Ok, so I was married to this great guy (well sometimes not so great, but thats besides the point!) and he had many food allergies. The most severe of which were eggs and peanuts.
Because of these allergies there were many things he couldn't eat: cake, cookies, mayonnaise, certain burgers, anything with peanuts or that was processed near peanuts, so no candy bars... I think this contributed in a big way to him being thin. He had to be so careful about what he ate, and many times he wouldn't eat stuff 'just in case' it contained something that he was allergic to.
Last week, I went to a Food Addicts meeting. I am not sure the program is for me, but one thing I took away from it is that they claim to have an allergy to flour and sugar, which leads them to abstain totally from those two things. And many people do very well with this, the people in the room had lost or were on their way to loosing a lot of weight.
So if you could be allergic to two foods, what would they be?
I would like to be allergic to PASTA (because it is my favorite thing in the world and is soooo full of calories) and to PORK(I know this sounds weird but I love everything made from pork, like salami, and ham, prosciutto, ribs, and the list goes on and on and on!!!!)
Whenever I am tempted by lovely gluten-filled things (bread, beer, cookies, etc) I can just think of the havoc my digestive system will be in for two weeks straight and I know I'm not gonna cheat.
Height: 5 ft 8.5" athlete who can give a punch & certainly take one too! :)
I myself am not allergic to any foods.
However, sometimes I DO tell myself that I am allergic to certain foods so I don't eat them often! For instance if I am at a party and I see a ton of sweet treats calling out to me like- cakes, bars, cookies, candy etc. I sometimes tell myself NO, remember you're allergic to them, because if you do eat them, you could SWELL up, so YUP, I'm allergic to them! Works for me to steer clear so I have no extra swelling to deal with!
My roommate and boyfriend are both lactose intolerant. For my bf, it just means taking lactaid when he eats dairy--or avoiding it when he doesn't have a pill handy--but my roommate has it worse, and just can't handle anything with butter, milk, or cheese.
That would help me out. Donuts, pie, eclairs, cookies, cake--I think butter's gross on its own, and don't use it on toast, in mashed potatoes, on corn, etc. But baked goods! I'm a baker, and a sucker for butter.
On the other hand, it would kill me to give up cheese--I'm just looking to have two slices of pizza per week! But yeah, sometimes I find myself being a little jealous that their decisions are sometimes made for them.
I don't think I'd want to be allergic to anything. I mean, sure, it would help me avoid some things, but I don't really WANT to give anything up forever. I adore the odd "treat" that normally wouldn't be part of my plan, and would be sad to give that up. Plus, I really feel for people with severe food allergies, because they have to be SO CAREFUL and every meal out becomes a risk if you don't know the kitchen, etc. And having had a bad allergic reaction once (to penicillin), I definitely wouldn't want to risk it again.
I wouldn't wish a food allergy on my worst enemy, so I can't really wish one on myself. I'm mildly allergic to honey (raw honey especially, but some honeys don't trigger a reaction, so I suspect it's not the honey, but a pollen gathered by the bees to make the honey that is the real allergen). And I have some type of allegy/intolerance to wheat (seems to cause an itchy, sometimes painful skin rash on my hands and face). Traces of wheat usually don't trigger it, and a celiac disease test came back negative, so at least I don't have to go to the lengths that people with celiac disease or anaphylactic allergic reactions do, but it's a giant pain in the butt.
And I know from experience and from knowing people with food allergies, that they often aren't any more careful about their diets than overweight people are. Food allergies can be life-threatening, but many are just inconvenient. I have a friend who looks like someone beat her if she eats potatoes (blood vessels burst in and around her eyes, so she gets blood shot eyes and gets two perfectly matched black eyes). Usually one serving doesn't cause her problems, so she'll have fries once in a while, but if she has more than one serving a week, she'll feel like she has the flu and she gets the bruisng around her eyes.
Even me and my wheat. Hubby had pizza the other day, and it smelled so good that I had a piece. By bedtime my face was bright pink and itched like crazy. Stupid, stupid, stupid. And I knew it, even as I was eating it that it was a terrible idea. Now if the allergy were life-threatening, I'd have motivation to be more dilligent, but the consequences of the smallest mistake would also be greater.
Look at peanut allergies, which can be so severe that just kissing someone who ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwhich several hours before can kill someone with peanut allergies. My husband has a friend who is so allergic to fresh onions (apparently dehydrated onions do not cause him any symptoms), that his lips blistered when he kissed his wife after she had a burger with onions.
I am thankful that I am not allergic to any foods and quite frankly I wouldn't want to be. Knowing that I can have certain foods, but choose not to, has been a wonderful thing for me. I think that's what control is all about. It's something I lacked years ago and grasping it feels marvelous.
So though I'm not allergic to pasta, sugar, flour, rice, etc., I chose not to eat it during the losing portion of my journey. I didn't pretend that I was allergic to it, just made it a strict rule NOT to eat it - no matter what. It was off limits to me. It was no longer an option TO eat it. I didn't have to contemplate, "should I?/shouldn't I?, because it was out of the question. And after an initial tough two weeks, I barely even wanted it anymore. It was miraculous. The longer I went without it, the less and less I wanted it. And you betcha, it DID result in weight loss (& lots of it) and it most certainly DID make the whole process MUCH easier.
Chocolate covered peanut butter granola bars. Apparently they are a weakness of mine, so they are no longer welcome in my home, under any circumstances. I'm going to tell myself I AM allergic to them.
i wish i was allergic to rice ANS pasta i can eat it all day everyday .......
iam in a low carb diet so it sucks ...
Give it time, give it some time. It may suck for the first few weeks, but when you no longer want to eat that stuff, which is what will wind up happening - the suckiness is over and done with. Really. It's nothing short of miraculous. And then the suckiness of being overweight is over and done with too!!