Hi, my name is Steven Wright and I’m currently using the SCD diet to help with my digestive issues.  My problems are completely undiagnosed…well according to me anyways, several doctors have told me I have classic IBS.  I say that’s classic medical BS.  Until I can get into see a SCD supportive doctor in my area, I’m using the SCD diet and my own research to break free from the secret introverted life of the digestively troubled.

High School: Where It All Began

As far back as I can remember I’ve had horrible smelling gas (room clearing, I’m not even proud to claim it gas) and cramping related to gas.  Back in those days it was common for me and my friends to participate in “group poops” to skip out on boring high school classes and hang out. During one of these sessions everything in my world changed, I looked down to admire my work and found a toilet bowel filled with blood. My heart started racing a million miles an hour, What was wrong with me?  I had no idea but immediately I was overcome with embarrassment and resentment toward my body, I knew I couldn’t let anyone see it, I quickly flushed the toilet and made a beeline back to class.

I remember spending the rest of day completely freaking out, I couldn’t focus on anything, I felt like I couldn’t tell my friends for fear of being outcast and surely I had done something wrong so I couldn’t consult my parents.  From the amazing amount of information on the web I self-diagnosed that I had an anal fissure and possible hemorrhoids.  I was 16 going on 40 according the web and not about to admit that fact to anyone!

Invasion Of The Good Bacteria

During high school I developed moderate cystic acne.  I hated it!  I had a horrible self-image and tried everything I could get my hands on to get rid of it.  I tried every over the counter product I could before finally getting my mom to take me a dermatologist.  She had me try almost every antibiotic and topical cream on the market except Accutane, which my mom strictly forbid.  After months of trying different combination’s of medicine I was put on a daily antibiotic called Batrium DS.  It seemed to be the only one that provided a slight improvement with my acne and at that point i would have done anything to have clear skin.  Unfortunately no one ever warned me that while I was killing bad bacteria and helping my acne, the antibiotic was also killing my good bacteria too.

Then during my end of sophomore year at college while I was working full-time I started feeling really fatigued.  One day I started having extreme bouts of diarrhea and was frantically popping pills to try and stop myself up and make it through the day.  My parents and I thought for sure I had caught a “food sickness” so I tried to continue going to work and popping pills.  Each day I was getting worse but figured it would pass soon, then I collapsed at work.  I was rushed to the ER and spent the rest of the day receiving treatment for dehydration, getting bowel cultures taken and people sticking things in my exit only hole.

Later that afternoon the cultures came back and revealed that I was suffering from an extreme overgrowth of L. Bifida bacteria.  How could this be?  They are telling me I don’t have some crazy sickness but an overgrowth of good bacteria?!?  It made zero sense to me.  I just wanted to take some pills and make it all go away.  But instead they told me that taking my acne medication for the last 4 years was most likely the problem.  Instead, the prescription was to avoid all antibiotics and start taking some probiotics, they said with more good bacteria my body would heal itself.  Wait…I had too much good bacteria and now I should take more?

My “Normal” College Lifestyle

I stuck to that for about 3 months as refrigerated probiotics got in the way of my go-go college social and class schedule.  I resumed my normal college habits of drinking copious amounts of beer and eating everything that came out of a deep fryer 24-7.  I was “peeing out of my butt” daily and joking with others who had similar bathroom rituals and telling myself that it was normal and just “the beer shits” after all.  Not once did I question pooping 5-8 times a day.  I thought that’s what everyone in college did.  I had the occasional bloody stool or bloody toilet paper wipe but because of my self-diagnosed fissure, considered it something I had to live with.

Taking Charge of My Health

After graduating from college overweight and out of shape I set out to get healthy.  Since about the age of 15 and then on and off during college I had been working out, actively researching most supplements on the market, and using them for muscle building or fat loss.

At this point in my life I started to become interested in mental and physical health as well as trying to look better.  I was unhappy with the way I looked and most days were filled with stress, bad attitudes and mini depression cycles.  I worked hard to “clean up” my diet and lose fat.  I tried just about every weight loss diet out there and found out that low-carb diets worked wonders for my body.  I was also becoming aware of my bowel movements, farting, and how during low-carb diets I had much less gas and drastically reduced bathroom visits.

Then I changed jobs and city’s and started living in Chicago.  This took my stress level to a whole new high.  I was trying to maintain my health in a new city devoted to eating out and daily happy hours.  I continued to workout but my diet started suffering, I was eating restaurant food and processed food much more often. My digestive health continued to decline as I started traveling for my job at least 2 weeks a month.  My body was revolting against these restaurant foods by producing horrible gas and stomach aches of death after eating, some days they would leave me incapacitated for hours.  My bowel movements had improved since college (3-4 per day) but the gas and cramping was affecting my work and every other part of my life.

Enough is Enough Time For A Change

During a rather severe cramping and diarrhea session that kept me up all night I called Jordan.  He had been telling me about his amazing results on the SCD diet and I was finally ready to learn more.  I made a promise to myself and to him that I would start the diet soon.  So I went out and bought and read “Breaking the Viscous Cycle” by Elaine Gottschall.  The book was an amazing read, the first that I had come across explaining why gut problems happen and what to do about them.  While excited to learn new information, my first reaction was ah hell no I can’t do this diet!  For one: I ate out several times a week for work and at bars with friends.  How was I supposed to have any kind of social life!

The second was: how do I actually start?  Of course there is an intro diet plan in the book, plenty of great web resources like pecanbread.com, and I had Jordan to ask questions. But up until now I usually made salads and baked chicken.  Once in a while I would steam some frozen veggies or BBQ some beef.  But other than that I had like 2 pans and I had never peeled a vegetable in my life!  I was completely intimidated, the kitchen was essentially a foreign place for me.

Jordan was reassuring me that if he could do it I could too, I was skeptical to say the least.  I wasn’t even convinced the diet would work for me let alone having to forgo my social life and spend hours in the kitchen.  However I had made a promise and when I weighed the pros and cons I was mentally and physically a wreck because of my digestion problems and needed a change.

Starting the SCD Diet

For me the intro diet wasn’t to hard.  With Jordan’s step-by-step directions I was able to bumble my way around the kitchen and slowly figure things out.  I didn’t suffer much “die-off” just some mental fogginess, energy levels and moody issues.  I also had some extreme carb cravings, I mean some days it would be so bad that thinking about candy would just take over my mind.  By the next week however some amazing changes were taking place in my body.  I no longer had any gas, the cramping was gone and I was pooping about once a day.  There were actually several weeks were I would go a day or two without pooping.  Honestly, it was a weird experience because I’ve never been constipated in my life!

I was excited though and ready to move through this diet to find a new level of digestive health.  As I started adding foods into the diet, I had to call Jordan repeatably each time I tried to add a new fruit or vegetable.  I would search the internet for hours but just wasn’t ever able to find directions on how to properly peel, cook, de-seed and puree foods.  It shouldn’t be that hard but I had no confidence that I would get it right and in a diet where the slightest mishap can cause backwards progression I wasn’t about to waste my time.

2 Steps Forward, 1 Step Back

Everything was going well until about six weeks into the diet.  I had informed my friends of what I was doing and for the most part they respected it but would still invite me out trying to tempt me to cheat.  I was strong committed and seeing great progress.  Well that was about when I had my first slip, I was becoming lonely and felt like I was really missing out on all the good times as my friends were telling me of their weekend stories.  So I think mostly due to social pressures to hang out, but also because I had a false sense of accomplishment around my digestive health, I cheated.  I figured; what would one beer, burger or restaurant meal really do?

This false sense of security and achievement wrapped into feeling sorry for myself because I couldn’t live my old life, started to drag me down.  The alcohol and candy cravings returned with a vengeance.  During one particularly bad episode when a bunch of friends came to visit, I let loose.  Consuming beer, candy, and bread, during the moment it was amazing, to finally fit in again to be able to not be the “outsider” with special needs that I had become over the last several weeks.  But the aftermath was horrible.  All of my bodily symptoms returned, the gas, bloating, cramping and diarrhea for several days.  The worst symptom of all was mental.  I had unintentionally launched my self into another mini depression cycle.  I was mad at myself that I didn’t have more will power, why couldn’t I have resisted!  Even worse yet I was completely embarrassed to tell Jordan and my family, I felt like not only did I let myself down but also everyone else who was pulling for me and helping me.

The Destruction of Cheating on The Diet

My energy levels were a mess, my insomnia and anxiety came back and there were those damn cravings again.  Every time I passed a vending machine I swear there was a packet of plain M&M’s just calling to me.  It was bad… here I was completely upset with myself, embarrassed, and yet the happiness I got from just “fitting-in” for 12 hours was calling my name again.  It wouldn’t go away!

I was following the diet and seeing good results but yet every Thursday, Friday and Saturday I was receiving invites to this great party or that great restaurant.  The lure to be part of the group was agonizing.  I continued to lead this double life, eating SCD style and going out to the bars to drink water or SCD legal wines or liquors.  Before long I was starting to get the routine down.  Once again, I was seeing great digestive results and my false sense of accomplishment crept up and kicked my butt!

This time it was worse…instead of a 12 hour cheat window, I caved in to a little candy, which lead to more candy and this dragged on for several days all coming to a head at a family party.  I’m not sure if your family parties are like mine, but mine revolve around FOOD.  That’s really it, I mean, there is usually enough food to feed us twice and make most people sick of eating for a week.  The talk is about food, the Easter egg hunt was for food, even the food was talking about food.  Of course, there I am trying to recover from cheating, all pissed off, embarrassed and not feeling well so I gave in.  No more questions! Sure I can eat it all! Stop trying to please me already!

I was already feeling bad mentally and physically, but after I was alone and had to answer to myself is when the real pain train came.  Once again it wasn’t the bad digestion and diarrhea, but the lack of energy, not being able to think, not wanting to do anything and general disappointment in myself that was killing me.  And to do it several times, after I already knew the consequences!

How The SCD Diet Has Helped Me

I know the diet works for me, I know that I have amazing energy, clarity and I actually get excited to wake up and do my hobbies when I’m on it.  What I also know now, is that this isn’t a short-term battle and I can’t lead a double life or be embarrassed or afraid of what others may think about my need to be an outsider with food.  The pain and lost time I get from “fitting-in” isn’t worth it.  I also know that the cravings are justified, that I’m not the only one, and that for me to actually be free and healthy I need to quit fighting myself and my desires and start fighting the “bad bugs” inside of me that are releasing chemicals to try and trick me into cheating again. It’s okay to have the cravings, its just not okay to say Yes.

The transformation in my body and mind cannot be described.  If I had to pick the two physical effects that I love the most about this diet, it would defiantly be not farting non-stop and running from my own smell and being able to eat food and not lose an hour of productively or have the energy crash that I used to get.  My sleeping has improved and I’m picking up long lost habits for fun instead of eating bags of chips and pizza.

I’m still not where I want to be, some days are more difficult than others in which all the mental effects of bacteria and yeast in my gut leave me in dumps.  But as I learn more and more and continue to heal my body I know the day is near in which all these digestive problems will be in my past.

In Health,

Steven Wright

(Jordan Reasoner and Steve Wright become friends as members of the same fraternity in college. Jordan battled undiagnosed Celiac Disease for years before going on the SCD diet for the last year. Steve is still searching for a diagnosis for his digestion problems and has been on the SCD diet for 3 months. They started SCD Lifestyle.com. This is the 2nd part of a 3 part series on their stories and how the diet helped them.)