Question I just received from a fellow-Truth-Seeker:  how easy is it for me to eat gluten- and dairy-free?  Answer:  it gets easier with time.

There was no shortcut for me…I simply did it through good old-fashioned reinforcement through repetition until it became a way of life.  Didn’t make all changes up front because it would have been too overwhelming.  Introduced new foods and let go of destructive ones gradually in order of importance. First to go were my primary binge foods, then I pared back from there.  There was a time when I considered cream cheese to be a food group unto itself. I subsisted on it…and basically wore the consequences.  I still adore cheese, but nowadays,  you can find me sinking my teeth into a pale yellow wedge of Manchester (www.considerbardwellfarm.com/cheese.html ) or a snowy white wheel of White Lily (www.sweetspringfarm.com/ourproducts.html).

I feel so amazing now that I’m gluten and dairy free I’m rarely tempted to re-enter those realms again. There are so many satisfying and viable alternatives for cheese, bread, cake, and flatbread that don’t involve gluten or cow-dairy that I tell you truthfully there’s no suffering involved.  Yeah, there are little things that could be quibbled over, like the texture of most g-free bread is a little different, but I’m down 163 pounds.  Call me annoyingly optimistic, but I deem that a fair trade.

I do eat cheese very occasionally. The trick I’ve learned is to make sure it’s gorgeous and artistic and worth the deviation AND that I really want it, and I’m not using it to fill a hole or alleviate stress.

And then…I proceed to enjoy it without an ounce of recrimination.

Here’s to eating with Joy & Awareness!

xoxo

Stacey

Jeffery Bowers, master cheese-maker at Sweet Spring Farm in Cossayuna, N.Y. putting the final touches on a new batch of White Lily, an outrageously good soft-ripened goat cheese.

Forensic evidence that cream cheese was never meant to be a primary protein source 

Clean eating:  The benefits are undeniable