Am I really up for this?

I promised myself (and my husband...and my friends...and my co-workers who have to sit next to me all day...) that I wouldn't be someone who talked about their new health kicks or food allergies all the time. I also promised I wouldn't become one of those smug Portlandia-ish types (oh how I love that the rest of the world now knows what I deal with from living in PDX) food snobs who turns their nose up at the sight of a non-organic cheeseburger and fries. I have been irritated and disgusted at the fact that people with gluten and dairy intolerances seem to be on the rise.

THEN...I started to get tired of certain digestive issues I have been dealing with lately (as open as I am on here I do NOT wish to go into the details.) It all started one weekend when I was at a super-fun girls beach weekend. I ate Totinos pizza, potato chips, a little bit of wine, and other sweet goodies in all their glory. I awoke at 3am with severe nausea and ended up hurling. I know what you're thinking- but I assure you it was not the wine, as I only had a total of 2 glasses all night. I was sick for the next day or so. A "junk food hangover" as I have started calling it. SO a few junk food hangovers later, I decided that (duh) I should stop eating junk and eat healthier in order to feel better.

Thankfully, I am incredibly blessed to have a father-in-law who is a chiropractor who specializes in naturopathic medicine. I suspected a dairy intolerance, so he drew 3 vials of my blood a couple weeks ago and sent it to a laboratory to test for food and environmental intolerances. The results...were shocking to say the least.

I had a severe intolerance to chicken, potato, garlic, lime, soy, oats, wheat, cranberry and many, many others. GARLIC?!?! Kill me now.

I don't need to list all the other severe, moderate, and mild intolerances; but needless to say it is laughable that I have been downing the tofu and soy milk since I thought I had a dairy problem. Dairy was at the bottom of my list. Folks; there's a solid lesson of why NOT to try to diagnose yourself by books or the internet.

The moral of the story is that starting Monday, I am committing to a 6-12 week regimen of food elimination and systematic re-introduction to find out which of the foods on my "bad" list really cause me symptoms. So why I am doing this? To feel better and not have bowel issues (ugh...I hate talking about my bowels).

But why am I REALLY doing this? Honestly; because of cancer. I've been working in oncology for almost 5 years now and I just see too much of it to feel like I'm protected from it. I know that our immune system plays a role in avoiding and getting various malignancies or autoimmune disorders. Eating food that makes my body go into attack mode can't be good for my immune system. I cannot guarantee that I will be totally compliant, or that my life is changed forever. I, in no way, am going to become preachy and judgy of eating McDonalds; nor will I become a Portlandia-like Portland suburbian food snob. Part of me is mourning the loss of my junk food indulgences. I am just praying that I'm not really allergic to garlic :)

Not to be a cliche, but diet starts Monday!