Blood Type Diet Buddies?

Wow! Cool down! I'm simply asking if someone wants to buddy-up with me on the BTD.

If OP stands for Old(er) Person, then that's me! I'm 65. I’m not new to this field. I was a chubby baby and a pleasingly plump child, according to my mother. My weight fluctuated during my teens—mostly up. I used the Grapefruit Diet and the Cottage Cheese Diet among many other ancient weight-loss schemes.

After I had the first of my 3 children (1971) my doctor told me if I’d just eat less than 1000 calories per day, I’d lose weight. It didn’t matter what you ate, he said. You can eat ice cream all day if you want, and if it’s less than 1000 calories, you’ll lose weight, he said. And that’s what I did. Sometimes I’d save my whole day’s calories just to have some gooey, high-cal ice cream concoction. I lost the baby weight and then some within three months. I used the same method after the birth of babies 2 and 3. In between, not so good. I wasn’t out of my 30s yet.

But I was just using the fewer-calories-in-than-expended method (CICO), which was not based on good nutrition. During my 30s and 40s the “science” said high-fat diets were bad, so we all ate no-fat cookies, nonfat ice cream and no-fat cake and wondered why we were expanding still. Especially our waists. By the time I got to 50, carbs were deemed bad. Now, of course, it’s sugar. By the way, also by the time I reached 50 I had passed 200 pounds on my bathroom scale.

Over the years I’ve done Jane Fonda’s No Pain No Gain aerobics, step aerobics, meditation, acupuncture, yoga, Pilates (my fav), swimming, amphetamines, Fen-phen …all of it. You name it, I’ve done it.

My health was bad—partly because of poor diet choices; partly because of genes. At 50 I had severe asthma, arthritis, stomach ulcers, heartburn/GERD and IBS, hypoglycemia, hypothyroidism, psoriasis, allergies, constipation big-time, idiopathic peripheral neuropathy, severe fatigue, etc., etc., etc. You get the picture.

I lost 70 pounds 15 years ago using first the Ornish Diet, which in the beginning banned nearly all carbohydrates, and then the South Beach Diet, which fit my hypoglycemia well and kept me from fainting. Somewhere in there people began to understand that 1000 calories was way too low for the average person, and that any way of eating that had the word Diet in it was an artificial way of eating. Also, that eating almost exclusively protein can wreck your kidneys. I lost the weight over a two-year period by eating 1200-1500 cal per day, depending on how active I was, eating nutritious food, and exercising in any way I could.

Now I’m 65, as I said. Fifteen years have passed since I lost the weight. And I’ve kept that weight off, within 5 pounds or so, up or down. But my health problems remained, for the most part. I’ve read more books on nutrition than I can count. I’ve looked at the science, the case studies. I did the research. I came across the Blood Type Diet about 10 years ago. Back then D’Adamo didn’t sell any products except for the book. First came the people and then the products, not the other way around. Just like the South Beach Diet, Atkins, etc., products became a big deal later on. And damn near everyone’s been on Dr. Oz. Guilt by association hardly seems fair, guys.

I said, “My roommate can't go a few days without beef. I'm nearly a vegetarian. Turns out her blood is type O (eat meat! eat meat!) and mine is type A (vegetarians rock).” Perhaps some in this group missed the point. I had become a near vegetarian because I couldn’t digest red meat and heavy, greasy chicken/turkey, yet I kept trying to keep protein in my life. Eggs and cheese get old. But a steak or hamburger would lie like dead weight in my stomach for days. My whole body ached from top to bottom. When I saw the profile of Type A, it was a huge relief to know I wasn’t crazy, that I really couldn’t digest red meat well, but at the same time I surely didn’t want to go vegetarian at all! Nothing happens overnight. I have worked at this all for years.

My roommate is much younger and newer at this than I. She has consistently carried 30+ excess pounds around and never been able to lose much weight—especially off her middle. She felt tremendous guilt eating red meat and eschewing “diet foods.” She tried just like I did to fit herself into something that was failing her. I’ve known her for 5 years and this is the first time I’ve ever seen her actually excited about eating well. And that’s what this is: eating well. It’s not dieting, or restricting, or denying oneself. It’s knowing that potatoes cause my arthritis to flare (and oranges too). It’s knowing that food is my friend and can make me feel oh so much better.

My asthma has virtually gone away. My stomach is finally right. No more gas, belching, bloating. No more constipation. My fatigue has lessened considerably. I can move again! So, bottom line: I didn’t come here to lose weight. I came to record what I eat and how I move to help myself be the best I can be. I use MyFitnessPal to be sure I’m getting all the nutrients I need and using all the tools available to me to live a happy, healthy life. The BTD way of eating fits my lifestyle.

So, again, here’s my OP: Hi! I'm blood type A and have been following the BTD for several years. It's the times when I get lazy and/or sloppy and eat "avoid" foods that I gain weight, become sluggish, sick, etc. I have lots of great recipes and good info on the Blood Type Diet. Looking for buddies to share with.