Type casting
Perhaps it's reflective of my humble nature (snicker); more likely it'searly-onset Alzheimer's. Two days ago was the two-year birthday ofHedonia! Of course, as it's been in a virtual coma for the past couple months, I didn't exactly break out the champagne and cupcakes.
You see, apparently, I have forgotten how to blog. Weeks, months go by and I cannot pull the words together to fill a post. Of course, lack of time factors in heavily as well. My work is crazier than ever (and I mean that in more than one sense); the holidays washed over me like a tinsel-clad tsunami; and I remain ever stunned at, as a dog owner, just how much time you have to -- have to -- spend rubbing bellies and throwing squeaky toys. There aren't enough hours in the day.
As a result, I am rusty. As I sit to write this post (Ed. -- again; this post was started weeks ago) I find myself hesitating at the keyboard, intimidated by the virtual white page. Of late, I feel the same way in the kitchen. Whereas I used to handily churn out delicious and interesting meals, I now move a little more slowly, check and recheck measurements, constantly fear that I am skipping an ingredient.
It's small wonder. With our time as constrained as it's been, not only have I not been cooking, I've also not really been eating. I mean, sure, I've consumed my couple-thousand calories each day, but more often than not I may as well have eaten cardboard, cheerlessly choking down whatever sustenance is at arm's reach.
Not that it has all been uninteresting. Attentive readers (and close personal friends) will know that DPaul suffers from a particular back problem similar to rheumatoid arthritis. Recently, in his efforts to combat this condition, he has begun working with a naturopath. Evidently, it's quite likely that DPaul's pain may be triggered by allergic reactions to certain foods.
The good doctor had DPaul purchase a copy of Eat Right for Your Type
Of course, here's the thing: DPaul is blood-type O; I am type A. Type O is purportedly the primal blood type -- hunter-gatherers, cavemen and whatnot. The diet comprises meat, meat, meat and meat, no dairy or grains -- diet not unlike one a certain meat-eating vegan I know was forced to reconcile with. "A" types came with the next step in human evolution: Agriculture. Hence, the type A diet is, well, vegetarian. There is stunningly little overlap between the diets.
Herein lies the irony: When DPaul and I first got together, over fifteen years ago, I was fairly pescetarian, leaning into more hardcore vegetarianism for economic reasons. DPaul was a meat eater. Over the years we gravitated closer together, but left to our own devices, were we doing what our bodies told us to?
But we could not ignore the immediate and obvious results of this diet. The good doctor assured us that this diet is meant as a guideline, not a sentence to eliminate entire foods from one's life forever. And as I am in generally good health, we have leaned meatier over the past couple months.
I guess I didn't realize how, even in my no-longer-recent status as a meat eater, how little meat I was eating. In the new diet, it seems like hardly a day passes without red meat. The diet also encourages gamy meats, so we've branched into venison, bison, whatever fresh kill we can get our hands on. For the first week or so, I felt leaden; my stomach ached and my head went fuzzy. A balance had to be struck.
In continued tinkering, it's become clear that the biggest culprit in DPaul's condition is wheat. As we've been adapting our mutual diet, we've begun settling into a peaceable state where we mostly eat meat, with hardy vegetables (think greens and cruciferi) and rice or quinoa for dinner. And I eat vegetarian material the rest of the time.
But we're still hitting our stride. I am confident I will have dishes to write about again sometime soon, but for now we're still in the experimental stage. There have been successes alongside some missteps, though few outright failures. We're getting there, and I hope to take you with us.