A tip for those attempting to do a month long dietary test:  don’t do it in the middle of the worst winter in recent memory, while simultaneously trying to do a no-spend month.  The lack of sun, massive amounts of shoveling, general winter malaise, and lack of most entertainment outlets to keep your mind off of how restrictive and annoying the test is really do take its toll on you.  Also, before going out to eat at a chain place, read up on allergens on the internet and pick specifically what they say, don’t assume that because one dish doesn’t have gluten the similar thing also doesn’t.

Basically,there were a couple of missteps along the way that weren’t as gluten free as we assumed (taco bell ground beef), so rather than start over we decided to call it off and just enjoy ourselves. After 19 days it just didn’t seem to be worth it.  Nothing noticeable had changed (and yes, I do realize there’s a possibility that we might have noticed something if we continued another week and a half).  My hub had already said that even if this did show something, it wouldn’t be something he would consider doing forever.  I know I couldn’t.  Now we’re monitoring what affect adding gluten back into the diet has.

So, last night we went out and had cheesesteaks.  Then we bought a couple slices of cake for dessert.  This morning we had donuts, and ham sandwiches for lunch.  The gluten-splurge has been splendiferous.  Really no signs that adding gluten back in is causing issues, but I’ll keep watching.

What effect will this have moving forward?  My plan is to cut back on the gluten moving forward.  So, rather than 5 nights of pasta a week, we’ll try to keep it to 2.  There’s plenty of other stuff we like, just took a bit of eye opening on my side to realize what a rut I was in.  And homemade granola is da bomb, so I’ll keep up making it for myself.  A third cup of good granola or so is plenty for breakfast for me, keeps me filled and is easy to make a big batch.

I believe I will take my sorrows at not quite making it through and wallow in some Carolina Chocolate Drops.  🙂