I Stopped Eating Dairy For An Entire Week And Here’s What Happened

I want to start off by saying that I did not cut out dairy cold turkey. I’ve been a vegetarian for 12 years, and often try to limit my dairy intake. My doctor is aware of this. I also want to clarify that I am not cutting out dairy to lose weight. I want to see how it will affect my overall health — energy levels, skin, whether or not I hit a midday slump — and happiness.

Now that that’s out of the way, when I decided to go dairy-free for a week, I was nervous.

I’m okay at home, but at work, it’s not as easy for me to control what I eat. We are very lucky here — there are vegan snacks in the office kitchen and we get lunch catered every day — but that doesn’t mean that everything is smooth sailing for vegans. I typically don’t think twice about what I eat. As long as there’s no meat in it, I feel good. But this week, all of that will change as I carefully avoid any form of dairy. I’m pretty stubborn and don’t like boxing myself in, so this will be interesting…

Before going dairy-free:

Day 1

I immediately forgot that I’m supposed to be dairy-free.

Fortunately, I unconsciously stayed away from dairy products the entire day. For breakfast, I ate my signature “meal”: Nature’s Path Organic Purple Bam! Cereal with almond milk. As a snack, I had some apple slices with almond butter. For lunch/dinner, me and my partner made Oh, Sweet Basil’s Award-Winning Instant Pot Chili, replacing all the meat and dairy with veggie alternatives (forgot I was going dairy-free, and thus forgot to take my own photo of this). This kept us full until we began craving dessert, which is when we devoured an entire pint of Van Leeuwen’s vegan cookie dough ice cream.

Since I completely forgot my mission on Day 1, I didn’t notice any huge changes.

Eating dairy-free was, dare I say it, pretty easy! I felt energized throughout the day and didn’t feel weighed down by the food in my stomach. Overall, I felt content on Day 1, my skin was relatively clear, and I was excited to continue. Nothing major to report on Day 1.

Day 2

I ate my usual breakfast and this kept me full until lunch, which is when we indulged in a vegan, gluten-free veggie pizza (yes, we live in L.A.) from Highland Park’s Town Pizza.

It was lit-er-ally the best vegan pizza I’ve ever had — but I forgot to take a photo of it, so I’ll be using one from Instagram instead (again).

Maybe going dairy-free makes you more forgetful? Jk jk.

After walking around town a bit, we grabbed a vegan Compassion Fruit donut from Donut Friend. Later on, for dinner, we re-heated some of our chili, topping it with nutritional yeast (a vegan cheese alternative) and lime. That donut completely satisfied my sweet tooth, so I was able to skip dessert.

Since I live in Los Angeles, this was another easy day.

I don’t often splurge on food outside the house, so this was also a fun day. And fortunately, we stumbled upon some delicious vegan food that didn’t make me miss dairy one bit. I was feeling energized, happy, and wasn’t noticing any huge changes when it came to my skin. I truly felt like my best self, and it was a great dairy-free weekend.

Day 3

After eating my normal breakfast at home, I snacked on almonds and cashews at work.

By the time lunch came around, I was feeling really hungry, so I piled corn, black beans, and rice on a tortilla, with a dressing-less salad on the side. Despite being completely vegan (with no salad dressing! A travesty!), this lunch was delicious and I remembered to take a photo.

For the rest of the day, I snacked on my trail mix.

This, unfortunately, wasn’t enough and gave me low blood sugar by the end of the day.

After rushing home for sustenance, I grabbed a handful of Terra Mediterranean Chips and a spoonful of almond butter. Even after this quick (bizarre) snack, I felt so tired that I immediately, and unintentionally, took a nap (which I don’t normally do). I woke up not feeling great, so my partner cooked me some of Priya Krishna’s comforting Instant Pot dal topped with caramelized onions. For dessert, I had a piece of raspberry dark chocolate.

I was not happy with Day 3. I ended up feeling tired, hungry, and annoyed. I missed being carefree when picking out what to eat and snack on. I was mostly worried that I ended up taking a nap, since I try my best to avoid that and get a good night’s sleep instead. This meant that I was too tired to work out. My skin was still looking okay, though, minus my new under-eye bags.

Day 4

I wasn’t feeling great when I woke up.

My throat was bothering me and I was feeling extra tired, so I ended up snacking on only cereal throughout the entire day. Perhaps my body was adjusting to my new no-dairy lifestyle? By the time dinner came around, I was (not surprisingly) starving, so we had some vegan lobster rolls — which have a slight kick to them and bonus: help clear your sinuses if you’re not feeling great. I skipped dessert.

Obviously, this wasn’t a great day.

On top of my sore throat, I was feeling tired, weak, and anxious, and I couldn’t help but wonder if my dairy-free lifestyle was contributing to my state of being. It made me so tired that I didn’t feel like working out, once again. My skin also lost its glow, so overall, this was a pretty bad day. It made me want to stop this challenge and go back to eating everything except for meat and seafood. I’m not a fan of limiting myself.

Day 5

I woke up feeling achy and tired, but I  managed to grab a fig bar for breakfast.

This held me over until lunch, when I was only able to eat seasonal veggies and a salad with balsamic. I desperately wanted to eat mashed potatoes, but alas, those weren’t dairy-free. Sadly, we also didn’t have any vegan butter (a luxury, I know), so I had to avoid having bread on the side. Since lunch didn’t entirely fill me up, I went back for some vegan cheese and gluten-free crackers, and later had some fruit snacks.

Once again, I ended the day feeling like my blood sugar was low, so I rushed home to have some chips with salsa.

For dinner, we made Pinch of Yum’s vegan burritos, but weren’t able to find vegan queso or cheese. We ended up using nutritional yeast instead (though I definitely craved some real cheese). For dessert, we had dairy-free chocolate ice cream with rainbow sprinkles. It was lovely.

Despite today being a difficult lunch day, dinner and dessert definitely made up for it.

I was still feeling pretty achy and tired, but had enough energy to work out when I got home. I’m slowly feeling better as I get used to my completely dairy-free lifestyle. However, I’m still not thrilled with the fact that my blood sugar is low at the end of the work day, and that I feel like I have to rush home for a snack. My skin looked a little better today and my eyes didn’t look as tired. Things were slightly looking up.

Day 6

Started off the day as per usual, with cereal and a fig bar before lunch.

Speaking of lunch, let’s take a moment to praise the dairy-free gods, because this meal was amazing. I had a Caesar salad (without the parm), pasta with sauce, and bruschetta. It was the best lunch I had all week, and kept me full way longer. I was starting to get the hang of this.

Still, I missed parmesan on my salad and felt envious of those who could chow down without a cheesy care in the world.

For a snack, I had some cashews and almonds, and also indulged in a bag (or two) of fruit snacks. No low blood sugar today! Then, for dinner, we ended up making vegan hot dogs topped with vegan chili, caramelized onions, nutritional yeast, and honey mustard.

Who says American food can’t be dairy-free?

Today was a good day, and I didn’t feel as crappy as I did the day prior. However, eating dairy-free was taking up a significant part of my brain, which was busy planning what I’d be eating during the day. Yes, I was less tired, more energized, and didn’t deal with low blood sugar, but I still hated having to limit myself throughout the day. Though, my skin was looking better than it did the day before — I had more of a healthy glow and less of a sad, tired look.

Day 7

After having my typical breakfast, I had a colorful lunch and fun snack.

For lunch, I had pasta with sauce (no cheese), a side salad, plain garlic bread, and plain mashed potatoes. Plus, I treated myself to some of Salt & Straw’s Vegan Black Tea ice cream, and a dark chocolate and sea salt KIND bar. The ice cream and chocolate treat definitely helped elevate my mood, and made me especially grateful for all the vegan desserts out there. Without them, I don’t think I would have made it through the week.

(We were working on a food advertisement, so my daily snacks and lunch were… a bit unusual.)

For dinner, we made Full of Plants’s Instant Pot Cauliflower Tikka Masala, which was yummy, and dessert consisted of some dark chocolate with raspberries.

Honestly, I was proud of myself for staying completely dairy-free throughout the week.

Yes, even though my coworkers went out to get pizza and I couldn’t eat any. While being dairy-free has been difficult, Day 7 reminded me that it’s all about making sure you have the right food and snacks around you. In other words, I probably should have done a better job preparing my own snacks and lunch for when I was at work.

After going dairy-free:

Final Thoughts

Though I remain mostly dairy-free at home, it was hard for me to avoid dairy while at work. We are fortunate to have vegan snacks here, but lunch isn’t always entirely vegan-friendly. And yes, it really sucks to see other people enjoying tasty cheese and such while you’re nomming on a salad that doesn’t even have dressing on it.

When it comes to my health, I did notice that I had less energy and dealt with several moments of low blood sugar throughout the week, which is unusual for me.

I even had trouble working out after work, and all I wanted to do was take a nap. Also, I didn’t notice any major differences in my skin — except for the fact that I did look more tired than usual. I was more irritated than anything, though, with having to restrict my diet and worry about what I’m going to eat with so much else on my plate (pun intended). This definitely stressed me out, on top of the fact that my energy levels were down.

I also regretted telling people that I was going dairy-free, because it added extra pressure to remain accountable.

In the end, I truly didn’t like being completely dairy-free. I thought I would, but I hated having to worry about every little thing I was eating throughout the day. While I’ll do my best to eliminate dairy like I normally do, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to fully quit. Parmesan cheese is my soulmate, after all.