ROSANNA’S NEWS AND VIEWS©
We are grateful for all those who took the trouble to write about our first letter and thanks for your praise and suggestions. When we look through the comments of subscribers to our letter we are surprised to see that many are interested in Macrobiotics because of:
WEIGHT LOSS
This subject doesn’t usually come up with those who are on the correct nutritional path, because if you are BALANCED in the food you select, you immediately find your correct weight. Your writer, James, offers a perfect example. Rosanna and I met less than a year ago. I kept fit by jogging, biking and hiking, but my weight had crept up to 245 pounds which, at 6′ 4″, I could carry OK, but whom was I kidding? Within a few months of eating macro (all I want, but always balanced) I was at the same weight as when a youngster in college, on the track team. The weight is steady now at about 210, even though flab is still melting away, but being replaced with slimmer, heavier muscle. My waist size is down by four inches and heading for five. Life is great as my 63rd birthday looms on the horizon. When I asked Rosanna for five suggestions for people who are overweight, she gave these:
- Never eat within three hours of going to bed for the night. It’s best to digest our food and move it from our stomachs while we are up and active.
- Stay balanced in your nutrition. As we go deeper into proper nutrition you will see the incredible variety that Rosanna creates. This variety is always achieved within the bounds of balance. If something sweet is desired, Rosanna will serve green leafy vegetables with the sweet. Yesterday, for breakfast, we had Strawberry Pancakes with maple syrup. Rosanna served them with steamed Baby Bok Choy and carrots with a touch of soy sauce. On one side of the spectrum is meat and salt (Yang to the Easterner) and the extreme opposites are sugar and soft dairy products (Yin). It is little wonder that one who indulges in a huge steak will crave Ice Cream with Chocolate Syrup. If we don’t eat in a balanced way, our bodies will demand it. Sweets require calcium and other minerals to assist with digestion. Don’t eat sweets without also eating green leafy vegetables. Your body will take the required calcium either from the greens, or from your bones and teeth.
- Don’t go hungry. Eat three times a day and don’t eat in-between. (James cheats on this rule once in a while and still lost…shhhh!) When you sit down to eat, be sure there is balanced food in front of you. In future letters we’ll go deeper into balance and how to achieve it. Eat all you want.
- Take a walk for at least a half hour every day. We need to perk up our circulation and give our minds something natural to do. Breathe deeply and consciously and walk as lightly as possible. For anyone who is interested in going deeply into this subject, from the Universal Sufi perspective, see MEDITATION IN MOTION and BREATH. Do Yoga, or another such discipline for the mind and body.
- Most of us eat more oil than we need. To be lean, don’t eat fat, especially with sweets. Rosanna uses very little oil in her cooking.
Now, did somebody say
PANCAKES?
Macro purists might disagree that eating pancakes is macro, but Rosanna doesn’t claim to follow the dogma of any way and doesn’t feel her approach to nutrition is a religion. Her uncanny ability is to balance the food that becomes who and what we are. Rosanna has a little electric grinder in the kitchen and when she makes pancakes she grinds the grain fresh as she uses it. They might have any kind of grain, use souring Amazake (a delicious drink made from sweet rice, we’ll tell you how one day soon) to give sourdough flavor and they might contain fresh fruit. Look carefully and you will see beans, too. There we have it, Beans, Grain, Vegetables, that’s the backbone of our diet.How about the maple syrup? Well sure, great music is defined by the silence, they say, and being macro, for us, involves a little indulgence here and there. If we were sick, we would skip it or use Barley Malt or Rice Syrup. Yesterday, they were made like this:
Please note that using these recipes will usually yield enough for 4 or 5 servings, so adjust the recipe to suit your needs!
2 cups Brown Rice Flour
6 tablespoons Soy Bean Flour
1 cup Whole Wheat Flour (if you can’t tolerate Wheat, use another grain)
1 cup Corn Meal
pinch of sea salt
1 cup sliced Strawberries
1 tablespoon Baking Powder
Spring (or filtered) Water
Maple or Rice Syrup (optional)
Preparation:
Mix all dry ingredients. Add water and stir until consistency is pour-able, but not too thin. Add Strawberries. Pour a very thin coating of Toasted Sesame oil on the pan (cast iron is best). No more than a teaspoon should be needed in a well seasoned skillet, use a brush to spread it. Spoon pancake batter into hot (if the oil smokes, turn it down slightly) pan in cakes of about 3 inches in diameter and cook until bubbles appear on surface, then turn with spatula and cook until done. YUM YUM. We had ours with Toasted Green Tea.
MISO SOUP
2 tbs. dark Barley Miso
Preparation
RICE AND FRESH CORN
Preparation
PINTO BEANS
Ingredients
Preparation
BLANCHED SALAD
Ingredients
For Sauce
Preparation
Bring water to a boil in large pot. Add Broccoli and cook until water returns to a boil. Remove with slotted spoon. Continue this procedure with each vegetable, cooking Squash last because it will discolor the water. When cool, combine ingredients in a bowl and add sauce (see below) and toss.
Sauce
Melt Umeboshi paste in a little warm water. Add heated oil and mix.
PRESSED SALAD
Ingredients
Preparation
STEAMED COLLARD GREENS
Ingredients
Preparation
SUFI WISDOM
excerpted from BOWL OF SAKI, a daily meditation May 6
UNITY IN REALIZATION IS FAR GREATER THAN UNITY IN VARIETY.
Inayat Khan
COMMENTARY BY– Samuel L. Lewis:
This Unity is the greatest achievement conceivable. As a matter of fact, it is most difficult to find this unity in variety. There are sounds insects make that the human ear cannot hear; there are many vibrations of light and energy the eye does not appreciate and the instrument of one’s ear cannot measure, for they are so delicate and they are continually being discovered. This shows that although there may be a unity in variety it is not always apprehended even when most appreciated.
As soon as the mind is quieted one finds the real cosmic vibrations which flow through the heart of man and are even touched by and in his bloodstream. When one finds the blood mentioned in the Bible and Upanishads and Koran, it is because there is a tremendous significance there. For it is the heart and blood that keeps the body a unity, and it is the love of God which keeps the Universe as a unity, which would otherwise be chaos. It is even said that when Parabrahm retains his breath the Universe is destroyed. This means that absence of God constitutes destruction — true alike of the Universe, ourselves and our thoughts and emotions.
Buon appetito!
