For the past few weeks I’ve been thinking about and reading about the Specific Carbohydrate Diet… After a particularly tough weekend, I’ve decided to put myself on the SCD diet. Honestly, this is not something I want to do but at this point I’ll try anything.
Now if you were to see me, you probably would be surprised to learn that I’ve been in a rotten flare for the past five weeks. I’m not overly thin, I’ve got great skin color (thanks to the cycling tan), and I’m very active. But looks can be deceiving. Some days I’m making up to 30 bathroom trips a day, I have terrible intermittent stomach cramps, and there is a lot of blood in the toilet. Enough is enough.
To make matters worse and to really push me to this decision – this flare is causing me to cancel plans, miss out on racing opportunities, and to worry about finding a bathroom quickly. I don’t like to take medicine, but if it works – I’ll do it. So far nothing has worked. So it is time for a big change.
It will be interesting to see how my body reacts to training and racing while on the SCD diet. I’m hoping I’ll see some change and get back to life in remission. I do still have some concerns: will I be able to get adequate carbohydrates to fuel my five hour rides? what kind of race food can I eat? how much work will this be – my husband still needs his grains/starches? will this be affordable and easy to do while living in Belgium? what if I react to nut flours? will I gain weight on this diet (need to keep my weight down for racing)?
So many questions. But the only way I’ll find the answers is by going down this path.
I will start the SCD diet the second week of July – I’ve got to read the books and some family commitments first.
(I’ll be writing about my experiences at my other sites as well: http://victoriasisland.typepad.com and http://ottawa.cx)
