Why I am dairy free.

"Wait, you don't eat pizza?  I could never do that."  

Why I am dairy-free

...and maybe you should be too.

I get a lot of eye rolls when I tell people I am dairy free.  It's a fairly new thing for me, but I feel outstanding.  It all started when I was pregnant.  Some foods just didn't sit right with me.  I chalked it up as "oh, it's just because of the baby".  But I started to pay more attention to it, and it was dairy products (and when I dug deeper it was dairy products that were high in sugar.. chocolate, ice cream, Starbucks coffee, etc. <--- devastating in my eyes).  I journaled my diet a bit while pregnant, but never really changed anything.  When Loch (that's my one year old) was born, I thought my issues would disappear.  They didn't.  I chalked it up as "oh, it's because I'm still nursing."  Again, I journaled my diet, but didn't make big changes until I stopped nursing and was still having issues.  Bloating, skin breakouts, stomach pains, sleep apnea achy joints, inflammation.  Could this all be because I am eating dairy??  

I was out of options, and I just decided to eliminate all dairy from my diet for 3 days.  And guess what?  I slept like a baby and had no stomach issues.  Just like that, I knew I had to eliminate it completely.  It's not always easy ... but it's getting easier and easier.  I have been dairy-free for about 9 months.  I feel amazing.  My head is clear (I always felt a "fog" during certain parts of my day) my body felt "flatter" and I wasn't running to the bathroom every time I ate a meal.  I will never say "I'll never eat pizza again" or anything like that because that would be a lie, and I'm trying to teach my three year old that honesty is the best policy.  But I will say one thing, whenever I do break and eat something with dairy in it ... I IMMEDIATELY feel HORRIBLE.  and it's almost (almost) not worth it.

To me, milk and milk products are very much "the American way"... who eats burgers without cheese?  What else do you wash cookies down with?  The more and more I learn about this topic, the more and more I realize how much false information is promoted to this country for profit.  Yeah, yeah, I knew it was happening- but it's sickening that  THEY push products that humans should not be consuming just to make a buck (and more importantly, THEY make another buck when they're sick in the hospital from the sh*t THEY fed us).  

Today, dairy-free has never been easier.  There are so many options available if you just look. 

 Yeah, it may be $0.43 cents more expensive but aren't YOU worth it?  For more details, check out why milk is bad for you and maybe it will inspire you to eliminate it too :)

xx

Kendra