Woke up, got out of bed, dragged a comb across my head. [if you look at the pic. You’ll realise that doesn’t take long ] ;-)

It’s no use I seem to be stuck in a Beatles frame of mind.

Sunday morning already here in the Southern hemisphere and have just enjoyed a leisurely breakfast of homemade muesli, Rye toast and Miso with a pot of green tea.

Read the Sunday paper with breakfast then up and into the day.

A beautiful Tasmanian summer day today, so off for a leisurely walk with my Wife and dog along the banks of the Mersey River and then back for a couple of hours in the garden. Repairs to the vegetable garden weren’t as bad as suspected following the deluge earlier in the week [see previous post] so I was able to plant out seedlings of Collard & Chard ready for Autumn. My wife has been thinning the carrots and we have had a general tidy up.

Lunch on Sunday is a Rye bread sandwich of Miso, salad greens & Tofu, followed today by dried fruit and grapes. Sunday afternoon is soccer afternoon for me and as an ex pat English man I am passionate about the game. My team Wolves had a 0-0 draw away at Portsmouth overnight and this afternoon I get to sit down and watch the full replay of Everton v Liverpool. Another Beatles connection there you see, did you spot it ? On another sport if your team is playing in the Super Bowl, Good Luck and enjoy the moment.

Well like most of you it’s back to work on Monday and I’m sure your jobs are all as interesting as mine so I won’t bore you with the details during the week If you will indulge me though, I may give you a little bit of background on the area I live in and a bit of the history on Tasmania. I’ve also mentioned my Muesli a number of times, possibly because I eat it seven days a week. I will post the list of ingredients for you tomorrow.

On a personal note thanks for all the comments after my first post and Marshal in particular, thanks for the kind words and keep up the quest for your solution.

While I think about this, totally off subject. Mike please take note there are now three of us on the blog board. More power.

Finally to finish with the Beatles theme, remember “We can work it out”

1/31/04 9:26 PM

Well, I feel like I am trying to get a cold or some allergies. I am sure that it has to do with eating some chocolate yesterday and getting a few too many starches in. There are just certain times where chocolate and some starches are tough to resist. The good news is that I stayed to allowed starches only.

We have terrible allergies at this time of the year here in San Antonio. Everyone gets stuck with “cedar fever” from the cedar trees and this year is no exception. My daughter has some problems with this, but some visits to my chiropractor, working towards getting her to eat right for her type (we’re not all there yet with her but MUCH better than 4 months ago), and keeping her on nettle, fenugreek-thyme, garlic, hyssop, and mullein has really helped. She’s nearly symptom free AND I love not worrying about giving her all of that pharmaceutical poison (sorry Erika).

I have worked out 8 days in a row, and I finally had to take a day off. On Friday at they offer a 30-minute fast paced aerobic class (she changes it up each week – sometimes it’s step, sometimes boot camp, sometimes interval, whatever) followed by a “power fit” class, which is 45 minutes of free weights, bands, abs, pushups, etc. I love the class because they change the workout every 4 weeks – no chance of getting bored or your body getting used to it. I am so damn sore from the Power Fit, though. Everything hurts. I decided today was definitely a day off.

I often end up conversing with people regarding the pros and cons of working out at home vs. joining a gym. I guess that it depends on what works for you. I simply don’t work out at home. I just don’t. When I used to run long distances on a regular basis, I would start the running from home, but I never could run long distances on a treadmill. Whatever the problem is with me, the best thing for me is to do classes. I can MAKE myself get out of the house on time to make it to a class. Once I am there, I know that I will hang in there until it is over. Each step aerobics class has abdominals at the end as well as stretching. I am really lucky, too, the health club to which I belong has about 10 branches here in the city and each branch has all sorts of classes at all sorts of time. You can take a kickboxing class at 5 AM right on through to power yoga at 8 PM and everything in between. They have trekking classes on the treadmills, cycling classes, step classes (everything from step movement classes which feature a lot of choreography to easy “silver” classes for seniors), water aerobics, weight lifting classes, interval classes, yoga, thai chi, belly dancing, hip hop and more. There are classes all day. I feel like there is really no excuse not to make it most days. I DO recommend that if you do the gym thing, make sure that you find a gym that offers things that fit into your schedule AND that is very convenient to your location.

Anyway, enough of that. I am continuing to add in the allowed carbs and it is going extremely well. I feel better AND I don’t feel crazed. We’ll see if I continue to lose weight.

It’s always a struggle. Right now I am a true size 14 at just under 6 ft tall. I have broad shoulders, huge hands (I always laugh at the Seinfeld episode where he complains about his very attractive date having “man hands” – that’s me – my bones are larger than most men’s) – I’m an Amazon. Regardless, I dream of being skinny. I have been there many times in my life, but each time it didn’t “take”. I’m very interested to see where this goes. I feel very comfortable in the 170-180 pound range, which puts me in a size 11/12, but I love being even smaller than that. The thing is this: I’m not willing to starve anymore to get there, nor am I willing to take any pills anymore. I want a normal life when it comes to food. So far, the BTD has taken me closer to that goal than any attempts so far. For the first time in my life, food is for nourishment first. It is no longer wrapped up with lots of other things – at least not in the day in, day out. I am so very excited because eating this way makes me feel so good. It is also very clear that eating the wrong way can make you feel SO bad. Each time a stray I pay for it. Either my back and knees start to hurt, or I get fatigued, or I get into a nasty mood or, worse yet, I start to feel like I am getting sick. Each time I make a poor choice, it becomes easier and easier to make a good choice the next time after that. It is getting better, and so am I.

On another subject, I am looking into getting a ½ of a beef. There is a woman locally who raises a few beef cattle on her property. They eat only the grasses and feed stuffs that grow on her property. She has been taking them to sale, but, as of recently, has been unable to find someone to slaughter one for her. I think that we have found a place that will slaughter and butcher the beef about an hour from here. I am so thankful. I would like to be there when they slaughter the animal. I know that it might sound macabre, but I would like to be able to thank the animal, and know it a little before it becomes food for my body. I have been so miserable about supporting the animal production industries, but I haven’t had a lot of choice. I eat so much meat that I just can’t afford to go to Whole Foods and pay upwards of $10 per pound for natural meat. I can get ½ a steer for a few hundred dollars and put it in the deep freeze. I hate to say this, but I hope that she might have a veal calf, too. I thought that, when I went Vegan last year, that my meat eating days were over, but I am afraid that it is not meant to be this go around.

I have also found an outlet for some completely organic, home raised chickens. I already have home raised eggs. Whereas my eggs are absolutely amazing tasting (nothing, not even the "organic free range" eggs that you buy in the store compare to them - to have eggs taste great, the chickens should be eating BUGS as the mainstay of their diet), the chicken did not impress me. I am not a big chicken fan (I always think that the chicken from the grocery stores taste dirty), and the home raised chickens, to me, have no taste at all. I will have no problems limiting my chicken consumption.

OK – starting to yawn. Off to bed for tonight.

Went out to lunch on Thursday of this week to an Italian (“lovers” of food) eatery ... my friends from work insisted we go so I went. I scanned the menu for about 10 minutes, as the person at the counter got annoyed because I was taking so long (finding something O friendly amongst all the pasta’s and pizzas is a hard thing to do!)…. I told her to help the next person. I finally settled for meatballs

with a side of mixed vegetables…I politely asked if the person behind the counter would

omit the cauliflower (one of my O avoids) from the assortment and she did. As I was leaving to go to my table…she blurted out….”your bread sir”…. no thanks…and the gentleman behind me asked if he could have it and I reluctantly said yes only because since I have been on the BTD diet, I’m starting

to be sensitive to what food I serve people or give away (Is this strange?). I joined my colleagues at their table and after a few minutes of small talk, commented…”I’ll bet that every one of you around 2pm…(it was now 12:30)…. will need to go a get some sort of brain stimulate...like coffee or strong tea… because you will all feel a little drowsy (I went on to explain why). I made this statement because everyone in my party was eating carbs of some sort whether it was pasta or pizza without a bit of protein…. now I know there are a lot of people who swear by the proper mixing of foods…no protein with starches etc…but I find that a little protein helps to release the energy (sugar) a little slower and lessens the brain fog you get later on when you eat a high carbohydrate meal. As I was eating my meal I kept glancing around and noticed that the majority of the people when finished all rushed to the espresso bar for a quick jolt of strong coffee to get them through the afternoon and I was struck with a thought…We are a carbohydrate/coffee addicted nation (Canada)…reason why I say this is that Canada has the highest ratio of donut stores per capita in the world…yes we are addicted (false love of) to donuts…more so since Crispy Crème came up here too……….and the coffee (by itself is a beneficial for some blood groups…A and B I think??) is a required partner… a perfect marriage of sorts doomed to fail you on the weight and energy scale. Anyway, I finished up my meal…returned to the hustle and bustle of my office… at around 2:15, I stepped out of my office to find half the cubicles empty so I ventured downstairs to the cafeteria and low and behold…3/4 of my lunch friends that day were filling up their mugs with their favorite stimulant all looking a little guilty and uncomfortable. Now you may think I’m feeling a little high and mighty with my little prediction but what I was trying to do was to get people that I know and care for, to think about what they’re eating because I want them to lead healthy productive lives... Since reading the ERFYBT book you can say that I’m sending out a bit more “love” to people I come in contact with…for what is to “love”?…it is to “heal”…and that’s really what were all writing/reading about…Isn’t it?

"Eggs, Cholesterol and Bad Science"

This has to be one of my favorite "As I see it" articles by D'Adamo. If you have not yet read it, click on

the "features" button at the top of the page, then click on D'Adamo's subgroup, then "As I see it". It's in the recent archives.

It just makes me sad that my first two decades on this earth were filled with corporate BS propaganda to destroy the ancient legacy of the incredible, edible egg. And all the while, these disgusting hog operations have been polluting my home state. (Have you ever driven through/smelled Iowa? Nuff said.) Piglet is poisoning our wells. I will get on my "how did we allow agribusiness to become so corrupt?" soapbox another day. Right now, I am just thankful for the last two years of eggcellent enlightenment against common misconceptions/poorly made conclusions against my friend, the egg.

Well, I've had chicken breasts the last two nights. And four total pieces of fudge. ( www.fudgefatale.com ) And snacked on a Zone bar and dried raspberries at work Obviously, I need more veggies in my diet. And I need more sleep.

(And the OCD breakfast this morning)

We bloggers have our own little private forum so I've been busy posting my two cents on that all night so this is a fairly short blog. Perhaps I'll expand on some of those ideas publicly, but until then I need to get at least six hours of sleep before work tomorrow. Lesson learned tonight: no more grazing a soy latte from 3 pm to 10 pm. Too much caffeine too late at night!!!!

I've gotta quit drinking so much coffee. I know it's beneficial for me, but in excess it's giving me GERD and going even a day without it feels like my energy is zapped at work. Gotta swing toward more green tea. "All in good time, my dear, all in good time."

Work is still stressful, but tonight I received a "five year" gold pin for my lab coat. Wow, five years with the same company! I've come a long way, baby. I guess. Hey, I know I tend to trash corporate America, but on the other hand, it's not wise to bite the hand that feeds you a steady income in this crap economy. I just wish there was more room for individuality and constructive problem solving as well as more room to grow and learn clinically while on the clock. Not just for me, but for the health of my patients.

Eventually, I will have some balance. Till then, holy acid reflux, Batman! Keep that caffeine flowin!

1/29/04 7:48 AM

Wow, this has been a crazy week. I feel like I have been blowing and going all of the time, but when I look back on the week, I really haven’t gotten much done. That’s always a strange feeling.

Yesterday was a very, very successful day with the BTD. It was one of the most successful days this week, and I am sure it is because I have added back in some starches. I have been trying to keep my starches to mostly Ezekiel bread, with some rice thrown in for good measure. Eating a little at each meal has helped me to avoid some really big potholes. I'm looking into making some adzuki beans, I just haven't found any in the past few days. I'm not much of a bean cooker, but I guess I'll learn.

Things are so much better. For instance, several times per week I take my daughter to a cafeteria near us called, Luby’s. Luby’s is one of those cafeterias that drive dieters nuts. All of their food looks good (though some of it doesn’t taste that great to me) and is fried or sugared or something. It’s “old fashioned” cooking. I take my daughter there because she loves…. LOVES…the steamed broccoli with cheese sauce on the side. I know that the cheese sauce is a major avoid for an O, but she’ll eat a ton of broccoli and I figure it is better than fries with ketchup. Anyway, I have a hard time resisting the bread and the deserts. This past week I have succumbed to the temptations several times, but yesterday I was fine. In fact, I just had a romaine salad with lemon and olive oil, some spinach and some broccoli – minus cheese sauce – and that was it. I felt SO good after that. I ate a little meat when I got home and I was fine. That was SO great. I feel much calmer now. The best part about giving in when I did was that I found that I really don’t even LIKE that stuff anymore. In fact, it tastes mediocre, at best, going in and feels HORRIBLE after it hits my stomach. I can really see the day when deserts hold no interest for me. This is a major step because I have always been a desert nut and have always had a wicked sweet tooth. That I could crave an apple with almond butter on it just as much as (no, more than) chocolate cake is nothing short of miraculous.

I’ve been a little pooped out the past few days. I’m due for my period to start tomorrow, and I’m interested to see how the chocolate/ sugar/ starch cravings go. So far, I feel really good. I tend to be tired at this time of the month and this month has been no exception. The past couple of days I have crawled back in bed after putting my daughter on the bus, and enjoyed an extra hour or so of sleep. I have worked out every single day for the past 10 days or so, each day increasing my level of activity, and it DOES make one tired. I know, I know, some people think that working out each day is too much, but all I can say to that is that for 10 years I rode horses for 6 hours each day, 6 days per week for years. I was training them for polo and I rode them hard. Additionally, I would probably hit several hundred polo balls each day. After finishing at the barn, I would often go to an aerobics class or two. This was my regular fitness routine since before college. The fact that I only do 1 aerobics class each day now, plus lift a few weights here and there, seems almost like inactivity to me. I just can’t do, in my 40’s, what I could do in my teens, twenties and early 30’s. However, that being said, I feel GREAT each day that I work out. I wish that I had more hours in the day, but that would mean getting up earlier, and I just don’t see that happening. I really admire the people who can get up at 4 AM and start their day. I am completely incoherent at that time of day, and, getting up that early affects me for days. Odd, isn’t it?

OK – gotta get BACK to the website stuff. Post more later!

Really, shut me up. The jokes just keep getting worse. Hey, did anyone see this year's Thanksgiving Friends episode with the cranberries that Chandler was making? Remember what he called them? Oh, that was classic... (I won't ruin it for anyone who hasn't see that one yet).

So the theme of today's blog is Insalata Caprese. I just ate a whole large plate of it. For those who don't know what this is, allow me to explain. It's an Italian antipasto dish served cold with alternating slices of tomato, fresh mozzarella, and basil leaves. Then you are supposed to sprinkle olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, and pepper, but I only used the olive oil and salt.

Really, could it get any better? Sometimes you just gotta have your tomatoes, ya know? Thank God I'm a non-secretor (when I am dying of some uncurable disease in forty years because of my secretor status I might resent that statement but until then I'm just glad there are certain foods that I can still eat).

OK, besides beginning the day with a soy latte and a gigantic chocolate chip cookie from Starbucks, that's really all I've eaten. Nibbled on a few chocolate covered peanuts and raisins the girls bought at work.

Will prolly cook some chicken later.

Otherwise, nothing else to report. Oh, I love my chiropractor. Well, not that way. But I love how my back feels. Anyone in MPLS, check out Dr. Stussy at Kenwood Chiropractic. He rocks my world. And rocks my spine. And tell 'em I sent cha!

OK - So it was pointed out to me that the portions of fruit and veggies that I posted were incorrect. That certainly solves some questions that I had. It turns out that the fruits and veggies are up to 5 portions of raw veggies, 5 portions of cooked veggies and 5 portions of fruit PER DAY, not per week. Well that makes it very simple because I couldn't eat that much per day if I tried.

I can't write too much tonight. I have to rebuild my old http://www.madewithhorsesense.com page so that it appeals to the horse industry. Currently it just flips back over the mass casualty side of my business. What is unfortunate is that I did that page originally in WordPerfect, which I don't even have anymore. I know what I am going to do, I just have to do it.

Eating went MUCH better today. Adding in the appropriate starches feels really good, and has definitely helped me.

I had my parents over for the holidays and every time they come over to my house which is only once a year(you’ll figure out why it’s not so often in a moment) …I usually get the Italian mother inspection as to how her single (4years since my separation) boy is coping…if any of you have Italian or Jewish mother (I don’t mean to put them all in one category much like most diet books put people into one category) … they never want to feel that they are not needed by their “boys”. Well anyway she was doing the... what’s in the fridge/cupboard routine?.. to see if I had enough food in the house. After about 10 minutes of this as my father and I are sharing some red wine (he’s a type O too), my mother comes back in living room with a giant bag…and I do mean giant…of walnuts (beneficial for type O’s)… still in shell…and says…”Have you turned into a "scoiattolo"?”...that’s "squirrel" in Italian. I said "yes…look how big my cheeks are now"(filling my cheeks with all the air I can muster)… and went on to describe the BTD to her… after about 20 minutes, I mentioned that I don’t eat regular pasta made from wheat or Italian bread anymore. Well…this set her off…. it was like I just killed the Pope…”What no Pasta???…That’s why you lost 20 pounds”. After saying this, I stand up and lift my sweater to reveal my toned stomach and all I get is…”You’re too skinny” Needless to say, my mother is not a big proponent of the BTD diet when I first described it too her. Anyway I thought I would use this tale to describe what I always keep in stock in my type “O” kitchen………….preferably as Organic as possible in all categories even though it’s still difficult to do…. blueberries, bananas, pineapple, figs, prunes (don’t eat these in front of people…you’ll get strange looks!), plums…broccoli, sweet potatoes (sweet potato fries are the best!!!!), dandelion (rapinni), romaine lettuce, red peppers………….walnuts (good for the joints), pumpkin seeds (good for the prostate and any male type “o” over 40 should eat these)…..adzuki and back eye beans(make these with a lamb based chili in large pot every so often…good for the single “O’ guys on the move(not recommended for single guys who have gas problems.. if you know what I mean)……..red wine, club soda, teas(green, peppermint and ginger), soy milk…..eggs……cherry juice, prune juice(do not put this beside the beer in the fridge when you have company over…you’ll get strange looks!!)….meats, got to be naturally fed..(ground beef, steaks, lamb...my favorite meat.). and some neutrals like rice...preferably brown and 100% rye bread with flaxseeds when I crave the starches. For a treat and to boost my mood if need be, I eat dark chocolate (70% cocoa.. no milk in it). Now I am not 100% compliant on the diet…it’s very hard to do...as you all must experience… but my advice is keep enough of the beneficials around as much as possible …this will keep you from dipping into the avoids. Last but not least…fish… I always buy beneficial fish fresh because it’s the only way you should buy it!!

All this talk of food is making me hungry...bye for now

OK, well, this was a fun food day so I figured I'll tell ya....

Woke up in the early am and had to drive 4+ hours thru the upper midwest snowy weather. So I bought a Tropicana Pina Colada smoothie the night before to drink on the way. Whoa those things are way too sugary!!!! Please can I have some more high fructose corn syrup with my yogurt?

But when I got back to the cities, I ate at a great hole in the wall restaurant called Addis Ababa. It's Ethiopian and IT IS GOOOOOOODDDD...........for anyone in the Twin Cities area, just drive to 25th and Riverside, across from Fairview Riverside hospital.

They serve all their family style dishes on a big piece of injera bread (it's like a big pancake made of teff) and they give you more to use to scoop up the rest of the food. I opted for my favorite type A combination: Red lentils (which are called Missir Wat) and collard greens. And then they always add a little bit of split yellow peas for good measure. This cuisine, if you're not used to it, will give you enough gas to kill a small animal but boy it's worth it (well, anyone around you might disagree with that statement).

So I keep seeing all these funny low carb commercials. My favorite has to be the lean cuisine one. OK, and then at Kowalski's today, I stumbled upon their own bakery's latest creation: LOW CARB BREAD!!!!!!!!

And so I was curious and went up to it....hmmm....contains wheat gluten, partially hydrogenated soybean oil,,,,,,,,,,and about 50 other questionable ingredients.

As so many lovers often do, the boyfriend and I were simultaneously (within days) thinking about how the low-carb phenomenon will affect the bakery business. Then he asked it out loud.

Well, kids, here's the answer to the baker's dilemma apparently: if you can't beat 'em, join 'em!

Too bad, it's still not real food.

I wonder what our ancestors would think if they saw the crazy stuff we eat. Long live preservatives!!! (no pun intended)

They say our bodies decay so much more slowly due to all the preservatives we eat. That's some eerie stuff!

Well, back to the diet....soy latte before work. Followed by a Reese's Peanut butter heart (couldn't resist, hey, at least it contains, peanuts, haha).

After work, Ethiopian leftovers followed by Stonyfield Farm whole milk wild blueberry yogurt. AHHH....it doesn't get better than this. If I don't show up to work the next day, call 911. I may suffered self-induced methane suffocation. Nah, really it's not that bad. Just don't forget your beano when you eat the Missir Wat.

1/26/04 11:01 AM

First I want to thank those of you who have dropped me a note of support and encouragement. It really means a lot to me. There are only two things of which I am sure about this whole process: I will reach and maintain my goal weight (and feel wonderful in the process) and that I am not alone in my struggles. Your letters reaffirm these points, and are SO appreciated.

It seems like ages since I have blogged. The weekend has been a crazy one. I have so much stuff to do, but I really wanted to get my thoughts down.

First, I just ate breakfast, and I wanted to post it here because it has some changes. I had 2 eggs over easy, 2 pieces of Ezekiel toast with Earth Balance margarine and a big pile of sautéed fresh spinach. Of course, there was the always consumed multiple glasses of water (with me, that is a given).

The change is that I realized that the “no starch, no sugar” method was not working for me. It was, in fact, ruining my attempts to follow the program.

I did Diet Center several times, and the first two times that I did it, I lost 60 pounds each time. Of course, each time, I gained it back. Partly this was because I was also taking diet pills (ephedra based), but also because, as soon as I had reached my goal weight I wanted to start eating again. It was a VERY low carb diet, and it worked, but it drove me nuts.

I started to feel that way again. It just isn’t working. In some ways, no amount of protein can substitute starches. What I was starting to do was to eat more and more nuts and nut butters to satiate that craving. Although there is nothing wrong with the nut fat, there is no way that, even I - who can consume a LOT of calories and still lose weight – can lose weight eating that many nuts. No, I am aware of the fact that there needs to be a change.

So, what I have done is to go thoroughly through the D’Adamo books and to look very carefully at the recommended portions. The way that it plays out is as follows:

The HIGH END of the D’Adamo recommendations for protein are as follows:

6 portions of red meat

3 portions of chicken

5 portions of seafood

6 portions of eggs

This is 20 portions of protein. I eat 21 meals in a week plus snacks. This means that I should consume meat (eggs, fish, poultry) at every meal I eat each week except for 1 (and I am assuming that, if I need to eat meat at that meal it should be a bennie).

In my mind, that is very, very do-able. What I just realized is, I should have had 1 egg at breakfast. Duh. That would have also saved me a starch – more on that below. Note to self – 1 egg is a portion.

Next: The D’Adamo recommendations for starches are as follows:

Up to 3 portions of beans (1 cup dry)

Up to 6 portions of bread (2 slices)/ grains or pasta (1/2c dry)

Now, I am a bit concerned about the fact that the beans, grains and pasta are calculated as “dry”. I know for a fact that ½ cup dry pasta is about 1-¼ cups cooked. 1 cup of dry beans is about 2 ½ cups cooked. So if I convert that to a standard serving size of ½ cup for each this is what we get for starches per week:

7 cups of cooked beans per week = 14 ½ cup portions

12 slices of bread OR 15 ½ cup portions of pasta or grains (mix and match the bread, pasta, grain portions)

That is A LOT of starch. I am going to check with Dr. D’Adamo about the portions. This means that a person could, in fact, easily have a starch with each meal. In fact, if we were to eat ALL of the beans (because there are some bennies there) and all of the bread (Ezekiel or Essene only) we would have 26 portions of starch each week.

(I do want to note that eating the Ezekiel with breakfast 2 hours ago has now made me sleepy and lethargic feeling).

I need to check with Dr. D’Adamo regarding the dairy thing, so until I do, I won’t go into it here. There are no bennie dairies, and I’m not sure what he means by 2 servings of yogurt and 1 of milk. Cheese is easy – I just use that at a condiment when it is around, so I’m not building that into my program

(btw, I just went and worked out – the best part is that I don’t feel hungry at all. I still feel like napping, but that could be just having a busy weekend.)

Veggies are next:

He puts in that you can have 5 servings of raw and 5 servings of fresh. I eat a lot more veggies than that, and since they are low in calories and filling, I’m going to assume that that is OK. Again, it is something that I will ask him.

Fruit:

5 servings. I normally eat some fruit each day, so I’ll need to check on his thoughts about that. I am sure that I could give up 2 servings a week.

The rest, nuts and oils are pretty easy:

8 servings of oil and 5 servings of nuts.

So, that is where I am going:

According to what I have read in the ER4YT books, and O can have the following - keeping in mind that these are the UPPER limits as described by the books:

Each day, up to:

3 portions of meat, poultry, fish or eggs with the emphasis on meat.

3 portions of starch, with a few extra each week available.

1 portion of cooked veggies but skipping cooked veggies 2 days per week

1 portion of raw veggies, but skipping raw veggies 2 days per week

1 fruit, but skipping fruit 2 days per week

Again, I am going to check on this

A handful of nuts or some nut butter, but skipping nuts or nut butter 2 days per week

1 oil each day with 1 extra available each week

1 cheese one time per week. I am going to check on the rest of the dairy.

I think that I am going to make myself sort of a deal a meal type thing as well as a chart and see how it goes.

I feel good about this and I will tell you this – it is now 3:00 PM and I ate breakfast somewhere around 10 AM. I am just now getting hungry. The starch really helped that.

I’m going to go get something to eat, and I’ll write more later!

I'm keeping this short tonight. I have tons to write, BUT, my 5 year old had a slumber party last night with 3 of her girlfriends. I am so, SO, SO tired.

I had a lot of revelations over the weekend, which I'll write tomorrow, but for right now I....zzzzzz.....can't.....zzzzzzzz....keep.....zzzzzzz.....my.....zzzzzzzzzz......eyes.........zzzzzzzzz....ope.....................

Every time I log myself unto the ERFYBT web site I’m hoping that I will see more male Bloggers (not that I mind seeing all the pretty female ones) …but I’m starting to feel like a minority…maybe I just need to get a bunch of the guys together one night…take a survey of all the blood types before they come over so I have the right foods prepared…. and talk about our health…I think not…but maybe in 100 years it could be a possibility? Why 100 years…well by than I think the females of our species will have much better survival rate (they do already) and more numbers compared to males…and I think the male population will get really concerned and start to talk openly about their medical/physical problems (we males on the whole are all just so tight lipped these days when it comes to our health)…. I just finished reading an interesting book by Devra Davis…When Smoke Ran Like Water: Tales of Environmental Deception and the Battle Against Pollution…. there’s a chapter in the book tilted…”Save the Males”. The chapter goes on to say that the male population over the last 25 years has seen an alarming decrease in sperm count…due to environmental changes (pollution, pesticides…etc…tight jeans?) and due to the lowering of sperm count, the ratio of men to woman has dropped by 10%…apparently a fetus starts off as female and if we don’t have enough of the little guys or the ones that give the egg the right chromosome to change to a male… it stays female. The other day I went to my daughter’s class and was amazed that there were only 7 boys in a class of 18…is my concern coincidental…OK Mike…what’s your point?…my point is this…to all the males reading this…. now is the time to get serious about your health (with the BTD as your catalyst)…especially if you do not have offspring and want to carry on the family name through a male heir.

I myself have a daughter…and as the song goes “thank heaven for little girls”

Side note…went to an Organic food store in Toronto called the “Big Carrot”......…was jam packed with people and I bought $75.00 dollars worth of good food…picked up some organic pumpkin seeds…a beneficial for O’s…good for the prostate too!!

So here I am in Madison, WI. Probably should have driven back earlier today because I now have to stay an extra night since I don't want to drive in the dark an

d snow. Oh well. It's my first time here and I REALLY LIKE IT! Despite being stuck in Hotel Sarajevo.

Over the course of the weekend I have eaten a lot of interesting things. I left all my supplements at home because I just wanted a little mini-vacation from the day-to-day routine of taking them. But I tell ya what...if I'm off the adaptogenic herbs too long (ashwagandha, holy basil, Siberian ginseng, etc.) I get extremely messed up. I also lose large chunks of hair when I take a shower (must be some sort of thyroid alteration!). Most of these herbs work on the adrenal and thyroidal function.

So, back to what I've eaten:

Friday began with the protein shake listed in my first blog. Really no excuse for anyone not to have breakfast when you've got that protein powder at your disposal. I highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't tried it yet. I was thinking about buying the O shake, too, since as a non-sec I can have more eggs. Boy do I love eggs.

"I love eggs, from my head down to my legs"

Later on when I was on the road, as you know, it's slim pickins for wholesome blood-type friendly food along most midwest interstate stops. As I stopped to get gas, I opted to try a "low-carb" Subway wrap. Well, I was screwed already as the wrap contained wheat. But it also contained soy. One of the thing but I can't remember. But of course, Lord knows how many preservatives they put in those products. Honestly, I usually cannot eat at places like Subway or Blimpie anymore because the smell of that nasty fake bread baking makes me gag. You see, when I was a student at Creighton, I lived across from the Student Center which had a Blimpie. The entire student center smelled like Blimpie bread baking. Six years of that is enough to keep me away from that place.

Back to subway. I tried the turkey and bacon wrap minus the bacon. I added some lettuce, bell peppers, red onions, and Caesar dressing (another scary component/"faux food" I should have avoided. Oh, that and the cheese. Or isn't it more like "cheese flavored product"?).

Anyone who wants to read about "faux foods" should pick up my all-time favorite "dieting" philosophy book called "The Fat Fallacy" by Will Clower. It's an entertaining and persuasive book on why despite the increased intake of rich yummy foods, the French are skinny and the Americans are fat. (Mainly due to portion size and psychology of eating). This book rocks my world. It came out around the time all the other "why low fat diets don't work" theories were introduced. Despite its one size fit all approach to eating certain foods, I still like it.

OK, so that Subway wrap was just to give me some fuel. The next afternoon in Madison I had chocolate raspberry torte ice cream (uh oh, more dairy) in a sugar cone and a shot of espresso. Then I had Nepalise food (spelling?). Yes, in that order (dessert first, not my idea, haha). I had the Chicken Sikar with Brown Rice. Nepalise is a lot like Indian food. There was also a side order of this tofu/potato/bamboo shoot mix. It was all "quite nice" (Aussie goat joke).

Later that night at a banquet, I had a glass of Merlot and a buffet-style dinner. I got to mingle with all these pharmacists. I really didn't know anyone there, but it was cool because I was with my people, haha. Let me tell you, those Cheeseheads know how to party, but I was so tired that I didn't stay long. Anyhoo, back to the food...

There was some scary chicken with some mysterious cream sauce. I say scary because it just tasted like factory chicken. When you eat good free-range deli chicken on a daily basis you get a little spoiled. Also had some veggies, rice, etc. I'm not really sure what I was eating because I was really tired and it was all on one plate. Oh, yes, and some salad before the meal. Really this isn't that exciting. And when you are amongst brainiac traditional health system pharmacists you barely know, you don't want to get all political and/or deep and talk about diets. It kind of ruins the vibe. Dessert was carrot cake.

OK, let's skip to today. I had a florentine omelet for brunch. Spinach, feta, scallions, what else? Potatoes (sorry, but I just can't get away from them, they chase me) and wheat bread were the sides, so I just at a little bit. And a soy latte.

Ended the day with a Chipotle burrito. Chicken, black beans, rice, guacamole, mild salsa, lettuce. Only ate like 1/3 of it. And avoided the white flour tortilla itself.

And that's all for the day. Back to work tomorrow. Pray that it's a safe drive. And the nine-day marathon cycle begins again tomorrow.....(insert music) <<<<>>>>

Eventually one goal of this blog besides tell you everything I eat is to pass some pharmaceutical knowledge onto the you, the reader. After all, part of a successful Creighton education is learning how to give back to the community. What a great place to do it! Info that will help integrate the allopathic and naturopathic worlds into one happy hybrid. But that's for another day.

Good night from Lake Mendota (vs. the usual Lake Wobagon, haha, dumb MinneSOta joke).

1/23/04 9:06 PM

OK, OK, It’s not working. It’s just not working. I am not able to get through a day on a completely low GL diet with no sugar or starches. I am just not getting through it, and trying to do it is leading to eating binges and wrong choices. I know when it is time to stop fighting with myself.

There is an interesting poem by one of my favorites, William Butler Yeats. It is called,

”The Four Ages Of Man”:

He with body waged a fight

But body won: it walks upright.

Then he struggled with the heart;

Innocence and peace depart.

The he struggled with the mind;

His proud heart he left behind.

Now his wars on God begin;

At the stroke of midnight, God shall win.



I love the first line, “He with body waged a fight…” I understand the where that line goes, but it seems that I am still struggling with all of my parts, each and every day.

I realized that I have to find starches that I can add back in, or I will be at war with my body. I don’t do well when I am fighting with my body all of the time. I added a couple of pieced of Ezekiel bread in today and I feel much, much better. I will start experimenting with the allowed starches, and see which ones work and which ones don’t. I am going to limit it to what Dr. D’Adamo recommends. I need to refer back to the recommendations, and I will start there.

Anyway, I’m not going bore anyone, myself, with a laundry list of each day’s meals. I am more interested in the process of getting to the healthiest place possible.

I have noticed myself starting to fall back into my old patterns of “acceptance” in the past 24 hours. I can accept myself at this weight. I can be happy. I may never be the thin person that I dream for myself, but that is OK, after all, I am thinner now than I was going into the holidays, etc. These are my arsenals of cop-outs. This is how I justify sliding and how I justify not doing what is best for myself.

I’m not doing that again.

I will keep on figuring it all out. I turn 42 in August, and my goal is to be down to my desired weight by that time. That is 7 months from now, and that means 9 pounds off per month from today on. That is, basically, 2 pounds per week. I can do this, but I must find the focus and I must stop battling wits with my body.

I refuse to give up. Not now. No way.



PS - This is an added note (added after the above post):

One thing that I am realizing in my business life and (duh), in my personal life, is that I don’t have a plan. I am a person without a plan. This is causing my some difficulty in my business, and I now realize that I need a plan for my food, too.

I am going to spend the weekend, coordinating a plan and strategy for my eating and then I am going to stick to it. I am going to plan on 1800 calories each day, and I am going to plan the food that goes into my mouth. I am then going to stick to the plan.

I was watching Dr. Phil the other day, and something that he said stuck in my brain. He said something to the effect of: “…there have been many times in my life when I wasn’t the smartest guy in the room – not even close – but I was the only guy in the room with a plan – I was the “man with the plan” – and that gave me all of the advantage.

I am a giant fan of Stephen King’s, The Dark Tower series. I remember reading about the main character’s ability to “plan loose” because planning loose gives you the advantage of changing your plan mid-stream to accommodate things unforeseen. However, in this case, that is too much freedom. I know the places that I eat, at home and out, and I must, and will plan.

I’ll keep you updated!

Witness a low energy shift in my mood today.......I'm not the perky Erika you've come to know in the last few blogs, haha.

So, really not much to talk about. Had my usual breakfast. Almost went out for Ethiopian food tonight, but opted for the MPLS Cafe since they do take-out. I ate red bell pepper/saffron risotto with a chicken kabob. It SEEMED like a good idea at the time, but then I forgot about all the cheese they put on the risotto. Not that I'm really complaining because, hey, it did taste great, but if I'm going to adhere to this blood type lifestyle I need to watch those things. And then there's the whole portion size issue. I ended the meal with chocolate souffle.

What I can't stand about restaurants is the amount of salt they use. Too much! Really, the human body already has an amazing physiological ability to conserve sodium, so what gives? I guess on the flip side, as humans we have an innate desire to eat salt since looking back a few centuries or millenia, salted food was preferable since salt was in shorter supply and/or salt helps preserve food.

OK, well, when I have something more inspiring to write about you can be sure I'll log back share it with the world. Till then, good night!

-E

1/22/04 3:45 PM

It never fails to amaze me what can set me off my diet, and how much havoc it can cause. Yesterday ended up being a disaster, and I couldn’t quite figure out why. I finally narrowed it down to a bastardized cup (OK – several cups) of ginger tea.

I went with a girlfriend of mine to one of my favorite restaurants. The venerable owner is Korean, and believes whole-heartedly in the BTD. I was kind of strange, the other day she came to my table to tell me about an article she was reading, and in her hand she had this beautiful magazine (the kind with really thick, glossy pages and lots of beautiful photos). She was pointing to a page that appeared to be divided into 4, and was telling me that it was talking about the 4 blood type groups and their respective diets. It was in Korean.

Anyway, needless to say she is very interested in complying with the BTD, and is very concerned that her customers get what they need. She makes me this delicious “wanton” soup, but with no wantons or noodles, just veggies floating in this amazing broth. She then makes me this delicious Mongolian stir-fry with beef. It’s all so good.

They make their own ginger tea there, starting with some sort of pre-made ginger tea, but then adding their own fresh ginger, etc. It is amazingly delicious. Unfortunately for me, it is sweetened AND I am pretty sure that I tasted vanilla in there. It was the sweet part that got me going. I think that I consumed about 4 cups of it. It was that good.

Han (the owner) doesn’t realize how sensitive I am to grains, and put a huge scoop of the yummiest brown rice with my stir-fry (it’s so nice, btw, to find someone who only uses olive oil in their stir-fry). I usually don’t eat it – I send it away, but today, I couldn’t resist. I am sure that the tea is what got me started. I ate about half of the rice. It was SO delicious. She uses some sort of short-grain, sushi type brown rice. I really miss the grains, but they are always, always a problem.

Anyway, on Wed, my daughter and I both have piano lessons at 5:15 on the other side of town. Everyone is always so shocked to hear how San Antonio is the 6th largest city in the county. Luckily, was have a really good road system, but it still isn’t fun to traverse from point A to point B around 5 PM. After our lesson, it is our tradition to go to Luby’s Cafeteria here. Dorothy loves their steamed broccoli (cheese sauce on the side, unfortunately) and I think that it is great for her to eat it. For some reason, I lost it completely when I got there – no, I know the reason: sweet tea and rice. I’m not going to get into too many details, but I had two major avoids: a piece of corn bread, and some breaded and fried fish. I hate to say it, but the fish just hit the spot. I usually am so compliant when I eat there, but I just didn’t make it this time.

Our other tradition is that we then stop at Krispy Kreme on the way home. She hounds me for KK, but we have come to a workable solution of 1X per week on Wed. nights. When you walk in, they hand you a hot, fresh doughnut. I usually resist, but was in another place last night and took one. This is the best part: I took a bite and it tasted HORRIBLE. I threw it away. I can’t believe I used to think that Krispy Kreme was one of the best things that I had ever tasted. It was so disgusting. I could taste the oldness of the fat that they fried it in. It was greasy in my mouth. The sugar was repulsive, and I could taste the vanilla. I am so happy that I no longer like them. What a relief.

The odd thing about eating those avoids last night was that I felt really good when I got home. I had lots of energy and was wondering why I didn’t feel awful. I found out.

I had to pay the piper today. It sucked. I was depressed and kept thinking about things that I have long since resolved. Even put on some music that reminded me of those times so that I could experience the full effect of the pain. I was dogged out and dragged out, and, mostly, my back and knees were killing me. I felt this way until I got some steak, broccoli and spinach in me. I then started to feel better. Basically, I paid for those avoids by being unproductive until about 3 PM. That’s a pretty steep price, in my esteem.

I don’t understand where the compulsion comes from. I am fully aware of the fact that the misery that I will suffer eating the avoids will never be worth the price I must pay.

Well, I worked out hard and towed the line today. Tomorrow I will work at it once again. I know that all of the choices are within my control. I just have to get my head and my mouth in sync. Yea, “just” have to…..

PS - notice that the calorie counting is out the door already

Hey, why not? We're only human. I'm on a "type A weakness" streak in my blog so I might as well elaborate from the last post:

1)CHEESE!!!!!!!! Oh, cheese, how I love thee. I used to have pipe dreams about hosting a food/travel show in your name before the Food Network was invented. Well, at least I can still have my mozarella, feta, paneer, and farmer cheese among a few others. And yogurt. Yup.

2)Potatoes. Hey, I'm from the Midwest where the meat and potato diet is staple. Potatoes are comfort food to me. And I'm a quarter Irish and a quarter Russian. And boy do I love greasy hash browns! How do I escape the wrath of the potato lectin?

3)Semolina pasta. You know, I tried rice pasta, but it has a really icky smell/taste to me. I have yet to find that artichoke pasta D'Adamo talks about (at least finding it minus the semolina combo). Please tell me where you buy it!

4)Rhubarb pie! Mom makes the best pies. I'm the only one in the family who likes her rhubarb pie. Well, now that I'm enlightened by the Diet perhaps she'll have to find other uses for that big red weed growing on the side of our house, haha. That and she insists on using margarine to make pie crust for that pie. (I must have been adopted because I barely eat anything they serve at home in my own life!) When I visit home, my mom always gets upset when I use phrases like "that sucks" or worse. But any euphemism for "partially hydrogenated" makes me cringe. If not margarine, Crisco. Oh, dear Lord! Save us all!

5)Dad's meatballs (in keeping with the pasta theme). You see, he takes an entire day to make a big stock pot (for freezing) of this amazing meat-filled pasta sauce with meatballs and sausage. The sausage I have always been able to do without, but those meatballs. This stuff is to die for (literally for type As, lol).

I guess the reason I'm writing this tonight is because I just ate a very naughty food for my blood type. Tonight is so darn cold (-4F) and late and I just did NOT want to leave my place. It's an Amy's Kitchen pasta bowl with English aged cheddar cheese, broccoli (beneficial), tofu (neutral), and potatoes. Sometime within the last few days of my work marathon I purchased it out of desperation since I'm off work so late and nothing but the market next door is open. The darn Wedge is closed by the time I'm out the door and that's where I used to shop all the time before the seductive Kowalski's interior remodeled market with its dark wooded panels and low natural lighting came into my life, opened till Midnight. Coming on my break from the ugly sterile white interior where I work, this place is so pleasing to the eye and the stomach. Luckily, upon the completion of the remodel they opened a Starbucks so I'm keen on the Silk lattes. (Note to Aussie goat boy: you are rubbing off on me! I know you're rolling on the floor laughing your butt off at the word "keen", you little punk.)

Otherwise, I had my usual OCD breakfast this afternoon (yes, afternoon, I had a lot of sleeping to do last night).

And I've thoroughly enjoyed my day off, reading "Guess What Came to Dinner" by Ann Louise Gittleman. Great book, but makes me want to never eat sushi or own a pet again! Haha. And the Blood Type Encyclopedia. The anthropological section is my favorite. It's so fascinating!

OK, I'm hitting the hay now.

1/21/04 8:29 AM

I have decided to put an additional thing into my diet and that is to keep an eye on the calories. I’m pretty sure that I am consuming far too many calories to continue to lose weight at the pace that I desire. I am going to aim for consuming no more than 2000 calories each day, which, to me, seems reasonable.

Of course, my weight was up 3 pounds this week. I am well aware of the fact that I am putting on muscle as I am more consistent with my exercise program, but I also know that I am also just plain eating too much.

So, I just finished breakfast. I had 2 eggs, scrambled in olive oil (about 200 cals) and an enormous salad made with olive oil, lemon juice and salt – probably another 200 cals. I can live with a 400-calorie breakfast. That leaves me 1600 cals for the rest of the day. We’ll see how it goes.

When it comes down to losing weight, there always has to be a limit in there somewhere for me. I can jut chow down a whole bunch of food. The veggies are not an issue, but the meat is. I need to readjust my portions on things. I need to continue to retrain my body.

I’m also not very strong when it comes to planning. I am a “wing it” type of girl. Though this works really well for me in some aspects of my life, there are others where the proper planning would make all of the difference. I guess that means that I should try to plan my meals. Not the easiest thing in the world for one who just tends to look in the fridge and grab whatever is there. I also hate spending time thinking about food and what I am going to eat. I like the aspect of surprise. Who knows? I don’t know how much we can all change of the basic people that we are. I do know that I want to get the rest of this weight off, and that that will probably take some planning. Moreover, I want to keep the weight off. This will be as much mental as physical. I would love to know that I won’t go through the yo-yo thing again, and that I will never again have to lose 60+ pounds. I just hate doing the losing part, and, on that point I know that I am not alone.

I have been considering joining Overeaters Anonymous. I know that they are a support group for people who need to eschew trigger foods, mostly sugars and wheat. I don’t know about it, though. My life is so full and my time is limited. I guess I’ll just have to mull it around in my mind for a while longer.

Well, off to work.

Where do I begin?

Working nine days in a row....not so fun. But I finally get two days off! When it comes to stress, I definitely exhibit the typical Blood Type A response. In other words, I'm a bit of a wimp despite my work ethic. I was happy at my 32 hours per week as a float pharmacist. But I wanted a little more control over my destiny and schedule so I opted to work as a staff RPh and was willing to sacrifice 8 more hours per week since faulty logic told me, "hey, commute time will decrease so you'll have more free time anyway, right?"

Wrong.

Maybe things will get better once tech staff is fully trained, but in the meantime, I've exhibited some very strange stress markers that are telling me to go easy and cut down on health professional martyrdom syndrome:

1)Heart palpitations. For a while these were no longer a part of my life but the other day I had a butterfly in my chest again.

2)Gut trouble. Undiagnosed right lower quadrant pain is coming back. IBS most likely. It shows up when I get stressed out.

3)Poor sleep. This has somewhat decreased due to the existence of a great boyfriend who forces me into relaxation with his very being, but for a while there, I couldn't get to sleep without sleep aides. I'd wake up in the middle of the night, and I'd DREAM ABOUT FILLING PRESCRIPTIONS!!!!!

4)This is embarassing but I'm going to share a very private moment with the world wide web in hopes that this knowledge will somehow get people to understand that putting too many demands on health professionals and not allowing them basic human rights like potty breaks because you want your prescriptions filled NOW promotes further illness in society........LOSS OF BLADDER CONTROL! Twice during the month of December I sneezed and well, you know the rest. I am 26 years old and have no children. This is NOT normal. Granted, the second time this happened my technician purchased a venti peppermint mocha for me so all that diuretic caffeine probably had something to do with it, but seriously, something's just not right here.

That day I worked from 8 am to 6:30 pm straight with no break. Hey, I'm extremely loyal to my company and I love my patients, but sometimes you just have to step back and realize that while it's great you're making the world a healthier place (sort of), you are killing yourself in the process. Some people handle stress much better than me.

Well, if good juju is on my side I'll perhaps be able to stay at my store but decrease my hours. What people don't realize about the profession is that you are like a waitress. You are on your feet all day long, lucky if you get a break, but with the added responsibility of extreme quality assurance. It's not just a matter of giving someone a Big Mac instead of the McNuggets. If you are not at your 100% best mindset or have to babysit questionable support staff, you could make an irreversible fatal error. All the while, people complain because, "you are just counting, pouring, licking, and sticking. What's the delay?"

Anyhoo, enough ranting for one blog entry (or ten for that matter!). Let me tell you about my food:

1)Breakfast. What breakfast?

2)Lunch (around 2 pm): from the deli next door I ate a breaded cod fillet and green beans. I also sampled the espresso brownie bars from the coffee shop and sipped a soy latte. Finished off my wannabe power lunch with unsweetened Tazo iced tea (Passion). Man, that is some good tea.

3)Dinner. A couple of pieces of chocolate. This diet is not happening today. But I'm about to have some leftover deli roasted turkey.

That's all for now...the week can only get better, right?

Later,

E

1/20/04 10:33 AM

I feel pretty good this AM. I’m off to workout in an hour or so. Today is weigh-in day, and I’m not feeling too hopeful. I am trying to learn to accept all things with thanks. We’ll see how I feel when I step on the scale.

Several people have asked me if am a secretor or non-secretor. I have done the spit test and am a secretor, which was a surprise to me. I assumed, with the allergies to food that I experienced and all the sensitivities that I was a non-secretor, but that is not the case.

I have some work to do, but, of course, I’ll post more later.

1/19/04 8:20 PM

Well, today was a day off for my daughter, and that means, of course, an out of sorts day for me. I didn’t get to work out today, and that bugs me. I never quite feel the same if I don’t do something. My eating went OK until I made some rice pasta for my daughter and her friends. Of course, I should never do such things and I end up eating it. I had about 2 cups of rice pasta with olive oil and some goat cheese on it. Not a bad binge, but not a great choice, either. I still believe that keeping the grains out of my diet is the best choice. Eating that sort of set me off to eat some more stuff, but I got away with 1 Newman-O and about 4 potato chips. Truthfully, neither of those things interested me, and I stopped while I was ahead (after throwing down a couple of deflect O’s, too). It would be so much easier if this stuff were not in my vicinity. I never bring such stuff into the house – that’s my anti-everything hubby.

It’s been just a busy day. I’m tired, and I have at least 2 hours worth of work to do, but I probably won’t finish it today. I have been getting a page up on my business website – take a look and let me know what you think (I just added the backpack page – I know that there are some adjustments to be done):

http://www.perfectworldluggage.com

I invented all of these products, originally for the horse industry. I am now in the process of getting them BACK into the horse industry and have to redo my website geared for that market. That, with 2 more products coming out, and working on selling into new markets, makes me a very busy person. Throw the 5 year old into the mix and it makes me tired just thinking about it.

I had someone ask me what do as far as snacks are concerned, since I basically eschew starches completely (no more cheeps for you!). Well, I snack on a cut up apple eaten with a handful of walnuts (I like them frozen) or with some almond butter on it. I eat blueberries when they are decent looking. I sauté a whole container of spinach and just munch that down. Of course, I reach for protein first and foremost. I keep meat and fish cooked and in the fridge and all times. I also like to keep asparagus cooked up, and, if possible, an artichoke or two, although artichokes are a little high in the GL for me. When I wasn’t as concerned with the GI and GL of items, I would also snack on prunes and dates – I especially like dates eaten with the frozen walnuts. When I want to snack, but find that nothing satiates me, I make a huge container of the Yerbe Mate’ and Sip Right For Your Type teas mixed together and work on that. It seems to turn the “I want to eat” switch down, if not completely off.

Good Luck! Zzzzzzzz…….must go to bed……….zzzzzzzzzzz………

1/17/04 9:22 PM

I had a really great day today – eating wise and other, UNTIL lunch with my daughter and her friend. I got up and went to the health club. Only worked out for 45 minutes, but it was better than nothing. I was too late for the aerobics class that I like, so I did 30 minutes on the elliptical and 15 minutes of upper body weights.

Took my daughter to dance class and then gymnastics tryouts where I met up with my best friend and her daughter, MY daughter’s best friend. We decided to go out to eat lunch. It was around 2:30 and I had not had much to eat at all. Almost nothing, which is not like me. We went to the restaurant, and I started out well. I ordered a steak, a large salad with oil and lemon and that was all. My daughter was sharing my meal, and it was all pretty good. I have gotten her to stop eating 80-90% starches and she now eats meat and salad. I’m taking small steps with her, but she’s doing really well in moving towards type O eating. Anyway, she’ll eat romaine lettuce, but only with lots of ranch dressing. I sort of helped myself to a couple of teaspoons of ranch on MY salad, because it smelled SO good. It was, I am afraid to say, the downfall.

Now, my daughter is a tiny eater. She ate lunch well, and I told her that she could have a chocolate milkshake for desert. Usually the kids shakes come in cups with lids – you can’t see the shake. This time, however it was really thick and came in a cup without a lid. It looked yummy. Long story short, she ate about ¼ of it, as usual, and I ate the rest. I just couldn’t help it – it tasted SO good. It wasn’t really that much – maybe ½ a cup total, but it was enough to make me feel physically awful.

Of course, within 30 minutes, I felt like complete and total yuck. I had a terrible energy crash, my back started to hurt me, and I started to feel cruddy. I pushed through it.

This set me off for the evening. I ate tons of protein when I got home, but also ate 3 or 4 Newman-O’s (Paul Newman’s organic Oreo’s) and a couple of chocolate mint candies. I could feel all control being lost, and knew that it would make me feel even worse. I finally got it all under control by making myself a huge cup (probably 3 cups worth, actually) of Sip Right 4 Your Type Tea. That seemed to calm me down.

This is the thing. I felt wonderful. I knew that eating the shake would make me feel horrible and would set me off, but I did it anyway. Now I have to clear my system out again. I don’t know where the ability to stop that sort of thing before it starts goes.

It’s disappointing, but I will get back on track tomorrow. I am starting to poop out and will head to bed soon. I would have more energy if I HADN’T taken that first bite of ranch dressing and followed it with a sip of milkshake. I don’t know when I’ll truly learn. I don’t understand it because I really don’t want to eat those things. I hate feeling toxic. Bummer.

1/16/04 10:05 PM

I’m off to bed. Thank goodness tomorrow is Sat. I am just not one that likes to get up at 6:30 AM. I’ll enjoy sleeping until 7:00 or 7:30. Unfortunately, with a 5 year old, that’s the best that I can expect.

Today was another successful no starch/ no sugar/ low GI/ low GL day. I ate more (low GL) fruit today, but it didn’t affect me negatively. I also added in a nice chunk of tofu. I really love tofu, although I am wary of over consumption. Still, it gives you sort of the feeling of eating a starch without it being high or even moderate GL. I say that with less confidence than I would like – for some reason, I can find tofu ice cream, soy crackers, and all other sorts of things on the indexes, but no straight tofu. I am assuming that it is similar to cooked soybeans.

I prefer fish, especially salmon, to chicken, but, geeze, I’m scared of eating it now. Lots of articles on the health issues with farm raised fish. I have known that for a while – being a Vegan last year, I was already against farm-raised fish. This is a pretty good blog on the fishing issue:

http://www.dawnwatch.com/fish.htm. the site, http://www.dawnwatch.com/ , is a really great site, and I recommend that you subscribe to her notifications. It is Veg*n oriented, but great info for omnis, too (BTW - veg*n means vegitarian or vegan and omni means meateater).

I look for wild fish, and that’s what I prefer to buy, but it is outrageously expensive. I love the convenience of canned salmon and tuna, but you just don’t know what you’re getting along with the fish. It’s a very difficult issue, as is all of the meat supply.

I am really lucky in the egg department. There is a woman who lives an easy 30minute drive from my house who has about 30 chickens loose on her farm. She collects the eggs and sells them to me. I love them. Those chickens live, basically, on bugs and what they can scratch and find. No worries about what they are eating. They live a happy life –free to roam around and sleep in the trees, and she just goes and collects the eggs each day.

I am working with a woman who has a bunch of beef cattle out on pasture. We both want to slaughter one or two and then she’ll sell me the meat at slaughterhouse prices. The problem is not finding someone to cut the beef up, but to do the actual slaughtering. I hope that I can find someone. If I can, I think that I’ll go to the slaughtering and thank the animal for becoming my organic meat. That might be weird, but it is important to me to have some connection with the being that will end up on my plate. I hope that I can find someone to do this part, as I am getting more and more concerned about the quality of the meat that we eat. I love to purchase natural, organic meat, but it can be as expensive as $10 per pound or more, and I’m just not financially flush right now. Even then, you really don’t know how the animal was handled or processed. It is such a slippery slope these days. I don’t have much hope of finding an organic lamb or mutton. One thing at a time, I guess.

Of course, I buy as much organic produce as I can.

I felt rather tired and down all day, but I feel better now. Thanks all for the exercise/ diet suggestions! I’ll keep plodding along and we’ll all see how I do. I will be your low carb guinea pig!

Well, what a day. Woke up around...well....snoozed which I know is really bad for the brain, but when you deal drugs for a living, the more sleep the better. You don't want to be giving Mrs. Smith's vaginal suppository to Mr. Peterson's dog.

As this was a typical out-the-door morning, I had the shake listed in the previous blog. Now, I know they say for best results, use a blender. But for me, that's one more dish to clean. I'm such a bachelorette. Honestly though, if you stir it up well, you really don't need to use a blender in my opinion.

The A protein shake tastes very strange. Not a good strange, nor a bad strange, just strange. You can really taste the peas. I have a little sister who is thirteen going on five. She's very small for her age. 4'8" (maybe) and 70#. We're trying to get her to grow. My mom seems to think she's also a type A. I told my little sister over Christmas that I was going to buy her the protein shake and explained that it contains rice, soy, and pea protein. And she said, "PEE protein?" And I said "yeah, you know, from peas." And she was like, "Oh (whew)....OK." She was very concerned about drinking a shake made of urine. Like I said, 13 going on 5. Oh well...hey, I still have hundreds of patients on conjugated horse estrogen so it's really not so strange (how do you think Premarin got its name? PREgnant MARe UrINe).

So on a very fun note (and the real theme of this entry), my parents came up to the Twin Cities tonight since they are leaving for the caribbean tomorrow morning. First they came to visit me at my pharmacy, "We want to see where you work!" As our new and unimproved software version is making my job chaotic right now (usually a software update is a good thing, don't get me wrong), I didn't have much time to chat with them and told them I'd just see them when they pick my cousin (who is also my neighbor) and me up for dinner. Yet another day of working 10 hours with no break. Very unkosher for any type A lifestyle!

We went to the Seafood Palace which is a reasonably priced MPLS restaurant as the rest are so overpriced. But this place is an underrated gem, one of the city's best kept secrets. Seafood Palace serves AUTHENTIC Chinese and Vietnamese cuisine. It's also one of the few places left in the city where you can eat a good quality meal without the pretentious fashion contests. My favorite dish hands down is the steamed Sea Bass basted in Black mushroom sauce and garnished with lemongrass. It's like buttah.......

We also had the one the specials, asparagus with chicken (also to die for), and this melody dish with duck, pork (which I won't eat), bok choy, shrimp (barf), and more black mushrooms (YUUUMMM). Funny thing is, even as a kid, I always thought shrimp tasted "dirty". If I would have known about ER4YT it would have all made sense. I also had a glass of the house merlot. And we all had oolong tea. Holy cow, I just LOVE this restaurant!

On the way back, we then went to the Wedge, a local co-op (I'm a member), because I wanted to pick up some lemons, Lily of the Desert Aloe Vera Juice, Holy Basil, and Tyrosine, so I dragged my parents and cousin in with me. It was so fun taking the folks in there because living in Mason City, they just don't get out much unless they come up here. They all concurred that this co-op is just so Erika. Don't get me wrong, they are wordly, well-rounded, well-traveled, cosmopolitian, Euro-minded people, but they are also a product of their corn-fed Iowa environment. My type O dad bought some Herbs de Provence for his meat, and my mom (by process of elimination folks, you'd hopefully deduct that mom's a type A) bought a loofah back brush, so it wasn't all in vain for them, lol. I got my mom Live Right for X-mas so I'm curious to see how much of the diet she incorporates into her day to day life. I got my dad the cook book, "How to Cook Meat" which he asked for for Christmas.

OK, now that this entry has become sickeningly tangential, that's a sign that it's time for me to get off the computer and get to bed. I have to work, ALL WEEKEND. But hey, at least I got a nice break for a few hours to spend time with the people I love. And with good food. You can't beat that.

Night and namaste,

-E

I went to see Lord of the Rings..Return of the King (two thumbs up), last night with a lady friend from work. Every time I go out, I find it very hard to find something to eat that’s not going to “kill me” the next morning. The only place to eat was a Subway Sub where everything comes on wheat-based bread. I’m always ordering a tuna salad minus the bread when I go there. I would have loved a foot long steak sandwich with mozzarella cheese and all the works but they don’t serve it without the bread…. Well I gave in and I had one with Oat bread ( it probably had 10% oats in it and 90% wheat) and thoroughly enjoyed it…After finishing my “hero” we purchased our tickets and settled ourselves in for gory fight scenes, big footed midgets, beautiful elves, and ugly Orgs. Midway through the movie…it’s 3 hours long…the “hero” I ate started to do me in slowly…my stomach felt like my innards were being twisted with the sword of one of the ugly Orgs on the screen… Needless to say I was very uncomfortable for the balance of the movie and tried my best not to show it to my movie buddy. You can say that my journey with the BTD is like Frodo’s journey of delivering the “ring” into the fires of Mordo…. once you’re on that journey you can’t turn back…………….you have to leave the wheat behind!!

It was blueberries and bananas for breakfast this morning and my “O” stomach thanked me.

1/15/04 10:14 PM

Well, I got through another high protein, low GI, low GL day. It wasn’t quite so easy today. Most of the stuff today was emotional. There are a lot of disjointed things going on in my life, and it does take its toll on me. I keep in mind the George Ohsawa quote about accepting everything with thanks. I truly believe that the place to find true inner happiness is when we CAN accept misfortune like happiness. I have an idea that they are one in the same anyway. I am a very ambitious person, and I hate the time that it takes all things to come to fruition. I have been working on my business for 10 years now. I have accomplished so much, but there is still so far to go to get to the place where I envision myself.

If you are interested in what I do, the link http://www.perfectworldluggage.com will take you there. I invented all of the products there. I have seen them go from ideas in my head through all sorts of obstacles, to being truly useful, vibrant items. There is just still such a long way to go….

I was too pooped to workout this morning, so I went to a really hard aerobics class this evening. It kicked my butt. I realize how out of shape I am from just a few years ago. I have to believe that I will get there again.

Someone wrote to me and mentioned that I might not be getting in enough protein. That seems nearly impossible. I am almost scared of how much meat and eggs I am consuming. It will be interesting to see if I still keep losing weight. I have taken off so much, but because I gained so much this last go around, I am only now at the “highest” weight that I ever used to allow myself. A cessation of the yo-yo thing will be such a relief. Actually, the relief is now. I am losing weight, I have found what truly works AND I am not on the ephedra cycle that seems so great in the beginning but only leads to misery and fatness once again.

I’m still a little down, so I am headed to bed. Tomorrow is another day and that is wonderful thing. I am a spiritual person, but not religious so I guess what I feel right now is thankfulness to the One Thing for this moment of now.

Well, I think that I have finally figured it out – for me, anyway. I’ve been still fighting very bad cravings for starches and sweets. The cravings have been miserable enough to really mess me up and, well, depress me. I’ve been looking over what I have been eating and trying to figure out what the trigger is. I decided that cravings don’t come from thin air, and I have done enough “emotional homework” to understand my emotional triggers. No, these have been my body talking. I am finally listening.

For me, I must keep starches, sweets and all high glycemic index and high glycemic load foods out of my life. I could sit around and morn this issue, but I’ve done enough of that in the past. This is the way that it is. I have a diabetic father, and his brother died from diabetes. I am approaching the age of their onset. My body is telling me something. I am a carb addict, and there are no starches or sugars that work in my world. I realized that I have been relying on prunes and dates for my “fix” and these foods, though not avoids (in fact, prunes are bennies) for most O’s have to be avoids for me, if I want to get off of the dieting yo-yo cycle and feel good..

I purchased the ER4YT Blood Type O list as well as the Glucose Revolution Glycemic Index (you can get lists online – this one was just easiest) and I cross-referenced them. I made changes accordingly, eliminating all foods from my diet that were out of the “low” range for BOTH the Glycemic Index AND for Glycemic load. I eliminated the prunes and the dates and I know that I have to strictly limit bananas. All starches are out for now – possibly forever. I now know that even one little rice cracker can set me off, and, truthfully, it’s not worth it.

Now here is the best part: I had a perfect day, AND it was easy. The very super best part is that I had no lags in energy, and it is now 9:30 PM and I am still going strong. I got my business work done, I did my aerobics class, I took myself and my daughter to our chiropractor, took my daughter and her 2 friends to a children’s theater, did all of the nightly kid stuff, and I don’t feel tired IN THE LEAST. YEEEHAAAWWWW!!!!

OK – gotta go and redo my original horse products website. Night all!

Oh, BTW, I also am drinking a several large mugs of tea that consists of 1 bag of Yerbe Mate' and one bag of the Republic of Tea - Sip Right For Your Type O. This combo seems to calm my mouth and body and it tastes good - even without honey!

I just finished reading the guest editorial inteview with Samuel Epstein, right here on the D'Adamo site. I think that it might be one of the most important things that I have read in a long time, and I recommend that all read it. It might change your life. http://www.dadamo.com/pov1.htm

"We’re just a product of a biological attack"...I heard a person say this in passing as I was ordering my green tea from my favorite java(Oh I miss the taste of coffee) hole. I turned around to see this person having a bran muffin with cranberries saying to myself "you might have just eaten your words…hopefully he’s not a type O…oh those nasty wheat lectins”. I’m amazed sometimes how as a species we survive the present world we live in. I was reading today that there is a link between MS and systemic lupus with the high consumption of diet drinks containing Aspartame. Monsanto…maker of Aspartame… must pay millions of dollars to keep the wraps on this type of info a day. Why pop drink (bad choice of a beverage as a whole) manufacturers do not just use Stevia…a herb…to sweeten their drinks is beyond me but of course you can’t patent Stevia so hence no money to be made. I feel sometimes that the modern evil conquerors of today are the food and drug companies who through creative marketing ploys and backdoor dealings with the FDA force these so called frakenfoods and “low fat substitutes” on the public not in the name of doing society good but for the almighty buck. Much like the Kingdoms of England, France and Spain did when they explored the America’s…. how so you ask. They did not come here to better the living standards of the Indians…they might of fooled them into thinking so….but they came to make their countries rich. There are great stories of conquest and battles but in the end most of the Indian’s of North America…. majority type 0…. died of disease…mostly smallpox… faster than they died from the sword. Diseases all introduced by the conquerors…and it’s happening today only we’re(am I responsible?) manufacturing them through “frankenfood”…. what is our fate as a human society? I’m optimistic because I think people, like myself, are fed up and if enough people are fed up…sales of “frankenfood” will stop (or at least slow down so they are taken of the shelf)… If you want to read an excellent book on the fate of human societies…pick up Guns, Germs, and Steel…The fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond…Its account of how the modern world was formed is full of lessons for our own future.

I'm going to have my green tea now....by for now!!