Life without Chocolate!

Is there such a thing???  Life without chocolate???   After 6 weeks of screaming the nights away, we decided to take Kate to the doctor.  He suggested that I try going completely off of any dairy products - cheese, milk, butter.  But he also said I had to stay away from anything that had a milk based product in it like casein, whey, lactase, ghee and the list goes on.  So for the last 2 months I have abandoned all milk based products, which by the way, is not so easy to do.  Milk is in everything.  In most packaged items and bread  but also in surprising things like my favorite soy based sausage, lunch meats or Jolly Rancher candies.  I find myself reading every label and get really excited when I find something I can eat.  Kate also does not like nuts, onions and some soy based proteins.  So that leaves me with a lots of limitations when it comes to quick proteins. 

 I have been trying to balance my proteins with my sugars so I can keep my metabolism going and lose weight but I am having a hard time with on the go snacks.  I used to grab a cheese stick, some low sugar yogurt, a protein shake or a few nuts.  Now I feel like I have to cook a chicken breast and carry it around with me.  I have been trying to keep a pot of bean soup  around for a quick meal and hummus for snacks but that is getting old. 

Since the formula she would have to go on is so expensive, I would really like to continue nursing.  So I have 3 more months to go before I can try to introduce milk back into my diet.  If anyone out there has any suggestions for good fast snacks that include protein but exclude milk, I could use some ideas! 

So in the mean time we are going to keep loving our little angel who has been a completely different baby since we lost the milk.    And this cute picture of Kate in her pink and CHOCOLATE brown is the closest we will come to chocolate for a while.  Yes life does go on without chocolate.