Thanks for starting this thread @LizinLowell!
I’m looking forward to having some other folks to commiserate with as I try to adjust to a dairy-free life. It’s gonna be a struggle to say bye to cheese, but hopefully it’ll be worth it.
Like @Baytowvin said… a year ago I couldn’t imagine not having bread, and somehow I’ve survived. I suppose the same will happen with cheese. Right? 
I gave away cheese & cream today! 
And I’m finishing up my parm crisps before the 1st. We GOT THIS!
While I am maintaining, I am going to attempt this to see if I can tighten up the range a bit, it is starting to get larger than the 3 lb. limit I have set for myself.
I’ll make some ghee, use avo and light olive oil for cooking veggies. I have been using lots of cheese sauces and parma chips rule me. Come to think of it, I will continue to use goat’s cheese, just dumping bovine products.
Will have to follow Liz’s example and finish those parma chips off before April 1. My husband will think I am pulling an April Fools Day joke on him when I tell him I’m trying no dairy. I love yogurt and hard cheese sooo much. 
I went carnivore in December, stopped added salt in January, and as of April 1 (or maybe by Saturday, depending on when I finish up the dairy I have), I’ll be doing a month of dairy free (except for eggs and butter). Though my test run isn’t about weight loss, I’ll take some fat loss if it happens.
Why stop salt? Just curious as so many of us focus on making sure to get enough sodium.
It was actually something that a carnivore vet spoke about on FB in a thread regarding salting. Those of us who where new to this way of eating who came from keto were pro-salting, salt is of course all the rave in the keto community. She shared all of the activity she does, the area she lives in, and how much she sweats and she still doesn’t salt. That piqued my curiosity. Salt doesn’t really work well for me, but I still would add salt and have salt water during workouts because electrolytes. She suggested for us to give it a go. I think I’m the only one from that exchange who did. LOL My bp went down to a healthy range, something I wasn’t able to accomplish on keto and the salting wasn’t helping. That alone was enough for me to give most of my salt away except for what I use to cook for others. I personally don’t believe that everyone needs to salt heavily, and I don’t mind saying so. I also stopped supplementing magnesium and stopped worrying about potassium.
It’s possible that as my insulin responses and fasting insulin improves, I may need more salt, but for now, this is how it is.
That’s interesting, thanks for explaining.
I have never been a fan of salt, just don’t like the taste, so never had it - was once told by doctors to have more as my BP was so low. I ignored them and was fine 
But I decided to try adding it about a year ago and noticed improvements straight away, mainly with the speed of muscle recovery after gym. I make capsules and was taking one with each meal as well as before gym and for a while I was fine, but then started getting water retention and sickness so reduced and played around until I got it right - now I just take one capsule each morning and I get the benefits without the side effects.
I finished my parm crisps and moon cheese! I’m gathering up all my dairy free dinner recipes. Stocking up on bacon and coconut oil. Cold bacon is my slice of cheese replacement. I wasn’t using too much cheese at dinner because my husband is lactose intolerant but it was creeping in there weekly. I’m wondering if I should go cold turkey on butter as well? What are you all doing?
I love the idea of bacon as the cheese replacement. That might make me feel like I’m not depriving myself.
I’m going to whip up some homemade mayo and my favorite dump ranch to keep around as well. I always kinda relied on cheese as an easy (and yummy) way to bump up my fat. I think that’s gonna be the toughest part for me. It’s just habit… I’m sure it can be broken!
From what I’ve read, butter doesn’t really have the same inflammatory effects as other dairy, but yeah I guess I should probably dump that too if I’m really going to commit.
It’s funny that you’re dairy free, but have a profile avatar of a dairy product, KidKeto.
I think I’m going to creep into this by eleminating cow dairy over the next couple of weeks. Keep goat and sheep. Make ghee. Can’t afford to throw out all dairy I have, but won’t purchase more. Stalled for a month. 17 pounds 1st month, 0 second. Any suggestions welcome. Track everything closely on Cronometer. Only one cheat day in 60. Fibromyalgia so exercise difficult.
Yeah, that water retention and such is just - blaaah… my recovery after works are really great, like no matter how hard I work, I’m god either the next day or the day after at the latest. I attribute that to diet rather than any type of supplementation. Also, I think between the use of hot sauce (which isn’t really a lot) and meats, I do get adequate sodium and I don’t have to concern myself with keeping a balance of salt:potassium, which is something I wanted to more naturally happen anyway.
Yeah, I did a butter haul earlier this month before deciding to go dairy free. LOL A ~big~ butter haul. I can make ghee out it if need be, but butter hasn’t been a noticeable contributor to what I believe may be a sensitivity to dairy - which is really the heavy cream, yogurt (regular and Greek), sour cream, cheeses, and cream cheese. Those are the main culprits involved when I notice sinus issues and some other signs of inflammation. If I need to cut butter, I’ll find out by the end of April, and will adjust accordingly. But for now, the butter stays. Today, I finish off all of the other milky stuff … and take a Zyrtec.
I feel like I need to cut out dairy too but not sure what to eat if no dairy. Addicted to whipped heavy cream mostly.
Ok I’m going into April with a 70 hour fast to start fresh. My coffees work great with coconut oil or MCT blended in so that’s all set, no more heavy cream. Planned my dairy free meals for the week & went shopping. Got my cooked bacon, olives, macadamias & pecans for dealing with a cheese jones. Still not decided how I’ll handle butter.
I also picked up some nutritional yeast flakes as I’ve been thinking about it nonstop despite taking a B vitamin complex. We’ll see if it really does have a “cheesy” flavor to me. I used to LOVE yeast flakes on my buttered popcorn back in the 90s.
Ok fellow dairy-freers, let’s do this!
Hey welcome aboard! You might need more time to get fat adapted, or it could be something else. Probably the best way for forum folks to help is if you start a new dedicated post with your info (height, weight, age, metabolic condition, sample menu, etc) so we can puzzle it out for you.