Grains, Beans & Veggies

I've been investigating a macrobiotic diet recently. Just like becoming a dietary vegan (well, most of the time), the whole macrobiotic idea just snuck up on me. I never made a conscious choice to become vegan, it just seemed to happen rather naturally. At some point I obviously made the decision to just stop eating meat, dairy & eggs, but the process was gradual, involved dabbling with the idea for a while & then my body made the decision for me by loosing interest in the stuff.

Those who know me know that I'm not strict in being vegan, I took a break from the whole situation over Christmas while at my parents (and suffered for it afterwards, I felt really yucky for a week), I eat fish occasionally & seem to totally forget how bad milk chocolate is for my body every time I see it (selective chocolate memory). I now manage to stay away from creamy cakes because the gas I get from eating them is just not funny for anyone around me (it also hurts quite a lot).

All of this means that I never struggled with my dietary choices. I'm getting more strict with being vegan now because of the way it makes me feel, I never want to feel like when I was eating loads of meat & dairy ever again. Summer will probably see another raw vegan phase, but it's too cold for that now.

And now macrobiotics are happening to me.

I've become more & more interested in rather simple food, loads of Japanese things, mainly. I love how good things taste if you just leave them as they are & not smother them in sauces. Cold soba noodles with pan-cooked pak choi (or spinach or rocket salad) have become one of my favourite dinners. This weekend I discovered mochi, sweet rice filled with peanut butter or coconut (or bean paste, but I'm not a big fan of this). Leading on from there I searched the web for more things Japanese & somehow stumbled upon the word "macrobiotic". I was fascinated.

I've bought the book "The Kind Diet" (by Alicia Silverstone) a few weeks ago, it's nice & a great introduction to veganism & macrobiotics. The whole vegan stuff I already knew, but it was still good to read that I'm doing the right thing. She calls macrobiotic foods "Superhero foods", which in a way they are because they do so much for you. Despite all of that, I doubt that I'll become a full macrobiotic devotee anytime soon - it's much more complicated than just being vegan. But I'm intending to incorporate some of it into my current diet & started with having miso soup for my at-home-breakfast (I have a proper breakfast at work) instead of my smoothie which was giving me a bit of an unwanted sugar kick in the morning. It took a bit of experimenting, finding the right type of miso (shiromiso is great as it's not too offensively strong) & dosage (about 1 teaspoon per cup seems to work quite well). I don't use dashi stock as a base just yet because I don't have it, but just the paste is alright so far.

Unfortunately my period started yesterday & since then my stomach has turned into a bottomless pit. It does that sometimes & not matter how much I eat, it isn't enough. This really annoys me as I've been quite good recently & think I actually lost a bit of weight - I don't want to gain it all again just because my hormones are going a bit mental. So after 2 days of pigging out I've promised myself to be good again tomorrow (I'm not going to eat any more tonight, no way).

After all, there is a holiday to go to in a week & I want to wear my summer clothes without feeling like a sausage...