So, I gave up... I'm sorry. I tried to keep to the diet to support my son. And I even thought, since I have IBS and insulin resistance, it might help my conditions. However, I have been getting increasingly worse the harder I've tried to stick to this diet. I have had a terrible stomach and it is draining me at a time when I am already fairly depleted and in need of strength to take care of my son. I don't see how I can be keeping nutrition in my system with the way my body is violently reacting. I do need to be careful with what I eat, but I think I need to add some whole wheat back into my diet. 

I talked to my son and said I needed to stop but that I would help him get through it. This regime has continued to keep his diarrhoea at bay and, while he is still nauseated and has a persistent headache, he has felt some relief of these symptoms. Clearly our bodies are having a different reaction. I have to say, I've always known that my son was determined, and I've seen over the years, but especially during this condition, that he has an incredible tolerance for pain. But I don't know any adults with the resolve that my 12 year old child has. He doesn't cheat on this diet, even when he misses certain foods. He is so decided to make this work. He also has the maturity to realise that if he breaks it, he forfeits the progress he's accomplished and loses the opportunity to perhaps overcome this condition. I have so much respect for this kid. 

He said it was okay if I quit but added, with a smirk, "Just admit it. I'm stronger than you!" So I laughed and agreed. In many ways, he is absolutely stronger than me!

It was about 32C (90F) and humid all last week. Remember how I said we live in a country with no AC? Yep. And I don't just mean in our houses, in most stores as well. And the establishments that do have AC seem to think lowering the temperature to simply 'not broiling' is satisfactory. There has been nowhere to go to get relief except my car. Even throughout the night, the heat wasn't subsiding. So my son hasn't been feeling well the whole week. I have been too hot to eat carbs, so that's been mildly helpful. But my son, who doesn't normally want junk food, has been craving pizza and I have been craving a not-slaving-away-in-a-hot-kitchen option. Of course our first week of SCD had to be an unbearable one!

This is the meal routine we're falling into now:

BREAKFAST: Fruit salad and/or eggs with a tall glass of water 

(still have yet to brave making our own yogurt but we haven't missed it yet)

LUNCH FOR HIM: An assortment of fruit and raw veggies, cheese, sliced chicken*

LUNCH FOR ME: Salads (ingredients such as: avocado, spinach, tomato, onion, cilantro, garlic, etc.)

DINNER: Meat and veg

Staple fruits, veggies, and snacks we've been using:

For drinks, we're both pretty good about water. But I also make a lot of lemonade and orange juice. It helps that we have one of these from IKEA. Flavoured Perrier helps as well. 

I also pour a jug of filtered water and soak slices of orange, lemon, and lime with mint leaves and refrigerate it for flavoured water. I just keep refilling the water as I use it and change the fruit and mint once a week. 

Since I don't use all the mint in one go, to avoid it wilting before I use it all, I fill up ice trays with water and stuff the leaves inside, then freeze. That way I can just throw the ice cubes into water or the blender for lemonade later.

We've been making smoothies. Easiest is handfuls of raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, and spinach blended with freshly squeezed orange juice. While you won't need a lot of the flavour fruits, you'll need about 4-6 oranges to make the base. More smoothie recipes here.

I have some health complications you can read about on the My Health page. It's essential for me to eat low-carb, but in the past year with my son being sick and us moving overseas and all that, I have failed to keep to my regime as much as I should. So I have felt better this week. Even my son said I look healthier.

Meanwhile, within a few days, my son's symptoms were already improving. He still has nausea and a persistent headache, but he says both have been somewhat better. He still has cramps, which I believe are partially from trapped gas and will take a while to correct if Breaking the Vicious Cycle is correct about all this. But he also has had chronic diarrhoea and, within a few days, he was much more regular. He hasn't been regular in over a year! He was terribly constipated for 5 months and then it switched to diarrhoea overnight and has been mostly on that side of the spectrum ever since. So this is a huge improvement for him.

Furthermore, he hasn't had a consistent appetite since this condition all started. It may be because without carbs, meals aren't quite as filling, but he has been hungry and asking for more all week. As a result, he's eaten more food this past week than he has in ages.

We have both been low on energy, but I'm sure the heat has played a part in that. But it is motivating to see some results already and makes me feel confident we will continue to see improvement with time. 

My baby finished 6th grade today. I cannot believe how quickly time has passed since I was dropping him off on his first day of kindergarten, after which I walked to my car and promptly bawled. But the past year in particular has just folded in on us. It has been long and arduous and yet, it also feels like the year just slipped away in the chaos. It feels like we've been on this runaway train I wasn't conducting. And in the powerlessness and tunnel vision of survival mode, it sort of feels like time was taken from us. He attended about one month at the beginning of the year with frequent absences. Then, we spent the next month packing up. We moved across the world, he took the rest of the semester off and then started again in January, in a new school with new friends. He initially had to be absent quite often and eventually got to the point where he was hardly ever attending a full day. And yet, here he is finished with the year and he did a good job. I am unbelievably proud of this child. He sets standards of excellence for himself. And even when I've implored him this year to just give himself a break (yea, I'm the parent and I had to convince my child to try less!), he decided he was going to do his best at every turn.  

This has been such a hard year. But being his mother has truly been the joy of my life at every stage. And what I tell him when he says that he feels his sickness has messed everything up, and weirdly feels the need to apologise for it, is that life is hard. It's full of good and bad things, opportunities, challenges, hardships, and blessings. Life is not what happens around the obstacles, it's what happens through them. I never expected motherhood to be easy, I just expected it to be worth it. And I would gladly sacrifice in any way he needed without even considering it an actual sacrifice. My priority is being there for him so when the need arises, it's what you do. It's standard. Anything else would feel just plain bizarre, like a divergence from myself. I want him to be healthy so we can lead a stronger life, but he's not holding me back from anything I'd rather be doing. And also, this sickness isn't holding us back from slowing down at times and having our moments. 

Recently, I've had to embrace the longevity of this condition and still attempt to be mindful and find ways to be progressing through life. He was 11 when he first got sick. If all goes according to plan, he'll be pushing 14 by the time we stop this diet. That's a whole different stage of his young life. So being his mom isn't just having the strength to power through this illness, it's have the consciousness to live and live well through it. Many things are on hold until there is a recovery. So it's important to still engage in all that can still be accommodated in this difficult time. Like celebrating what is deserving.

So, congratulations, my little man! You are an inspiration and the pride of my being.  

It's Monday and my son and I have the house to ourselves for the next couple weeks. So what better day to start? I have to say that despite going grocery shopping and stocking up on legal foods, I was still at a bit of a loss on what to make today. My son doesn't have much of an appetite, especially at lunch. He normally has cereal for breakfast, which is a solid foundation for the day. But cereal and milk are both illegal. We haven't gotten into making our own yogurt yet because he said he wasn't in the mood for it recently. I was relieved to not have to figure that out yet. This didn't leave a lot of breakfast options. So, fruit?

We started with fruit salad for breakfast. I chopped up apples, blueberries, peaches, bananas, and strawberries. For lunch, I packed him celery and carrot sticks, grapes, an apple, Babybell cheese, and some sliced chicken that had been refrigerated. (He didn't come close to eating all that, I just wanted him to have options.) For dinner, we grilled steak and had bell peppers and carrots as a side. We had bought broccoli, but it died in the heat of our house! So we had a lot of carrots today.

My son kept forgetting that he couldn't eat bread or grab a Fanta. (He doesn't drink a lot of soda. Never did and now with his sugar aversion, he drinks it even less. But sometimes, it helps his nausea to have a cold, fizzy drink.) Instead, I made fresh squeezed orange juice and mint lemonade. 

I didn't measure it out exactly, but I took the juice of three lemons, a few cups of water, a dollop of honey, and a handful of mint leaves. Then I blended them all together. I liked it, but he stuck with the orange juice.

I'm not sure we perfectly balanced out all our needs today but my son struggles to get balance with his appetite as it is. It's been an extremely hot week or two so we didn't want much more than fresh veggies and fruit anyway. Because of the heat, we actually have to keep our produce in the basement lest everything meet the same fate as the broccoli! We live in a country that doesn't have a lot of AC because until about 10 years ago, we didn't get extreme weather. But it's been in the 30's C (late 80's F) well into the evenings so this whole having to sit in front of a fan all day thing is getting old. Needless to say, we didn't get a lot of activity today but we stayed legal. 

My son said his stomach was a little better, maybe from not churning heavy carbs in his system? Who knows. Maybe it's the power of suggestion for now. As with all low carb diets, I did feel lighter and cleaner today. I'm gonna call it a success!