Milking the lactose intolerance theme

I have changed so much in the past three years or so. I now regularly cook...true, 97.36452324 % of the time just one dish, fajitas, but still...as opposed to Maruchan brand chicken flavored noodles for lunch...dinner...snack...just because...well, making fajitas is a huge step up. Combine this with the essentially total elimination of white bread from my diet and replacing that with whole wheat and right there you have a vast and huge improvement in my diet.
Factor in the shift from gallons of soda to maybe 1 can every 2 or 3 days and from zero water to between 70 and 110 ounces a day and again...a huge, positive shift in dietary habits. A third major shift has been the cessation of breakfasts consisting of either a package of graham crackers or a package of saltines to instead eating a couple bananas, an orange or three, and an apple spread out over the course of a day along with a yogurt or two and I am not the same person by any stretch of the imagination.
And I even see a few other random changes. For example, the other day I opened a cupboard and saw a bag of Doritos sitting there. Weak stomach alert; this next line is disturbing. That bag was purchased before I left for Bordonal and possibly even before Thanksgiving. It is still unopened. I think the fact it is there and I COULD eat them if I wanted to keeps me from actually eating them. Like, if I did not have them in the cupboard, I would be consumed with lust and forced to go out, probably at midnight, purchase 2 or 3 or 5 bags of chips and probably consume them in one sitting. But knowing they are there and I could eat them if I wanted means I don't want to.
But the changes include more than just dietary. For example, I exercise more. The whole running thing with the Goose, for example. And I have largely stopped eating "just because". What I mean is when I am not hungry, I often eat popcorn while watching a movie, or munch on chips while doing homework or reading, or drink a soda because...well, I like soda. But now I don't.
Motivating some of these changes was difficult. And I was having a hard time figuring out why until last Sunday. Last Sunday I went to church at 35th Street and listened to Clarence Eason. As he always does, he did a tremendous job of talking about meaningful, important issues.
It seems to me too many churches have lost their way. Some have become social clubs, others are so lost in the swirl of patriotism (the very antithesis, by the way, of Christianity as taught in the Bible) and causes and idealistic platitudes about "be nice to people" (huh? How do you "be nice"? That is such an abstract concept. Nice for one person is banality for another. Abstract is only great when you can define it. Wait...abstract is intrinsically undefinable...) and still others are lost trying to determine if the word in that one passage means "left for" or "departed for".
Well, Brother Eason, he will dig into a passage, but only if there is a purpose for it. Sunday he was talking about the new man and he made some great points. It is not enough to remove from your life the things that are bad influences. No, you have to replace them with good, otherwise, sure...you might clean out the place but the same stuff will come back in, worse than before. On the other hand, if you clean out the stuff you don't want and replace it with better things then you have improved your position.
Sure, the addition of wheat has issues (as more than one person has told me), the consumption of the meat and cheeses have problems, and fruits have their issues...so it could be looked at negatively, many of these changes, or it could be looked at as putting better things in place of worse and therefore a vast improvement.
This morning I was debating the wisdom of continuing to consume yogurt in light of some of the ingredients within...then it hit me. Unless I have something healthier to replace it with, I have already done that cleaning and until there is something better to replace it with...vive la yogurt!