Now the new year is officially here it’s time for me to make an announcement…

I have decided it is time for me to say goodbye to macrobiotics and me. Not to macrobiotics (macrobiotics will somehow always be a part of my life!!) but to posting/blogging on this site.

I have really enjoyed sharing some of my experiences & a lot of my meals with you, but it’s now time to move on to new endeavours. Sometimes, in order to move forwards, we have to (reluctantly) let go and say goodbye to things we have loved or enjoyed and that time has come with macrobiotics and me.

I want to thank all of your for your visits, support, e-mails & love. My goal when I started was to inspire just one person and that goal has most definitely been accomplished.

Where ever you are reading this in the world right now, I am sending you love and wishing you all the best for 2012 and for the years to follow. I wish you an abundance of love, health, happiness and fulfilment.

Bon Voyage!!

Love & light always
Sharlene

p.s. I have another announcement…

A new blogger (identity unconfirmed as of yet) coming soon!!! WATCH THIS SPACE!!!

It’s late so I better hurry up and get myself into bed before I turn into a pumpkin or something!!

Check out my breakfast today, eaten from the comforts of my bed…ahh!

Nothing much else to share right now other than macrobiotics is amazing – don’t ya think?!!

Love, love & more love
Sharlene

It’s almost December and another year is coming to an end. Bring on 2012! I’m sure it will be an amazing year for macrobiotics!

Lately I have been pondering the importance of having purpose in one’s life. Without it, life is meaningless and dull. With it, we can feel more vibrant and alive. The beauty is that we all have differing purposes according to who we are. Some of us know what our purpose is or purposes are, some are just discovering and some haven’t got a clue. Which do you reckon is the healthiest of these? Having a purpose and taking steps regularly towards the fulfilment of that purpose, however big or small they may be, contributes to increased health and vitality. So today I would like to urge you to take a step and do just one thing that can move you closer towards a purpose or discovering a purpose in your life.

I didn’t have breakfast today because of some serious over indulging yesterday so I wasn’t hungry. But for lunch I had:

Chickpea soup, brown rice & barley, a mixed vegetable dish (with kale, squash, onions, cabbage & carrots) and a really lovely salad made with tomatoes, avocado, coriander, red radishes & daikon

A delicious pear & hazelnut tart that I made yesterday with oat cream

For dinner

More chickpea soup
A bowl of greens with a mustard dressing and a chilli & sprout stir fry

Washed down with a cup of twig tea

Snack
Sesame & hazelnut crunch

I passed my macro exams – yayyyy!! But now I have about 12 hours work to do before I complete and qualify so I must focus on this last hurdle. I can’t wait to complete. I’m so excited about the future!

Love & increased vibrations
Sharlene

Today I had:

No breakfast as I wasn’t hungry

Lunch:
Blanced kale, baby corn, half an avacado, mixed sprouts with a lovely balsamic, garlic and shoyu dressing

Cranberry tarts with oat cream (mmm – I am rehearsing for Christmas You can see the recipe for these & a photo on the www.macrobiotics.org.uk website

Hot soya milk & cinnamon drink

A handful of peanuts

Dinner:
Aduki soup

I am finding that I seem to function much better with less grains and have been reducing my grain intake which feels soooo good. For so long I think I was stuck in thinking that I HAD to have whole grains as often as possible but now I realise that doesn’t work so well for me. This journey sure is an interesting one!! I love exploring and finding new ways of feeling healthier Long may it continue.

Sending love & light to you
Sharlene

Today has been a delightful feast of macro wonders:
Breakfast
Miso soup made with carrots, sweet potato, daikon, shiitake, wakame & cabbage & some creamy oat & almond porridge followed by a cup of redbush tea and a slice of the nicest cheesecake in the world made by a beautiful macro friend

Lunch
Brown rice & squash, white fish with fennel & corriander, sweet potato & chilli mash, nishime lotus, daikon & pumpkin, daikon pickle & broccoli & asparagus with a really yummy dressing

Dinner
Aduki bean soup
Cranberry tarts with oat cream

Snacks
A cashew nut bar

Do you ever hear some really funny comments about what people mistakenly think macrobiotics involves? I have heard all sorts from isn’t it a cult? (ha ha ha!), is it a raw foods diet, is that that thing with computers! and the latest, is that where you only eat steamed vegetables!!!! Hmmm. There is much to be done with communicating clearly what macrobiotics actually is. The trouble is, I think we all interpret it to mean different things depending on our own experience of it which might not necessarily be really what it is, if that makes sense?!

OK, time for a couple of photos of today’s miso soup in front of the fire (ahhh!) and lunch

A whole load of love & light
Sharlene

It has been a while! I have been taking some time to have time to have some time!! It seems time is not so abundant these days so I have been making the most of having time to have time!!

How’s your macrobioticness going? I have been venturing far and wide, mostly on the macro track but I have to confess to voluntarily stepping off of it. What does that mean? Well, it means I have been a bit more relaxed in a way about eating recently. Over the weekend particularly I enjoyed some dairy, meat and sugar – foods which are typically avoided in macrobiotics.

I would not like to eat these foods regularly but my health is good right now so I feel like it’s not a crime or a sin to indulge or to eat typical non macro foods (like tomatoes, tropical or non local foods). I really hate there being any judgement or stigma associated with eating non macro foods. I have sometimes felt like that even about tomatoes, or non local foods etc because that feels kind of unhealthy to me so I’m exploring different options.

Today my food was as follows:

Breakfast – half an umeboshi plum (I love these little magical nuggets!)

Lunch – it was more like lunner…ha ha – that’s a combination of lunch and dinner!!

Brown rice, red lentils, cabbage, carrots & onions stewed, roasted squash and a lettuce & beetroot salad

Followed by a very generous serving of soya custard

I have drank no liquids today…omg!! ha ha. But I don’t feel thirsty or dehydrated.

I’m going to really try to post as regularly as I can so I’ll see you tomorrow

Big macrobiotic/healthy eating & living love
Sharlene

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

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

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

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