I don’t know if it’s because I’m an O, because I’m a non-secretor with such a black and white reaction to avoids, or because I haven’t often dieted in my lifetime (not really a yo-yo dieter, at least not a successful one), or what, but losing weight on the Blood Type diet is really easy for me. Maybe I’m just really patient in that regard…my hair grows out of bad haircuts seemingly overnight, yet it actually takes as long as anyone else’s, I just don’t think about it every day.

For other diets, weight loss doesn’t come at all. The first time I tried to lose weight I thought I had tried EVERYTHING. Very low calorie diets (down to below 1000 calories a day, before I gave up on that), and lots of exercise (2 hours a day at the gym, 6 days a week). But I got NO results from any of that until I tried the BTD. The pounds kept creeping on, even with low calorie intake and lots of working out. It was such a godsend to try this diet! I was about to give up on myself all together. Atkin’s may have worked if I’d tried it, but it wasn’t quite the rage yet, and I didn’t trust it as far as the health consequences of cutting out so many fruits and veggies, and eating so much bacon and cheese. My high weight was 185, and I couldn’t blame it on pregnancy because that hadn’t happened yet. What I could start to blame it on was mono at 19, which started a crash course through bad health…mono, thyroid, CFS, antidepressant mayhem, back injury, etc. etc. I could hardly walk up a hill, or survive on less than 12 hours sleep a night. Of course WHEAT was a major culprit in all these problems, I cannot stress enough how much damage it does to me. (My grocery store down the street now stocks spelt flour! A few years ago I had to order it over the internet. Times have changed. Of course, I can’t have spelt now, but it still makes me happy to see it on the shelf.)

The epiphany moment for me was, after reading Genetic Nutritioneering by Dr. Bland, and Eat Right 4 Your Type, the ideas were fresh in my head. I didn’t want to find out if I had to give up wheat though. One morning I felt pretty good, got up early and didn’t have breakfast for a couple hours, I got a lot accomplished that morning. When I did have breakfast, it was my old breakfast standby of whole wheat cereal. Within 15 minutes of eating it, I had to go back to bed. I felt tired, lethargic, depressed, achy, the whole bit. That’s when I started to take back control of my body. Found a new breakfast of champions, and a new life. I’m stubborn, of course I tested it over and over before teaching myself it wasn’t worth eating. I tested every avoid after that, before I finally am now convinced that all the avoids really are bad news for me, whether or not I feel the consequences right away.

Anyway, the first week after cutting out wheat I lost 11 pounds. This was miraculous and scary, but I loved it! After I reached my goal (140) I did what I won’t do this time…I got lax with the diet. One avoid led to another, and soon I was eating corn and yogurt and dairy again. Gained back a little, gradually. Then I gained 50 pounds with my pregnancy…yikes!. Of course some of that came off in the months after the birth, then I plateaued back at 185. That’s when I gave up my lovely rice bread, corn & dairy, and came back into the diet in earnest in January when I started blogging. Since then I’ve gone down to 160 (or less, I haven’t weighted myself in a few weeks), and I’m still making progress. The first week wasn’t as drastic as it was the first time I tried the diet, as I’ve never gone back to wheat so the change wasn’t as drastic as before. Before January I could sense that things were starting to go awry once more in my body…stomach problems, allergies, getting sick more often, the whole package. That quickly turned around as soon as I got back on track.

So that's where I'm at now. Making progress toward a goal, becoming healthier, getting closer to my physical potential. I still have moments of weakness, I still make mistakes, I'm still learning, but I am very happy with the power the blood type diet has given me over my health and my life! I add my thanks to the many who have thanked Dr. D'Adamo. A big Thank You!