I’ve entered a new dietary phase today. It’s called cut out all the fecking dairy!

I may well be imagining it but lately when I look in the mirror, I always feel like my skin isn’t as clear or bright as it should be. And the biggest cause of bad skin for me has always been dairy.

The hayfever season is also fast approaching and is always a time when I would drastically reduce my dairy intake anyway (since it usually worsens all respiratory problems) and recently I’ve noticed that I’ve been eating VAST quantities of the stuff: scone/croissant for breakfast, cheese in my lunch, cheese on crackers, ghee in my curries and copious amounts of milk chocolate and cakes and biscuits.

So… it may be a good experiment to stay off it for a few days and see how it goes. I’m not going to be fanatical about it but do my best to choose alternatives. Especially to milk chocolate.

I was super proud when I solved a dilemma that had been bothering me about my lunches at work, where nine times out of ten I end up choosing a cheese toasted sandwich with chips and salad.

Only last week I realized just how bad these cheap vegetable oils are for our health and cut out the chips and suddenly I was left wondering what the feck I could order for my lunch that would fill me up without tasting like grass??

Brainwave! I remembered I could get a side of the curry sauce that goes in our vegan curry (which is my other lunch option) and have a plain salad wrap with it. Hey presto, dairy issue resolved and tasty lunch still a possibility!

My next plan is to bring some flavoured tofu into work and order the halloumi salad some days (a gorgeous salad with roasted Mediterranean vegetables on top) simply without the cheese, adding some of my tofu instead.

Because let’s face it, no matter how sick it makes me or how much I love those sweet cows and their babies, staying off meat and cheese and still being able to have tasty lunches in nearly any restaurant in Ireland is a serious challenge, bar the odd vegan place in Cork city, such as Iyer’s Cafe (South Indian food with many vegan options) or Earth Cafe (a new totally vegan cafe) and of course Cafe Paradiso and the Quay Co-Op, the two original vegetarian restaurants around town.

I’d love to be fully vegan. I don’t know if it’ll ever happen though, given my penchant for cheese and milk chocolate.

For now at least, I’m working towards cutting 99% of my regular dairy out of my diet and adding plenty more salads, vegetables, nuts and seeds to my daily fuel to see if my skin radically changes complexion and if it helps with the hayfever.

Fingers crossed this experiment will last longer than twenty-four hours; I still have about four weeks until the hayfever season arrives.

Ciao darlings!

Lizzie xxxx