Hi! My name is Tom Martens and I live in Rock Island, Illinois.

I have been following ERFYT, LRFYT, GTD and now SWAMI for over 10 years!

Back in 1999 I was at 250 lbs. I wasn’t a fat slob, but I was heavy and my knees didn’t like it too much. I was drinking a case of pop a day, eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on regular white bread and snacking on peanut butter and cake frosting right out of the can!

I was introduced to Eat Right for Your Type early in 1999 when my wife came home with the book after shopping. I was sitting on the couch drinking a Coke and watching TV. “I saw this book and it says you should follow a diet based on your blood type” she said. Since I donated blood every 60 days, I was fairly interested at first until she went to the food list section and told me that since I was blood type O, I would have to give up corn, pop, peanut butter, wheat, potatoes, most dairy, and pig products. These of course were all part of my everyday diet. I lost interest right away and the book sat on the shelf for the next few months.

At the end of 1999 though, I started to look at myself and I didn’t like what I was seeing.

It popped in to my head that maybe I should read why I should give up all of the foods I enjoyed.

The more I read, the more I saw examples of myself in the book. Time after time I kept saying to myself “that’s me” or “I can relate to that.” When I had finally finished reading the first part of Eat Right for Your Type, I was convinced! It wasn’t a kind of, maybe sort of thing. It made sense to me and I needed to change.

I started out picking two things in my diet at a time. Pop and peanut butter were first. Dairy and potatoes were next with wheat and pig products rounding out the top 6 main food items in my diet. I started January 1st 2000. It wasn’t easy, but I started losing weight right away. It was kind of scary losing 10 pounds a month and not feeling hungry. When the weather became warmer in the spring, I started running as my main source of exercise. I was feeling great! My goal in January was to get under 200 lbs by my Birthday in May. When May came I had actually got down to 192 lbs and still losing.

I ran the Bix 7 in July of 2000 and finished it in just under 1 hour. I was now bottoming out at 178-182 lbs. I had not been at this weight since I was a teenager! I did feel a little light and as more time went by I stabilized at 185-187 lbs.

The years have flown by and some years were more compliant than others. I’ve never been 100% compliant. Dr. D’Adamo says that 70% is compliant enough and at this point it’s good enough for me.

I hope my posts help and inspire you! I have learned so much from the forums, newsletters and online videos. You will too! Take it a day at a time and never give up!