The SCD did not turn out how I imagined. For being the one diet I was most interested in testing, I had a lot of compliance issues. Here is a list of why I think I failed this diet so hard:

• One thing I liked about Whole 30 was not eating grains or beans/lentils at breakfast
• The frequency of eating was too much for me
• The double standards
• The one mega-cheat day
• No fruit rule (and trying this diet in prime fruit season)
• Dating – The SCD was harder to stick to than Whole30 on dates, at least for me
• Birthdays – we had five June birthdays, including mine, in my group of friends, and this year we celebrated them individually instead of together, which was nice
• Work – I went back to work full time and am still teaching a lot of classes, so needing to carry full meals around instead of snacks was a little bit of a chore
• On top of everything, I exercise for a living so it wasn’t possible to scale back exercise and
• I quickly felt deprived of things, which I didn’t feel on Whole 30…

Here’s a review of the last few weeks:

Week 5 was fine during the week… meal planning and prep worked for weekdays, I was happy with the “frittata” and the adobo chicken burrito bowls were delicious.

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Friday evening I attended the Marine Corps Evening Parade but was able to eat dinner at home before going. The next day I joined friends for a crawfish boil, where we drank beer and ate crawfish and vegetables all day. It was phenomenal.

Sunday (my birthday) I ran with friends (Sprint Club – we did a “death by 10 meters” workout which was great), then gathered more friends at El Techo after a mani-pedi treat. Since I hadn’t eaten yet that day, I had the “AM Nachos”, which is sadly the first order of nachos I’ve had this year and far from the best nachos I’ve consumed, but they did the job of helping to soak up copious amounts of margaritas. 

Upon arriving home, a date took me out for dessert at Beucherts, which is my favorite neighborhood spot. The Strawberries n Cream Cheesecake wasn’t exactly was I was craving (aka it wasn’t chocolate, or a sundae of some sort), but it was fine.

So… not meal prepping on my birthday set me up for big failure during week six. Long periods of time without eating, I dined out a lot, etc. Not a typical week for me, and it felt really, really weird.  This was the first week all year that I didn’t meal prep. Over the weekend – Friday evening my neighbor hosted a women’s networking gathering in which much wine was consumed, as well as a great spread of snacks including charcuterie, cheeses, spinach dip, chips of all kinds, etc. It was a lovely time. Saturday I had an everything bagel with cream cheese from Bullfrog because I was picking up a bagel sandwich for a friend, and why not? That afternoon, after another three spin classes, I had three beers, a turkey/provolone rollup, and some pita chips with hummus by friends pool. That evening we dined on rotisserie chicken broccoli, naan flatbread with spinach and cheese, and wine at a friends place for her birthday. Then we had birthday cake from Milkbar… Needless to say, it was a good day. 

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Sunday we had a girls brunch reservation at the Lafayette at the Hay Adams Hotel, my favorite place in the city for brunch. It was amazing, per usual. We were there from 12-3 and enjoyed all the champagne and dessert! That evening I made dinner for a date: pork chops with sautéed brussels sprouts and cipollini onions plus a salad with tomatoes, carrots, peas and cheddar (all purchased from Agora Farms that morning in Eastern Market).

Fortunately I got it together and did a little meal prep last week…

• Breakfast – Broccoli / bacon frittata made with coconut milk and onions
• Lunch – Banza chickpea pasta split tossed with basil, tomatoes, and rotisserie chicken. Salads help make up the difference with tomatoes, carrots, and peas.
• Dinners – Several dinners out this week due to birthdays and friend outings
• Monday – Mala Tang hot pot for a friend’s birthday
• Tuesday – Left over pork chops with brussels sprouts 
• Wednesday – dinner with a friend I hadn’t seen in forever and indulged in sushi rolls, and of course wine
• Saturday I forgot to eat after doing lots of crossfit and yardwork, so enjoyed bar food at a pub crawl (definitely enjoyed some good nachos! no pics, haha)
• Sunday we had yet another birthday celebration, family style Mexican at Mi Vida on the Wharf for brunch

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July should technically be the beginning of Keto. I will be going to Denver to visit my sister for the fourth and will try to be compliant to keto while I travel. She and her fiancé previously did Keto, so they know what to expect from me. July is also filled with conferences and meetings away from home and the office so we will see how I tackle that.

I will probably try the SCD again in the future when I am more ready to commit to it. Maybe coming Whole 30 and starting a new job plus having a workout schedule that’s a little all over the place made it to challenging. When I am in a more stable place, I think I’ll give it another goal… Here’s looking at January 2020, lol.