and stuck in bed 14 hours a day, and bathroom visits ranging from 12-30 times a day. More towards the 30 mark as I got worse and worse, which eventually landed me in my last visit to the emergency room. I've played around with this diet a bit before and saw great results, but I've finally gone through enough of the experience of all of this that I'm now 100% aboard the diet. So here goes.

Current weight: 142 Pounds

Medication: 15MG Prednisone and 40MG Lialda, SCD Probiotic

Passings: 2
12:00PM Good and pretty firm/well put together, but covered in a decent amount of yeast. No signs of seeing any undigested food in the passing.
8:30PM One very small passing and covered in yeast. Kind of like a tiny white stone was passed. I barely even noticed it.

How I Feel: Pretty good for someone who suffers from Left Sided Ulcerative Colitis. There are slight grumblings and churnings in my small and large intestines. I believe I'm experiencing a decent amount of gas, but it doesn't seem much worse than a normal functioning person. There is still a slight concern for the yeast inside of me. The diet still needs to continue to detox my body and kill off all of that bad bacteria inside of me. I've been weening myself into this diet, so my symptoms have already been put into check pretty well for the past few weeks before starting the SCD. The improvements I'm looking for is just getting rid of the yeast, stopping the churning feeling that I think I sense most in my small intestine, continuing to have 1-2 movements per day, and Lord willing, one day get off of all medication. Successfully weening off of the Prednisone is the goal right now as I drop 5MG off of my daily dose each week. That takes place every Wednesday. Again, I already feel pretty good from weening my way into this diet. I'm hoping that I will be able to introduce each new food in each Phase of the SCD Lifestyle book with no problems.

Food: Lots of the intro diet soup was consumed today. Had a fair amount of diluted grape jello. Had my own fair share of both ground beef and ground turkey balls. A few boiled eggs were consumed without the yoke part because I don't like that part much anyway. Water was the main fluid consumed today. I don't think I'll do the diluted grape juice fluids until Phase 1. The jello is hopefully fine and I hope that and the eggs are going through me alright. It'll be hard to tell if those are affecting me right now. My symptoms are already pretty darn good and we are literally JUST starting the intro diet, so I have no idea if there is any reason to cut out the jello or eggs. According to the book, the fruit sugars from the grape juice might be feeding the bad bacteria, and the protein Albumin from the eggs could possibly be a problem for me, but I have no idea right now. I don't feel terrible at all and I don't mind the current churning and whatnot. I'll just have to keep my eye on it all I suppose.