Suzanne Graham

I was reading Reader’s Digest last night. There is another study out about low fat diets and cancer. The author of the article was clearly frustrated. One study establishes a relationship; the next study says there is no link; then the next study says… There is no end to the studies, and there is no end to the conflicting information.

Those of us on this website know that there can’t be a one size fits all study about cancer and low fat diets because each of the four blood types handles fats in different ways. Wouldn’t it be great to have four studies – one for each Type? Then we might get something that would really be useful.

My husband watches a lot of TV news. I can’t believe how many diets are being promoted on TV. Every time I walk through the living room there is another before and after picture and a high pressure sales pitch.

It must be very frustrating and discouraging to be looking for a diet that works and be faced with so many contradictory choices. It’s why I often say that finding the Blood Type Diet was providential. I was at the right place, at the right time, with a need. Here I am 5 ½ years later fully convinced that this is the only diet that addresses the fact that we are all uniquely created individuals.

On a different subject, I heard a good analogy about the bail out plan. It came from John Cornyn, a Texas Senator. He was on a talk radio program, explaining to a host who was opposed to the plan, why he had voted yes. He said that voting for the bailout bill was like being a fireman and being called to the scene of a fire. When you get there, you realize that the fire is at a derelict’s house. The owner inside is a liar and a thief, a drug pusher and a drunkard. You ask yourself, if you are going to risk your own life to go in and rescue this derelict and save his property. Then you realize that if you don’t, that the fire will spread and burn down the whole neighborhood.

This is not a commercial. I blog about how my family and I go about trying to live the BTD lifestyle. Last time I mentioned that while I wanted to support my local health food stores, I could save half or more if I ordered supplements on the internet. Randee asked how I did this, so I thought I’d share the answer with all of you. I’m not endorsing any particular brands or any particular site.

It started with a comment from one of my readers. She gave me a web address where she ordered her supplements at a discount. At the time I lived in a city and did my vitamin shopping at two health food stores, both of which had frequent sales. I didn’t even look at the website. But after we moved to the country, there were fewer choices and fewer sales. I got curious and opened the link. I was shocked at how much lower the prices were. I spent a couple of hours Googling and comparing.

Not all websites have the same brands – so if you have favorite brands, you may have to check several sites. Not all websites have the same shipping policies – some have free shipping with a minimum purchase, some have a flat shipping fee no matter how much you order, some charge shipping by weight.

I’ve bought from vitacost.com, myvitanet.com, vitaminshoppe.com, and naturamart.com. I usually open several websites and compare. Most of the time I order at Vitacost.

I have never had a problem. All of the products are fresh, so they are not offering me savings by selling bottles that are near the expiration date. It takes 7-10 days for standard shipping to arrive, so I have to plan my purchases ahead.

There are some things that never go on sale. My favorite brand of egg white protein costs the same whether I buy it at a store or order it on the internet. But the savings on Spiruteen, a soy shake mix that DD likes, is significant.

I write this blog with an element of reluctance. Buying supplements on the internet is like shopping at Wal-Mart. I like Wal-Mart savings. I’m in Wal-Mart for something 2-3 times a week. But there are times I regret all of the cute little shops that went out of business because they couldn’t compete. In the same way, I like the money I save when I order supplements on the Internet. However I also like having a local health food store where I can buy manna bread, spelt flour, and nitrite-free beef jerky. I recognize that there is a danger in pulling part of my shopping dollars out of my local community.

The next time I hear about the conflict between Wall Street and Main Street, I may throw a shoe at the TV or the computer monitor. Surely all of you are too intelligent to fall for that kind of class warfare! When banks start failing, everyone is going to be hurt, whatever street we’re on.

I grew up hearing stories of the Great Depression from my parents who vividly remembered it. (They were born in 1917 and 1918) A local bank held the mortgage on my grandparents’ ranch. For years the family struggled just to pay the interest on that mortgage so they would not lose their means of livelihood. My other grandfather was an officer in the bank in a small farm community. The officers didn’t get their money out until everyone else had been paid. Both families kept food on the table with backyard gardens. Ironically my mother learned to love cooked greens, and my father learned to hate them.

I hope that enough of our representatives in Washington will have enough backbone to put election year pontificating aside and do the right thing to stabilize the financial markets, but I’m not counting on them.

I have begun to think about what I need to do to keep healthy food on the table. I am seriously considering a garden on the back of our property. I have a lot to learn if I’m going to break ground for a spring garden. Even without a garden, increasing vegetable servings and portions is one way to make our food dollars go farther. That would be beneficial for both the Type Os and Type As in the family.

I fear that most Americans will increase their wheat and potato portions. That will fill them up, but will cause health problems, especially for Type Os.

I don’t know how long I will buy spelt bread at $4.50 a loaf. HH likes it much better than the less expensive Ezekiel Bread. I can dig the bread machine out of the closet, but I wish I hadn’t sold my bread slicer before we moved. Organic will be out of the question, and when I finished the leftover salmon for lunch today, I may have been eating my last wild caught fish – unless I’m fortunate enough to find a sale.

I have already started ordering supplements on the Internet. I really want to support my local health food stores. But their supplement prices are twice as high as the same products on line.

Perhaps you think I’m over reacting. Here are a few facts. Most employers no longer provide pensions; they provide 401K plans. Unless you plan to die young, you have to generate enough income from your 401K so that you don’t spend your principle. Falling stock markets, falling interest rates, and inflation (all of which increased at the speed of light this week) decrease your 401K income. Social Security expenditures will exceed income in 2017, with bankruptcy following unless benefits are cut. Medicare expenditures began exceeding income last year. The program will be bankrupt by 2020. Those “facts” are suddenly very personal when HH hoped to retire this year and we have two children in college.

It will help if I can find a good job quickly. I’m working at that every day. It will also help if I get away from the computer and pound out some of this stress in intense physical exercise.

One of the first things you read about Hunters is that we have "an overabundance of adrenaline and a fierce, nervous energy that winds down with age." I'm afraid I saw that characteristic up close last weekend.

When I first met my husband, he (though a Type A) was the runner. Once he got me started running, he knew he had created a monster. I wanted to push on to longer runs, but he was content to jog a mile or two. He had a friend who also liked running. One summer my husband hurt his back, and his running days were over. The friend went on to run marathons. We saw him and his wife occasionally, and they always looked like they were both in great shape. At the time I didn't know anything about BTD or GTD, but when I think of him now I would say - "Type O Hunter."

We hadn't seen them in several years, but we ran into them at a party over the weekend. I didn't recognize him. Even when HH called his name I thought, "No, that's not right." He looked like he had some sort of wasting disease. He held up his end of the conversation, but with little enthusiasm. They left the party early, and I turned to a mutual friend and said, "Clearly something is wrong, what is it?" I expected to hear the C word, but instead I heard this story.

He had retired early and loved it. He kept running marathons, and started gardening. He threw himself into gardening with the same energy that he did everything else. His knees began to give him trouble, but he kept on pushing. He began experiencing neurological symptoms, and went to the doctor. They tried several medications. They couldn't find the source of the nervous sympboms, but they did find that he had lost all of the cartilage in his knees. He got depressed. They tried several surgeries and several more medications. The depression deepened, and the symptoms got worse. He is in a physical and mental downward spiral.

All I could think was Hunter burn out. I have the same kind of enthusiasm, energy and drive. Now I have seen up close what I could be like in 10 years if I don't eat right, I neglect getting enough rest, and I let the stresses of life get to me.

A short, violent spring thunderstorm dumped 5 inches of rain on our hillside and washed out part of the path around our back yard. We postponed repairing it all summer because we couldn’t decide what would be the most attractive and most durable material.

For several days we thought Hurricane Ike was going to come straight at us, and we quickly got serious about flood and erosion control. We decided that a lot of the damage that occurred last spring could have been prevented if we had a berm in one particular area. I started hauling rocks for the 10 foot long mound. I gathered some rocks from our property. I hauled others from the discard piles at a nearby construction site.

When I do this kind of physical labor, I’m not concerned about exercising! Setting aside a time to exercise on exercise equipment wearing designer exercise apparel, is definitely an urban phenomena. My farming and ranching grandparents didn’t worry about getting enough exercise, they worried about getting enough rest.

Lifting rocks is at least as hard as lifting weights. Climbing up a hill with a bucket of dirt gets my heart rate up at least as fast as a treadmill. My back has been a little stiff when I waked in the morning, but it quickly limbers up. I believe I’m getting stronger. It’s a good, healthy feeling.

When I’ve not been hauling rocks, I’ve been sending out my resume. I told our principal a year ago that when DD graduated, that I would resign from my job teaching journalism. I have thoroughly enjoyed helping the kids publish the yearbook and school newspaper. But I’m eager to return to doing the work of a writer, photographer and graphic designer myself.

It’s been a while since I searched for a job. Some of the rules have changed. The internet has made it both harder and easier to get noticed. I’m excited about the possibilities.