Hi, my name is Carisa, and I'm a dairy-holic.

(Hi, Carisa.)

If you've ever met me, or seen a single thing I've posted on Instagram, or anything, you know this to be true. For me, pizza is a food group; milk is a daily part of my life; and I snack on cheese all the time.

But in July (really, for a while), I'd started to notice that every time I ate dairy, I immediately felt sick afterward. I'd bloat really badly, my stomach would cramp, and it wouldn't go away for a loooooong time after. It was gross and I hated it.

I also hated to admit it, but I was starting to think I might have a problem with lactose.

So this dairy-holic decided to do the unthinkable: cut out dairy for a whole week and see how I felt.

I know, right?!?!

If you watched any of my Insta-stories about it, you'll know I was freaked that I couldn't do it, I wouldn't enjoy it, and I'd miss pizza way too much to keep doing it. The evidence is below:

I thought eating dairy-free would be impossible. I ate dairy all. the. time. Right down to the creamer in my coffee, I was consuming dairy on the daily (and probably why my stomach felt so sick all the time). But after a week, I didn't need it to survive, which amazed me. I wasn't having ridiculous cravings for it. Of course I wanted pizza, but other than that it wasn't really hard to survive just on dairy-free items.

2) While being dairy-free isn't hard, finding inexpensive substitutes TOTALLY IS.

My first swap was dairy creamer for almond milk creamer, then my yogurts, regular milk, etc. And guys. I didn't realize how hard it was to be dairy-free simply because of the cost rather than the choice to cut it out. Options are really limited, and the options that are out there are EXPENSIVE. This probably isn't a revelation to some people, but for me it was eye-opening.



3) Being dairy-free means I cook a lot more of my own meals. 

Eating out and eating dairy-free isn't impossible, but simply because of hidden dairy in frozen foods or the abundance of dairy out there at restaurants, I found myself buying and prepping more food at home. It actually wasn't a bad thing at all-as a result, I ate more fruits, vegetables, and proteins, which helped me actually drop a little weight during this experiment.

4) I didn't realize just how much dairy was affecting my health. 

It wasn't until I was six days in and hadn't had stomach cramps that I realized just how much eating dairy was making me sick. Being sick from dairy was just NORMAL, as ridiculous as that sounds. I was used to having to (sorry for the TMI) rush to the bathroom all the time and feeling super bloated every day. It wasn't until I didn't have to do that all the time that I really realized dairy was a culprit in a lot of my health issues.


5) Dairy is a comfort food for me.

Before you roll your eyes and state the obviousness of this, I didn't know that's why I ate so much of it. It wasn't until I had a really stressful day last week where I was thinking about my family at home with the hurricane and worried about my finances that I texted my friend that I was "ordering pizza for us because I'm out of my mind right now and I want comfort food" that I realized that's what it was. Comfort food. I didn't really crave a whole lot of dairy (pizza in particular) unless I was feeling stressed the fuck out. Now that I've pinpointed it, I can destress first and then see if I still want dairy afterward.


All in all, this was a great experiment for my health and one I'm going to keep doing as much as possible. Will I still eat pizza? Yes. But not nearly as often as before, and I'll be keeping a stock of lactase pills nearby just in case.

Have questions, tips, or suggestions about continuing to live dairy-free? Drop 'em in the comments below!

xoxo

Carisa