Thursday, March 19, 2009

Round 2 - Conscious Eating

I read the article about lactose intolerance and found it very informative. My teenage daughter has been complaining about symptoms that we had difficulty attributing to any specific cause - the doctor couldn't figure it out either. I actually thought her stomach pains, bloating, etc. could be due to teenage "angst"...when I was a teen I suffered from a bout of what was diagnosed to be colitis - and the dr. said it was from "nerves" - this was a time when my Mom & I did not like each other that much! As Celia and I seem to be going down that same path once traveled by my mother and me, I was pretty sure it would just "pass" - maybe when she left home the day after her 18th bday.

She can be a hypochondriac (when she was 4 she started screaming that she wanted the "pink" medicine {Pepto Bismol}- when I said that was just to take when she was sick she started to scream "I dying!") so when she decided she was lactose I just said hmmm. But she's taken steps outlined in the article and now takes the over the counter lactase enzyme pills and feels better! She is also a vegetarian so I have concerns about her calcium and protein intake and have been using tofu in our meals more and more - but did not know that "tofu processed with calcium sulfate" is a good source of calcium - so will look for that next time I shop.

I have also tried to stop eating when I'm full. I can really eat a lot at one setting and have been told by a few men that I can down way more food than them. I eat fast too - which leads to overeating. None of which seemed to cause me any problems (except one man didn't like to take me out to eat cause I ate so much - hahahaha) but now that I'm older and my metabolism has slowed down (good excuse for MANY things) I have to cut back on my intake. So I've been trying to eat slower and take smaller portions. Put extra food away in the frig before I sit down to eat so I'm not as prone to keep picking and I sometimes remember to concentrate on feeling full. It works when it works. Wish me luck.