Easter has come and gone and I’m back on coffee and sweets…with a vengeance!! I’ve been up and down with my energy, and have experienced wicked mood swings. So….the last of the candy has gone either to school (not that the teenagers need it!!), or landed in my freezer to be portioned out later. I’m finally back in the pool (if one workout constitutes being back in the pool!). I’ve been teaching swim lessons and water aerobics, but have gotten away from my swim sets, so I finally started again today. I plan on going over to the Y in the mornings before work (it’s only a block away behind my place) and do an easy 1000-1500 meter swim. I’ve been lethargic and grouchy lately; I’m sure that it’s because of the crap food I’ve been ingesting and the fact that I haven’t been in the liquid.

With two weeks and counting for New Orleans, I want to be fit, healthy and ready to have fun in the sun. After my first winter back on the East Coast in many years…I’m ready to warm my bones in that city drenched in history, music and spices.

Hope this finds y’all well…take care…

Hey y’all…heh…y’all; it’s getting to be almost time to start waxing poetic about Jazz Fest again, but I’ll save that for another blog!! Today, I had Dr. D’Adamo’s blood type specific tea on the brain. The little natural foods market here in Manchester (right on South Willow if you’re in the area…in the Shaw’s plaza) sells ER4YT tea. I had gotten the AB blend a while back, and realized that I’ve never shared how wonderful it really is!! There’s a blend of all bennies in there and it’s got a really unique flavor that is soothing and rejuvenating all at the same time. It can be consumed alone, but my favorite way to prepare it is with soymilk and honey. If you can’t find it around you, it may be worth it to buy it online through the website. I really do like having it in my cabinet, and find myself craving the AB tea at times. Perhaps it’s something for you to think about introducing as springtime approaches.

Speaking of spring, I have paperwhite, amaryllis, and iris bulbs in water in a sunny window of my condo. One of the paperwhite bulbs has bloomed and the amaryllis has two huge, beautiful red flowers. The iris bulbs are sending up their shoots and I’m so looking forward to their shock of purple to come. With winter clinging so firmly to March, and no dirt of my own to speak of, these bursts of color in my home are quite beneficial to my psyche. I’ve been tempted to bring them into the classroom to share the process with my students, but I just love seeing them here, in my own space too much!! An ever choking cabin fever has been infecting my system the last couple of weeks, and I realize how much I took warm life in Southern California for granted. I know that I’ll even appreciate the mud season here in New Hampshire for the sunshine, warmth and living smells that it will bring…but for the time being, my heart longs to be back in Cali urging my wildflowers into a riotous bloom, babying my sunflowers into fortitude and cultivating my herbs for savory cooking (although I do have parsley on the windowsill with the other blooms too…thanks to a special dear).

Ahhh well, I’ve had far more benefits from moving back to the East Side than negatives, and while I miss some parts of the Left Coast, there are others that I don’t miss at all (traffic, smog, throngs of people…to name a few!). All I can hope is that this finds you well, happy and healthy…living a highly beneficial life…take care of you, be well, and enjoy your special blend of tea, coffee or other beverage as you engage in deeper breathing to awaken a greater appreciation of the life all around you...

I had the most delicious warm salad the other night at dinner. It was a warm spinach, cranberry and walnut salad with raspberry vinaigrette. I forgot to have the bacon taken off before serving, but I picked it out with no worries and the overall effect of the salad was simply divine!! Oh, so yummy!! The warm was very comforting on a bitterly cold evening, but the freshness of the greens hinted at springtime to come. I am looking forward to the warmer days to come, with easy dinners of salad and soup, fish, or turkey. My gut longs for lighter meals and evenings that seduce me into an after meal stroll. Ahhh….to feel the sun’s warmth on my skin and smell spring/summer on the wind…I certainly wish that March goes out like a lamb sooner than later!!

Here’s hoping that this finds you all well and compliant…take care…

I turned thirty a couple of weeks ago, and while I know that a) 30 is just a number, and 2) it’s not that big of a number in the reality of an entire lifetime, it is a benchmark birthday. Because of this, I feel that it is appropriate to engage in a little reflection. With the coming of this birthday I do recognize that I’m much more growed up than ever before. The most important aspect of this is that I’m wanting to be grown up, stable, consistent and a part of the adult world. Success in career notwithstanding, I was not ever quite ready to stay put in a geographic area, or to take care of myself physically and mentally in the way that I really needed. I wasn’t ready to commit to putting down roots of any kind.

Certainly since the beginning of my blogging back in January of last year, I’ve been in the process of major change. I’ve committed to staying in one place for a while, with the major commitment of saving for a house of my own being the biggest achievement. I also make positive food choices, and remember to advocate for myself to get to bed on time, workout and generally go gently with my psyche.

It feels great to feel so good, and I’m very much looking forward to the next part of this journey. My energy, confidence and joy with the world are evident within myself and I think to those closest to me too. I have myself to thank for these changes along this path, but certainly the BTD has been a tool used as a support.

To continue with the reflection, but also to get some “mail” out of the way, I’ll go over some of the rather curious messages from fellow followers of the BTD received recently. Many people feel “cursed” in their AB blood because of so many food restrictions. I know that we “can’t” have chicken, beef, corn, and a few other very popular American culture foods. But there is so much that we can have, and that is how I’ve chosen to look at this diet. I know that it’s perhaps been a bit easier for me, because I had been following a vegetarian diet for ten years prior to restarting the BTD. I like fruit and veggies!! I don’t care for meat, so in my eyes, this diet gave me all of my favorite foods, and told me that they would make my blood sing!

If you are feeling like you don’t have enough choices with the BTD, shake yourself off and get a little perspective. There doesn’t have to be any “all or nothing” attitude. You’ve been eating avoids all of your life up until you found out that they are avoids. If you’re reading this, they didn’t kill you. Maybe they made you a little sick, so you have to choose how crappy you want to feel by eating them. I’ve said it before, and repeat it here: Some avoids are worse than others, so choose what you can and can’t bear in your diet. I drink coffee every day because it makes me happy. I don’t eat chicken, corn, oranges, or drink milk anymore because they do things to me like make me feel sluggish, bloated, gassy, cranky and generally yuck.

The last thing that I will say on my little soapbox at the end of this obnoxiously long blog is that you need to use a little common sense with this diet. A few people have wondered about gaining weight while eating all that they want of certain foods with no thought to portion size, because after all, they are highly beneficial. You could drink a gallon of water in one sitting, and then promptly throw it up all over the place because your stomach can’t hold that much liquid. Would you dream of saying that you don’t understand why you couldn’t keep down the water?

I don’t want to come off as angry here (because I’m passionate about this, not angry), but one of the major tenants of the diet (and of life really), is that you are in control of your choices. You are responsible for you. The only silver bullet for health is making good choices consistently, and a series of good choices over time will show improvement in your physical well-being. Remember not to lose your common sense just because you found a great web-site or book that speaks to what may work for you. We are each unique, with our own needs…we need to be the responsible party in our daily, weekly and life choices.

So with that my friends, be well, go gently and remember to smile…

If ever I doubt the wisdom of moving back to the East Coast in general and Southern New Hampshire specifically, all I will need is a morning like this one. Three inches of fluffy, sticky snow created road conditions such that prompted school officials to delay school’s opening for ninety minutes (yes…Ms. Shear gets to hit the snooze button today). Fast forward to the morning commute through a park-like snow-globe setting…the trees were all coated with pristine, freshly fallen white snow. All the way to the mountains and across town looked like a picture perfect postcard. The only thing missing were Norman Rockwell-esque kids running around with sleds and long, knit stocking caps. It takes my breath away, and I count myself ever-so-lucky to be living in such a beautiful part of this land.

As far as the BTD goes…I’ve been compliant and feeling okay. There are so many viruses going around school that I feel like I’m always fighting something. I’ve been eating lots of parsley soup and other bennies, as well as trying to get as much sleep as possible. As always, for an added boost, I’ve bulked up on superfood and added lemons to my daily water too. Here’s hoping that this finds you all safe, content, happy and healthy. Be well…