Me? Eat Cheese? Never!

 I am starting a journey. It won't be perfect, but I'm really going to try. This is the beginning of my story **Insert doink doink sound from Law and Order here**

A few years ago, I started really paying attention to my body. For what I think is the majority of my life, I would go to a restaurant and get sick afterwards. I would have stomach pains, diarrhea (TMI, sorry), and just feel so gross and sluggish. I never knew why until I really started to pay attention. 

I thought maybe I was overeating. I really like food... like a lot... so especially when I go out to eat, I sometimes (always) overdo it. But even when I tried to stick to only eating a little bit, I still experienced the same issues.

Turns out, I don't handle dairy well......

This was a devastating conclusion for me. I LOVE cheese. Like literally it's my favorite food of all time. 

When I was a kid, some of my favorite memories include large portions of cheese or other dairy products. 

For example, burger nights at my house were the BEST! My dad would grill up some burgers and we would have cheese and all the other goodies that should be on a burger, we would have freshly fried fries (they're originally frozen but still delicious), and MALTS! My mom and I loved the chocolate ones, but everyone else wanted vanilla, so she would make vanilla to give to my dad and my siblings, and then she'd make the chocolate. Because no one else wanted the chocolate, we would end up getting a ton of extra because once she added the chocolate, there was no going back to vanilla. 

We also would have our version of a picnic. We would do it inside (because ew, outdoors), lay out some tablecloths on the floor, and have a spread of meats and cheeses, fruits, veggies... it was the best. I remember just loving our picnics as a family.

These memories are such a big part of my life. It seems insignificant, but those times (among many others) meant and still mean so much to me.

So realizing that dairy was my issue caused a lot of strain. For a while, I thought that I could just eat cheese and I'd be fine, but I was still having issues because I would eat A LOT of cheese.

I've never really cared for milk unless there was chocolate in it. When I was in college, the nut milk trend got big, and I started buying soy milk to keep in my dorm. This was mainly because I only really used it for cereal, so regular milk would go bad so fricken quickly. Soy milk lasted so much longer. So I stopped using regular milk for the most part. This was long before I realized that dairy was an issue for me.

I use oat milk religiously now. I don't think I've bought regular milk in years.

But the daily usage of dairy doesn't end with cheese. Yogurt (I don't like non dairy yogurts, unfortunately), cottage cheese, some chocolates, etc. The more I paid attention, the more I noticed just how much dairy I was consuming every week.

Luckily for me, I have never really cared for ice cream. I've always preferred a sorbet instead. I've found some non dairy ice creams that I enjoy so those do the trick if I ever really want an ice cream fix. Nothing, though, can compare to malts... that's going to be a tough one...

I don't consider myself to be a health nut or a vegetarian or vegan or whatever, but I knew that I needed to make a change for the sake of my digestive system.

So I am on a journey. It really started a couple of weeks ago when I decided to try vegan cheese. I will probably make a couple of posts regarding my journey with these vegan cheeses, but so far, I have really enjoyed them.

I made a vegan grilled cheese the other day and it was SO GOOD! I'm making one for my boyfriend tonight because I was in heaven when I had one, and I want him to try it! I know he's just doing it to support me, but I appreciate that. If he doesn't like it, that's cool... more for me!

When I go out to eat, I will try to find something on the menu with less dairy in it. Instead of an alfredo sauce for my pasta, I will have a red sauce. Freshly grated cheese? No, thank you.

This doesn't mean I will be perfect. I will still consume some dairy products. But I think if the majority of what I eat here at home doesn't have dairy, it will be a big help to me.

I'm still going to splurge and have regular dairy cheese when I have my charcuterie boards with my boyfriend once or twice a year. I might still choose to have some ice cream from a local ice cream shop down the road from me. But I will try to lessen the quantity I have in order to not get sick.

The other night, I was out at a dinner for a birthday party with some family and family friends. I don't remember exactly what I said, but I think I mentioned something about not having extra cheese on my meal despite how badly I wanted it, and one of the family friends said, "Oh, are you vegan?" I laughed because I'm definitely not. The meal I ordered had a light lemon cream sauce, so like, no.... But I said that I'm trying really hard to be mostly dairy free because I don't do well with dairy.

She went into this really funny story (I won't get into details because it isn't necessarily pertinent) about how she doesn't deal with dairy well, either, but that doesn't stop her from eating all the cheese she can because she's obsessed with cheese. And girl, I get it. That's how I was for the longest time. I knew that I needed to cut back, but I persisted because of how much I love cheese.

I have no judgement for this woman. I hope that she doesn't suffer like I do when I eat copious amounts of a dairy product. I just finally got sick of being sick all the damn time.

Again, I will continue to eat dairy from time to time, but finding vegan cheese is going to be so much better for me in the long run. In just two weeks of using vegan cheese instead, I have noticed that I'm pooping better (sorry, TMI again), I wake up easier in the mornings, I have more energy, and I just all around feel better.

There are a few other changes I've made in my life, as well. For example, about a year or two ago, I gave up drinking coffee every single morning before work. Now, coffee is a treat I get from Starbucks on Saturday mornings when I'm doing my laundry and grocery shopping. If I need a caffeine boost on a work day, I make a pot of loose leaf tea.

I try to wash my face every night before bed. I am not always successful, but I try my hardest to do it every night. At this point, it helps me sleep better. It's like washing my face makes my body understand that it's almost bed time (to clarify, I also wash my face every single morning no matter what - it's the night time face wash that I am not always so successful at). 

I try to be in bed by 10 PM every night. My goal is to be asleep by 11. Again, not always successful, but I sure try.

I'm trying to get back into reading. I take long breaks from it, but it's one of my favorite things in the world, so I'm trying really hard to get back into reading.. at least a few chapters a day if I can.

I've been buying some healthier food options. I don't make food... I never really have. So I buy a lot of frozen meals and boxed meals and pre-made meals, etc.... So lately, I've been buying pre-made salads, which have been great. I buy vegetarian or vegan frozen meals that still have really good ingredients. I buy canned soup with no added bullshit. It's just veggies in a broth (always vegetarian and usually vegan). I'm not a vegetarian or vegan, but these meals I buy that are just make me feel better. I will probably talk more on this in a future blog.

I'm blogging again! That's a big thing for me!

These are just a few of the things I've been doing to try to get my shit together. After the rough year that 2020 was and the severe depression which is STILL lingering, I'm doing my best to get back to me. And these changes, although they aren't all super new, are helping!

The move to vegan cheese and not consuming as much dairy is going to be an interesting ride, but I'm actually really excited about it. Just ask my boyfriend.... LOL I kind of can't stop talking about it. Give me a couple more weeks and I'll probably shut up about it (except on here because I'm literally going on this journey and documenting it here). But yeah, I'm excited and passionate, and I'm ready to finally take this next step that I should have started years ago. But I'm here now, and that's what counts.

So along with literally a thousand different types of posts I'm going to make here, this is another sort of topic that I will discuss. 

Stay tuned!

Or don't.. 

You do you.