Sympathy for dieters

As I've mentioned I've been having terrible gallbladder pain. I'm having the darn thing removed tomorrow. To alleviate the pain I've been eating fat-free meals, which has given me a lot of sympathy for people who are trying to diet or who eat diary- or gluten-free.

The first night all I wanted to eat was sugar butter. I craved everything fatty, from bacon to chocolate to sweet rolls. Afterwards my cravings weren't as strong, since most fats made me nauseous. But yesterday I had some olive oil and vinegar with bread and I felt like my life was complete again.

Over the past two weeks I've been amazed at how limited I felt by fat free. I went out to eat and was constantly worried about if the food would make me sick (thankfully, non-diary fat isn't as bad). We played games with friends and I brought my own snacks since I didn't want them to feel bad I couldn't eat their snacks. I don't really want to subject everyone to a nonfat diet, but I found it interesting how the difference in what I ate made me feel separate and a little lonely. I hadn't realized how much eating the same things makes me feel at home with other people.

So, I guess I'm writing this here so I can remember what it's like to be on a diet of sorts and how, unless your body makes you miserable for eating certain foods, it's really hard to resist the cravings. Also, I wanted to list some fat-free foods in case other people have to go through this:

• dried fruit (apples, apricots, and figs were my favorites).
• fresh fruit
• canned fruit (especially good on oatmeal)
• oatmeal (made with water)
• popcorn (with just salt)
• fat-free bread
• peeps
• rice
• fruit smoothies
• raw vegetables are also fat-free but I never found a way to prepare them I found appealing and fat-free, besides pita sandwiches, which I admit I had with some hummus that had tahini oil in it.