Hanging in There!

I had a rough day last Thursday. I sent my husband a text telling him I was angry about my food and wanted to cry. I don't know what happened, but I just felt so negative and like SCD was "too hard" and I wanted to quit. I told him I knew I was being a big baby, but I couldn't help it. His reply was exactly what I needed to hear: "I don't think you're a baby. This stuff is tough, but so are you!" Ok, back on track. I'm happy to report that I didn't eat anything I shouldn't have while I was having this crisis of willpower and resolve, so the only damage that was done was mental. Once I broke through that day, I've really felt a lot more positive and like I can do this for the long haul. I've begun to look at "illegals" in a different way now. It's kind of the way I've come to see corn. SCD or not, I've not been able to eat corn since my diagnosis. I've tried it a couple of times (sometimes by accident or out of "politeness") and it messes me up badly. In fact, I blame this most recent flare on being too embarrassed to tell a friend I couldn't eat the Amy's burrito she made for me because it had corn in it. At any rate, I used to love corn on the cob but there is no way I would touch it now. I see corn, or foods with corn in it, and my automatic response is, "I don't eat that." That's where I am getting with the foods that aren't SCD legal. I'm making my way to the place where it's not that I can't eat a certain thing, but that I don't or won't. It's a big shift in attitude!

I'm also thrilled that my weight has gone down a couple of pounds and stabilized. I was having trouble controlling my weight gain over the last month or so of this pregnancy and I was up to 35 pounds gained which was a bit ahead of where my OB and I wanted me to be. I've dropped a couple of pounds down to a total gain of 30.5 pounds and I've been stable there for about a week now. I've done this while eating well and never going hungry, too. The foods I'm eating are very satisfying to me and I feel like I'm doing great things for my body and the baby I'm carrying by cutting out the junk and eating real, nutritious foods.

Saturday we had a family function to attend at a park. The menu was supposed to be a cookout but I wasn't sure about the food being prepared, so I packed my own lunch. This was my first time doing this for a family event, and I wasn't sure how it would go. I finally decided most people probably weren't paying as much attention to me as I thought and I just needed to do my own thing to stay healthy. I packed a salad with grilled chicken, cheese and homemade dressing, a small can of Dole pineapple chunks in juice, a small container of yogurt with honey, a packet of my Trader Joe's in the raw Trek Mix, a banana, and a Lara Bar in case I got the urge for something sweet while they were having cake. I ended up bringing the Lara Bar home with me because I wasn't that hungry, but I was glad I had it. I've determined that I need to take my own food places so that I'm not stuck worrying about the food or whether or not there are things I can eat. I plan to do this from now on for parties, events, etc. I'll be the weird one with my mini-cooler, but I'll be healthy!

I have two food dilemmas I'm working on right now. The first is how/what I'm going to eat while I'm in labor and during my hospital stay when the baby is born. The second is how to eat for distance running when I start my half marathon training this fall. The hospital situation will be able to be resolved through a lot of help from my wonderfully supportive husband. He will have to make trips home in the evening to give our three year old his injection for his arthritis, so if we have foods ready he can bring me a cooler to the hospital with whatever I need. I also plan to create a stash of stable, easy to transport stuff like fresh fruits, nuts, trail mix, and canned pineapple. I figure if I have that stuff in the room and he brings me a cooler each day with things like salads, boiled eggs, grilled chicken, yogurt, and cheese then I should be able to get by until it's time to go home. Somehow I have a vision of him ending up at a local grocery buying me a rotisserie chicken!

The distance running thing is a bit of a different obstacle. I need to come up with some options that are portable, stable, and will replace the nutrients that I used to rely on in things like Gu energy gels and Gatorade when completing long runs. I actually went the geek route and started a spreadsheet that analyzes the nutrition in a Gu gel and 8 oz. of Gatorade and then comparing some SCD friendly options that I can replace them with. So far I've come up with two different options:

1) The Close to Home Option: this would work well assuming a "home" race where I'm at home the night before and have easy access to my kitchen, fridge, etc. I was reading a Paleo/Crossfit nutrition blog and came across a suggestion to use squash as a carb for cardio and endurance events and it inspired me to create this recipe for Squash Shots. My plan would be to whip these up and put them into individual fuel belt flasks. The recipe:

1/4 cup pureed cooked butternut squash
2 Tbsp. coconut milk
2 Tbsp. honey
dash salt

I have yet to actually try this, so I can't vouch for how it tastes or anything, but I think if you liked squash then it would be ok. It can't be worse than the commercially available gels that are out there! Nutrition breaks down as follows (based on stats at nutritiondata.com): Calories-208, Carbs-39 gm, Sugar-35 gm, Sodium-105 mg, Potassium-233 mg.

2) The On the Road Option: this option assumes I am traveling for a race and possibly staying in a hotel the night before without the ability to cook or prep food.

Ella's Kitchen Organic Baby Food Stage One baby food packets. I'm thinking the Apples and Banana would be great. It provides about the same calories and sugars as a gel and they are in cool twist off top packets like a giant energy gel. I think it would be easy enough to twist one open and suck it down on the run or at a water station. Ingredients for this flavor are apples, bananas, and a dash of organic lemon juice concentrate. I know SCD purists would probably frown upon the lemon juice concentrate, but I'm comfortable with it. I actually use bottled lemon juice for my recipes that call for it with no problems.

Along with the baby food packets, I would take S-Cap electrolyte supplements from Succeed! These have proven reliable for my running friends that use them and I am comfortable with the ingredients: Sodium Chloride, Sodium bicarbonate, Sodium citrate, Sodium phosphate, Potassium Chloride

Under this option, I probably would want to put some orange juice in a couple of fuel belt bottles, too since there aren't as many calories/carbs readily available versus my at home option. I'll have to test both methods out in training to see what works best. It will be some fun experimentation and I'll be sure to share my outcomes.