I find that restaurants, especially chain restaurants are the riskiest. See this post for more.

Fortunately, I don’t have to travel much, but when I do, I bring my own food as much as possible. This includes things like roast beef and chicken breast which are good cold as well as warm. I also will bring cheese, dried fruits, nuts, and seeds. On top of that I’ll bring some home made yonana bread. Sometimes I’ll slice it thin and dry it in my dehydrator so I don’t have to worry about keeping it cold. When possible, we stay in hotels that have a kitchenette. If nothing else, it helps to have a frige and a microwave.

Restaurants are like walking through a minefield. If he’s forced to eat at a restaurant, he’ll want to order foods that are as close to unprocessed as possible. These would include undressed salads that he’d still probably have to pick around illegals, steak that hasn’t been marinated in any way and steamed vegetables with no sauces. He should avoid chicken in any form as that almost certainly has illegals added. He’ll have to either avoid anything that is cooked in oil or specify that only olive oil be used. He’ll also have to specify that no spices except for salt or pepper be used. Perhaps seafood is okay if you account for things like how it’s cooked and what seasoning it has.

You see the problem with restaurants is that they are but the end of a long factory. The ingredients of your meal has passed through many corporate hands and the people at the restaurant most likely don’t realize what they don’t know about what’s actually in the foods they serve. To them “nothing added” is not what an SCD would consider as nothing added.

As far as convenience stores go, I can only imagine a couple of things that would be okay; fresh fruit, aged cheese and plain pork rinds.

-Paul

My husband is trying to start the SCD for his colitis. It’s been difficult for us so far due to the strict diet and we love our carbs. My question is, what do you do when you go out of town? He’s out of town almost every weekend. What are the best meal choices at restaurants, fast food chains and convenience stores?

Thanks!

Thank you for sharing your story. I’m glad to hear that the SCD is helping your husband. My recovery was similar in that the symptoms grew farther and farther apart until they disappeared. For me it took about four years, but if I remember correctly, the BTVC said that CD generally takes longer than UC.

-Paul

Short answer is no. Longer answer is that when I google “rib rub” they are plentiful. Of course many use sugar. Maybe you could substitute honey and still make it work or perhaps you could grind some dates and use that in place of the sugar.
Also you have to be wary of the onion and garlic powders. Most contain illegals. Penzeys.com sells granulated garlic and onion that they claim has absolutely no additives. I’ve got a copy of a letter from them somewhere. Also note that commercial chili powders are a spice mix and therefore illegal. I’ve got a recipe for chili powder though.

-Paul

Do you know of a Rib Rub that is SCD?

Kind Regards,
Lisa

I’m glad you like my site. Thanks for letting me know.

To answer your question, see this post on pecanbread.com: http://www.pecanbread.com/p/how/gainweight.html

To further that a bit, I would have you consider a couple of points. Firstly, are you getting enough calories? Check the web to find the recommended daily intake and then add more. The reason for this is that your body is spending a lot of energy on the healing process. That is above and beyond the energy required to support your regular activities. You’ll need to track your food intake to calculate calories and there are tools on the web for this. I hear fitday.com mentioned often. They have a free online account.

Secondly, I’d ask you to consider whether your weight loss is dangerous or simply unwanted at this point. Is your general health improving or is is declining with your weight loss? I think most people with extra weight will lose it on the SCD. I lost 20 extra pounds in my first eight months. It leveled after that and stayed in a five pound range.

Of course, eat whenever you are hungry. Don’t worry about the clock or if it’s your fourth snack of the day. Many people have more than three meals a day.

-Paul

I enjoy your site very much. I’ve been on the SCD for 7 months and I love finding new recipes for my limited palate.

My question is – I’ve lost 20 pounds since starting this diet, about 5 pounds too many, and it’s not stopping. People say this isn’t a weight loss diet, but I keep losing weight. Weight I can’t afford to lose. I’d like to gain those 5 pounds back, but I’m not sure how to do it.

I’m eating well-balanced meals with snacks in between. I drink smoothies, eat cheese, meat, veggies, fruit, nuts, honey, raisins and juice every day. I regularly eat desserts like peanut butter brownies and almond crisps.

Do you have a suggestion for gaining weight, or at least to stop losing it? I can’t fit into my pants anymore. They fall right off when I zip them up.

–Jenn

Thank you for the compliment.

It’s not uncommon for people in the early stage of the SCD to be tired. You should eat as much as you want as often as you want to help with this. Even so, it’s thought that your body spends a lot of energy recovering, thus making you more tired. This tiredness should fade. You are very early in the diet.

You don’t have to eat nuts to be on the diet. There are those who are allergic to nuts who do the SCD.

My energy is very good. I take a B12 supplement because of my Crohn’s and monitor it with a yearly blood work. For more on B12 see my post: http://eatingscd.com/2010/01/08/b12-and-crohns/.

-Paul