Suzanne Graham

Paul, one of the Hall of Fame Bloggers, first introduced me to the concept of “Thinking like an A.” He helped me realize that the way to be happy on the Blood Type Diet is not to look for substitutes for avoid foods, but to embrace the way I am made and relish the foods that build health. He got me “Thinking like an O” and constantly reminded me that my Type A husband and daughter were made differently. I thought I had learned the lesson well, but DD is carrying me to the next level.

DD and I had the same fear about getting her wisdom teeth out – the fear that she would lose more weight. Since the day that she got the lab report about her thyroid not functioning correctly, she has been committed to gaining weight. We worked closely together, planning beneficial meals based on the portions outlined on the BTD and the GTD. There were areas of conflict. We would look at a portion of meat or fish and see 2-5 ounces. She pushed for 2; I pushed for 4; we compromised on 3 – neither of us happy. The same was true of grain portions. However, I never had to urge her to eat nuts or fruit or salad. She was adamant that she would not eat high sugar foods, high fat foods, or other avoids in order to gain weight. In two months she had painfully put on two pounds. We were both terrified that she would lose that much and more by being on a liquid diet for several days.

I fixed protein shakes every two hours – fruit juice with egg white protein, soy milk with Spirutein, soy milk with egg white protein and peanut butter. We added lecithin to everything. I juiced carrots, beets, celery, and other vegetables. What we thought would be a few days on a liquid diet stretched to almost two weeks. Amazingly, she did not lose weight. She began to gain. We decided it was because she was not exercising. Just walking through the house made her stitches throb, so going to the gym or jogging was out of the question.

Gradually she added soft foods, and gradually she began to walk for exercise. Still she gained weight. She began to add little bits of salmon and chopped turkey to soft vegetables. After a good report from the surgeon, I pushed her to up her meat intake to 3 ounces again. Within days she lost 2 ½ pounds. Perhaps it was just a fluke, we hoped, but her weight stayed down. We were both devastated.

On January 2 she called me at my Mom’s house and said. “Check your e-mail. I want to try a daring experiment.” She had gotten up early to do her Bible study; then she began praying and rereading everything she could about the Type A Diet. She wrote, “Could it be that as an A, upping my meat and grain portions aren't going to help me gain weight, because they are not the best for my body. Could it be that if I started adding in more soy, nut, fruit, bean, and veggie servings instead of the meat and bread that I might gain?" She went on to quote line after line from Live Right that supported her hypothesis.

As I read, it just had the ring of truth. I called her back, and said, “Do you have a plan for the day?” She did, and I said, “Go for it.” The next morning she had gained a half pound. She has now regained everything she lost after Christmas, plus another half pound.

She has lost the gassy, bloated feeling in her stomach that had bothered her since she had increased her meat portions. She is enjoying her food. I actually caught her licking the knife the other day after she made a peanut butter sandwich. “This does not look like a girl with an eating disorder,” I said. She laughed at me.

She has a long way to go to get her hormones back to normal, but somehow I feel she is on the right track. I have a lot to sort out about understanding a daughter who really is “thinking like an A.”