Dairy Free Challenge

I’m going dairy-free for 10-14 days to see how it affects me. I used to have a lactose allergy and grew out of it with puberty, but lately (despite Neti-potting daily) I’ve been having really terrible post-nasal drip issues that make running more than 3 miles nearly impossible. Several online articles I’ve found have suggested eliminating or cutting back on dairy products. I was intrigued and took a quick inventory of my pantry – goodness gracious do I eat a lot of dairy! Aside from the 1% I put on my cereal and use in my breakfast shakes, I also eat copious amount of yogurt, low-fat cottage cheese, string cheese and baby Bonbels as snacks, mozzarella cheese on my pasta, pepperjack in my eggs, feta on my salads (actually, I had 4 different kinds of cheese in my fridge alone), and macaroni and cheese. Incredible…I eat a good full serving of dairy with every meal, and often in between with snacks!

Needless to say cutting it out has been a challenge. In addition to dairy products, I’m supposed to cut out any product made with dairy derivatives – this means cutting out my Nutrigrain morning bars that have whey protein, my cereal made with lactose, my Veggie Cheese I bought in haste before researching the fact it’s made with the milk protein casein, and….chocolate. Actually that’s not totally true…very high cacao dark chocolates often are dairy free, but I’m a milk-chocolate kind of girl. I have found some Central Market truffles that are dairy free (thank god for cocoa butter), and I think they are my sweet tooth’s saving grace for the next ten days.

This semester has been going well – it’s more of a challenge than last semester (more difficult classes, tying things with the lab, observation hours, trying to earn a dime on the side with babysitting) but I’m balancing it so far. It’s just going so quickly…I cannot believe it’s February already. I’ve also noticed my thoughts are preoccupied with excitement about the future: about having a job (and a real paycheck for the first time in my life), about being on a mission to help people daily, about being able to move anywhere my little heart desires…maybe even sign up for one of those health practitioners without borders kind of deal and just travel all over. That’s good for motivation on occasion, but I don’t want to let it distract me. I’m trying more and more to live in the moment, stop wishing my life away on the dreams of where I’ll be and what I’ll be doing when I graduate. I have a lot of great things in front of me right here, right now. I love where I am, who I am, and what I’m doing…and I really want to actively pay attention to all of my God-given blessings. I am truly blessed.