Like aoccc said, check you library if money is tight. Mine had Breaking the Vicious Cycle, so probably most do. It will help you understand why the diet works.
I just had a teeny setback. I ate more fat than normal on Sunday, and either that or the anti-fungal effect of the extra coconut oil I ate gave me a belly ache. It was a weird hurt, not the usual ones I've had in the past. The glurking sounds felt and sounded like they were coming from a hollow drum. After about
24 hours the weird glurking and bloated belly went away, and I was back to eating my normal diet (sans the extra coconut oil though
). I guess I'm telling you this so that you don't get scared over setbacks. They happen while you're figuring out what foods your body does and doesn't approve of. But if your body says X is a no-go now, it may change it's mind after a couple more months of healing, so you just make a note to try the food again at a later date.
Give the diet at least 4 months. Most people say 30 days. However, a lot of people have a flare at 3 months (Elaine talks about
it in her book), and then have a large improvement after the flare is over. This happened to me. I had a couple weeks right at the 3 month mark where my constipation problems got really bad, and I just felt generally poorly. After a couple of weeks, I was better, and felt the best I had in a long time.
Okay, now to give you links to lots and lots of SCD info
:
First, you can get a ton of info at http://www.breakingtheviciouscycle.info/.
I’m following the stages at http://www.pecanbread.com/ (the site is going through a major update, so it may be a little hard to navigate right now). While the site is aimed heavily towards parents of autistic kids, the diet principles are mostly the same. The only real difference is that the autistic kids don’t usually tolerate dairy at first, so it’s not listed in the stages. I’m currently eating foods from stage 3. Here’s a direct link to the stages: http://www.pecanbread.com/new/scdfoods1.html#beyond. You don't have to follow them if you don't want to, but it definitely gives you a good idea about
what the easiest/hardest to digest foods are.
If you don't want to buy the cookbooks (I'm crazy and own every last one of them), then you can visit one of the many SCD recipe sites. I really like the ones with pictures, so you can see how the dish is supposed to turn out. I’ve always been a dessert fan, so the cakes and
cookies are the things that really make my mouth water! Here are some of the sites I like:
http://milkforthemorningcake.blogspot.com/ (all the recipes are listed on the right hand side. The ones that aren’t marked SCD are only gluten free)
http://nomorecrohns.com/deliciousrecipes.aspx
http://comfybelly.com/ (click on SCD in the category list on the left side of the page)
http://deliciouslygf.blogspot.com/ (I think all of the recipes are SCD)
http://heal-balance-live.blogspot.com/
http://www.scdrecipe.com/recipes/
http://bethsblog.typepad.com/bethsblog/turtle_soup_the_recipes/ (I’ve searched through her blog and found all the recipes, so you don't need to buy the cookbook if you don't mind searching the archives)
http://eatingscd.wordpress.com/2008/03/10/eat-by-picture/
http://www.scdiet.org/2recipes/default.html
http://www.comfytummy.com/
http://grainfreefoodie.blogspot.com/
http://mrsedsresearchandrecipes.blogspot.com/
http://elysiumeatery.blogspot.com/
http://scdgirl.blogspot.com/
http://flog.cookingforceliacscolitiscrohnsandibs.com/category/recipes/ (the almond blueberry crumble looks delicious!)
And lastly, there are several helpful groups you can join at yahoo. Many of the moderators knew Elaine personally, and have been on the diet for years. They are:
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/BTVC-SCD/ (Marilyn and Kim are especially knowledgeable)
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/pecanbread/ (Susan and Sheila are the experts here)
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/scdinfo/
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/scdrecipe_creators/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SCDrecipes/
Now for some food tips:
I have an Excalibur food dehydrator for making the yogurt, because we go through a lot of it! I eat 2 cups a day (with honey), and it’s used it a lot of recipes (how I love the frozen yogurt
). The dehydrator holds up to 2 gallons worth of yogurt, plus it has a temperature control so you don't have to worry about
overheating problems. Right now, I mostly just use the dehydrator for yogurt, but I have also dried onions and garlic to make powders, and made meringue
cookies. Someday I want to be able to do fruit leathers and beef jerky too.
A crockpot is great for the chicken soup. We put the whole chicken in, bones, skin, liver, the works. The liver disintegrates into the broth, so you can’t even taste it. The bones put a lot of nutrition into the broth too. Once it’s done, we strain everything out. Then I puree the carrots (can’t really taste them either) and add it back to the broth, as well as the chicken meat. My dad said it’s one of the best broths he’s eaten, and he is an incredibly picky human being!. It works well to freeze the broth and chicken into individual portions and pull out whenever you're at a loss as to what to eat for supper. I haven't made a true bone broth yet, but they are supposed to be incredibly nourishing and healing to the gut. I need to find a butcher to see if I can get some good bones.
The cheesecake is pretty good, and tastes somewhat like a real cheesecake. If you don’t like dry curd cottage cheese, you can make it with dripped yogurt. I've been experimenting and have found using more dry curd gives it the texture of a real cheesecake, while using more yogurt gives it a more creamy texture. They're both delicious, but I think I favor the one that uses more yogurt. Also, I make the cheesecake with dripped half & half yogurt. Tons of calories!
I haven’t added nut flours to my diet much (yet). I've only made some blueberry muffins with almond flour, and used pecan flour as the breading for chicken fried steaks. Prior to using nut flours, you can make a soufflé bread for things like hamburger buns.
Nut butters can also be used to make baked goods. I eat both almond butter and pecan butter (skip the peanut butter and cashew butter in the beginning, because they're difficult to digest). Surprisingly, nut butters can make very good brownies and muffins. You wouldn’t think such a gooey mess would come out looking and tasting like real brownies/muffins, but I doubt anyone could tell that there isn’t a bit of flour in it.
A good veggie to try in the beginning is peeled cooked zucchini. It seems to be a food that almost everyone can tolerate well. Initially, I just ate it steamed with some butter on it, but now I eat it cooked with a little olive oil, sea salt, and parmesan cheese. Butternut squash is also good. I like to use it as a substitute to make pumpkin pie filling (I haven't made a crust yet).
One last thing to remember is that you need to customize the foods you eat to fit your body's needs. While one person may do great on high fat and low carbs, it may send another person into an intestinal fit. You'll have to do some trial and error to find out what makes your body happiest.
Good luck
!