Oh, Cheese.

I have a very complicated Love/Hate relationship with cheese.  I love it, it hates me and that leaves me feeling used and empty.  Why can't it return my love?  I have given it so much time and energy and praise in the last 32 years.  Why must it abuse me so?

About two years ago I made a connection with cheese and my stress.  After much trial and error (over 30 years?) I came to realize that when I was super stressed at work, my body reacted extremely poorly to cheese and dairy.  What does that mean exactly?  Well, without getting too graphic, I have extreme cramps followed by a long horrible visit to the bathroom.  In really bad cases I find myself wondering if this is what death feels like.  It ain't pretty.

So armed with my new connection, I stayed away from all dairy while I was stressed out.  When I wasn't feeling very stressed, I ate away and enjoyed my cheese like normal.  If I got into a habit of eating it and a stressful day came up then BAM! regret would immediately set in and I would be reminded of my 'special' dietary needs.

Since my stressful Tut job ended back in January, I have been living a cheese-loving filled existence.  Almost six months feeling free to eat as much dairy as I want.  Isn't it great that I have figured out my cheese triggers?   Whoopee!  As long as I never have another stressful day in my life, I am good to go.

"Not so fast there, Crawford!" I hear you saying.  "That doesn't quite make sense.  Are you sure you aren't having other symptoms that just aren't as extreme that you may be ignoring?"  "Ha ha!" I scoff. "You don't know what you're <cough, cough> talking <cough> about!"  Sigh...now that I am more in tune with my body and paying attention to how different foods effect me, I am seeing those 'small' symptoms.  And guess what?  They aren't that small!

I am currently reading and enjoying, "Crazy, Sexy Diet" by Kris Carr.  She has a chapter about all animal products and goes into detail about mucus causing dairy.  That's right "mucus causing".  Yuck. As with every new health book I read, I try to take all advice with a grain of salt and slowly come up with my own decisions.  So I read this chapter a few days ago and didn't think much about it except to think about possibly decreasing my cheese intake.

Fast forward to tonight's dinner.  With Joe's sisters in town the last 2 weeks, we have been eating out a lot and I have been neglecting my veggies.  So tonight for dinner I made huge salads.  They had strawberries, mozzarella, sliced almonds, and balsamic vinaigrette.  Joe's salad had turkey as well, but I wasn't feeling it.  The salad was delicious I was feeling good.  Until about an hour after I had finished eating.

It was then I began to feel the mucus rise in my throat.  I started to cough.  My nose began to run.  My stomach cramps returned and I had to book it to the bathroom for one of my old fashioned "Am I going to die?" experiences.  Now, first let me say that I am not stressed.  I am feeling pretty good about life.  So then why the stress-induced lactose intolerance episodes?  I think it was to wake me up to those first three symptoms that I have obviously been ignoring for WAY too long.

The mucus rising, the coughing, and the runny nose.  I have been eating a lot of cheese for the past three weeks and I have been very snotty...not in a snooty sort of way.  I felt great before dinner and with the chance to focus on my food once again without travel and guests to distract me, I was fully aware of what was happening to me.  My stomach reacting as it did was my final wake up call.  My body is not designed to handle dairy.  Boo.

Tomorrow I will continue this thought with my current inner struggle of: How can I live a 'no diet', 'no depriving' lifestyle if what my mind wants is something my body does not?