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!

I did a search on TypeBase, I put in the search term of non-secretor, and I searched by type O. That way it showed all the foods for Os that have different values for non-secretors.

It turned up 115 differences in values between secretors and non-secretors.

There are 58 foods only secretors can have.

Then 41 neutral vs. beneficial differences

And finally only 16 foods that only non-secretors can have (I think they're all neutral for us):

Avocado - yummy

Catfish - never tried it

Coconut Oil - surprising, too bad we can't have coconut milk too.

Goose Egg - never tried it

Lentils (all types) - pretty good stuff, lentil soup with greens is good

MSG - surprising, one fewer food additive to look out for I guess

Mushrooms (domestic button type) - yummy

Mustard Greens - never tried them

Nutmeg - yummy, get your own nutmeg grater, surprisingly good on Italian food or soups.

Pinto Bean - good, I used to eat them all the time

Quail Egg - I like these okay, I can only find the canned type around here.

Quail - they're too cute, I'm not sure I could eat them

Salmon Roe - uh, never tried it

Turtle - never tried it

Now my task is to find a treat that includes some of these, for times when I feel sorry for my non-secretor-ism. I tried making an egg tortilla (similar to an omelette), then I put refried pinto beans, ground beef with Taco Dust on it (Taco Dust has no avoids, fillers, or preservatives), then some fresh salsa, lime juice and avocado slices on top. The egg tortilla was ok, but it probably would have been just as good without it. The rest was tasty. I'd love to find a o-nonnie gluten-free tortilla that works out well, but I haven't found one yet. I have a tortilla maker that I haven't used for years, but it's nice, if I could think of a good reason to dust it off. I've heard that mesquite pod flour makes good tortillas, but it's an unknown and an iffy one at that, not that I've ever gotten hold of any.

I can't believe I survived my eating out adventure last night. We went to a Japanese Steakhouse. I asked them to not use soy sauce, so everything they made at our table was fine, but I wasn't sure about the premade sauces, so I only had a little of the mustard sauce. I also had salad dressing. I was sure there was something that would make me sick, but when I got home I took some deflect and cut up a fresh pineapple. That helped. I did have some dairy and for the first time I noticed a reaction to it. I had been having some trouble with my ears due to inflamed eustacian tubes. That started up again after dinner. I could even feel some discomfort in my eustacian tubes. I'm doing better today, but a bit stuffy.

Before I got my blood type tested I thought I was a B, because I didn't think I had any trouble with dairy, and I did react badly to chicken. Going on the type O diet got rid of my chicken reaction.

While you may think you could never give up that favorite food, wheat for O's, chicken for B's, red meat for A's, etc. Ask yourself this, Can I give it up for a week or two? I think anyone can give up a favorite food for a week or two. Then, after that, go ahead, taste it again. See if you still love it, or if it's just not worth eating. In my case anyway, with wheat, a week or two was all it took. Wheat was doing bad things to me, it made me irritable, tired, achy, depressed, gave me stomachaches of all varieties, contributed to chronic inflammation problems, I could go on..

While the "authorities" chant that there are no bad foods, only bad diets, I'd have to agree with Dr. D'Adamo, there there are bad fits between a person's biochemistry and certain foods. Of course, I think there are some bad foods too. I'm exercising my freedom of speech, There Are Bad Foods! Am I famous enough to get a veggie libel suit against me? no, but I won't name too many particulars just in case :-) (Funny that they call it veggie libel, when most criticisms aren't directed at real veggies.)

I'm still having some pangs for dairy, I always loved the stuff. But every day without it, is a day further from the memory, or a day closer to cheating and finding out, as I always do, that Blood Type Theory really has something to it, it really applies to me. It isn't a diet that works for some, but not me, or that works for me until I cheat a few times. It works for me, myself, and the benefits don't suddenly evaporate when I get off track.

Good diet day today, free-range meatloaf any-O-ne? Now I'm picturing little squares of meatloaf growing in a field of tall grass, it must be time to get some rest. It was a very happy meatloaf...

Day Three (Friday night) - Carb Withdrawal

Today is the third day since I really decided to get serious about going back on the diet. For the last year I've been wheat free (and gluten free), but that's pretty much all I've done right. I've found so many substitutions that my carb consumption was out of control. Not to mention all the other junk I was taking in. You don't even want to know. Now I've cut out most carbs, all the avoid carbs, most cheese (still struggling with giving up feta), and all junk. I've added more vegetables and fruits, raw when possible, and added more quality protein. My joints are feeling better, and my muscles are starting to feel stronger. Soon I won't have so much trouble keeping up with my 1 year old.

My main frustration today is that I can't find my 4 Your Type books! I've moved a couple times in the last year and now I don't know where they are. I'll keep looking. The website is a great resource though. I've referred to TypeBase many times today to brush up, but really hope to find my BTD Encyclopedia. I have a few health conditions I want to attack on all fronts. My digestion has been giving me trouble, burping and heartburn. I can tell I'm detoxing some in the last couple days, but it started before that and is still continuing, though not as bad. I stocked up on sparkling mineral water and black cherry juice, they seem to be helping. I'm contemplating a gallbladder flush, once I get adjusted and detoxified a bit. I did one a few years ago with good results, even though I had no clue what was going on during the process. Figured out later that, yes, those were stones, and there were a great many of them. Everyone in my family has had their gallbladders removed (I'm the youngest). I don't have concrete symptoms of stones, but I suspect they're in there, and I don't want surgery - surgery: never had it, hopefully never will. I also want to make sure my h. pylori hasn't come back. I went through the antibiotic treatment for it, and don't really want that again as I became terribly photosensitive during and for some time after the treatment, so I'm going to take the DGL licorice and other supplements for that as well.

I've been going through carb withdrawal, the only real carbs I've been eating are fruit, bananas and sweet potatoes. I'm very hungry. I ate a whole big steak tonight that I only intended to eat half of, and 2 or 3 servings of blueberries, I couldn't even stop eating the raw carrots and broccoli. I feel a little more full now. I guess it's like when you start exercising and you get sore muscles for the first few days. It's not comfortable, but you know it must be working, so in a way, it's enjoyable. I'm just glad nobody else saw how much I ate. 'Didn't you just start your diet?'

This is it, and I promise it's working.