What to eat when you are going away????

[veebee]

Hi, i'm quite new to this way of eating and am going away for a few days. Funny enough it is on a meditation course where you would think it would be brown rice and veggies, but it is in a hotel in Norwich where it is wait for it...... A CARVERY.... EVERY DAY! I have informed the people running it that i eat roughly a vegan diet (without going into too much detail). There will be salads, white rice (yuk)/ no brown option- i asked,white fish (with tomato sauce), and jacket potatoes!!!!! Do i make the most of bad situation and eat the nightshades etc.... or pack some wholegrain couscous in my case and eat it in my room!!! Ha..... Help!!!! Any suggestions.....What do you do, like when you visit friends and family too....not eat, or take your own stuff??? Thanx VeeBee.xx

[Klara]

Hi Veebee,

You say you are new so it's hard to give advice, not clear how you eat now.

But if you're asking how others do it, it runs the whole gambit. I have heard the story when someone was in a group of people with Michio Kushi in a terrible Japanese restaurant, but observed as Michio took small bites of WHITE rice and chewed it very very well.

One of my teachers makes it a point to have a whole suitcase of food and utensils and camping stove, so they can cook in their hotel, but shh, it's not allowed. One day she decided that mind over matter, she can manage her trip on whatever foods are available, and got quite sick!!!!!

You don't say how long a few days is and if the hotel room has refrigerator in it. For myself, I would definitely make rice balls or sushi rolls and eat it boldly NOT in my room, but in front of the management of your course and delight in every chew full - and perhaps if you're in a kind of mean mood, wonder why the course didn't make available such good foods for the body and for being able to meditate even better (I don't know if that's a fact, but heck, could say it if you feel like it :>) )

Friends and family - and restaurants are another bag of beans - it's not quite the same as having many meals for several days, so every now and then one can be more flexible.

I knew ahead I would be at a hotel which would probably not be serving my kind of food - so I prepared a whole list of foods that they could make which wasn't too weird - but it was all a waste of time - the chef probably never even saw it - they just served me very very bland fish and expected I'd be thrilled with their salad bar. A pretty miserable experience.

Friends and family know my preferences, and I have no qualms bringing my own food or cooking at other people's homes, tho realizing it will be VERY limited in what they may have on hand to cook with.

And if I have no choice, and want to be with others where the food options aren't the best, I just try to enjoy it and hope I won't regret it too much the following day (or days).

I also took a course where I thought the people were more evolved, but it didn't seem to apply to food choices - the course was for a week, but every night I went home and stayed up late and cooked and brought food with me for the next day. It did make me feel isolated even more from the rest of the people, but it was my choice and I just couldn't get myself to enjoy the food that was offered.

Klara

[veebee]

Hi Klara,
It is a dilemma but what you wrote helped, thanks. I think the group i'm going with strike up a deal with the hotel... on the cheap... and there is'nt much room for flexibility. Your right because everyone would meditate better on a mostly vegetable/ brown rice diet. When you meditate your matabolism slows right down so if you have eaten a heavy meal,after the meditation you end up with trapped wind and indigestion!I am going from the 11th-15th April... i can always nip out to a M&S or Waitrose and get some sushi for lunch , take some pumpkin seed bread with vegan butter (pure)for breakfast with fruit , and make do with fish in tomato sauce with veg... i could do couscous in the room!? There is'nt a fridge by the way.How long have you been macrobiotic?I'm still trying to get to grips with the whole yin/yang vibe of things. I think i need to hang a list up in the kitchen to learn which food is which until it clicks and i feel it man!! Ha. VeeBee.

[Bruce Paine]

Well, there are many approaches to take to eating when traveling, Veebee!

The best way to go is to have people cook for you the way you want to eat but apparently that is not an option for you, so another option is to travel to where people are cooking the way you want to eat.

That also appears to not be in the cards for you, so if you are traveling by automobile, you could carry your kitchen with you but if that is not and option, maybe you can carry some of your foods with you and either eat very little or supplement what they are offering where you will be eating.

Here is an excellent travel guide written by Ilanit Tof called "Am Macro, can travel!" Wholefoods to go...


If you are not going to take a traveling kitchen with you, then there are some foods that you can travel with as Ilanit has described.

But if you want to eat better than the most common offerings of your locale, you might try some of the nearby vegetarian/vegan restaurant or restaurants with those options:

Health Food Stores & Vegetarian Restaurants in Norwich

NORWICH, NORFOLK Central- East, England, United Kingdom, UK Vegetarian Restaurants & Vegan Restaurants, Raw Food Restaurant, Health Food Stores and Natural Food Markets

Vegetarian restaurants and hotels - nearest to Norwich


Vegetarian Restaurants in Norwich

Unfortunately, macrobiotics has a very small market share of the food and restaurant business, so you are probably not going to find many places to eat macro foods in England.

What meditation centre will you be visiting?

Thank you, very much.

Bruce Paine

[Klara]

Veebee and Bruce,

Ilanit's article is excellent - may be not all applies, but there's a lot of good suggestions that can be applied. I especially loved the comment about the sushi rolls stimulating discussions with others - I find that's true with all the mb food and I really do love sharing the knowledge with others - just seems to me those doing meditation might be open to it.

Also Ilanit writes about doing other kinds of exercises along with the meditation.

What hasn't been mentioned yet, and you veebee kind of refer to it, if one does end up eating foods not the best, you still have the choice, one, to chew it very very well, and two, the amount you take in. (and you could scrape off the sauce off the fish and perhaps ask for parsley or lemon or both) You do NOT have to eat alot - I'm sure there's a quote somewhere that eating "bad" foods in small amounts is better than eating large amounts of "good" foods, quantity does affect quality. (that doesn't mean you'd eat alot of good food, just it's still possible to get something even out of bad food)

Veebee, the whole yin/yang concept takes time and experience. I like to describe myself not as mb but as practicing mb - forever practicing. otoh, some say everyone is mb, that the universe has laws of balance, and whether people know it or not they are always aiming for balance, tho sometimes with extremes and sometimes it's disease that comes in to assist.

So, I've been practicing for 13 years, come this May - and I truly can't remember if at the beginning yin/yang was a concept that was introduced - perhaps it was and it just went right over me - it's taken alot of time, experience and repetition of ideas from many sources to get an idea and there's still much much to learn. If it helps, think in other terms, like yin is light, expansive, airy - things like that, yang is concentrated, heavy, contractive - then when you see charts in books see how that fits.

Anyway, it's truly not the most crucial element I feel for beginners - it comes with the eating and the learning - just keep at it and it will come.

Klara

[veebee]

Bruce and Klara,
Thanks for your expert advice.13 years hey Klara( you must have a very healthy colon)! Ha..... i admire you, i guess when you get into the swing of it all, it's like riding a bike. Bruce thanks for the book, restaurant and health shop lists- sweet.I don't think there will be time to eat out but i will check out the health shops if need be, but will take food with me i reckon... I have written a short bit in the body & soul section about meditation and the group i'm with... check it out.If you fancy it could you tell me a typical days intake of food for you guys, so i can see if i'm on the right track.I only have 'The hip chicks Guide' to go by!!??Thanks again.veebee.