Macrobiotics and Me

Now that is the million dollar question!! Why does macrobiotics have to be called macrobiotics because that word to most people just conjures up something kind of scientific and complex.

I thought I’d share with you some things that macrobiotics is or means to me:

1. It’s a way of understanding how food creates health, how it can be used to maintain health and how it can be used for the attainment of better health

2. It’s a way of understanding how nature, the body, emotions, energy & food interrelate. Playing and dancing, or fighting and struggling.

3. It is a truly unique way of looking at life and health that can be taken to whatever level you desire. The further you look, the more you understand and the more you understand, the more empowering it becomes.

4. It is empowerment at its best! By understanding how the body works, how nature functions, how food, energy, emotions etc all fit together you can become empowered and take responsibility for yourself and your life

5. It’s normal yet abnormal!! Someone said to me the other day that macrobiotics is extreme. Hmmm…surely eating processed, chemicalised, man manipulated food is extreme? How come eating whole, nutritious foods provided by our mother earth is so extreme?

I am still so intrigued by macrobiotics and I am sure that there are many things out there right now that are actually macrobiotics in disguise!!! or perhaps macrobiotics is something else in disguise. Whatever way around it is, it is undoubtedly a road map towards greater love, life and happiness…if only you dare make the journey! I DARE YOU!!!

Love & light
Sharlene

p.s. are you wondering what I ate today? To tell or not to tell…hmmm ok, then if I must!!

Breakfast
Lovely fresh home made oat cream

Lunch
A little porridge with vegetables, an oat bar & some roasted veg & gherkins

Dinner
Pressure cooked brown rice, barley & chestnuts, a lentil, ginger & kuzu stew, a sauerkraut & onion dish, roasted sweet potato and fried kale with roasted walnuts

twig tea & some oat flapjack type thing

Greetings!!

Today I woke up to a very new reality – that I am well and truly on my way to becoming a Macrobiotic & Life Counsellor as well as a Macrobiotic Healing Guide & Cook. WOW, WOW, WOW!!

The weekend went well. I know I passed my cooking. I am fairly confident that I passed all the other exams (the shiatsu, the interview & the written exam). However, I have some doubts about the compresses because of some small but possibly significant mistakes I made. However, the exams are there to make sure that you know your stuff and if you don’t get it right then it highlights a weakness. A mistake is always an opportunity to learn so that is exactly what i shall do!!

Today, I ate the following:

Breakfast
I wasn’t so hungry so instead I made a snack of boiled carrots & had this as a mid morning snack

Lunch

A lovely soup made from onions, leeks, squash, kombu & carrot

Brown rice, pumpkin seeds, a brussel sprout & green bean dish, a parsnip, onion & carrot stew, some horseradish & gherkins

Some lovely twig tea (ahh I just LOVE this drink, it’s so soothing and refreshing)

Dinner

Barley with a sunflower & wakame condiment, black bean & spring onion stew, roasted parsnips & sweet potato, kale & cauliflower with an umeboshi & apple dressing, a couple of olives & furofuki daikon (daikon made with kombu, shiitake & miso).

A cup of bancha tea

Some photos – sorry about the quality. It’s sooo difficult taking good photos of food!

Time to sleep!

Love & Light
Sharlene

Hello!

Long time no post!

3 days until exams…eeekkkk!!

I’m just about to go to bed with a lotus plaster – how exciting!!! Thought I’d say a quick hello before I do.
Took a photo of lunch today & thought I’d share.

Had a full on day of psychotherapy on Saturday and wow, it was great. Did I mention I had a past life healing the other day too. It’s so nice to be working on myself on all different levels. There’s so much to explore. What interesting creatures we are!!

Many macro blessings & lots of love
Sharlenen

Good Evening!

Today I made the sweetest, nicest brown rice amazake I’ve ever made. Mmmm. I can’t wait to eat it tomorrow or whenever (although I have a feeling it won’t last until whenever!!). It’s so lovely to taste it again. We have a bit of an amazake shortage in the UK right now so I haven’t been able to buy any for so long.

For breakfast I had brown rice & quinoa porridge with chickpeas, carrots & celery & some broccoli & squash

For lunch:
Brown rice & quinoa, sauerkraut & gherkin salad & chickpeas followed by some jam & barley malt with crackers and a raisin & brown rice dessert & some twig tea

For dinner:
Squash soup, fried brown rice & onions, stewed cabbage, chickpea stew & sauerkraut & some twig tea

I am really getting into my revision now and feeling so so so grateful to have had an amazing opportunity to study, learn and explore macrobiotics in depth. The International Macrobiotic School in Devon (UK) is amazing!! Macrobiotics is amazing. But the name, the name, the name…hmmm!!! OK, there’s nothing wrong with the name, it’s just the connotations, misunderstandings and judgements that come with it…he he!

Righty ho, z land it is.

Ciao!
Sharlene

Bonjourno!

Today I had the strangest experience with time. It was as though I only blinked and suddenly hours had passed. I was so engrossed in my studies that somehow there was no time whilst I was there. Timelessness…hmmm!!

I didn’t have breakfast this morning as I wasn’t hungry.

Lunch, prepared by Dejan, was a black bean & lotus root soup, brown rice & chestnuts, a sweet veg stew (of parsnips, onions & squash) and a lettuce salad

Some rice cakes with strawberry jam

Dinner was hoto (a beautiful sweet and nourishing dish made with onions, squash, lotus, carrot, daikon & noodles) and some shio kombu (a delicious condiment made from kombu) followed by some ohagi balls (made from sweet rice). Mmm. A beautiful dinner. All these dishes are healing recipes

I’ve had several small cups of twig tea today too

I really REALLY REALLY can’t wait for my studies to finish. Not because I want it to end, no way, because of course, this is just the beginning. But because I’d really rather like to have my life back and to put all this wonderful knowledge & experience I have to good use. I feel so much of my energy is being taken up by my course and it’s going to be very liberating once I finish.

I had a past life healing yesterday which was intriguingly fascinating, and hopefully effective.

Humans are such incredible beings. We carry within us so many memories and so much potential. In time I am certain we’ll tap into these memories (if we are not already doing that!) which have been long forgotten and buried on our path of evolution. Memories, that I imagine and somehow feel certain, will be very beneficial to us.

OK, I must sleep.

Love shine
Sharlene

Hey!

A short and sweet post from me because it’s really late & I must get to bed!

Breakfast
Swede & arame soup
Porridge made from yesterday’s grains & vegetables mixed together to form a congee type dish

A mid morning snack of 2 different types of tofu cheesecake (that I HAD to sample!) & some twig tea

Lunch
Brown basmati rice, curried mixed veg, lentil bake from yesterday & sauerkraut
Twig tea
Apple & caramel sauce

Dinner
Brown rice & millet & mixed veg

Love & light
Sharlene

Greetings

I wasn’t able to do much revision today as I was busy cooking and seeing clients – although I could argue that that is revision at it’s best!!

I had a lovely lotus root drink this morning

For lunch:
Arame & swede soup

A four grain mix of spelt, wheat, barley & brown rice, lentil bake with a sweet potato & swede topping, lotus nishime, a daikon & carrot dish, a broccoli and pumpkin seed puree & some sauerkraut followed by a lovely cup of twig tea

For dinner, cooked by a friend who is not macro but did a wonderful job of cooking macro food I had a lentil & veg soup, cous cous, broccoli, greens & tofu followed by a dessert of figs & apricots in soya custard & a cup of lotus tea

We had many interesting conversations about macrobiotics

Now it’s time to replenish my kidneys by getting some sleep!

Love & light as always
Sharlene

Hello!

Long long long long long time no post – wow, how time flies!

Today I am making a comeback and ready to post regularly now as I figure it will kind of help with my revision. I have three weeks left until my final exams and wow wow wow, I cannot believe they are so near.

Revision has been incredible. I have been taught some really amazing things so I must make sure I do amazing things with what I now know.

Today’s food:

For breakfast I had a miso soup made with wakame, carrot, daikon, aduki beans & greens followed by a bowl of brown rice and pumpkin seed kuzu porridge

I then had a mid morning snack – another small bowl of miso soup

For lunch I had brown rice, roasted parsnips & onions, sauerkraut, aduki balls and some blanched broccoli with ume su

For dinner:
Millet, snow nabe (a delicious dish made with daikon & tofu), hijiki with carrots & walnuts, roasted squash, a squash, turnip & carrot stew and a lettuce and radish salad

Followed by some chestnut mousse – mmm!

Check out photos I took of today’s food: