Just a bit of a moan really. Rich and I really have tried to not let our intolerances affect our lives. Harder said than done believe me! We always liked eating out. Not necessarily Mc Donald’s or KFC but we really did enjoy going out of an evening to sit in restaurants. That all changed!

Take your average Chinese restaurant for example. We’ve encountered in the past chefs in these types of establishments who do not even know what the word ‘dairy’ means. At which point I just give up.

Other restaurants we’ve been too, fail to have sections on their menus that detail which foods contain allergens. They’ll mention what vegetarians can and can’t eat but not what WE can and can’t eat.

I think to date I’ve only been to a handful of restaurants that were actually accommodating to our needs. Life becomes a battle of ‘you can’t eat that’, and ‘no way, that’s not safe to eat’. I wish I could focus on what I can eat, what is safe. It’s a shame that that list is limited at best.

Fast food establishments I avoid, petrol garages I avoid, actually, I avoid anything and everything that wasn’t put into my shopping basket by ME.

The past few days have been pretty hellish even by my standards (I can put up with nearly anything, but sickness and migraines is just horrible). I gorged out on a big jacket potatoe and a whole tub of cottege cheese (I new I wasn’t feeling so great after dairy, but didn’t think it would do me much harm..) and ended up with my head over a bucket and a nasty migraine all day Wednesday. I really was sick. In the end we called NHS direct (the Uks out of hour doctors services), and got some amazing advice from the nurses.

It appears I’ve been having problems with a dairy intolerance for many years now, but the doctors never actually put two and two together. Great.. my trust in doctors diminished even further. So the past few days I’ve been doing my best to implement a dairy free diet. Parts of it aren’t as hard as you’d think, the soya milk alternatives can be pretty nice (certain makes are nicer than others), and the dairy free butter doesn’t seem to be too bad (the dairy free cheese I’ve yet to try..), but the hardest part for me, is finding food that doesn’t actually contain milk. It’s just crazy! It isn’t as simple as scamming the label and looking for just ‘milk’, milk not being listed and me being able to pick up the product. I have to check for 13 or 14 different ingredients that all contain the milk protein. SO FRUSTRATING!

My dad also suffers from the same type of problems that I do (migraines linked to consuming dairy products, general ill health, fatigue, joint pain), but he’s chosen to eat up whats left in our cupboards until he fully transfers to the dairy free diet. Me though, I’m not wanting to wait, so I’ll start the diet straight away. I’d rather not be ill again like I was the other day, that’s for sure!

I’m told that I need to implement the diet for 1 to 3 months before I will be able to tell if it’s improving my health. I guess that’s not so much of a problem really. I’d keep the diet in place even if the only thing it clears up is my migraines!

I think at the moment I’m worried about eating away from home. We enjoy our take away, or.. at least we enjoy eating away from home, and I’m just worried about the places where I won’t be able to read the ingredients label. I think I’ve basically decided though to avoid the food if I can’t see whats in it. I did my research, and found out what I can and cant eat from my favorite fast food restaurants, and will ask the chefs at the other places I tend to eat at, just to make sure there’s things there I can safely consume.

It’s all complicated stuff really.

I have a good few weeks coming up (I’m actually quite excited). Tomorrow we’re heading to a big market during the day (It’s huge, and soo many stalls, I love it!) with Matt and Kate (two of mine and Richards friends). Then in the evening all four of us will be going to the cinema, and on to a restaurant for some food after that (which I’m rather nervous about but.. we’ll see).

November 5^th Richard’s family are holding a bonfire night celebration (which my dad is coming over for, yay) and the 6^th we have a family wedding (which I still need to get my cocktail dress altered for). After that we have a spare few weeks, I hope!

For now I think that is all.