[Emily P]

Hello from another Sydneysider! This is my first post so I may as well introduce myself.

I, too, am a refugee from bad health, which can all be traced back to a very nasty case of glandular fever at the beginning of 1997. My GP at the time diagnosed a throat infection and gave me antibiotics, which made the problem even worse. Ever since then, I've had a screwed up immune system which has led to ongoing chronic health problems, including very regular recurrent respiratory illness, and a wicked 3-year case of cystitis where there was no actual infection present, meaning it was all but untreatable. (Surgery in late '99 found my bladder wall was badly scarred - no apparent cause! - but cauterising the scarring seemed to fix the problem.) I was also chronically depressed for some time, due in no small part to my health situation.

I also stacked on about 15-20kg because I had zero energy. I thought this overweight might be making the problem worse, so I made major sacrifices in the rest of my life so I could exercise and managed to lose the weight (and more!) a couple of years ago. Despite getting to a healthy weight, eating "well" and exercising, though, I was constantly exhausted (literally sleeping and working was all I did) and I still kept getting sick. Last year I developed flu 6 times and was off work for a week or more each time.

This year, when I was verging on quitting my job (which I love) because I couldn't keep taking so much sick leave, I decided I'd had enough and went to a naturopath who happened to specialise in traditional Chinese medicine and is very interested in macrobiotics. First she gave me some TCM remedies and got me to have brown rice and veges for brekkie and, when I reported back on how much better I felt, she introduced me to macrobiotic eating.

The combination of the remedies and the macro way has literally turned my life around. I now have a million times more energy and have had only 1 sick day since March. Usually by now I would have been off work for an accumulated 3 weeks or more.

I'm still getting into the macro way and practise a very relaxed version of it (it's proving extremely difficult to wean my husband off animal products, but at least I can insist on organic only) but I'm already feeling the benefits - particularly from cutting out white sugar and flour.

My emotional state has also benefited greatly. Without wanting to sound all Tom Cruise-y, I strongly believe there are links between nutrition and mental health. My new, more balanced way of living has left me more balanced mentally, and I feel like I can take on much more.

I've always been interested in nutrition and eating in tune with our world (in an immediate AND a global sense), and the macro way just makes sense to me!

On a practical bent, I'm an enormous fan of Macro Wholefoods at Crows Nest and regularly pick up food from Iku when I haven't had time to cook.

I'd be keen to hear of other Sydneysiders' experiences and "compare notes" from time to time. It's nice to be somewhere where people don't say "macrobi-what?"