Guest post

Guest post: Patient, heal thyself (part 1)

poachedeggs
Today I would like to welcome KJ. KJ has been unflaggingly following the ‘eat according to your blood type’ plan, reaping quite substantial benefits. Here is what he has to say:
A couple of months ago, I was wandering around the interweb and came upon the portion that Fiona has carved out of the virtual world for her blog. At the time, I was attempting to regain some control of my eating pattern and, to abbreviate what could become a long and not-very-noteworthy tome, I read her section on ‘Weight Loss,’ wherein she described her own bout with nature’s disagreement regarding her preferred eating pattern, the outcome of which was that surprising weight-gain that happens when we get older and are still eating the ‘good stuff.’ I was also looking for a natural means of repairing a medical condition for which doctors had provided no relief, other than chemical. Within her weight loss topic, she has listed several options that she employed, including Dr. Peter D’Adamo’s suggested method of eating according to one’s blood type.
After a few messages back and forth between Fiona and myself, I ordered two books from Amazon, related to Dr. D’Adamo’s method and, possessing some aspects of a Type A personality, as well as having Type A blood, I implemented the plan immediately. I stayed within the list of ingredients in the ‘Eating for Blood Type A’ book, but, temporarily lacking the cookbook for blood types, I was left to devise my own menus. As a result of many discussions with – and much guidance from – Fiona, she has asked me to contribute some of the menus that I have developed over the course of the past few weeks. As I have been carefully adhering to the plan outlined in the books I received, anything I contribute will be related to my specific blood type. If you are reading this post carefully, you will already know what that type is. Or, you can start at the beginning of the alphabet and select the first letter. Whichever method produces the best results for you will enable you to follow my notes.
Fiona has respectable credentials in her field and has established herself as a credible source for solid information regarding proper nutrition and healthy living. Not to mention that she combines ingredients that, at times, appear almost sinful and, for my blood type, many of her tasty morsels are just that. So, Fiona suggested that maybe we should share some of what I am experiencing and cooking to benefit others who are on the same path as am I.
Before progressing further, one might wish to learn what credentials I possess in this field, and it is a fair question to ask of me. After all, I will be suggesting that you place some ingredients on a fork, raise it to your lips and then slip this concoction between them. A wise person would require that, at the very least, a smidgen of trust be established beforehand – a premise with which I am in complete agreement. So, here are my credentials: Zip. Nada. None. Reason enough for me to confine my contributions to what I cook and my experience with this eating plan. Did I mention that this portion of Fiona’s enterprise would be for folks with blood Type A? And, while I may appear to have one hand on the rudder in this undertaking, Fiona will be at the helm to make certain that I do not poison anyone.
I will admit to spending several years in hotel food/beverage and I learned table-side flambé service as a young lad, although I have since noticed that very few of the talents I learned during these early years can provide any support for my eating patterns to date.
Pan-poached chicken salad for Type A: I begin this dinner dish by sautéing garlic and chives in olive oil, adding raw chicken breast and when the ‘spittle’ from the pan is embracing the walls for one second, I add a generous dollop of Chardonnay. I should mention that one must be careful about the cooking temperatures for oil. I only sauté for a few seconds and do not use a large amount of oil. I will leave it to Fiona to discuss in depth how best to cook with oils. If I had worked the garlic and chives in the oil for a longer period, and then fried the chicken in the remnants, I would have had the makings of a rich and tasty concoction, which I am not supposed to eat, and which reminds me of an experience I had when living in south Texas, many years ago.
A wonderful cook of distinguished years (older than my grandmother), gave the leftovers in the pan a name. “You see, boy,” she remarked, with an accent rich in Southern US culture, and while stirring the darkened remnants of oil and spices left in the pan from cooking a hefty slab of beef, “this here drippin’s is what we all call fixin’s. It’s what you gots to have, to make a good gravy, or sauce. You can’t make no good gravy without the fixin’s.”
My partner would have knelt at her altar in supplication, had he had the opportunity to make her acquaintance. It is his belief that the ‘fixin’s’ are a basic food group and all meals should begin with this foundation. Although I am working diligently to disengage him from this mindset, a satisfied look of vindication takes possession of his countenance, when he sees me sautéing garlic and chives in olive oil – no matter how short the time span is in which I am performing this task.
Another experiment which made fast friends with my taste buds was spinach pasta with roasted garlic and chopped broccoli in walnut oil, topped off with feta cheese with herbs. Accompanied by a chilled glass of Chardonnay, it was a very good meal, from my point of view, until the cooking book for this eating plan arrived and erased my smug look of self-satisfaction. The reason for the alteration of mon visage, you might well ask? Spinach pasta is a no-no, according to the cooking book, whereas it received no mention in the first book. It shows that you have to have all of the tools to be successful at any undertaking and ordering both books at the same time would have allowed me to avoid this mistake. Fortunately, I did not fade away and the meal was fantastic.
What this demonstrates is that we can poke a pin hole in the hull of this craft, without sinking it. I had no immediate, overpowering reactions to the spinach pasta and now that I know it is not ‘allowed,’ I will substitute a more appropriate pasta for this dish. What still surprises me during this process, is just how easy it is to stay within the structured parameters of this eating plan, while still enjoying a meal that even causes my partner to glance over at my plate with some curiosity. Believe me, that is a rather significant development.

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