_If we're talking in percentages, I'm giving the gluten free diet about a 70% effort. 30% of me still wants to plunge head first into the nearest bread basket and swim in a sea of gluten goodness. Those smarty pants health experts weren't joking when they said going gluten free would be hard. But since gluten doesn't have my stomach roiling in pain, I lack the motivation to make hardcore diet changes (even though deep down I know gluten is making me ill on the inside). This means I cheat often and go gluten crazy at least once every few days. These past few weeks haven't been a total wash, but I'm definitely not giving it the ol' college try. To mark the one month anniversary of my semi-gluten free life, here's the highlight reel from the past few weeks.

HIGHS
--> Finding edible, dare I say enjoyable, gluten free products in Paris. See evidence below. I could eat that sticky date cookie for dessert 3x daily.
--> Making The Healthy Everythingtarian's banana custard oats more times than I can count. (Tip: sub in Speculoos for the peanut butter and you'll lick your plate clean over and over and over again)
--> Telling the boulanger that I would not like a piece of bread to accompany my salad. He looked confused, and I was sad.

_IN-BETWEENS
--> Making my own kamut bread (recipe here). It's funky shaped, but I LOVE its weirdness. (Okay, full disclosure--kamut isn't really gluten free, but it has less gluten than other types of wheat...that counts right?)
--> Devouring a slice of carrot cake from Sugarplum Cake Shop. Yeah it was bad for me, but you can't count something so wonderfully delicious as a low. It just wouldn't be right. Plus, I was at the bakery for an awesome bag painting workshop with Kasia Dietz. (Can you guess where the quote on my bag is from?)

LOWS
--> Eating Picard's gluten filled moelleux au chocolat for dessert (more than once). They're just so good. Really they are. I don't care if they're frozen.
--> Binging on ice cream because it's an obvious gluten free dessert choice. I'm not proud. 


So there you have it. The die hard gluten free folks are probably laughing at my amateur attempt to purge myself of gluten, but you gotta start somewhere, and I'm totally okay with taking it slow, real slow.