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"The older you get, the tougher it is to lose weight, because by then your body and your fat are really good friends.
~Author Unknown
The Blood Type Diet
Recently I was lounging by the pool in Vegas, yah I know – it sucks to be me – flipping through the September 19th edition of First magazine when I was hit by an epiphany. I’d purchased the magazine because the fabulous Dr. Oz was on the cover saying that eating right for his (blood) type gives him more “vital energy.” The magazine cover proclaimed in very large font I could drop 37 pounds this month by following the blood type discovery plan. Since it was already the 8th of the month, I grabbed up the magazine thinking I’d better figure out what this was all about, I’ve got no time to waste.
Regular readers of this column know that I constantly lament the shape of my figure – which tends toward the apple more than the hourglass. I am always looking for the next quick (and easy) fix for my weight and am forever promising that next week or next month I’m going to do something about it. I buy workout videos and crazy weight loss gadgets in hopes of letting the air out of the spare tire around my middle that refuses to go flat.
The one thing I don’t do is watch what I eat. For the better part of my adult life I’ve lived by the notion that pasta, chocolate, coffee and Cheetos are the four basic groups. Yes, I do enjoy fruits and veggies but only in moderation and I truly believe a meal without bread might as well not be eaten.
Then just about the time I resign myself to the fact there are pretty clothes for fat girls too, I come across Peter D’Adamo, N.D., author of Eat Right 4 Your Type: The Individualized Diet Solution to Staying Healthy, Living Longer & Achieving Your Ideal Weight and the researcher recognized as the authority on blood type diets, introduced to me by the fabulous Dr. Oz. (I really think he should have his named legally changed to that.)
The premise of the diet involves bacteria in your digestive tract, amino sugars and basic sugars and how your blood antigens nourish themselves. It’s all very scientific and science was never my thing but the article laid it out so that even I understood the simplicity of the whole idea.
What I discovered is that, as a Type O (considered to be the original blood type); descended from hunter-gatherers, high levels of stomach acid help my body process all kinds of meat. D’Adamo also explains in the article that wheat products (like bread) are not processed well because our (Type O’s) digestive tracts cannot tolerate the gluten. Crap!
He also suggests eating foods that support the thyroid because Type O’s tend to have low iodine levels and iodine regulates thyroid function. That means no cabbage or sprouts. Darn it! But he does suggest eating kelp (yeah right) and seafood to increase iodine intake. Then round out your diet with fruits and vegetables with lower acidity levels like bananas, cherries, mangoes, plums leafy greens to help maintain pH levels which tend on the acidic side.
Excited about what I’d learned, I raced off to find Hubby who was comfortably settled in at a penny slot machine – remember we were in Vegas – to share with him what I’d learned. Now Hubby is the original meat and potatoes man. He’s usually less than enthusiastic when I suggest macaroni and cheese for supper – again. I could almost see the little wheels in his head spinning while he struggled with whether or not to give me the old “I told you so” or simply stick with the non-committable nodding response that has served him so well in the past. Being a smart man he stuck with the latter. After all, he’s been down this road with me before and it’s usually not very long before I’m craving a chocolate donut, hold the sprinkles please – I’m on a diet.
I decided, what the heck, let’s give this old hunter gather blood type thing a shot. I mean, it sure beats the heck out of the cabbage soup diet and the Slim Fast diet and the other crazy things I’ve tried. By golly, if Danielle from San Antonio can lose 88 pounds (my Type O example from the article), I should be able to trim away some of ass that keeps slapping away at the back of my thighs.
At this point it’s been a few days. I’ve been eating lots of salads (leafy greens), steak (grass fed beef), grilled squash and watermelon (fruits and veggies). It’s been pretty easy to follow so far and I’ve noticed I’m less sluggish. I’m scared to get on the scale just yet though. I think I’ll wait until the new dress Hubby bought me in Vegas looks like I’ve wrapped myself in a muumuu when I put it on.
I’ve made the decision to embrace the challenge of this diet. Even if it doesn’t work, the change in our menus has made Hubby is a much happier guy and that alone can be worth a lot. Except - he likes donuts too.
Hey!! This REALLY works!!
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