any advice, vegan friends?

it's officially over.

after a relationship that lasted years, through good times and hard times, dairy and i are no longer on good terms.

sad cheese

for the past few months, i have been trying to ignore my body's signals that dairy just isn't making me feel well, but it is so damn hard!!  i will shout it from the top of a mountain that ice cream, no matter what flavor, is my favorite food.  but it just doesn't make me feel well anymore.

i have been making a concerted effort to limit these things from my diet as much as i can (not necessarily from a moral stand, but for my health's sake), but sometimes i just slip and give in to my strong dairy cravings.  for example, last night, after dinner we went to the self-serve frozen yogurt joint, where i am always very judicious with my serving size.  i got the smallest dollop i could manage from the machine, yet in the middle of the night i woke up feeling horribly ill.  was it worth it?  that's the question i am asking myself now.

so, dairy free-friends, do you have any advice for a girl about to give up lactose cold-turkey? 

and, more importantly, is there life after cheese?