Hoofin' It, Not Milkin' It

So, the dairy thing. As you recall, I was going day by day without dairy to see if it was a factor in the "nose" thing. By the third day sans dairy I was definitely feeling better. But, I also made another change (which I'll get to in a few paragraphs), so that might have been making the difference. And then of course there's always the placebo affect. Around day six or seven I decided it was time to see what happened if I put the dairy back in my diet. First night I had some cheese, a bowl of cereal with cow's milk. Woke up the next morning and felt fine. So I had some butter on my bagel and then some cheese on my salad and ... can't remember what else.

By that evening I though I might be feeling a bit yucky - maybe a cold coming on? By the next day I definitely didn't feel as energized as I had been and thought hmmmm, maybe it is dairy. Maybe it takes a while for my body to react. I was expecting an immediate reaction and that didn't happen. After several days of feeling on the "verge of a cold" I cut out dairy again since I usually do that when I'm sick anyway and you'll never guess what happened.....

I felt better again. Duh!

I'm not sure if it really helps make my nasal passages open more, but it does make me feel generally more mentally clearheaded and energetic. At least, I think so. Maybe I'll do a couple more "tests" to make sure. I''m not sure if I'm happy or bummed about this. I'm much of a dairy fan but I just found out last week how hard it is to avoid entirely.


Cows in Paris. In Les Jardins des Tuilleries to be exact. It was part of a temporary art exhibit. Cows in Paris - reminds me of an old advertisement I used to see in the San Francisco Bay Area for a dairy. Their slogan was "Cows in Berkeley!?" said in a voice that expressed both surprise and confusion.

So, no dairy for me, for now. At least, 99% no dairy for me. I'm not going to try for more than that, it's just too hard.



No dairy but, I am doing lots of walking. Several times in the last few years I've started a walking regiment and each time I've quickly become "addicted" to my daily, or almost daily, walk. Each time travel or injury or crazy schedules or some other thing has thrown me out of my routine, I've missed it for awhile and then, after enough time went by, I'd find myself making excuses NOT to walk. Or not even bothering to make excuses but simply NOT walking. Tell me how that works? It's crazy, isn't it?

I finally just did it. I realized our dry weather probably wouldn't stick around the rest of the winter and so I needed to "get while the going was good". About a week and a half ago? Or maybe two weeks ago? I went for a walk. And then I walked the next day. And the next. I've walked every day but yesterday. It felt so good to walk again today. And I noticed that when I reached the hill that takes me uptown, I didn't huff or puff (like I did last week) except for just a few steps at the very tippy top.

It's not like I'm walking that much, a mile or two, which goes to show how even a little bit of change makes a big difference. The tough part is finding a reason to walk every day because I'm not a "just walk around the block" kinda gal. I have to go somewhere. And if my destination is far enough (there's limited choices without changing my starting point, which is usually home), then I like to have some sort of back up plan for getting back - Hubby home to pick me up for instance.

The walking itself is pretty nice, but the best part is the rest of the each day usually falls into a more productive rhythm too. I was rationalizing that I didn't have time to walk since I had so much to do at home. Which I wasn't doing, but still, I should be doing it. I won't pretend I've become superwoman but since I started walking again I've ended up getting a lot more accomplished almost every day. With a lot less effort. Win/win situation.