[Klara]

Derek,

Let me start by saying my hats off to you!!!!! I'm still struggling with late night eating and I won't tell you how long I've been "practising" macrobiotics. Please share with me what contributed to that success.

Secondly, let me preface I am not anything mb professionally - just some random thoughts of knowledges that I have been privileged to learn along the road.

What comes to mind first is how well are you chewing your food, most especially the grains? This also takes great discipline but is crucial to your digestion system and can help all those organs inside which absorb/or don't absorb what you are eating.

Secondly, today is only the 12 of January, or perhaps the 11th when you wrote it (don't know where in the time zones you are), that means you've been eating strictly for less than two weeks and transitional mb for a year. How many years have you been eating other kinds of foods, how badly did those other kinds of foods affect your organs, what is your condition/constitution? In other words, I don't think someone over the net can tell you if what you are experiencing is something to worry about or not, if it's natural, what macrobiotic people call discharge (and they feel good about it, meaning all sorts of toxins are being released from the body) or if it's a sign something is not balanced in your diet.

Another thing you might look at, how relaxed are you when you eat at work? Can you eat in a calm atmosphere? Are other things going on in your head/ environment, guts when you eat your dinner?? All that takes away from the food being digested as it needs to be.

And lastly I don't know what you mean by well, or even transitioning. I am often surprized by what I assume people know til I get in their kitchens and am shocked. How have you learned? Did you have someone personally who can advise you, teach you cooking? Have you eaten mb food cooked by someone who has been eating it for a long time (tho that's no guarantee either, same questions for them as for you).

Mind you, what you are going through might be perfectly ok, and you just need more time. But if you are experiencing much discomfort I hope some of the above thoughts might open some doors.

Don't forget to tell me how you succeeded the nighttime challenge, although again our situations may be entirely different, I also need some doors opened.

Klara