 |
| Pic of the creek on our Saturday morning walk |
Day 1 Dairy free and Goals
Today is September 30th (at the time this post was written) and is a date I have
chosen to go dairy free. Goals are to remain dairy-free for the following
durations:
1.
Today
2.
3 days (until Oct 2nd)
3.
1 week
4.
2 weeks
5.
3 weeks
6.
1 month
7.
1.5 months
8.
2 months
9.
3 months
10. Re-evaluate
This is my ten-step program and I am excited to try it out.
It also signals a fresh start. Today is a half yearly point for me, and is also
the beginning of Navratri (technically the second day), which is a nine-day
period to signal the triumph of good over evil ending with Vijayadashami or
Dussera on the tenth day of the festival.
From Wikipedia, this is the significance of the second day
is as follows:
“Day 2: Brahmacharini
On Dwitiya, Goddess Brahmacharini, another incarnation of
Parvati is worshiped. In this form, Parvati became Sati, her unmarried self.
Brahmacharini is worshiped for emancipation or moksha and endowment of peace
and prosperity. Depicted as walking bare feet and holding a japamala and
kamandal in her hands, she symbolizes bliss and calm. Blue is the color code of
this day. Blue colour depicts tranquility yet strong energy.”
So far, the day is quite ok in the sense that I don’t feel
too tired or any pangs craving milk or milk-based products. I wonder when I
will start seeing the benefits of cutting out dairy. I am going to give myself
some grace this week on this new routine.
Day 2
Today is day two of me being dairy free. Yesterday without
realizing it, I ended up eating a few pieces of my beloved paneer dish (cottage
cheese). So unfortunately, I wasn’t dairy-free. My husband reminded me that it
was still a huge change from how much dairy I was eating previously and is
therefore very significant. I cooked palak paneer (cottage cheese in a spinach
sauce) for dinner and picked out the paneer pieces and replaced them with aloo
fry (sautéed potatoes with chili powder and turmeric, yum!). I enjoyed my dinner
quite a bit. I am still counting yesterday as a dairy-free day and today as The
Day I am Completely Dairy Free. Let’s see how it goes. I have no cravings so
far, and am actually seeing some clear spaces in the fog that my mind is in – yay.
My coffee (Illy espresso) with oats milk or almond milk still tastes yuck, but
I suppose I will grow used to the taste presently.
Day 3
Today is Day 3! Once I get through today, I will have made
it to goal #2 above! Yesterday, I thought I had a slip up when I ate Panda
Express’ orange chicken. It’s listed in the ‘could contain dairy’ category and I was crushed
when I learnt about it, because it could so easily have been avoided. However
when I started to look into it more logically, I realized that the disclaimer
was only to mention that it was possible it had traces of dairy in it, which
matters to those that are severely allergic or sensitive to dairy. It does not
actually have dairy as one of the ingredients. So whew, I continued to be dairy
free yesterday. Today marks day 3 and I actually feel fine. No cravings so far,
and I even put away the Belgian chocolate (Côte-d'Or) that my husband brought home
last evening from a European friend, shaking my head “No”. I am quite proud of
myself. Last night was a night with very poor sleep, the baby woke up at 3:30
am after soaking through his sleep sack and I didn’t get a chance to sleep
after that. However I am still awake, functioning (using the term loosely but that’s
ok), and at work today. I have yet to decide about ghee and what to do about
it. It is clarified butter, but is still dairy. It still involves bothering a
cow and ethically does not help any if I eat it. It also wouldn’t count as a
complete cleanse if I eat ghee since trace amounts of dairy will make it in to
my diet. However, it is clarified butter and this means that not only is it
lactose-free since all the liquid part is removed, but the clarification
process also removes casein which is the problematic protein in milk. Also,
there are several items in my freezer (rotis and frozen meals) that contain ghee
and/or yogurt so I’ll have to decide whether to toss them or not. My plan is to cut out ghee as well from my diet and doing a complete cleanse in
order to correctly evaluate my body’s response to dairy. After I am able to do this,
in December perhaps, I can re-evaluate my health and see if it makes sense for
me to reintroduce it into my diet both to add a layer of flexibility and to
take advantage of all the other nutrients that ghee has to offer.
Day 4
Hello, day 4! I know that this is probably overkill and I am
updating too often, but I really want to track this well. I don’t want to sensationalize or catastrophize
and deduce that I am feeling amazing or like crap already because it may really
be too soon to tell. There are so many other factors that go into it. I don’t want
to be overly invested in the results to the point that I convince myself that I
see a huge improvement and it was the dairy that was the cause of all my
problems! I will just leave it at this: I don’t feel a huge change in either the
positive or negative direction so far. I don’t have huge cravings which is
great. I am tracking my weight and there’s no change there. My goal is to not
gain or lose weight but to get to a better level of physical fitness and energy
(and boy do I need it, with two high-energy littles ones to look after and a career
and myself to nurture). I won’t lie, I am also secretly hoping (there, I said
it) to see improvements in my skin, migraines and tinnitus. It’d be nice if the
ulnar nerve pain and sciatica that sometimes flare up were taken care of as
well. I know that realistically I should not invest too much into this to avoid
being disappointed. But I am curious and it helps me remain motivated in
staying dairy-free. I do feel a tiny bit more energetic. I also know that while
I may have cut out dairy, my diet is not really healthy yet – I still tend to
eat fried stuff like chips and some of my substitutions involve tossing veggies
in oil so to serve as a snack or a quick side. I also haven’t exercised much
this week compared to the impressive record of running, hiking and swimming
last week. Oh well, not to worry, and that concludes my update for today.
Day 5
Made it through the work week! This week was significant in
three ways. I had a meeting with a colleague and a career coach, and figured
out what I want to do job wise. Secondly, dairy free. I like that I can have
the willpower to do this. And thirdly, we booked a getaway next week which will
be our first road trip as a family of four!
We had catered lunch at work and it was nicely marked with
food allergy labels including two dishes that were dairy free and vegetarian.
It was weird to eat them without being able to enjoy the bread but I didn’t
miss out on much. We went out for dinner and I ate a chicken fajita sandwich
with fries. I can’t wait to reach the one-week milestone.
Day 6 and Day 7
This was the weekend. I think I stayed dairy free quite
easily. We had been invited to Navratri lunches both on Saturday and Sunday. For Saturday
I was able to pick out paneer and avoid ghee on my rotis and abstain from any sweets (since
they would contain milk or ghee). Sunday’s lunch was catered and I did not feel
like asking the hosts about my diet. So I chose items which are normally prepared sans
ghee (for example, I avoided the bisi-bele-bhath which is normally made with ghee, but ate the vegetable kurma)
and hoped for the best. I avoided sweets again and I think this is a good added benefit to my new diet – I have ended up avoiding sweets and desserts and now feel
the temptation less and less. With that, goals 1, 2 and 3 achieved!
No comments:
Post a Comment