Monday, July 6, 2009

Dairy Free Day 1


For years I’ve had this nasty excess thick mucus in my nose and throat (I know that's gross and disgusting). I’ve just lived with it (since the only allergy med that helped also made me break out in a nice rash all over my body), and suffered through the occasional exercise induced asthma attack, caused by constricted airway from the thickening mucus and a hard workout or race, and especially humid conditions. But I'm tired of living with it and suffering if there is more I can do.

I’ve been denying that diet changes could help. But now I’m ready to give it a try. Starting today, I’m eliminating dairy from my diet for 10 days. And we’ll see what happens. This is HARD for me, as I LOVE dairy! I’ve tried soy milk before and didn’t care for it too much, so this morning I tried almond milk (thanks to Melissa for that recommendation) on my cereal and it tasted ok. And I just ate some soy yogurt with fruit, and it was ok too. Not as good as dairy yogurt (I’m biased), but I can eat it. Giving up cheese will be tough, especially giving up pizza! :-(

If 10 days dairy free doesn’t make a difference, then I think I’ll be cutting out gluten also for 10 days - along with the dairy – maybe I should have done the gluten and dairy together starting today – but I’m afraid the gluten will be extremely difficult – and it will require some education to find non-gluten foods that I can eat. Everything has gluten in it!

Ok, so wish me luck! And if you have any great ideas, send them my way.

2 comments:

Vegiegail said...

I think that if you keep dairy out of your diet for at least 2 weeks, you'll find vast improvement in all of your symptoms. Three products that will make life without dairy a lot easier and more delicious are: Purely Decadent made with Coconut Milk ice cream, So Delicious Coconut Milk yogurt, and So Delicious Coconut Milk beverages (which taste a whole lot better than soy, imho.) :)

Jennifer Cunnane said...

This will be tough but with the symptoms you have been suffering worth it! I will be interested to see how it goes. Let us know if you come up with any yummy products to eat, I don't need to avoid dairy except on those long bike/runs so a substitute would be great!