I was surprised to discover today while looking at the advaced calculators on page 290 of the book, that even if my upper legs were longer than my lower legs I would still be a Teacher regardless of secretor status. I was happy to notice that because it was the only other measurement I was not sure of.

At the same time I have been noticing that my sleep has been very broken lately. I'm beginning to realize that I might be sensitive to caffeine after all. I can sleep but not as deeply. Before I had my secretor results I conducted a coffee experiment. I had a tea spoon and a half worth of coffee with milk only an hour before bed time and I was not able to sleep for about 3 to 4 hours after that. This was one of the other reasons I was so convinced I was an Explorer. I really would love to find out whether other teachers would be able to sleep after conducting the same experiment and whether the quality of sleep is affected in any way.

Aside from that, before the GT diet I only drank decaf coffee for more than 6 or so years. I have been drinking regular coffee only for about a month during my transition as a warrior and now as a Teacher, and it has probably been accumulating in my system. I happen to know that coffee does makes you retain water and so will give you wrong readings when you weigh yourself.

It also makes me snappy and shortens my fuse. Something that I didn't have while I was on decaf. So the decision has been made, Teacher or no Teacher coffee is out for me. Back to decaf.

I'm probably somekind of Explorer/Teacher hybrid. I would really love to hear from others about how coffee affects them. Can Warriors really drink it all day and not be affected in any way?

I want my, I want my, I want my Swami now.....

I'm very sensitive to caffeine too and that led me to be convinced I was an Explorer too--plus some incorrect measuring. With my SWAMI, I lost both coffee and black tea--both are full avoids now.

Jumari and Chandon, I am also intolerant to caffeine. I lost coffee and
black tea when I entered I was caffeine sensitive in my SWAMI.  I also thought I was an Explorer.  Just that  I'm rh positive, right handed and  a secretor.... so these things didn't fit the Explorer.

It's possible we have many characteristics of other genotypes...such as
caffeine sensitivity.... I just wonder why "gluten intolerance" wasn't one of the
questions asked on SWAMI because my list contains wheat and gluten
foods even though I said I had many white lines on my fingerprints.

I'm pretty caffeine-sensitive, too. I discovered that probably a good 15 years ago -- I had a friend staying with me, and we stayed up gabbing to all hours of the night, and I'd get so tired by late afternoon, I'd drink a Coke to perk up. Then I couldn't sleep well, so the next day I'd start dragging around again in the afternoon, and drink another Coke to perk up. A couple of days of that, and it finally "clicked". I decided "no caffeine after 4 p.m."; then later settled on 2 p.m. as a cut-off point; then lunch. For the past several years, the only time I've intentionally drunk caffeinated soft drinks is when I needed to stay awake (like when driving long distances).

In the book, when he suggested a caffeine sensitivity test -- to drink coffee in the early evening, I had the "shrink back in horror" reaction. A few months ago, I had some chocolate (pre-GTD) after supper -- just an ounce, I think -- and had trouble sleeping that night.

When it says that a "serving" of rice is 1/2 c., is that cooked or uncooked rice? I was figuring it as cooked rice, but then I would assume that the measurement of wheat would be uncooked. So, now I'm not sure.

When I was a child drinking soda affected me more than coffee. I think it might of been a combination of the HFCS and caffeine. Although I would usually have several. I would be pretty restless all night.

Now if I have coffee at say eight o'clock I can still go to bed from somewhere around 10-12, of which I would normally be doing. I mean there is a few hours difference but I have never tried to drink coffee right before bed. As best as I can tell it just takes me an extra couple of minutes to fall asleep but does not keep me up.

Quoted from Katsy

When it says that a "serving" of rice is 1/2 c., is that cooked or uncooked rice? I was figuring it as cooked rice, but then I would assume that the measurement of wheat would be uncooked. So, now I'm not sure.

I'm not 100% sure either although I'm thinking it means cooked when you read
a portion listed in SWAMI or the book.  Only reason I'm thinking like this is because
rice is a pretty dense carbo food...and 1/2 cup of raw rice is equal to one cup
cooked.  If we were allowed 1/2 cup of raw grain many times during the day, that
comes to a lot of grain and a lot of carbs...It just makes sense to me that measurements are given as cooked grains.

Quoted Text

I decided "no caffeine after 4 p.m."

I'm with you on that. If I drink coffee after 3-4 p.m., it keeps me up. One diet coke won't keep me up if consumed in the evening.

But going without coffee entirely doesn't work at all for me, as I recently discovered!

I started drinking coffee when my spiritual mom (an RN) talked about how much less depressed she feels if regularly consuming coffee.

A Nurses Health Study, published in Annals of International Medicine, found women who drank two to three cups of coffee a day had a 25% lower risk of heart disease and an 18% lower risk of developing diseases other than cancer than those who did not drink it.

The same study showed that those who drank coffee were happier and more content than those who did not, and those who daily drank 2 to 3 cups of caffeinated coffee were significantly less likely to commit suicide than non-coffee drinkers.

Coffee has excellent anti-inflammatory properties, and a rich supply of antioxidants.

Recently I was dragging through the day exhausted, apathetic, tired, and unable to do much of anything. I thought it might be a side-effect of my new LDN treatment.

Then I discovered my husband had accidentally been using decaf beans to make our espresso for 2 weeks.

We bought some regular French Roast beans day before yesterday, and I am already feeling back to my old self.

I think that study is 100% bogus. I think the difference between the people is the key element.

It is like a study that said people who drink beer are healthier. However when all the people not drinking were asked about it they said they stopped drinking due to declining healthy from drinking.

Chandon,
  I'm curious....as to why some of your food choices changed? Did cancer run in your family...heart disease...are you trying to lose weight?  

Hi delightfuldeb,
I have cancer in my family, plus I had cancer 10 years ago. There is some hypertension and heart disease in my family, plus dementia, diabetes, allergies, and arthritis. Also, I included that I had been diagnosed with an intestinal disease (diverticulitis)--which I strongly attribute to not eating enough like an A or a Teacher. I thought my percentage would be closer to 50% or even higher. At first, I was at 42% and then I answered some things differently after talking to my husband about how I answered them and then typed out at 41%. When that happened a few changes occurred. In some ways, I might be getting some of the Warrior food values, but it really may not be that SWAMI is blending any types. It says it's a blend of the BTD and GTD. The diet also gets tweaked based our history, our family's history, and our lab values. But maybe physical factors other than the info we used in the advanced calulator make a big difference, such as the head and jaw shape, type of build we have (andric or gynic, waist to hip ratio, bodytype), finger prints, and teeth.

I do need to lose weight, but that would affect servings.

I lost ginseng essentially--it's a black dot avoid, so I guess ginseng no longer works as a supplement. Once I took some concoctions prescribed by a doctor of Chinese medicine. I guess I got a lot of ginseng and I was awake to the nth degree.

   Thanks for sharing Chandon! I should be getting my Swami any day now and I'm excited to see what it says.

Quoted from Gale D.

But going without coffee entirely doesn't work at all for me, as I recently discovered!

I can't stand the flavor of coffee -- it tastes like burned dirt to me. That's why I don't drink it. Never have. Not at all. My brother surreptitiously put a bit into some hot chocolate I made once, thinking I wouldn't notice it. I dumped it out after a sip. Yuck. Once my husband got a coffee drink from Starbucks or something (a caramel macchiato [sp?] or some other fairly sweet drink), and I could stand a sip or two of it, but I wouldn't prefer to drink it. Much like wine -- I'd rather just have grape juice. I'm a sweet freak, though -- **love** sweets! I'd probably have to put in so much cream, sugar, and artificial flavorings into coffee to make it palatable to me, that it would completely defeat the purpose. So, if I'm gonna be "bad" anyway, I might as well be bad all the way.

I lost coffee and black tea too...both toxins now.  Won't miss either as I've never been a coffee drinker and not too fond of black tea either.  

I use 'best' for my portions, and I get a whopping amount of carbs.  4 servings of 1/2 cup or two slices of bread.  I am not sure that there will ever be a day when I eat that much carbs!  But, I do know that my body really needs grains, so I try and get at least 2 per day.  There is only ONE carb in the list that is a full toxin for me, and that is carrageenan.  The rest are all black dot or better.  My serving size and frequency for lots of things seems big to me.  

I love the increased flexibility with the swami, so many more fruits and veggies are superfoods.    Lots of other things I like moved up from toxin to black dot, neutral, of sf...which is awesome!  

I tend to eat very small meals frequently, so my servings of just about everything get broken up.  Like I might have an oz of cheese on a salad, but would rarely eat 3-4 oz at a time.

Chandon, your diet sounds a lot like mine in terms of food ratings.  I have also had cancer, that could be a large part of it.

Deb, when you get your swami you can play wth a lot of the settings to see what difference various things make.  I have added in various things in family history and found they make no difference in my food lists.  Most of the ratings for the foods are based on you I think.  But then there are a lot of things I did not say yes to because there have been no history.  Certain things trump other things I guess.

I'm a slight taster yet coffee always tasted horribly bitter to me.  Not something I'm ever
gonna miss.  Katsy, I feel the same way about wine....rather have grape juice. Although
now grape juice tastes too sweet for me. If I'm going to drink any sweet juice,
like pineapple or grape, I mix a very small amount of it in water and drink mostly
water.... Lately dates are tasting too sweet...I started making
this treat out of almond butter, carob and soaked dates...whirred in a food processor
and rolled into balls...First few days I was eating it non stop....After a week, I looked
at a date ball and didn't want anything that sweet.  

I often want to end my meal with something sweet, but sweet as a predominant
flavor feels unbalanced.  This is how the theory of macrobiotics works...balancing
all tastes within a meal...I find if I eat something too salty I will be pushed towards
something too sweet....(I used to put M & Ms in my bag of popcorn so I could go
back and forth between sweet and salty)  No more, of course...

For the first two weeks, I was reading my food lists and trying to keep trying
new foods....but often eating foods I wasn't in the mood for.  Now I wait and
sense what I want to eat....For many days it was cheese, cheese, cheese.  Suddenly
I didn't want any more cheese...I wanted fish and eggs...Today I want nuts...
lots and lots of nuts. And to take out my juicer and have some fresh raw juices.

Anyway able to sense what their body is asking for?

Chloe,

That sounds interesting. I think I have a problem with eating too much, period. Not just the wrong kinds of foods, but too much in general of the perhaps not-so-healthy foods; and particularly, not enough vegetables. I made up a daily/weekly chart to check off foods as I eat them, with a little box for each serving I'm supposed to have or am allowed to have. I need that structure; otherwise, I'd go all day without eating vegetables, and not even realize it. And I'd eat lots of cheese plus a big bowl of yogurt. Plus too many carbs. Maybe after I lose weight and get closer to where I want to be, I'll allow myself to listen more to what my body may be saying, but for now, I just don't trust it. Because it's my **mouth** that drives what I want to eat, I think, not my body's *needs*. However, I do allow myself *some* flexibility -- for instance, the GTD says I can have vegetable protein 7-10 times per week, so if I'm really craving nuts or protein, I'll eat my "extra" nuts that day; and some days I might not even have dairy at all.

I definitely feel much more in control without the coffee. Was a good decision to leave it out.

   Is skin cancer considered cancer????

Quoted from delightfuldeb

   Is skin cancer considered cancer????

http://www.ehealthmd.com/library/skincancer/SC_whatis.html

I would say "yes".

  Thanks Chloe  

Quoted from Chloe

Anyway able to sense what their body is asking for?

I like eating that way and think I'm gravitating toward listening to my body. I think it helps to have quite a few things on hand and then I can see what I feel like eating day to day. I do that particularly with breakfast and lunch, since I'm making the food just for myself.

As far as coffee goes, I do enjoy the taste of coffee, especially French press coffee. But I know that my body doesn't really do that well with more than 2 cups of coffee--that that is always decaf. It irritates my lower esophagus sometimes. I love coffee ice cream especially!

I know that in another thread some people were saying that when they dropped coffee, they began losing weight. I don't know if any A types were included in that. That would be nice if removing coffee would take the weight off.

I do feel calmer without any coffee, black tea, or ginseng. I wasn't drinking a lot of black tea, but made some cold-brewed ice tea a couple of times.

Quoted from Katsy

I made up a daily/weekly chart to check off foods as I eat them, with a little box for each serving I'm supposed to have or am allowed to have. I need that structure; otherwise, I'd go all day without eating vegetables, and not even realize it.

I decided to do that too. I think it will help and I'll be able to see that I'm leaning too much in one direction in my choices. Yes, it's difficult to get all the veggies in. I think it helps to get in some veggies at breakfast whenever possible. I often will includes onions of some kind at breakfast.

Quoted Text

my body doesn't really do that well with more than 2 cups of coffee--that that is always decaf.

are you familiar with the method or process and chemicals used to decaffeinate?

Quoted from Gale D.

Recently I was dragging through the day exhausted, apathetic, tired, and unable to do much of anything. I thought it might be a side-effect of my new LDN treatment. Then I discovered my husband had accidentally been using decaf beans to make our espresso for 2 weeks. We bought some regular French Roast beans day before yesterday, and I am already feeling back to my old self.

I find that the amount of caffeine in white and green teas is perfect for me. An actual cup of coffee is much too stimulating. I generally have 2 cups of tea in the morning and that's really enough caffeine and it gives me a nice lift.

A can of soda would definitely keep me awake for hours. My husband is really sensitive too. There's a possibility he's an Explorer, but likely a Gatherer.

I have cold feet frequently, and it is summer time in India.. could it be because of hypothyrodism?