And Just Like That…No Dairy

Back in the fall of 2021, I talked about challenges with my sciatic nerve.  My left leg was giving me a lot of pain, and it was difficult to practice activities I liked such as hiking and yoga.  One of my contacts recommended that I try giving up dairy.  She said that she had given up dairy, and her sciatica problems had disappeared.  As much as I dislike pain, I love dairy much more.  Cheese and chocolate are my two favorite food groups.  The idea of giving up dairy was not a good one for me.  In addition, I find food restriction to be a slippery slope.  As a recovered dieter, restricting food becomes a dangerous and shameful place to be.  I wasn’t having any of it.

I went ahead and worked with a rheumatologist and a physical therapist.  Together they provided some medication (a week-long quick pack of prednisone) and exercises to help me resolve my sciatica issues.  Both of these proved to be pretty helpful.  By January, I was back on the ski slopes enjoying my favorite winter activity.

Sometime in late January, things went awry.  I went skiing and I felt my left leg starting to bother me again.  I rested for about 5 days and then went skiing again.  Partway through the day, my leg started to really bother me.  I wanted to get off the slopes to ensure that I didn’t hurt myself badly.

Unfortunately, my early exit from the slopes didn’t seem to help much.  My leg pain was even worse than it had been in the fall of 2021.  I stopped skiing altogether, and I started doing more calf stretching.  I did yoga, and yoga hurt.  I found that turning in bed was painful.  Sitting on the couch was painful.  In early February I headed to Santa Cruz.  Sitting on the airplane was not a pleasant experience.  Luckily, it was only a 90-minute flight.  While I was in Santa Cruz, I did some hiking.  That seemed to alleviate some of the pain but not most of it.  I decided it was time to contact the physical therapist again.  Back in December, he had said if skiing was okay, I didn’t need to return to his office.  But now skiing was not okay.  I composed an email.  The physical therapist replied and recommended a week-long regimen of 800mg of ibuprofen a day.  When I returned home, I tried that method.  The pain seemed to recede but not significantly.  Once the week was over, the pain returned.  It seemed even more pronounced now.  One night, I found myself awakened by the pain.  That was it.  I was ready to try something new.  Now I was finding the pain was much worse when I woke up.  I would step out of bed, and a shooting pain went up the length of my leg.  That was a new symptom.  I remembered the rheumatologist asking, “Is your pain worse when you wake up?”  Since this was a new issue that I hadn’t dealt with before, I decided to give him a call.  Unfortunately, his office had closed.  Still, I wanted to get some care, so I called my GP.  She sent my name over to a referral.  This new rheumatologist couldn’t see me for another 2 months.  Ugh, the waiting.  What should I do in the meantime?

I thought again about giving no dairy a try.  I had a lot of cheese and milk products in my refrigerator.  I didn’t want to waste them.  Should I just wait until March 1?  Yeah, I would just wait.  I thought about ending contact with all of my favorite dairy products.  I imagined going on a cheese “binger” before closing the door on all my favorite bovine treats.  

A couple of days later, I headed into Trader Joe’s, a spot famous for alternative dairy options.  On the spur of the moment I decided, “Yes, today I am going dairy free.”  No binger, no pining for what could be, no worrying I can’t live without cheese.  I looked at all the non-dairy dairy-like offerings and made my choices.  I figured, “I’ll try this for a month and see where it gets me.”

Day one was fine.  The caramelized onion dip was amazing.  I looked at the ingredient list - I’m not sure there was any real food in it.  I would use that one more sparingly.

Day two started with cereal in almond milk.  I forgot how much I thought almond milk tasted like paper.  I have tried and enjoyed oat milk, but it has a much shorter shelf life.  I might want to just eat my cereal in alternative dairy yogurt.  For lunch, I decided I would eat the remaining Thai soup I had purchased at the grocery store.  Thai food uses coconut milk, so I figured I would be fine.  After pouring the remaining soup from the container into a bowl, I decided to look at the ingredients.  There, listed between coconut milk, chicken, and vegetables, was heavy cream.  Back the soup went into the container.  Perhaps I could feed the leftover soup to That One Guy (TOG)?

On day five, I decided to make some nachos.  I had purchased what I thought was vegan soy cheese, sprinkled it on my tortilla chips, and then popped them in the microwave.  It turns out the cheese was soy cheese but it also had milk protein in it.  What it didn’t have it was lactose.  I don’t know what exactly lactose does, but I can tell you it makes the cheese taste good.  This stuff?  It tasted like wax paper (or what I assume wax paper tastes like).

On day six, I was feeling pretty strong in my no dairy progress.  Vegetable oil margarine tasted “just like butter,” and I was enjoying some of the fancier (and pricier) yogurts I had purchased.  Then, out of the middle of nowhere I started craving cheese sauce.  Honestly, I don’t really use cheese sauce.  Sure, I love hard cheeses, but I don’t mess with cheese sauce.  I decided to fulfill the craving with some of the vegan onion dip I had been enjoying.  It was pretty tasty.

As the day wore on, I decided to go for a walk.  On my walk, I noticed some difficult feelings coming up.  I was questioning my decision to drop dairy from my diet.  “Really?” Judge Judy exclaimed (yup, the judge was back).  “You’ve only been doing this for 6 days, and you are already giving up?  You’re a loser.”  Wow, that was harsh.  It was bad enough that my leg was really irritating me on the walk, now I had Judge Judy joining us for the stroll.  I started feeling some familiar and icky feelings.  I noticed I wasn’t hungry, but yet I wanted to eat around the dairy.  This meant I just wanted to eat all thing things except dairy to get rid of my dairy cravings.  I realize the same behaviors, judgement, and critical feelings I had about myself back in my dieting days were creeping back into my head.  The feelings of failure and the desire for perfectionism started to resurface.  It was as if these dormant synapses buried in my brain had suddenly been called back to operate.  Their lights, once dimmed, started to flash again.  Woah!  That was not where I wanted to take this no-dairy journey.

I thought a lot about how dieting had stripped so many happy days, months, and years from my life.  I wasn’t going back to that space.  I thought long and hard about the no dairy thing.  Did I want to keep going?  I decided I would continue to try it for a bit.  If it can get rid of this pain, I’m in.  So far the pain was still here.  How long will it take to subside?  I’m not sure.  I Googled, “How long does it take to get dairy out of your system?” 3 weeks.  Am I willing to wait 3 weeks to see the effects?  Maybe...

In the meantime, I have a doctor’s appointment this Friday.  I am visiting a sports medicine doctor this time to see if I can relieve this pain.  I wonder what he’ll think about the no dairy diet?