It is a good thing when the Blood Type Diet has become so ingrained that I can go on auto pilot. I haven’t thought a lot about blogging or meal planning or recipes in the past two weeks. I’m pleased that the habits I’ve developed over the past 6 ½ years have kept me eating right without any effort on my part. I have stayed alert and energetic and healthy through a stressful time.

My Mom passed away a week ago. When I look back, I realize that she did pretty well in therapy during September, October, and the first half of November. She didn’t regain any use of her right leg. She made a little progress with her right hand and her speech, but frankly not much. However she was remarkably cheerful considering the huge change that took place in her life because of the stroke.

The week of Thanksgiving things began to change. She began to be in pain. She got an infection in her leg that sent her to the hospital. She began to eat and drink less. During December she had good days and bad days. Being an optimist, I focused on the good days, but by Christmas the bad days were outweighing the good.

My Mom has always loved to eat. Even after the stroke, she ate the pureed foods with gusto and pleasure. But after Thanksgiving, eating seemed to cause distress. Since she couldn’t speak she couldn’t tell me what she was feeling. One friend told me that his mother’s stroke caused her bowel to shut down. When she ate there was nowhere for the food to go. That’s one possibility. Nausea from the pain medication is another. Perhaps she had another stroke. I don’t know.

What I do know is that her eating became a point of conflict for us. I pushed her to eat and drink more. She began to enjoy my visits less and less. I reached a point where I realized that if God was calling her home, and her body was shutting down, that I didn’t want to spend our remaining time together in a power struggle. One day I told the aids that I wasn’t coming for meals any more. I said that I hoped they would continue to try to get her to drink, but that I just wanted to love on her.

I would sit by her bed, holding her hand, and chatting into her headphones about the events of the day. She began to smile at me again, and I realized that she knew what was the most important. She passed away very peacefully one morning, and is now reunited with my Dad and in the presence of her dear Savior, Jesus Christ.

Since I don’t keep avoids in the house, I didn’t eat avoids. I would go into the kitchen and think, I haven’t had greens today. Then I would go to the freezer and pull out a bag of collard greens or turnip greens. I would think I need an orange vegetable to go with the greens. Out would come a can of pumpkin or a sweet potato. I was on BTD auto pilot.

Exercise was a different matter. I was so busy that I didn’t think I had time to exercise. But DD was home from college, and she understood my Type O body better than I did. She planned our exercise. She made me go with her to the gym or work out to a tape on the TV. Of course she was right, I always felt better after a workout.

People ask me how I’m doing. Right now I am buoyed by the knowledge that my Mom is not suffering any more. The last 4-5 weeks had been painful and difficult for her. I am comforted by my assurance that she has entered heaven and is experiencing life far more abundant than is possible on this earth. I am very busy with paperwork and the many tasks that have yet to be done, so I don’t have time to be sad.

Physically I feel fine. I think that is because of the auto pilot. I didn’t stop eating. I didn’t over eat. I didn’t eat junk. The BTD has become ingrained. I automatically ate right, and that has been a big help.