Getting into the swing of things

I have gotten used to the dairy free lifestyle. I have my Go Dairy Free book and I love it!!! Its full of useful information and lots of great recipes I can't wait to try out. Tonight I'm going to have cheese less pizza with lots of veggies on it. I have been having a lot of stir fries with tofu because its easy and quick and easy to bring to work with me.

I also got a label maker today and cleaned out my cabinet of all things bad for me. I jarred up all my grains and cooking things and labeled them so everything is easy to find and grab. I can't wait to make some dairy free goodies because the Newman O's that I got at the Co-op the other day are just plain nasty!!!

Here is my cheese free pizza, on it is carmalized onions, red peppers, and cremini mushrooms. I also added pineapple and olives before putting it in the oven. I used Flat Out crust that I got at the Co-op, it was so crunchy and crispy! I didn't miss the cheese at all!!!

Its all Hockie Pock...

per my dad. My mom is back from her cruise so I got to talk to her today finally!!! She said the only reason my dad is saying that this whole idea of me being allergic to dairy is fooey is because he didn't think of it first.

I told my mom about me having a CIB and feeling like I ate a block of cement. She agreed that I cannot have anymore dairy at all. I got the book Go Dairy Free by Alisa Marie Fleming. Just her introduction alone sounds just like me! I'm going to share this book along with The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook with my mom and together we will figure this out.

I haven't had any dairy since Saturday when there was a bit of cheese on the salad at the restaurant. Thinking back I should have asked for a separate small salad, but I didn't want to be a pain...guess if I don't want to be in pain, I will have to be a pain and ask for what I need.

I have a migraine today, which could be from the dairy Saturday, or from a lack of sleep because I had night shift insomnia last night.

Week Two...Finally time to post

Well the first week went really well. I found some soy yogurt and figured out which was good...whole soy and co, and some which was bad...stonyfield (which is funny because that was the only milk yogurt I ate!). All that week I felt great! My stomach was excellent, my nose wasn't stuffy and the mucus in the back of my throat was gone!!! Amazing!!! I was thrilled. I told my mom and she felt so bad that she sort of did this to me.

Well this past week I had an accident. I thought I would have a carnation instant breakfast for dessert before bed one night. I drank 1/2 of it, then read the ingredients...its made with milk!!! I had mixed it with soy milk...but that didn't even matter!!!! Oh dear was I so sick for the rest of the week!!! Thank goodness one of the Drs at work wrote me a script for miralax because I sure needed it!!! I was in so much pain and so bloated I looked pregnant!! I learned my lesson there.

Last night was the first night I went out to dinner since I have started this. We went to an Italian restaurant. I got Salmon with lemons on it. It was on a bed of pasta with red sauce. But came with a family style salad for the table. The salad was covered with shredded cheese. My sister made fun of me saying "uh oh, now what are you going to do?" Well...we passed the whole salad around the table and I took from the bottom of the bowl where there was no cheese. This is going to be harder than I thought. My dad is totally not supportive at all, telling me the whole thing about cheese is an old wives tale. I guess I will have to really sit down and explain everything to him.

I'm going to totally start over this week with my no dairy experiment and see how I feel. I got the uncheese cookbook and the Dairy free book should be coming tomorrow.

How it all began...

30 years ago it was thought that I was allergic to dairy, wheat, gluten, and citrus. The reason behind this was because I had terrible eczema, chronic ear infections, nasal allergies, and "colds" all the time. I "grew" out of all these allergies by the time I was 3-4 years old except the citrus. I continued to have the eczema and nasal allergies, but a new symptom popped up...chronic constipation. My family and I delt with it all through my childhood, but when I went to college it was not so easy. I tried to talk to my Dr about it, but she said to drink more water.

Finally I was referred to a gastroenterologist at my work (I'm a PICU RN). He tested me for celiac disease (which was negative) and did many other tests on me to try and figure this problem out. Eventually I ended up having intestinal biopsies done because they thought that my nerves and muscles were not sending the message to my brain that it was time to work (this is called hirschprung's disease and is a childhood disease usually caught when people are hours to days old, also called mega colon)...this was all negative also. No one could figure this problem out. Now I was taking lots of medication to help the issue, but still living in lots of pain. Plus I still have the eczema, nasal allergies, chronic ear pain, acne, and now seasonal reactive airway disease.

In doing some research on veganism and dairy free diets, I discovered that these are all symptoms of a dairy allergy. Ah Ha...a cause to all my issues!!! So I am going to try and go dairy free to see if these problems will go away...25 years of suffering and it was the milk and yogurt and cheese I was eating because my mom and Dr thought I "grew out of" the allergy....lets see if they were wrong....