I am overwhelmed with the amount of AB mail I’ve been receiving. Thank you! We are so few out there…I love getting mail from you all! I’ll be taking time this weekend to answer the messages, so hang on a little bit longer.

And for all you AB’s in the same boat as myself (mourning the loss of coffee in our diet), go check out Dr. D’Adamo’s column above the blogger box on the web site. He mentions that of all the avoids…coffee is more okay than others. In fact, it’s the caffeine that’s bad and if we only have a cup or two balanced with stress management and bennie foods/drinks…we’re all good! YAHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now he’s really my hero!

More substantial blogs to come…going to battle the great California big-rig slow-down on the greater Los Angeles freeway system…bringing a cup of that sweet nectar known as café to sustain my will…to…continue…

Well, I’m sitting in the Las Vegas airport waiting to catch my connection into LA and thought that I’d take a chance to submit a blog in review of my recent trip. (Incidentally, I lost $3 in the slots here in the terminal and wisely decided to call it quits, as that was my lunch money!!) Thank you for the fun communications through the site…my soul belongs to the bayou, but my heart remains elsewhere…

Last night saw me still out and shakin’ my thang at 3 am to an amazing brass band. I was able to join a friend to have some good low country cooking. We went to visit the elderly parents of a mutual buddy and they treated us to homemade gumbo, potato salad, ribs, stuffed peppers and (of course!) fried chicken. I stuck to the gumbo because it was so good!!! I must create a BTD compliant gumbo…there’s four weeks until the end of the semester, but I’ll have that posted by, say, June. Keep checking in!

My compliance probably maxed out at about 40% this trip (5 days) and I’m okay with that, because, as you now know, the mental relief of being in the Big Easy far outweighs bennies, neutrals and avoids for me. However, having said that, I am ready to get back into my real world routine of good foods. I miss my breakfast staple of rice, beans and egg. I need veggies (and not the fried kind!!) and fruits and fresh foods! I MISS THE POOL!!!!! With just four weeks to funnel down the mountain of work that constitutes 16 graduate units, I need all the bennies I can get! The next several weeks of blog entries will find me in the pool, at yoga, trying for enough sleep and reaching for 90+% compliance on the BTD.

I’ll call it my BTD-stress-boot-camp-make-it-through-a-really-rough-next-several-weeks-without-getting-sick-or-(too) cranky plan. Come along for the ride…I’m sure it’ll be a hectic one! It’s gotta be good for some squirrelly entries…you do remember how random I get when I’m stressed…

Take care, be well and happy (compliant) eating…

Hey y’all…here I is in N’Awlins and it’s beaucoup fun dahlin’. Fest is wonderful, the weather is perfect (cloudy, sunny, windy, rainy…keeps everything cool). Believe it or not, I’m staying relatively compliant to the BTD…except for the oysters and crawfish (avoids, I think), I’ve had spinach, salad stuff, eggs, red snapper, zucchini…

I also had (an entire) bag of glazed pecans…so much sugar! I’ve also had quite a bit of café au lait…but it’s fest and the music and culture down here in the crescent city takes care of all avoids (tell that to my aching tummy trying to digest the sugary pecans!!). I have been really good about the water consumption and of course, we walk around and dance all day!

I don’t know when I’ll submit my next blog, but do know that I’ll continue to strive for compliance. I’m on a mission to enjoy jambalaya tomorrow for a very special darlin’ dear. Be great y’all, take care and happy eating.

Be well…

I'm still here and kicking. I can't write much today, but wanted to check in with my BTD family. It got crazy busy for school, and then I went away for a wonderful weekend (totally unplugged) and am now frantically trying to get stuff done for this week BECAUSE...jazz fest is in four days...yahoo!!!

I hope that this finds you all well and healthy. I'll try to post a real blog tomorrow. Happy eating...

At the end of the day you get nothing for nothing…

I was one of the miserable ones on the Los Angeles freeway system this afternoon. So much for the urban legend regarding “Friday light,” everyone and their mother was on the road today with me, trying, apparently to get to the same destination. And I had the Les Mis soundtrack with me, but my little car CD player tape thingie broke…Oh well, I’m home now and making some comfort tea (green, of course!) I watched the end of a movie called “Normal” about a guy who was a woman in a man’s body and how his change shook down with his family and their small farm town. All I have to say is that I know I’m PMSing when I’m sobbing at the end of a movie that I didn’t sit the entire way through. Good grief, I’d better not turn on the TV tonight, I might get sideswept by a sappy commercial!!

Tee hee…anyhow, I wanted to check in about that April 7th deadline for the ten pounds. I’m in at 172…so only two bills off the mark, not bad. I’ll see what I can do about being more compliant over the weekend and the coming week so perhaps I can lose another seven or so by Jazz Fest. I feel energetic and healthy, and just need to keep getting to the market to buy yummy AB friendly eats.

Lastly, I wanted to thank blog reader Natalie for her wonderful message. She (and her hubby!) remind us that we AB’s are universal receivers and complicated!! Too funny…I don’t know about y’all, but I’ve always found that most anything ER4YT and LR4YT say about my blood type is usually pretty accurate—from preferred foods to exercise to attitudinal differences. Come to think of it, as an Aquarius, my horoscopes are typically on the mark too!! Perhaps our newbie blood connects us to the universe at deeper levels. Interesting thoughts for a Friday evening!!

Compliant eating to you and be well…

Remember sitting at the lunch table as a kid and someone asking you if you wanted seafood and all of a sudden…mmlllaaaahhhh…you get an enormous view of the partly masticated contents of that person’s mouth? Yeah, me too.

Anyhow, I’ve been having a good amount of seafood the past couple of days and it’s yummy!! Yesterday I made scallops, onions, chile pepper sauce and bean sprouts over rice noodles. It was the yummiest dinner that I’ve had in a while!! Today I made red snapper in a very light veggie broth with thyme and parsley. I’m not the fondest of red snapper, but it’s a bennie and I couldn’t find any fresh tuna this week.

So there you have it. Remember that we AB’s primarily rely on seafood for our protein, and I know that I feel the difference when I include it in my weekly food intake. I feel stronger, faster, smarter, funnier, prettier…well, you get the idea!! Eat that seefood….mmlllaaaahhhh!!!!!!!!!

It must be the season for slipping…I had three (count ‘em), three Twix bars yesterday and my joints are killing me! Literally, they have unionized with the systems of my body and are planning a mutiny. I was 100% compliant for about three seconds and then the pasta babies started talking to the craving center of my brain and it was all downhill from there! I also realized (can I use this as a scapegoat?) that I’m PMSing too…so there you have it. The one good thing is that I’ve got all compliant foods and bought seafood today, so the protein will be back in the mix here quickly. I have been like a woman possessed in the pool too, so that helps detox a bit. And there’s yoga tomorrow (and I’m going to try getting to Thursday’s class). Okay, that’s all for today…just your standard, run-of-the-mill rant!

Happy, compliant eating and be well…

Welcome to you BTD dieters and friends…if you browse through any of the other blogger’s pages, you will find that today’s topic is not a new one, nor is it a surprise.

Compliant life on the BTD is wonderful. Shining skin, boundless energy, bright eyes and a body that doesn’t ache. Meander off the beaten path, however, and watch out!! Joint pain, bloated tummies, itchy skin…all are potential side effects of consuming something that isn’t necessarily compatible with your blood type.

Now, just for perspective, let me mention coffee, for example. It is an avoid for us AB’s. But I drink it every day for the myriad of immeasurable psychological benefits that it provides to me. I also drink no less than two quarts of water a day to flush out toxins. So one bitsy avoid that gives me great pleasure paired with plenty of water in my world is just fine. At this point it is important to welcome a second not so tiny avoid into the conversation: pasta.

Pasta and I have had a tumultuous love affair over the years. In college, I couldn’t get enough (or afford much else!). Since I’ve been more (gasp!) grown-up, I’ve found that I prefer rice, or no starch at all (not really too big a bread eater, either…unless it’s hot out of the oven…but that’s for another blog). Since beginning the BTD again in January, I have ignored pasta for the most part. There are some great rice noodles that I have come to prefer over “spaghetti.”

ANYWAY! The point of this rambling blog is that I had some bow-tie pasta with dinner last night and immediately knew that it would be bad news in the morning. I have a little pasta baby bloated belly living beneath my waistband!! Even my lower back was a bit resentful of me this morning as I dragged myself out of slumber. Good grief! If ever I needed a reminder why life is so good when paired with blood type compatible eating, it was handed to me on a silver platter (or rather a dinner plate) last evening.

I don’t even really like pasta anymore, and certainly know that feeling this way after consuming it is not worth straying off the BTD path. I’d rather have cookies or tortillas as my avoid indulgences than pasta! So to try and bring my body back around today, I’ll be eating with 100% compliance, starting with green tea (instead of coffee), drinking extra water and swimming as if Jaws were in the pool with us. All of that effort ought to bring about the departure of the pasta baby in no time at all!

Smile, walk in the park, take care and be well…

I’m here in the middle of another round of home projects (remember the madness in January?). This time I stripped the wallpaper out of the workout room and primed and repainted. It’s almost done; just trim and room clean-up are left. I think that I’ll tackle my housemates room (master bedroom) next weekend with their help. Lots of wallpaper to strip, primer will be needed and I promised that I’d attempt a faux finish…what was I thinking?! Don’t I have homework to do or something…

Thanks to the shopping extravaganza earlier in the week, life on the BTD has been very compliant. I had a delicious stir-fry with spinach, onions, shredded carrots, cabbage and zucchini. On top of that I put a fried egg. Yum! Lunch today has been collard greens with a soy sauce (mixed with chile sauce) dip. There are ultra-fresh strawberries in the fridge along with crisp apples and juicy plums. Such good food available in Cali! I’m so lucky…

Just for the record, I haven’t forgotten about that 10 pound resolution by April 7th. I’m down to 176 consistently (I can swing up and down 5 pounds from day to day), and with another week of “concentrated compliance,” I’ll make it to 170-71. Even though I haven’t been to yoga as consistently as I’d like, I’ve noticed a difference in the lines of my muscles. Everything seems longer and better aligned. It’s cool! My goal to deal with the stress of going back to school is to get to the studio three or four days next week instead of just two. (I’ll need the strength and flexibility to attempt that master bedroom wallpaper/faux finish epic!) I’m still in the pool (almost) every day and have noticed that my strength, timing and speed have all increased.

Well, to all of you out in BTDland, happy eating, take care and smile!

Be well…