How to Give up Dairy For Good!~
I was originally writing this as a response to a thread on weaning off of dairy, but it became too long, so I decided to make it its own post! For those of you becoming vegan, dairy is often the hardest thing to give up (especially if you were vegetarian before you were vegan). It really is all in our heads, however, so here's a quick guide on how to really cut your mental ties to diary!
In a behavior-modification sense, we must realize when we first attempt to give up dairy that cheese and dairy are most likely interpreted by our bodies and minds as 'reward' foods...I don't know if you realize how reward-driven humans are. The concept of 'reward' is kind of like an evolutionary mechanism that helps us strive for things that are 'good' so we can continue growing, learning and thriving as a species. Sometimes, however, the idea of a 'reward' can be deceptive, as nowadays almost nothing is the way nature originally intended when we developed this drive for a reward.
But, here's how it's a reward: casein, the protein in cheese, has been shown to cause a release of opiates in the brain. If that's not rewarding, I don't know what is! Casein exists in all dairy, but it is SUPER concentrated in cheese.
Not to mention, growing up most of us have fond, comforting memories of grilled cheese, macaroni and cheese, cheese flavored goldfish crackers, milk and cookies, milk with a pb and j, etceteras. We can say to ourselves 'well, I don't eat dairy now! It's bad!' but your psyche and body won't necessarily beleive you yet. Your subconcious will be saying 'bad? But don't you remember the time you were so upset, and your mother made you milk and cookies and you watched a movie together and everything was all better? Don't you remember coming home from playing in the snow and your mom would make you half a grilled cheese sandwich with a warm cup of creamy tomato soup?? This isn't bad, this is good! And you want it!' Nostalgia, memories, love, warmth, good feelings...all from dairy.
This is where meditation comes in. Since the cravings are in your head more than they are in your body (especially after you've detoxed from dairy for a few days), the most important things you can do for your 'addiction' is meditate. I don't mean sit in the dark and think about nothing. I mean actively meditate to change your perceptions of dairy, for good.
What you want to do is basically to get in your own head and start breaking down those powerful ties to dairy (and any animal foods; this would work for anything, really). Right now, your subconcious is full of ways in which dairy can be considered rewarding, comforting and basically good. You need to calm your mind, get into a focused state, and start suggesting other things to yourself.
Meditations that can be done:
As-ising: Disconnect yourself from the idea that milk is a food source. Envision a calf nursing from the mother cow, and try to change your feelings about what you are watching. You are watching milk in its rightful place. Milk is for baby cows. Milk is the right of the calf you are watching. Do this until it seems strange to think of drinking that.
Personalizing the Cow: Get a block of cheese and focus on it in front of you. Try to realize that this block of milk actually came from a cow (probably a bunch of cows, actually, but for the sake of this meditation, just think of one cow). Try to imagine the cow it came from. Try to imagine what that cow's life was like. How recently do you think this cow was pregnant? Do you think that cow was still missing its calf when she was being milked to produce the milk for this cheese? What do you think she looked like? Keep in mind this cheese came from a living, breathing being, not a store. Try to develop that connection so that when you look at cheese, you stop thinking 'food' and start thinking 'something from a live animal.'
The next level of the above exercise would be trying to imagine the cow dairy came from any time you see dairy. It will only take a couple of seconds, and you'll start looking at dairy as the extension of a living being somewhere, much in the same way we can look at meat as the animal itself.
Disliking a favorite meal: Take one of your favorite dairy meals, and envision it in your head. Visualize yourself eating your favorite dish, only in your visualization, you don't like it. The flavor just isn't good. Maybe you're sitting in a dark, grey setting eating this meal; it's not enjoyable. Try to think of a time when you ate this dish and your experience wasn't good; maybe you overate and felt bloated afterwards. Concentrate on the bloated feeling.
And of course, instead of focusing so negatively on animal foods, perhaps shift your focus to plant foods, visualizing them growing in fields among boundless sunshine, ready to give you energy and life and joy. Start trying to create bonds with veg food, focusing on the great feelings you have after eating them.
I know this all may seem a little weird, but it really did help me in the beginning when I was having trouble going vegan and kept going back to vegetarian; that and watching videos of calves separated from their mothers almost instantly after birth, and watching the absolute pain the mother felt at losing her baby; that in and of itself made me feel bad that humans are stealing dairy from baby calves just because we like the taste :-(
Compassion all by itself is a good enough cure for ridding oneself of pesky dairy cravings.
Hope this helps someone!
Re: How to Give up Dairy For Good!~
Thanks for this post! Dairy is the worst struggle for me, especially as I live with my parents over the weekend and my Mum always has dairy in the house, makes things with it, and says things like, "Well, it's organic so it's fine"...
Sigh.
I'm sure this post will be helpful for others as well!
Re: How to Give up Dairy For Good!~
OMG thank you for that absolutely amazing post! Very true - you really nailed it!
Re: How to Give up Dairy For Good!~
Oh hallelujah! I've been trying to be a good vegan for two years now, and cheese keeps dragging me down! If there was no cheese in the world, I'd be the perfect vegan. I'm a vet student too, so I know all about calves being separated from moms at day 1, but sometimes my stomach and taste buds still get the best of me...
Thanks so so much for your post, I'm definitely going to try your methods! Yay, this made my day! :)
Any others with other similar experiences and/or success stories?
Yay!
Re: How to Give up Dairy For Good!~
Cheese was pretty hard for me too. Cheese and ranch dressing. Oh lord. I kicked it pretty much the same way, by visualizing where it came from and what the cow had to go through to get this cheese I'm looking at. Then I started eating substitutes for the foods whenever I had cravings for them. At first it didn't do much because it didn't taste the same, but after a while when I thought of ranch dressing I automatically thought of the taste of vegan ranch. When I thought of cheesy pizza, I automatically thought of FAKE cheese on the pizza. And even though I'm not such a big fan of fake cheeses, that actually helps as well, because when people say cheese to me I think of that stuff and I think "mehhhhhh" as opposed to "oh, what? Dairy cheese?! YUM!"
I remember once I was really craving a tuna sandwich for some odd reason. I couldn't get the thought of that tuna sandwich out of my head. I was browsing through here and I saw someone make a reply about wanting a tuna sandwich and they said "I wanted a tuna sandwich until I thought about what it was: a mashed up dead fish in mayonnaise."
Ever since reading that I have never wanted a tuna sandwich. It was genius.