Hives are not just for bees....

OMG, I am covered with red, itchy, annoying welts! A pretty case of hives that has been gathering in momentum over the past few days, from shins up to elbows. I shared with you last time that I haven't been as "on" my eating plan as I would have liked these past few weeks, and I figured it was probably the wheat I've been eating, and perhaps some of the sugar alternatives I've had. But I woke up this morning with the sudden realization that the culprit may be garlic.

Garlic came up fairly high on my food sensitivities test last year. I made a mental note of that at the time and stopped using it, but the last week I've had quite a bit of it, as the sensitivity had completely slipped my mind. Erick makes exquisitely yummy garlic bread a few times a year when friends are over. I ate quite a bit of it on Saturday night, and then yesterday had a spinach salad that was covered in a super garlicky salad dressing. So now I'm thinking it's the garlic, or perhaps a combination of the garlic, wheat, and maybe sugar alternatives. And who knows, maybe even a reaction to pesticides or something "hidden", since I've eaten out in restaurants more these past couple of weeks than I have in a long time, and not everything has been organic, the way I normally eat.

So for the first time in my life I have hives, and I am extremely grateful that I have an appointment anyway with my naturopath this morning. I've been using aloe vera, which takes the edge off, but am hoping Dr. R. can make me some type of homeopathic remedy that will help relieve the itching. I have much more empathy now for people that get poison oak or other types of allergic reactions - I never knew how painful and crazy-making that could be....

Anyhoo, other than that, life's going well. We still have company this week, then next week it's off to Whistler, BC, for R&R, and a week of healthy, organic eating in the condo. Yea!!

Is anyone else wondering where summer went this year? We've had rain the past three days. Summer, oh summer, come hoooommmmmmeeeeeeee! ;-)

Many blessings to all,

Sukie