riding in the cold gets harder when it's colder, and i'm older. but not impossible.

So we're making up a batch of veggie burritos at home today -- they coast us about $0.50 each to make and are delicious, with flour tortillas, refriend beans and rice we make ourselves, and shreeded cheese.

Sweetie is also whipping up a batch of from-scratch ginger snaps for my sister's holiday party this weekend.
We needed ingredients for both, plus ai needed to fill in on a few things due to adjustments in my diet (more on that later). So, after pulling on some warm clothes and steeling myself for the wind, I got out on my bike and rode to the store.
Clad in multiple thin layser, topped off with a wool cap and a rainjacket as a eind shell, I was fine. Slow, but fine.
By the time I got there I found I'd had enjoyed it.
Rain is in the forecast for later today so I wanted to get home before it started. (The only forecast worse than 38F is 38F and raining.)

The diet thing -- yesterday I met with a nutritionist who work with IBD patients. Together we talked about my current dietary choices and looked at a couple of options:

1. begin with a complete and radical elimination diet, in which I eat basically nothing but broth for a few weeks, and then slowly add back stuff and see how my body reacts to it. The upside is that this is a much more complete approach to modifying a diet, and can be the most effective for many IBD patients. The downside is that taking this approach can often result in multiple "healing crises" -- episodes where I cannot control my bowels and/or I will be in enough pain so that I can't work.

I can't afford to not work. We cannot afford for me to not work. Period.

So we looked at the other option:

2. We discussed which foods caused the most memorable triggers during my childhood -- which foods seemed to send me to the bathroom more often and more urgently. I recalled the hot fudge sundaes my mom took me out for every week, in an effort to help me gain weight( it didn't work and I ran to the bathoroom more often), and immediately said it was dairy.
So we're cutting out all dairy, starting today. This will mean no cheese, no milk in my coffee, and butter is only allowed in cooking ( thankfully, she and I agree that margarine is terrifying).

As a modifier, Alyssa also wants me to try swapping out processed grains where possible, and substituting starchy vegetables like sweet potatoes, carrots and yams. Finally, when I crave a snack that's super-processed, she wants me to open a small tin of smoked oysters instead. They're protein-rich and loaded with Omega-3 fatty acids, both of which my diet can use more of.

"So veganism isn't happening for me any time soon, is it?" I asked with a smile.

"Probably not ever," she said, "Crohn's and UC patients who can't absorb plant protein have to get it some other way, and that means animal proteins. You shouldn't try a vegan diet, because it won't give you what you need nutritionally. If you could eat kale, perhaps we could talk about a vegetarian diet, but not vegan."

I thought about smoked oysters and mussels, which I hadn't eaten in a long time but which I remember that I liked. "Gook thing I don't keep a kosher kitchen," I said.

Seriously, I doubt I'll ever totally give up on all grains -- that's simply not a realistic thing for me, and since I tolerate them pretty well, I'm not going to lose sleep over it (though I'm happy to experiment with eating less wheat and more rice). Giving up dairy seems like a more reasonable place to begin.
I hope to see noticeable results within a month.

And I'm relieved that I don't have to give up coffee.