Macrobiotics and Me

Hey!

Oh dear, it’s confession time…last night when I got home I felt really hungry and it seems I unleashed my hunger and devoured everything and anything I could get my hands on!

My feast went something like this:

An olive, fried mugwort mochi with shoyu and vinegar (mmm), oat pasta with white miso, tahini & olives followed by some ginger cake and then some peanut butter, tahini & malt syrup & a little sip (just a mouthful!) of beer!!! Oh yeah, and some grain coffee with soya milk!!!

Mmm, it was a delicious feast I have to say, and a very nice lesson in the bigger the front (the fasting), the bigger the back (feasting!)…

I was surprised that I didn’t feel as bad as I thought I would this morning, although getting up was a struggle. I had some really strange dreams too!  

I also had some delicious home made whole rice sour dough bread with rice cream for dinner. Mmmm! sooo yummy. I love rice cream and home made bread.

Love, love, love

Sharlene

Good morning!

It’s only 10am in the UK at the moment but I already know how my day will look in terms of food so I thought I may aswell update now.

Breakfast

Nothing, especially after a big slice of sugar & dairy free chocolate cake last night. OK, it was sugar free and dairy free which is great, but far too yin for my condition…and now I need to get back to a balanced state as possible

Lunch

Also nothing. I ate too much over the last few days and I know that at lunchtime today I will feel maybe a little hungry but not true hunger, and I want to give my body a chance to recover from the last few days and to re-establish proper hunger.

I will also not drink anything today (unless I feel thirsty of course), but I am certain I won’t!

Dinner

I am having brown rice cream for dinner tonight & I am looking forward to that. My stomach is really looking forward to that too

This morning I received a new book by Ohsawa on Macrobiotics and I really cannot wait to read it. I am sure it will shed more and more light on this amazing subject! Ahhh, I heart macrobiotics!!!

Lots of love and bright shining light

Sharlene

Greetings!!!

Apologies for my lack of posting. I’ve been in Germany this weekend and whilst I was away I didnt have access to a computer!

Friday

BREAKFAST

Tofu cheesecake (yeah…we made a tofu cheesecake last night and decided to try it before I left for work so I had a very small piece)

Grain coffee, millet porridge

LUNCH

Buckwheat with gomasio, tofu lasagne, baked apple, ginger cake

Camomile tea

DINNER

German beer! (it was too late to eat by the time we got to our destinate so we settled for a beer instead of dinner!!)

DAY 6

BREAKFAST

Millet porridge, mu tea

LUNCH

Salmon sushi, buckwheat with gomsio, green beans & carrot

Tofu cheesecake

DINNER

We ate out at a restaurant and I decided to not be concerned so much about food and to just go with the flow and enjoy the moment. Ahh, it was realy nice to do this.

For starter I had a salad made with cabbage, carrot, gherkins & onion

Garlic prawns with spinach, corn on the cob, green salad. I also had some chips too (mmm, I love chips!!), bread,

Pancake with icecream (ICECREAM!!!) & chocolate sauce…I didn’t order this but it was brought to everyone on the table as a gesture and it felt right to eat it and join in with everyone. Ahh, it was very delicious and I really enjoyed eating it.

The whole evening was a great experience which I really enjoyed. In some way I found it very liberating to be able to eat ‘normally!!’ and not be too hung up about it.

Lots of German beer

Then later I had some corn cakes & Tofu cheescake

Day 7

BREAKFAST

No breakfast

LUNCH

Wholewheat bread with peanut butter & white miso

Leftover sushi, brown rice & gomasio, carrots, green beans & onion, sauerkraut

Pancakes with amazake and walnuts

Twig tea

Sweet wine

DINNER

Sauerkraut & brussel sprouts, millet pie with an aduki bean 7 mixed vegetable topping, fried mochi with shoyu

Day 8

BREAKFAST

Nothing for me again

LUNCH

Soup made with brown rice & red lentils, olive & mushroom pizza, cous cous paella

Mochi waffles with maple syrup

DINNER

Corn cakes, tuna salad with mixed green beans, falafel & wholemeal pittta, corn chips

Mixed roasted & salted nuts with sultanas

Chamomile tea

Chocolate cake & grain coffee

Now I am feeling very relieved to be back home and I’m looking forward to getting back on track (I’ve had too  many sweets and to much alcohol the last couple of days!)

Good vibrations

Sharlene

Beautiful blessings to you!

The last few days I’ve felt little glimpses of spring energy & I’m loving it! Mmm, spring!!! Yayyyy!!!

Sorry for my late posting.

Breakfast

No thing as I wasn’t hungry.

I’ve been feeling many things about overeating etc recently & the last couple of days I’ve felt quite consumed by it. It feels like such a big pattern to break free from and I’ve found myself pondering.

I say to myself that I really want to break free from overeating and of course I do. But then I seem to give in and revert back and at the time where the real effort is needed. It seems I fail to find the strength of will. There is an important lesson for me to learn here and that is that I must put in great effort if I want to heal this.

Having consciousness around food, around what we we eat and the way we eat is such a challenge. But every day, every meal time, every mouthful is a chance to remember, to be conscious. It seems so easy to forget. I’d really like it if at every meal time, or every time I eat, I could programme an alarm to go off to help me remember and to be conscious. I know what foods are good for me, what my body needs, how much I should eat, but the real challenge is really applying that. Theory is useless if we cannot apply it practically.

You know, it’s like when you do something that you shouldn’t do and then afterwards you think ‘Ahh man, why did I do that’ and then you promise to yourself that you’ll never do it again…but then, as soon as you feel better or you forget how you felt after it, you repeat it…now I am beginning to understand why MEMORY is so important and why Ohsawa emphasised that in his teachings.

Of course, underneath this is also the need for healing. I am sure that it is my spleen imbalance which is the cause of this. The emotional issues connected to the earth energy (which governs the stomach and spleen) are things like self love, self esteem, knowing what your needs are, addictions. So, when my spleen energy is imbalanced, it opens up the gates for me to experience these issues…

When I am feeling more yin, I do not feel so able to deal with these issues very well. But when my condition becomes more yang, I feel that I can easily overcome this. So, it seems very important for me to maintain a more yang condition. If I maintain a yang condition, I feel more balanced and in feeling more balanced I feel better equipped to make the right choices that will heal me. Does that make sense??!

Lunch

Aduki bean soup

Brown rice, gomasio, sauerkraut & tempeh & carrot stew

Dinner

Miso soup 

Cous cous, peas and carrots, pressed leek, tempura squash & arame & watercress salad with toasted sesame seeds. Mmm dinner tonight was delicious and had a real spring feel to it.

Twig tea  

Lots of love and macrobiotic magic

Sharlene

Good Evening!

I’ve completely yinned myself out today after making and eating too many cookies this evening. Consquently, I am not feeling in good balance so I’m going to keep this short & savoury!! and get myself to bed ready to wake up tomorrow when I’ll be more yang and better able to deal with my emotions!

Breakfast

Millet porridge with tekka

Lunch

Miso/chickpea soup from yesterday

Millet, stewed cabbage & hijiki and carrot

Dinner

The same as lunch but followed by a million home made oat cookies

Nettle tea

Love & as much balance as possible (even though balance doesn’t really exist!!)

Sharlene

Hello!

 Today has been absolutely beautiful, the sun has been shining, the skies are blue & it most certainly feels like spring is ready for us. I know I am definitely ready for spring!!!!

Breakfast

Mixed grain flake porridge with shoyu

Lunch

Miso soup (from last night)

Buckwheat with gomasio, swede & onion & squash tempura from last nght

Grain coffee

Oat & date bar

Dinner

Miso soup made with onion, chickpea, carrot & wakame

Brown rice with gomasio, hijiki with aduki beans, cabbage & tahini, millet & cauliflower bake

Mixed grain flakes with sultanas and cinnamon

Sharlene

Hello hello!

Apologies for the late response. I couldn’t access a computer last night.

Breakfast

Nothing

Lunch

Beautiful millet with gomasio (mmm, this was really delicious. I love it when such simple food can be so amazingly delicious and satisfying)

Grain coffee

Dinner

Miso soup made with onion, parsnip, tofu & wakame

Buckwheat with gomasio, squash tempura, sauerkraut & swede with onions

Mmm!! Perfect food!

Love & light

Sharlene