Well this should be fun....

So, it would seem that I've developed lactose intolerance sometime during the past few years. I'm not positive yet that that's what the problem is, but this diagnosis seems the most likely. I've been having food-related issues for a while but just kinda thought that was how my body worked... never really took the time or made the effort to see if maybe something in particular was triggering it. I started doing P90X about 6 weeks ago and a few weeks in decided to start following the nutrition guide. The first phase of the guide had me eating a high-protein diet while limiting carbs (its a 50% protein/30% carb/20% fat diet) to shred fat and help build lean muscle. As part of the plan I was eating egg whites for breakfast pretty much every morning... omelets, scrambles, breakfast sandwiches... so for a while I thought it was the eggs. I cut them out, but after a few days was still having problems so I finally realized that maybe it was dairy.

I did some research online and found that it's actually not that uncommon for adults to develop lactose-intolerance. According to this site, over 30 million Americans develop some level of intolerance by age 20. I guess that makes me a statistic. Like I said, I'm not positive that's what the problem is - it could be some other kind of food intolerance. I'm trying to get in touch with my doctor to see about allergy testing but she doesn't tend to be very prompt about returning phone calls. Until then, I'm gonna see how it goes with soy milk and lactose-free cheeses.

This also means that my cooking could be affected... I know there are products out there to help people who have lactose-intolerance with the digestion of milk-based foods, but I think it might be fun to experiment with some dairy-free baking. I am pretty upset over the loss of ice cream, one of my favorite foods... but I'm willing to give non-dairy ice cream a try. Has anyone tried it and, if so, what brands are your favorite? I've seen recipes on Pinterest for homemade ice cream using bananas and/or coconut milk... can't say I'm crazy about either of those flavors but it might be worth a try.

Stay tuned, I guess, to see how things progress from here. In other news, my zucchini plants are doing really well and there are several zucchinis that I think will be ready to harvest this week. Check back soon to see what kind of tasty zucchini recipes I decide to try out... I'm thinking chocolate zucchini muffins, mini zucchini pizzas and oven-roasted zucchini boats. Yum!