Saturday, August 20, 2011

Allergies and Area Governor Stuff

Since March, I've had hives. When my friend and I cruised to the Western Caribbean the end of April, I was broken out the whole time. I took the max dose of benedryl the whole time. Needless to say, I was tired and sort of grumpy the whole time.

I finally visited with an allergist, and we discovered that I'm allergic to garlic, onions, peanuts, mustard, soy, peaches, malt, and green pepper. These foods I should avoid completely. Other allergies I have are corn, pinto beans, string beans, lettuce, milk, rice, rye, soybeans, and spinach.

I've heard of allergies to garlic and peanuts, but mustard, peaches? I've eaten mustard instead of mayonnaise on my burgers for years, and I love raw garlic. I used to buy a small container of garlic and eat them like candy. I even took garlic pills! It's supposed to be a good way to keep your system clear of infections. There goes my spinach dip, peach jelly, garlic chicken, almost any ethnic food.

I was just looking online for recipes without these trigger foods, and a website that advertises they have recipes without onion and garlic didn't actually have any without these ingredients.

A couple of weeks ago I told my son that I was considering eating like a cave woman -- no more processed foods, no more fancy, complicated recipes, just meat and vegetables, and fruit. And, now that's what I HAVE to do. We're even going to have to find different restaurants. No more Carraba's or Milano's or Olive Garden, Mexican food, or Chinese food. Even Bill Miller's BBQ brisket caused a minor hive breakout last night. Waaa

I bought groceries last Sunday and got spinach dip, garlic cloves to roast, 3 large juicy peaches, hamburger helper, Italian sausage and tomato/alfredo sauce, so many of my favorite foods that I cannot eat. I'm sort of freaking out here. Instead of concentrating on what I cannot have, I should look at the list of foods I was tested for that I DID NOT have a reaction to.

Almonds (all nuts except peanuts), apples (all fruits except peaches), avocado, barley, beef (all meats and seafood), broccoli, cabbage, carrots, celery, cinnamon, CHOCOLATE, coconut, COFFEE, cucumber, eggs, ginger, hops, lemon, mushrooms, nutmeg, oats, olives, peas, potatoes, squash, strawberries, tea, tomato, vanilla, wheat, yeast.

So, with this list in mind, it's not so bad. It's fresh food for me. This is probably the only way I'll ever lose weight -- cut out the processed and over spiced foods. I think God had a hand in this. :O)

I've had fun this week. It was a crazy busy week, and it was stressful, but in the middle of it all, I felt a sense of accomplishment and pride.
I attended 3 Toastmaster meetings this week, 2 last week, and I completed the club visit requirement. Now I just have to fill out the area governor club visit forms and get them in to TI.

We'll probably have a club contest because a member wants to compete in the humorous speech contest. I thought I was going to get away without having to deal with a contest. But I think he was talked into competing. He is funny, and he's gone all the way to District before, so he could be a contender.

My work life had a hitch thrown into it last week when we met with our director. He had a meeting with one of the 11 VPs who told him they were unhappy with our website and service. He told me to take off my mad face. After I got over my hurt feelings, I mobilized and figured out how to address their concerns. They want to be able to get into their web pages and tweak the text when it's time to update them. Because I manage our Intranet, and it works by having many subsites for non-web people to update their own pages, I suggested we do the same with our internet server. It worked like a charm. Our new website design is set up with modules and divs so we can sort of pick and choose the parts we want to use. The first guy out of the shoot to do this using the new update feature was someone who never did a web page before. We worked out a way for him to use his Word file and insert photos. He was very happy with the results. He also wants his website updated to match the new one he just did. Yea!

I'm in the process of converting a website to the new look, and I'll teach the other 2 people on my team to convert as well. Then we'll start updating the website department by department until it has been done. The difficult part is the departments have to pay to have their sites updated.

A former coworker/friend died Thursday. I went to the visitation with a friend yesterday after work. Her funeral is happening at this moment, but I choose not to go today.

There's a bead market today that I'd like to go to, but I'm seriously thinking about staying in the house. I've already cut and dragged a huge branch from the backyard to the front for brush pickup. I've taken the recyclables to the curb, and brought the bin back. I should run to the credit union to straighten out my credit card issue. THEN I'll stay in. I'll probably go to the bead market tomorrow after church. I have flower duty tomorrow, so I'll run by the church, drop off some of the foods I cannot eat anymore with my daughter and then head to Universal City. Or maybe not . . .

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