new to Macro-dizzy and lightheaded

[Leenie]

I have been an ovo-lacto vegetarian for 26 years and am just transitioning to Macrobiotics (suggested in Anne Marie Colbin's book "Foods and Healing"). I find that I am a little light headed/dizzy about 2-3 hours after eating. Although I am not hungry, I find that eating just a little bit (a cup of soup) the dizziness goes away. Is this normal?

Any good suggestions to weaning myself from caffeine. I have 1 cup of coffee in the morning and a cup each of black, green and white tea a day.

Thanks for your suggestions,
Leenie

[bita]

Hi Leenie,

Is the soup salt based (shoyu, tamari, miso)? If it is, it sounds to me like you need more good quality yang in your diet. This will help you feel more grounded and less spacy.



Bita

[Leenie]

Thanks for the suggestion.

My previous eating habits had me going to both extremes, not to mention taking supplements, whey protein, and using Equal & Splenda. I find I have a sweet tooth...actually about 20, but have slowly weaned myself off of sugar, sugar subs and chocolate in the past 6 months, something that was consumed at least daily. I was actually surprised to get an incredible headache when I had a bite or two of a honey/maple bun.

I have tended to avoid anything very acidic, as I had ulcers 20 years ago. I was also plagued with adult acne (the cystic type) for the last 12 years, and each time I ate anything with moderate quantities of vinegar/acid (pickles, salad dressing etc.) I would get a welt(s) on my chin/forehead the ranging in size from a blueberry to a cherry tomato. I, of course, was on antibiotics for several years for this, with moderate success. The most improvement in my skin came when I diligently eliminated artificial flavors, colors and preservatives from my diet about 9 months ago. I just had a pretty substantial flare-up once I eliminated the dairy (was/is this ever hard to do !!!) and added more acidic & salty foods. This I have read is normal.

Should I try to give up the caffeine now, while I'm still tired (and do it cold turkey) or wait until I start to feel better. I had no trouble giving it up with my 2 pregnancies, but what's a little headache when one has morning sickness??

Thanks again for taking the time to write.
Leenie

[bita]

Hi Leenie,


Why don't you try to ween off caffiene by drinking green tea? It still has caffiene, but much less. Tea is also less processed. The leaves are gathered and fermented. Coffee is roasted for hours, ground, and then it takes a bit of time to make a fresh pot. If it is the taste of java that you miss try twig tea or grain coffee.


Bita

Leenie,
Bita has good advice, too.

Most of us new to macro go through a period of:
1) Being energized for a few days; then
2) Tired and lethargic as the body discharges the initial first toxins. This can last anywhere from several days to several months.

Classically, and however, a lot of people, Michio estimates 80% of us, have hypoglycemia. This is shown by having a pink coloration on the bridge of the nose. This is slowly helped by:
A) Sweet Vegetable Drink
4 cups water
1/4 c. finely chopped green cabbage
1/4 c. finely chopped carrots
1/4 c. finely chopped non-red onion
1/4 c. finely chopped sweet squash like kabocha or butternut
Bring to a boil, then simmer 30 minutes, strain, and drink hot 1 c. every afternoon about an hour after lunch. For more severe cases, take in the mornings in between meals, as well. You can make extra of this drink for several days and heat it up.

Additionally, lots of new macros don't know yet to cook strengthening dishes such as:
1) Kinpira-style cooking 2-3x/week (average)
2) Nishime-style cooking 2-3x/week (average)
3) Sea vegetables such as hijiki or arame cooking 1-2x/week (average)
If you get each of these categories of cooking into you every week, you'll feel your energy come back. For example, Monday: make kinpira (let's say, carrots and burdock), and have enough left over for Tuesday. Then on Wednesday, make nishime and have enough left over for Thursday. Then on Friday, make an arame dish with enough left over for Saturday. Then start all over again on Sunday, or skip it.

Also, I hope you're eating white-meat fish. If you are youngish, raising kids, you'll need the energy. Maybe twice a week.

So look into the above items and see how you do.
ONE - Sweet Veggie Drink
TWO - Strengthening Dishes
THREE - Fish

Avoid baked flour and excessively salty things, as that will just worsen the hypoglycemia. Also avoid eating things 3 days ago. Toss it out. There's no more energy left in it! If you eat it, you'll start to crave the old fast carbs again, making you more hypoglycemic and tired again.

Take care, welcome to macrobiotics, and be nice to yourself!

[Leenie]

Thanks for the suggestions. No, I haven't tried any of the strengthing dishes yet. My husband is my polar opposite (big surprise?)and I have kids with different food allergies & sensitivites (not to mention different preferences), so I have been cooking 6-10 different meals a day for years. There are just days when the last thing I want to do is cook, or have the time/desire to prepare something new.

I hadn't though of hypoglycemia, but when you mentioned in the bottom of your note the 3 day old left-overs...you answered my craving question. I've never really craved foods before (with the exception of pregnancy and a little with my cycle), but have found myself searching the pantry for 'something'....and it either is very salty (pretzels) or sweet (raisins/figs). I've avoided eating them and opted for a quick cup of miso or a swig of amasake to compensate. Now I know why!

I'm not very youngish, as my oldest goes off to college next year, however my second one is only 3 (a wonderful surprise) and 150% all boy, so I suppose I do need that extra energy.

Guess I'm off to the kitchen to see what I can whip up. Thanks again for all of your great suggestions.

Have a great day.
Leenie

I have been on the Macro diet for 7 months now, and I think that can be a normal thing when you are just starting. be sure to include lots of different vegetables in your diet. And I am not too sure about what the views are about fruit and such, but if you can eat lots of aplles eat them. Thats what I do, although I find the sugar in them really high. which can lead to a binge on sugar if your not careful.

I know when I started this, I was feeling dizzy and light-headed. i am also an athlete and have hep C, so I really have to monitor myself. I do not eat any soups or anything like that. My soup is tea, I will consume it frozen or hot. I eat lots of rice. for breakfast and for dinner. I do not really eat lucnh considering I work and I play lots of the time. But yeah, all I can say is that you should just knock up your calorie intake. it could be because the macro-diet can be low in calories. Sometimes I find whne I eat more, I weigh less. Silly, but it works, considering I am getting all the rpoer vitamines and everything I need in their rawest form. But let me tell you my little thing, maybe you wont have to eat as much if you do it another way, but I eat parboiled rice, because of the price for the quantity and the short cooking time. This works well for me. I can burn everuything off.

I have been noticing though, that after this last month or two my taste for parboiled has become alittle blad. The rice is best when you eat it on its own.

I eat lots of rice (carbohydrate), lentils ( a form of sprout protein) and oil. Again I don't know how macrobiotician look upon oil, but I find I need it, in smll quantitys. youc an tell whcih foods are bad for you. They are the ones that make you binge. Anyways, I am going to finish up at work here, and I amg going for a 50 mile bile ride today. Not bad, I need to stretch my legs. Ciao.

Dorf. (Registered, but not signed in)
Bangle-Dorf@Hotmail.Com

[Leenie]

Thanks for all of your helpful suggestions.

After a few days of sluggishness, I'm off of coffee! Thanks for the green tea suggestion Bita.

The Kinpira and nishimi veggies were a great help. I am having a challenge with the arame and hiziki though. Any decent recipes out there to try?

Overall, I'm feeling pretty good.

Many thanks to all of you experienced macros out there that take the time to answer questions.

Leenie

[Bruce Paine]

Leenie,

You will find some comprehensive arame and hiziki/hijiki recipes in The Self-Healing Cookbook: A Macrobiotic Primer for Healing Body, Mind and Moods With Whole Natural Foods by Kristina Turner

To get the most comprehensive information on kinpira and nishime vegetables, you will need to read The Macrobiotic Path to Total Health: A Complete Guide to Preventing and Relieving More Than 200 Chronic Conditions and Disorders Naturally by Michio Kushi and Alex Jack


Green tea is a good transition beverage, with kukicha
being a good daily beverage.

Thank you, very much.

_||_

Bruce Paine

Hello,

I find this very interesting and comforting (ie I am not alone) because I'm also experiencing general weakness of late. I felt generally well on my 1st year as macro, with occassional discharges (like migraines when I take even the teeniest bite of something with sugar, even fruits), noticed a great improvement in my bowel movement (I'm finally regular after 20-30 years!) and increased mental sharpness. But on my 2nd year, general weakness would linger (months now). Before macro, I was a voracious carnivore - now, I eat fish only and lots of veggies and rice. I actually increased my fish intake from 1-2x a week to everyday (almost) because I felt that my body just couldn't cope with the almost no meat diet.

My daily diet is typically rice and miso soup for breakfast, rice and veggies for lunch, oatmeal in the afternoon (I just really get hungry), and rice and fish in the evening. I've tried nishime, though one a week only. But I need something more potent, to bring my energy back. Sometimes, I don't eat much also because I'm tired of the taste. Any suggestions to make my food more interesting and more energizing, and introduce more variety? (aside from what was already suggested, kinpira, nishime, hijiki, etc)

Hi there again,
I'm the one that suggested the nishime, kinpira, and sea vegetable dishes. Leenie, you asked how to prepare some sea veg dishes. The best advice I was given is:

1) Rinse arame (Notice the "r's")
2) Soak hijiki (Notice the "k's")

Saute either for about 3 minutes in either a small amount of water, or a spraying of sesame oil. Then, add water to simmer, cover, and let simmer for 45 minutes to cook off the fishy taste. Towards the end of cooking, say, about 10 minutes left, add some other vegetable(s), cook a few minutes more, season lightly with say, shoyu, or for a lift, try a little apple juice with arame (yum-yum), and as the liquid cooks off, it'll be time to serve.

One dish I forgot to mention which also helps to give strength is just a "roots and tops" dish. Use turnips and tops, or carrots and their tops, or daikon and their tops, or a mixture. Use this dish about 1-2x per week.

Again, very important, please get that sweet veggie drink in you. Make it up and store it in a thermos if need be. Then, about an hour after lunch, have a hot cup. Have that often for the first few months, say, about 3-4x/week. You can make enough to last about 2 days, so all you need to do is warm it up.

Too many salty things tighten up the pancreas, then the body craves sweet things to loosen it up, but then that makes one sleepy. The sweet veggie drink helps solve all that.

As for the person with Hep C, careful of overeating, overdrinking, too much oil, nuts, excess fruit (nightshades, spices, caffeine, aromatic teas, sugars, sweeteners -- stuff you may not be eating much of anymore anyway in parentheses.) Please subsitute more broad leafy greens into your diet instead of lots of apples. Currently, your liver is preferring the stronger yin of the apples to continue its problem (great yin attracts more yin, and Hep C is yin cause), but if you substitute leafy greens, which the liver loves, you'll recover faster. Make sure half of your plate has vegetables on it: of that half, half of those are long-cooked, which is a quarter of your plate (nishime, kinpira, sea vegetable dish, or roots and tops) and the other half, again, a quarter of your plate, is short-cooked, like broad leafy greens. Good luck to you, there have been other successful stories of completely recovered Hep C cases with macro, so you should do just fine. Give yourself a couple of years to heal completely.

To the new person unregistered here who is also new-ish to macro:

I re-read your message and I did not see greens mentioned specifically. Greens give energy, too! Try eating lightly boiled (3 minutes) greens 2-3x a day. Occasionally, oil-saute them in order to better capture the calcium in the greens along with the oil.

Also, please, please, please make home-made pickles! These are important, too. There are lots of enzymes in there that help with digestion and therefore energy.

Next, Sweet Veggie Drink. Please make it. Regularly, like 3-4x/week. Remember, you can make extra to last 2 days. Just warm it up. Have home remedies (mostly) on an empty stomach; they're more effective.

Avoid baked goods as much as possible. And limit the refined grains (oatmeal) to one meal every other day. Try other snacks like lightly roasted or boiled pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds, or air-popped popcorn, or leftovers, or plain amazake, or twig tea mixed with apple juice and a slice of lemon, or leftover fruit compote, or corn on the cob, or a light noodle dish -- I could go on and on.

And hey, how about variety? Are you making your dishes differently every time you make them? For example, sometimes put a sliced apple in the pressed salad. Or start your miso soup by oil-sauteing a scallion in the bottom, add water and then add the other vegetables. Or start with cold water. Or start it with hot water. Or cut the veggies differently. Use different veggies. Try different misos. Skip miso now and then for morning. Have it another day. Or at night. Make squash soup. Anyway, get creative. Once you get creative, you get out of the "rut."

Also, what about the beans? Get about a cup (cooked already) of beans in you a day.

Are you chewing well? 50x? Go for it! Watch the energy increase!

Anyway, I hope some of these tips help. Take care!