So it really wasn't a summer vacation, but it was quite an adventure. My oldest son and a group of BoarderX teammates went to Farnham Glacier in BC last week to do some summer training. The boys had the most incredible week, training alongside the Canadian National Boarder X team and the 2010 Team.

The camp is a 5 km hike in from a 53 km forestry trunk road (aka the tire killer). One of the members training up there is 37 years old and trying to make the National Team. My son said he has a killer body and is quite the Nutrition Expert. He follows the method of eating only what is grown or picked in season and stays away from anything that is white or sugary. The kids were running late one morning (up at 5 on the cat by 6), so Brenden grabbed some scrambled eggs to take with him in the cat. The other kids took the bread route. The nutrition guy took one look at Brenden's breakfast and told the other kids, that's what they should be taking for breakfast rather than the "white" approach. Of course Brenden was thrilled, and couldn't stop talking about Don.

My big adventure started when I had to pick up the kids from the Glacier. I took my husband's Armada with the 4 wheel drive and 18" rim wheels (better clearance over the rocks and downed trees). The safety officer that leads the drive up to the glacier told me there were at least 1-2 flats during a trip. (I knew then, it wasn't going to be my day).

The drive up was incredibly dusty and long (1.5 hours) and I was dodging big shale pieces, but I make it up. The 4 boys loaded up the truck and it was really heavy with 3 snowboards per kid, bindings, helmets, spine protectors, boots, shoulders pads and clothing for 1 week. We drove about 5 km and the front right tie blew (2 cm crack in the tire). As we changed the tire, I noticed the left rear tire started to go down as well, but we were 20 km from where a tow truck could drive in!!!

We made it 15 km down the hill and the next tire blew. We then drove another 5 km on the rim of the 2nd flat until we reached an area where a tow truck could make it up and turn!!!

It was 42C when we stopped and the boys were really hot, uncomfortable, and hungry since they had already hiked down from 11,000 ft, so I sent them down with the safety officer. I then spend an hour trying to get a cellphone signal. (Close to a bunch of ditch daisies with one foot on a rock, head at a 45 degree angle).

The tow truck driver came up around 2 hours later, loaded the truck and then got me a rental car to take the kids back home. We got home at midnight (around 6 hours late).

So how did the eating go through my bad day? Well I decided I wasn't going to stress about the food, and I totally junked out, Miss Vickie's plain chips, a milk chocolate bar, and some taco chips with about a gallon of water and almonds, I was on my way to have a sore and stiff back and legs the next day.

On Monday, I had to pick up the truck with new tires in tow, so the boys and I drove 3 hours west again in the tiny rental car with 3 new tires. The plus is the people who helped us were absolutely incredibly kind and geneours with their time and contacts.

On the way home, we stopped at the Radium Hot Pools and had an incredible soak in the sulfur pools. The park service had an acting troop on the pool deck that performed little skits about the ecosystem and history of the area. Of course, the dumb actions of parents astounded me once again. The hot pools are 40C and full of minerals and there are warnings everywhere to watch your kids because they shouldn't drink the water or get their heads under for long periods of time. One 3 year old went under 3 or 4 times, before mom even bothered to look at him. The lifeguards were right on it, and the mother seemed to be oblivious to her kid!!!!

Even though the weekend was a write-off, our Monday day trip was fantastic to Radium.

hellöööö Ihr Liebchens :-)

Peter schrieb neulich so herzig über ob.gen.Thema und ich kann es leider nur bestätigen; viele Therapeuten -egal mit oder ohne Dr. med. vorne dran (ich kotaue vor Keinem :-( ) ha....leiden unter diesem Syndrom...

tja es bedeuted dass auch diese nur aus Fleisch und Blut bestehen und auch hier mit adverse-reactions gerechnet werden muss...... denn Freund Neid und Habgier machen gerade und besonders gerne hier halt....alles was nicht aus meinem Köppsche chömmt- oder auch alles was ICH nicht empfohlen oder verschrieben habe is nix wert...hey aberr graaaad gaaarnixx!!!!

Und ausserdem jau- diese Ernährungsweise ist nicht für alle gedacht (hey für wenn denn sonst häää??)

bitte Eklektik und andere Besonderheiten zu Tisch....

und dann sagt doch sooo ein Professor zu einer meiner Patientinnen-als sie eben über die geschriebenen und auch von ihr produzierten Nebenwirkungen sich beklagte, Waaaasssss.....Siiiiiee leisten sich solche eine Individualität.... oooh das ist eher ungewöhnlich....na ja ist ja alles halb soooo schlimm Sie sind ja nicht dran gestorben..........trallalalaaa....ich wäre niewieder zu so einem Fuzzi gegangen...aber Menschen sind eben Patienten :-)))) oder patiente ????

Und wenn ich halt dann doch mit BTD Erfolge verzeichne-da die Leutchen die notwendige Disziplin aufbrachten- und auch hierüber ganz glücklich sind...Mann....ooooh Mann dann werde ich verrupft und

in der Luft zerrissen.... waaas kann ja nix sein...mit nem Vegatester und BTD....ist ja nicht mal anerkannt....ha-ha-haaaaaaaa.........dann denke ich mir meinen Teil, weiss aber....die Leutchen bleiben bei BTD und machen weiter und werden in kürzester Zeit gesünder sein-sich von vielen alten Dingen verabschieden können und das Schönste an der Sache ist....es läuft wie von selbst.....chuckle......

p.s.

lesenswert:über naturheilkundliche Tumortherapie und über Bio-Immuntherapie bei Ca-Erkrankungen:

hhtp://www.naturmednet.de/info/bioimmun.html

muahs' Eure Isa



bonjour mes amis (e) :-)

Peter mentioned it lately when he wrote about therapists with this syndrome....meaning the yes...but...syndrome when peoples were asking their therapists about BTD and then mostoften the replies are...yes....but....this form of therapy is not mentioned for all....& bla...bla....bla.....

we have to remind that even here grudge and avarice are mostly at home and their own préjudgements or presumtions are laid on their clients....and its meant: all what is not of my own thoughts or prescribed by my *holy* feather is nothing of worth...but really just n o t h i n g......

best might be giving any negative statements about BTD but having no correct infos about it nor real

knowledge...but just for fun and laberings...getting their clients unsure :-(

And then when clients have been successfully treated after a while with best effects whithin shortest times they try to literally kill me with words and all negative projections...ha...this is even not accepted by securité sociale etc.....hhmmm I become very calm, think of my own (ahems!!!!) ok...only those would allow themselves such statements without getting any fear for a certain reboundeffect... silly-ones)and it will come soon :-)) but I know surely those clients will stay on and with BTD....become more and more healthy and might often say bye-bye to longlasting sickness or other healthconcerning problems....so far sooooo good :-) and hereby the best is: it works on its own...chuckle.....



p.s.

please have an eye in/on this:hhtp://www.naturmednet.de/info/bioimmun.html

muahs' truly yours Isa

I believe that I have mentioned our college baseball league before. Actually, the Peninsula Oilers are a group of college players from around the country that come to Kenai to play baseball for the summer. Alaska has several of these teams that are located throughout the state, primarily in Anchorage and Fairbanks. Well, tonight our team won the championship for the state and will travel to Wichita for the World Series. Go

Team!!!

Overall my garden continues to do well, however the summer squashes and spinach don’t seem to be really happy. I think the pok choy and Chinese cabbages are ready for stir fries as needed. I may also pick some turnip and/or beet greens soon, too. I noticed that there are several strawberries ready to be harvested. The peas have climbed high and I’ve seen a couple flowers, so peas may not be too far behind. The garden area is full and just about everything looks incredibly healthy.

I made a soy milk chocolate pudding for dessert tonight. The recipe was one I copied from the forum and it does taste quite good. It is not sweet at all and I used the soymilk I had left from what I made last weekend. Yesterday I made some “kitchen sink” cookies that incorporated the “sludge” leftover from making the soy milk and almond/oat milk. I added raisins, a few chocolate chips, some dates, apple juice concentrate (for the sweetener), applesauce and plum sauce (for the fat replacement), walnuts, eggs from our hens, spelt, oatmeal, baking soda and powder, cinnamon, cloves, and ginger. This concoction made a cake-like cookie. I didn’t measure, but just started putting things together. None-the-less, they turned out well and are good to all of us.

My husband took two of the grandkids to the baseball game tonight. When he dropped them off, my granddaughter was determined to spend the night at our home because she wanted some more of Grandma’s smoothie. She’ll be spending a few nights here next week while her sisters are in a tournament in Anchorage and then she’ll get more smoothies. This smoothie is the one that incorporates the flaxseed oil and lots of fruit. Sure glad the kids like getting all those omega 3’s without being aware of it.

My lunch today was so good. We went to our favorite restaurant, Wings, where I indulged in fresh halibut and a salad. The halibut was perfect!!! The salad was good. I left full and very satisfied.

Well, this is about all for today. Take care. Till next time…

Ok, so I've been quite strict on the BTD for years. How would I know what I'd feel like going off even slightly. Sometimes I do eat other non beneficial healthy foods and I don't feel quite as 'clean', always a slight reaction. In addition, I take a swig of Omega 3 fatty acids everyday and grind flax for fiber.

It never seems to be enough though because I keep wanting more. Sound familiar? When I get to the next level, I notice things that I didn't feel before. And then there's stress, oy if I must say.

What we think affects are body. Anyone see What the Bleep?

So now I'm going to try the next step....going on a detox/cleanse that I mentioned in an earlier post. It's a pretty mild program which includes taking baths with epsom salts and a variety of essential oils and a Complexion Stream where you boil water, add fresh herbs to the potion and then breathe in.

So far I have cut out all the pro inflammatory foods. Peanuts, strawberries, spelt and rye, dairy...all gone for now. Just want to see what happens. There is no time in the 28 days that I will go hungry. The 3 middle days, I am allowed fruits and veggies with 3 protein drinks.

That's it for now...have to go back and watch the news....I know, so stress inducing now. My one cheat!

Thanks Alan,

Would like to liven the links and I went to the link below that you provided several times and I got an error message. Can you give me more info please. Thanks... Myrna

"You can provide links in your blogs. If you go to "The Lions Head" forum there is a thread: http://www.dadamo.com/cgi-bin/Blah/Blah.pl?b=lion,m=1148347406 that explains it. Much nicer presentation. Keep up the good work."

Alan (Lloyd O-secretor)

To other interested about my detox/cleanse. It's just for 28 days starting from next week but today I started paying more attention to inflammatory foods and started taking some fiber caps to prepare for next week. I do usually have 1 Tbs of chopped flax seeds almost daily, manna bread, a mixture of oats and amaranth and Ara6 and do eat alot of fruits and veggies but apparently not enough for my body so will try the fiber caps to check it and will let you know and if I forget to mention, please do remind me.

I cut out eggs, cottage cheese, strawberries, oats and spelt bread but still had some dark choc(85% cocoa).

I'm way too stressed about the Mideast Crisis...for my own good. Would be nice to be able to 'walk across the street' and have some detachment. That's a lifetime work in progress but none the less, I'm working on it. Remember, Ab's are the most emotional type and if not, then I can use being a pisces as an excuse.

Please continue to ask questions or respond. Will answer if you leave your email.

Wishes to everyone!

Myrna

July 26, 2006

I wonder how many people have seen the movie, “Lost in Translation”? While I did not love the movie, one scene, in particular, made me laugh out loud. In this scene, Bill Murray – whose character is a famous actor - is in Tokyo to film some commercials. While filming a commercial, Murray's character has trouble understanding the director, and his translator is of little help. In the commercial, he is sitting and slowly savoring the product, which is a whisky. He appears to be enjoying the product and doing a great job of conveying the feel. The director, meanwhile, is incessantly trying to tell him to do something different and is getting quite agitated, but Murray has no idea what the director wants from him. Nothing makes sense in the context of this particular commercial. For example at one point, after the director talks intensely for a long, long time, the translator tells him that the director said to "move quicker, and with great intensity”. This couldn’t possibly be what the director was saying or what he was trying to get Murray's charact to do. It doesn’t sound funny as I type it, but there was something about that scene that really got to me. It’s been on my mind this morning and let me tell you why.

I’ve have definitely had a couple of interesting days, diet-wise.

Although my goal is to be up an running with my “get back in shape and get this darn weight off” plan by mid-August, I am not just sitting around ruminating about the whole thing. I AM taking action as I can, and trying to really observe and “grok” the results.

For example, I have always – ALWAYS – worked to get protein into me first thing. Part of me, in fact, rebels against the thought that some other approach might work better than the “protein, protein, protein” first thing.

BUT

Actually the fruit/ nut combo seems to be working better than protein. So, go figure…

What I guess that I am saying is that I am taking this time to not only do the thinking and figuring part out, but I am also doing things to improve where I am. By taking these small steps, I have actually had 2 amazing days. I have been starch-free, fruit and veggie intense, bennie concentrated. And I have felt great eating this way, with absolutely no cravings. Why couldn’t I get to this point before? It seems so clear and easy.

That being said, I ate pizza last night. Pizza and an Italian sub.

As Dr. Phil would say, “How’s that workin’ for ya?”

As I sit here with dealing with the final remnants of my body’s SHOUTING overreaction, I can readily say, “no so good” Last night was an eye-opener, that’s for sure.

There is a pizza parlor here in San Antonio that is owned and operated by a family from New Jersey. Their pizza and Italian subs are the only ones in town that are the way that I remember them from growing up in New York. Everything that they make (and the only things on the menu are pizza and subs) is delicious. I hadn’t eaten there in nearly a year, and neither had a girlfriend of mine and we’ve both been talking about how we have been craving Florio’s pizza, so we decided to go last night. We ordered a medium pizza with sausage, green peppers, onions and mushrooms on it and the traditional Italian sub. The food came and it was YUMMY. I ate that delicious, delicious food until I could barely walk and it felt SOOOO good.

Until….

Until…

Well, really until right after I ate. I just didn’t feel so great. I went home and did some work and went to bed on the late side. I had eaten raw onions at lunch in a salad that I had made, and although the onions gave me a little onion breath, they hadn’t bothered me at all. Of course THOSE onions were a part of a healthy, BTD-compliant, bennie-filled salad. After I ate the pizza, though, all I could taste and feel were the onions. I couldn’t get rid of them. My stomach started to hurt and I started to get a terrible headache. I took some aspirin and headed to bed (I’m not aspirin sensitive, and it seems to work better for me than any other pain reliever). It was just after midnight.

By 3:30 AM, I was in misery. My stomach was killing me, all I could taste was the pizza and the onions, my head felt like someone was squeezing it with a vise and my heart was pounding. I got up, hoping that getting vertical would make me feel better.

Now, let me interject something here. I’ve only been clean and BTD compliant for 2 days. I have been eating wheat, here and there, for a while now, and whereas it might make my heart pound a little or make me feel a little funky, I have not had bad reactions to it. Ditto dairy and just about everything else that was in that meal. I have only been clean for 2 DAYS!

But my body’s reaction was clear as a bell. I cannot do that anymore. I simply can’t. I didn’t get back to sleep until 7 AM. It is now nearly 11 AM, and I just finished my fresh fruit and nut mixture, and I have to say that my stomach still hurts.

Me. The person with the cast-iron stomach. In stomach misery.

No more.

I want to feel, physically, like I did BEFORE the pizza yesterday. And this is probably why and how people like blogger Suzanne remain so complaint. Perhaps until getting my brain straightened out with the ADD medication, I simply couldn’t focus in on how I was feeling. I actually know that this was a part of it. I was delayed in taking one of my pills yesterday, and I immediately started to get disjointed. When this happened, I didn’t feel OK, in fact, I felt physically terrible.

Perhaps, now that I am being treated properly, my body can send me signals and I will understand and heed them. Perhaps it has been sending me signals, just as strong and clear as last night, all along, but I wasn’t able to process it.

The good news, overall, is that, regardless of the past, I am hearing them loud and clear now. Perhaps, now, my body’s signals to me will no longer be lost in translation.

I started the Blood Type Diet ten months ago, and so far I've been on five different versions of it. That's an average of one new diet every two months!

The first two were just a couple of false starts. I had never known what my blood type was, but after reading the “textbook cases” in Eat Right 4 Your Type, I guessed that I was a B. Several of my health problems are similar to common B problems, and I do better with milk products than without them. I followed the B diet for five days before having my blood type tested.

I turned out to be an A. I was actually delighted, because my husband and I had been vegetarians for many years, and I knew that it would be easy to plan A-compliant vegetarian meals. Since 80 to 85% of people are secretors, I began following the A secretor diet. I also sent off my saliva sample for secretor testing, and started making lists of foods that A secretors can eat but A non-secretors cannot, and vice-versa.

Based on my food lists, I decided that I really wanted to be a non-secretor – and two weeks later, I got my wish! I cut corn and wheat out of my diet, and gleefully resumed eating sweet potatoes, tomatoes, and bananas. Then (other than adding a small daily serving of salmon or turkey in February) I made no major changes to my diet for seven whole months!

By then, I looked and felt better in a lot of little ways, but there hadn’t been any major miracles – so I began to think about changing my diet again.

I have been told that my father was an O, which means that I presumably have a recessive O gene. I decided to see if avoiding the foods that O non-secretors are supposed to avoid (in addition to the A non-secretor Avoids) would make a difference. But a month later, things were still about the same, so it was clearly time for yet another change!

Several people on this site's forums say that they do better when they eat little or no grain – easy on the rice, bread, pasta, and baked goodies. Since most of these people are O’s (like my paternal gene), I thought it might be worth my while to try going grain-free. So I did, completely and immediately. That lasted four days!

No, I wasn’t desperate to eat grains again. I was actually getting along just fine. What happened was, I came to my senses – with a little help. I read a post on this site’s forums by “Whimsical” (alias blogger Kate Whimster), who has been on the BTD since 2002. She said in part, “…the best results that I've had with the BTD have come literally YEARS after I started.”

I knew that Kate was right. As my nutritionist often points out, it took me many years to develop my various problems, so I can’t expect to clear them up overnight. Her rule of thumb is one month of recovery time for every year that the problem has persisted.

This is just a guess, but I suspect that most of the people who see dramatic improvement after only a few days or weeks on the BTD are those whose previous diet was all wrong for them (so the BTD is a major breakthrough) and/or people with serious health problems (so a 10% improvement is huge).

For me, 10% is enough to show that I’m headed in the right direction. So I’m back on the basic A non-secretor diet, and for the past couple of weeks, my mantra has been “Give it time …. Give it time …. Give it time ….”

By the way, the least appealing of my five diets was the B diet, mainly because most of my favorite beans were off-limits. That should have told me something!

guten Abend meine herzigen Liebchens :-)

also zu ob. gen. Thema, mein Lieblingsthema...hetz...tramp...würrg....muss ich heute nochmals impertinent aufzeigen (gerrrne aus der Ferrne) es gibt' hier wohl kaum ein Thema was nicht verpsychologiesiert wird, so richtig quetsch ans und ins Herzl...lass dfie Tränendrüse quietschen.... einfach zum Erbrechen....und dann

die absolut geilen Ueberlappungen eigener Projektionen und das Allergeilste am Ganzen ist, weder Aters' noch Ogen merken es......d.h..... sie glauben noch an den shullbit den sie als Wortekotzerei rauslassen; und drücken im Prinzip ihren (hi-hi-hiiiii Probanden) Clienten in eine Gefühlsechte Triefecke die sich gewaschen hat und der arme Trottel glaubt auch noch dass ihm geholfen werde...wenn er/sie zerfliesse.....ouch.....(Mitleid...Mitleid....tropf...tropf mit mir selber :-)

Dies war mit einer der Gründe, warum ich dieses Gesülze an den Nagel gehängt habe- ich liebe Keirsey, ich liebe C.G.Jung, Riso's Enneagram und nochmehr die drei Bände von Papa Gurdijeff:* Beelzebub's Erzählungen an seinen Enkel*, u.a. dann Jean Kleins' gesammelten Werke ein absoluter Hit und highlight,

klare Fakten und bitteschön was zum knuddln und anfassen- nix Schwammiges-Weiches-jmden.verantwortlich machendes (ausser mir selbst) hach bin ich ein Armes und hat das Leben und meine Kindheit mir nicht übelst mitgespielt..häääää??? !

OmG... ich muss gleich auf's WC...mir wird speiübel mit welchen Tricks heute sogenannten Clienten die Kohle aus der Tasche gezogen wird, respective der Krankenkasse somit. Und dieses Uebel ist auchnoch von *öffentlicher Hand* anerkannt, obwohl heute zum Teil massivst widerlegt, durch Nutrigenomics demontiert und dito von der Neurobiologie aus den Angeln gehoben!!! :-)

Da lob ich mir alle Bücher von massr Dr. D'Adamo...damit kann ich was anfangen...was ändern...was bewegen...und ei gugge da spätestens nach zwei Wochen ging es jedem von uns besser....der Anfang zur Heilung war gemacht.....ergo dranbleiben....weitermachen...andere auch davon profitieren lassen- Lügen aus dem Weg räumen....und Wahrheit und Klarheit über das Volk bringen- denn alle Völker wollen nicht nur konsumieren und Brot und Spiele.......vorgegaukelt bekommen......die 20 % sind weltbewegend!

Wie soll ich mich denn verständlich machen, wenn meine Sprache eine andere ist als die meines Gegenübers...da liegt der Schlüssel...



good evening all dearles :-))

on the behalf of this thema, nothing might be too abstract to get into the lights of a certain psyche-trip... means even their own projections of the aters and ogues arent' remarked by themselves and are leading mostly to false understanding by clients and therapists.Sometimes people are sent into

a selfishnesscorner that would be more harmfull than helpfull and thexy are catched by selfpitty and

lye at themselves from the finest.....

thatswhy I stopped to get involved with such kind of *therapies*...very questionable for me....so I do prefere the books of Jean Klein, Gurdijeff,Keirsey,C.G.Jung, Risos enneagram and last but not least all the books of massr Dr. D'Adamo....here I can work with them, nothing of wabbeling-softy-around but clear-clean-and of value....facts...facts...facts.....

It is amazing how those *therapists* are getting out of the clients portemonnaie all such liquids even with the agreement of so called healthstatements and healthcare-caisses....omG... I think fine to know that even nutrigenomics is on its work to do a good job of demontage and that neurobiology is also on its road to act similar....now there's only the official statements of nutritions-industry which is lacking lots of truth .....because not all folks wanted only bread & games....the 20% are the worlds' movements

how to make me understandable when my language is not the same than this of my oposite partner?- here lays the key......

Well, today my child is away at camp for the week, so I am going to use this week – one where I don’t have to run my life around HER schedule, to start figuring out “the rest of my life”, so to speak. In other words, now starts the real work on figuring out how to take off this weight and how to keep it off.

There are a few things of which I am sure, and there are many things about which I have some good thoughts and inklings. Here’s what I have so far:

1) Attempting anything too radical will not work. While I am great at doing just about anything for a short time (6 months or less), I need to work towards changes that I can do for a lifetime. Anything too severe (such as, “I’ll never eat starch again”) won’t work.

2) Eating out is a problem for me, and probably always will be. It is not realistic to think that I will eat out and not eat things that are off of my general plan. This is where I admire people like blogger Suzanne so much. I was, literally, amazed how well she did on her cruise. That would never happen with me. Not at this point, anyway. I would have been all over the deserts, the starches, whatever. I would have NEVER hit the gym. However, she’s been pretty compliant for a long time, and perhaps I CAN see a time, down the road, when I will be able to make better choices for myself when eating out. At this point, however, my goal is to remain complaint when I am eating at home, and to do the best that I can when eating out.

3) I think that the timing of my food and what goes into my mouth first is very, very important to me. This is something that is just starting to show itself right now, as I am really paying attention to what I am eating and how it affects me. This is what I have found so far:

a. My body likes fruit first thing in the morning. Fresh is best, but a smoothy made from frozen is OK, too. I can throw some nuts or seeds in it, but no protein and DEFINITELY NO STARCH. About 30 minutes later or so, my body likes some protein, fat and veggies. The portions do not have to be very big, and while I like to eat the fruit/ nuts right down, I like to eat the protein/fat/veggies slowly. I often take the plate to my computer and eat a bite here and there until it finished. When I follow this plan, I am absolutely satiated and satisfied.

b. I need to avoid starches until the evening. This goes against EVERYTHING that I have ever tried, but this is what keeps me out of the starches and keeps me from binging. I have found this to be completely true. Starches need, for me, to be consumed only at my evening meal. In time, I might be able to eliminate them from many evening meals per week.

c. Some veggies are good starch substitutes and seem to keep me on track. Oddly enough, the ones that I have found that do this so far are okra and fresh artichoke hearts. I added okra to my adaptation of blogger Suzanne’s “trio of bennies” the other day. I did this because I had about 1/3 of a bag of frozen okra sitting in the freezer and wanted to use it up. I didn’t finish it all and the next day I reheated the mixture in a pan. When it was cooked the second time, the okra absolutely felt like a starch to me. I’m going to investigate this further. Other starches, like sweet potatoes and such, do not work for me. They are trigger foods plain and simple. I need to keep trying new, hopefully beneficial, veggies and see which ones seem to satisfy the “starch” tooth.

d. When I eat refined sugar, it, too, needs to be in the evening. I need to cut way down and to perhaps eliminate sugar at home and to severely limit it when eating out. Sugar can be a terrible problem for me. I’m going to look into the blue agave nectar. I have tried veggie glycerin and I hate it. I use honey for most applications at home. Actually, at home, I don’t add sugar to too many things, so perhaps this is just one of those “need to work on when eating out” sort of thing.

4) I like to chew gum. Chewing gum seems to help with some of the compulsion to eat. I chew sugar-free gum, which I know is just junk for the body, but it really seems to help sometimes. I’m going to keep an eye on it and see if it creates problems for me.

5) I need to create a workout schedule that works for me. This is going to be difficult, as I am now riding horses again and I get exhausted from that because I am so out of shape. Regardless, I MUST hit the gym at least 4 days per week. I am an evening workout girl, so once my daughter’s fall evening schedule of swimming and dance gets settled in, I can workout around her stuff as I was doing at the end of the school year last year. In the meantime, I am going to try to get into some sort of modified schedule for the next few weeks.



6) I need to do something, like T-Tapp’s Basic Workout Plus or even just Primary Back Stretch first thing in the morning. I also need to body brush. These things get me going and I have gotten out of the habit of doing them. It would probably be best to eat my fruit, then do these things for the 10-15 minutes that it takes to do them, then go for my veggies and protein. Also, because I work out of the house, doing this makes me feel like I have really started my day. I just plain feel better.

7) I have been somewhat lazy about getting my water it. I need to get back into the habit of drinking more water.

So, these are thing things that I have been thinking about so far. Again, while I am going to start slowly putting this plan into action over the next 3 weeks, the real jump-off time will be the second week in August.

I’ll blog again more, soon!

Thanks to Alan, Lola, Carol, Isa and Jayne for the spelling correction of smorgasbord. It was a delectable meal with every organic vegetable that I could carry home in a shopping bag. That's the easy part. I always have to think of a protein to throw in with the veggies so it's either pinto beans and basmati rice cooked a day earlier, canned wild catch salmon(no frozen fish allowed..too many polyamines), sardines, turkey, goat cheese. tofu, tempe. or soy cheese?

Hey, I have a question for anyone out there....when I look at the ingredients on any of the soy cheeses, it dismays me. There are a few ingredients that are an avoid so I end up standing there trying to figure out if the amount is either too small to matter or too much to be part of my diet. One of the ingredients is guar gum. I will check the package and get back to you.

But I did buy it once and grilled it on a rice cake...delicious..couldn't taste the avoid stuff at all...

So I started out by throwing some olive oil in a pan(on a low flame), garlic and then vegetables as fast as I could cut them. I hardly ever do things in an orderly way....its just my smorgasbord mind! And then after the veggies were cooking, I put a bit of liquid in and added some kale on the top.

So I have protein, carbs and fat when I eat every meal or snack. That's what I learned from reading up on the Zone Diet years ago...that with a gulp of omega 3 fatty acids is supposed to keep my blood sugar balanced...oh yeh, sure. The last time I saw the good doctor Peter D, he looked in my eyes and said my blood sugar was up and down.

Well, if he knew I rushed like he## to be on time....who knows maybe that made my blood sugar and cortisol level go up. Being an AB with a lot of emotion & passion doesn't help. And if I were an O, I might be complaining about my knees bothering me from running or over extending myself with exercise.

Enough rambling for now....

PS-Just had a healing experience from one of my friends who does shamanic work...very relaxing. She told me I have to hug more...hmmmm(well that is the summary after a more complicated talk) After she worked on me, I stuck her finger to find out her blood type...an A, that was easy...made a delicious meal for the both of us....that ended with 85% coco(dark chocolate) with strawberries, walnuts, pecans and almonds. There goes 'food combining'!

I am currently in the process of moving, (will discuss in next blog) so I have been going through some boxes (from my last move 3 months ago) and I happened to come upon a recipe box of mine. I am the type of cook that uses ‘recipes’ as a base and just sort of come up with my own creations. This box was full of recipes that I had made up completely on my own, no outer source influencing me. The contents were scary, reveling, sad, and amazing all at the same time.

I almost every single recipe the ingredients were almost 100% beneficial for an A ‘lite’ secretor such as myself (this means that there were a few with banana and sweet potato). You think I’m joking but let me print some here to show you examples. Now mind you, these were created before I had even heard of BTD.

Oatmeal Pumpkin Muffins:

These were my favorite, I used to make them and then mash them up and pour soy milk on top and eat them like cereal for breakfast, sometimes in the morning I still crave them. I also had a similar one with Zucchini

2 cup ground oatmeal

¼ cup oatbran

2/3 cup pumpkin mashed

1 cup unsweetened soymilk

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

2 oz walnuts

Bread Recipe Lentil Burgers

1 cup oatmeal ½ cup lentils mixed with ¼ block soft tofu

½ cup amaranth ½ cup cooked amaranth or buckwheat

½ cup buckwheat 1/8 cup rice/oat bran

¼ cup oatbran

1 egg Bake

Banana Bread Adzuki Bean Loaf

3 ripe bananas ½ cup ground buckwheat

½ cup soymilk ½ cup ground oats

½ cup wheatgerm 1 cup adzuki beans

¼ cup oatbran 1/5 block soft tofu

½ cup buckwheat flour

½ cup oat flour Bake

½ tsp salt

½ tsp baking powder

tsp cinnamon

tsp ginger

Pumpkin pie with Oatmeal Crust

1 ½ cup soy milk

2 eggs

1 tsp cinnamon

½ tsp ginger

Oatmeal Pie Crust

2 cups rolled oats ground

3 tbs olive oil

Sweet Potato Bread

4 oz cooked sweet potato

3 eggs

1tbs olive oil

¼ cup soy milk

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ginger

¼ cup ground flaxseed

¼ cup rye flour

¼ cup soy flour

¼ cup amaranth flour

½ tsp baking soda

Scary huh? Now these were all during my vegetarian days, I also found a food journal for my time on ‘my version’ Atkins. Here is a sample day

Pre-workout: Pumpkin Tart with flaxseed crust

Breakfast: Homemade Lamb sausage, 1 egg, broccoli

Snack: Celery with Pumpkinseed butter

Lunch: Salad with Red Snapper, tomato, green beans, and zucchini

Snack: Chicken spread with Peanut butter and Spinach mix

Dinner: Turkey with Spinach and mashed cauliflower

Snack: Homemade Quiche with Salmon

So what should I think of all of this, I’m not sure, I’m amazed, stunned and still in shock. I need time to sort it all out. One thing for sure it is a testament to BTD. All of this was done pre-BTD with me simply following what I naturally wanted to eat. Weird Science, huh?

It’s been a cloudy and breezy day today. The high was in the mid-60’s and nighttime lows are still mostly in the 40’s. Just over a week ago, we got down to 37 degrees during the night. In spite of this, most of the garden in continuing to do well. I’m not sure how well the roots of the root vegetables will do this year as the soil is very rich with old poultry compost. However, the leaves are all bright and colorful and I’m quite sure, filled with good nutrients just waiting to be harvested.

I just ate a bowl full of fresh, sliced nectarines with some homemade almond-oat milk sweetened with dates. Wow, was that good. Dinner will be a bit late tonight. My husband and I went to a Chinese restaurant after the parade today. The food was good, although I know there was an avoid or two in the mix.

This was an unusual parade for us as the grandkids weren’t in it or even spectators. My husband and I were part of the Crime Stoppers float and candy distributors. This was our first year to participate in the parade and it was fun seeing so many people we know. My eldest son was also a participant; however, he was with the newspaper group. Kenai has a parade during the Fourth of July and Soldotna has their parade, aka, the Soldotna Progress Days Parade on the fourth Saturday of July and has for 46 years, now. Many people and organizations participate in one or both parades each year. And, each year the list of entrants becomes longer. Today’s parade was over two hours long…and there were still many, many spectators. We gave out over 2,000 candies mostly to the kids.

Most of the fishing has been closed for the Kenai River because of lack of returning red salmon. Commercial fishing was curtailed for yesterday and the dip-net fishery ends tonight at midnight. Sports fishermen are allowed one salmon daily and only one in possession. Fortunately, my husband was able to bring home 15 reds at the beginning of the run so I have enough vacuum sealed salmon packs in the freezer for two meals per month. We still have some canned salmon and some smoked salmon form last year, so we shouldn’t be hurting too much if the season doesn’t re-open. The fish seem to be running a couple weeks late this year due to the colder water temperatures. The kings came in late and now the reds. If the escapement goals are met, the fisheries will re-open.

The tally for moose hit and killed on the peninsula highways from July 1st last year through June 30th this year is only 211. The snow wasn’t very deep so the moose didn’t spend much time on the roads. That does make a big difference. The Matanuska-Susitna area above Anchorage had quite a few more hits this year. Meat from the road kills goes to charities and some to the people who came out to take care of the carcass. No meat goes to waste. Whatever may be left behind is eaten by the ravens, eagles, or magpies.

I need to go start thinking about dinner. I spent a lot of time reorganizing my kitchen this week and making dinner should be a bit easier. There is some Black Angus beef, ground, in the refrigerator. I also have fresh broccoli and carrots to steam. That’s probably going to be the bulk of dinner. I want to make some cookies or a quick bread using the “waste” from making my soy and almond-oat milks yesterday. Experimentation is in the fore-cast.

Well, this is about all for tonight. Take care. Till next time….

Hi everyone,

Glad to be part of this blogging community. Since this is my first time on this blog, I just learned a lesson. I went to check out the spelling of shmorgasborg and lost my blog entry. It wasn't even listed in the dictionary and I'm sure it will be obvious what I mean.

As I am one of the chamelions in the group(AB, secretor, MM) I am so grateful to know Peter D as he always has a suitcase of miracle herbs that are a great aid in my living a healthful and energetic life. Nine years ago I had a slight bump in the road...breast cancer. So now I stay vigilant with the herbs and most beneficial foods for my blood type.

My 29 yr old son just stopped by with his chocolate lab/pitbull. So great to pet and play with animals. He munched on a bunch of my blood type specific nuts and fruits. You know how kids are when they 'stop by'. They're always hungry. Good that he's a B. So I always have good foods for him.

Please feel free to comment or email me. And now I must go and have fun in the kitchen whipping up a shmorgasborg(is there a correct spelling of this word?) of beneficial delicious foods.

I’m wondering how many people are asking themselves why I have asked to blog again? As most know, I am not the most compliant BTD’er out there as I tend to be focused one moment and out of control the next.

I guess that I have more to say and more of a journey yet to follow with the BTD. I’m forever inspired by Suzanne’s blogs and her real commitment to following the BTD to it’s fullest. I think that I ended my last blogging round because my life had gotten out of control, as had my eating and I felt like a failure compared to people like her.

While I’m not sure how much of my life is now under control, I know that it is much better in at least one way: I have been diagnosed and have started treatment for Adult ADD/ ADHD and the treatment has been nothing short of miraculous for me.

I took amphetamines for years in college as a way to help myself study. Little did I realize that this is the exact treatment that I needed for the ADD/ADHD that I always probably had. While I was always and exemplary student (and a straight-A one at that) from elementary school through high school, when I hit Cornell University, I found that I was struggling terribly with the amount of memorization required and the volume of the reading required. I hadn’t realized how hard it was for me to memorize things – my education so far had been so “easy” for me. I rarely had to memorize anything but spelling and spelling, to this day, is problem for me. Anyway, at the urging of a friend of mine (probably also ADD), I found that taking amphetamines helped me to slog through the difficult reading and to retain what I read much better. Of course, what I was taking were street drugs, and who knows what was in them.

After college, in 1984, I quit street drugs all together at the request of my then boyfriend/ now husband. He was very anti-drug and had never taken or experimented with any sort of illegal substance. Since this was the only thing that he ever asked of me, I felt that I could do this, no problem.

The problem was that I started to get mentally disjointed again, although I wasn’t really aware of this at the time. I then found diet pills, which I took, on and off, for over a decade after that. While they never gave me the calm, focused feeling that I was craving, they did help. Ephedra-based diet pills were part of my daily routine, and while I always felt that I was taking them to lose weight, I now know that I was also taking them to self-medicate my mental frenzy and disjointedness. While Ephedra helped, it wasn’t the answer. My body would eventually burn out on this product, and I would have to quit it for a while.

To make a long story short, I am now taking Adderall, which is, basically, pure amphetamine. I am taking the tiniest of doses throughout the day, but the difference that it has made in my life is nothing short of miraculous. I know, I know, ADD/ADHD has become something of a pariah these days, with every child who is rambunctious being hauled off to the psychiatrist for diagnosis and treatment. I don’t know how to feel about this. As an adult, this past year has been one of the absolute worst for my brain. Over the past 6 months, specifically, I have felt that I was losing my mind. I found myself neck-deep in paperwork that I simply could not handle on my desk, I found my business lacking, due to my inability to ever get anything done, and I found my household reflecting my mental state in it’s general feeling and appearance of non-stop chaos.

Thank goodness I found myself at a therapist whose first real question to me was whether I had ever been diagnosed as ADD/ADHD. Truthfully, the thought had never crossed my mind. I participated in the diagnosis process and ended up on this medication. The change has been, as I stated, nothing short of miraculous. Within 15 minutes of taking the medication, my mind slows down, calms down and I feel that I can actually focus enough to take on AND complete the tasks that I need to do. If this is how well it helps me, then perhaps I (we) need to rethink our judgment of the children labeled as ADD/ADHD, and the parents who agree to follow the treatment program for them. Personally, I would never want my daughter to struggle with the disjointed, frustrating misery that has been my brain for the past year or two. I guess that, as I child, I must have developed pretty good coping strategies. Or perhaps I wasn’t that bad until I hit college. Whatever it was, I would have loved to have had this medication to help me. It’s hard to go to a phenomenal university as I did, but to be known as the “mental space cadet”, which is what my friends called me, made matters even more difficult. I often wondered if THEY wondered what the hell I was doing at a school like that. While I excelled at my sport and ended up captaining the woman’s polo team that won the national title in 1984 – I could REALLY focus on polo – my grades were not what I felt they should be. They were OK, but I could never understand why they weren’t what they were in high school. Adderall probably would have helped that tremendously. Of course, back in 1980, this was not something that people knew much about, so there you go!

One of the reasons that had decided to step down from blogging was feeling that I was losing my ability to keep up with the task of blogging. Now it seems to be no problem.

While I was offered a cousin of the current anti-depressants to take along with the Adderall, I decided to pass, and so far, I don’t need them. My mood and outlook has moved back to being more of my typical “optimistic” self, now that I am able to deal with my life.

I had given up on many things over this past year. I had given up on getting my business under control. I had given up on ever keeping up with the housework. I had given up on ever being thin again. I’ve changed my tune. Now things seem do-able again.

So, to get to the point: I would like to make the main focus of this blog about losing weight using the BTD. While I can’t say that I won’t stray thoughts from here to there (the Adderall helps, but isn’t a “cure” and I wouldn’t want it to be one), I would like to keep the main track as weight loss.

So, this is where I am:

I am taking stock of what strategies have worked for me in the past and which ones haven’t worked for me at all. I am thinking a lot about what I am able to do, and what I cannot do where losing weight is concerned. I am making some small changes right now, but I am looking to set a date when I will start putting the strategies that I develop into place. Most of all, I am spending this time being brutally realistic about who I am in relationship to food and diet.

Those realizations will be the focus of my next blog. I know that there are those of you who also want to lose weight on the BTD. Would you like to join me? If so, this is what I will be doing for the next week or so…

1) I will be deciding when my start-point will be. My daughter goes back to school in mid-August. While I will be working my way towards my diet/exercise/health commitments during the next few weeks, it is unrealistic for me to think that I can commit to my guidelines until she is back at school and our home settles down into a predictable routine. Also we have a difficult problem that is coming to a head in the next 10 days. Making any plans until we are through that issue is ridiculous.

2) I will be thinking about what has worked for me in the past, and what has not worked for me. For example: The Hiller Method (small bites, chewing each bit 20 times, etc.) does not work for me. It simply conflicts with my lifestyle and personality. I have given it a really good try, and I can tell you that it doesn’t work for me. BUT, can I take something FROM that experience that can help me? I think so, but I have to sort it out. There are many, many things that I need to sort out similar to that, not the least of which is BTD compliance. I don’t want to set myself up for failure, and in order to keep myself from doing just that, I need to be clear about what keeps me going and what helps me to fail.

3) I will be slowly working towards the things that I need to do in the meantime. For instance, I know that starches are an issue for me. I just ran out of rice in the house. I will not be buying it on a regular basis again. I have done this with rice crackers – I simply don’t buy them, for the most part – and this has helped me tremendously. While I’m not getting myself into the full swing at this point, I AM going to put myself into a clean-up mode.

4) Finally, I am thinking about the long term. I have lost the same 60 pounds over and over again, but I have never found a way to keep it off. While there is no doubt in my mind that I can lose the weight, I don’t want to do it, only to gain it back again. I’m tired of that life-script. So, this time, I am focusing, not only on losing the weight, but also on how I can make this a permanent change. Once this is done, I don’t want to have to do it again. Ever. I MUST understand what it takes in order to do this. This, truthfully, is my main goal

So, here the journey starts anew. I hope that I can use what I have learned to help me reach my goal. Please join me on my journey. Saddle up with me, if you like. I’ve got good horses. I know how to do this. Let’s RIDE!

I'm going to keep this short and sweet, as it is almost my bedtime, but I am back at the blogging again as well as back to training and selling horses. Let's hope that both things go well.

I'd like to have a clearer focus this time. My mind is clearer, so maybe the blogging will follow the brain.

I'll put more up very soon. Hope I don't get too many saddle sores OR bumps and bruises. And mean that, too, literally and figuratively....

My husband and I decided to sell our acreage because we have driven 100,000 km over the past 12 months and I am finding our children are becoming more and more dependent upon us for transportation. The straw that broke the proverbial camel's back was when my 15 year old son needed a drive to get his hair cut. Unfortunately the closest place to get a haircut is 10 km away. The nearest bus is 4 km away and the bus does not have a bike rack. So I drove a 20 km round trip to get a haircut for my son since the errand couldn't be combined with any other errand that week. (He was going for a job interview the next day, he could bike to that).

During the past couple of weeks, I have been getting more than my fill of painting and prepping the house. The realtor gave us the services of a house stager. Stagers come in and make your house presentable for selling. We had to take out garbage cans, food on counters (fruit bowls), personal photographs, we had to put up matching towels in the baths, take out rugs and rearrange the furniture. It looks like a hotel now, it has been tough on the kids. Hopefully, we will sell soon and be able to live in our house.

The farmers market in our neighborhood has been a great source of food this summer. They have bison, elk, free ranger monster chickens and great fruits and vegetables.

I bought a free ranger roasting chicken last weekend that looked more like a turkey. I used the beer can method on the bar-b-q with some paprika and salt. The chicken was soft and juicy and we even had leftovers for lunch the next day.

I’m worn out tonight. We got up and moving early today and headed toward Anchorage. We arrived at our destination just after 11 a.m., which happened to be one of the soccer fields. It was windy and fairly cold. Spectators were bundled up as we watched the game. Two of our granddaughters were there for a tournament this weekend and the semi-finals and finals were today. Each girl’s teams had been undefeated for the first four games they had played. One granddaughter’s team was eliminated in the semi-finals, but the other’s team became the tournament champions for their age group. Total points scored during all five of her games: 20. Total points given up during the tournament: 0. The team and parents were ecstatic as they had beat a team that used to consistently win.

We did the trip in nine hours, again. Unless we have quite a bit to do, we just head north, do whatever (which always includes shopping at Walmart and stopping for a bite to eat), and head home again. We really wanted to get home before the exodus of fishermen began as they leave the Kenai and head back to Anchorage. This is the tourist and Anchorage-ite time where we are inundated with those people taking over the river in search of salmon. Fortunately, my husband’s friend called and they are headed to the river to dip-net for salmon at the mouth of the river. Tourists sure make life more difficult for those of us who live here.

Although my husband is extremely good at catching the red salmon with a pole, there is virtually no place left for him to fish along the banks. We don’t have a boat, and there are so many of them in the river, (mostly guides taking tourists) that it is a real hassle. So, in mid-July the dip-net fishery opens for residents of the state, and you can either stand along the shores or float along in a boat and scoop salmon up during the incoming tide. There is a skill involved in that, too, and my husband and the guys usually bring in quite a few fish if there are fish in the water!!! So, they all bundled up and headed out to try their luck. It is in the mid-50’s, a bit windy and the water temperature is never above 38 degrees. That makes it fairly cold out on the water. Hopefully, we will have fresh salmon for dinner tomorrow night.

My husband also enjoys going to watch the college baseball that is here during the summer. Alaska has several teams each year and the one here is called the Peninsula Oilers. They are doing really well this year and may still be in first place. When he goes to watch the games, he bundles up there, too. In fact, most people wear their winter jackets and hats to the baseball or soccer games. Blankets aren’t unusual either. In the evening, the winds come up and blow in off the inlet’s waters and things get really cold. Many of the professional baseball players have played for the Oilers and every time my husband sees one on tv, he likes to tell me how he used to watch him here. I haven't gone to the ball park for several years. The last time I went I developed a very severe asthma attack and just haven't wanted to have chemical fertilizer dust blown from the field and into my face again.

I got my soymilk maker yesterday and will probably make some tomorrow. I’m especially interested in making some oat and almond milks. But, I’m also remodeling my kitchen and living room and if my husband goes fishing again tomorrow, I want to work on the house while he is away.

good evening all dearles :-)

several thingies were going on in the last few days which were mas ou menos tourmenting me and others, for sure; yesterday I've been assisting on the shortest but amazingest interment ever seen in my life...till

now.....we drove 2,5 hours to Davos and went to the "Waldfriedhof" = means a cimetière in the woods which was one of the beautifulst things I've ever seen; and just a bit down under we found an older jewish cimetière where big older stones were written the letters: here are to be found remnants and bones from

those from Buchenwald;...here I was obliged to cry......

Now sitting in my office, letting passing revue all those situations and looking onto my pictures at my officewall, I become very pensive and I think hey...whats' about my life...what the hell am I doing here as a solofighter????!- One of my Picaossopictures (of course only a copy) showes up the story of the spanish sage of SanchoPansa with his maistro who was fighting against windmills and he's sitting on his horsy named Rosinante.....and yes this horsy is a real old *klepper* nag and a bit I do feel like this horsy....:-( exhausted and just tired...tired of being a quack; non-understood sometimes by my so-called clever clients, which are thinking that they must be somebody *extra* or whatsoever, they know all better and they allow themselves to interact with their healths as they would know all about nutrition and the handling of their diseases.....in the context: I've told ya....nobody is able to help me..........!

So far so good, I've deceided to change lots in my life, in private aerea as also in my job; because I feel more and more that I want to work together with people who have similar thoughts and desires than me,

to create something together is more important now to me than going likewise "allone..lone some rider"

perhaps might be the thema *mother & child vacationes and educations with BTD in Greece?!

To get mothers better educated to handle their own situations with their sick children in a healthy but

just childrighteous invirement in Greece?! Why not....but all this might become muchmore onto the international level integrated......hey...hey... I'd be very glad to hear also from you your opinions ,ideas and also possibilities to come together ....:-))

I think, we should really think about what we could realize together, this idea doesn't mean to coordinate similar thoughts, but my intentions allways were to get moved something positive in this world (here comes the fundy....chuckle) and if it only would be to get stopped the daily input of chemical bombes into our nutrition.

Be aware that all begins with nutrition and sometimes ended premature because of those badies in our nutrition.....

with best regards and muahs, truly yours Isa

As I was driving through a large local outdoor shopping center today, I took a second look at a very popular fast food restaurant, Chick-Fil-A. Being one that likes to look at things from man points of view, a scary thought came to me….How would I view this will meaning fast food (ha, ha, there’s and oxymoron for you) if I was a Type B???

Oh, to be a B in a chicken loving world. Chick-fil-A is an establishment whose existence revolves completely around chicken. Chicken soup, chicken sandwiches, chicken nuggets, chicken fingers, chicken, chicken, chicken. Sure you can get a hamburger, but I doubt it is very good and it is most likely laced with chicken.

To make matters worse, their famous slogan “Eat mor Chikin” is a virtual stab at all of the B’s out there. Think about the poor little B children, how do you think they feel when they are watching their favorite cartoons and all of the sudden a dancing cow come across the screen singing about chicken??? Why can’t they eat chicken? Why do they brutally kill these well meaning, chicken loving cows?

Oh the shame, radio, TV, billboards, there is no escaping it, “Eat mor Chikin”, “Eat mor Chikin”, “Eat mor Chikin” everywhere you go. Forget Joe Camel, this is truly a dangerous marketing campaign. Those scoundrels, do they personally want to destroy the lives of B children, do they have no soul? (must all be O’s, flesh eating piranhas)

No wonder B’s are not a huge part of the population, between ‘Big Chicken’ and ‘Big Peanut’ it is amazing they survive at all. Godspeed little B’s, eat your dairy, your sweet potatoes, your lamb too, heck I’d even eat that Mutton if I was you, you need all the strength you can get.

We are enjoying an incredible week of wonderful, but not too hot, weather. For the most part, the temperatures have been in the upper 60’s with an occasional stretch into the lower 70’s. That is tolerable. Most of my plants are doing well. The Sitka rose bushes are in full splendor. The big rose bush is sporting over a hundred blossoms and has at least that many more buds. They are magnificent! How blessed we are to have such beauties to enjoy. Alaska in the summertime is a thing of beauty as all the flowers brighten the area with their colors and shapes. It is especially such a nice difference from the eight months of snow, ice, and dark.

I have used the barbecue several times. Actually, I’m getting pretty good at making some entrees and side dishes on it. Tonight I grilled New York steaks. To go with them, I fixed a variety of mixed vegetables, some mashed potatoes (we got tired of rice and pasta), and applesauce. A couple days ago, I succeeded with barbecued chicken breasts, a fresh salad, rice pilaf, and watermelon. Mmmmmm. Good!

It is after 9 p.m. and the sun is shining in the west window. It shines in the north window about 11 p.m. My birds really like having it shine into their cages before they go down for the night. They just sing very happily. We are losing several minutes of sunlight a day and it won’t be long when the sun will no longer shine from the north. In about a month, we’ll actually be seeing stars by that time.

Tomorrow we get a couple grandkids for a few days while their sisters and mother are in Anchorage for a soccer tournament. My eldest daughter is down from Anchorage and they are busy camping and fishing. They will head home on Friday. My other daughter is off for a couple days then, too. Hopefully, most of the grandkids can spend some time together before going in separate directions. Down at the corner there is a kids’ sized train. If all works well, we’ll be able to have all of them there for a train ride on Friday morning or early afternoon.

I am still trying to get that fresh produce co-op going. It may take another month or so, but I’m fairly optimistic about having enough interest and participation. There will be mention of that and even about this page, when an article about me is published on the 25th. The Neighbors column features different people from the various towns of the central Kenai peninsula each week.

A couple days ago I ordered a soymilk machine. It is so much cheaper and better tasting to make your own alternative milks. Today, I went to the store to buy some soy beans only to discover they no longer carry them. The ones they can order aren’t listed as organic. So, another trip to Anchorage is on the horizon. I’m sure the Natural Pantry store will have them in stock.

Wow!!! The sun is no longer behind the tree. Hope all is going well with you and yours. Take care. Till next time….

Aaron (the Grubster) and I decided to take advantage of my nextdoor neighbor's charcoal grill and bust out the corn I picked up in Kearney, Nebraska on Saturday night. While this butter blend I used was NOT so Right 4 my A secretor type, it was something I couldn't resist on a hot summer July day in Minnesota:

One dozen ears of fresh corn (husks off)

One stick of organic butter (since I don't own a microwave, I let the hot sun take care of the melting for me quite rapidly)

Juice of one-half to one lime

Cayenne pepper (to taste)

Chili pepper flakes (to taste)

Sea salt and freshly cracked pepper (to taste)

Brush it over the corn and place the corn directly on the grill, turning every few minutes. Take off the grill. Add a wee bit more butter and dig in! Be sure you have dental floss within reach for later in the night.

We also picked up salmon burgers on sale at Whole Foods and grilled them as well. Aaron had the standard burger (with capsicums) and I had the teriyaki version, full of scallions. Both were excellent!

What better to to serve these with than some mojitos? I also had picked up some organic key limes, organic mint, and a small bottle of rum that night. Along with some turbinado sugar and ice cubes, it made for such a fabulous cocktail. I also made a similar version for using that strawberry lemonade blend Trader Joe's is currently sampling. I made this for Aaron sans the Rum since he had to work in the morning. But me, haha, I was feeling mighty fine all evening. It's amazing how much more fun doing dishes becomes when tipsy.

Woke up in the middle of the night, sweltering hot. For some reason I had shut the windows in my bedroom earlier that night. On top of that, alcohol is really good at messing up one's sleep architecture. So I certainly renewed my "continuting education on life" credits by consuming two serviings of distilled alcohol in one night. Wine really is the only drink I tolerate in my old age, haha.

We just got back from a soccer game. It was cold and windy, but the kids were still having fun and while playing in the game, they didn’t seem to be cold. Those on the sidelines were scrunched up with their t-shirts stretched around their legs. Once in a while the sun shines and the winds are calm. Unfortunately, most soccer nights are much like tonight. My husband said it reminded him of camping. Sometimes, just not so pleasant. At least there were no mosquitoes!

Yesterday my husband and I drove to Anchorage and back. I didn’t find anything that I was looking for, but did find other things I needed to buy, so the trip was still somewhat productive. I’ve wanted to get some nice, decorative and functional baskets to use in the kitchen. I was able to find some and then also bought a couple boxes of green tile that was being discontinued. That should help with a mosaic I’m planning for the cupboards.

My daughter had a nice treat yesterday, too. She and a friend spotted two grizzly cubs playing in the river. They watched them for about 15 minutes and the cubs were doing well. A couple weeks ago, somebody shot their mother and she’s not been able to care for them as she is nursing a leg wound. The young grizzlies are two years old and should be okay on their own.

The Fourth of July was quite nice weather-wise. We spent several hours out at my brother and sister-in-laws place with their family and her brother and his family. They live on a lake and while there we were able to watch a swan family and a duck family. The swans still have all 5 of their babies which is pretty good. Hopefully the eagles won’t get all of them this year. The mother and father ducks were kept busy with their ducklings as they swam quite a distance on their outing. My niece managed to catch a pretty good sized rainbow trout, too. After a very filling dinner of wonderful food, we adjourned to a campfire and made those gooey s’mores. What good is a campfire without the mess of graham crackers, marshmallows, and Hershey’s chocolate?

The yard continues to look great. My husband mowed the lawn today and it looks like carpet, especially where the chickens used to range. My lilac bush is in near full bloom and smells heavenly. My Sitka rose bushes are beginning to bloom. They are filled with buds. My largest Sitka rose bush stands over 7 feet and is at least 10 feet in diameter. It has over two hundred buds just waiting to open in very deep pink blossoms. The roses that have opened have that wonderful rose odor. The wild Alaska roses are also blooming. The rose is a lovely shade of pink, smells great, and started blooming about a week ago. I also noticed that the iris are blooming, too.

My garden still seems to be plugging along. The plants are growing, albeit, quite slowly. Most days are cloudy and cool, with wind and occasional rain. There have been some beautiful summer-type days, too, which gives the garden a boost. The forecast is for nicer weather to begin again next week for another day or two.

Tonight’s dinner was wonderful. We had barbecued chicken, baked acorn squash with a little maple syrup, brown rice, steamed carrots, and a green salad with tomatoes. There wasn’t much left except a few carrots and some rice to put away. Then it was time to head out for the soccer game.

That’s about all for now. Take care. Till next time…

This seems like such a cliched title for a blog, being that this website is all about individuality and it's something we are seeking in our homogenous landscape outside this blogosphere but right now I really need to rant about something. Something serious. Seriously serious.

I am getting sick to death, literally and figuratively, of the lack of individuality that is becoming our national (and international) food supply. I just drove to Denver and back to the Twin Cities for a wedding. I didn't prepare for the lack of healthful fresh food choices by packing my own healthful supply and that was a big mistake. All along the drive, the selection of food worth consuming was slim to none. Gas stations are just filled with garbage. Absolute garbage. Gas stations are the nation's most accessible means of delivering food because almost everyone relies on gas for their vehicles. And we wonder why this country is facing such an alarming obesity epidemic. Man, I know I'm preaching to the choir but how did we, Americans, in the land of the FREE, the home of the BRAVE come to accept this?? How have we allowed this corporate takeover?

When I arrived in Denver, it's just such an Anytown, USA nowadays. Out in the northern suburbs where the wedding took place, and where my hotel was located, I awoke the day of the wedding needing green food. I mean, I was just craving it! The continental schmotinental breakfast buffet was abysmal. I had a hard-boiled egg, and a waffle. And syrup which was probably not real maple. I developed some incredibly severe menstrual cramps and my body was screaming, "please feed me magnesium; please feed me omega-3s..." I had been eating so much meat, dairy, and wheat in the days leading up to this due to travel convenience (hey, at least when you buy meat you sort of know what it is vs. all the frankenfood and overly processed crap on the shelves).

I was surrounded by all these stupid chain restaurants that tend to congregate near hotels that we all know are just one-size-fits-all meals that the cooks usually just nuke to perfection. So I went nuts and drove to Downtown Denver. I drove to the 16th St. Mall where a free shuttle takes people back and forth along the mall. I used my own two feet in search of individuality. I searched high and low (but hastily) for that mom-and-pop hippie foodshop I figured would be welcomed by the mile high city. A place where local, seasonal produce reigns supreme but diners can still be casual. In my ten minute persuit (mind you, I had a wedding to dress up for and attend in three hours), I did happen to find a cool-looking "fast healthfood" place called Mad Greens. And it was Sunday. And it was closed.

Down the block, there was a place called Tokyo Joe's. It was this Asian sort of place where you order at the counter and the server brings the food to your table by number. I just wanted something hydrating and fresh and vegan. I needed to take a quick break from all the crap and the heavy starches and excessive meat I'd been eating. Spring rolls were featured on the menu and I asked if they could make them without the chicken.

"Oh, no, sorry, those are premade."

Premade spring rolls? Jesus! How hard is it to make a freakin' spring roll???? More importantly, how good can a premade spring rolls possibly taste and feel without putting something on the rice paper to keep it moist for long periods of time?

I had to keep myself from glaring at the "messenger" at the front counter. After all, these are just high school and college kids trying to make a buck. They are peons. They aren't the ones running the show. Still what happened to customer service? Emphasis on CUSTOM.

I ended up ordering the veggie rolls. Basically they were sushi rolls with avocado, cukes, wasabi cream cheese (gag), and rice. And carrots I think. I can't remember. I also ordered two pieces of tuna sushi. I then had to make an important seating choice. Do I sit in the overly air-conditioned restaurant (that's a rant subject for another blog altogether, just wait) or swelter in the Denver heat and suprising humidity? I chose to swelter. I got to my table and the server brought my food on a tray. Unlike traditional sushi restaurants where the soy is generally sitting in a little pourspout bottle, the soy sauce at this place was in these stupid little packets that, for the life of me, I could not open! (Maybe that was a good thing since it did contain wheat.)

I ended up eating both dishes without the soy sauce due to my inability to open that damn packets and the tuna sushi, pardon me...um, it tasted like...no, I won't say it on this blog. Just imagine all fishy, almost cardboardlike, and no flavor. Flash-frozen goodness, right? Lord have Mercy. That soy sauce would have come in handy to mask the pathetic chain restaurant sterility of it all.

But hey, it was something other than all-American "comfort food" so it was better than staying in the BFE 'burbs.

On the way back home from the wedding, I did reach a point of semi-salvation. While filling up my tank in Kearney, NE, on the 4th of July, I noticed a medium-sized pickup, stacked high with ears of freshly picked sweetcorn. He was heading to some small town and happened to be selling to passersby. I bought a dozen ears for $4.50. We chatted a little. He told me he found the corn in York. He noticed my Minnesota plates. He asked me where I was from in Minnesota. It was so real. I was so beautiful. Real food, from a genuinely personal individual.

Driving back through Iowa, I listened mainly to music on the iPod. However, coming into the larger metro areas, such as Des Moines and Ames, one begins to experience interception on the radio frequencies used to transmit the iPod. I switched to NPR. It was great. Hope. Victory for the whales over the Navy's deadly sonar. Brave comedians from the Capitol Steps helping us to win our nation back through laughter, not hate. Inspiration. Driving through three states in one day. Gazing into the endless fields of grain. Smelling the occasional hog operation. As the billboard miles ahead then states, "Politicians take note; hogs don't vote."

(Even if they could, I doubt they'd want to be treated this way before being slaughtered and served in mICK-Muffins for the masses).

Fireworks were bittersweet in Minneapolis. The mood of people sitting near the river was just so contemplative. Hennepin County DID have a paper trail in 04 and boy did it reflect the mood of last night.

"Oh say, can you see

By the Dawn's early light

What so proudly we hailed

at the twilight's last gleaming?

whose broad stripes and bright stars

Through the perilous fight

O'er the ramparts we watched

were so galantly streaming?

And the rocket's red glare

The bomb's bursting in air

Gave proof through the night

That our flag was still there

Oh say does that star-spangled

banner yet wave

O'er the land of the free

And the home of the brave?"

You decide.

Well………………I am going to make a confession (breath deep). This is a difficult moment for me. Some of you know my secret already, some of you (who share a common stress) will feel kinship.

I, Laura Petrolino, non-secreting extraordinary, grain hating, starch shunning, protein praising type A, I secrete.

That’s right, (I’m not changing my shield so leave me alone about it) when I took my test many months ago it showed I was a secretor. I have been in denial since then and tested it out many times with the different foods. I ordered another test and have had it for about two weeks, I just can’t do it, I don’t want to. I’m sort of happy in my little non-secreting secretor in-between. I figure these are the possibilities

a) the test was wrong since I’m not a skillful spitter*

b) I’m a secretor who doesn’t secrete well, perhaps my secreting mechanism has been screwed up by illness

After doing much self experimentation I really do seem to be right in-between. I act like a secretor as far as some things go and a non-secretor with other things.

This is all very confusing, but brings up an interesting question, why so many secretors do better with a non-secretor diet? I think a lot of this might have to do with my choice b above. We all know that food values change based on different diseases. My very unscientific hypothesis is that our individual circumstances, diseases, ect, also change food values-hence why everyone is so different and individuality is so important in this diet. I also think that pretty much everyone does better with less grains and starches and more protein- just what the non-secretor diet ordered.

I’ll take my test eventually (when I can gather enough spit) but until then I’ll live in the space between.

*Spitter must not be in the Microsoft dictionary, obviously Microsoft does not feel it is necessary to define: someone who spits, and make sure it is spelled correctly. Thus, I’m left not knowing if spitter is spelled with one or two t’s

Microsoft does feel it necessary for their name to be automatically capitalized when I type it, Microsoft, Microsoft, Microsoft………..I can’t get in lower case………….their watching me

tja, halloooo und guten Spät-Nachmittag meine Liebchens :-)

hier und heute geht es um einen Bericht in der *Glotze* von wegens und Pharma, na wer stellt den Ritalin her?? huh...oder auch häää??...

Aalsoo da hiess es doch glat, ADHD ist eine erblich bedingte Erkrankung, respective *Störung* (was nu ?)

die Leute wurden als sogen. Spätzünder hingestellt, entsprechend Keirsey's Beschreibungen müssten alle *SP*-lers ADHD-ler sein.... na aber auch...hi-hi-hiiiiiii .....sooo was.....

und in den 80 er Jahren sei ja wohl die hirnrissige Idee aufgekommen, die mit Ernährung in Verbindung zu bringen..na.... kann man's glauben??!.....gerade der Weizen iiiigitt muss der schlimm sein für diese armen geplagten Buben und Madels, natürlich sind ja dann auch die Erwachsenen so zu handhaben...ich glaub ja alles was ich höre- gelle- :-))

und ausserdem gibts da nur ein supergutes Mittel namens Ritalin (all the round my brain) mit rasend guten Erfolgen, nach dem Motto: haste nix...dann spürste nix, und wenn dann wirste nur etwas ruhiger.....omG..

und wenn ich dann in meinen Riso güxle, dann chömmt scho widda dieses geile aha Erlebnis und ich schnalle um was es wirklich geht.....desweiteren sprachen diese, es sei wohl in Verbindung zu bringen aus und mit der Zeit der Jäger und Sammler... hey O-er passt auf Ihr werdet jetzt alle als ADHD-lers taxiert....chuckle.... und ausserdem haben diese halt doch ein Dopamin-problemchen...usw....als gäbe es nix anderes....wer mit wem und warum und weshalb miteinander interagiert- ist total wurscht...Hauptsache man kriegt das Kind schulmässig gebacken.....bitte nicht auffalllen-dann kann man nicht reinfallen !!

Meine Liebchens, ich glaube* Diese* haben einen an der Klatsche, denn jetzt habe ich mein elftes Kind weg vom Ritalin, allmost O's und ein B und ein einziges A-lerlein und überall war es Gliadin-Gluten was der trigger ist, dann chömmt doch bitte nicht nur mit genetisch bedingter Erblast...so ein Schmarren aber auch.....und alle hatten sie Mängel...Mängel...Mängel.....

Wenn ich an die Spätfolgen von Ritalinbehandlungen denke- so wird mir schlecht und ich finde es einfach unverhantwortlich wie wir schlichtweg wiedereinmal eine heile Welt mir Pharmarotz vorgegaukelt bekommen, ohne Nennung von Gefahren und Nebenwirkungen und die Erschaffung unserer zukünftigen jugenlichen Senilen ....danke....das genügt...... (nebst Parkinson)........und anderer Leckerlis.......

Viva BTD.......

truly yours Isa

ok.........I'm not meaning to become a 'fruit blogger' but all my favorite fruits are in season now so I just have to share

It is time to CELEBRATE……………………Fresh Figs are in season!!!!! These are one of my favorite fruits and they are beneficial for EVERYBODY.

There are so many things you can do with fresh figs and too often people don’t take advantage of these healthy foods, let me list some that I have personally done

a) Figs stuffed with peanut butter

b) Figs stuffed with pumpkinseeds or pumpkinseed butter

c) Figs stuffed wit Walnuts and some cottage cheese (or your choice cheese)

d) Figs cooked with Lamb (or any red meat)

e) Figs cooked with Scrod (or any white fish)

f) Poached figs and Pears served with soft boiled eggs

g) Just ate a fresh fig mashed up into a egg yolk (from a soft boiled egg) and some homemade mayo and stuffed back into the white



Figs are also very healthy for you. They are the fruit of the Gods and mentioned in the Bible numerous times. They have been used medicinally for centuries.

According to Californiafigs.com (http://www.californiafigs.com/nutrition/index.html)

Figs impart the following benefits

Fig Nutrition Facts

1. Figs can be part of almost any special diet, be it low fat, low sodium, high fiber, weight loss, diabetic or even the Mediterranean. They satisfy a sweet tooth without adding any fat. Their unique satiny texture and seeds provide a satisfying mouth feel and crunch.

2. Figs are fat-free, sodium-free and, like other plant foods, cholesterol-free.

3. One serving of figs is 40 grams, about 1/4 cup, or about 3 Calimyrian figs or about 4 to 5 Mission figs.

4. A small serving of about 1 1/2 dried figs equals one fruit exchange, or 15 grams of carbohydrate, provided in the form of glucose and fructose.

5. Figs are high in fiber, providing 20% of the Daily Value --- more dietary fiber per serving than any other common dried or fresh fruit.

6. Of the approximately five grams of fiber per serving of California figs, four grams are insoluble and one gram is water-soluble.

7. Figs have the highest overall mineral content of all common fruits. A 40 gram (1/4 cup) serving provides 244 mg of potassium (7% of the DV), 53 mg of calcium (6% of the DV) and 1.2 mg of iron (6% of the DV).

8. California figs fit into 5 A Day -- the 40 gram serving is an easy way to add a serving of fruit to reach the daily recommendation of five fruits and vegetables.

Now my favorite fig is the Black Mission, these are really the only I eat, but I’m sure others are fabulous too. They are just grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreeattt!!!. I don’t know if my Italian heritage or if I just have good taste, but figs are the best. Enjoy!