Bowel Movements and stomach pains in Beantown...

[Derek]

Hello all!
I've been a transitioning macro for almost a year, and have taken the new year by storm by eating as well as i know how. I've made a few initial observations and need some opinions as to these reactions:

I've found that my bowel movements are significantly less when I eat more balanced meals and less at each meal. I can feel a weight in my intestines (maybe its my stomach) that never feels cleansed when I leave the bathroom. Bowel movements are still irregular (i've been told proper macro eating can regulate this problem), though i'm still eating my meals at about the same times every day (7 to 8 am for breakfast, 12 to 1 for lunch, 5:30 to 6:30 for dinner). Is this a concern that needs to be addressed?

Also, i used to eat a lot for dinner, eat late at night (and when I say eat, i mean EAT) and it took great discipline to stop myself from eating after dinner. However, I've been successful (and thankful for that success) since the new year. I eat less, eat dinner slightly earlier, and try to go to bed earlier (i work retail so my schedule sometimes permits me to eat dinner at work & get home after 10pm). This, i've noticed, has resulted in strange, sharp stomach pains that occur when I get home, or at around 10 to 11pm. My stomach feels like its weighed down and working hard, and I don't feel comfortable with these sensations. Is this my body adjusting to the lack of late night foods? Am I not satisfying a daily need? I should also note that I have been taking a multi-vitamin daily for the last six years, and that was the hardest thing to give up. I gave it up three days ago, very hesitantly, and am wondering if that had something to do with my stomach pains.

Any initail thoughts??

[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

[Derek]

Klara,
Thank you for the quick response! Let's see if i can answer all your questions as well as give some personal insight/details...

Getting rid of late night eating for me was just a matter of discipline, and taking control of my urges. The power to look at my food and say 'no' has really helped me. I also take my time eating dinner, eat early, and try to get to bed as early as possible.

Chewing my food is something i'm getting better at. I don't count each chew, but i'm somewhere in the range of 35 to 50 chews per mouthful. I just chew until everything is more or less liquid in my mouth and swallow. This causes my boss great discomfort as he watches me chew my grains like a cow

As for timetables, i'm young (23), and have eaten the modern american diet for 22 years. It was only last april that i started incorporating macrobiotic food into my diet. I went through strange periods: eating completely strict, eating strict but cheating once a day, binging...i'd go through phases with certain foods like macro cookies and popcorn (there was a week where i ate an entire bag of popcorn every night before bed!). The hardest part was refined sugar and overeating, which I now think are related. I havent touched meat since my birthday in June. I've had fish and shellfish, but sparingly.
As for how foods affected me, I never really had any 'food allergies' or foods that affected my digestion (or, at least, that i've noticed). Macrobiotics came to me out of curiosity. I'm young, lean, i exercise often...i have nothing life-threatening. I just enjoy, and have been forever changed by, eating and living in this practice.

As for being relaxed while eating at work, i'd have to say more often that not i'm stressed at work all the time. It's an incredibly negative enviornment (and i'm hoping to rectify that problem very soon) and it causes me worry and agitation constantly. Perhaps if I leave work to eat lunch/dinner, I may be able to digest a little more comfortably?

As for how i've learned, it's been almost completely self-study. I've purchased many books (my cooking bible is Aveline Kushi's complete guide...), have attended a few community dinners, and have gone out to eat at a local Macrobiotic restaurant a few times. I've purchased better quality food, cook constantly (3 to 4 hours a day), and better quality cookware. I've seen my cooking improve every day, and my rice is getting better and better. I think I need to go to some cooking classes, as well as find other Macro people to contrast/compliment cooking with.

Well, i hope that covers everything. Did this help? Did this open up any doors to answers or suggestions? My bowel movements have been getting smaller and smaller in quantity, and this is worrying me. Is this normal? I hope so.

Derek

[Klara]

Hi Derek,

Looks like you did answer your own questions, which is the key to mb - you noticed the tension at your work and you said that would change and you recognized cooking classes would be useful.

Again only as one seeker to another, I would guess that having bowel movements smaller and smaller means that the wonderful food you are eating and how you are eating it is getting used efficiently by your body so that there is less and less waste.

Only other way to figure it out is if a good counselor can give you a diagnosis, using the skills they have learned by observing signs from your body. Although I briefly learned a little, it seemed ever so complicated.

You sound like you're doing great!!! If you do something drastic like quite your job, maybe the mb restaurant could use your services, that would be a fun way I would guess to learn.

Klara