We’re just about three weeks into this gluten free experiment and so far I’m no worse for the wear.  I’ll say that if I were severely intolerant or had Celiac disease, I’d have gone through a Costco size box of EpiPens (and/or Depends) already.  It has proven to be pretty challenging at times (like when I had a salad, side of broccoli, mashed potatoes, and roasted vegetables for lunch one day), but it’s also been very educating.

For the most part I’ve done a good job resisting temptation.  A few lapses in resolve have cropped up, but nothing too major.  SXSW was brutal, but there’s a silver lining to it.  However, it also meant I couldn’t go to town on a burger, ice cream sandwich, and burrito over the course of an hour.  I made my way through the mayhem on corn tortilla tacos (thanks Coreanos and Chi’Lantro!).

When starting the gluten free journey the first thought was to maybe just cut back on gluten.  So far it’s proven much more worthwhile to cut it out completely.  The primary validation is my heightened awareness by checking every ingredient list, asking every vendor, and keeping a leery eye to anything I eat.  There have been a few things I definitely would have eaten mainly out of habit or because they were sitting in front of me.  Instead, I took the time to think (which is highly underrated).

The big takeaway so far is that going gluten free requires a lot of planning.  Ev and I have started planning weekly dinner menus in a Google calendar.  And because lunch is such a toss up now, we’re going to be cooking for four so that we have leftovers for the next day’s lunch.  There will certainly be sacrifices, but Austin is extremely GF-friendly.  Some fellow Austin food bloggers have listed out dozens of places that will accommodate and cater gluten freemen and freewomen of the world Texas.

I’m aiming for two months of strict(-ish) gluten free living.  After that point I’ll likely reintroduce gluten in moderation.  As I mentioned, it’s been educational thus far.  I’m hoping that after two months I’ll be more aware and deliberate in what I’m eating.  The ultimate motivation that kicked things off was to see if a gluten free diet would help my general well-being.  Time will tell.