Reactionary

True love is going out to a dinner with your sweetheart, for a romantic evening, knowing you cannot eat anything they are serving.  It was a little bit of a sacrifice.  I liked everything on the plate.  But I reminded myself that if I cheat I start over.  That’s my mantra.  If I cheat on the diet I have to start over.  And I am NOT wasting the last four weeks. 

Why go in the first place?  Well, it was a couples retreat.  Friday evening dinner with activities, and Saturday classes to encourage you to keep your marriage healthy and happy, followed by lunch.  My husband and I don’t have a lot of worries on that score – we love each other dearly and we communicate – about the good and the bad.  But it never hurts to fan the flames, you know?  It was sponsored by our church and it was free.  Plus, my poor husband has been mostly feeding himself since I started this diet.  It was good to take him somewhere he could have a real meal.  He enjoyed it thoroughly.  I brought food with me and ate that.

I had two things happen that were a little discouraging.  First – I had a reaction.  The problem is, I’m not sure what the reaction was to.  Here is the situation:  when I went to the doctor last week, she told me vinegar should not be on the restricted list.  Well, I didn’t have an opportunity to make a vinaigrette until Friday, and I ate that on the salad I brought with me Friday evening.  I was concerned about having enough protein in my meal, and I was supposed to be testing milk by then, so I bought some cottage cheese and had that for dinner, also.  After dinner, when we were involved in our activities, I was leaning forward and my hair was brushing my arms.  Understand it was remarkably cold and dry weather, and cold and dry brings out the static in my life.  I get shocks from almost everything I touch.  Even wood.  I know.  Shocking.

Well, it was while my air was brushing my arms that they started to itch and I broke out in hives.  This was at least 30 minutes after I started eating the vinegar and 20 minutes after the cottage cheese.  I had the same reaction the next morning, and I did not eat any vinegar or cottage cheese in the morning.  So I THINK the reaction was from my hair and the static electricity charge.  However, I also had a thick throat on Sunday morning after eating cottage cheese for lunch and drinking milk with dinner on Saturday.  So I shall have to retest milk.  And I’ll stop eating vinegar until later, too.  I think I need to confirm the reaction before I give anything up. 

By the way, my arms are itching this morning, too.  Maybe they are just dry?  I’ll put lotion on them tonight.