After being a vegetarian for over 20 years I’ve never had the urge to be vegan. This girl loves her cheese!! But after hearing some of benefits of going without dairy I started reading up on the subject.
Two of the benefits that interested me were the clearing up of my skin and my sinuses. I’ve battled issues with both a lot in the past few years so I thought I’d give it a go in an attempt to breath better and have clearer skin.
I came upon the So Delicious 21-day dairy-free challenge. After reading all the comments from converted vegans I thought I’d try it.
What did I have to lose?
I never realized how much dairy I consumed daily. I’ve never liked milk, so not drinking it was no problem. But the cream in my coffee, the cheese on my salads and my veggie chili, the butter on my potatoes … wow. I soon realized this was going to be harder than I thought. I replaced my coffee creamer with almond milk or coconut milk. I have yet to find a non-dairy cheese I could stomach so I just avoided my favorite food of all … pizza. And ice cream. I tried various soy, almond and coconut based ‘ice creams’. Again I was not satisfied so I just avoided both.
After the first week I noticed no changes. Week two passed also without any change in my skin or sinuses. Everyone was telling me to just give it up. Even in the last week I persisted. Day 20, I turned down pizza. Even tho’ I knew I would be returning to dairy in the next couple of days. I insisted on following through.
After my challenge ended I did not immediately gorge myself on pizza and ice cream as I’d envisioned. Eventually I ate pizza and ice cream just in moderation. I no longer use dairy creamer in my coffee and I leave the cheese off most of the meals I’d normally consumed it with. Although dairy-free didn’t help my issues I’m sure many benefit from it. I now consume less dairy for caloric purposes.
There are some great dairy alternatives out there. And most stores have their own ‘store brand’. I now consider myself a partial vegan. Anyone else have any success with going off dairy?
