Here's what I did in the last three days to get ready for this all-important diet. On Monday, I pan-roasted a cup of sesame seeds following the instructions in Julia Ferre's Basic Macrobiotic Cooking. The seeds had been presoaked in distilled water to remove the oxalic acid, making the calcium available for my benefit. (I learned about this from Carl Ferre in his book, Acid Alkaline Companion, page 45.)
Then on Tuesday and Wednesday, I played in San Francisco — a lot of walking — and eating and drinking foods some of which I will be letting go of during the next year and a half. For instance, I drank several cafe lattes and ate several croissants and white bread rolls with butter. I enjoyed lots of delicious restaurant food, including a wonderful lunch at The Plant Organic Cafe. I had a Plant Burger made with lentils, mushrooms, beets, cashews, and bulgar wheat, and the bartender gave me a wonderful pot of hot water with lemon wedges. (It was really good tasting water too — before the lemon was added.)
Last night I put three containers of whole grains to soak in water overnight: 1) a new crop of short grain brown rice, 2) a mix of quinoa, wild rice, and brown rice, and 3) a container of old crop short grain brown rice. (Plenty of grains for both me and my husband, who is on his own healthy diet and shares a lot of the same foods for his meals.) I also had a container of sunflower seeds soaking in distilled water in the refrigerator.
First thing this morning, I started Day #1 of my new diet with a cup of hot water.
For breakfast: I rinsed and cooked a pot of presoaked short grain brown rice with fresh water and 3 tablespoons of presoaked sunflower seeds in my 3-cup rice cooker (my preferred method of cooking for ease and convenience). While the rice was cooking (it takes about an hour), I washed up eleven carrots from our garden, sliced them into thin half-moons, and sauteed them in organic, unrefined sesame seed oil. I covered the pan and let the carrots steam in their own juices for about 22 minutes on low heat. I ate a small bowl of barley miso broth first, and then used the same bowl to eat my rice and carrots. I finished breakfast off with a cup of 3-bag kukicha tea.
For lunch: I cooked up a pot of millet (1/2 cup) with a quarter of a cabbage head, sliced thin into 2-inch pieces. I like cooking millet because it requires very little preparation (no need to soak it in water overnight, just rinse it before use) and it's very yang and alkalyzing. First I dry-roasted the millet in the pot, and then I added 2 to 3 teaspoons of sesame oil, a little bit of Utah sea salt and the cabbage. After sauteeing for several minutes, I added about a cup of water, covered the pot, and cooked for a half-hour on low. In the meantime, I drank a small bottle of Bio-K Plus probiotics. When the millet/cabbage was ready, I scooped a generous amount into a bowl and topped it off with sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, and almonds. That was delicious. I finished it off with a 1-cup pot of 6-bag kukicha tea (very strong and alkalyzing).
Afternoon Tea Break: A few hours later, I added about a cup more of boiling water to the pot of used 6-bag kukicha tea and sipped that while I read my book.
For dinner: I had leftovers. I warmed up the rest of the carrots, some rice, and some of the millet/cabbage. I topped it off with Ohsawa Nama Shoyu soy sauce. And then I had a cup of 2-bag kukicha tea.
I have to say that all three meals were incredibly delicious and satisfying. I liked everything I ate a lot! I also enjoyed noticing the flavor changes as I chewed each bite 100 to 150 times. I thought about how important this time of eating was to me. I focused on each food that I was eating and really looked at it. And I thought that for the half hour it was taking to eat a meal, I was fortifying myself for five hours more of activity — and it seemed to me that spending this precious time to eat is well worth it.
Related Blog Articles:
MY DAILY DIET REPORT — Day #1 Of My Weight Loss Diet
Draft #1 — My Weight Loss Diet Plan
Designing My Own Weight-Loss Diet
