Breakfast is my favorite meal, and the easiest for an O like myself to make compliant and grain free.

Basically it is different variations on spinach and eggs. Usually I have some onions and sweet peppers on hand, so I saute those first in some olive oil, throw in any other vegetable that needs softened up, then add some fresh spinach leaves. Then add eggs, salt, red pepper flakes if desired, and stir until done. Throw in leftover meat from dinner too! If you want more flavor, try a tiny sprinkle of toasted sesame oil and umi plum vinegar.

If eggs aren't an option, or if you are out of eggs, instead add broth and turn it into a soup. A bit of seaweed is a nice addition, as soups like this are a standard breakfast in Japan.

Yesterday was a harder day to be compliant, not sure exactly why other than busyness and a few small things not going as planned. I remained determined and kept up 95% compliance. That was hard, but not as hard as getting back on track later.

Is this too easy? I expected it to be harder. I guess previous experience/success, optimism about life, and a stubborn determination are working well for me.

3 days of 99% compliance: lots of veggies and beneficials, as much meat as I like (which isn't too much, probably the minimum for an O) and no big bad avoids. I was planning to have some grains, but haven't felt the need. If I ever feel like it, I'll make some rice pudding with brown rice and almond milk. After a meal full of veggies, sweet potato, and beef, I'm not craving anything. Wow. I love breakthroughs like that...sometimes things just come together.

I've lost one pound, many to go, but I'm thrilled to see progress in the right direction. I still need to get some superfoods from my favorite health food store, but the fresh veggie snacks I've cut up and put in the fridge have been a useful tool on busy days.

Ok, I do have one craving... seaweed! I think I have some, so I'll go "indulge".

Today I lit a fire inside myself. It all started with reading a blog of a local health guru about BTD. It was all the usual criticisms about BTD. For some reason, this time those criticisms made me mad. For other reasons I was just plain fed up and mad at myself because sure I can defend it online, but currently I can't stand up in person and say "this diet works, just look at me". Sure I'm pretty healthy, way healthier than I was in my 20s when I found BTD and changed my life by following it... back when I left behind my healthy granola with a side of S.A.D. diet. But that is not what the first impression would be for somebody looking at me. I know how to lose weight with BTD, I know how to follow it, I have lost 40 pounds on two occasions with it (followed by two healthy pregnancies). But I haven't lost the weight from my second pregnancy, I've actually gained. So, I could stand up and say, "look at me, I haven't been following the BTD and look at the results of not following it"... for some reason that isn't too helpful. I've been gluten free, of course, but taking out gluten is not the only reason that BTD works.

That's the truth, the cold hard truth. My excuses have won: it's hard to cook and eat healthy meals when my children outnumber me, my body doesn't react negatively to the wrong foods like it did in the early days, we've had a period of a very very limited food budget and numerous financial stresses, (while I do think it is possible to eat healthy on a tiny budget, I do know it's not easy). I'm a stress eater who has been stressed to the max.

That's all over now though, the stresses that were out of my control are not gone. The children are older. We can afford to buy free range and organic whole foods. We had to move in with relatives, but will be moving back out on our own. In general, things are looking up in every way. While my kids are still higher maintenance than many kids, things are looking up. We all have appointments with occupational therapists for sensory integration problems that have plagued all of us for our whole lives (and play a big part in my stress eating), and I am hopeful it will make everything more manageable.

The best thing that happened to me today though was that I got miffed about that blog. Then I got fed up with my excuses and anxious to get to the point where I can convincingly help people who need the BTD to find and follow it . I weigh more than I ever have, but in one year I will have some awesome before and after pictures and an inspiring story to tell so that I can start helping others again.

I went through the fridge and threw out all the unhealthy foods that I was eating, and cordoned off the ones that other people in the house eat so that I won't even have to look at them. I put no feta cheese in my spinach and eggs this morning, I put no agave or anything in my green tea. No more sugar, very limited agave or honey, no more dairy of any kind, no refined carbs... more veggies, fruit, clean meats, and a few whole grains like quinoa and brown rice (about 1/2 cup per day). Snacks will include fresh veggies, nuts, cocoa beans, unsweetened dried fruit.

Time to get serious. In one year you can expect before and after pictures. June 13, 2013, it's in my calendar, come what may, the truth will continue to be told. I am stronger than my excuses.

Here's my new T-Shirt: Determination, the snack of champions.

I have to admit, my meal plan blogs are as much for me as for my readers, as sometimes I wish I had kept track of what I ate when I was compliant and doing really well with the diet. That way I can remind myself later when I feel like I don't know where to start.

So here is my meal plan for the week, this is an non-secretor O plan with a side of explorer. I don't eat rice or any dairy, due to food allergy teasting and SWAMI results. I make a few modifications for type A family members... although they often get O foods because they aren't as strict and sometimes I feed them what they will eat...they don't eat much red meat, at least.

Saturday:
Dinner:
Italian turkey sausage with marinara sauce
tinkyada pasta for them, spaghetti squash for me
green beans

Snack:
nori sesame "crackers"
pomagranate slushy, unsweetened

Sunday:
Breakfast:
green tea almond milk latte with agave and v. glycerine
3 boiled eggs with olive oil, lemon juce, garlic sea salt, and nori crackers

Snack: pom slushy, unsweetened

Lunch:
repeat of yesterday's dinner

Dinner:
chicken andouille sausages with great northern beans, onion and carrot
grilled salmon (for kids who won't eat andouille beans
steamed quinoa
broccoli

Advance prep flank steak and quinoa tortillas for Monday's tacos.
flax muffins or focaccia for snacks
What to do with a fennel bulb I bought?

More to come...

Where to begin... I've been blogging for a long long time, but not so much in the past year. Some things, which are most important to me, like my family, required my full attention. I didn't always take care of myself like I should have, but my body proved to be resilient in spite of it. Now I can, and must, focus on my health. I've reached a point of no return to SAD (that is, Standard American Diet). Of course, my diet could never be "standard" with gluten issues, but for most of the last year (or five), my diet has had too much in common with standard.

Many things have helped me reach this point, the most important being Neuro Modulation Therapy, or NMT. It has been absolutely amazing and healing for me. My health fell apart at age 19 after having mono, and I've never felt "normal" since then, but NMT is helping me finally git rid of that baggage. It has also helped me learn to value myself enough to take better care of myself...gradually leaving all the negative baggage behind. The mind and body work together in amazing ways, it's nice to find a way to heal both. I can get by with less than 9 hours sleep and not get sleepy until bedtime, wow. I'm feeling stronger and more energetic, and capable, less distracted, less bipolar.

Taekwondo has also helped me, it has kept my body strong and challenged my mind. It has challenged and improved my view of myself and my capabilities. While I have put off black belt testing (it is quite demanding at my studio) in order to focus on my family responsibilities, I am still going strong and moving forward with it. The friendships and mentorships I have found there have been life-altering.

Essential oils are also helping me lately...some to give me more energy, some to heal injuries and reduce inflammation, some for well-being, fighting infections, and boosting metabolism. In combination with the NMT, something has finally caused a lymph node on my neck that was swollen for 16 years to go back to normal. My skin is healthier and even my feet are softer and less prone to heel-cracks. Those may seem like trivial things, but they were quite stubborn, seemingly insurmountable, problems for me! Strange but true. I've also been dry skin body brushing, which has been great.

I've decided to give up rice. I was eating so much of it, that according to NMT I've now developed an allergy to it. I was beginning to get symptoms of something going on, and I'm happy to be done with those. It may be a temporary necessity, as NMT can cure some allergies, but I'm not too bummed about it. It suddenly cuts out most of the snacks my kids eat from my diet, and that's a good thing. I've been eating less junk, if any, and lots more vegetables, meat, fruit and all those beneficial O foods.

My oldest son has had health problems progressively getting worse over 3 years. It started with food allergies as a baby, and by the end of 1st grade he was becoming a nervous wreck with tummy aches every day. A great pediatric gastroenterologist guessed (since he really was terrified of a biopsy) that it was food allergies or histamines causing the tummy aches. She confirmed this by giving him cyproheptadine, an antihistamine, which seemed to be a miracle until we realized it was making him too tired to do much. With NMT and hypnosis, things improved enough that we could get him off the medicine. Recently somebody posted a link to orthomolecular theories and therapies to help with emotional problems. I browsed through it lightly and then came across a description of histadelia, which described him perfectly, head to toes. I didn't know excess histamine could cause so many problems, so now I'm religiously giving him extra vitamin C, calcium, magnesium, zinc, bromelain and quercetin, and already seeing him feel better and more adventurous. I don't know any alternative psychiatrists to take him to, wish there were some, but we're getting on the right track now.

Psychiatrists rely way too heavily on pharmaceuticals, the only blood test they ever run is for thyroid problems, in my experience. No screening for nutritional deficiencies whatsoever. I sure hope the orthomolecular approach becomes more standard, especially for children who can have bad reactions to rx's.

Of course, I found the same thing with a neurologist a few years ago. She was scheduling me for a lumbar puncture before running a single blood test. Fortunately, another doctor found the vitamin D deficiency that was causing the calcium deficiency, which was causing the numbness in my skin. I wonder if the neurologist would have found some way to diagnose me with MS, because that was all she wanted to do. Blah... #3 motivation for following BTD: I never want to have to step into the office of a neurologist again in all my life.