Recently I watched Eat Pray Love. Now you don’t really have to try very hard to work out what the film is about and not much in the film is particularly ground breaking or thought provoking. Liz, played by Julia Roberts (whom I love as an actress!), gets divorced and finds that her life is empty and meaningless. So she sets off, in true chick flick style, on a round the world trip to find herself. Guess what, she does.

So why watch this film? I’m not really sure to be honest, the characters weren’t exactly new and the whole storyline of learning to love yourself isn’t really all that inspiring, or again, that new. But there was something that I liked, something sweet and endearing about the film that made me smile. I also found myself craving good Italian food

So to go with some more cliche, Eat Pray Love is is a nice stop-and-smell-the-roses film. I’m happy that I added it to my journey through life. And remember, life is a journey, not a destination.

OK, I’ll stop now… I’m annoying myself too

I think I may be going a little crazy (well if you know me, going is too kind a word really) but my weight loss and weight gain does not make sense!

OK, before you start trying to explain biology to me, I know if you eat too much you put weight on and if you eat too little you lose weight. And there are many other ways to gain and lose weight

What I’m saying is weird, is where the weight comes and goes from. It is just wrong!

When I put on weight, it immediately aims for my hips! Then it hits my face and then my middle. And then only after that, much later, will my boobs get bigger. It just isn’t right because that’s the one place I could do with a bit of help.

And then when I lose weight, regardless of where I was in the weight gain cycle, I lose weight in my boobs! How is that possible?!? And don’t even get me started on the fairness of it all!

Murphy, sometimes, well most of the time, you suck

A few years ago I was told that I was lactose intolerant… Well, one doctor told me I was, another one said maybe, another one said definitely not and then I stopped listening because none of them would ever agree. What I did know was that when I drank a glass of milk I got serious indigestion and when I ate a lot of cheese or products with cream or milk solids in them I was not a happy chappy later on. So I went on the assumption that the doctors who were leaning towards me being lactose intolerant were right.

I thought this was the end of the world!

I love dairy! I love to drink a glass of milk, I love yoghurt, I love creamy sauces with pasta, I love chips and dip, and I love cheese! Life isn’t complete without a cheese sandwich. Alert readers will already have twigged that I’m not supposed to eat bread so the whole cheese sandwich thing was already a sore point.

I cried a bit, lamenting the death of the cheese sandwich, and then moved on. I began to look for options and found quite a few…

Lactase Pills:

Basically when you are lactose intolerant your body no longer produces the lactase enzyme which breaks down the lactose sugar. This sugar can’t be absorbed into your body if it isn’t broken down. It then sits in your gut and causes all sorts of nasty side effects. The lactase pill is basically just the enzyme, so if you take it before you eat dairy it gives you the enzyme to break down the lactose. These do actually help quite a bit and it is definitely worth keeping some with you for emergencies.

Soy Milk:

Now I don’t mind this really… but it must be the pre-mixed liquid and not the powder. I found the powder really difficult to mix nicely and it didn’t stay mixed. It isn’t milk though, it is very grainy in texture and isn’t so nice in tea or coffee. Drink it flavoured or neat or in cereal and soy milk is quite nice. You do have to be careful because a lot of people who are wheat or gluten intolerant or allergic will react to soy. For a yoghurt substitute, soy is terrible. I really can’t handle the soy “yoghurt” I tried. It is lumpy and grainy and just isn’t pleasant in the mouth.

Rice Milk:

This is even less like milk than the soy but I have never heard of anyone having a bad reaction to it. This you can buy pre-mixed but I find this very expensive. I bought the packet of powder and mixed it up myself. This was a mission. Nothing like waking up at 6am for work and finding that you have forgotten to mix up a new batch the night before! I found that this milk was pretty much OK for cereal and that was about it. It worked in tea and coffee but this wasn’t ideal. My drink became very powdery and I had to remember not to drink the last mouthful. I also didn’t enjoy drinking it as a glass of milk. I stuck to the rice milk for quite a while and got used to it. Unfortunately I am lazy and got fed up with the constant mixing.

Goats Milk:

This is lovely! It’s like creamy, yummy milk without any of the nastiness afterwards! It is more expensive than cow’s milk but not rob-you-blind expensive. It is perfect to drink plain or have in your cereal and tea and coffee. It is just like normal milk. There is also goat’s milk yoghurt that is very yummy and is just like ordinary yoghurt. The goat’s milk cheese is not that great unfortunately. It is too rich, too much like a fancy cheese you would have for a picnic than an everyday cheese. I would have happily stayed on goat’s milk indefinitely, except for one little problem… Now I have found no scientific proof of this corrolation but it was definitely there for me: my fingernails became increasingly weak and would tear all the time while I was on the goat’s milk. I went back onto rice milk and my nails got better and then went back onto goat’s milk and they tore again. I googled goat’s milk and calcium and discovered that the calcium was higher in goat’s milk than other types of milk… so why did my nails tear? I don’t know… but I’m off the goat’s milk…

Lactose Free (or Reduced) Milk:

I then discovered lactose free milk. This is just like long life milk… seriously, exactly the same, except I can drink it without the nasty issues. I do wonder about the chemistry behind the lactose free milk though. I haven’t found anything online about nasty side effects or problems behind the lactose removal process. The milk I drink says that it has the lactase enzyme in the milk and that breaks the lactose down for me so my stomach doesn’t have to. I am still vaguely concerned about the science stuff that I don’t understand… but I continue to drink it.

Full Cream Milk:

I recently read an article online that full cream cow’s milk is just as good an alternative as any of the above for lactose intolerant people.  I personally haven’t tried switching to it, but I may do in the interest of trying new things (and it is cheaper than the lactose free milk). The theory is that the full cream milk travels through the intestines at a slower rate than the reduced fat milks and that gives the intestines more time to break it down rather than letting the milk reach the end of the gut and just sit. My family have always drunk 2% milk so I never before considered switching to full cream. I will keep you posted on this one.

Organic Milk:

It’s too expensive! I’m sorry, I know anything organic is better for you, but it is too expensive and all the organic products go off too quickly! I just don’t have the money to try this option. Don’t give me the hairy eyeball! I’m a struggling actress who has yet to find her rich husband! Where do you propose I get the money? Maybe one day I will try it. If you are lactose intolerant and tried organic milk, please comment below and let us know about your experience.

Yoghurt and Cheese:

Through my research I have found that apparently yoghurt and cheese are alright for most people who are lactose intolerant. Apparently the process of making these products makes the lactose easier to digest. Hooray! I can eat a cheese sandwich again!

So there are a multitude of options and depending on how intolerant you actually are, there is hopefully a good option for you. Here are a couple of websites I found that have quite a bit of useful information: http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Lactose_intolerance

AND http://www.telusplanet.net/public/ekende/lactose.htm

I hope this can help you to enjoy a glass of milk if you’ve been suffering the way I have!

The most common diagnosis for problem stomachs today is a wheat intolerance. I was lucky enough to be diagnosed with this about five years ago, along with a whole string of iffy half diagnosis about what could be wrong with my stomach.

Basically my stomach stopped working properly when I was about eighteen and no one knows why. It could have been the Roacutane I went on, for the second time, around then. It could have been the dramatic change in diet when I went on my gap year to the UK. Or a current theory is it could have been the birth control pill I went on at this time.

After numerous tests there are several usual suspects that have been ruled out, and a diagnosis of IBS has been given. IBS, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, it was explained to me, is the standard diagnosis that is given when the doctor, in his infinite wisdom, has no idea what is wrong with you. I don’t have an ulcer, or an over-production of acid in my stomach. These two could have explained the severe iron deficiency and the constant acid reflux I suffer from. I don’t have Coeliac disease, which could have explained my wheat intolerance and my digestive tract problems.

I now live on pills to keep working normally and in constant fear of eating the wrong thing. I always have to watch what I eat and feel so guilty if I eat the wrong thing. I am (sometimes I think unfortunately) not dramatically affected by my intolerances and my IBS. I won’t swell up, turn pink or have any air pipes close up on me should I eat something I shouldn’t. This means I do… and to hell with the consequences and to hell with feeling healthy and alive…

After all the tests I got despondent. No one could tell me what was wrong with me and I really tried everyone (specialists, dieticians, homeopaths… all that was missing was Dr House!) and no one could give me a definitive answer. I was even told by a doctor (whom I had previously trusted) that I would just have to live with it.

I stopped going to doctors. I stopped watching what I eat. I stopped exercising. Then I managed to injure my back. The whole thing was a messy downhill spiral and I had no idea where to turn to next. Basically I let it get the better of me for while. Then I started talking about it to people and discovered that there are a lot of people who have the same problem. There are hundreds, if not thousands of people with symptoms that don’t add up to anything concrete. We all just have to figure out how to cope.

Knowing this made me feel better. Misery loves company and the company of all these other suffering souls made me feel like I can do something about it. So now I am going through the long trial and error process to find out what I can and can’t eat and what makes me feel better.

Wish me luck!