Sorry for the delay in blogging. The past week has been chaos incarnate, as I knew it would be. That, of course, is one of the reasons that I have put the “start date” of really getting clean and back to the program as mid-August or the beginning of Sept. Regardless of that, I’ve been really still concentrating on what I am eating, what I really like, what is just habit or compulsion and what I can easily give up.

But what does that – the food life of a family of type O’s – have to do with the AB?

Well, it looks like, very shortly, a dear friend of ours is going to come to live with us indefinitely. A teenage girl, a best friend of my daughters’, a child that I really adore needs to live with us. She is an AB.

I started to go through the typebase last night, and was really shocked to see how limited – in my view – the AB diet is. While it isn’t the polar opposite, so to speak, that the A diet is, it IS a challenging program, especially for a teenager in this day and age.

So, what to do? Well, the first thing is to find the foods that work well for BOTH O’s and AB’s, and to understand the major avoids for AB that we eat regularly. This is what I am finding so far.

Thanks goodness lamb is a neutral for Type AB. We ALWAYS have lamb cooked in the house, as my daughter prefers lamb to beef. I am thinking that, perhaps, I need to investigate finding some ground lamb at a reasonable price.

Eggs are something that we also always have at home that are cooked and ready to go. Thankfully, eggs are a large part of our diet and AB’s can eat eggs.

Turkey is a bennie for AB, while chicken is an avoid. This works very well for me. My daughter and I really don’t care for chicken at all, so we rarely serve it. The only time that chicken even comes up is when my daughter’s best friend comes over, who is a type A.

Beef will be a problem. One of my fallback foods for my daughter is homemade hamburgers. Also, I am almost ready to purchase another whole beef. Beef is the centerpiece for so much of our day-to-day food. I simply cannot prepare multiple meals for multiple people, but perhaps we can work around it. Also, this AB loves beef AND chicken, so limiting those things will be a challenge.

Almonds, walnuts and macadamia nuts are all OK. Peanuts are bennies for AB, but are avoids for us and my daughter LOVES peanut butter, so that’s out for around the house.

Most of the veggies that I would normally serve work for all of us. Peppers are out, but I usually cook those for myself, not for my daughter, and substitutes are easily arranged. There are a few oddities, but they are easy (artichokes, cucumbers for us, etc.).

Milk is a problem, but it is also a problem for my daughter – one that I have not solved – so that can be ongoing. It is a slight problem that butter is an AB avoid, but I can simply get a non-transfat margarine for her, and use butter for ourselves. Thankfully ghee and olive oil – two of my cooking staples – are fine for all.

It looks like the biggest challenge will be beef, and I’m not sure how that will be handled. Perhaps keeping a cooked turkey in the fridge will help us there. I usually buy turkey lunchmeat at Costco and have that around, as my daughter likes turkey sandwiches. While it is not the BEST choice, it is easy and works.

Since I cannot find either my ER4YT or my LR4YT, I might need to get one or the other. I’m not so familiar with the AB personality or what the best exercise plan would be.

So, on top of learning about my OWN self, I now have to learn about the AB…..see?