Ahhhh...the fat and happy years before we had kids. Before Mike worked ALL the time. Before we had kids with multiple food allergies. Before Ian declared himself, not only allergic to all forms of protein but also a vegetarian. You know, when it was fun to eat?
I'm feeling like that lately. Now true, I was prone to stomach aches for as long as I can remember (back to childhood) but they weren't so bad back then. Nothing like now (in my 30's, post childbirth). Sometimes (ok, all the time) I wistfully think back to when I could eat whatever the hell I wanted without (major) pain and/or embarrassing symptoms.
Now . . . . . Now it's complicated.
We have to avoid soy because Bridget, Robert and I are intolerant. I have to avoid gluten. The others don't but since I stopped having it in the house Owen has had his cradle cap drastically reduce (did I mention he's 5? And still had - until recently - severe cradle cap?). Because of that I've been making more of an effort to have the kids eat mostly GF too. But mainly that's my thing. I also need to avoid garlic (particularly powdered garlic) and Robert and I both have to avoid onions. Robert can't eat beans either. And then there are the various preferences of all my picky family members. I include Robert in that of course because he is at least as picky as the kids (maybe more so). My daugher and I go back and forth on dairy but it's looking like the dairy problem has cleared up since going GF (oh please keep your fingers crossed for me on that one! I love cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeese :D ). I still keep that in the back of my mind though.
And now we've got shellfish. Shellfish is not a big deal, really. I eat shellfish maybe once a year. No, less. You know, except for that crab I ate last week with Bridget, I can't remember the last time I had shellfish. Might have been the mussel pasta back at the Secretary's Day dinner the boss took us to when I was working. Before my 8 1/2 year old was born.
So technically, having to now add shellfish to our list of avoided foods is not a problem.
Emotionally, it's a different world. I feel like we're one step away from living on (organically grown) lettuce sprinkled with lemon. Unless someone gets a citrus allergy.
Yes, I am being a bit melodramatic here but I think it's ok to wallow a bit. I'll get over it.
But my knee jerk reaction has been that I've eaten an obscene amount of chocolate these last few days. And guess what? Even if the chocolate is gluten free I can still make myself sick on it. Imagine that!
I'm really not as cranky as all this (but maybe that's the chocolate). It's just that my son decided to wake me up early today after I stayed up late reading The Golden Compass. Yawn.
And I can't believe I'm saying this but I'm tired of chocolate. Maybe I'll take a cue from the Foil Hat and go eat some olives ;-)
No comments:
Post a Comment