Imperfect Mom (estimated reading time 3 minutes)

My name is Theresa. I am a Mom, living in Vancouver, British Columbia, looking for ways to stretch a dollar and find paths to wellness. I do this mostly through diet, but also through natural remedies, meditation, yoga, physiotherapy, massage therapy, community involvement, friendships, gardening, cooking and crafts.  The list keeps growing as I learn more and more, and waste spend more and more of my precious time on Facebook and other sites (but let me reassure you, you won’t waste your time hanging around Health Against The Grain).

Climbing a cherry tree at Sunset Beach, Vancouver

Eating a whole foods diet is more frugal in the long run than eating the Standard American Diet and feeling chronically unwell. I’d like to see the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD) become the Standard Canadian (or worldwide) Diet. My goal is to share my experiences along the road to wellness, focusing on the SCD, sharing other bits of wisdom, recipes and crafts, along the way.

The SCD was developed almost 100 years ago for the treatment of celiac disease and has been found invaluable in the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (Crohn’s and colitis). People who  use this diet for these severe intestinal disorders suffer extreme consequences when they stray and are therefore highly motivated to remain compliant. Because I only have Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), straying from the SCD has never resulted in serious enough consequences to keep me 100% compliant.

I went on the SCD in 2005, after my big sister was diagnosed with celiac disease, to help me deal with my Irritable Bowel Syndrome. IBS means I get bouts of “urgency” and in  public, I can find myself in trouble if I’m not close enough to a washroom. It has helped my IBS, but I’ve had a lot of problems remaining faithful to the diet.

When I first went on the SCD, I was able to stick to it about 95%. I did occasionally “cheat” with a sweet starchy treat like a donut or cookie, not good. I am very overweight, and when I first went on the SCD, I lost a lot of weight, and felt so much better. A running joke is that I’ve lost well over 100 pounds—I just keep losing the same ten pounds over, and over, and over again.

Another beneficial side-effect of being on the SCD is that my long-term, black-period-suffused depression has lifted for good. I have since had blue periods, but nothing like I did before going SCD, and for me, the cleaner my diet the better my state of mind.

Then in 2007, we went on a cruise and it was too much to resist. It started with some basmati rice, slid into croissants and before I knew it, the sweet pastries had raised their ugly heads and I was a goner. I’ve never been able to go back to fully 100% SCD compliant, though I try, oh I try.

My husband is not on the SCD, but he has high blood pressure and a family history of heart disease, so his goal is counting calories and reducing saturated fat. Kids being kids, they want the sweet treats and the gluten, “I’m just craving donuts Mom!” This makes for some very interesting food preparation challenges in our household.

I am an imperfect Mom, but I try my best. I work full time, and my husband cooks dinners and deals with the day-to-day childhood dramas. We both do the best we can, for ourselves and for our  three children, but there’s always room for improvement.

The focus of this blog is to share information about the influence of diet on health, with a special focus on mental health. I will also throw in a sprinkling of musings, observations and crafts that may only tangentially relate to diet, but all, in some way, relate to physical or mental health. All recipes posted will be SCD-legal. Sign up to be notified of new posts by email, or follow on Facebook. I hope you enjoy Health Against the Grain.

I read or reply to all comments (so far), or I can be reached by email: theresa at healthagainstthegrain dot com.