Food Sensitivities

Well, this post (and my next one) are LOOOOONG over due.  A few months ago, I came to the conclusion on my own that I was lactose intolerant.  It was something that had been building for months and getting worse.  Just to be sure, I went to a doctor that specializes on the nutritional side of things.  I went to Essential Health Solutions.  After a talk with the doctor, he recommended I do some blood work to test for food sensitivities.  Honestly, I wanted a peace of mind and agreed.  They basically tested everything under the sun. Here were the results...

Sorry for the rotation issue.  I am not the best blogger...lets be honest.  So, cow dairy I already knew but that means everything including cheese.  Hellllllooooo goat cheese! 

Lets talk drinks for a minute.  Sodium Benzoate is in almost ALL diet drinks.  So that is out.  I can not drink tea.  So that is out.  I am left with water, if I am feeling crazy, water with a lime or lemon, coffee (black), and alcohol (thank goodness!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!). 

Now, lets talk garlic and butter (because that is cow dairy)- I have found out the hard way that when going out to eat, garlic is in A LOT of food and I have to be careful how things are cooked.  Garlic really kills me.  I love garlic.  Oh well...

Needless to say, I have been preparing most of my meals and truth be told, I have been eating a lot cleaner these days, steaming veggies, eating lean proteins, etc.  Well, over the last month or so, I am down about 20 lbs.   It really is amazing what impact this had and my choices of eating clean as well.

Now, a couple things the doctor told me.

1.  75% of all people become lactose intolerant at some point in their life.  I was shocked by this but it makes sense that drinking milk is not a natural thing to due for mammals as an adult. 
2.  I need to avoid all of these items for 3-6 months.   After 6 months, there is a chance my body's immune system will reset and I will be able to slowly bring back these foods.  So, in September, I will be retesting these items and seeing where I stand.

Oh yeah, cheese.  This becomes an issue with PIZZA!   Yep, any pizza I have now is make-your-own-pizza with goat cheese.  Where I feel really embarrassed is when I am with friends.  Oh - you are ordering pizza, yeah, can you order some wings or salad for me?  I feel like such a inconvenience.  This is my problem not anyone else's problem. 

Now, I know there is a pill out there called lactate that you can take if you want to eat dairy.  I have used it and it works but I prefer to just stay in the habit of avoiding these foods.

Well, that is where I stand and I apologize for any inconvenience in advance if you ever eating with me in the next few months.

Vacation is over

To say we had a good time in Florida would be an understatement. it was a great time both at Michelle's parents house and on the cruise. Below are a couple videos of Samantha taking pics with Minnie and Snow White or as we like to call just another random day on Mickey's boat...



She wanted to take her Minnie to meet Minnie...

Video of Samantha and Jeremy dancing

For some reason the sound did not come over. It is a small glimpse into what was going on.

Date night

Last Saturday, Jon and Erica had a wedding reception in the suburbs to celebrate their wedding that they had the week before in Mexico. Michelle and I were thinking of getting a babysitter and heading out to the party but we thought it might be fun for Samantha to go to the reception. Both of her cousins, Jackson and Jeremy, were going to be there along with a lot of other family. Michelle said she would stay back with Meredith and I could take Samantha to the wedding reception.

Here is a photo of my date and I before we headed out for the night. The reception stared at 6 pm. I was hoping Samantha would make it until 8 pm. You see, Samantha was not having a very good day. She didn't sleep well the night before and she was REFUSING to take a nap. After two hours of fighting it, many tears and meltdowns she finally went to sleep at 3 pm. Well, she woke up at 4:30. We left at 5:15 for the reception...



She also did not sleep in the car on the way out there. Consider me shocked! When we got there, my mom took her and walked her around the place. After a little mingling, we had to take a seat for introductions. Samantha really liked all the clapping as the wedding party was introduced.

At this point though, Samantha would not leave my side. When we sat down, she wanted to sit on my lap. They had hor d'oerurves but Samantha did not want to eating. This is when I started to get nervous. I thought the night was going to end quickly and I was going to have to take a cranky Samantha home.

Then the music started. Samantha didn't want to eat. She didn't want to sit down. She wanted to DANCE! And dance we did. Any time I sat down on the sidelines, she would grab my wrist and say "Let's go dance." We did however take a long enough break from the dance floor to make these pictures for Michelle in the photo booth that was there.

In the end, we had a great time. I got her to put her jacket on and leave around 9:15 or that is what I thought. She was pretty upset when we got to the car. She kept saying she wanted to go back to the party and not go home. I thought FOR SURE she would fall asleep in the car. Nope. We were talking, laughing, having a good time on the car ride home. 45 minute ride home - she was still awake.

When we got home, she was telling Michelle all about the party. She did not fall asleep until 11 pm!

A random thought on the night is the following. I did not have a drop of alcohol but danced and partied more than I would have if Michelle had gone and I did some drinking. Too funny!

I have a short video of her dancing but I am having trouble loading it into youtube. I will post it once I figure that out.

Pre-Game Rountine

I loved this piece from Jalen Rose. As I am getting older, I really appreciate it. It makes you look at someone like Steve Nash or Kobe and think "how the hell are they doing this day in and day out?"

Meredith's First Movie night

Samantha got Beauty and the Beast from Grammy last weekend as a gift and I think it took about 3.5 seconds for Samantha to request that we put the movie in the dvd player and watch it.

I took a quick few pics of Meredith's first movie night. We made popcorn. We grabbed a seat to watch. Samantha and I typically pull out our sleeping bags for movie night.

A few comments about the pictures below.

1. Please disregard the chaos of the living room. It is quite lived in.
2. If you notice Samantha has a princess sleeping bad and I have a black sleeping bag. Once they are laid out, it is customary for her to then take over my sleeping bag and I get hers. That is why she is laying on mine and her sleeping bad is empty.
3. I have gone from never seeing Beauty and Beast to having seen it three times now. I probably should stop counting.
4. Meredith's first movie night was a big success! I am sure there will be many more.

A comparison

So we already see so many differences between Samantha and Meredith. However it seems like Meredith does take after someone.... Here is one pic.



And here is another...

The black and white one is me.

So - does she look like me?