...and then my email ads tried to sell me fake macaroni, and I suddenly hated the world.

I started the Gluten Free clinical PKD study yesterday.

Compared to the Tolviptan study, this is a cake walk (HA! No cake. EVER).  That study had an awful lot of guidelines and checkups and MRIs and fatigue and work.  It was also a paid study.

The GF study is not paid; it is completely voluntary. I signed on for two months of honest food logging (and I can use Sparkpeople for that); weekly weigh-ins, and a round of pre-and-post bloodwork and ultrasounds.  I don't have to avoid items that are processed in gluten-y facilities, and if I fall off the wagon I'm just supposed to be honest, recover, roll on.  It's basically like getting to do Weight Watchers with the same accountability factors and no actual paying for Weight Watchers!  SCORE, right?  I mean, Yay! Renal Health! and all, but I really wouldn't be sad if I lost the 20-ish lbs I've gained back since I quit WW.

No beer.
No whiskey.
No bread.
No pasta.
No cake.
No breaded fried things.

But hey... bananas have no gluten. I love bananas!
Bananas are boring.

I planned on doing a bit of prep for this, but with holidays and my dad being over and everybody in the damn WORLD having the flu, I'll admit that I did not spend the weekend thoughtfully poring over GF cookbooks and writing immaculate menus and pre-cooking garbanzo beans.  I spent it eating pizza, drinking beer, and napping, and I played some games with some friends and the nephews.  It ended up being a good weekend but Monday morning I was not so prepared.

#1 piece of advice given to baby GFers?  "Keep almonds in your purse!"

Oh, yeah.... I'm allergic to those.

So yesterday, I ended up eating all day and feeling the presence of my bread-addicted tapeworm despite it. The internet/books say that that is a normal product of the transition, but I didn't think I was all that gluten dependent to start with. I'm probably completely wrong, of course.  Today is feeling better; I made wiser morning decisions and packed a survival kit of peanuts and carrots and a banana.  I am trying to completely ignore GF Convenience Foods; they'll probably taste like hippies, and if I can work on culling out as much processed stuff as possible I'll at least be able to feel smug, which is important with a big challenge.  I may try to con Aarin into baking some GF bread at some point, but I think I'm just going to view this as a form of Paleo and see what happens.