Tips for Creating Healthy Eating Habits

One of the misconceptions people often have when starting The Blood Type Diet is that it’s difficult to follow. It doesn't have to be! You could say that building a house is difficult too; but few take on that project expecting to have a completed house after one weekend (Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, the exception).

When starting out, few people change their entire diet overnight. Often, when attempting to create a healthy new pattern, it can be helpful to focus on where we’re headed, rather than where we’ve been.

Diet Tip One:
Add, Don’t Just Subtract

It’s easy to focus only on the Avoid foods and their effect rather than on the Beneficial foods and their impact on health. There are many more beneficial foods for each blood type – foods that have a tremendous impact on health when added to your diet.

What’s easier—taking foods away, or adding delicious, healthful new foods to your diet? If you honestly feel you simply can’t take on starting the diet now, then starts now by focusing on the Beneficial list for your blood type. How can you add more of those foods to your meals?

Diet Tip Two:
Replace One at a Time

There are a few especially important Avoid foods for each blood type, foods that most impact health. Most people can focus successfully one on of these key Avoid foods at the beginning, by simply replacing it with a food within the same family of foods. Very often, you’ll find satisfying replacements for an Avoid food.

When it comes right down to it, living and eating Right 4 Your Type can be as simple as replacing one avoid food with another food that’s more beneficial. Here are just a few:

--Cutting down on coffee? Replace a few of your daily cups with healthier beverages like Teeccino, Postum, Pero or green tea.
--Want to eliminate wheat? Spelt breads can be just as tasty, without the wheat lectin. (See Healthy Grains.)
--Potatoes can be just as simple: Baked sweet potatoes or yams will quickly become a favorite.
--Enjoy whey-based protein powders in your breakfast shakes? It’s easy to switch to Dr. D’Adamo’s proteins Right 4 Your Type.

Is it Better to “Go Cold Turkey?”
A few years after the release of Dr. D’Adamo’s first book, a writer in the forums had this advice for fellow Blood Type Dieters: “Unless your health is very bad and every minute counts, you probably don’t need to go cold turkey. You’ve been eating a lot of the ‘avoid’ foods all your life and they haven’t killed you yet, so a few months of tapering off won’t likely kill you, either. Gradually switching over can also make this process feel more like a lifestyle change and less like a prison sentence. Start by removing the worst foods (the 'red flags' for your type) as they do the most harm, then slowly incorporate the rest.”

Turkey --- Again?
Sometimes it’s even difficult for people who have been living The Blood Type Diet lifestyle for a long time. Many people get caught up in food ruts – eating the same things over and over, until they get bored. Even if you have committed the food lists in Eat Right 4 Your Type to memory, it helps to take a look at the beneficial and super beneficial lists again to see what foods are in season or you haven’t prepared in awhile. Again, it’s all about breaking old habits and starting new ones!

A Few Habits that are Right 4 Your Type – 8 More Tips
1. Identify your individual eating habits. Be specific – for example: do you tend to wait until you are really hungry to eat with no real meal planning? Think: healthy snacks every two hours. Don’t wait until you get hungry. Start small; create a meal plan for the day and stick to it. Do you get stressed out and immediately crave sugar or salt? Keep a stash of beneficial nuts or dried fruits at home or in your desk.

2. Discover why you snack (or why not). Do you tend to “fall off the wagon” at a specific time each day? Some people tend to need a snack in the late afternoon and reach for chips or a candy bar, if that happens to you try grabbing a handful of almonds or carrot sticks, or if you have a chocolate craving, try Dr. D’Adamo’s Chocolate Cherry UniBar.

3. Get specific: plan for success. You need details to succeed. Before going to the grocery store create a meal plan for the week. Dr. D’Adamo’s book Cook Right 4 Your Type has some delicious menus! Or if you prefer, logon to the Recipe Base section of dadamo.com (and create your own meal plan. Make a shopping list of everything that you will need to buy and stick to it.

4. Find a support system. Start eating Right 4 Your Type with a spouse or a friend. Also, there are great chat boards on dadamo.com – you can log in at any time of day (or night!) and talk with other people who follow The Blood Type Diet.

5. Count to ten. Breathe. If you delay the gratification and focus on the positive, chances are the temptation to eat donuts for dinner will pass.

6. Know that it’s OK to miss your old lifestyle. Sure, a Type A might miss eating a juicy steak and Type B’s may miss fried chicken and corn on the cob, but the weight loss, increased energy and overall well-being of eating Right 4 Your Type will make up for any loss that you might feel.

7. Don’t get discouraged! Even if you do side-step, know that tomorrow is another day.

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