There are five primary areas of practice to the Writer Wellness plan. Every other week I will post an idea for relaxation (Monday Meditation,) creative play (Tuesday Tickle,) fitness and exercise (Wednesday Workout,) journaling and misc. (Thursday Thought,) and nutrition (Friday Feast.)
Food is our major source of energy. Long time ago our grandparents raised almost everything they ate but you know it isn’t that way any longer. Technology has set a pace for the human race that is exactly that: a race from sun up to sun down and beyond to be, do, get, fix, and plan lives that are dependent on the mass production of the food we eat. In exchange for technological progress, we have placed our trust in complete strangers to grow, prepare, and serve most of what we eat. Granted, the opposite choice is a little daunting. Who has the time, money, energy, or space to cultivate a garden or raise chickens? When my sister-in-law got my father-in-law a full grown rooster for his birthday, the city made him get rid of it because ordinances did not allow for the harboring of any animals other than cats, dogs, and reptiles. And the neighbors got pretty pi$$ed off when the rooster when off every morning in the middle of town at 4:00 a.m. So we’ve had to set aside our trust issues and rely on professionals for all our food.
Hmmm. Not yum, but hmmm.
Recently author Kristen Lamb blogged rcently on how one simple diet change changed her life for the better. She discovered a wheat and diary intolerance and now eats plenty of food I imagine but without excessive amounts of wheat because of the gluten and dairy because of the casein. Both are diet troublemakers for a lot more people than you would think.
I discovered the very same situation with my diet in 1998 when I was introduced to “The Blood Type Diet” popular among yoga practitioners at the time. I bought the book Eat Right For Your Type, The Individualized Diet Solution to Staying Healthy, Living Longer & Achieving Your Ideal Weight by Dr. Peter J. D’Adamo with Catherine Whitney and once I realized how much better I felt I have never looked back.
D’Adamo is a homeopathic physician and so was his father. D’Adamo the younger has carried the work of his father into the 21st century with strong, reliable results. There is proven scientific support for the program. It’s based on a simple fact: not everybody can eat everything, nor should everybody eat the same things. The science is based on a thing called lectins that causes blood to get sticky and then causes all sorts of trouble from there. Read the book.
There are four blood types among humans and four food programs to follow according to D’Adamo. I don’t call it a diet. Ever since I heard Richard Simmons say, “The first three letters of the word ‘diet’ spell ‘die,’” I stopped using the word. I’m on a specific food program with an enormous list of foods acceptable to my blood type which is O. For half of my life, like Kristen, I would eat pasta and need a cot standing nearby to catch me. Wheat caused me to swell, retain fluids, and have headaches but I didn’t know it until I removed it from my diet and discovered a whole new way of being. And wheat is the number one offensive food for blood type O people. Go figure. Dairy ranks up there as tough on O-people but it’s do-able in moderation. Anytime I go beyond the moderate level of dairy, indigestion is the result.
Blood type “food program” isn’t without its critics, but I’m not one of them. How do I get around wheat in my diet when everybody we trust to make our food is filling it with the stuff because it’s cheap? I’ll explain that in a future Friday Feast, but don’t worry, I’m not hungry or asleep after eating like I used to be.
Be well, write well.
I discovered this book and diet nine years ago when I looked like an elephant from the behind in my daughter’s wedding photos. I went from a size 18 to a 10 in 9 months by staying strict on the diet for my blood type and exercising. Now I try to stay on the diet but no quite as strict as when I wanted to get all the fat off. But I do feel better when i don’t stray too far.