If you haven't had a chance to read about what I am doing, you can read the original article here: Three Weeks On The Impossible Diet.
I am now more than a week into the SCD, and I’m going to be honest with you... I hate it. I really, really do. I thought that giving up sugars was going to be the hardest part of these three weeks, but all I want right now are some carbs. Sure, I miss candy and ice cream — I LOVE sweets — but honestly, all I really want right now is some bread. When I asked Smo what she missed the most since going on the diet, her response was much different than mine. She said she really didn’t miss anything. Giving up some of her favorite foods was far better than continuing to endure the pain she had been going through. And, she can still make a lot of her favorite things, just in a different way. If she had to pick, though, she says noodles are something she wishes she didn’t have to go without.
Let me walk you through my first week. My dining hall is just about the most boring place in the world and the variety is laughable. For breakfast every morning, I have had an egg-white omelet with spinach, peppers and broccoli, paired with either a banana or an apple. And lunch and dinner have been chicken with vegetables. Every. Single. Day. Except for the rare occasions when the dining hall has fish, which I get irrationally excited about. If I want a snack, it's usually an apple with peanut butter (I have all natural peanut butter that is AMAZING) or a Lara Bar. Lara Bars are granola-ish bars made only from fruit and nuts; some have chocolate, but those aren’t allowed on the SCD. Smo used to eat Lara Bars around me all the time and I absolutely despised them. I only tried one flavor she had and I hated the taste, so I assumed they were all that bad. But I have come around and actually really like a lot of the flavors — except the blueberry muffin one, avoid that at all costs.
The third day in, I was ready to give up. I had the worst headache I have ever experienced, I felt really weak and I even lost vision in my right eye for a little bit. I knew it was due to the sudden drop in my sugar levels (especially since I had gorged myself in NYC the days right before I started), so I just tried to push through it. Thankfully, after the fourth day the headaches stopped and I have felt fine since. Despite my complaints, there have been a lot of positives that have already come from this first week:
- I have so much energy. I refused to drink coffee on this because I didn’t want to buy the SCD approved creamer, and drinking it black sounded like some sort of torture. I have not gone more than two days without coffee since coming to college, so I thought this was going to be unbearable. But I have more energy now than caffeine ever gave me. I have no problem trying to stay awake in class, I don’t feel the need to take a nap every day, and I’m even waking up before my alarm goes off feeling really great.
- I’m seeing food in a healthier way. Food is probably one of my favorite things in the world; I love it. But I used to obsess over it — what am I eating for my next meal, when can I eat next, and yes, I’ll have another scoop of ice cream. It was a reward for me after a six-hour day of volleyball, and a comfort when things in life weren’t going great. Since I am pretty much forced to eat the same things every single meal on SCD, I don’t let my day revolve around food. I don’t look forward to meals anymore. I have realized that I am very capable of only eating when I’m hungry, not when I’m bored. Sure, after these three weeks, I am still going to want candy and ice cream and cookies, but like I said, all I’m craving right now is some bread.
- The message is being spread. my first article was shared over 270 times in a matter of two days. That’s insane. But the best part of it was the feedback Smo and I were receiving. One person texted Smo that she was going to pass on the article to her cousin who is suffering from Crohn’s — she said that he has had multiple surgeries, appointments every week and that his experience has been absolutely awful. We were ecstatic; that was the exact response we were hoping for. That even just one person would come across the article, and that it would help someone who was suffering.
Now, with two weeks left on the SCD, all I’m hoping is that the dining hall has fish a lot more this week than it did last week.
