KEEPING A FOOD/HEALTH JOURNAL (HAPPY NEW YEAR!)

Monday, December 31, 2007

If you are thinking of using the SCD diet, please follow the advice of keeping a detailed journal, recording food eaten, BM's, and pain.

If you've suffered from IBD for any length of time, "What to Eat" can be quite confusing. Or it's not confusing at all and you eat nearly everything because nothing seems to make a difference--never feeling completely sick and never feeling quite healthy.

Keeping a health journal, especially if starting the SCD, is a valuable tool. Foods which aren't tolerated well may not hit you right away--a day or two may pass before feeling negative effects. A journal will let you understand the cause and effect.

If you can see the cause and effect, you can make adjustments--you can also better understand your habits--and change them if needed.

I recently met with "JilLuck" and she mentioned that during a month-long hospital stay, her main two books were Kitchen Table Wisdom and Breaking the Vicious Cycle. The first for motivation, the second for a method to get better. (If you're in a place where things are seriously falling apart, another well-known, highly recommended book is Full Catastrophe Living by Jon Kabat-Zinn.)

Healing may be a slow process. Take heart. Keep a journal (and hopefully, later, you can just forget about it:) Happy New Year!