I never said zero fat; South Beach, which I prefer to Atkins, is almost like
induction during its first phase, except that only lean meats, eggs and
vegetable oils are permitted. This is mainly for people with astronomically
high cholesterol. Even lean meats and mono unsaturated vegetable oils satiate
just as much as animal or saturated fats. The true satiety comes from protein
anyway.

Orlando

Using the eliminate-and-challenge principle to find personal
problem ingredients it doesn't take much.

This shows an interesting feature of eliminate-and-challenge
processes - It is much easier to notice a symptom returning
when an ingredient is added back in than it is to notice a
symptom disappearing when an ingredient is removed.  And
to think that "spaced out and brain foggy" likely used to be
your normal state back when you regularly had dairy.

Intolerance to dairy proteins and to lactose are common.  You
will want to double check at some point - In a few months of
dairy free try adding a little dairy again and see if the same
thing happens.  You don't want to drop dairy forever if you
just happened to suffer an alergy from pollen this time!  To
be extra sure a few months down the line you may want to
try it a third time "three strikes and you're out" is a lot more
certain than "one strike and you're out".

After you've done those experiments you may want to
consider some variations on the theme each a couple of
months after the previous experiement.  Try parmiaganna
as the cheese with the lowest lactose - If you have no
reaction to it you are likely lactose intolerant not dairy
protein intolerant.  Then try goat milk or cheese made
from it (several types of spreadable goat cheese are
delicious), then sheep milk or cheese mae from it (the
finest romano is made from sheep milk for example).
That will cover all the easily available options and take
about a year for trying something every other month.

Given how common intolerances to either dairy proteins
or lactose are, there is no reason to think this before
isolating dairy proteins and lactose.

My sympathies.  I'm wheat intolerant so I need to
permanently consider wheat a personal poison to be
avoided.  The only breads I can have are ones that are
wheat free and those aren't ever low carb.  The only
pasta I can have are wheat free and those are high carb
alternate grain ones like quinoa or the Japanese
shirataki noodles.  And so on.

What helped for me - As soon as I discovered that for
me wheat is poisonous I scheduled a confirmation test
a month or two out and then a "three strikes and you're
out" triple check a month or two after that.  When both
repeat tests gave the same symptoms so I could be
certain it was wheat specifically, I decided that wheat is
toxic for me.  A personal poison.  All of the bad
symptoms it triggers are how my personal poison hits
me.  I made a huge adjustment to my attitude based
on those tests.  Wheat for me went from yummy but
missed high carb temptation to evil poison lurking on
the ingredients list lurking in there to make me sick.
Attitude *matters*.

Finding such a personal poison and permanently avoiding
the toxic stuff made a permanent improvement in my
helath level and I'm sure you'll experience the same.

Even better news - I'm more than 9 years into avoiding
toxic wheat at this point.  In my first years I avoided
anything that might even have a trace of wheat.  After
about 5 years I got a little lax and tried some cream of
vegitable soup at a restaurant without asking how it
was made.  I got tiny symptoms not huge symptoms.
Very cool - I need to actively avoid wheat my whole
life but if I get accidentally dosed by a trace amount
that 5 year of avoidance was enough that the intensity
of symptoms from an accidental dose is now lower.
There's some sort of system that regular dosing
increases the reaction and regular avoidance decreases
the reaction.

There are dairy free alternatives you may want to check
out.  "Chreese", soy based cheese alternative, milk made
from soy or nuts, tofu isn't the only bean curd that can be
found just the most common.

A common feature of food intolerances - They trigger
addictive behavior patterns.  It's not just that I love
wheat, it's that wheat is my worst binge trigger of any
food I've ever tried.

The good news is that once I had detoxed off wheat for
several weeks I found that I had stopped craving the evil
toxic stuff.  It became easy for me to avoid it.  The bad
news is one bite is enough to redose me into addictive
behavior patterns.

Avoidance is key for me when it comes to my trigger
food wheat.  I bet you will experience the same pattern
with dairy.

And yet, and yet.  Certain substitutes don't trigger
addictive behavior patterns in me.  Pasta made from
the rare grain quinoa doesn't trigger a binge in me at
all.  It's just carby enough I need to limit it to a meal
every couple of months.  But if I eat it it doesn't trigger
a desire for real wheat pasta.

My best guess is you'll be able to use substitutes to
some extent, and since they won't trigger addictive
behavior reactions you'll find it easy to only have
substitutes most weeks or most months easily
limited.

It may not seem like it now, but I think discovering a
personal poison like this is going to be very good news
for you in the long term.  Symptoms to enforce avoidance.
Getting spoiled by a permanent improvement in health.
Using substitutes that taste good but don't pressure
you to eat them more often.