Day 2: One man's trash is another man's treasure

It’s been almost a year since I first learned of my dairy and egg allergies.  My acceptance happened in phases.  First there was confusion, followed by sadness, and finally learning to cope with an allergy free life.  I’m not going to lie about how much I treasured my beloved dairy.  I mean what’s not to love right?  For my family it was a way of life and all I had really known.  Growing up my mom wouldn’t let me leave the table without finishing a full glass of milk for breakfast.   Nannie Fayrene’s rules were, “you don’t move from that spot until you finish those eggs”.  So I find it very ironic in my adult life I can no longer eat these things. 

Now I find those stupid “Have you had your three servings?” commercials annoying.  Call me bitter, but when I was struggling with giving up cheese on a sandwich, french onion dip, and cottage cheese I wanted to smash the radio to pieces.  These days I just turn the station because I have begun to realize that it’s all just propaganda and there IS life after dairy.  I have come a long way in the last year but still have more to tackle in getting on track with my new allergies.  

Once I begin to cope with these new diet changes I started to let go.  It was not easy trust me!  I had to purge my refrigerator and pantry of all items containing dairy and egg.  You would be surprised at how many products contain those two ingredients.  Letting go made my transition much easier since I wouldn’t be reminded of what I was missing.   I felt guilty throwing away unused items so I decided others would treasure these items that were now my trash. 

 In fact over the last year I have had to adjust for new allergies and my friends have reaped the benefits of my so called trash.  More recently my friend Mia was SO excited when I brought in my wheat products.  She was like a kid in a candy store!  I can’t blame her, I once treasured those things myself (I still secretly do).  But I’m working towards feeling better and not looking like a puffer fish every morning.  So these things must go and I will be much better off without them.  

If you’re wondering what I ate on day 2 I decided to keep it simple.  For breakfast I just had an orange, lunch was butternut squash noodles with homemade spaghetti sauce and green onion mashed potatoes.  I’m sure your thinking about those mashed potatoes and the answer is no they don’t contain dairy.  I used a vegan butter and coconut milk instead.  Now I’m going to eat the leftovers from lunch.  Ciao!