A New ME! Food Intolerances and Blood Typing

Wow, I am a slacker.  I was so stoked to keep up my blog last year, that I didn’t do it.  It is amazing what can happen when you are truly not committed to something.  All talk and no bark.  This year will probably be no different, except for the fact that I am embarking on a new test for my body and I am very excited about it.

It all started on my first mountaineering trip to Granite Peak, MT.  I have always been interested in climbing and got the opportunity to summit with some great friends.  I took rock climbing classes while I lived in Colorado back in the 90’s, however I never took the opporunity to go out and use what I learned.  Shame on me.  I lacked the confidence to go out and figure it out on my own, and I didn’t know anyone else who was doing it at the time.  So that’s my excuse.  So anyway, we are heading to Granite Peak, MT to summit that bad boy.  This climb is probably in the top 5 for hardest hike/climbs in the lower 48, mostly because of how long it takes to get to the base, and the terrain you have to navigate to get there as well.  I will write all about the trip in a different post.

It is August 2010, and I packed a ton of trail mix, snacks, etc for the trip.  I was fired up!  I am a pretty high energy guy and I figure the food I would pack would be high energy fuel for my body as well.  After all we were going to be hiking 7-12hrs a day with a 45lb pack on our back.  Over the 4 days, I ingested 4-5lbs of trail mix, nut based energy bars, eggs, meat, potatoes, oatmeal, and a few other trinkets.  On the way down from the top I started to notice some intestinal issues.  I chalked it up to being over tired and fatigued.  By the time we got to the truck, it was getting worse.  I figured I needed a good meal, so off to the the burger joint we went.  Oh what a great meal that was…NOT!

On the ride home I ate more trail mix and some other so called healthy snacks.  I kept getting worse.  We got home really late on Thursday night.  I got up Friday and went to work and I could tell that something was definitely wrong.  By Friday night I was miserable.  Saturday it took everything I had just to walk and I had to entertain a group of kids for my sons birthday party.  I went to the walk in clinic and they thought as did I, that I had Giardia.  We figure I got it from the water and me playing tough guy and not using my filter system.  Interesting thing is that the others did not get sick?  Is that possible?  We drank from the same water sources.   They put me on antibiotics and in a few days I was fine again.  No puking or anything like that, just body aches, and intestinal issues.  Nuff said.

After that I was turned on to food intolerences.  Food intolerances affect more than 80% of the population.  That’s right!  Amazing!  75% of us have a food intolerance to nuts.  I am one of them.  I also have a food intolerance to eggs and barley.  Serious bummer for me as I love eggs and a love a good barley beer.  Food intolerences are not endorsed by a lot of traditional Doctors, more by the Naturopath Doctors, and other folks that believe your body is capable of healing itself without the drugs that we prescribe.  The more I read about it and the more I test it on my body, the more I believe in it.  One thing I notice is that when I eat foods that I may have an intolerence too, my knees may ache, my back may ache, my ankles may ache, and I may have cravings all day long for no apparent reason, and I’ll eat what ever I get my hands on.  I was sabbotaging my body.  You should not wake up in the morning with achy joints, if you do I would track what you eat the day before.  I have figured that out for sure, no achy joints for me when I avoid those foods.

Getting back to the new me.  I have been working out like a mad man for the last two years, yet I cannot seem to break thru the barriers.  I would get hurt, I couldn’t lose the last couple of inches off my waist, etc.  I want a six pack to compete with my wonderful wife’s washboard abs.  Think of the laundry we could do!  I was getting frustrated.  I tried the low carb high protein thing and it did not work for my body.  WHY?

That is what I am testing now to figure out.  I started reading “Eat Right For Your Blood Type” by Dr. D’Adamo.  I am really eating to see how good I can feel by following his research recommendations for foods to fuel your body.  I can tell you that without even trying I lost an inch off my waist.  Now, it is super easy to put that right back on when I ingest foods that I should avoid based on my blood type.  Dr. D’Adamo describes in great detail how my bloodtype is affected by ingesting certain foods, and he described exactly how I feel after I eat steak, or red meat, or a very meaty meal of any type.  I was blown away by how he could describe it and very frustrated that I never put 2 and 2 together to figure it out on my own.  I now notice that when I eat red meat, and other meat in general, I will get bloated, feel heavy, retain water, and get lethargic.  Have another burger Steve…

So my diet should consist of a very high concentration of fruits and veggies.  No surprise there uh.  There are tons of different foods on my list, some I have never even heard of.  What I can say is that when I avoid the foods that I am supposed to avoid, I feel GREAT!  The big challenge is that I have no desire at this time to become a vegitarian, nor do I have to.  I just eat as many fruits, veggies, and other foods that are great for my blood, and then when I am in a situation where I some food that I should avoid, it is not that big of a deal in moderation.  It’s all about frequency and dosage.  I am all about eating what makes my body feel GREAT, not what makes me feel like crap. 

EAT to LIVE, not live to eat.   I really think that as a society we put so much emphasis on food and social activities that we lose sight of what food is…FUEL and nothing more.  We need to use food to fuel our bodies so that we can perform at our very best.  Think of it…If you perform at your very best every day, all day long, how many people will  you impact and make a difference in their lives?  Think of your kids if you have them.  Think of your family, friends, co-workers, etc.  It is limitless what you can do and accomplish when you are healthy and performing at your peak.  Then think of the medical side of things.  What if whatever you are suffering from could be eliminated thru eating to live?  If you knew without a doubt that it would work, would you try it?

A friend of mine asked me how George Washington died a few hundred years ago?  I had no idea.  He died from blood letting.  When you were sick, they used to remove blood from your body to get rid of the illness.  Nowdays we look at that and laugh and say “how stupid, why would we ever do that?”  He then went on to say “I heard someone say that someday we will look back at this era of over medicating and trying to mask the real problems with our health and eating, and say “”How could we be so stupid to let people eat that processed junk?””  That comment has stuck with me and truly believe that it will happen someday, and I hope that day is very soon.

It’s only been a couple of weeks so far and I can tell you that I feel great!  My body is responding positively and I really believe this will be life changing for me.  Looking back over the past couple of years and processing what I have learned, it is obvious to me that when I would workout like crazy and eat the stuff that my body did not like, it’s no wonder I would get hurt.  I am going to do my very best to prove this to you all!

I am excited to report back to you on this nutritional test…

Yours in health and abundance,

Steve Aune

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