SCD Diet on a Budget

Today I wanted to write a little about how to do SCD on a budget...

I would like to say it's very easy to do SCD on a budget, but to be realistic it's tough. We unfortunately have had a few rough streaks with work and getting laid off and we are currently trying to pay down our debts. So needless to say I don't have endless gobs of cash to spend at the grocery store. But I will share a few tips and tricks that have helped me...

#1. Find a grocery store that has a good butcher, and reliable fruits and veggies. Check the circular's weekly for their deals and stock up on items you know you'll use.

For me I have a few different places that I like to go to- unfortunately no Trader Joe's nearby. But we do have an Aldi, which I like to stock up on their fruits and veggies that are on sale that week. They have pineapples for $1.29 semi regularly. They also have decent prices on nuts, and I usually stock up on their frozen green beans as well. I also get my Organic Milk at Aldi for my SCD yogurt. The other place that I go to near where I live is called Adam's Fairacre Farms, it's kind of like a Farmers Market with other groceries. I like their meats the best for our area, and if you aren't shopping the sales they can be a very expensive place to shop. But they have weekly sales on organic meats, and the non organic are usually local and a better quality. So I buy a lot of meat when they have what I like on sale. Buy it in bulk since you are going to be eating a lot more meat than you are used to, and you want to buy it when it's at it's best price. Remember that certain items like Squash can have a long shelf life, so if it's on sale buy a few to last you a while. 

#2. Organize a meal plan. Come up with a list of all the meals you would like to make for a week, and make a list of everything you need. 

If you need inspiration look on Pinterest and search SCD recipes- I personally have an entire board for recipes that are SCD legal, or almost legal with a few tweaks. My user name is spurloo **My tip** I check to see what proteins are on sale for the week before I make my meal plan, and I try to use sale items for my recipes.

#3. Use your Crockpot! 

I loved using my Crockpot for the chicken soup for the intro diet so much, and I use it all the time now. One of our favorite dinners is throwing chicken breasts (even frozen) into it in the morning with some coconut milk, some red peppers, garlic, and other spices you are ok using, and viola! An easy chicken curry stew/soup depending on how much coconut milk or water you add. I also have thrown a London Broil into it, with carrots, lots of garlic, green beans, a few tomatoes, and a little water. Leave it on low to cook all day and you come home to an amazing flavorful pot roast!

#4. Sams Club or Costco can be your friend. 

I buy my 5 lbs of carrots at Sam's for less than $3. I also buy bananas there and wait for them to ripen. I tend to buy 2 of the bunches each trip since I use banana so much. The large package of eggs is also an amazing deal. I eat at least 2-3 eggs a day, sometimes more. So buying 7 dozen seems a little crazy at first, but you'll be glad you did. 

These are some of my tips to saving $$ on the SCD Diet. Hope this helps! I constantly am trying to save $$ and live healthy, so as I come across more info I will try to share!

SCD Yogurt Tip

If you are like me, you need to do this diet so you can live a somewhat normal life. Yogurt is an essential part of the diet. But the first few times I made the yogurt with regular cow's whole milk I usually ended up with an upset stomach and other issues. So I would go off of it for a time, and the next time I tried the yogurt I made it with goat's milk and a goat's milk yogurt starter. The goat's milk was too... not sure if acidic is the right word. But it seemed acidic to me and hurt my throat. Plus it was pretty expensive comparatively to make. Out of cheapness and curiosity, I thought what if I try Organic Cows Milk?

So I used Stoneyfield Farms Whole Organic Milk and the plain Dannon yogurt as a starter and viola! I now can stomach it no issues! So maybe just switching to organic milk could help others as well!

Pinterest Recipes

So I had a thought yesterday... And for me that's pretty impressive for one day. I have had it in my head for a while that I need to go through certain Pinterest recipes that are almost SCD approved and re-do them so they are SCD legal. I was just going to do it for myself, but then I had the grand generous thought that I would like to test them out and share my findings with the SCD world. I know there are some recipes floating around, but lord knows we could use more variety and have them be easy to follow and find specifically for those of us doing strict SCD.

So that's my thought... Stay posted! Coming soon SCD Coconut Flour Pancakes!

So it's been awhile.... Current rants on the SCD Diet

Sorry people that might actually be wondering if I died! I didn't. I just have been a bit busier than before. It always takes me a few months to adjust to new schedules. Anywho... I am alive, and actually quite well. The diet has had it's ups and downs. Mainly the ups and downs had to do with how well I have been following the diet. I have to say for me personally this diet is amazing. When I stick with it, and eat right, I have energy and feel great. I have been adding things back into my diet slowly but surely, and even though I have cheated a little here and there overall my health is great!

Here are some observations made by people that don't really have a clue about what I am doing, they just know I am doing something...

"Wow! You look great! What diet are you doing?"

"Your skin is looking really good, what makeup do you use?"

"I can't believe how tiny you are! How much weight have you lost?!"
(Just to let you know I am not by any means tiny, but in comparison with my pre-SCD self I am looking pretty good :))

So these words of random people that don't really have a clue are extremely inspiring. They help me to see that even though I haven't changed my makeup, and technically I wouldn't call this a diet for weight loss, something is very different in my life and they covet it and want it for themselves.

When I feel they might actually benefit from what I am doing, I briefly explain what I am doing and they usually walk away thinking or even saying that what I do would be impossible for them. I understand that fact. I too once thought that way. But if you want to live, and not feel "poopy" all of the time this thing really works.  

Summer is here - confessional

"Let's have some friends over for a BBQ." I'm following the diet to a T. I've been adding new foods every three to four days, things are going pretty well. I'm feeling good, and I have energy again. I can do it. I'll make some food ahead of time for me, and eat just the burger patty along with everyone else. What could possibly go wrong? 

So many many things. To begin, it's a lot of work having friends over. I enjoy it but I tend to go overboard, making an elaborate feast that I can't really enjoy. I didn't end up having time to really cook my food ahead of time. My close friends know that I'm trying this diet out, but how well they pay attention to what I can and can't have I'm not sure. By the time all of our friends arrive and my husband starts to BBQ I'm emaciated. I could've eaten all of the food on the table. I only had appetizers for the guests, I didn't think I would be so ravenous. But I was good and didn't eat any of the chips and salsa, or my personal weakness potato chips of the kettle cooked variety. But someone brought watermelon, and fresh cherries. I figured fruit wouldn't be such a bad thing to "cheat with". So I ate a few slices of the melon and tried the cherries. They were amazing.  Mind you up 'til this point I'd only eaten cooked and pureed fruit. So in my mind this was a big cheat. 

In all the hubbub I forgot to remind my hubby of one important thing. When the burgers came in off the grill I almost cried when I realized he put cheese on all of them. At this point I was cooked. I had to eat something substantial and had nothing else planned. So I grabbed a plate and a cheese covered patty with my side of sautéed mushrooms and sat down to eat. I tried getting most of the cheese off but there was a residual amount left on top. Oh well, it was yummy. 

As the evening wore down and our friends were leaving one handed me a small pretty little box with a bow, thanking us for dinner. I was excited and nervous to open it. What could it possibly be? Of course it was a box of artisanal chocolates from a local chocolatier that I'd been wanting to try for ages. Each chocolate is $5 a piece and is organic, and fair trade. They were beautiful, and they smelled amazing. At this point in the night I'd all ready "cheated". I figured I was going to feel badly from the fruit I ate, so what would be the big deal if I ate a chocolate or two? So being an idiot for chocolate guess what I did? I ate them. I ate 3 out of 4. They were good, but not as good as I thought they'd be. Then I felt guilt. Horrible guilt for putting the evil sugar back in my body after feeling so much better. They were ridiculously sweet, almost too sweet. But again,what was I to do? It wouldn't be polite to not eat a gift from a friend. How badly could a few little chocolates make me feel? 

Waking up the next day I was a sloth. I drank my weakened coffee and was still comatose. After breakfast I felt nauseous. I craved things I couldn't have for days. It was miserable. I spent hours on the toilet that day recovering. My brain was super foggy. The worst part was I felt extreme anxiety come on. I was in the shower and could feel a panic attack coming. At that point I told myself food isn't worth it. I shouldn't have to be afraid of food, but I am. It can ruin my life if I let it. I need to be in control. There are plenty of delicious foods for me. I need to stand up for my health even if it makes me uncomfortable with my friends. It's not worth spending days on the crapper to make others happy. I need to be strong, at least until I get this figured out. This diet is hard, but I think it's saving me. 

Even though I cheated, I think it was good to see how badly it made me feel. And the residual effect lasted days. I'm more resolved now to not give in.

Intro Diet aka It's a hard knock life

The intro diet wasn't easy, I ain't gonna lie. It's a lot of work to make all the food, and most of it is pretty unappetizing (hamburgers in chicken broth for breakfast just doesn't do it for me). You will get sick from the die off, it's kinda like coming off heroine. I felt like I had the flu. I got chills, migraines, and I was super fatigued for almost 3 days. So far is this sounding good? 

But on day four, I woke up and ate my eggs and pear sauce. Something was different, something had changed. I felt amazing! 

Before I started the diet all I really could do was survive. I always knew that I didn't feel the same as most people. It's funny how you really have no idea how other people feel, but I could always tell that I just didn't have the same energy and drive as the majority. I wanted to be in the majority, I wanted to feel normal. Not super human hyper active like Jack LaLanne, but just ordinarily energetic. I wanted to be able to stay awake all day, and have the energy to cook my husband dinner and maybe even do the dishes afterward. Most days he would come home from work and find me asleep. My extreme fatigue would hit around 3 PM most days. I felt like a zombie the rest of the waking hours.

But four days into this crazy meat feast I was all ready noticing amazing changes. This brings me back to my visit with my Doc. He basically said I was fine, no need to drastically change my diet. I was "healthy". Now if I would've walked out of there believing him I'd still be feeling like a sloth. He probably would've put me back on my Armour Thyroid pills and I'd be surviving on coffee. (Just a thought: Relying on stimulants isn't life. You still are cranky and tired deep down and it effects your whole persona and relationships.) In just four days of not listening to him, by being a rebel, I felt Awesome! My husband came into the kitchen at 10 PM asking me if I was coming to bed. This is unusual for me, I usually beat him to bed. I was actually up doing the dishes, and I was happy about it. I was kind of hyper. My body was running clean and it wanted to keep going. When I did go to sleep I slept like a baby. Things are looking up!

Clean Bill of Health

My blood tests all came back normal! No Celiac (we'll revisit this), no seasonal allergies (even though I have had months of sinus pressure and have been taking Zyrtec daily), and my Thyroid came back almost normal according to him. "It's just on the low end" were his exact words. "Nothing to worry about". He also told me my liver and kidney function was just fine. The only issue that he could see were a high amount of Vitamin A in my blood, and that I was low in Vitamin D. But again he said this wasn't a big deal, just amp up my daily dose of Vitamin D.

So at this point most people would walk out the door and go get a slice of pizza and a beer because "My doctor just told me I'm healthy!" Well I guess I am weird. The day after I visited the Doc I decided to start the SCD Diet. Why such a drastic step you might ask?

Even though my bloodwork came back within the normal range for everything he tested, it's a known fact even by my Doc that the Celiac test is unreliable. He basically told me that if I wanted an accurate test he would recommend a colonoscopy and and endoscopy. That would give him a better idea of whether I actually have the disease. The problem with that is then I would need to continue eating the wheat until I could go in for those tests. And the day I went in to the Doc I was at my breaking point. I had gained 10 pounds of bloat on the gluten test. I ached all over, including a horrible sinus pressure headache that never really went away. I was so fatigued that at about 3 PM every day I almost went comatose, it was impossible for me to keep up with life. I had been dealing with some major digestive issues. I was just over it. I wanted to feel better. So direct from the doctor's office I headed to the grocery store with my list for the first 2 days of the SCD Diet. Grape jello here I come!