My students had earned a reward party for making their deadlines. They would have liked a half day shopping at the mall, but this close to finals I didn't think the principal would approve. We compromised on tacos and a movie in our classroom. So yesterday I bought lots of tacos (some beef and some bean and cheese) and we watched "Dumb and Dumber". After the party there were some beef tacos left.

Last night my husband and I had to go to a swim league meeting. I knew we would need to leave immediately for the meeting when he got home from work. What to do for dinner? I scooped out the meat and lettuce from some of the tacos and ate it with left over veggies. My daughter said she would warm up the left over lentils after we were gone (yes!). I thought - my husband does not follow the BTD, I'll just give him tacos and some sliced fruit. He can eat in the car on the way to the meeting, and I'll drive.

He ate the first taco pretty fast; I guess he was hungry. He opened the second taco and said, "This isn't good for me, is it?" before he ate it. He took the meat out of the third taco, and said, "Beef, yuck," and ate the corn shell and lettuce.

I felt so guilty. I cannot tell you how guilty I felt. I've been trying to get him interested following the Type A Diet. I prepare type A lunches for him to take to work, and I try to make the new Type A foods I serve at dinner appetizing. Then not only do I serve him a major avoid for dinner, but he recognizes it and calls it to my attention.

After the meeting he was driving home and took an exit that wasn't for our house. I asked where we were going, and as he pulled into Dairy Queen he said, "I have a craving for a freeze."

Well that ended my guilt! But it is interesting to me that he is recognizing what is good for him, and he expects me to feed him beneficials. However he's not ready to take personal responsibility for his eating yet.

Sometimes experiences that test and aggravate us at the time later turn out to benefit and encourage others. (2 Corinthians 1:4). I had an experience with the pill that might help Jennifer and other young women who are deciding about this issue.

When my husband and I married, my doctor automatically put me on the pill. I don't recall that the doctor even talked about any other birth control method. I remember him saying that unless I wanted to have a baby, I could stay on the pill until I was in my 40s. I had a vague feeling that I didn't like how the pill made me feel, but everyone else I knew was using the pill, so I took it.

One evening when we had been married about a year we invited another couple over for dinner. My friend and I were in the kitchen putting the finishing touches on dinner, when she began complaining about her gynecologist. She said that he didn't completely trust the pill and that he made all his patients get off once a year. I told her about my gynecologist who wouldn't talk to me about anything but the pill. We laughed and said we should switch doctors, but before she left my house that night, I got her doctor's name.

I made an appointment with him, and he said that while he believed the pill was safe for most women, he wanted his patients once a year to get off and have one normal menstrual cycle. Then they could go back to the pill. He had information about lots of other birth control methods and the percentages of effectiveness for each one.

My husband, being an engineer, recognized the statistical principal that combining two methods would increase the effectiveness to equal the pill. So I stopped the pill; just for a few weeks, we thought.

It was a full year before I had a period. It was two years before my cycle was back to normal. Some women, like me, over react to the pill, but there is no way to know ahead of time who will do fine and who will have problems.

Now that I have two children I ask myself, "What if I had stayed on the pill for years until we were ready for a baby? How long then would it have taken for my cycle to return to normal? Could I ever have gotten pregnant?"

Needless to say I never went back on the pill. I don't oppose other women taking it, but I think that gynecologist's idea of giving your body a break once a year is excellent. I also believe that the conversation in the kitchen with my friend was the direct intervention of God in my life and in the lives of my future son and daughter.

My daughter's mouth was really sore after her trip to the orthodontist, so last night I told her I was going to cook lentils. I said that they would be very soft and feel good in her mouth.

I had bought ingredients for a lentil and barley recipe. Half way through cooking, I decided it didn't smell very flavorful, so I added the spices (marjoram, thyme, garlic and celery) from a lentil recipe on RECIbase.

I fixed frozen blueberries for her and a salad with fresh cauliflower for my husband. They came to serve their plates and looked suspiciously at the pot of lentils. "Don't tell me what it is," said my husband. "I don't want to know. I'll just call it gumbo."

They took tentative tastes. "It's not bad," said my husband. "It's not my favorite, but I'd eat it again," said my daughter. Soon they both got up and went back for seconds. It took great self control not to jump up and shout "YES".

Lentils and barley are both avoids for me, so with my salad I had a ground beef patty, yellow squash and grilled onions. A two blood type family sure generates a lot of dirty pots and pans!

Sitting in the orthodontist's office this morning waiting for my daughter to have her braces tightened, I picked up a copy of "Good Housekeeping" that had a weight loss article featured on the cover. I thought I would see if there was anything remotely related to the Blood Type Diet. Unfortunately it was the usual confused mixture of low-fat, low-carb, count calories advice that is doomed to failure.

However I did learn something. They quoted a study that said "women lose muscle mass at a rate of roughly one-third to one-half a pound each year after age 35. I certainly watched that happen to me, and it is one of the things I have had success changing with the Type O diet.

My husband and I are both very active, and have always exercised year round. We ran together until he had back surgery (the same year our 19-year-old son was born). After that we walked briskly or swam 4-6 days a week. Nevertheless, I watched my leg muscles gradually go soft. I wasn't over weight - I was well within the guidelines for my height. But, last spring when I tensed my legs, I could see no visible change. Disgusting!

Before the Blood Type Diet, I always felt a little guilty that I wanted more protein, especially more meat. This year I have enjoyed eating beneficial meats. I have also begun to vary my exercise. I continue to swim and walk, but I also run, bike, and work with weights. When I tense my legs now, there is muscle definition. Delightful!

The article went on to say that, "Women need not fear bulking up. Working out with ‘moderately challenging' weight (a weight that makes you feel fatigued after eight to 10 repetitions) will increase lean muscle mass, which burns calories even when the body is at rest."

I can see that the weights I am using are no longer heavy enough. When I started I could barely do 5 repetitions. Now I do 15 - 20 without fatigue. I've got to look into new weights. Having come this far, I certainly don't want to start losing muscle again.

I have spent the day restoring order to my house after last week's hectic deadlines. I think it is a good day to share ideas from my comment box.

First, my daughter is back from her mission trip to the homeless shelter. She experienced a world far different from her own. The thing that touched her most was working with the children of homeless families. She and her classmates played with them and helped them with homework in an after school program at the shelter. The Type A food she took worked out well. They had apple juice for breakfast, and she mixed her protein shake in that.

Sarah wrote with an idea that I wish we had though of. "The solution I have found works best when traveling is to bring plenty of those little one-drink cartons of soy or rice milk." Sarah had other ideas for travelers, "Cans of sardines are useful emergency rations for As & Os; also rice pasta, the very thin kind that you can just soak in hot water. One still has to think of fruit & veg but at least one won't starve or have to eat avoids." Great ideas for summer vacations!

Judith sent a recipe for roasted vegetables that I plan to try when my son gets home from college for the summer. It sounds delicious. I like it when you all send me recipes. Don't stop, but also post them on the RECIbase. That way other visitors to the website can access them. I am trying to use RECIbase more often when I need a new idea.

Another recipe came from another Suzanne. She grated jicima to make potato pancakes and said her family loved them. (Is it on RECIbase yet?) It made me think of grating jicima to make hash browns. I wasn't happy with the results. I cooked them in a skillet with the lid on and they were too mushy. Next time I'll try with the lid off.

Also on the subject of potatoes, Terry makes sweet potato fries. Another thing to try when my Type O son is home for the summer!

I'm amazed at how many combination Type A/Type O families there are. For those who said I have encouraged them, I can only say you encourage me right back. Terry really made me laugh when she wrote, "Typically, my husband and oldest daughter only follow the diet because it's the only food we have in the house!"

I am also amazed at how many of you have written to say that God led you to the Blood Type Diet during a health crisis. I say "Amen!" The Blood Type Diet was certainly the answer to my prayers.