The yearbook is in the hands of the Federal Express man!!

Tonight I was catching up on personal and BTD mail. I had received a note from an 8th grader who wants to do a Science Fair Project on the Blood Type Diet. She wanted to know what I thought about the diet and how it had worked for me. After I answered her, I realized that I had just typed a pretty good blog. Some of it repeats a little bit of earlier blogs, but some I have never shared here before. Here is what I wrote :

I love science fair projects. Our whole family gets involved. Here's my Blood Type Diet story.

I started having indigestion - pain in the upper part of my stomach combined with a lot of burping. I did all the things the self help books said to do and I got worse! I went to the doctor. Because my mother had also had problems with indigestion that caused her to have surgery, my doctor was concerned. He put me on prescription medicine for two months. The prescription helped a little. Then he sent me in for a lot of tests. The tests showed that I didn't have any of the physical problems that usually cause indigestion. My stomach was inflamed, and he didn't know why. The nurse said, "It's diet and stress."

At first that made me mad. Why couldn't the doctor tell me what was wrong with me? Then I prayed, and as I prayed I thought, maybe the nurse is right. Maybe I missed something. So I went to my favorite Health Food Store and started looking up indigestion in the indexes of their books.

When I got to the Blood Type Diet, it said that Type Os were more likely to have indigestion than any other blood type. I was a Type O. It said that wheat and milk were two of the biggest causes of indigestion for Type Os. I ate wheat and yogurt every single morning for breakfast. No wonder I had indigestion!

I started the Blood Type Diet immediately. I didn't start slowly. I went all out, all at once. My family thought I had gone crazy. No more bread? No more pizza? No more ice cream?

I felt better the very next day. Before the end of the first week I was only taking the prescription every other day. Before the end of the second week I stopped the prescription and have not ever needed it again.

I have been on the Blood Type diet almost a year. No more indigestion. No more joint pain, I have lost 15 pounds without even trying. My muscles are getting stronger because I have energy to exercise more and I am eating more protein.

If I eat wheat or milk products, I can tell that I don't feel as good. Sometimes my stomach rumbles and churns. Sometimes I get real sleepy. Sometimes I get a headache.

I will eat according to the Blood Type Diet forever. The alternative is to feel bad and take medicine every day. That's not the way I want to live!

Let me know how your science project turns out.

Last winter and spring I swam one day a week at an indoor pool owned by our school district. Its primary use is for high school swim teams, but they are open for lap swim at mid-day and late at night. Though it is a heated pool, the water was always cold. I asked why, and was told that competitive swimmers like the water cold because it improves their times. I didn't understand, and I didn't like it that my toes were numb for the first 200 meters I swam.

Our outdoor neighborhood pool opened over the weekend. Last night I succeeded in finishing my yearbook work in time to join my husband for lap swim. Yesterday was the second day of record-breaking heat, and the water in the pool was very warm. I started my laps and I felt like I was trying to swim through pudding. Suddenly I understood why racers like cold water. I would say to myself, the next lap I'm going to sprint, but my arms and legs were barely moving through the water.

Normally I have plenty of time to swim 1200 meters. Last night when they blew the whistle to close the pool, I had 2 laps to go. Note to self: next winter when my toes are numb, appreciate the fact that I'm swimming faster.

Today I'm typing this blog again from my school computer. Lunch is the last of the lamb with turnip greens and black beans. I have carrots and sesame butter for a snack, but I'm hoping to finish the last three pages before my stomach says it's snack time.

This week is the final deadline for the yearbook. I was at school most of the day Saturday and all day on Memorial Day. I've been here since 9:00 this morning, and I hope to finish before 7:00 tonight so I can join my family for a swim. I'm typing a quick blog while I eat my lunch. I packed lamb, parsnips, and butternut squash. The other teachers are across the hall at an in service meeting. If most of them could see what I choose for lunch instead of joining them at a nearby restaurant, they would be astonished. The kindergarten teacher is a Type O and follows the Blood Type Diet. I saw her with the book last fall, and we've had a couple of good conversations. Both librarians are Type As. They naturally tend toward vegetarianism, and when they read the Type A Food and Beverage guides they felt affirmed.

I never get enough sleep during deadlines, and I always feel guilty about the things that go undone at home. But I have felt really energetic during all three deadlines this year, and I know it is because of the BTD. I pack lots of beneficial food, and stop for frequent snacks. On Saturday I found a major mistake on one of the pages. I felt panic set in, and I wanted something to eat - NOW! I grabbed a bag of walnuts and raisins, and started munching as I pulled out the picture files and started to rework the page. One nice thing about walnuts is that they don't smudge pictures! By the time the walnuts were gone, the crisis was resolved.

We had a superb dinner tonight. Other bloggers write about having lamb on a regular basis. But lamb is really expensive at my grocery store, so I haven't bought it often. That is about to change. Sam's Club sells boneless leg of lamb for less than $4 a pound. This afternoon I roasted lamb for my son and me. (The Type As had left over chicken)

We have new neighbors across the street, and they have put in a garden. They brought over two of the largest onions I have ever seen. They are called Sweet 10-15s. Our neighbors said to cook them in foil in the oven with butter and salt. They were delicious with the lamb.

Fresh cherries for dessert were the perfect ending to the meal.

If anyone sells t-shirts like the ones Melissa proposed I will buy one and wear it proudly!

At the store today I saw a lady about my age in a t-shirt that said, "If I knew I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself." It was supposed to be funny, but really, it was kind of sad. There are many people my age paying the price for 50 years of eating the wrong foods, and they don't know what to do except deal with the discomfort, take prescription medication, or make jokes.

Comments this week were mostly about sunscreen and kohlrabi. Carla comes from a gardening family. She got this kohlrabi information from her mom. "They get bitter for two reasons: from being exposed to the air, (which is why storing them in water helps) and if they are old. You can tell if they are old because the cut end will have little woody fibers sticking out the bottom. Mom's best advice: get them as fresh as you can (straight from the garden if possible) store them uncut and unpeeled, and use them quickly. If you must store a cut kohlrabi, take a slice off the cut end and discard it before eating the rest."

Stephanie writes that there are companies that make mineral make up that acts as natural sunscreen. (Perhaps zinc and titanium are two of the minerals) Here are brands suggested by Stephanie: Jane Iredale, Bare Essentials, and Youngblood. She has also heard of oils having sunblocking properties. She thinks they may be Rice Bran oil and coconut oil. If any of you have information on that please pass it along.

I can't recommend a physical sunblock. I've ordered two brands to try. Here are some of the companies I found that make physical sunblocks, and you can read about them on the internet: Birch Trees, Physician's Complex, Kiss My Face, SkinCeuticals, Dermatone.

I keep thinking about that lady and her t-shirt. It could apply to spiritual health as well as physical health. We are going to live forever, just not in this world. I shudder to think of souls in the afterlife wearing t-shirts saying, "If I had known I was going to live forever, I would have had a personal relationship with God."