Chocolate Woes

I have always been the kind of person to never be allergic to anything. I don't have allergies and I never understood how people could live without peanut butter, fruit or other foods that I eat all the time. I (shamefully) admit that I had the mentality of "oh well, sucks to have that allergy. Better you than me!"

Yeah....There's a good story coming.

It was my last week of sewing camp. The girls and I were having a ball just sewing away and chatting. Well me, being the smart didn't-get-out-of-bed-on-time teacher, skipped breakfast. (This is pretty normal for me, I'm just not a breakfast eater.) Very stupid of me because when I teach I don't get to eat lunch until almost two in the afternoon. And then I can be a bit grumpy if I don't eat on time.

So about noon my tummy started rumbling. I kept drinking water in hopes of appeasing my hunger pangs. Yeah right, I only got hungrier. Then I remembered there was a chocolate stash behind the counter for when we girls need a pick-me-up. I grabbed four little chocolate squares and proceeded eat all four squares within two minutes. Hunger appeased!

Until about five minutes afterward...

I started having trouble breathing. It was like I couldn't get enough air. I figured since it was a small classroom that it was just stuffy. I opened the door and turned on the fans. And grabbed two more pieces of chocolate. While I was eating them, I couldn't really taste the candy. My tongue felt like a million needles were jabbing it. Then I realized I couldn't feel the inside of my mouth. I was still having a hard time breathing and my thoughts were really scattered. Then my tongue started itching. I called mom and trudged through the rest of class. How I finished out that class, I have no clue. I was completely sick and out of it.

Mom was a little worried, but thought I was being dramatic. (Let me tell y'all, I was NOT being dramatic!) So she started testing different things out on me. Anything with chocolate, it was fed to me. Every time, I couldn't feel my tongue, my mouth went numb and usually there was some kind of breathing trouble. The conclusion was:

Yeah, I'm not going to lie, it isn't fun. There are so many things that have chocolate in them that I never thought about before. Brownies, cake, Caramel Delights, you get the picture. I am able to eat artificial chocolate so Oreo's and boxed pudding are fine. Anything else is for the birds. At first I was all "oh, the world is ending!! I can never eat a dessert again!!" But then I look at it like this. I live in a country that I have the ability to go buy chocolate anytime I want. While most people struggle daily to have even a piece of bread and meat. I won't die if I eat chocolate, yet there are others who can't even touch certain food products without the risk of going into shock they are so highly allergic to certain foods. Second, I don't need all that extra sugar and fat floating in my system. I need to take care of my body through what I eat and exercise.

While I'm not always pleased as punch about being allergic to chocolate, I look at the allergy as a blessing that it gives me the ability to take better care of myself, be thankful for what I have, and that it isn't worse than what it could be.

So from now on, there will be NO chocolate recipes on this blog!! Sorry, y'all I know the majority of women reading this post will keel over. You will be fine though, I promise. (I have already found quite a few recipes for chocolate free desserts.)

Toodles for now!

~Emma