Defining Your Why: Going Dairy Free
Last Updated on October 29, 2019 by Annie
Going dairy free is often a difficult choice. Defining your why can make each day a little easier.
If you are reading this, chances are you fall into three categories:
1. You are thinking about going dairy free.
2. You are dairy free.
3. You are my grandma. (Hi grandma!)
Whether you are on the fence or actively dairy free, defining your why dramatically increases your ability to follow through. From Simon Sinek to Margie Warrell many leaders know that success comes from knowing your why. When you know your why, you can begin figuring out how to achieve your goals.
When your alarm goes off and you want to roll over, ask why are you waking up at 5 AM?
At the end of the day, when you want to go home and put on sweat pants instead of your workout clothes, ask why are you working out?
If you add meditation and yoga into your daily practice be ready to tell yourself why.
And when you go out to eat with a friend understand they will want to know why you cut dairy out of your life.
When you have a rationale, particularly a poignant reason why, you are more likely to stick to it.
Why I Went Dairy Free
When I began this blog, I started by telling you about why I went dairy free. This story spans over a decade of digestive pain and issues. Truth be told many of my issues manifested long before then, with one of my most painful and embarrassing happening in 1st grade, but I’ll spare you that story… Having my rationale ready at all times prepares me for the unavoidable moments where I am SERIOUSLY tempted to eat dairy.
Why I choose to eat dairy free boils down to one thing. I feel better.
Why do I feel better? When I keep a diet free of dairy I bloat less, I don’t cramp, and my husband can breathe just a bit easier in contained spaces.
Every chance I get to pass up dairy makes me a little stronger and makes it all the easier next time. Every time I am confronted with the choice to eat dairy and suffer the consequences or pass, I remind myself why. But I also know that I am human.
Pizza is my Kryptonite
I wish I were a stronger human. For many years I was quoted for saying, “If I could only eat one thing for the rest of forever, it would be pizza. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner, I would be more than happy to.”
But just because I gave up dairy, doesn’t mean the world suddenly stopped making pizza. In fact, I think it started making more pizza, or is that just me? That’s when I realized “I feel better” just isn’t enough.
When “I feel better” doesn’t cut it, I list for myself specifically how I feel better. No gas, no cramps, no bloating. But I’ll be damned if pizza doesn’t continue to tempt me with those melty cheesy slices.
So then I get real with myself and I think about the nights I would come home from eating pizza and have to lay on the floor in fetal position until I could stand back up again to get to my room. Once I’d waddled to my room, gulped down pepto, and shimmied into sweatpants; I would plug in my heating pad, curl into a tight fetal, and pray for the sweet release of sleep.
I don’t want to go back there. That’s why I choose to be dairy free.
Defining YOUR Why
Every important decision has a reason behind it. This is the moment to define your why. Why are you going (or why are you already) dairy free?
Maybe you have a lactose intolerance, maybe you have a milk allergy, or maybe you are opposed to the treatment of animals in the food industry, whatever your reason, be ready to define it when you come across dairy. And when you find your dairy kryptonite be ready with your strongest reason yet.
Because chances are once you define your why, you will stop seeing menus as minefields of temptation and begin finding things to help you make more dairy free choices in the future.