Week 1: Dairy Elimination

This dairy elimination has been a fun experiment! I have a conglomeration of brief thoughts:

• Am I missing dairy? Not exactly. The biggest pain is having to stop before eating anything to think, “does this have any dairy in it at all?” It’s more of a pain than anything.
• After asking multiple dairy-free friends for advice and product recommendations I have received the following piece of advice from 5 different people: “don’t expect it to taste like the original…it’s just not going to be the same. You have to take it as it’s own thing or learn to make food without dairy at all.”
• Favorite products so far: rice milk and coconut yogurt.

People who eat dairy-free have been exceptionally helpful along my journey. In fact, at Trader Joe’s I met a new vegan friend who was very informational. He taught me that almond cheeses (which I had almost taken home with me) still contain dairy, just very small amounts. I might have never noticed!

Trying products, finding alternatives, and learning has been fun. My husband and kids have even tried all of the products along with me!  The big question – has it improved my symptoms? Not particularly as of yet. Time will tell!