Macrobiotics and Me

Greetings!

Breakfast

I couldn’t help myself this morning but to try some lunch that a lovely fellow macrotarian had cooked for me…and because it was sooo yummy I ended up eating the whole thing and feeling really stuffed as a consequence! I had brown rice with hato mugi, tempeh in the most delicious mustardy kind of sauce, arame & onions & stir fried leeks. Ahh, wow, it was soo tasty. She (Agur)  is an amazing cook & has lots of experience and her food really reflects that. I’ll be posting contact details for her soon so if anyone wants to try her food then you must!

I also had some brown rice with sultanas and rice syrup

Lunch

A lunchless lunch as I was still full of breakfast!

Grain coffee with rice syrup

Dinner

An amazing dinner cooked by Agur again. It was such a treat to get home to find such beautiful food cooked and ready to be eaten.

A soup which I think was made from lentils although I’m not compeltely sure. I do know it had tahini in it though!

Croquettes with rice, hato mugi & possibly some seitan or tempeh although I’m not completely sure (I haven’t spoken to her yet to find out what she put in there!), a salad, baked beetroot, daikon, carrot & onion (I never thought of baking daikon before but it was really nice!) & some brown rice and hato mugi 

Amazake, kuzu, grain coffe and lemon juice pudding

Twig tea

Ahhh! beautiful.

Oh yeah, I had some corn flakes with rice syrup too (which was a substitute for popcorn!)

I am feeling like my digestion is working much better and stronger after the brown rice fast. Not only are my poos better formed (ha ha…I cannot believe I am writing this!) but I just feel like this area of my body is much stronger. Yay!

 Love & light

Sharlene

Howz it!

Breakfast

Miso soup (from yesterday). Mmmm, this was really sweet & yummy

Oats with apple & pumpkin seeds

Lunch

Oats

Lentil soup

Brown rice with chestnuts and sultanas

Dinner

A variety of different dishes – I ate out a the macro esque cafe tonight (Vitaorganics – not the actual macro cafe as it only stays open until 7pm) & there was a buffet with a range of different veg, protein and grain dishes which were really tasty (although I only had a small amount of protein)

Carob desserts…note the s! :O)

Twig tea

This morning I discovered that someone I know had had a stroke. This left me with a strange sad & vulnerable kind of feeling at the thought that life seems to short & that it is so precious. It’s a reminder of how important it is to make the most of every day, to find a deeper meaning in life & to not get lost in minutia.

Eat well, live well, pray well, love well & all will be well! I am certain of that!

Love, light & wellness!

Sharlene

G’day!

So, here I am as promised, hoping to fill you in on yesterday’s exciting macro day which I feel fortunate to have been experienced.

There were four different macro related talks:

• Living a macrobiotic life to find your destiny
• making the most of the rest of your life with macrobiotics
• An astrological exploration of the character of George Ohsawa
• Perpetual education

All of these talks were really interesting and inspiring. It was so nice to get together with fellow macrotarians and people who are interested in living a more conscious life. I hope we will see much more of this kind of thing in the future :O)

Yesterday evening I also went to another lecture about healing body, mind & relationships which was also great.

So now I’m feeling all macroful.

Oh, I was able to check out the macro cafe yesterday too. I feel a bit sad and peed off that they are selling cakes with sugar in…GRRRRR!!!! There is no need to make cakes with sugar since you can make such delicious, beautiful cakes without it. And I wonder why they are using sugar…because it is cheap most probably…excuse my rant but GRRRRRRRR!!  Maybe they just do not understand the detrimental effects of sugar on the body. That is very disappointing. Not all their cakes are made with it in though so at least there is an option.

I feel really excited about the future. It seems that more and more people are waking up to the realisation that food plays such a major role in determining our health and that is amazing! Long may this awakening continue!

Conscious love

Sharlene

Hello!

Oh what a day! It was a great macrotastic, macro action packed day. I PROMISE will write to you about it first thing tomorrow but for now I must get myself to bed.

Breakfast

Hot water with lemon

Miso soup with onion, squash & carrot

Oat porridge with stewed apple & pumpkin seeds

Lunch

Brown rice pasta with a black bean & tofu, beetroot, carrot & tomato sauce with cauliflower & brocolli

Dinner

Vegetable spring roll type thing (I ate out tonight at a vegetarian restaurant) and mushroom tempura

A few tastes of some macro cakes

Twig tea

Snacks/other

Roasted almonds, apricots

:O)

Love & light

Sharlene

p.s. One last thing before I go: Happy Birthday George! Today is Ohsawa’s birthday. I wonder how he would normally celebrate his birthday…:o)

Hello!

I’m keeping this short & sweet as it’s another crazy late evening!

Breakfast

I didn’t have breakfast today as I wasn’t hungry

Lunch

Chestnu t pie (I tasted it today and it tasted better so no need for the planned makeover! ;o)

Split pea soup

Brown rice, black beans, mixed salad with mustard dressing, squash & carrot & pressed salad of leeks & red onion

More chestnut pie

Twig tea

Dinner

Lunch was so late so I skipped dinner & I’m still not feeling hungry as I write this…

I can’t wait for tomorrow! It is set to be a fun filled macro day in London with a few teachers giving lectures during the day and my teacher giving a lecture in the evening. Woo hoo! I’ll let you know how it goes!

Love & light

Sharlene

Hola!

I didn’t feel hungry this morning so rather than eating something just because it was breakfast time, I waited until lunchtime until I felt hungry. There have been far too many times in my past where I have eaten just because it was meal time, but I don’t want to play that game anymore, I’m kind of bored of it and I’m sure my body is too! I think that has become a habit of mine so I’m going to try my best to break free from that. Ahh, there is so much to be said for habits!

Lunch

Miso soup – same as yesterday with ginger juice and steamed greens (cabbage and bok choy) & millet

Nishime carrot & squash, pressed daikon and carrot

Then I had some yummy millet with a little soya milk (I cooked it in this until most of the soya milk had evaporated which made the millet really creamy) and chestnuts

Grain coffee

Chestnut pie (this didn’t turn out as nice as I thought it would. I’m going to try to do something else with it tomorrow to make it more exciting. I was thinking of adding a lemon glaze type topping or something to to give it a bit of a makeover!).

Dinner

Buckwheat burgers, roasted parsnips & nishime carrot & squash

Chestnut pie with a nutty/coffe sauce type thing – which I decided to make to experiment and see if it would go with the pie (but it didn’t!).

I made the sauce by mixing soya milk, peanut butter, rice syrup & kuzu , it turned into a lovely custard type thing which was really yummy (just not with the chestnut pie!).

Women’s energy tea

Time for zzzs.

Much love & consciousness

Sharlene

Hello!

I cannot tell you how happy I have felt today! :O) I’m definitely on a post brown rice fast high!

Break(ingthe)fast

Miso soup made with onion, squash, wakame & brocolli

Lunch

Millet, stir fried cabbage with roasted sunflower seeds, baked squash & sauerkraut

Grain coffee with malt syrup…mmmm!!

Dinner

Buckwheat burgers (made with buckwheat, haricot beans, onion, parsley, thyme, marjoram, celery, breadcrumbs & shoyu) – these were really delicious. Perhaps I’ll post the recipe tomorrow.

Roasted parsnip

Pressed daikon and carrot salad with ume su

Mixed salad leaves with a mustard dressing

Followed by a slice of sourdough toasted with malt syrup & some grain coffee

Ahhh!

Eating & drinking has felt sooooo good today. It’s as though I can feel my body absorbing the nutrients and feeling very grateful for them!

Being back in the kitchen has felt a little strange though, but I’m sure it won’t take long to get back into the flow!

Do you ever just feel soooo incredibly fortunate that you discovered macrobiotics? :O) :O) :O)

OK, it’s mega late & I gotta catch some zzzzs.

Oh, I almost forgot, I made a beautiful looking chestnut pie this evening & can’t wait to try it tomorrow. I hope it’s nice!

Good vibrations to you!

Sharlene

Day 10, day 10, day 10…I survived!! yipeeee!!! I am so happy & just cannot wait to open my eyes tomorrow & get to work in the kitchen!!

Today has turned into more of a fast than a brown rice fast as I just could not face another single grain of brown rice! I guess my stomach wanted a rest!  

It has felt quite nice to have a break from eating and to experience a feeling of real hunger. The thought of eating a delicious miso soup tomorrow morning and vegetables and grains (I think it’s important to keep it simple for the next few days) for the rest of the day has kept me going today, and I just know that tomorrow is going to be incredible.

So, I think day 10 has definitely been the best for me out of the whole time. I’ve felt more connected to myself (in body, mind and spirit)  if that makes any sense at all! My strange head pains have gone & I don’t feel tired.  I also received a comment today about how my skin and eyes looked clear :O)

What I love most is that I have a new sense of clarity about my way forward with eating macrobiotically and indeed with life! I am certain that this has been an invaluable lesson in teaching me about macrobiotics, about my body, about eating less & about eating only when hungry. And now I am in a very fortunate position to begin a more thoughtful way of eating that reflects of all this and that is truly remarkable.

Tomorrow is an opportunity to tune in more deeply and I hope I will now be able to put this to use in my bid to create a more intuitive, sustainable and thoughtful way of eating and living.

I feel grateful that I have been able to do this with support from the universe, from my family and from one very special man (my wonderful macro man) who has also shared this experience with me. THANK YOU!!!

Breakfast

Twig tea with ume concentrate

Lunch

Twig tea

A couple of spoonfuls of gomasio

Dinner

Twig tea

With love, light & gratitude

Sharlene

Hey!

I’m sooo glad that tomorrow is the last day of fasting, yayyyy! I’m really looking forward to Thursday and I have found myself fantasising about what I will eat!! Mmmm!!

Nothing major to report today other than waking up feeling extremely thirsty & feeling really thirsty this evening too!

Breakfast

Mu tea

Brown rice with gomasio & some rice cakes

Lunch

Brown rice with gomasio & some rice cakes

Dinner

A type of green tea

I had a friend round for dinner this evening (and thankfully she was happy to just eat brown rice…ahhh!!). I was really looking forward to eating brown rice with someone else but I really couldn’t stomach any dinner. I had one mouthful and just couldn’t do anymore!!

I was so thirsty so I drank instead and it made me feel very energised! Ahh!!

I finally made it  for a run today although I took it easy. It was great to be exercising again. You know, I really feel the need to establish a good exercise regime but I’m finding that a challenge. Hmmm, I guess I need to work on addressing this!

It seems there is always going to be plenty of things to be working on and towards in this life!

Love & never ending growth!

Sharlene

Good greetings!

Today has felt like the most difficult so far as eating brown rice AGAIN has not inspired me. In fact, it is making me not want to eat, and I think I am now eating less, which I am certain is not such a bad thing since there are only two days left (and two days in the grand scheme of things is not long at all, in fact, it’s a teeny weeny amount of time).

Although today has felt like the most challenging, it has also felt like the most rewarding spiritually. When I got home this evening I didn’t feel like doing much so I decided to watch a movie which I found very inspiring, heart warming and thought provoking. It made me realise just how important it is not to lose touch with spirit and with the spiritual side of life. (I think George Ohsawa was a very clever man, and his recommendation for staying on the brown rice fast for 10 days was not only because physiologically that is how long it takes for 50% of our blood to be renewed, but spiritually, I think it also allows for the person fasting to look deeper within and to get in touch with the oneness of this life.) There are so many things on a day to day basis that can take us away from this & my experience today serves as a reminder of how important it is not to forget this greater purpose – the very essence of macrobiotics!  

Breakfast

Brown rice with tekka

Lunch

Brown rice with ume-shiso sprinkle

Dinner

A couple of brown rice cakes.

Liquidlessness again!

I have some daikon leaves simmering away that I must attend to now. I’m beginning to love the smell of them. I found it a little yucky at first but it’s growing on me!! (as many things do in macrobiotics (and indeed life) if you give them a chance! So now it’s time for me to take the plunge…into the hip bath before taking myself to bed.

I hope where ever you are on your journey in this life, that maybe you can join me in sending out some vibrations of love, light & healing first to yourself, and then to the universe :O)

One love!

Sharlene

p.s. so this is what day 8 of being on a brown rice fast does to you?!!! he he!

p.p.s I didn’t get a chance to exercise today…maybe tomorrow!

p.p.p.s for those who are wondering what movie I watched, it was called The Motorcycle Diaries :O)