Gluten Deprivation Project: Day 17
I know at least one of you is eagerly waiting, with baited breath, on the edge of your seat, for the latest goings on of my endeavor into the land of the glutenless. I haven’t posted any updates on this since what…day two? Wow. Sorry about that. I am on day 17 now!
The struggle has been real, yo. On day 3, I came down with a nasty cold that laid me out for a few days. Still, I gluten-freed my way through it. However, that was right when Rachael came down with the same thing. Not a good introduction to a potential lifestyle change, but we survived, looking forward to the positive changes to come.
The Positives
I will recap the positives first. We found that Asheville has a lot to offer the gluten-freers of the world. Not only do the grocery stores help out with options and signage (Earth Fare in particular, for most options in one place, Ingles for signage), there are restaurants that have large amounts of GF options on the menu. One in particular, King Daddy’s Chicken and Waffles, even has a separate GF frier. We’ve been back twice to get the hankering for fried food satisfied.
After too many trips to the grocery store, we finally found some things that were not too bad, including the Udi’s pizzas, Glutenfreeda burritos, and Glutina crackers.
Rachael also came up with some good recipes that we tried. I got into weekend omelette making as well. Hash browns and bacon pulled me through.
As for beers, I found that Omission was the best option for something close to a decent IPA. My GF work buddy informed me PBR is close enough to GF to count too (way under 20 parts per million). Still, being in Beer City, USA, I have missed my favorite craft brews for sure. (Foreshadowing: Dale and Shiva, I’m coming home!)
Other positives include:
- I am pooping regularly, like a champ (probably because I’ve been eating a lot of pumpkin and sesame seeds as snacks).
- Uh, that is all.
Which brings me to…
The Negatives
I have found myself wanting to cave on this effort more than once. The main reasons I got into this were to see if all the benefits I’ve heard about going gluten free would work for me. I was hoping to lose a few pounds, see some improved skin/complexion, feel less fatigued, and most importantly, see a reduction in arthritic symptoms I tend to have in my hands and wrists.
Sadly, none of those things have shown any sign of coming to fruition.
So, I have decided that this blog update will also serve as my official notice that I am going back to gluten! I am definitely more aware of how much gluten I was used to in my life before this effort, but I see no reason to avoid it any longer — with the exception being overly-processed white-bready types of things. Those, I will stay away from as much as possible. It will be my homage to the Great Gluten Deprivation Project of 2015.
Let’s go have a beer and a burger!
Photo by Whatsername? 
Gluten Deprivation Project: Day 1
[Note: The comment system has been fixed!]
Today was the first day of this experiment, and it didn’t take long for me to realize how much my routine is going to be altered by not eating gluten for one month. I kept realizing that I couldn’t do the things I was used to: grabbing a cereal bar to take with me, nibbling on cheese crackers as an afternoon snack. More importantly, enjoying the many fine selections of beers available here in Beer City, USA.
Luckily, I did learn that there are gluten-free craft beer options around Asheville, though I have yet to try them. However, I also learned that PBR and Coronas have little enough gluten in them to be considered GF.
The guys at work announced they were hitting Burgerworx for lunch today, and urged me to join them. Even though I brought the carrot and tuna salad lunch that Rachael so kindly packed me last night, I decided to keep it in the work fridge and go along with them today, mainly because I was curious about being a normal citizen while attempting this gluten-free thing.
Not having a gluten-free bun option, I ordered a burger with no bun. Luckily, I didn’t need to hold back on toppings, so some chipotle ketchup with grilled onions and cheese made it quite delicious.
For dinner, I ate a rather bland GF frozen pizza from Trader Joe’s. It wasn’t the most stellar thing, but it was edible. Having stopped for chocolate on the way home from work, I knew a little reward awaited me, so I took solace in Mr. Goodbar. And he was indeed good.
TL;DR: It’s only day one, and I have survived. I don’t feel any different. There is gluten-free beer.
The Gluten Deprivation Project
Starting tomorrow, the 19th of October, Rachael and I are going to start a one-month gluten-free diet. Affectionately termed the Gluten Deprivation Project, it will be a journey in learning to change the way I eat. I am looking forward to it much the way I look forward to a tooth filling.
I figured that, as a guy who has typically been resistant towards these types of Earthy diets and lifestyle changes, I’d blog about my experiences here.
If you are a dude who enjoys things such as po-boys, burgers, and beer, you might find this interesting. You might find it interesting anyway. Or not.
And now, for something completely different…
Quest
He turns one in two days!
Finding the Original Starbucks Coffee Cake
When Starbucks rebranded their food selections under the La Boulange name, they did away with the original coffee cake recipe that so many people had come to love. My wife, Rachael, was one of the sorely disappointed patrons. Unable to suppress the yearnings, she went on the quest to find a recipe that emulated the original. After tinkering with several concoctions, she managed to recreate something very, very close to the original recipe, and it is good!
Check out her blog post about it all at her website, NerdyAndHip.com: Starbucks Classic Coffe Cake: You Are Missed
Spies Like Us
We have one network in the world today. Either we build our communications infrastructure for surveillance, or we build it for security. Either everyone gets to spy, or no one gets to spy. That’s our choice, with the Internet, with cell phone networks, with everything.
How true.
TrueCar.com Violates the CAN-SPAM Act
Update 4.23.15: I received a promotional email (spam) from TrueCar.com today, even after I was assured that they had unsubscribed me! I let them know by responding to their tweet from 3.31. They asked me to DM them about it, and they requested me to forward the email I received so that they could investigate an apparent “bug” in their system. The person on the other end of the twitterator said they I was indeed unsubscribed, so they weren’t sure what was going on. I’ll keep you all posted!
Update 3.31.15: TrueCar tweeted me today, saying that the issue I describe below is a display issue of some sort. They assured me that I was in fact unsubscribed from their email communications.
Thanks for looking into the matter, TrueCar.com!
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I run across this sort of thing all the time: companies that violate the rules of the US CAN-SPAM act, the law that is intended to protect consumers from unwanted email. If I have time, I stop to email companies I find violating the law to kindly point out what they are doing wrong. Call it some sort of self-satisfaction, Robin Hood vigilantism, or pure geekish annoyance, but I can’t help myself sometimes. Here’s one I sent today to TrueCar.com.
To: feedback@truecar.com
Subject: True Care website feedbackHi, I noticed that when I go to “Subscriptions” in my profile, there is an issue with unsubscribing from emails.
If I uncheck all subscription options, then check “Unsubscribe from all,” then click the Save Changes button, it says my options have been saved.However, if I go to another page and return to “Subscriptions,” the “In-stock offers from your dealers” button is checked again. How is that “Unsubscribing from all?”You guys might want to fix that, as it violates the US CAN-SPAM act.Thanks,Will
Sneakily re-subscribing me to a category of emails, after I have specifically opted not to be a part of it anymore, is blatantly in violation of the CAN-SPAM act. Particularly, the part that says, “You may create a menu to allow a recipient to opt out of certain types of messages, but you must include the option to stop all commercial messages from you.”
Yes, they include that option, but it doesn’t seem to fully work.
I will let y’all know if I hear anything back.
Are You Putting Your WordPress Site at Risk?
WordPress as a platform has been a solid, secure application over the years. The few times a vulnerability has been found, the WP team has been super-fast to patch it, publicize it, and take care of business.
That said, there are two major areas where WordPress lacks in security:
1. Plugins
2. Administrators
There are so many plugins for WordPress, which is part of what makes it so great. However, those plugins can also present attack vectors, and we see evidence of this almost every day.
It was just revealed that most WP users have very little understanding of the risk they are lending to their own websites. Not updating plugins, not updating WP itself, and not doing backups, are the most easily fixed things that people tend to not do.
This puts WP websites at risk, lets them get hacked, and gives WordPress as a whole a bad wrap.
The survey of 503 WordPress users, which took place online during February this year, revealed that WordPress users are more exposed to security problems than expected. In total, 54 percent of respondents said they updated WordPress between once a week and every few weeks, and yet only 24 percent back their websites up — and only 23 percent have received training in the use of tools such as backup plugins.
On that note, I thought I’d mention that the most popular SEO plugin for WordPress, Yoast’s WP SEO, has a new, major vulnerability in it. GO UPDATE!
Where WordPress is Headed
Looks interesting, and makes complete sense that the platform veers this direction. The changes will be big, but the product will be better.