Dairy-Free

I was talking to some friends/family last weekend about healthy eating. Again and again, dairy comes up. We eat quite a bit of dairy, or I should say, I do. Yogurt, cottage cheese, milk on cereal, cheese on salads and in casseroles. I use dairy as one of my main sources of protein (Greek yogurt has almost 20 grams of protein per serving!) After talking to these people I decided I need to cut out dairy. So I started trying to do it mentally first. Each time I ate something dairy, I would make a mental note and see what I could substitute instead. (As I think I mentioned before I'm also trying to cut out soy...so this is going to be a little more difficult.) I realized that I eat dairy and don't really even notice that I am. I got ice cream at the lunch in which we were talking about how bad dairy is for you!!!! Didn't even connect until I started eating the ice cream. (I'm going to go ahead and play the "baby brain" card here. I never believed it existed until this 4th kid! I forgot the term "laundry detergent" and had to call it "the soap you use to wash your clothes"!!!!) Anyway, I had a realization last night at the grocery store as I was standing in front of all the milks (I got rice and coconut, just for variety). I don't have to cut out all dairy. I get so caught up in this stuff that I want to fix it all NOW. I don't NEED to do that. If I just switch to non-dairy milk to start with, that's a good start. I've stopped adding yogurt to my smoothies and I'm going to stop giving my kids yogurt as well. "Inch by inch, life's a cinch. Yard by yard, it's very hard." Why can't I ever seem to remember that?!?!