If you have no clue what “going monk” means, watch Zoolander pull his underwear off without taking off his pants. Then if you don’t get sucked into the abyss of YouTube, come back over here to finish reading my post. :) I have decided to “go monk” and be a bit stricter on the whole paleo aspect of my ketogenic paleo diet.

After listening to The Paleo View’s podcast on dairy, I finally decided to listen to that little voice that has been telling me for years that “You are allergic to milk you dummy! Why are you still eating butter and heavy cream!?” See, I was diagnosed with a milk allergy as a kid and instead of taking it seriously, I spent my teens figuring out exactly how much and how often I could get away with dairy before the symptoms became too much. When I went paleo a year ago, I heard that some people allow dairy in their primal diet if they tolerate it… and well… I am a lazy contradiction filled SOB and decided to continue my grand experiment of seeing how much high-fat dairy I could get away with.

Well no more! The last of the heavy cream is out of the house and I have placed the coconut oil prominently on the counter to replace butter. My hope is that my chronic sinus inflammation will subside and I can breath easier at night. Yes, you would think breathing and sleeping are important enough that I would never have played games like this but it is amazing what we tell ourselves when we really want to do something even if we know it is bad for us.

Also, I am going full autoimmune protocol. I have two autoimmune related diseases, diabetes and endometriosis, and maybe this will help sooth the savage immune system. I have never in my life tolerated most of the foods banned on the autoimmune list like onions, peppers or most spices. Funny that I have no problem avoiding those other foods, but can’t stay away from dairy, even though both make me sick. I just learned that dairy activates opiate receptors in the brain, so I am making that my official excuse!

The only food on the autoimmune list that I actually want to eat are eggs. Lately every time I make deviled eggs, I get wicked heartburn, even when I tried making “Angel Eggs” stuffing the whites with avocado. So I figure, go full monk, cut it all out and watch for signs of improvement.

So starting today I am cutting out the following foods: ALL dairy, eggs, nightshades (potato, peppers, paprika, tomatoes, etc) and nuts. I am sure there are more items on the list to avoid, and I will cut them out as well as soon as I read up a bit more on the autoimmune protocol and learn what they are. :)

Wish me luck!