Here I go again, making things complicated. Often my dadamo blogs challenge you, the Blood Type Diet follower, to "Choose Right 4 Your Life".

One of my nieces has gone off to college for the first time. She was quite lonely in high school, feeling that the other girls were shallow and silly, while she, an introvert, took 17 Advanced Placement courses and, yes, participated in sports and many extracurricular activities, including yoga and art. Her parents encouraged her to expect a terrific social life in college, and she's indeed thriving there, adjusting well to her academic pursuits and enjoying dorm life, too. We're all so happy for her, and relieved.

Last week, my niece told me she's menstruated three times since arriving at school 6 or 7 weeks previously. I asked her if she's getting enough iron. She said she thinks so, eating plenty of meat. I do not know her blood type: She says she thinks she's "B positive". She takes her meals at the student cafeteria, a key element in her social life and adjustment. But: What is served at this cafeteria?

"Mostly chicken. I eat lots and lots of chicken". She can't remember if fish has yet been served at all. She's willing to indulge in red meat, but says it's not often offered.

My niece is not combatting any grave health challenges (that we know of!). Even assuming she has Type B blood, there's no reason to prescribe a chicken-free diet at this time, in my opinion. Our family's immediate and pressing concern in her regard is that she make friends and integrate herself into a wholesome and comfortable life there. It's just not the time to vex this child with difficult dietary prescriptions, so I don't impose any. What I told her was that she should enjoy red meats and fish (which she loves) every chance she gets, and snack on dried fruits and walnuts.

Another teenaged niece is going through a pocket of turbulence known as Anorexia Nervosa. I am loathe to impose restrictions in this case, too; we're satisfied with her enjoying and being attracted to any foods at all, for now. The fact that she's been gaining weight to please her parents - despite her own distorted body-image - is a recent positive development, not to be tampered with.

Myself, I need to lose weight, for sure. My weight gain began, and continues, as a side effect of a prescription medication whose benefits far exceed the distress of the side effect. There's a weight loss diet I've followed three or four times in my life that has been a very successful method for me, consistently, though I tend to drop it soon after I reach my target weight. (Most attrition from positive dietary programs is attributable to their restrictiveness and inconvenience. So: Make your régime MORE, not less, convenient wherever you possibly can.)

As a follower of the Blood Type Diet, I might find it easier to give temporary priority to the weight loss diet I've used successfully in the past, until reaching an acceptable target weight, and then - gradually - switching over, or adapting the BTD to what has already proven effective for my weight-control. I have, in the past, "blended" the two programs, but they combine to form an impossibly narrow path, far too constantly challenging for peace of mind and, thus, success. It seems I, too, may have to (temporarily!) unlock the door for occasional chicken and tomatoes, at least. On the road, chicken is often the only easily available protein offered. Tomato is often an ingredient in vegetable juices and sauces. If refusing chicken means I'll have no protein at all, during a given meal, I'll go for that chicken and move on.

See, I'm realizing that many BTD followers, in opting against lectins/"avoids", reject crucial and available foodgroups wholesale, during a given meal or even a whole day or more. The fastest route to B weight gain, and certainly adult female weight gain in general, is regular protein-free meals and snacks. When B's eat that way, while eating full fat dairy, starches, and low- or no- protein fats/oils, we simply must gain weight: That's Basic Science.

What's your current priority? If mine is weight loss, then I'll probably find myself eating/ordering the healthiest high-protein centered meals I can. Going protein-free at mealtime is NOT an option for me and is not compensated by some future high-protein snack or meal; one must do the best one can at each seating.

Blood Type A folks have a tendency to "stress out"; if their mealtimes become saturated with anxiety about each component's nutritive value, this, too, can be counterproductive. Neither can healthy Type O's and AB's afford to forego important food groups altogether at any time, or to beat themselves up about that cup of coffee or glass of orange juice.

My prescription is, generally:

1. Prioritize. Name your most important current life goal and aim straight for it. Achieve success. Then and only then: Tweak. Think: Dorm life for the freshman, meal attractiveness for the anorectic, etc. Your priority may indeed involve high compliance to the BTD.

2. Eat balanced meals that are as nutritious and as "beneficial" as possible without undue stress. Example: If your lunch plan calls for a fruit, choose the most "beneficial" fruit offered. If the ONLY fruit you can obtain all day is an "avoid", eat it and don't worry; it isn't poisonous. Move on.

3. Plan ahead, according to your own unique comfort level. If you can, refrigerate grabbable little Ziploc bags with Blood-Type-compliant snacks or meal adjuncts, or even larger containers of full meals. If this sort of planning or activity is too stressful for you or keeps you from other life priorities, defer this to another day or week or indefinitely. No sweat. Keep going.

4. Use dietary supplements to fill in nutritive gaps during a circumscribed health-focussed period, including "Deflect" by North American Pharmacal, or other source(s) of lectin scavengers.

"Dieting" is stressful enough. No one wins brownie points for adding difficult measures to any restrictive program. Keep your sanity, friends. Don't turn the Blood Type Diet into a major stressor. Don't allow a diet to negatively impact your higher priorities, if you have them, whether these be adolescent social adjustment, teenaged weight gain, midlife weight reduction, or anything else.

I eat to live, not vice versa; what about you? Choose Right 4 Your Life!