Despite the tragedies that envelop us all, the beginning of the year seems to be a good time for reflection, and simply counting one’s blessings. In our family, my husband, the Patriarch of the family is not well; In fact his health is quite precarious. And even though life is hard, we have had some great blessings this past year.

We had a birth in the family this fall. Our son Will and his wife Kara welcomed another child, Meredith Addington Lloyd, in September. They are a family of five now, since the twins were 16 months old when Meredith was born. Remember the accounting of the twin’s birth which turned out to be a nightmare? My daughter in law decided this time she would try to take no drugs whatsoever, and she accomplished the task. There were no complications like last time with the inability to walk due to damaged femoral nerves. Meredith is doing great. Breast feeding agrees with her, and she is a happy healthy baby. Although Meredith is my third grandchild, she is my husband’s 11th. He also has two great grandchildren. Not bad for an only child.

Another blessing this year is that our grandson, Matthew Lloyd, came back safely from Iraq. One of the last big helicopter crashes was his group from Hawaii, and his best friend died, but he came home. We saw him at Christmas, and all I could do was cry when I first saw him. Our heart goes out to all those families that are grieving, because their sons and daughters did not come home from serving their country.

The good news for all of us on this website is simply that the blood type diet has evolved. I was so excited to get my hands on The Genotype Diet. Being a patient of Dr. D’s, I’ve had all those measurements in his office, and he explained them all to me, but to really understand it, I need to read and study this new book. Apparently, I am a “Teacher.”

That designation symbolically fits me very well.

Years ago, when I read Genetic Nutritioneering by Jeffrey Bland, it was certainly encouraging to read that one can overcome their genetic propensities to disease. (Dr. D’s work is mentioned in that book). The future for our children and grandchildren is prevention, since we all live in such an unhealthy society.

Diet, exercise, stress reduction and avoiding carcinogens are no easy tasks. If anyone thinks the powers that be are really interested in physical health, then maybe we could call our whole country “fantasy land.” The toy recalls are a perfect example of how well the government protects us. And now they want to feed us “frankinfood” and cloned animals. Greed from the top down is killing Americans at a rapid rate.

However, the good news is simply this is a good time of year to take control of one’s destiny. Each of us can do what we can to stay healthy. It’s not all in our control that is for sure. But some of it is. And that is the hard part when it comes to change and individual responsibility. So many people are willing to take a pill instead of changing their life. Obviously if you are reading this, you are in that group of people that is enlightened, and that is a good thing. And I salute you for that. And I salute Dr. D for leading us all in the right direction.

Yesterday while taking my walk, I decided to walk around my alma mater, The University of Mary Washington formerly Mary Washington College. It’s named after the mother of George Washington who made her home in Fredericksburg. I got to thinking about what college food is like these days, and how a person might or might not be able to stick to the blood type diet at college.

So, I went into the dining area and asked the person checking the students in, if I could look at the food to right a column and she said go right ahead. Wow, I was so impressed.

The only other experience of looking at college food was when my children went to college 13 and 14 years ago. And that food wasn’t so appetizing. Since I attended nursing school, I only ate hospital cafeteria food and everyone knows what that is like. It was the regular meat and potatoes and overcooked vegetables back then. And I ate huge amounts of food for all three meals. At 18, my metabolism was so high, and I was very thin, and could eat like a suma wrestler. I usually had eggs and toast and meat for breakfast. A full meal for lunch and dinner, and sometimes I would get an extra portion of meat. Then I had my dessert, and my two friend’s desserts because they were always on diets. I never gained a pound the entire three years. But in retrospect, what a horrible diet for someone with type A blood.

And even though I attended Mary Washington College for 9 years part time for a bachelors and master’s degree, I was an adult living at home at the time and never once looked at the college food.

So, how does this college food compare? Well, anyone on the blood type eating plan could fair very well at this university’s food. There were three rooms of different types of food. One room had a very well stocked salad bar, and all kinds of pizza and finger foods. Another room had hamburgers and cheeseburgers and more fast type foods, but it looked like a type O and B could fair very well there. And they had two pasta stations one especially for gluten free students. The third room had a more traditional dinner type foods along with a Mediterranean diet island with pasta and stir fry and a special stir fry booth for gluten free diets. Type A’s could certainly eat a stir fry or from the salad bar and bring their own tempeh or tofu. Type O’s could benefit from the gluten free stations with the choice of grains. It was such a quick walk through that I could have gotten the rooms mixed up, but the extent of the choices was absolutely fabulous.

The variety for one day was so great, that even a repeat could really give each blood type several options. The students should not get bored with the food anytime soon. They really seemed to be offering a lot of food considered healthy choices. This university food could be a model of institutional food.

Then my creative side of my brain kicked into overdrive and I thought if they wanted to expand, a limited number of older people unable to cook could buy an eating pass, could go there and mingle with the students and get a nutritious diet. I know that sounds nuts, but just looking at the joy the students were experiencing in that dining room seemed something that could be shared however crazy an idea that is.

The bottom line is for the students at The University of Mary Washington, they have got it right. My alma mater passed the blood type diet food test with flying colors. I challenge the college age parents reading this to check out their student’s food. They might be presently surprised, but if their choices aren’t great, maybe they should implore their college or university to check with UMW as a model of healthy college food.

This frozen shoulder journey happened to me in May of last year, and I have been meaning to write about it ever since. I guess I can thank my dog Pepper for this injury. We were taking our usual walk, and she was really pulling hard, and I lost my patience and really jerked the leash hard. The next day my shoulder was sore, but in a couple of days, it was a frozen shoulder (adhesive capsulitis).

I have had experience with this type of injury, because I had one after my mastectomies 11 years ago. It is always excruciatingly painful. And the last time, I had three rounds of physical therapy and still did not have full range of motion for several years. That is until I met an MD who was an osteopath trained in energy healing who fixed my shoulder instantly with full range of motion in less than 30 seconds. Hard to believe, but it happened.

With this journey, however, I went right to The Blood type Encyclopedia and the website, and read about anti inflammatory protocols. Of course, Dr. D’Adamo has written a lot about bromelain and quercetin being good for injuries and I started taking them in large doses right away. I did go to physical therapy, because I knew they had to break up that scar tissue which is always painful. But this time, I also went to my Chinese massage therapist for him to work on it. I didn’t rush off to the former osteopath because of distance.

Since we were leaving on a trip in three week where I would be doing a lot of swimming, I wanted to heal this as fast as possible. So, I also added wobenzymes to the healing picture.

With this combination protocol, my shoulder was better in three weeks. The physical therapist could not believe it! He said he never saw anyone heal this fast. I told him my combination treatment, but this fellow wasn’t interested in anything else I had done besides the physical therapy. I always find this unbelievable when healing occurs and everyone is locked into his or her little allopathic world, and cannot see outside the box.

Why don’t people in the healing profession take note when something unusual happens?

Anyway, I was very glad for my combination protocol and quick healing. That handy Blood Type Encyclopedia and website started the healing process. I was grateful.

Later this year, it will be ten years since I started eating tofu. Before I was diagnosed with breast cancer 11 years ago this May, no soy product ever crossed my lips. I had never even tasted miso, tempeh, edame, and soy milk. However, that all changed when I first read ERFYT. Having Type A blood I began slowly adding soy products to my diet.

Soy, however, has been a very controversial topic for breast cancer survivors. In the early years, I used to get a bit nervous with all the soy bashers around. Dr. D’Adamo had to repeatedly tell me and post on his website answers to those types of questions. My list serve people are always questioning soy, and I end up quoting “Ask D’Adamo.” Perhaps his most important comment on the subject is this: “Thus type A's on a soy based diet can look forward to having lower levels of inflammation, allergy, cancer and infection by virtue of this 'poison' in soy!”

I just trust Dr. D on his recommendations. When I have gone to various cancer conferences, there have been the usual soy bashers. Of course, this doesn’t take into consideration of the basic tenet of ERFYT that “one person’s food is another person’s poison.” Once in a while in a 2002 at a nutritional conference, they had one presenter who studied all the soy studies and breast cancer, and came up with the recommendation that it wouldn’t hurt in moderation.

I must say that I have never gone over the soy deep end, usually keeping my soy intake to once a day plus the soy milk in my morning coffee and the soymilk and small amount of soy in the Type A powder. Of course, I still do not eat “frank n food” soy that is made up to look like fool me foods. I try to stick with the fermented stuff as much as possible with the least amount of additives.

Maybe this time would be good for a confession. I don’t exactly love the stuff. It would not be on my list of favorite foods. It would be on my list of healthy tolerable foods. The cook me type of tempeh leaves me cold with its texture and taste. Sometimes I can find tempeh that maybe has a little seasoning with one additive that is on the avoid list, but one has to make exceptions sometime.

So, I plod along on the tofu trail trying for new and enlightening ways to eat the stuff. Sometimes I hit tofu ruts along the way. That is when I refer to Cook Right For Your Type, or the many recipes on the website I copied through the years. I enjoy Oriental restaurants and their many ways of cooking soy, but cringe at what some of them are putting into the food. Usually they are cooking with the wrong oils and I sometimes forget to say to them omit the MSG. However, these types of restaurants give me ideas of how to cook the tofu meals at home. Hopefully this will make the tofu journey more interesting and palatable.

In our house, there are angels everywhere. And at least 50 or so are displayed all year long. There are another 30 or so angels in the dining room on my angel tree which is also a permanent house decoration. Then at Christmas, more angels come out like the big fibro optic one on the mantle along with others on the big Christmas tree, and the ones scattered through out the house. I always had some angels around, because my cousin and friend would buy precious moments figurines for me. But most of the angels have arrived in the last ten years after my diagnosis of breast cancer.

First my husband and children noticed that I found great comfort in angels. So, on every major event an angel would appear. Many of the ones my husband bought I was with him at the time. My children and daughter-in-law added a lot to the collection.

I have tried over the years to understand this obsession. I had one of those “Aha” experiences when I read an article in Venture Inward by Christine Northrup. She said, “I feel my life has been guided by the angels. . . .” I realized then, that I felt much the same way.

But for the most part, I don’t try to understand my love for angels, I just enjoy it. And each angel has their own story.

My son and his wife told me I was going to be a grandma by giving me a present. When I opened the box, there was a Willow Tree grandma angel. Of course, I burst out crying on that one. My daughter also gave me a Willow Tree angel for mother and daughter, and my little wellness group gave me one with sisters at heart.

My Amazon list serve for breast cancer has added some meaningful angels through the years. One departed list member sent me a Lladro angel in the mail after her death. It was very touching. Another list member sent me a stuffed angel after I did the Heimlich maneuver on her in a NY restaurant when she choked on a soybean pod. Another list friend made this beautiful angel with real feathers for my husband and I as a thank you for helping her after Katrina made her homeless.

My sixtieth birthday party also added a huge Heartwood Creek angel that sits on the hearth.

Then there are the outdoor angels. One sits on a big tree stump welcoming people up our long driveway. Another sits on the side picnic table and two others are alongside the front door along with three others on the porch. I know all these angels sound a little absurd, but they are beautiful, not tacky. And they are ever remindful of the real angels in my life.

And it is those people, the angels in all of our lives that we all should remember to thank at this holiday time. Those people that go the extra mile for us. That listen to us, help us, support us, and are there for us through good times and bad. Those angels make life worth living. Whether they are friend or family, or somebody we meet in a hospital or during an emergency, or a physician that helps us, they are the real thing.

At the end of my video slide show for my sixtieth birthday. I ended with a sequence with the accompanying music Calling All Angels. The words are so appropriate for angels in our lives during troubling times. This was also the music in the movie Play It Forward. (Words and lyrics by Jane Siberry with K.D. Lang lyrics.)

A great quote about friendship and angels states, “ Friends are angels who lift us to our feet when our wings have trouble remembering how to fly.” (Anonymous) There is also a beautiful poem with pictures of angels at the website:

http://poetry-emotion.com/Friends_Heart_Emotions/sharingtimes.html

Lastly, whether you are the one being the angel unaware, or receiving help from one, that is the real meaning of the Christmas spirit. Merry Christmas!