Macrobiotics and Me

Ola!!!

Ahhh, it’s soooo soooooo sooooo nice to be back!

I had a really lovely holiday but it seems I always feel a sense of relief to get home and to get ‘back on track’ with eating properly whenever I’m away!

I really indulged in the experiencing of eating for pleasure, overeating, drinking too much beer and even eating some dairy (a pizza & some butter!) and sugar (1/2 a tirimisu, 1/2 a creme caramel & some sugar coated dry fruit). So now I am eager to get back to normal and to start eating in a way that supports my health rather than in a way that just supports my desire for pleasure.

It’s so helpful to feel the effects of eating in a way that isn’t so balanced or optimising for health. I could feel some things happening such as slower digestion, mucous production, not feeling so balanced mentally and emotionally and also having crazy dreams. It’s really incredible to see how food had such an impact on all these things and to consciously suffer the consequences of this. Now what is important is that I remember this experience in my future practice of macrobiotics.

One thing I’d really recommend for holidays is taking your own food with you and cooking that whenever you can. Fortunately we stayed in a self catering apartment. However, we only had two electric rings to cook on but we managed to eat very well despite that. Our suitcase was mostly packed with food and we bought all vegetables when we arrived.

It was hilarious at the airport as our hand luggage was searched each time and we had to empty the bag containing all the grains and beans etc. It was a very funny sight to see all this food strewn across the table and the puzzled faces & reactions!!

So, now I’m back and it’s time to put all my knowledge and experience to good use. I am determined to see April be the best month I’ve ever had in terms of eating properly and not over eating.

From tomorrow I am going to eat only grains for as long as I can endure so I’m interested to see what is going to happen!! Usually, by about day 4 the fantasies about other foods start but my experience is from eating only brown rice. Now I will have a wide selection of other grains to choose from so I wonder if the same thing will happen. Let’s see!  

Love & light

Sharlene

HELLO!!!

It feels like it has been soooo long since I posted on here, and guess what? I’m about to do another disappearing act until next week! This time I am going on holiday (yayyyy!!) and I am banning computers and telephones so I can forget about the world for a few days…ahhh! I haven’t had a proper relaxing holiday for a couple of years and it really feels like it is time to get away and do some serious relaxing!

I had a wonderful time in Devon at macro school. It seems there are always things that I find fascinating and insightful when I’m there.

I didn’t write down everything I ate but here are a few things:

Day 18

Breakfast

Nothing

Lunch

Buckwheat & onions

Dinner

lentil soup, sweet & sour tempeh, spring greens with caramelised onions and pine nuts, carrot purree, pressed salad

Day 19

Breakfast: Porridge with toasted seeds

Lunch: Seitan bolognaise with spaghetti, arame & onions, green salad with dressing, lemon mousse

Dinner: many different types of food cooked by some of the students for their exams!

Day 20

Breakfast: oats with nori crunch

Lunch & dinner: a super rich variety of different dishes & foods, including many different ‘party’ foods & a wee tipple of ale

Day 21

Breakfast

Nothing but a much needed rest for my stomach!!

Lunch

Quinoa salad, butter bean and smoked tofu carbonara, mixed salad, porridge & gomasio & some other leftovers from the day before

Tofu cheesecake

Grain coffee

Dinner: barley & brown rice with gomasio

It is kind of a relief to get home and to be eating more simple foods again

Day 22

Breakfast

Buckwheat with shoyu & tahini

Lunch & dinner

The same as breakfast!

Grain coffee with rice syrup

Snack: some sprouted spelt & raisin bread

Ahhh, now I am so relieved to be home after a non stop day. Now I have about two hours to sleep before I have to get up again…zzzz!!! Sorry my posts have been brief. I am really looking forward to filling you in on what I ate whilst on holiday. I have a suitcase packed full of macro ingredientsn ready to go!

So, until next week (I’m back on Tuesday and will post as soon as I return) look after yourself

Love, light & sunshine (mmmm sunshine!!!)

Sharlene

Good evening!

I am so happy to be home after a very long day! I feel like I’ve been chasing after myself recently trying to catch up with myself!! Sleep is proving to be the only opportunity to do that at the moment!

Breakfast

Brown rice & a couple of rice cakes

Lunch

Lentil soup

Brown rice with gomasio & shoyu & leek, swede & hijiki

Dinner

Brown rice with gomasio & leek, swede & hijiki

No drinks today

I am really enjoying eating more simply. It feels like it is allowing me to absorb some of the macro books I am reading at the mo

Tomorrow I am going to Devon (to the macro school) until Sunday evening so I will not be able to post. But I will try to keep a note of what I eat and share with you when I return on Sunday.

Look after yourself until then.

Love & wholesome goodness

Sharlene

Good morning!

Just to let you know about an event I’d really recommend going to that is happening in London if you are interested:

The Macrobiotic Path to Total Health
26th March, 7-9pm £20 @ Alchemy (www.alchemythecentre.co.uk)

In this workshop you will learn how food and emotions are closely related, and how the food we choose to eat is connected to deep held emotions and life patterns.
Marijke will teach you how to read the signs and signals of your body, face and behaviour and what the real meaning is behind them.
She will look at which organs are suffering, what emotions are related to each other and the necessary steps to real healing.
This workshop will look at how we change, what the deep core of real healing is how we can become free. After uncovering what those signs and signals really mean, Marijke will take you on a journey towards lasting change and healing so that you can blossom and become the divine light you really are.

Good evening!

It has been another day of very simple but yummy food. I feel quite tired though which seems to be a normal initial reaction to eating more simply.

Breakfast

Brown rice porridge with shoyu

Lunch

Brown rice with carrot & cabbage & gomasio

Dinner

Brown rice with carrot & cabbage & gomasio

Rice cakes with carrot & onion butter

Grain coffee with homemade oat milk

Snack

Rice crisps & some fruit & brown rice bars

Almond/hazelnut rice milk which was super sweet & just like drinking milkshake!

I am learning many thing from further reading and studying. I’d really recommend that you read as much as you can, especially books by Ohsawa

A wholesome lot of lovin

Sharlene

Hello!

I had a very late night last night and by the time I made it home I was too tired after a hectic weekend to switch my computer on and update. I hope you forgive me

Day 14

Breakfast

1/2 an umeboshi plum 

Lunch

A wonderful array of delicious food:

Kidney bean soup, brown rice, cous cous, a couple of different tofu dishes, lentils, pasta, tempeh, pressed carrot, beetroot, avacado dip, squash dish.

Tiramisu & an amazake cous cous cake

The macro gathering was lovely although I couldn’t stay for very long as I was rushing off for a surprise visit to my Mum for Mother’s day!

Dinner

1 beer

We decided to order a takeaway for dinner and I decided that I would go with the flow and share eating with my family to celebrate Mother’s day. Thankfully I took some ready cooked brown rice which was a bit of a saving grace in the end as the food I had (a vegetable curry, prawn puri & some other tarka dahl) was super spicy and kind of inedible! It seriously burned! I can’t remember the last time I ate Indian food but I don’t remember it being so hot.

Day 15

Breakfast

Brown rice & gomasio

Lunch

Wholewheat pasta with a carrot & onion sauce & black sesame seeds

Rice crackers

Dinner

Brown rice soup with carrot, miso & dulse

Brown rice with cabbage & gomasio

Mmmm, a beautifully simple yet amazingly delicious dinner.

Another liquidless day

Another Ohsawa book arrived today, yayyyyy!!

Love & sunshine

Sharlene

Bonjour!

Tis a little late so I must be quick!

Breakfast

Brown rice & hato mugi with shoyu

Lunch

Buckwheat with gomasio

Dessert made with cornflakes, halva & then another version made with cornflakes & sultanas

Snacks/other

a pint of ale & a few rice crackers

Dinner

Chickpea miso soup

Pizza with a squash, olive, tofu & courgette topping, brown rice with gomasio, pressed salad & sauerkraut

Beer

Roasted pumpkin seeds & sunflower seeds with shoyu & a couple of pistachio nuts

Macro gathering tomorrow – yay!

Love

Sharlene

Hello!

I wasn’t hungry when I woke up this morning and since I find that I often eat even when I am not hungry, it felt very satisfying not having any breakfast and waiting for proper hunger to kick in.

Lunch

Chickpea soup

Brown rice & hato mugi with gomasio, pressed cabbage, natto with carrot, cabbage, onion, & hijiki with squash

Some more brown rice & hato mugi

Dinner

Spelt bread, black bean & tofu with shiitake & cabbage & salad of cucumber & mixed sprouts & some broccoli and courgette

Carob cake with raspberry sauce (and a little taster of apple pie)

Grain coffee with seed & almond milk

More grain coffee with soya milk

Food, glorious food!!

I am looking forward to a macro gathering on Sunday, yayy! I love getting together with fellow macs to share food, love & the delights of macrobiotics.

One love!

Sharlene

Good Evening

Is it really 11 March?! Crazy!

I’ve enjoyed some really wonderful food today and successfully accomplished a day without snacking or overeating, yipeee!!

Breakfast

Millet porridge with shoyu

Lunch

Mung bean miso soup

Buckwheat & gomasio, salad of cabbage & radish & carrot kimpira

A delicious dessert made of brown rice cream, peanut butter, baked apples & walnuts

Dinner

Soup made of aduki beans, kombu, lotus root & carrot

Brown rice & oats, tekka, a delicious courgette, carrot & kuzu stew & pressed cabbage, squash tempura

Some more dessert from lunch

Mmm!

Mountains of love

Sharlene

Good evening!

OK, so now I don’t feel so smart after last night’s escapade…& I am paying the price now too…I just wonder how I am going to learn my lesson & how I can keep this experience in my memory to help me move forward…I have an idea of how I can help myself so I’m going to see if firstly I can actually do it and secondly if it works…we will see!

Breakfast

Nothing

Lunch

Rice cakes with miso & brown rice & corn chips

Grain coffee

Beetroot & carrot juice

Dinner

Very delicious bread made with whole wheat with watercress

Rice cream (mmmm)

I think I must study macrobiotics EVERY single day if I really want to understand…

Love & light

Sharlene