[Shazzie]

Thanks, y'all. What quick and thoughtful answers! I think bringing butane would be frowned upon at my rather conservative job, but I hadn't even considered using thermoses. That will be my solution from here on out.

I've come to macrobiotics in a beautiful zig-zag of alternating healthy-food and junk-food obsessions. I was vegetarian when I was younger but was sick all the time--in hindsight and with the wisdom of macrobiotics I now see that I was eating completely out of balance, eating way too many beans in an attempt to "get enough protein". I have IBS and was in pain much of the time. Since starting to eat macrobiotically--about 6 weeks now--my IBS has settled down almost completely.

The moment of truth came because over the past year and a half I've been having a lot of gastric upset & pain--heartburn, stomach burning, sharp pain in the gallbladder area, IBS--many ouchies. Eating was not fun anymore. And the doctors poked, prodded, laproscoped, sonnogrammed, and found very little. They gave me a Nexium prescription and told me they hoped I felt better. So I started doing research, and macrobiotics was the answer I found. Two days after starting the diet and I was no longer in pain after a month of pretty much constant upset.

Enough said. But what I'm really loving is how clear I feel, how connected spiritually. All that sludge is sliding away. Yee-haw!

Off to work, y'all. Thanks again.