Allergy Queen

By Kelsey Wright

The emotional connection we have to food

is something to which we all relate.

Food restrictions can easily ruin your mood

and are often difficult to embrace.

Food is often how we relate to others

since we eat when we see family and friends.

Food is how love is shown by our mothers.

If you don’t eat her meals, it could be an offense.

There are many reasons why we change our diet

like for diabetes, Celiac, and weight loss.

Sometimes we just like to cause a riot

when we walk in looking fit and like a boss.

For diets, the beginning is always the worst

because you start off without a formulated plan.

You stare at diet cookbooks with lips pursed

and realize you’re no longer a free man.

Many times, you don’t have to be extreme.

You can eat some foods from time-to-time.

You can still have a little bacon or ice cream

or some of your favorite key lime.

But if you’re even more restricted

and can’t eat those foods no matter what,

it can make you quite conflicted

and can easily put you in a rut.

Today, this is my strategy:

to talk especially to those of you

who have gained food allergies,

mostly if they’re giving you the “allergy blues”.

I’m here to tell you it will improve.

It will seem hard initially,

but you’ll settle into a groove

and become an allergen expert officially.

Here’s a story to which I personally relate

to help give you some hope

that you can and will acclimate

and begin on an upward slope.

Adult-onset food allergies

can truly cause a grown woman to cry.

Especially when she misses cheese

and ice cream… and also pie.

I know a girl who has gone through this

who’s allergic to 12 different foods.

She can’t have pizza, strawberries, or swiss.

Most things at the store, her diet excludes.

She started out by reading every food label,

walking down every grocery aisle,

and finding things to eat if she was able

to help change her lifestyle.

Next, she learned to be creative

and make recipes that were completely new.

Her family became more accommodative

and cooked things that she can eat too.

At her wedding, she had a special cake

and now eats cashew milk ice cream all the time.

She’s learned she really loves to bake

and her favorite sauce is now avocado lime.

‘

Her love of cooking grew with her confidence

and the situation turned out to be ideal.

It’s when she developed patience

that the little sadness inside of her healed.

This is when she gained a mastery over her foe

and slayed the bothersome allergen “serpentine”.

She then sat down in her contentment throne

and dubbed herself the allergy queen.