Macrobiotics and Me

Good day!

January is almost behind us, and I can’t quite believe it has gone so quickly! As it is the end of the month I think my review (which I’ve now decided to do monthly as opposed to weekly) is due. So, I’ll do my best to update you on how things have been for me so far:

Physical

I have been feeling quite good physically. I am sleeping well and find that my energy levels are quite good. Other things I have noticed is that my nose was running alot at the beginning of the month, especially when I ate but now that has cleared up. Another very exciting thing is that my bowel movements are now very regular. I didn’t used to have a bowel movement every day but now I do and it feels like a wonderful achievement!!

Exercise wise, I have done a couple of runs. I still feel I need more cardio vascular exercise, something to get the lungs working hard and the blood pumping around so I’m going to get running more and maybe join an exercise class once a week. I feel that its good to have variety so you don’t lose interest so maybe I’ll do a circuits class or something. I will continue with yoga once a week and can’t wait for the next class!

I’ve also been doing quite alot of dancing, which feels like a great way to get the body moving and energy moving around. I feel it’s a way of expressing myself through use of my body and that feels quite liberating.

Emotional

I think out of all the areas of myself I find this one the most challenging.

Emotion is essentially energy in motion and I am beginning to understand the importance of allowing this energy to flow and to be expressed otherwise it gets stuck in our bodies.  Talking is a very good form of expression but there are other forms such as painting, writing, singing, dancing, cooking or whatever…you have to find what works for you and express! Express, express, express!!!

I have started going to a weekly bioenergetics group session in an attempt to highlight and clear my blockages and to gain a better understanding of myself and how my body and emotions are connected or perhaps disconnected. It feels great to have some professional help in this area. 

Mental

I’m see just how my thoughts are very much connected to my emotions and that if my emotions aren’t flowing then my thoughts also get a bit stuck and negative.

Spiritual

Meditation is going very well and I feel it’s such a good thing to be doing. I have found that there are days when I reduce the amount of time if I am quite tired and the last couple of days I’ve had a break from it. I’ve played around with mantras, guided meditations and just sitting in silence and watching the breath. What works on one day doesn’t always work the next so it’s finding what works best at the time.

How’s the month been for you? Are you ready for another month? Perhaps you have some new things you’d like to put into practice for February? Maybe you can decide on one area you’d like to focus on. Remember, one step at a time.

Now onto food:

Breakfast

Millet & amaranth porridge with sunflower seeds and apple juice

Lunch

Fish curry and quinoa (left overs)

Apple, amazake soup/custard with 1 aduki truffle – this was sooo satisfying! It might be my new favourite dessert!

Bancha tea

Dinner (on the go!)

Tofu in pitta with grated carrot, tomato sauce, mustard, gherkins

Sesame and honey bar

Snacks/other

Salted popcorn

1 x clearspring vanilla barley malt sweet

Nettle tea

Sage tea

A new month tomorrow, a new beginning…

Love & Light

Sharlene

Hello!

Bringing consciousness to what we eat, to how we feel, to how we act and react, to our thoughts, to our body and our lives can be a challenging and confronting thing to do. Stick with it and trust that you are on the right road and in time your efforts will be rewarded. Perhaps you’ll notice that you feel lighter, you might lose weight, you might even gain weight (gaining weight can be a positive thing too you know!), you might feel more able to cope with the world or more able to express yourself, maybe any illness you might have will improve or disappear, maybe you’ll feel more in touch with nature’s rhythms or with spirit,  maybe you’ll just feel a sense of achievement or maybe you’ll feel more balanced. But remember that the benefits of eating and living such a way extend way beyond those just for ourselves;  it’s helping the whole universe in more ways that I think we’ll ever know…for the time being anyway!

Breakfast

Brown rice with rice milk and stewed apples with cinnamon

Fennel, anise and carraway tea

Lunch

Quinoa

One pot red lentil dish (onion, red lentils. celery, brocolli, carrot) – very satisfying, like some kind of comfort food!

Dinner

Thai fish curry made with onion, garlic, celery, carrot, quinoa, hake, oat cream, ume su and thai green chilli paste (vegan, sugar free) with tempura mushrooms and pressued carrot and daikon salad. This turned out really nice. I wasn’t too sure what i was making at first. I was going to do some baked fish and a vegetable stir fry but it somehow turned into a one pot wonder. I love it when that happens!

The most delicious dessert of 2x truffles (which seemed to taste much better today!) with an apple, amazake, oat cream and ground almond custard/sauce. Extremely delicious – be warned!

Bancha tea

Snacks/other

Wholemeal pitta bread with avacado hummous

mochi with mugwort (he he, mugwort…that sounds like something from a Harry Potter movie!)

1/2 cup of apple juice

Beautiful food!

With love & gratitude

Sharlene

Hello!

I seem to be developing some kind of ‘I need something sweet after every meal’ habit and today, for the first time this year, I thought about eating sugar!

When you have cravings it’s always good to consider that it might be an emotional cause as well as physical. I think sometimes we want the sweet taste because it has a feel good element to it. For me I think it was probably a bit of both. On the physical side, I will now incorporate some more naturally sweet things (things like nishime vegetables, or thick sweet soups as cooking  vegetables longer usually brings out their natural sweetness.)  Emotionally,  I think I know where needs some more attention so I shall endeavour to nourish this part of me. It feels really nice to have this awareness and to have a basic understanding of how I can help myself.

Now onto the food:

Breakfast

Miso soup from yesterday with a couple of slices of lemon

Oat porridge with pumpkin seeds and walnuts & a dollop of jam

Rooibos and early grey tea with rice milk

Lunch

Brown rice, nishime veg, cauliflower with garlic and herb dressing, aduki beans and cabbage and mushrooms

Grain coffee with rice milk and rice syrup

Dinner

I ate out tonight at a vegetarian restaurant I hadn’t tried before and had

Brown rice, tofu stir fry, roasted root veg, lentil hot pot and a barley and sweet potato dish

Carrot, apple and ginger juice

bancha tea

Snacks/other

3 x aduki truffles

halva

seasoned nori sheets

some roasted pumpkin seeds and walnuts

1/2 chocolate cake (shared witha friend!) with coconut/soya cream

bancha tea

I’m going to avoid rice syrup for a few days as I feel I’ve had way too much recently. I was also thinking about maybe doing a brown rice fast on the first day of each month just to give my body a little break and as a way of welcoming renewal and regeneration for the month ahead.

Macro blessings!

Sharlene

G’day!

I think I’m in some kind of state of macro bliss as I write this as I’ve just eaten such a delicious and satisfying meal…ahh!

Breakfast

Barley miso soup with onion, celery, tofu, sea salad

Oat porridge with a spoonful of sugar free jam

Liquorice tea

Lunch

Lots of soup/broth made with butter beans, carrots, squash, peas and corn pasta

Rooibos & early grey tea with rice milk

Dinner

Pressure cooked brown rice

Fish (hake) oven roasted with lemon and sprinkled with shoyu once cooked

Nishime of onion, carrot and parsnip (this was so soft and sweet…mmm!)

Steamed cauliflower with a parsley herb dressing

Beetroot

Pressed salad of daikon and carrot with brown rice vinegar

Fried cabbage and mushroom

Snacks/other

Halva

A couple of coconut cookies

Aduki bean truffles made with adukis, ground almonds, rice syrup, sultanas and rye sourdough breadcrumbs as the mixture was a little too wet.

Bancha tea

Dinner tonight was amazing. Everything seemed to flow and creating the food seemed effortless. I love it when that happens. It was as though I was able to approach making dinner with a new energy after what feels like a bit of a break from the kitchen

The truffles turned out well and were especially nice with a little splodge of rice syrup on top of them! Such a treat!

I’m going to post some photos I took. I’m not sure they will turn out that well but lets give it a go.

Truffle love!!

Sharlene

Howdy!

How’s it going?

I can hear the gentle hissing of the pressure cooker in the background as I write this and it brings a little smile to my face. All this cooking, all this planning ahead, soaking beans, getting up early to make miso soup and porridge, making sure there is something to eat the next day, avoiding sugar and dairy, steering clear of processed food, listening to the body and trying to dechipher it’s clues and trying to avoid the extreme foods is hard hard work.  I get the impression that so many people just cannot be doing with ‘the hassle’ and maybe a few years back I would have thought the same thing. But now I realise it’s our bodies, our minds, our souls…they are worth ‘the hassle’. I believe many of us are realising this. It’s all about loving and nurturing every single cell of ourselves. We deserve it!

Today’s macrobiotic menu was as follows:

Breakfast

I took some leftover split pea soup into work with me for breakfast but when I tasted it it had just got to that stage where it had started to turn. I don’t know if you’ll know what i mean by this but it’s at the stage just before it goes off/bad or whatever you want to call it and it tastes rather tangy! Thankfully, I was able to manifest plan B and I ate some soup that I had taken to work with me for lunch since I discovered a tin of soup under my desk (don’t ask!… You see it is good to have supplies for emergencies such as this!). So breakfast was a soup made from butter beans, carrots, peas and squash (it was soooo delicious) and millet and brown rice porridge with rice syrup. I’m beginning to wonder if I’m having too much rice syrup as too much of anything processed (or unprocessed for that matter!) isn’t good.

Grain coffee

Lunch

Noodle stir fry (leftovers)

Lentil soup (lovely organic tinned one…although of course too much tinned food isn’t great either but every once in a while is ok) with buckwheat

Mint and nettle tea

Dinner

I ate out tonight which was nice. It’s very nice to have a bit of a break from the kitchen and to share food with someone.

Broccoli, green beans, runner beans

Multi grains (wild rice, quinoa, millet, brown rice)

Salad (tomato, cucumber, olive, red onion, coconut pieces

Sprouted beans

Soya bean/vegan strogonoff

Womens tea

Chocolate mousse cake (dairy & sugar free) with soya coconut cream. Very lush!

That’s all from me for the moment. I need to check on the beans and then get myself into bed. Another late night tonight so I think it will be early to bed tomorrow. Oh yes!

God bless!

Sharlene

Hello!

I’ve had a great day today. I tried yoga for the first time ever and absolutely loved it. I can’t believe I’ve never tried it before. I guess the time was never right. It seems so fitting and ties in nicely with the meditation I’m doing. The teacher was really great too and I really liked his kind and compassionate teaching style. 

I feel like I haven’t eaten that much today. I ended up having a quite a late lunch and by the time it came to dinner time I wasn’t as hungry as I normally would have been so I had a smaller portion. I think eating at regular meal times is really great so I’m going to see if I can try a bit harder with this.

Breakfast

Miso soup from yesterday with ginger juice

Millet porridge with toasted pumpkin seeds and rice syrup

Lunch

Beetroot in vinegar, steamed carrots, salmon sushi, avacado hummous

coconut cookies

Yogi Africa spice tea

Dinner

Soba noodle stir fry with onion, cabbage, purple sprouting brocolli, roasted parsnips (leftover from yesterday) and sunflower seeds seasoned with shoyu

Chamomile tea

It’s super late now so I must get myself into bed but tomorrow I’d like to share some thoughts that came to me whilst reading Sugar Blues. Still have to post recipes…sorry, will get that done soon.

Peace & love

Sharlene

p.s. Happy Chinese New Year!

Greetings!

No pressure (other than that from the cooker!) has been such a joy today. I think it’s important that we can have that regularly and enjoy having the time to just hang out and cook without any time limits or constraints.

Breakfast

Brown rice miso soup with onion (sautéd in sesame oil first), carrot, wakame and cauliflower with parsley

Millet porridge with toasted pumpkin and sunflower seeds & leftover caramel sauce from yesterday and the tiniest about of jam (there was a tiny bit left in the jar that I thought shouldn’t go to waste!)

Bancha tea

Lunch

Salmon sushi with wasabi and shoyu

Broad beans with mushrooms, onion, celery, leek and carrot

Split pea soup

Bancha tea

Dinner

Buckwheat cabbage rolls (steamed cabbage leaves filled with buckwheat, raisins, toasted sunflower seed, sauerkraut and parsley) with a mirin, tamari and kuzu sauce

Roasted parsnips

Pressed salad (radish and cucumber) with ume vinegar

Broad bean dish (same as lunch)

Snacks/other

An undisclosed amount (ahem!!) of coconut cookies. These things are delicious and contain the simplest of ingredients (just rice syrup, desicated coconut and a splash of rice milk). They can be a little tricky to make though and I’m still working on perfecting them. Have you ever tried to make them before? I’m going to post the recipe so maybe you’d like to have a go and let me know how you get on. There have been times where I think I’ve put in way too much rice syrup and when I’ve taken them out of the oven there is rice syrup goo all over the bottom of the tray. Thankfully there was no goo today but the cookies seemed to expand. Maybe there was still too much rice syrup, but I’m also working with a strange little oven which I don’t think helps! Oh well, practise makes perfect! If you have made these before and you know what the secret is to getting consistently perfect well formed and gooless cookies then please do share!  

Rooibos/African spice Yogi tea

Rays of light & love

Sharlene

Hello lovely people!

I’ve had an incredible day, lots of dancing and allowing my body and mind to merge into oneness. I realised today that we often try to put each part of our beings into boxes, like the mind, or the body, or emotions and we view them separately but really they are all so closely interconnected. Bringing them all together so they can dance into oneness feels like the ultimate challenge.

Breakfast

Miso soup from yesterday with ginger juice and ume shiso sprinkle

Oats with roasted almonds & rice syrup

Lunch

Wholemeal pitta with tempeh, gherkins, ketchup

Barley and mushroom soup with red and white quinoa

Breathe Yogi tea

Dinner

I made dinner tonight and packed it into a box to eat ‘on the go’ as I had to leave my house at 6pm. However, I just wasn’t hungry. I had a couple of mouthfuls because I thought I should eat something and then realised that I wasn’t listening to my body and that it was ok not to be hungry. I’m not sure why I wasn’t that hungry but I know that tomorrow morning’s breakfast is going to be very enjoyable!

Snacks/other

1 vanilla sweet (clearspring one)

1 cup of amazake and oat milk…soooo yummy!

Water

3 apples (they were really small!) oven roasted with a delicious caramel sauce

So another day has gone. I just don’t know where time is going!

Did I tell you that I made a pact with a friend at new year to have no sugar for six months? It’s never felt easy or right to avoid it before and I always used to have some here and there but it felt right to begin this year sugar free. When I’ve mentioned this to a few non macro people they’ve almost keeled over in astonishment and seem to wonder how on earth it is possible to survive without sugar. I guess a few years back I would have been the same but I’m grateful that I’m realising the effects it has on one’s being. I think it makes it so difficult because so many people think that just because so many other people are doing it then it’s ok. It probably is ok in very small amounts occasionally but it’s so present in most people’s diets today. I always think it sad that children are given sugar as a treat and to ‘keep them sweet’ when in reality it’s having a detrimental effect. I’m sure the time is coming when the truth about sugar will come to light and sugar pollution will come to an end! Let’s hope so.

Love & harmony

Sharlene

Good Evening!

The weekend is finally upon us :O)

Breakfast

Miso soup made with hatcho miso, leeks, radishes, wakame and lemon

Oat porridge with a drizzle of rice syrup (having oat porridge after you’ve had grain porridge for a few days feels like such a wonderful creamy treat)

Lunch

Barley, mushroom soup from yesterday

Baked beans on 2 slices of rye bread toast

grain coffee and rice syrup

Dinner (a quick one!)

Tempeh pittas with gherkins, ketchup (sugar free) and mustard (these were so yummy! The ketchup, gherkin and mustard together that made it seem like I was eating something sinister (ha ha!)…like a hot dog or burger or something!)

Orange chocolate amazake custard/pudding type thing – this was sooo yummy and reminded me of Terry’s chocolate orange! I will post the recipe for this (amongst a few other things) over the weekend.

Nettle tea

Snack

2 slices of rye toast and jam

Mochi with rice syrup

1/2 orange

Vegetable kettle chips

1/2 glass of oat milk

olives

Sweet amazake dreams!

Sharlene

Hello!

I felt sooo hungry in the afternoon, despite having a substantial breakfast, lunch and amount of cous cous pudding (it’s almost all gone and I can’t believe I’ve eaten so much of it and I’m not feeling the over kill at all!). 

Breakfast

Miso soup from yesterday

Brown rice porridge with sesame seeds and apricots

Grain coffee

Lunch

Red and white quinoa

Black bean, carrot and onion stew

Pressed cucumber and grated carrot salad

Anise-fennel-carraway herb tea

Dinner

Beans on rye sour dough bread toast

Barley soup with shitake, kombu, onion, garlic, celery, carrot, cabbage with brown and white miso and spring onion and gomasio garnish

Snacks/other

Cous cous pudding

Seasoned nori

Cous cous pudding with amazake (it’s amazing how you can add one thing to something and it makes it more interesting and gives a totally new experience)

2 singles of whiskey whilst catching up with a friend who I haven’t seen for 8 years…yikes!

I am looking forward to having some time at home over the weekend to do some leisurely cooking and to having some time to just be.

Time for meditation and then bed…zzzzzz!!!

Wholesome macro love

Sharlene