My very first blog concerned the problem I then had of drinking coffee, and not really liking the idea of giving it up. It has been a rather long and fairly (at times) rocky road since then in terms of my coffee consumption. I’ve imbibed a LOT of the black liquid since I first put those words into cyberspace. Most of the time, I enjoyed it. Some of the time I had to have it, because of a caffeine withdrawal reaction. Some of the time I thought I had to have it because I had a headache, and over-the-counter remedies don’t work for me. Some of the time I could do happily without it. Sometimes habit kicked in, and although I drank it, I didn’t feel better in the end, after my cup was long empty. Somehow miraculously, after a period of having one coffee every day for a long while without apology – simply accepting that having it was important in the moment – one day I didn’t want a coffee, and in the days following, didn’t need one. I still had one every two or three days, though. Habit is hard to kick over entirely. By now, however, I wasn’t enjoying it nearly as much as I had in the beginning of this series. And I‘ve actually discovered a very acceptable and enjoyable substitute for coffee that is beneficial for B blood type, even for non-secretors such as myself! I’m almost hooked on my new beverage of choice. After drinking it, I feel very much better in a lot of small ways. Why wouldn’t I want to have it again and again? I don’t drink it every day, but every two or three days I must have it, my body demands it.

What is this magic elixir? It’s very simple, really, and hardly original. I heat a cup or so of goat milk and add a scant tablespoonful of blackstrap molasses to it. Stir and drink. Yummm. And good energy too. No bad reaction in my body. No high pulse to contend with. I highly recommend it for people trying to get away from caffeine in the intensity that coffee brings. Be careful, though. Soy milk and molasses are not necessarily beneficial for the other blood types in general, so do check with TYPEbase4 before mixing up a cup for yourself. As always, we are not a “one size fits all” group.

My experience with coffee has helped me to reflect on the fact that it is difficult to make changes, even when the changes are beneficial. There are two main areas to consider: one is the effect on our bodies, the other is how resistant our minds are to change. There was a time in my life when I watched myself eating chocolate with horror, because although my body seemed to crave the chocolate incessantly, I also recognized that it was contributing greatly to the oncoming illness I was trying to fight off at the same time.

The mind is so fascinating, though, isn’t it? As a tactic to switch off chocolate, I tried eating popcorn every time I craved chocolate. I put a lot of melted butter over it, and sometimes some nutritional yeast as an added filip. After some time, when I craved chocolate and thought about making popcorn, I could actually taste the butter in my mouth, even though I had not yet popped the corn. A perfect Pavlovian response, right there in my own mouth.

Of course, I react more severely to corn these days than some other avoids in my diet, so I was not healing my body by eating the popcorn. Sigh. It takes a lot of awareness to deal with habits we have cultivated over time. Knowing what the problem is helps a lot, but it doesn’t necessarily take it away. Repression makes it worse, in my experience. So by simply allowing myself to drink coffee over the past many months while dwelling on the fact that it is an avoid for B non-secretors, even as I drank it without condemnation, the switch was happily made. May we all continue to go forward in our little struggles of compliance and improving our health as a result.