Changes.

[becala]

Weird things I do now, because of my allergy:

• *Carry at least 2.5 liters of beverage (water, kombucha, chicken broth) to work with me daily. I usually only consume 1.5, but I don't want to get stuck with only poisoned water to drink if I have a long day.


• *Carry a travel bottle of Dr. Bronner's soap for washing my hands, and a black bandana for drying my hands with me to work, and when going out for a prolonged period.


• *Throw away food that has touched the floor, or even a counter that I have not wiped down with corn-free cleaner in the last 15 minutes.


• *Similarly, opt to put a fork that has been set down on a suspect surface into the dishwasher rather than give it a quick rinse and reuse it.


• *Get Eric to lick envelopes, or wet them with a moistened finger. Yes, I know they make the self adhesive kind, but I have most of a box of the other kind left.


• *Use forks to eat things that one would normally eat by hand. (Even if I've washed my hands, there's a good chance I'll touch clothes, mail, boxes, etc while eating and not even realize it.)


• *Pause for 5-10 minutes after taking one or two bites of a food to see how I feel, even if I've eaten that thing before.


• Use the term "tolerate" in the sense of being able to eat something without a reaction, rather than referring to whether I like it or not.


• Use the term "corny" to mean something that might contain enough traces of corn to cause a mild-to-moderate reaction.


• *Wipe my nose on my sleeve. Well, actually I did this already, but now it's out of fear of a reaction to any paper products I might use instead.


• *Pass over shiny, clean-looking vegetables for ones that have dirt all over them.


• Eat fats (coconut oil) by the spoonful because it's calories and I know it won't cause a reaction.


• *Time trying new foods with evenings and weekends, so that I have time to recover from a reaction before going back to work.


• Save tea leaves and coffee grounds for growing oyster mushrooms on.


• Bottle Kombucha or some other home ferment really quick before work in the morning so that it doesn't get too sour by evening.


• Time my work schedule around making bone broth (which needs to be simmered for 24-72 hours depending on the type of bones).

The last two started because of doing GAPS, but also kitchen-sink soup has become a good quick meal standby, so I try to always have broth around. And Kombucha is both a supplement (probiotics and b vitamins) and is my only "treat," since I can't really do sodas or juices.

All *'d items are habits I adopted after a reaction to that specific scenario.