Macrobiotic Athletes

Hi everyone,
I have recently begun trying to practice macrobiotic principles and I was wondering if anyone has had experience as a macrobiotic athlete.

I play rugby so I do alot of physical activity, with both endurence and strength training. I am in the process of trying to balence my diet and I was wondering if anyone, especially any females (the dietary needs seem to be rather gender specific), had experience in this area. I am doing pretty well but I have noticed that I bruise very easily right now and if I don't eat shortly after practice I feel a little light headed. I have done a lot of reading, but I keep finding articles that come back to animal products as a necessary food for athletes and I just can not believe that is true.

I appreciate any input.

[bita]

Greetings:

I'm an athlete of some sorts, female, and young. I work out about 5 days a week and always love doing stuff outside like hikes and stuff.

The more physical I am, I feel the more yang food I need. I found myself getting too skinny and too tired without adequate yang. (I'm 5'8" 128 lbs.) So I added more protein to my diet and am very happy mentally and physically.

I think there are probably a lot of macro foods you can eat. I'm gluten intolerant so the only grains I can eat are rice, quinoa, millet, and amaranth but try quinoa b/c that's suppose to have lots of protein, iron, and calcium. I also can't use soy but there's lots of protein there if you can. There are also some really good breakfast recipies using nutritional yeast and that alone is a lot of protein. As for calcium just use collards, broccoli and sesame seeds and some other veggies. I also use flax seed oil, I add it to my collards after I cook them, don't cook the flax seed oil though b/c that will destroy the omega 3's. I wouldn't eat animal products if you don't want to, I never felt good eating them anyways. Good Luck!

[damon]

Hi,
I'm a runner and have been trying to get a grasp on my macrobiotic diet for ~3 months now (vegan for 6+ years). Anyway, I've found whole grain to be the key to my workouts. A bowl of millet + ground flaxseed 1 hour before I head out provides me with enough energy. It sorta makes sense too. Complex carbohydrates, like whole grains, take longer to break down and in doing so, provide for a longer source of energy.