Last year I made a great resolution, to get back into the Blood Type Diet. This year I need to make that same resolution, as I've gotten off track over the holidays. I did fine through Thanksgiving, but Christmas was a different story. I've sworn off dairy again, but it is working out to be quite difficult to give up again. At least I don't have any more milk-laden temptations in the house...I'd like to say that's because I threw them away, but I ate some of them first then tossed them. I've been reading about opioids from gluten and casein as related to autism. Apparently, if you don't digest them fully (and I'm sure I don't) then they can form opioids which can be detected in the urine. The druglike effects of milk did not go unnoticed, and definitely put me on a bad trip, followed by my current withdrawal. I really don't want to feel that way again. I did have a nice cup of rice milk hot cocoa with glycerine today, that seems to help the craving. My last batch of rice milk turned out quite thick, it's fine when heated but I think I added too much millet.

My other enemies have reared their heads as well...gluten-free but avoid-full snacks and sugar. I was afraid I'd gain weight over the holidays, and I have, but I will lose it again, shouldn't take long! Back to beef, salads, veggies, blueberries, and other good BTD foods. Got to get my body in gear for another year!

I'd like to offer my condolences to any of you who were affected by the tsunami, or have friends and loved ones in those areas. I really cannot grasp the magnitude of what happened to so many, I find it very difficult to try to understand it without feeling overwhelmed by sadness. May God bless and strengthen you.

It's been a rough week, we all have a mild but still miserable case of the flu and my son has been up in the night quite a bit. He's getting some molars in at the same time, and that doesn't help us get any more sleep!

I've been doing well otherwise though, and my red eyes have cleared up a bit, even though I'm still sleep deprived. I've had red eyes for 3 years, since embarking on motherhood, so this is a nice change.

I made my weekly clear-out-the-veggie-drawer creamy vegetable soup a few days ago. This time it was heavy on beets, and very red. It's pretty good, though I'm not a big fan of turnips or beets in soup. I woke up yesterday to discover my urine was orange-red in color. I was a bit worried about it, so started looking up possible causes online. Eventually I came across the fact that beets cause red urine, ah-ha! Well, I'm glad I didn't stress too much about it before finding out the cause!

Next time I'm making parsnip soup, that turned out nice last time I made it.

Every so often I am reminded of the truths of the Blood Type Diet. Regrettably, it is usually after eating an avoid. This time it was the milk in some milk chocolate. I discovered the hard way that it really puts me in a foul mood. It was one of those things that I had around and started nibbling on now and then, and each time - like clockwork - I became grumpy and fretful within 30 minutes. It passed within another 30 minutes. Wheat used to do the same thing, but the feeling would remain for at least 24 hours and dip into the realm of depression.

As a kid, I'd come home from school and drink a big glass of milk, then take a nap. I must have been using it as a sedative, and sleeping off the effects.

Now that I've got that lesson out of the way...time to move on and throw away the rest of the milk chocolate!

I always want to do a dance around a bonfire on the solstice. It's a major turn-around date for my Seasonal Affective Disorder. Even though, as the shortest day of the year it should be the worst, it means it's not going to get any worse...only better from here on out.

I didn't really plan a solstice liver cleanse, but I did one. I'd been trying to get around to it for a few weeks, and decided yesterday that it was time. I'm glad I did it. I'm no expert on it, so if you have questions, hop over the the forum and ask Heidi or Jim. I do recommend the apple juice or malic acid to prepare for it. My first flush years ago was hard and a bit scary, and I expected this one to be hard too, but it all went as planned with no surprises, so I'm happy. The results have been decent, and I expect to find that some of my little nagging health concerns will dissipate now. I'll go into more detail on that later.

I don't really think of myself as a health or cleansing nut, what you decide to do in that regard is a personal decision, based on your own health history and feelings about your health future. I do think the BTD alone does the most good out of anything, and that over time your body will cleanse itself, but I was getting a bit impatient Don't expect me to do a Master Cleanse, ever, though. I can't stand fasting, just 12 hours of fasting for this was more than I could handle. Then I have to feed my son, and he tries to feed me...it's tough going. I'm happy to eat my steamed and roasted vegetables now, it's so nice have food!!

A nonsecretor with no cavities? Never had fluoridated water? How is that possible? I don't know, I guess I can't get all the bad luck of a nonsecretor in every aspect of my life. So, however it's possible, I'm very happy about it.

I finally got to the dentist for a cleaning and exam yesterday. The hygenist gave me more pointers about how to take care of my gums (I tend to get a little gum disease now and then). The dentist said what he always says...he doesn't see teeth as nice as mine very often. I told him I don't eat much sugar, haven't since my teens, but he thought I must be from someplace they add flouride to the water. Nope. Not a drop. My baby teeth were full of cavities, but somehow my adult teeth were spared that fate. I skipped the fluoride treatment, of course.

I'm still eating my nonnie avocados though (when my son doesn't eat them all)...you're never too old to get a cavity, especially when you're a non-secretor.

Sometimes you cook one thing, and realize it satisfies a craving for something completely different. Keep in mind it's been years since I've had biscuits and gravy, but this reminded me of them. I was making salmon patties, and remembered how healthy the oils and juices are, that I usually pour off, so I figured out a delicious way to utilize that.

Salmon Biscuits and Gravy

1 15 oz. can of alaskan salmon (with bones)

Reserve the Juice for the gravy!

Salmon Patties:

1 Can salmon (with juice from can reserved for use in gravy)

1 egg

approx. 1/8+ cup millet flour

approx. 1/8 cup sweet rice flour

1/8 tsp. salt

Mix all together, form patties and cook on griddle, reduce heat to low after browned on both sides, to cook through.

Gravy:

Juice from 1 can salmon

2 T butter (or ghee)

1-2 T lemon juice

1/8 tsp salt to taste

1/8 tsp dried dill to taste

1/4 cup plain rice milk

1 T sweet rice flour

Heat juice from can with butter, add salt and dill, while simmering, mix milk and sweet rice flour to form paste, slowly add to pan while stirring, until thickened

Serve patties with gravy on top!

Funny, I could have set out to make some gluten-free biscuits and gravy, and the results wouldn't have been nearly as good (sometimes straight substitutions leave more to be desired than what they satisfy).

I was pretty bummed yesterday. I finally got my Christmas tree, a big, imperfect, live tree. Within a couple hours of getting it set up, I got a scratchy sore throat and itchy eyes. After putting a lot of thought into whether to go with real or artificial, I was not happy with the thought of being allergic to my tree.

Today I'm feeling better though, I think I just needed the dust to settle a bit. I've started back on my allergy protocol. My new neti pot is helping a lot... anyone with sinus problem NEEDS a Neti (for nasal irrigation). It's pretty easy to do, even for someone like myself who hates getting water near my nose. Once I got pure salt and warm enough water, it has been quite pleasant to use.

I think I'll keep it Now to figure out where my decorations are...

My 2 year old son doesn't like to wear diapers or pants anymore, last night while I worked, he got his diaper off without me realizing it. Soon I heard him in his room saying "Eeew! Eeew!" Those are serious words from a 2 year old, so I took a look to see what was so interesting. He was sitting in his play tent with some poo, I thought he had just started so I put him on the toilet, but there was nothing more. So I started cleaning, soon I found it, a walnut-colored, toothpaste-consistency, banana-shaped poop. (Those from the forum who have read the thread about "What Is The Best Sort of Poop" would appreciate this description)

The disaster turned into jubilation...this is the first normal poo he's had in over a month. I kept cleaning, but was happy that he's finally got his last gluten out of his system. It wasn't the same horrible, only-a-mommy-could-do-it task anymore, though maybe only a mommy could appreciate it.

I pinned down my reaction from a month or so ago when I got a rash after eating lamb. It was definitely the dried rosemary. I threw out the old rosemary, and bought some new dried rosemary to use. Then I used it on some of my new lamb, and the reaction wasn't as bad, but it definitely made me itchy, going on 24 hours now. Now I just need to test it with fresh rosemary, in a few days. I wonder if dried rosemary gets a fungus, like ground pepper. If I react to fresh, then I'll know it's just me and rosemary. Too bad, I like the flavor.

Ah, the joys of being a nonsecretor. While I go slice up an avocado, you secretors can still count yourselves lucky for being less reactive to foods.

But the joy* of being any type, is the knowledge and power that Dr. D'Adamo's work has given us all. Non-secretors are no longer bound to a life of being the one who always gets sick, and I wouldn't trade that for a pizza, ever.

*nonsarcastic joy in this sentence

I got my cholesterol results back after 11 months of being a good O nonnie. There were some improvements to report. My cholesterol wasn't high and stayed about the same. My HDL went up 10 points, triglycerides down 18 points, LDL down 8 points, VLDL down 4 points, all those changes are significant and good.

Cholesterol

before:161 after:159

Triglycerides

before: 103 after:85

HDL (good cholesterol)

before: 46 after: 56

LDL (bad cholesterol)

before: 94 after: 86

VLDL (very bad cholesterol?)

before: 21 after: 17

The changes were most dramatic 5 years ago when I first gave up wheat, but coming back into compliance, giving up dairy and corn, and getting into the non-secretor diet have done plenty of good things too.

Oh, more good news: I'm not allergic to lamb! At least not to good lamb. I threw out my old rosemary, and won't be buying grocery store lamb again, but I do fine with grassfed lamb. My aunt was worried we wouldn't like the flavor of the lamb if it wasn't fattened on grain, but it's wonderful! I got a whole lamb, my mom got a lamb and a goat (kid), and we just love the results. It seems that free-range meats taste more like what they are. If you like turkey, you'll love free-range turkey; if you like beef you'll love free-range beef, and so on.

On the celiac front, my siblings are being tested, the first results were from my brother, who had a positive...so he's beginning his gluten-freedom. It's not easy news, but it does change your life and health for the better. My son would be in a downward health spiral if I hadn't figured out he had it, he had stopped growing and wasn't digesting what little food he ate. Now he eats more and I'm sure he's growing.

5 years ago this week was when I first decided to give the Blood Type Diet a try. I had tried calorie restriction and working out at the gym everyday, but none of it took off any pounds. It was 4 or 5 months after I first read Eat Right at a friend's house. Then I bought Dr. Bland's book, Genetic Nutritioneering. Both books told me I really should give up wheat, but even though my joints were painful and I was overweight...I didn't want to say goodbye to bread and pasta. It took months before I decided to give it a shot. I remember stepping on the scale at the gym...I had lost so much weight that I was worried about it... happy, but confused. The weight loss levelled out soon enough though.

Since then it's been a journey of experiments and some rebellions...but it always brings me back to two conclusions:

1. Dr. D'Adamo is always right.

2. Grains (and all avoids) are not my friend.

From age 19-24 my health was steadily deteriorating. It was just one health problem after another: mono, fatigue, low thyroid, anxiety, depression, sinus infections, bladder infections, regular courses of antibiotics, stomach trouble and irregularity, antidepressants and their side-effects. I was on anywhere between 3 and 6 prescriptions at any one time, and 2-4 over the counter medications. Now, I'm on only one prescription and no over the counter medications. I better stop writing now, or the big pharmaceutical companies will launch an attack!

My genetic tendencies will always stay with me, I'll always have to deal with seasonal affective disorder to some degree, I'll always be a celiac, h.pylori may try to get a hold on me again, my thyroid is taking it's time, but improving. Yet, I feel 10-20 years younger than I did five years ago, and it's nice to know my health can actually improve with time.