So for the love of this blog (and tbh because I just wanted to try it) I went dairy-free for a week.
I am so torn about how I felt about it.
On one hand, I loved it.
I felt lighter, ended up eating better, and literally lost a pound without making any changes to my diet or exercising at all (yeah, it was a lazy week).
On the other hand, I hated it.
Without my morning latte, I felt hungrier and got frustrated when realising every single thing I was craving had to do with cheese.
So why did I even go dairy-free in the first place?
Well, dairy-free seems to be a very polarising thing. Some people swear that going lactose free has done everything for cleared their skin to made them lose weight. Some other people swear lactose is the most important and balancing part of their diet.
Because there’s so much conflicting evidence for the effects of lactose and dairy, in this post I’m only going to talk about my own experience.
Day One:
I got an Americano instead of a latte and was super jittery for the next five hours… not a great start to the week…
Day Three:
I had a burger without cheese on it for the first time in probably ten years. I missed the cheese immensely.
Day Five:
My boyfriend (who was doing this with me, the poor soul) begs me to let him get a pint of milk. He then downs the whole thing in two minutes. That man loves his milk.
Day Seven:
Literally all I’m craving are cheese and milk products: brie, cheesy chips, a strawberry milkshake or string cheese. Even yogurt and I don’t even like yogurt normally.
Day Eight:
I finally have some brie and my stomach didn’t actually freak out.
So what did I learn from this sadistic experience?
I learned that my body is perfectly happy with diary in moderation. After my third day straight of eating brie and apples for dinner, my stomach did start to give me a heads up that maybe it was time to lay off the cheese again…
Honestly, I think everyone should try it out.
Keyword: try.
Going dairy-free definitely isn’t for everyone. But I think it’s important to give yourself time and opportunities to learn about how your body reacts to what you eat. Whether that mean going diary-free or even gluten-free for a week.
Also, if you need some milk-spiration, check out this hilarious page of milk puns. You’re welcome.
Have you ever gone dairy-free? What’d you think?
PS. I’ve convinced my partner-in-crime from this experiment to try going vegan with me this weekend so stayed turned for what is probably going to be a very interesting post on how that goes…