10 Steps: The Strengthening Health Approach to Macrobiotics
1. Sit down to regular meals every day.
• Sit down to eat, even for snacks.
• Sitting down prepares you physically and mentally to receive nourishment. Your digestive system relaxes and is able to digest foods and absorb nutrients better.
• You will be more conscious about the food you eat.
• Sitting down increases your appreciation and enjoyment of food
• Try to eat 2 to 3 meals every day at regular times.
• Eating at the same times everyday helps to regulate your physical, emotional,and mental cycles.
• You will feel, think, work, and sleep better.
2. Eat slowly and chew your food well.
• This will help you digest your food well and help prevent overeating.
• Thorough chewing also makes you feel more satisfied and improves the flavor and enjoyment of your food.
3. Stop eating three hours before bedtime.
• Your body cleans and repairs itself at night while you sleep. These processes are most efficient when your digestive system is empty.
• This will give your digestive system, liver, and kidneys a rest when you sleep on an empty stomach.
• It also helps you sleep more deeply and for a shorter time.
4. Eat cereal grains and vegetable dishes with every meal.
• Plan your meals around cereal grains instead of animal or dairy products.
• Cereal grains and grain products like brown rice, barley, oats, polenta, good quality pasta, and sourdough breads, etc. are the centerpiece of every meal.
• Choose from a variety of whole cereal grains, cracked grains, flaked and puffed grains and whole grain breads and pasta.
• Grains provide the basis for balanced nutrition and help regulate your appetite and improve digestion and elimination
.• Eat at least 1 vegetable dish with every meal, including breakfast.
• Vegetable dishes complete cereal grains nutritionally and help you feel satisfied.
• Green leafy vegetables, broccoli, and cabbage are excellent sources of calcium and vitamin C.
• Try to use a variety of cooking styles and combinations of vegetables.
5. Regularly incorporate a variety of natural, healthy foods into your diet.
• Choose from beans and soy products, white meat fish, fruits, nuts, seeds, healthy snacks and sweets.
• Vary your meals every day.
6. Have 1 or 2 bowls of vegetable soup every day.
• Use a variety of vegetables and change the combinations often.
• Add grains, beans, noodles, bread, or fish to soup occasionally.
• Season the soup mildly with sea salt, shoyu (natural soy sauce) or miso(soybean paste). Miso, used in the Orient for hundreds of years, is a good that has special properties for digestion and circulation when added to soups.
7. Give yourself a daily body rub.
• Rub your body with a hot, damp cloth 1 to 2 times every day.
• Fold a cotton wash cloth over twice to make four layers, dip in hot water, wring out and rub gently in a back and forth motion.
• Do it before or after a bath or shower, or by itself.
• It takes about 10 to 15 minutes to do it well.
• The object is to make your skin red. If your skin does not get red in the beginning, it will over time as the condition of your skin improves.
• The body rub deeply cleans your skin and activates circulation and energy. It will improve all aspects of your physical, emotional, and mental health.
8. Walk for 30 minutes every day.
• Walking is the ideal exercise for everyone. It improves flexibility, digestion,energy, cardiovascular health, strengthens bones, and helps clear your mind.
• They can be two 15–minute walks.
• Incorporate walking into your daily routine.
9. Wear pure cotton clothing next to your skin
• Pure cotton carries a more neutral electrical charge that helps to neutralize and harmonize imbalances in your body.
• It also helps to protect against the harmful effects of electromagnetic fields in the environment.
• Synthetics carry a strong static electric charge that increases imbalances in your body. They can make your health worse more quickly.
10. Surround yourself with green plants.
• Green plants are the most effective and efficient air filtration system known.
• They help reduce air, electromagnetic, and noise pollution more effectively than any mechanical system.
• Green plants also help you feel more bright, positive, and energetic.
• Your kitchen, bedroom, and bathrooms are most important.
to school four days/week during these few remaining weeks and I texted a friend in Utah to let her know I wished we were walking to the park with our kiddos to play! She responded with a picture of her kids from that morning in full-out snow gear sitting in the fresh snow they got the night before. Oh ya, I’m in Texas but it’s winter elsewhere! The first half of our Texas adventure we felt we were in an eternal heat wave and now we feel like we are in a constant state of September.
was such a beautiful day. We even took the hammock. When the sun went down after we’d been there only 40 minutes I had another oh yeah-even in the eternal September the days get shorter because it IS winter. This climate is playing with my mind. I like it right now though. I’ll take these lovely days in the low 70s and cool crisp nights. And seriously, why have I not started entertaining you with memes about Texas long ago?
1 Comment
Great post, Ashley! So glad you enjoyed the tamale making class as well as the macrobiotic snacks! Your photos turned out great! Love how you included the 10 steps at the end. What a great reminder. I used to keep a copy on my refrigerator!