I have to admit, my meal plan blogs are as much for me as for my readers, as sometimes I wish I had kept track of what I ate when I was compliant and doing really well with the diet. That way I can remind myself later when I feel like I don't know where to start.

So here is my meal plan for the week, this is an non-secretor O plan with a side of explorer. I don't eat rice or any dairy, due to food allergy teasting and SWAMI results. I make a few modifications for type A family members... although they often get O foods because they aren't as strict and sometimes I feed them what they will eat...they don't eat much red meat, at least.

Saturday:
Dinner:
Italian turkey sausage with marinara sauce
tinkyada pasta for them, spaghetti squash for me
green beans

Snack:
nori sesame "crackers"
pomagranate slushy, unsweetened

Sunday:
Breakfast:
green tea almond milk latte with agave and v. glycerine
3 boiled eggs with olive oil, lemon juce, garlic sea salt, and nori crackers

Snack: pom slushy, unsweetened

Lunch:
repeat of yesterday's dinner

Dinner:
chicken andouille sausages with great northern beans, onion and carrot
grilled salmon (for kids who won't eat andouille beans
steamed quinoa
broccoli

Advance prep flank steak and quinoa tortillas for Monday's tacos.
flax muffins or focaccia for snacks
What to do with a fennel bulb I bought?

More to come...

Where to begin... I've been blogging for a long long time, but not so much in the past year. Some things, which are most important to me, like my family, required my full attention. I didn't always take care of myself like I should have, but my body proved to be resilient in spite of it. Now I can, and must, focus on my health. I've reached a point of no return to SAD (that is, Standard American Diet). Of course, my diet could never be "standard" with gluten issues, but for most of the last year (or five), my diet has had too much in common with standard.

Many things have helped me reach this point, the most important being Neuro Modulation Therapy, or NMT. It has been absolutely amazing and healing for me. My health fell apart at age 19 after having mono, and I've never felt "normal" since then, but NMT is helping me finally git rid of that baggage. It has also helped me learn to value myself enough to take better care of myself...gradually leaving all the negative baggage behind. The mind and body work together in amazing ways, it's nice to find a way to heal both. I can get by with less than 9 hours sleep and not get sleepy until bedtime, wow. I'm feeling stronger and more energetic, and capable, less distracted, less bipolar.

Taekwondo has also helped me, it has kept my body strong and challenged my mind. It has challenged and improved my view of myself and my capabilities. While I have put off black belt testing (it is quite demanding at my studio) in order to focus on my family responsibilities, I am still going strong and moving forward with it. The friendships and mentorships I have found there have been life-altering.

Essential oils are also helping me lately...some to give me more energy, some to heal injuries and reduce inflammation, some for well-being, fighting infections, and boosting metabolism. In combination with the NMT, something has finally caused a lymph node on my neck that was swollen for 16 years to go back to normal. My skin is healthier and even my feet are softer and less prone to heel-cracks. Those may seem like trivial things, but they were quite stubborn, seemingly insurmountable, problems for me! Strange but true. I've also been dry skin body brushing, which has been great.

I've decided to give up rice. I was eating so much of it, that according to NMT I've now developed an allergy to it. I was beginning to get symptoms of something going on, and I'm happy to be done with those. It may be a temporary necessity, as NMT can cure some allergies, but I'm not too bummed about it. It suddenly cuts out most of the snacks my kids eat from my diet, and that's a good thing. I've been eating less junk, if any, and lots more vegetables, meat, fruit and all those beneficial O foods.

My oldest son has had health problems progressively getting worse over 3 years. It started with food allergies as a baby, and by the end of 1st grade he was becoming a nervous wreck with tummy aches every day. A great pediatric gastroenterologist guessed (since he really was terrified of a biopsy) that it was food allergies or histamines causing the tummy aches. She confirmed this by giving him cyproheptadine, an antihistamine, which seemed to be a miracle until we realized it was making him too tired to do much. With NMT and hypnosis, things improved enough that we could get him off the medicine. Recently somebody posted a link to orthomolecular theories and therapies to help with emotional problems. I browsed through it lightly and then came across a description of histadelia, which described him perfectly, head to toes. I didn't know excess histamine could cause so many problems, so now I'm religiously giving him extra vitamin C, calcium, magnesium, zinc, bromelain and quercetin, and already seeing him feel better and more adventurous. I don't know any alternative psychiatrists to take him to, wish there were some, but we're getting on the right track now.

Psychiatrists rely way too heavily on pharmaceuticals, the only blood test they ever run is for thyroid problems, in my experience. No screening for nutritional deficiencies whatsoever. I sure hope the orthomolecular approach becomes more standard, especially for children who can have bad reactions to rx's.

Of course, I found the same thing with a neurologist a few years ago. She was scheduling me for a lumbar puncture before running a single blood test. Fortunately, another doctor found the vitamin D deficiency that was causing the calcium deficiency, which was causing the numbness in my skin. I wonder if the neurologist would have found some way to diagnose me with MS, because that was all she wanted to do. Blah... #3 motivation for following BTD: I never want to have to step into the office of a neurologist again in all my life.

This last few months have been full of change, chaos and challenges. Sometimes I lose track of myself through it all. My 2nd grader (type A+ secretor, teacher genotype) is having tummy and immunity trouble, so I began homeschooling him so I could be in more control of his diet. He has still managed to come down with a lot of colds, flu and gastroenteritis in a little over one month. That along with other challenges has caused me to have some trouble doing things specifically for my own health.

Green Smoothies have been my saving grace some weeks. My favorite has cranberry juice, water or apple juice, lots of kale, chia seeds (liquefy all these ingredients first), then add frozen blueberries and any other frozen fruit, once that is smooth add a banana and blend just a bit until it's blended in and smooth. That keeps me from my newest pitfall of skipping meals... that never was a problem before, I tend to be a stress-eater, not a stress-faster, but either approach has similar results.

Every time I fall, I get back up and start over, and I'll continue to do so. Last week I got to spend some time in Southern California with my family, which was great for my SAD. I've plugged in my happy light as well, but have had trouble forcing myself into the cold outdoors to get real sunshine and exercise.

It can be done, and you don't have to be superhuman to do it.

My friend in San Francisco wrote this blog with some good ideas.
http://cooking4theclueless.wordpress.com/2010/07/02/you-can-eat-locally-organically-on-a-budget/

I wish I knew where to buy mutton around here! The cheapest healthy meat I can find is ground turkey, which is quite versatile. Free range beef is a bit more expensive than regular, but that can be dealt with by eating a bit less of it (the benefits will be greater than eating more of the grain-fed kind), and by using up every bit you buy. You can also buy it in bulk from local ranches, for some savings, as long as you know you'll use it up and you have room for it in a freezer.

Another point is that avoiding processed and pre-made food also saves money. This is especially true for gluten free and specialty food, it's much cheaper to make from scratch.

You can fill up a cart with produce pretty cheaply, and some produce doesn't have to be organic. The top twelve LOW in pesticide produce items are:
Onions
Avocado
Sweet Corn
Pineapple
Mangos
Sweet Peas
Asparagus
Kiwi
Cabbage
Eggplant
Cantaloupe
Watermelon
Grapefruit
Sweet Potato
Honeydew
Melon

The following twelve should be bought organic:
Celery
Peaches
Strawberries
Apples
Blueberries
Nectarines
Bell Peppers
Spinach
Cherries
Kale/Collard
Greens
Potatoes
Grapes (Imported)

You can download a pdf or an iphone list here: http://www.foodnews.org/walletguide.php

It can be hard to find super fresh organic produce, at least where I live, but food co-ops are becoming more numerous and many offer organic (or local organic standard but not certified) options. I've found the one that I tried (Community Food Co-Op of Utah) to be very fresh and good. I just finished off the lettuce and spinach from last Saturday and it was still fresher, cleaner and tastier than anything I see in stores. (I did clean and spin it dry on Saturday and then stored it with a paper towel in a bag in the fridge to keep it fresh.) The radishes were gone almost instantly (I'm a fan of radishes, they're good for explorers, and these were beauties). I still have a couple heads of fresh garlic to work on, and the share included a potted herb that I planted in the yard last night. Their regular share is also a great deal and includes more variety at this time of year. In this area, Bountiful Baskets is another good option. I haven't tried them yet, but have heard good things.

It also saves money to stop eating out almost entirely. Restaurant food is never as healthy as homemade and it usually isn't any faster by the time you decide and go and order and wait, etc.

Of course the other key is just to avoid waste. Healthy foods are easy to re-use and come up with tasty results. It's not hard to scramble some eggs and add some leftover meat, rice, veggies etc. Soup is also an easy and way to reheat simple leftovers. Broth, onions, ume plum vinegar and seaweed are always a good base. You can add fresh veggies into the soup (like carrots or celery, and raw veggies on top (like green onions, sprouts, avocado, whatever). Salads are a great way to use up leftover steak and veggies as well. With a few basic recipes, you can go a long way toward reducing waste without getting bored.

In a week and a half I'll test for my Red Belt in Taekwondo. This represents a rank that I've long been intimidated by, and still am slightly. It's well beyond my initial goal when I began. The amount of material required for red belt testing is more than any rank I've advanced so far. Throw in a bunch of dive rolls and board breaking, and I still have a few things to pass off before testing, but I'm far enough along to know that it will all come together for testing.

This shows just the advanced belts, there are 12 belts total. If I keep testing at every opportunity, I'll be black belt recommended in December (I'm not sure when my final black belt testing will be). Basically everything I learn now is in preparation for black belt testing. It gets intense at this point, with more self defense demos coming up, as well as the sparring requirements. I began taekwondo just because I expected it to be hard, I wanted a challenge, something new. I didn't expect it to come naturally, I didn't even expect to be able to do it all. That has actually made it very fun. I also did it to get more of a backbone, and that is working. For those who know me in real life, don't be too surprised if you find that I do voice my opinion now and then or stand up for something. My online friends and readers may not think of me as wimpy, because I'm brave on paper, but in real life I've always been quiet, soft, and one who avoids confrontation at all costs.

I also do taekwondo simply because my body works, and I am thankful for that. I am thankful that I CAN. In my early twenties I was in nearly constant pain to some degree, mainly my lower back. I was also sick and tired most of the time, sleeping 11-14 hours a night, plus naps. I never would have thought anything like this was possible for me. I love proving my past self wrong, and proving that anything is possible if you are willing to sacrifice and work and take a leap of faith (or 20). I've been tested for Lupus, Multiple Sclerosis, and a few other doozies in my past, and I am ever so thankful to have a clean bill of health today. I'm 35, so maintaining that will take work from here on out. With age, it becomes harder to lose weight, harder to keep my immune system in balance, and harder to keep my hormones in balance, but I am optimistic and will continue to work at it. I want to still be kicking and doing yoga as a senior citizen, and that will take work and self-control.

My diet has improved significantly since figuring out and eliminating the source of wheat in my pills. My cravings are less, my appetite is less and for more healthy foods. I'm losing weight and feeling and looking better, and stronger. There's always more work ahead, no more coasting, but things are looking up! I haven't been cheating, and when I don't cheat, I lose weight, simple as that, thanks to Dr. D'Adamo's research (things used to not be so simple, but enough background for today!)