From: Leslie (coeur_dalene_cuda1_id-eacb02-00-crdlid-70-36-4-242.losaca.adelphia.net)
Subject: Interesting . . .
Date: December 17, 2005 at 10:29 pm PST
In Reply to: Re: Began a vegetarian diet two weeks ago posted by Kayla on December 8, 2005 at 10:42 am:
I also never heard the term "listening to your body" until I read a macrobiotic cookbook. Since paying attention to diet and changing my diet to a vegetarian and now vegan diet, with as much attention to natural foods as I can, I do know what that means. I can tell when I eat something junky that I feel "off" somehow. And when I eat something really "grounding," like millet and root vegetables, for example, or miso soup with shiitake mushrooms and sea vegetables I feel great. I also notice that as time goes on I have no cravings for sugary foods like I used to, I might eat a small amount and then leave the rest alone, I can just tell that my body doesn't want it.
I think people are so inured and desensitized to the connection between what they eat and how they feel they no longer have this sense -- it's like having another sense that you never exercised and used and suddenly you discover it.
Read and find the foods that truly nourish the body -- I think a macrobiotic diet probably includes the most healthy of the natural foods -- eliminating meat, dairy, all sugars except very low glycemic ones such as rice and barley syrups, amasake; eliminating nightshade veggies, instead eating locally grown produce, gentle grains such as millet, barley, and rice; beans such as adzuki beans, and sea vegetables, you will discover a "centeredness" you never knew existed. I don't eat macrobiotic but I understand it and eat some macrobiotic foods and have to say that I can really feel their power when I eat them.
Your body can be out of balance and changing to a healthy diet can sometimes throw it into a kind of "withdrawal," but well worth the effort to read, research, and stick to it to find the rewards.
