Tired, Achey and Grumpy

[Alice]

Hello Anyone & Everyone,

I have read thorough the forum and noticed few people who complained of sore necks from lots of brown rice intake. I have developed a sore and achey body (especially around neck and shoulders) and my lack of energy has dropped to the point I almost would think I was sick. This started on the 2nd day of doing Macrobiotics. I am also irritable and going to bed at 9;00pm and waking up at 7:00am and still feeling exhausted. I have been vegetarian (and i dont eat refined sugar)all my life, and have tried different detox's in the past, and usually I would feel somewhat sluggish the third or fourth day in, but then I would regain energy after and feel fine. Not this time. My husband is quite concerned (he is not on it) as he has noticed quite a change. I have been eating lots of brown rice (usually 2-3 cups throughout the day), sea vegetables, cabbage salads, some almonds, millet, some hummus, tofu, miso soup as well as butternut squash and cauliflower soups, and I am drinking bancha and kukicha tea. Should I give up? HELP!!

[Manymoons]

Alice;

I empathize with your condition. I have experienced similar reactions when I have made sudden changes in my diet.

I can not tell you what to do since I know nothing about you, really. My first concern would be to question your understanding of yin/yang, because that is the fundamental this food deals with. As we begin eating a more yin/yang neutral diet, our bodies may not be accustomed to NOT being stimulated by foods of a more extreme yin or yang nature. Without this stimulation we can find ourselves left "high and dry" because we are unable to "transmute" this food into what we need.

The grains are yin/yang neutral and do not impose their own nature on you as would meat, sugar, fruit etc. What you may be experiencing is a tension you carry ( yin/yang related) that is being exposed by this food, while it may have been covered up by the manner in which you were previously eating.

My advice is go slowly and carefully. Understand Yin/yang well. To command yin/yang one must first obey it. What is your own yin/yang balance? what is the balance of the food you have eaten and are now eating? What is the balance of the parents from whom you were born?---this is what you are made of --so to speak. What is the balance you create with you husband?--your friends?---other women? --other men?

While we eat this food as a tool for self improvement and realization of our fuller balance, it remains only a tool (the key one). Our lives must be lived! Look at the yin/yang in everything that you relate to and learn who you are, what you offer, what you take, what you need (in all things, not just food), how you play, what brings you joy or pain and see your place is this universe. It all starts with you! It is your yin/yang so explore it because your are here and everything you do contributes to your yin/yang balance. It is impossible to quit!---it is only a question of whether to be conscious of it all or not?!?!

hoping to be helpful,
Manymoons

[Nancy]

Hello Alice,

You are describing symptoms that I am well familiar with. You are eating Too Yang, for you. Too Yang meaning...to alkaline, too salty. Grumpiness and neck aches, and tiredness, are all symptoms of a too yang diet, for you, individually. Ease off any salty foods immediately. Balance with more yin foods (fruit), until the neck aches go away, as well as the irritability.

This condition is not from brown rice, which is one of the most perfectly balanced foods. You might be putting too much sea salt in your rice when cooking it. The amount of sea salt should only be 1/8 tsp. per cup of uncooked rice, never more than that. I wouldn't advise attempting the macrobiotic diet using table salt, because this will severely throw you off balance. Get the best quality natural sea salt you can find from your local natural foods store. You can order online from the Cybermacro Natural Foods Store (click above). The best salt I have ever used, and it has an incredibly delicious taste, is the brand "Si Salt", naturally sun dried in Baja, Mexico. Many macrobiotic people use this brand of salt. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

I had the same problem you are describing at one time, especially tightness in the upper back and neck. After eating macro for some time, for me it was 4-6 months, I had sufficiently yangized from a rather yin condition (previously on dairy foods like most of the USA). The aching neck indicated I needed to ease up on the amount of yang and salty foods in my diet and add more yin foods. I added some fruits, etc., and cut down drastically on shoyu/soy sauce. No problems, after that.

I would like to know if you are flying by the seat of your pants cooking for yourself, or if you are using a cookbook. If using a cookbook, what book, what author? Although I love Aveline Kushi's creativity, I find her recipes, as written, far too yang for me. Thus, I use her recipes but cut the yang aspects and saltiness to be more balanced for me.

Remedy: To relieve salty symptoms fast, take a hot bath and soak for as long as desired. Drink more water.

Avoid the use of shoyu and soy sauce...and never sprinkle soy sauce directly on foods, uncooked. Shoyu/soy sauce should be sparingly sprinkled into food, while cooking, not consumed raw. I had to switch to low sodium, organic, tamari soy sauce, because I simply find it exceedingly difficult to have more than the minutest quantities of soy sauce. I like -light- soy sauce best, if at all, and add some yin ingredients to whatever dish I use -light soy sauce- in.

Eating too yang will also cause symptoms of tiredness. Usually, at the beginning of a macrobiotic practice you will experience a very pleasant tiredness/sleepiness. This is the change in your diet from yin to yang. I remember, the first month I was macro was in August, and after eating miso soup for lunch, with Wakame, I wanted to lay down and snooze. It was very pleasantly sedative. So, I took a Siesta on the patio, in my hammock. I loved it, though. After one month, your body will adjust to the yang of sea vegetables (nothing could be more healthy) and this sedating effect will pass. Use only a
-postage stamp size- piece of Kombu and ease off too much Wakame, if you are using too much. I love Wakame. I soak it, lay it on a cutting board in layers, roll it up and cut it with a scissors into my soup, like long, thin, green noodles.

2-3 cups of brown rice is more than you need per day. I think 1/2 cup, lunch and dinner, is more than enough. Americans are outlandish with their portion sizes. For breakfast have some Oats. You can have 1/4 - 1/2 c. oats, add some raisins or fruit, and have Bancha tea. This is a nicely balanced, slightly yin breakfast.

Make sure your cabbage salad isn't sauerkraut or extremely salty, pressed salad. If too salty, rinse the pressed salad under cold water, rinsing off the excess salt. Any overuse of sauerkraut will make one immediately grouchy, for 3-4 days, as it is VERY salty!

Also make sure your own homemade vegetable soups do not contain too much salt...salt your soup to taste, at the very lowest level of salt you can get away with -- to not be too bland. Never oversalt soup. You will only do yourself a disservice, having to later balance it with more yin foods.

If you are thinking of quitting after only two days, you might not need the macrobiotic way as much as you previously thought. Also, because your husband does not share your interest and dedication regarding this way of eating...do not let him pull you off track.

My Testimony: There is no healthier way of life, or mode of eating, than Macrobiotics, that I've ever found. Macrobiotics is beyond simple vegetarianism. Gaining an understanding of yin and yang, and using these tools to live your life, are literally the .........................

Keys to the Kingdom.

Nancy

[Alice]

I am not sure if my last message was cut off...
I had another question if anyone can help. Since I have not had many health concerns with starting Macrobiotics, and mainly wanted to see what it was about, has anyone who was in great shape and feeling very healthy and started Macrobiotics notices a change to feeling that much better?

[Bruce Paine]

Alice,

More than thirty years ago, I was excessively overweight, then I became a vegetarian, hitchhiked and fasted across the United States, lost a third of my weight over the course of a year, and I felt great!

I then stumbled upon macrobiotics (eating and working in a macrobiotic restaurant in Maine) and after two weeks I felt fantastic (at one point, I experienced something akin to a biological re-birth!)!

Since then, I've experienced some lows and highs but have managed for most of the time to have a good experience.

If you've truly experienced macrobiotics and yin & yang, and then you think it's not for you and you go try other things, if you've truly had a good experience with macrobiotics, there will be nothing that compares with it and you will keep coming back to it.

Take heart! Don't give up!

Thank you, very much.

_||_

Bruce Paine