Struggling to accept diet changes. Do you have any advice?

I personally do not follow the SCD diet because to be quite honest, its just too restrictive to me. And to me this disease has taken so much, that I just am not really willing to go that far. But for some folks it works great for them. I have found that a low residue diet works well for "me". It is less restrictive and agrees well with my Crohns. Maybe you can google it and get some diet ideas from that. Just another thought:)

Aw, Crohn's is hard enough without having the extra eating issues thrown into the mix.  They are unavoidable when the basis premise of the disease is that your body is rejecting and not processing the food you are putting in it and you can't eat for days at a time, who isn't going to have some sort of issue?  Add any past dealings with that and I an imagine it's a bit tougher for you.  That being said, what I do is focus on what I CAN do for my body, I can eat and eat well - I make healthy choices about what is right for me and focus less on what I am giving up or taking away.  If I make a list of the things I have given up/try to avoid/recognize i shouldn't eat, I notice that they are all not great for me anyway.  Caffeine?  Atificial sweetner?  Dairy?  Meat?  Do I love those things?  Heck yeah.  Is my life as different as I thought it would be not having them?  Not really.  I have also gotten big into Macrobiotics and that has helped immensely.  The focus is on a big connection with your food and eating consciously - eating to nourish and stay in tune with your body, rather than shovelling in junk and wondering why you feel like crap.  I eat differently now and am feeling better.   

You can have an awesome diet that really nourishes and heals you and makes you feel wonderful - you just have to look into making the best and healthy choices for you as an individual, but I would strongly recommend at least checking out Macrobiotics.  It's more of a philosophy than a diet, and all about balance, which makes it easier.  You can also substitute lots of things - no wheat?  eat whole grains instead.  no honey?  try agave nectar instead.  Listen to your body - don't look at it as what you can't have, but all the delicious things you CAN have.  Even try a macro diet for a day and see what you will have. 

Good luck!  Surround yourself with lots of supportive people who love you!! 

the wheat is related to gluten so perhaps a gluten free diet can help...see celiac diets that are gluten free.

I follow SCD, and yes, you do obsess over it for the first few months (you have to check the ingredients of everything, even fresh meat at the store). With a little time though, it becomes second nature. I find the diet very easy to follow at this point (15 months in). I'm fairly certain I recall someone at the BTVC board (http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/BTVC-SCD/) saying they once suffered from an eating disorder. I don't know if they still post, but it would be worth asking over there. I'll bet there is AT LEAST one person there who has been in your shoes and could give you some advise.

As far as being restrictive, I (perhaps oddly) don't really find it that bad. Maybe it's because I had such a limited diet pre-SCD. I think it would probably help to explore some SCD cookbooks/websites. There is an awesome array of yummy food to be had, but you must be patient and let your insides heal before diving into some of it. Looking at all the yummy pictures sure helped inspire me though, and I'm at a point where I can actually eat them now.

The worst part of SCD? Cooking everything. It's time consuming, and can be tiring. But again, with time, it gets easier. I feel kinda proud of the stuff I'm turning out (I actually made ketchup that tastes good), and am becoming a better cook. The second bad thing is eating out...it's very hard to do unless you eat at a place with a real chef that cooks real food (not chain restaurants that have everything pre-made or cooked from a box/package).

Now for some yummy recipe sites to help you see that there's plenty of good stuff to eat. They've all got pictures of the food too:

http://milkforthemorningcake.blogspot.com/ - the right side has a list of the recipes and whether they are SCD (if it doesn't say SCD, it's only gluten free)

http://www.comfybelly.com/scd_specific_carbohydrate_diet_recipes/ - again, not all are SCD, but most are, and she has them clearly marked

http://nomorecrohns.com/deliciousrecipes.aspx - all recipes are SCD

http://mrsedsresearchandrecipes.blogspot.com/ - I believe all are SCD

http://grainfreefoodie.blogspot.com/ - all are SCD

http://eatingscd.com/2008/03/10/eat-by-picture/

http://deliciouslygf.blogspot.com/ - it says GF, but I think they're all SCD too

http://heal-balance-live.blogspot.com/

And this is just a small sampling, there are many more sites. Take a look, and you'll see that SCD really won't deprive you of eating pleasure . Good luck!

i guess ive been lucky, most of the things that bother my guts taste bad anyway.

the rest, like chocolate, i try to keep to a minimum. i dont expect myself to just not eat chocolate, that's crazy talk. as long as i make sure not to eat too much of it, my guts dont complain. i also keep a kind of mental scale in my head; bad things on one side, good things on another. for every bad thing i eat i need to eat 2-3 good things or my guts complain. so, if i want a piece of birthday cake, i need to eat a few quesadillas.

ive also come to associate foods with their accompanying reaction. just thinking about drinking mtn dew makes my fissures cringe, so it got really easy to stop drinking it.

Thank you all again for the feedback! I so appreciate your taking the time to share your experiences, opinions, and resources. It feels wonderful to know that I now have the support of so many people who know what I'm going through.

THANK YOU!!!!

-Jenna

I think that you have noticed that the general consensus here is that there is not one diet that works for all of us. Infact, there are not medications that work for all of us due to Crohn's being such a personalized disease. What you need to do is find out what works best for you and stick with it. It never hurts to try diets because it is always good to eat healthy but realize that your good and bad foods are constantly going to change. I have certain foods that used to be fine that I can not tolerate anymore and from time to time other foods that just tear me up. Every G.I. that I have talked to has told me that until I am in remission I am going to have to experiment once in a while to find out what is good for me.
The most important thing you should realize is that diet alone will not control this disease forever. You will eventually have to have medication added to your diet to stop the damage being done on the inside. There have been so many people here and that I have met that thought they were cured or in remission due to a particular diet and stopped all of their meds. Sure they feel good because they are eating healthy and the side effects of the medicine is no longer there, but nearly every single one has landed in the hospital or emergency surgery due to the fact that the disease was still active on the inside despite no symptoms. If someone tells you that they have a cure all diet that wil help you, there should be a huge red flag waving. This disease is like a combination lock and everyone here has a different combination that will make it work.