My Decision to Go Dairy Free

One of my February goals is to eat a dairy free diet. I have been thinking about going dairy free for a while but now seemed like the perfect time. I am working on a post about my plan for going dairy free but that will be coming later, hopefully this week.

In order to fully understand why I am cutting dairy out of my diet I need to let you in on my history with dairy. When I was a baby dairy made my stomach really sick. Growing up I couldn't eat any dairy products until I was around 4 or 5. I was told that I just grew out of my dairy allergy and could start eating dairy.

After then I never had any problems with dairy until a couple years ago. While I was in high school I developed this annoying cough after I ate. After a long time of casually thinking about what I was eating I came to the conclusion that dairy was the culprit.

Recently, though, I was having some stomach issues. I have been struggling with eating before running (that is a whole other post) and I again think the culprit is dairy. The weird thing is that my stomach feels heavy but that is it. Problem is, my stomach feels so heavy that I can't really accomplish much.

At this point, I am struggling with properly fueling my body. Lately I have been feeling sluggish and I think it is directly related to what I am eating. I think it is important for me to figure this out so I can start feeling my best.

Besides my stomach issues, eating a dairy free diet is healthy for the body in many other ways. I am going to address the nutrition issues in a later post, but I will say that I am doing this the healthy way. I am going to be close attention to my diet in general to make sure that I am getting all the nutrients that I need.

My Dairy Free Plan

As excited as I am about eating dairy free for the month of February, I am also pretty scared. There is a reason why I have never cut out dairy before: I love dairy! If I am going to do this successfully I need to construct some guidelines.

1. Only cut out major dairy products. I recently learned that most foods have some type of dairy in them, even in tiny amounts. As for right now I don't think I need to go that extreme. So that means no milk, cheese, ice cream, and other main dairy products. I have already switched to drinking almond milk so the biggest thing is going to be cutting out cheese.

2. Don't stress about finding dairy free options while eating out. Being a vegetarian already makes it more difficult for my boyfriend and I to find places to eat out at so restricting myself 100% of the time is just not realistic. I do want to try to select options with minimal amounts of dairy but I understand that dairy free options at restaurants can be hard to come across (i.e. if we are ordering Dominoes, how am we supposed to order a dairy free pizza).

3. Keep a food log. This is also a February goal and it goes hand in hand with going dairy free. I found a great free food log online that helps you keep track of not only what you eat but how you feel after eating. I want to be able to look back and see how eating dairy affects me. I will report back at the end of the month with my results!

4. Find a good dairy free cookbook. Since I have been trying to cook more for myself I am really interested in finding new recipes that are both dairy free and delicious. While many of the recipes that I currently make can be done dairy free, I also want to try new things and get a new experience.

5. Ensure I'm eating enough nutrients that are commonly found in dairy products. The overall goal of this experiment is to improve my overall health. But I also need to make sure that I am not missing any important nutrients by not eating dairy. The primary way I plan on doing this is through eating wholesome foods. I am also going to restart taking a calcium pill since calcium is primarily found in dairy.