Someone decided to load my comment box with spam. The graphics, of course, don't load because this isn't an e-mail address, so what I see in my comment box is just a bunch of garble.

Whoever is doing this is wasting their time. We have a family rule that we never (emphasize never) respond to telephone or e-mail solicitation. You are irritating me, as well as the legitimate readers who want to make comments. It's too easy for a real message to get lost among all of the unreadable computer symbols.

Spam - either the pork product or the computer variety - is decidedly avoid.

I was stuck in a long check out line at Wal-Mart today. (They really do have organic produce now.) The best way to control my impatience in a long check out line is to pick up a magazine and start reading. It doesn't make the line move any quicker, but it does make the time go faster. I picked up a Prevention magazine, and learned two things.

First they did a study in Israel about grapefruit and cholesterol. They found that ruby red grapefruit lowered total and LDL cholesterol (the bad cholesterol) twice as much as white grapefruit. Triglycerides dropped three times as much with red over white.

Second, somebody did a study about doing crunches for a flatter stomach. The way most people do them, doesn't work according to the study. However, if you pull in your abs before curling off the floor, you will generate twice as much muscle activity. Here is what they said, "Before you roll up, pull your navel toward your spine. Keep the abs hollowed throughout the move, imagining your ribs flaring out to the sides."

Saturday afternoon we went to a wedding. It was the first of my son's friends to marry, and I kept remembering the groom as a 4-year-old, playing GI Joes in my den.

There were good Type O choices at the reception. I had roast beef, salmon with some kind of delicious green garnish, and fresh fruit.

Conversation at our table covered a lot of topics. Then out of the blue someone said to me, "Aren't you involved with that Blood Type Diet? What's an A supposed to eat?" I tried to keep my answer brief, knowing that my husband and daughter were thinking, "Oh no! Don't get her started." But the people at the table were really curious, and asked lots of good questions. So I talked a little about why I started the BTD and how the diets for each type are different.

About that time, the bride and groom got ready to cut the cake. Everyone at the table rose to get a piece, except me. Having just said how much better I felt when I didn't eat wheat, I couldn't very well make an exception. I was held accountable by my own words.

I'm sure the cake would have tasted good. However, I'm also sure that I felt better for the rest of the evening by avoiding it.

By each plate was a little gold bell with this on the tag, "Join us in ringing the bell to celebrate a lifetime of love and happiness." What a cute idea instead of throwing rice or birdseed!

I went to the grocery store yesterday afternoon. It was so good to have food back in the house again. It was even better, after three busy days, to have time to cook.

My daughter had requested salmon for dinner, so I stopped at the fish counter. They had farm raised salmon for $5.99 a pound and two kinds of wild caught salmon. One was $14.99 and the other was $19.99. I prefer wild caught fish, and buy it - unless the price differential is too great. This wild caught salmon did not fit into my budget, so I asked the butcher for a large piece of farm raised.

She said that most people didn't buy the large fillets, and that the day before her manager had cut some $19.99 wild caught salmon into smaller pieces. It hadn't sold, and he had just told her to sell the wild caught salmon at the farm raised price.

I did some quick thinking. If I had shopped late in the day yesterday and cooked the fish today it would have been exactly the same as buying yesterday's fish today and cooking it right away. This salmon had never been frozen, so I could cook some for dinner and freeze the rest.

I told her I would take all four pieces. When she weighed it, the original price was more than $70. I paid about $20. There are two morals to this story. First, - it always helps to be in the right place at the right time.

Second, unless you are independently wealthy, you are constantly making choices about how to spend your food budget. There are some things that I buy at the health food store, and I accept that I will pay more. There are other things that I buy at the grocery store. I don't have a problem with anyone who pays top dollar for the highest quality or the latest food fad.

However, from time to time, I feel the need to reassure, those of you on a tight food budget that you can follow the Blood Type Diet buying all your food on sale from a regular grocery store. As long as you can find meat, vegetables, and fruit, you can benefit from the Type O diet.

I don't believe I am much better off today for having eaten $19.99 wild caught salmon last night than I would have been if I had eaten the farm raised. Perhaps the cumulative effect over 100 years would be measurable, but it would be hard to prove. However I know with absolute certainty that I am healthier eating salmon and vegetables for dinner than I would have been if I had eaten pizza or a hot dog and fries.

So make the best choices you can with the food budget you have, and don't let anyone make you feel guilty!

I expected proofs from yearbook deadline 3 to arrive early next week. So, I planned to have final deadline pages ready to go to the publisher on Thursday. Proofs came in early. Once proofs arrive, I have 3 days to make corrections and return them, or the publisher can void my delivery date. Yesterday I arrived at school faced with a double deadline.

Not only had my scheduling plans gone awry, but I didn't plan well for the BTD. I packed a good lunch and a good snack. But by 4:00 I had finished the proofs and all of my food. I still had deadline pages to get ready for a meeting this morning. I love my job, and I don't mind working late. But working late and hungry is not fun!

I finished the pages about 12:15 a.m. I had my grocery list in the car, but it was too late to shop. When I got home it was too late for dinner. I ate some leftover parsnips and some prunes and went to sleep.

There was not much food in the house for healthy breakfasts and lunches! My husband had juice and cereal. My daughter had a smoothie and a protein bar. I had frozen cherries and canned applesauce in my nut and seed mix.

I opened a can of vegetable soup for my husband's lunch. I packed it with cornbread, celery and carrot sticks and radishes. I packed my daughter a peanut butter sandwich on Ezekiel bread and applesauce. For myself I found a sweet potato in the back of the refrigerator. Hurray for frozen beef patties and frozen spinach. I fixed myself a very beneficial lunch.

Today's approval meeting is over. I have 2-3 hours of revisions to be ready for my final meeting with the principal tomorrow. I have almonds and raisins for an afternoon snack. My plan - finish up about 4:00, stop at the grocery store on the way home, and cook a delightful Type O and A supper for tonight. I hope today's plan works out better than yesterday's.

Last week took us all out of our routine. My husband was involved in a conference all week. My daughter had finals. My students were working on their last yearbook projects. We try not to make a habit of watching TV during dinner, but my daughter was of the opinion that a good chick flick was the best way to unwind from one day's finals and get ready for the next. Who was I to disagree, especially since BTD food was part of the plan. We watched old favorites like "Romancing the Stone," and found new favorites like "Phantom of the Opera."

This week will be the start of the summer routine. My daughter starts her summer job as a nanny. My husband's commute will be shorter since the traffic is significantly less after school is out. That means we both get to sleep a little later. I have one more busy week, fine tuning the last of the yearbook pages, then I can start my summer projects.

In between those atypical two weeks was Memorial weekend. Saturday and Monday we didn't even set the alarm. What a treat to sleep until I woke up! The neighborhood pool opened, and I swam laps. My shoulder is tired and a little sore, but no hint of freezing up. I didn't cook much. The refrigerator was full of food I had cooked during finals. We ate rather well the first part of the weekend, but tonight the refrigerator is almost empty. I'll have to be creative when I pack lunches tomorrow morning, and I really must get to the store tomorrow for fresh food.

I focus most of my attention on the food and exercise aspects of the Blood Type Diet. A holiday weekend is a good reminder that rest is also important to a healthy lifestyle.

I thought this question from my comment box was a good one: "You've been living with BTD for a long time. You should by now have your standard meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner) under this diet. I would like to know what are you eating in these meals."

Breakfast: Almost every day I have a mixture of fruit and ground nuts/seeds. The fruit gets my blood sugar going, the protein in the nuts keeps my blood sugar stable all morning, and the fiber keeps me from being constipated (a problem for some Type Os). I put 2 Tbsp of lecithin, 1 Tbsp nutritional yeast, and 1 Tbsp rice bran in a bowl. I add 2-3 Tbsp ground nuts or seeds (flax seeds, pumpkin seeds, almonds, pecans and walnuts are favorites). I add 1 banana and 1-2 other fruits, frozen or fresh (grapes, blueberries, cherries, peaches, mango, pineapple, strawberries - the combinations are endless). I moisten it with water or fruit juice.

I eat very little grain* at any time during the day, but I especially try to stay away from grain at breakfast. I make muffins, pancakes and waffles for my Type As that are beneficial for them and neutral for me. If I'm going to eat them, however, I save them for an afternoon snack.

Lunch: I eat beef or lamb. My Type As are at school or work, so I eat food that is beneficial for me and avoid for them. With my beef or lamb I have 2-3 vegetables. I usually have cooked greens. Both of my As prefer raw greens, so we have salad for dinner, and I enjoy cooked greens for lunch. I may bake a sweet potato. I may finish off vegetables or legumes left over from the night before. A lot of times I toss the meat and vegetables in a bowl and top them with half of a grilled onion and some olive oil.

I don't eat sandwiches - two pieces of Ezekiel bread may be neutral, but I feel better without that much grain. If I want something that reminds me of a sandwich I will make a wrap using a sushi nori paper (there's a fairly recent blog about that called "That's a Wrap).

Dinner: I eat fish, chicken or turkey. We often have a romaine or spinach salad. Sometimes we have carrot salad or kohl slaw (similar to cole slaw but made with kohlrabi). I usually fix rice and a legume for my Type As. I eat the legume, but only occasionally eat the rice. I fix broccoli, squash, okra, artichoke, asparagus, green beans, whatever beneficial or neutral vegetables are in season. Occasionally we have omelets stuffed with vegetables.

Snack: I have a snack about mid afternoon. Fruit, trail mix, an egg, Ezekiel or manna bread, carrots and nut butter are all favorite snacks.

Eating this way I never feel hungry or deprived. I do not weigh or measure portions. I do not count calories. It is not a boring way to eat. There is plenty of variety by rotating fruits, vegetables, and legumes. I am much more likely to get bored with restaurant food (chicken salad, again) than I am with the food I prepare at home.

* No longer grain free. click here for more info

Some of you wrote to say that the ginger greens recipe is not in the TYPEBase recipe listing. Here is the original recipe.

Ginger Greens

from MD (Mary)

1 lb fresh spinach, stems trimmed

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 Tbsp butter

1 ½ oz sliced almonds

2 oz golden raisins

1tsp fresh ginger, grated

¼ tsp salt

Pinch pepper

Heat olive oil and butter in large skillet over medium heat. Add almonds, raisins, ginger and salt; sauté until nuts are golden brown, about 3 minutes. Using slotted spoon, transfer almond mixture to small bowl

Sauté spinach in same pan over medium heat until wilted, about 4 minutes. Stir in almond mixture and pepper. Serve immediately

MD has posted a delicious sounding recipe for ginger spinach. She said that she has also used the recipe with kale. I am eager to try it.

Yesterday I swam laps. Afterwards I stopped at the health food market. When I got home I only had 30 minutes to eat lunch and change clothes before leaving for school. I had cod left over from the night before in the refrigerator. Cold fish is ok with me. I also had turnip greens. Cold turnip greens aren't as good, but there was not time to warm them up.

As I dished up the turnip greens, I kept thinking about those ginger greens. On impulse, I put a spoon of ginger juice (no time to grate ginger, but I keep juice in the fridge all the time), a spoon of olive oil (no time to melt butter and saute), and a squirt of honey (no time to wait for raisins to plump up) on the cold greens. I stirred it together and tasted it. I thought I was eating dessert. It was delicious, even cold.

I am going to make the recipe the right way and serve it warm. I think even my husband, who doesn't usually care for cooked greens, will like it.

This verse was in my Bible study. The young lions lack and suffer hunger; but those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing Psalm 34:10. When I read that verse it makes me think of God as eager to bless us with good food and health if we will seek Him and trust Him to provide what we need for the way we are made.

It's been over a month since I mentioned my shoulder. I am very happy to report that the thawing continues at a better than average rate. My range of motion is noticeably improved since April 3. I am starting to see an increase in strength. Today I cleaned the shower and I was able to work harder and longer with my right arm. I am still following the anti-inflammatory protocol - but only once a day rather than two or three times.

The main thing I'm doing is exercises specifically for frozen shoulder.

After my April blog Sante_J recommended a book called "Anybody's Sports Medicine Book" by James Garrick. I ordered a used copy from Amazon.com. It is so encouraging about full recovery from frozen shoulder, rotator cuff, and other shoulder injuries. It recommends 4 exercises, which I now do daily. I only wish I had known about this book when my son was running track.

I did a lot of reading on the internet, and found a website called frozenshoulder.com. It has a free bimonthly newsletter. The first issue just promoted their products, and I intended to unsubscribe. Then the 2nd issue came and it was so helpful. Each issue talks about ways to deal with pain, and ways to speed healing. The exercises are similar to those in the Sports Medicine book, but the newsletter included an exercise that repositions the shoulders which I now do every night.

I asked a question of each person who wrote saying they had had frozen shoulder: Do you have a lot of muscle in your upper body? Everyone said no. They are like me with little upper body strength. The sample is way to small to draw a scientific conclusion, but I suspect that strong muscles around the shoulder may protect that joint from injury. At some point this summer I hope to be able to move from flexibility exercises to strengthening exercises. I want to do everything I can to prevent ever having frozen shoulder again.

I wrote a few days ago about cutting back on salt and how I had dropped several pounds of water weight. Do you know what I am finding under that water? Muscle. My efforts to build muscle have been working. They were just covered up with a layer of water!

I miss salt the most on salads. Rather than salad dressing, I had been using seasoned salt and olive oil on my salads. I will still do that sometimes, but I have been looking for alternatives.

One day I made a salad of romaine lettuce, spinach and grated turnip. (If you read my earlier blogs about turnips, I'll give a quick update. I have developed a taste for raw grated turnip in salad. I now find it a very pleasant addition.) I added some leftover lamb. Instead of seasoned salt, I sprinkled ¼ tsp of curry powder on the salad before I drizzled on the olive oil. It was tasty.

Last night we had tossed salad with our beef patties and turkey patties. Instead of salt I sprinkled garlic powder on my salad. Was it as good as salt? No. But it wasn't bad either. And I know that too much salt is not good for me.

Lola uncovered this interesting information from Dr. D about water and exercise:

The exercise is fine, but the water drinking is only so effective. My advice is to get more water from water-rich foods rather than large glasses of water. Water from fruits and vegetables is matrixed into the cell structure of the food, which gets the water from the intestines into the lymph. Drinking water just gets it into the stomach, which sends it to the blood, which outputs it into the kidneys.

http://www.dadamo.com/forum/archive8/config.pl?read=46443 quote:

Out son has five days at home in between finals, a trip to Colorado with friends, and a summer job in Missouri. He lived in an apartment with three friends this year. Their schedules were so different, that they bought their own food and did not try to cook together. He mostly ate meat, eggs and fruit at the apartment. He ate one meal a day in the dining hall to get vegetables. He said there wasn't much variety - that green beans and corn were about the only cooked veggies. He ate a lot from the unlimited salad bar.

After hearing that I decided no salad, no corn, and no green beans this week. One of his favorite vegetables is acorn squash. I cook it whole in the oven. When it is soft, I cut it in half, scoop out the seeds, and put a little butter or ghee and a little maple syrup in the hole.

When I went to the store the only acorn squash was enormous. It could have won a prize at a county fair. Alongside the acorn squash was a similar shaped squash called gold nugget. It was a more reasonable size, so I decided to try it.

It has a stronger flavor than either acorn squash or butternut squash. My son thought it was a little bitter. I thought it tasted rather rich. It was good, but we agreed that we prefer our old favorite.

Amaong the other side dishes I've fixed this week were : steamed broccoli, Italian zucchini & tomato, spinach & raisins, black eyed peas, wild rice, and adzuki beans.

We laughed tonight that he probably won't get anything except green beans and corn until he returns home in July. He is going to be a coach and camp counselor. I can't imagine that the dining hall at camp will serve anything but the most basic vegetables.

Have there been lots of Forum posts about cravings in the past several days, or am I just noticing them more because I had to deal with one on Sunday? When I am hit with a craving, it helps if I can figure out why. Avoids, stress, hormones, and homeostasis give me cravings.

The best thing to do for a stress craving is to exercise. My son knows this intuitively. When he was in high school, if he had a bad day or made a bad grade, he would go for a 3-mile run. He pounded the stress into the pavement. When I am stressed, what I want to do is eat and chill out. If I make myself get up and get moving, the stress starts to leave and the craving goes with it.

The only thing that helps a craving caused by homeostasis is to focus on the long-term goal. Our bodies were designed to maintain balance. If I exercise more or eat less, after a few days, something inside says "It's time to take in some calories and get back to the way you were."

I have never had any success fighting off a hormone craving. I give in every time. The best I can do is steer the craving toward less harmful neutral foods.

Sunday's craving was caused by an avoid. As soon as I recognized it for what it was, I began drinking water, and resolved not to eat any snacks. Munching carrots or nuts may help a homeostasis or hormone craving, but eating anything just fuels an avoid craving. I have to get the avoid out of my system. Water seems to help flush it out.

Sunday night I was involved in a concert at church. I had to leave home at 5:30 and didn't get home until almost 10:00. I ate an early dinner before I left. I tossed leftover chopped steak, collard greens, black beans, and onions in a bowl and tossed it with a teaspoon of olive oil. It was a filling dinner, and I put myself on notice that there would be no nighttime snacking.

When we got home from church, our son had arrived home from college. I fixed a light supper for the family and a big glass of green tea for myself. It was sweetened with stevia and I stirred in ¼ tsp. of l-glutamine powder.

I woke up this morning and I was fine. I've eaten normally all day. This craving was conquered successfully. As for the next one - I don't know when it will come. I have to keep my guard up.

For many years we lived next door to a wonderful lady. She took care of our pets when we were out of town and shared our delight when our babies were born. After her husband passed away, she moved into a retirement community. She has her own apartment with two bedrooms, a living room and a kitchen. She has a lot of independence, but if she ever needs full time care, that is also available.

We wanted to stay in touch, and so we have taken her out to eat several times. She called last week and said that the dining hall was beautifully decorated for spring, and invited us to come for lunch on Sunday. While eager to visit with her, I was expecting institutional food. I couldn't have been more wrong.

Sunday brunch was a buffet with lots of choices. I had roasted chicken, smoked salmon, a vegetable mix, green beans, watermelon, and fresh pineapple. It was all nicely cooked and very tasty. I had no idea this kind of fare was even possible in a retirement community.

Then our friend said, "Come look at the dessert bar." I went, just to look, of course. They had coconut cream pie. I knew I was in trouble. Coconut cream pie - my favorite before the BTD - is 100% Type O avoid. I took the smallest piece and ate it slowly.

This afternoon I am fighting the cravings that always follow eating that kind of avoid. There was a time when I didn't understand why I felt so desperate for something else to eat. Now that I know it's the wheat and sugar trying to take over, I can resist.

Perhaps the title of this blog should have been Good choices (and bad) for seniors.

If you missed the Masterpiece Theater television production of Charles Dickens's Bleak House last winter you missed an outstanding mini series. I've read lots of Dickens, but the name "Bleak House" had always scared me away. Certainly the story has its sad moments, but the plot overall is much more positive than the name would imply.

Several weeks ago I checked the book out of the library. Time for recreational reading is rare during deadline season, but I find a few minutes here and there. Two of the characters left out of the mini series are Mr. and Mrs. Bagnet, friends and advisers of Mr. George, the soldier. This is how the reader meets the Mrs. Bagnet:

"Mr. George says to himself, "She's as usual, washing greens. I never saw her, except upon a baggage-wagon, when she wasn't washing greens!" The subject of this reflection is at all events so occupied in washing greens at present, that she remains unsuspicious of Mr. George's approach…Mr. Bagnet hospitably declares that he will hear of no business until after dinner; and that his friend shall not partake of his counsel, without first partaking of boiled pork and greens."

When I read about greens it made me smile. I wonder what kind of greens they were? Turnip, collard, mustard? The book doesn't say. Can you imagine a novel today talking about greens? Oh no! You might hear soda, pizza, or chip; perhaps even lobster or caviar. But greens? Definitely not!

I was a little disappointed about pork with the greens. Evidently Charles Dickens felt the same way. A hundred pages later the Bagnets enter the story again:

"Being shown out, they repair to Mr. Bagnet's residence to dine. Boiled beef and greens constitute the day's variety on the former repast of boiled pork and greens; and Mrs. Bagnet serves out the meal in the same way, and seasons it with the best of temper.

Seasoned with the best of temper. There is excellent advice for any blood type.

For the sake of new readers, I need to review a little of my history with the Blood Type Diet. I started the BTD because of indigestion. I was not unhappy with my weight at the time. However over the course of the first year, I lost more than 10 pounds. I was delighted and realized that I looked much better. My weight held steady at the new level for a long time, then rather suddenly I gained several pounds. It didn't effect the way my clothes fit, so I didn't worry. Some days I thought I had converted fat into muscle. Some days I blamed it on hormones. I've blogged about it several times.

Over this past winter I added another pound. As I thought about shopping for summer clothes I thought, "This is ridiculous. These pounds have got to go. I began to take an inventory of what I was eating. My diet is consistently beneficials and neutrals. Avoids I eat at home are limited to a few additives at the bottom of ingredient lists. Avoids away from home are as rare as I can make them.

I'm not completely in line with the proportions Dr. D. recommends. I'm frequently over the target on nuts. Most days I eat more than a tablespoon of olive oil. I am faithful to get intense physical exercise 5-6 days a week.

Nothing there would fully explain the phantom pounds. I began to think about other nutritional guidelines I have read about over the years. When I came to salt, I stopped.

In my first nutrition book, I learned about the dangers of the highly salty modern diet. My husband was battling high blood pressure, so I put us on a low salt diet. When I first started the BTD, I continued to minimize salt. I often read Heidi recommend "a glass of water with a squeeze of lemon and a pinch of salt." When the new Forum started, I would read posts that said the lemon water and salt would aid in weight loss.

I thought if a pinch of salt in water is good for me, I'll just drink the water plain and add a pinch of salt to my vegetables. The upside of that was that it helped me learn to like kale and collard greens. The downside is that I became dependent on salt. I began to add more than a pinch to vegetables like broccoli that really didn't need it.

About 10 days ago I cut back on salt. Already I have lost half of the extra pounds. No food changes, no exercise changes; just lower salt.

I looked to see if Dr. D. had ever weighed in on the lemon water and salt idea. When I couldn't find anything, I asked Lola (who is a whiz at digging out forgotten facts). She sent me several Dr. D. references to lemon water, but none to lemon water and salt.

Lemon water and salt must work for some people, because it frequently gets recommended on the Forum. But I don't need the extra salt. I can't say whether that has to do with being Type O or some other factor. I'm not going to go on a stringent low salt diet. But I am going to wean myself away from a dependence on salt. I am going to stop adding that pinch of salt to food that tastes perfectly good without it.

Ginger is a beneficial herb for Type Os and Type As. It is specifically mentioned in the Encyclopedia as being helpful for stomach problems and for inflammation. I have blogged several times about juicing ginger root. I find that 1 teaspoon of ginger juice in a glass of water is a very refreshing drink.

I'm trying to learn other ways to use more ginger. Ginger and pineapple juice concentrate in seltzer water has become a favorite. I call it pineapple ginger ale. This week I mixed a teaspoon of ginger juice into a glass of grape juice. That was a surprisingly tasty combination.

This morning I put a teaspoon of ginger juice in my breakfast mix with bananas and grapes. The first bite was unusual, but the more I ate, the more I liked it.

I'm going to be experimenting more in the area of cooking with herbs. Why, in my next blog.

I wish I could tell you that this bread was planned, but it was just an accident. It had been a while since I had baked Strawberry Bread (my recipe is posted on ReciBase). My daughter strongly encouraged me to make it soon. I thought I had a bag of frozen strawberries in the freezer, so last night I got out all the ingredients. However when I went to the freezer, there were no strawberries, just raspberries.

Ok, I thought, they will just have Raspberry Bread. With one exception I used the same recipe. The original Strawberry Bread had called for 2 cups of sugar. That was too sweet for me, so I have always used 1 cup. Because raspberries are not as sweet as strawberries, I increased the sugar to 1½ cups.

While it was in the oven, my daughter walked through the kitchen and said, "What are you baking it smells amazing." This morning when she took her first bite she sighed and said, "This really is amazing."

If you are B or AB, try adding 4 oz. of cream cheese to the batter. That's the way I made this bread in my pre-BTD days. It is delicious, but I no longer include this A and O avoid.

Live oak trees are an aberration. They keep their green leaves all winter, then drop them at the first sign of spring and immediately leaf out with new growth. Live oak leaves are small and tough. They do not rake easily. They also don't deteriorate, so if you don't get them up they form a slime layer that kills the grass roots.

We have three big live oak trees, and every spring we rent a bagging lawn mower. I scalp the grass and pick up the oak leaves at the same time. It's essentially like mowing the yard three times. I make one pass to cut the grass, a second pass stirs up the leaves, and the final pass picks up the last of the leaves. Strangely, I like doing this job. I like being out in the spring weather, I like the smell of freshly cut grass, and I like the strenuous exercise.

I rented the bagging mower on Friday afternoon, and did the front yard Friday night. Saturday morning I did the back yard. As I was mowing Saturday, I started planning my lunch. I was surprised to realize that I wasn't all that hungry. In fact, I hadn't been particularly hungry when I came in from mowing on Friday night. This surprised me, so I started thinking about when I'm hungry and when I'm not.

I'm not exceptionally hungry after a swim, or a run. I'm not ravenous after a day hiking in the mountains. Often after strenuous exercise, I'm very thirsty, but I am completely satisfied with an ordinary meal.

A morning working on the computer, however, leaves me ready for a big lunch at 11:30. Sitting in a car on a long trip makes me hungry. I am always hungry when we get out of church, and I'm extremely hungry when I get home from school in the afternoon.

This is a new insight into my Type O self. I know that Type Os need intense physical exercise, and I always feel great after that type of exercise. I know that certain avoid foods, like wheat, make me crave even more avoids. But even when I am eating beneficials and neutrals, I am more likely to be hungry and overeat if I've been sitting and inactive.

I remember reading an article that said you could loose weight if you did 5 minutes of exercise before every meal. At the time I thought that was pretty goofy advice. Now I'm wondering if it was written by a Type O.

I think that Luby's Cafeteria makes the best carrot salad in the world. Several years ago (pre-BTD) I was helping collect donations from local businesses for an elementary school silent auction. Luby's donated 3 cookbooks. All day I haunted the silent auction table, determined to get one of those cookbooks just for the carrot salad recipe.

(Non-BTD, Cafeteria Recipe)

2 pounds carrots peeled and trimmed

1 cup raisins

1 cup cream

½ cup powdered sugar

Soak the raisins in water for several hours. Drain well. Shred the carrots and add to the raisins. In a small bowl, mix cream and powdered sugar. Pour over the carrot mixture and toss lightly. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours.

After I started the BTD, I knew I had to make some changes. I substituted a 95% neutral canola mayonnaise for the cream and I tried cutting back on the sugar. Ho hum, it tasted like plain old carrot salad.

One night this week I decided to think more creatively. Remembering that occasionally Luby's would add canned pineapple to their carrot salad. I substituted frozen pineapple juice concentrate for the powdered sugar. It was good - really good.

The mayonnaise contains vinegar, which is not only avoid, but gives the carrot salad a tang that I don't like. I began to wonder what I could substitute that would be more like cream. I don't think soy milk would work - but then I thought of rice milk. Now, I haven't tried it yet, but I am thinking that vanilla rice milk may be what my carrot salad needs to take it from ordinary to award winning.

I ran this morning at the park with the hill. As I came around a curve, I scared a rabbit off the path. It was so cute. A little further on I saw another rabbit in the middle of the trail. It was not afraid of me at all. In fact I began to wonder if I would have to run around it. At the last moment, it looked at me and loped into the grass.

I love to run almost any time. But running in the springtime when the wild flowers are blooming and the animals are friendly is a real delight.

Leftover lamb for lunch with seaweed flakes and a little garlic. Side dishes were collard greens and pumpkin.