What are you teaching?

Apparently I am teaching about Macrobiotics.  Last night I posted the first blog which describes what a macrobiotic diet might be.  Anyone who is interested please read http://eternalquestion.gaia.com/blog/2008/5/an_introduction_to_macrobiotics

This is Part II, the personal story about why we decided to try a macrobiotic diet.  A little over two years ago, I started experiencing pain in my right side.  Soon the breathing seemed to deteriorate and other strange symptoms appeared.  After meditating and using positive imagery and meditating some more for months, I finally decided to visit the doctor.  That led to several diagnostic tests which finally resulted in a visit to a surgeon who suggested my gall bladder be removed.  There's some test that says if your count is over 30 your gall bladder is fine.  If it's below, surgery is recommended. My count was 21.  The problem was explained as an inability to efficiently digest oil.  It was not gallstones, another common problem.  

I told the surgeon that I had recently started a new diet (macrobiotics) and would like to try it before agreeing to surgery.  He agreed but added, "You'll be back.  I hear this story all the time.  You'll get tired of eating wheat germ."  (I didn't tell him that wheat germ is considered too processed for this diet!)  

My husband, fortunately, put his total support behind this new way of eating.  The kids were gone from the house now, so that wasn't a problem.  We began to cook whole grains, boil beans, slice and chop veggies, try new foods like seitan and tempeh, eat nuts and seeds.  We didn't just stick our toes in the water....we jumped in head first.  I was serious about healing, and poor Barry was serious about getting some food to eat.   

We started to lose weight really quickly.  I had gained maybe 20-25 extra pounds over the years and this literally melted away.  Barry ended up losing about 40 pounds.  At one point I began to feel some of my bones for the first time in years and became a little nervous, but over the months and years the weight loss evened out.  More important, the pain in the gall bladder began to subside.  For the first few months it would flare up after eating foods high in oil (such as almonds) , but on this low-oil, balanced diet it slowly seemed to heal.  

Another plus:  We learned to love food.  Simple foods like carrots or brocoli or brown rice began to taste really good.  In the past, one of us might wrinkle our noses and turn towards a good steak or boneless chicken, but now we began to ceaselessly admire the food.  It was almost funny.  We'd say, "isn't this good?  isn't this good?" while we ate a barley stew or millet chili or garbanzo casserole.    

As we adjusted to the diet, slowly we added occasional treats.  A few ice cream cones eaten mindfully seemed part of the balance.  There are certain foods that we eat now, two years later (wine, beer, some coffee, saltine crackers--not me!) that aren't on the diet.  I am not 100% sure that the gall bladder is completely healed....surgery may still be needed someday....but it seems very important to have taken some responsibility for healing, rather than simply quickly agreeing to removal of a body part.  (even though I have been assured by others that it's a relatively simple operation.)

  It's still a balancing act;  I'm sure it always will be.  It's important to learn to listen very deeply to what the body wants and needs.  I'm not always great at doing that....in fact sometimes I listen to what the body needs and go ahead and drink the coffee (with a little bit of half and half) anyway.  So everyday continues to be a Macrobiotic adventure:  returning to the largest "Whole Life" view that's possible in the moment.