I’m planning to start my 30 days of macrobiotic eating on Saturday, January 4 (tomorrow!). You can read more about the macrobiotic diet and the supplements from Miessence that I’ll be taking with this cleanse in my previous post.
In order to change my eating for 30 days, I need support. First of all, I need YOUR support! I fully anticipate blogging, tweeting, and posting to Facebook about the difficulty of keeping up the discipline. While I have resolved to be more positive in 2014, I also reserve the right to be frustrated, to have trouble, and to want to give up. Wanting to give up is different than actually giving up. So I need your support. Please comment! Tell me about your own healthy eating challenges. Remind me why we want to be healthy. Just in case I forget.
I also need support from my family and friends in real life, so I went to them for their opinions when I first started considering this idea. Although probably half of the people I consulted think that I am a little looney, they agreed that the eating plan doesn’t seem too extreme. But everyone I talked to did express concerns for my health. I think those concerns are valid. With their input, I have put some restrictions or parameters on this experiment, for my own health and safety.
Deal breaker: losing weight
I am a small person. My normal BMI is under 19, which technically classifies me as “underweight”. Before you start getting snarky, I did a post on why being underweight has always been a problem for me. I have to eat food that will nourish me enough not to drop any more weight. I do strenuous workouts 4 times a week or more as part of being a fitness instructor, so I burn calories at a higher rate too. I brought up these concerns with the Miessence expert and he assured me that the eating plan is safe for very active people. However, if I see the scale drop below my current weight, I will be adding my homemade bread back into my diet. If I don’t see my weight rise within 2 days of that addition, I will be adding additional sources of nutrition that were not on the original plan.
Deal breaker: loss of energy
Similar to the first, because I am a fitness instructor and full time SAHM, I cannot afford to let my energy flag. If I find myself getting out of breath, lightheaded, dizzy or more exhausted than usual, I will have to modify the eating plan to add more of something. Again, it will probably be bread. I have been an active listener to my own body for the past 10 years and I have found that often my body craves bread when energy is flagging.
Deal breaker: orthorexia trigger
You may remember the post where I admitted that I struggle with orthorexia. As with any addictive struggle, this one is based in the attempt to control. Controlling what I eat, specifically. Sometimes I can get to the mental point where there is nothing I will “allow” myself to eat, and I just do not eat. I starve. I get hangry. It’s just not healthy. So, if I do get stuck not eating, it is possible I’ll have to eat something off-diet just to get food into myself. I am going to say that is OK.
Modification: I will allow myself to eat dates
No sugar is allowed in this eating plan, even natural sugar. No honey, no agave, and very little fruit. Vegan recipes use soaked dates to sweeten things, so I am taking that substitution and adding it to this diet. I don’t plan to sweeten a lot of things, but when I do I’ll just use dates. The dates I bought are raw and have no sugar or preservatives.
The goal is to just keep going
Whether it is due to energy, orthorexia, or convenience, I may have to eat something off-diet. If that happens, the goal is to go right back to the eating plan. One slip up (or two, or three…) does not mean it’s all over. Back on the wagon.
Ultimate goal: Reduce sugar intake
If any undesirable results surface and I do have to fall back on my contingency plan of expanding my eating beyond strictly macrobiotic, I will NOT add refined sugar back into my diet before January 31. The goal here is to help reset my body to reduce my sugar cravings. Removing refined sugar is definitely not going to hurt me physically.
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Looking forward to reading your updates! I don’t think I could do little to no fruit. I just love it too much! It does seem like a do able eating plan…nothing really extreme.
Consider the Standard Process shake for stamina and nutritional support. You can buy it at the health food store on Coit near your house. You can make it with water (or almond milk) and berries which have little sugar. It has really helped me during cleanses to not feel so famished and it’s very cleansing with juniper berries. Ask for the non dairy based version. They may have to order it.
Greetings from Scotland. Please use any recipes or information from my website. My book Macrobiotics for all Seasons (shows one free chapter) on my website. Absolutely no need to forgo complex carbohydrate sugars such as a little rice malt syrup or barley malt. You can also find a fantastic detox broth on my you tube channel. Have fun. x Marlene
Perhaps make pictures out-of construction paper showing the
residents dressed similar to this. I really like to create party designs
around riddles. Also, having vouchers of the pets type is extremely important.