Cravings and Cooking

Even though I only started the SCD intro diet a little over a week ago, I was eating SCD legal before that for quite a while. So its been a good few months since I've had any form of processed food containing sugar, or any refined sugar for that matter. I think everyone who starts SCD will be familiar with the cravings you get for all of your favourite sugar- and carbo-loaded foods...chocolate, a loaf of crusty wholemeal bread, a bowl of pasta, or a handful of Starburst party mix. Did I mention chocolate?

Most of us are also happily realise that within a couple of weeks these cravings lessen quite substantially. They might not go away completely, but the thought of knocking that little kid in the supermarket out and stealing his Freddo Frog is much less strong. After a painful first couple of weeks, I noticed that my carb cravings were becoming less and less powerful as time went on. I also noticed that more savoury foods, even things like broccoli, started to taste sweeter and more appetising than I had ever thought possible. Its quite a novel experience for a long-time sweet tooth.

However, over the past week or so my cravings have been back with a vengeance. Sitting next to my CB the other night, while he munched away on some pizza base with basically all of the toppings pulled off (the poor thing is lactose intolerant and had been given 2 pizzas to take home), the desire to physically assault him for a piece of that topping-less pizza was almost overwhelming. Add to this the fact that my work is incapable of holding any sort of meeting without ordering enough gourmet catering to feed half of Melbourne (one of the perks of working with surgeons I guess). Sitting metres away from a tray of vanilla slices, brownies, doughnuts and cherry slice, or a deliciously cheesy looking lasagne, or scones with jam and cream is just not much fun when you feel like you would knock over your own grandmother for even a hint of sugar.

Sitting in bed with CB last night, we were discussing my suddenly renewed sugar cravings. "Its not you though," he so wisely stated. Its something I always try and remember when I feel like this. These cravings are coming from the bugs inside me, clamouring for some food. If I give in, I'm feeding the bugs and taking 10 giant steps backwards. If I ignore the cravings, I am winning. Cravings are good, I tell myself. They mean that I am beating these bugs - that they are getting desperate. So fight them I do.

Tonight we are having some drinks with one of my friends who has recently been through a bit of a crappy time. My friends have always known me as the baker....and I miss whipping up a batch of brownies, or some choc-raspberry cupcakes, or a Mars Bar cheesecake for whatever gathering we might be having. So I decided that, in the spirit of cheering up my friend, cupcakes were on the menu. Talk about testing myself...baking 30 choc-mud and blueberry-vanilla cupcakes and not even being able to lick the spoon is definitely an exercise in will power. But I passed, and the happiness some cupcakes brought my friends made it worthwhile.

At the same time, I thought I better cook something for myself so I didn't feel left out. On a recent trip to Leo's Fine Food and Wine (my gosh I miss this place), I came across some spice mixes that contained nothing but the herbs and spices litsed in the ingredients. I usually like to make my own spice mixes, but they had some pretty cool varieties so I ended up grabbing some African and Middle Eastern mixes. I decided it was time to trial some of these, and that a slow cooked leg of lamb was the perfect vessel for my Middle Eastern mix.

The result was delicious. Four hours of slow cooking, with some basting every now and then, resulted in a leg of lamb that was an tender as anything and just about falling off the bone. I was so proud I took a photo and sent it to my dad (the expert in roast lamb). I can't wait to try it again with the African spices! Or even a traditional garlic and rosemary marinade. My gosh it was good. 

I guess the moral of the story is this: Sometimes your cravings are going to rear their ugly head and try to make life difficult for you. When this happens (and it will), you need to remember that giving in is like taking 10 steps backwards. My suggestion is to figure out what you can do that is going to take your mind off your cravings, and to focus all of your energy on this thing. On this occasion, my distraction was cooking myself something delicious and SCD legal. I also went for a super long walk while my lamb was roasting, and did some preparation for a meeting on Monday. Take your mind off your cravings, and they will suddenly become less powerful. And if worst come to worst, and you feel that you simple HAVE TO give in, try to do so in an SCD legal way. Grab a piece of fruit, make some gelatine, or even try a little honey. And steer clear of those pesky confectionary aisles in the supermarket!

Intro Diet - Demolished!

Today marks day 5 on my SCD Adventure - and it's been a pretty good 5 days I must say.

I was only intending to do the intro diet for 3 days, but with a hectic weekend and no opportunity to prepare some other foods, I ended up sticking it out for 5. My staple foods for the past 5 days have included:

• Eggs
• Meat patties (I like to mix things up, so found chicken, lamb, and turkey mince for some variety)
• Chicken soup
• Roast chicken
• And, of course, chicken soup

I have to admit, I was a little skeptical at first that a chicken soup made without stock could taste any good....how wrong I was! It was delicious! I have been having about 1.5-2 cups of this for both lunch and dinner each day, and on Saturday made another 5 litres! Here is my recipe:

- 3kg chicken drumsticks
- 2 whole onions, peeled
- 10 carrots, peeled
- about 5 celery stalks
- 5 cloves of garlic, peeled
- salt to taste

I placed all of the ingredients into my brand spankin' new stock pot, and covered everything with water. It's much easier to leave the veggies whole, so you can find them when its time to take them out (you can only eat the carrots at first). I brought everything to the boil, and then allowed the soup to simmer for around 2 hours. At this point, the chicken should be just falling off the bone, and the veggies will be getting a bit soggy. I'm thinking it could be a good idea to purchase a piece of muslin that i can wrap all of the more advanced veggies in, to make removing them easier. Remove all of the veggies that you can't eat yet, and take the chicken meat off the bones (removing skin in the process). Place the chicken meat back into the pot with the carrots, and continue to cook for another 2 hours.

At the end of the 2 hours, remove the carrots and puree them. I don't have a food processor yet, so I mashed mine up as small as I could with a fork - probably not ideal, but it worked quite well as they were extremely soft. Once you have added the carrots back to the soup, it is ready to enjoy.

I had a whole bunch of people over at my house on saturday for the AFL grand final - all the while my soup was simmering away in the background. I can't tell you how many people asked if they could have some, despite the abundance of your typical 'footy grand final' type foods we had around the house. I guess a pot of home-made chicken soup beats a meat pie or bag of chips afterall. And best of all, my beloved Geelong came away with the win....Geelong Cats, premiers '11!!!

As for how I have been feeling symptom-wise the past few days, I must say I've been great! My bloating is the least it has been in the past 12 months, I have had more BMs than usual (although they are now tending toward the Bristol 5's and 6's at the moment), pain in minimal. I haven't felt this good in a LONG TIME!

I'm rather excited as it is now time for me to add in a new food. It was going to be butternut pumpkin first, however I am currently in possession of 2 extremely ripe bananas that are on the verge of going off. Although I wanted to hold back on the really sugary fruits for a while, any Australian at the moment will understand the reluctance I am feeling to throw out 2 bananas (which are still selling for around $10 per kilo). So banana it is - and here's hoping for no symptoms!

The story so far......

A little over a year ago I was your typical mid 20's Aussie girl. I was finishing up my honours year at uni, had just moved out of home and just started an exciting new job. Food was one of my biggest passions - cooking, baking, dining out, sharing food stories with friends....the list goes on. I ate healthy, I loved whole foods, but also had a soft spot for all things dessert-related. It was very rare for me to turn up to any sort of social event without something sweet to share.

Then seemingly out of nowhere, everything changed. Anyone with GI problems will know the symptoms, and I have read so many blog posts/discussion boards/forums where I feel as though the author took the words straight from my mouth. Abdominal pain, extreme bloating, the dreaded C's alternating with terrible D, gas, brain fog, blood, night sweats, hot flushes, exhaustion...and so on. I have no idea if there was a trigger: I can't put my finger on any one particular event or illness that set the wheels in motion for the following miserable months. All I knew was, something was very, very wrong. I couldn't eat anymore - everything (and I mean EVERYTHING) I ate made me sick. I started to miss work, stopped wanting to go out and see my friends, and many hours per day thinking about how crappy I was feeling.

The first GP I went to thought all of my symptoms might have been related to reproductive issues as my period had been missing for around 5 or so months. This lead to a referral to a OB-GYN, who decided that I most definitely had endometriosis (attached to my intestines of course) and there for needed a laproscopy and hysteroscopy. $3000 later, I was told I was a 'picture of reproductive health' and sent away to continue feeling confused.

After this experience, and getting frustrated with diagnoses of IBS, or 'it's all in your head', I decided to try some things on my own. The first was gluten free. This made me feel so much better for about 2 weeks, and then everything slowly went back to how they were. Next was fructose, as my new GP suspected I might have fructose malabsorbtion. As with GF, the low FODMAP helped me to feel better for another couple of weeks. I thought I was onto something. But unfortunately the effects were once again short-lived, and I went back to feeling terrible in no time.

After doing some further research (I spent hours per day on the internet trying to figure out potential diagnoses), I stumbled across a site about small intestine bacterial overgrowth (SIBO). Knowing that I could have the breath test for this done without a referral, I called up my local testing centre and booked in an appointment. Two weeks later it was confirmer - I had SIBO. I can't tell you how happy I was to have a diagnosis....even though it wasn't a particularly promising one. All of my research had indicated that SIBO was notoriously difficult to get rid of (especially if you are prone to C like myself), and prone to relapse even if treatment did work.

This is where SCD comes into the picture. I discovered that one of the most effective treatments for SIBO appeared to be a diet that restricts carbs, especially sugar. I ordered BTVC off Amazon, and eagerly awaited its arrival at my work. Finally, a month later it arrived and I was ready to start the diet. By this time, I was already eating SCD legal, but hadn't completed the intro diet or been introducing new foods in any sort of systematic way. The GI specialist I saw refused to prescribe me antibiotics simply due to the fact that C was my main symptom rather than D, and this was the final push I needed.

So this is where my first post ends. Tonight, I am preparing all of the food I will need for my 3 day intro diet. I can't wait!