Health

Schools been really exciting, and put quite a strain on my life. I wouldn't say I've been stressed, just really busy. But the same old excuses start getting old after a while, right? I'll be done with both of my certificates (Java and C++) at the end of next semester.

Work is picking up because we are in full production mode now and hitting real milestones on the game. And my best buddy/favorite cousin is getting married in May. It's going to be a flurry of activity for the next couple of months.

SCD is going well. I recently had deluge of tests and procedures done to follow up with Crohn's at the one year mark. I'm steadily holding a small amount of inflammation in my ileum. I'm thinking about if I should take some light and relatively safe medication to get rid of the inflammation, but I'm largely undecided right now. In hind sight, I probably should have taken something early on while doing SCD to avoid scaring. But it was a very conscious decision to do SCD alone and even knowing what I know now, I'm still very comfortable with the decision I made.

Programming is going really well I think. There have been a few times are work where I dig into some simple code and find an error that previously people thought was at a higher level. Those moments are really rewarding. In my java class we have finally gotten around to making user interfaces, which makes my programs more viable in today's computer world.

I have to run of and be responsible now. But I'll leave you all with links to my first (VERY simple) Graphical User Interface (GUI) programs. Temperature converter and background color changer.

Before I got sick and went on SCD, the freshest produce you would likely find in my house was jarred garlic (hardly fresh!) I was very bad about cooking fresh, good food. Now, this pile of veggies on my kitchen table is just the veggies for this week! What a life change this has been. Sadly, I have to cook all of these veggies to mush before I can eat them, but after I heal I'll be able to eat fresh crisp veggies. That's not something I ever thought I would look forward to as much as do right now.

As for my health on SCD, it's still steadily going in the right direction! I have plenty of energy now, and am sleeping my usual 8 hours a night again. I'm still carrying around pain in my ileum, and don't often feel like going for a jog. But I am doing some pilates and walking the dog a lot more. I have to make sure not to over eat too much, since that causes unpleasant side effects, but I'm consistently getting a normal amount of food. I've held a steady 93.5 pounds every morning for almost two weeks (98-100 is my target weight). And, I've been able to successfully work some fruits and honey back into my diet. I really hope my future health updates keep getting more boring!

Recently I've had a few people ask for a list of foods I can and can not eat. So here it is, after two months on the SCD, this is what I am eating.

Meats:
All meats and proteins can be eaten freely.

• eggs
  
• beef
  
• chicken
  
• turkey
  
• pork
  
• tuna
  
• salmon
  

Fruits and other Sweets:
1 serving of cooked (for 30 minutes) fruit or fruit juice every other day as long as it's a low sugar fruit. Fruits I have tried (anything else should be used with caution):

• apples (I have apples the most)
• raspberry
• lemon
• blackberries

• NO dried fruits
• NO honey - I'm emphasizing this because it actually causes a reaction within 4 hours of ingesting.

Veggies:
As many low and medium carb veggies as I want. Veggies I have tried (anything else should be used with caution):

• asparagus
• broccoli
• cucumber
• lettuce
• tomato
• avocado
• onions
• garlic
• NO cauliflower

Other stuff:

• Olive Oil, Coconut Oil and butter can be used freely.
• No nuts except for nut butters (easier to digest than nut flours) in non-sweet recipes.
• No cheese (except Dry Curd Cottage Cheese)
  
• No vinegar (use lemon juice instead)
  

Spices:
Most spices are okay as long as they don't have any illegals in them to make them "free flowing", usually silicon dioxide is the culprit and it's almost never listed on the ingredients list. Here is what I have tried (anything else should be used with caution):

• Homemade garlic powder (not store bought)
• fresh garlic
• basil
• parsley
• nutmeg
• all-spice
• cayenne
• paprika
• cinnamon
• sage
• cloves
• oregano
• homemade chili powder (not store bought)
• cumin
• tumeric
• salt
• pepper
• pure vanilla extract (no additives, just vanilla and alcohol)
  

I've almost, but not quite, broken 90 pounds on the scale. Like most people my weight fluctuates daily. For me it sometimes goes down, but mostly up. A good thing in my case. At the start of the purple graph (that's my weight graph) I was at 85 lbs, I gained a little weight but then went back on the into diet, which is hard and causes people to lose weight for a few days. So I fell below 85 lbs. Then I had a nice period of weight gain until I had that Orange Coconut Cake that gave me that set back-I still haven't tried anything coconut for fear of triggering another flare-which caused me to lose about a pound and a half. But since then It's been a pretty steady rise.

You can see from my calorie bar graph that I'm really improving the amount of calories I eat per day. This is possible because I have been cutting back a lot on carbs and sugars (even fruit sugars), which has diminish my digestive pain incredibly. I'm in a state of euphoria just thinking about the power that I have over my illness by removing foods that trigger negative reactions from my body. I'm not even doing anything to actively heal my body, I'm just removing things that hurt it, and giving it time to heal on it's own. My nutritionist suggested that I try and stay around 2000 calories (represented by the red line on the bar graph). Ha! That's quite the change from trying to squeeze in 1000 calories a day.

When I said I'm not doing anything to actively heal my body, that wasn't quite true, as I am taking probiotics in my yogurt, which is more along the lines of putting good things in my body, instead of just not ingesting bad things. In this last month I've seen drastic improvement in my health; from here on out I intend to see a much less extreme, but steady, improvement.