Today was a stellar day here in my neck of the woods... One of those end-of-summer days with bright blue skies, warm golden sun, cool whisper of autumn on the breeze…… But what I notice most are the shadows shifting and lengthening, becoming softer around the edges it seems… less of a contrast between darkness and light. And a hushed-ness to the passage of time…

Yesterday, a friend stopped by to show me her new beach cruiser… apparently we have something of a beach cruiser community here along the Front Range… who knew?…. and this friend has just started the Blood Type Diet. She has known about it for years and wanted to try it but didn’t know her blood type and being a bit squeamish about needles and such it took her awhile to find out. She is an O, no big surprise there. But what she told me next really did give me something of a jolt.

This friend has been borderline obese for several years and has struggled to lose weight for as long as I have known her. At an appointment with a new doctor, she told the doctor that she was trying the Blood Type Diet to aid in weight loss. The doctor’s response was very supportive and mentioned that several of her patients had tried the Blood Type Diet with great success. Wow! A medical doctor confirming the value of the BTD. Cool! But… then my friend told me that the doctor also said, “If you do not begin to experience the results you would like to see in 3 months… (and I thought to myself… oh boy… here it comes… Doc will want her to try the South Beach Diet, Atkins, water and grapefruit… whatever…) … then we will check and see if you are suffering from sleep apnea as you have symptoms of that and it can be difficult for those with sleep apnea to lose weight.” Whoooooa there nelly! Wait a minute… If she doesn’t get the results she wants on the Blood Type Diet, then they will begin looking at underlying issues? Not automatically dismiss the BTD as a not working, unscientific,… a fad? I was very impressed! I thought, “I gotta get me the name of this doctor”. Plus… the idea that sleep apnea can contribute to lack of success in weight loss……. who knew?

It was news to me... And some really good news to boot.

Over the past several months I have made a few changes in my typical food consumption. I find that it works best for me to incorporate food changes slowly. The biggest changes have been in response to reading the Aging and the Menopause books in the ER4YT Health Series Library. Like it or not, being 45, I have certainly entered my perimenopausal years and I am indeed getting older with every breath I take. Dairy becomes more of a challenge to us B’s as we age. So one of the first things I did was to increase my consumption of cultured dairy, cut back on most cheeses except for goat cheeses and sheep feta, and to limit my consumption of cow’s milk… not that I really ate/drank much before… but to just increase my awareness of such… always a good thing. And I switched to ghee for daily use instead of butter. Incorporating ghee was probably one of the best changes I have made in a long time. My body actually craved it for a couple weeks and I had to be careful not to OD on the ghee. I always pay attention when I notice cravings for foods that are healthy/beneficial and trust my body in its inner knowing.

I also started drinking the ginger soother drink from The Ginger People. The ingredients are: filtered water, honey, ginger juice, lemon juice, and natural flavor. I do hate it when companies list “natural flavor” as an ingredient so I emailed the company for more information. They claim that the natural flavor is also ginger. So for now… I’ve decided to take their word for it.

As much as I like this drink… it packs a powerful ginger punch… it is waaaaay too sweet for my taste. So I pour about 3 ounces or so into a 12 ounce glass of water and drank it for my morning drink all summer. It was enough to flavor the water quite strongly with ginger… but with only a hint of sweetness…. Perfect on a hot summers morning when just the thought of a hot cup of tea made me sweat.

Also… I am always looking for substitutes for tomato based salsas. My favorite from a local company called Pueblo Chili is just roasted red chiles with lime juice, vinegar, and salt. Lovely to have with eggs in the mornings… but not always easy to find , even in HFS‘s.. And without salsa, I really miss the color of red in many Mexican dishes. I can eat Mexican sans beans and tomatoes and guacamole and…. but I do miss the color red. So on a whim, I found a mostly compliant salsa from Whole Foods made with raspberries. It took awhile to get used to the combination of hot chiles with raspberries, but it is quite an acceptable substitute. And the color… it is worth it just for the color… a translucent reddish magenta that is truly heavenly. I can live without tomatoes… but if all red foods become avoids, then I am surely done for.