On the good advice of a close friend (and you know who you are if you read this), I picked up a very definitive (in my opinion) book on personality types...Discovering your Personality Type…The Essential Introduction to the Enneagram (pronounced Any-O-gram). For those of you not familiar with enneagram , it is a geometric figure that differentiates the nine basic personality types (not going to list them all…read the book), with it’s nine different points of view, nine distinct sets of values, communication styles, etc., all having many subtypes (much like our blood) and subtle distinctions. It doesn’t ‘put you in a box (like most diets do), but it shows you the box you are already in (your dominant type or born temperament) and how to get out of it’.

Our personalities limit ourselves everyday and it’s main goal is to keep us from being in the here and now. If we become conscious of how our personality operates, we can than become free of it. We can draw an analogy to the BTD…if we become aware of how our blood specific body operates, we can become free of it’s limitations and gain it’s strengths and be very present when it comes to eating and taking better care of ourselves.

In the book, there is a test to most accurately (56-82%) predict your dominant personality…it’s called RHETI for Riso-Hudson Enneagram Type Indicator. It’s a series of 141 pairs of statements for you to consider which response is more true to you. I took the test and my score put me as the Type One: The Reformer

Generally Type One Reformers are conscientious, sensible, responsible, idealistic, ethical, serious, self-disciplined, and orderly and feel personally obligated to improve themselves and the world.

We tend to get into conflicts by being opinionated (who me?), impatient, irritable (especially when I don’t exercise), perfectionist, critical (and self critical), sarcastic (who me?) and judgmental (my ‘wheat’ or ‘avoid’ personality trait).

At their best, ones are tolerant, accepting, discerning, wise, humane, principled, fair and able to delay rewards for a higher good.

Here’s the line in the book that really got me, when it described my dominant type…also takes an active interest in preventative health matters; vitamins, cleansing diets and fasts, exercise routines, alternative medicine and cutting edge medical knowledge (go figure).

Now how do reformers grow? They do so by playing – by finding areas of their lives that are lighter (lost 20lbs first 6 months on the diet), freer and that offer opportunities for spontaneous creativity (like bloggiing for one). Most Ones have a great sense of humor (I get a great sense of pleasure in trying to make people laugh), and the more they allow themselves to entertain and enjoy others, the better for everyone involved.

Since being on the diet, I have woken up to many things; how my body and mind feels when I eat the right foods and wrong ones. Staying awake to my inner state, even when I’m suffering, has made my life shift from internal turmoil and conflicts to more creative pursuits. It’s drawn me to healthier ways of living and relating and also to the truth of what my personality is up to. The enneagram like the BTD has helped to make my path of self-knowledge surer because spending life in 'one box' can sure get boring fast