Macrobiotic Diet

boofredlay

Welcome to Fit Club. Stu beat me to the first post... lazy I guess. Actually I was ripping all the carpet out of my dining room, living room and entry.

The Macrobiotic diet. Ross Macintosh and Craig D have had success using it.
Ross in weight loss and Craig, correct me if I am wrong, in everyday living.
Craig posted some resources here:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=251

I am going to check them out soon but if anyone else here follows the diet chime in.

I am anxious to hear some of Ross' success meals.

CraigD

One of the very best things you can do for your diet is to buy a crock pot and make organic, local whole rolled oatmeal and have that every day for breakfast. I started doing this and it's super easy. You buy the organic whole oats (or millet or kanji...more on this later) and set it up the night before, just before bed.

I'll do two cups of pure filtered water, 1.5 cups of whole oats, a pinch of sea salt and ground cinnamon into the crock pot on low or 1 and go to bed. The next day, I'll go down to the kitchen and stir in some organic raisins and maybe some more water if needed, then I hit the showers and in 30 minutes the raisins have plumped up with the water and then we'll serve this with a little extra cinnamon. The raisins and cinnamon are plenty of sweetener so no sugar is added (sugar is evil for humans).

We'll have this with organic green tea, and maybe some sour dough bread, toasted with a little local honey.

It's best to eat a meal like this in the morning, and then eat smaller meals as the day goes.

There's my little macrobiotic tip of the day!

Cheers,

CraigD

rhankc

@craigd said:

I'll do two cups of pure filtered water, 1.5 cups of whole oats, a pinch of sea salt and ground cinnamon into the crock pot on low or 1 and go to bed. The next day, I'll go down to the kitchen and stir in some organic raisins and maybe some more water if needed, then I hit the showers and in 30 minutes the raisins have plumped up with the water and then we'll serve this with a little extra cinnamon. The raisins and cinnamon are plenty of sweetener so no sugar is added (sugar is evil for humans).- CraigD

Tried this a about 1 1/2 weeka ago, Dude this is gourmet! even my kids friends like it! Thanks C_D

boofredlay

Craig. When you say Whole Oats, what exactly do you mean. I have a carton of Quaker Oats, will that do? Or are you talking about something else.

The Quaker Oats ingredients are: 100% Natural Whole Grain Quaker Quality Rolled Oats.

Thanks.

rhankc

Here is my version of good oatmeal.
Quaker Oats, the kind you cook 5 minutes on a stove. Serving size; well... according to Quaker the more the better, and my bowls are pretty large, so I would guess I'm talking about 1.5 servings.
Cook your oats...
Put in a bowl.....
Add 1/2 tblspoon of Jiff.....That's peanut butter for all you Europeans...
sugar to taste......
Watch out ...it's addicting.

boofredlay

Well I tried Craig's recipie last night and woke up this morning to a ring of burned oates and a center of un-edible mush. I guess I was not supposed to use the Quaker oats.

CraigD

Hi Eric - I've been extraordinarily busy, both professionally and personally lately, so I apologize for not getting back to you earlier.

The problem with Quaker oats is that they are essentially "instant" oats that have been pre-processed. You want to go to a "Whole Foods" type of store and by steel rolled oats. These would normally take an hour to cook, which is why a. instant oats was developed, and b. they're perfect for a crock pot.

Also, here's some info on Congee: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congee

This is also an incredible way to start your day!

Here's a way to think about food and your day:

Morning - you're trying to rekindle the embers in your "fire" or Qi so you don't want to eat cold things, animal fats or high proteins. Oats and grains and fruits and yogurt is good
Mid-day - this is when you (if you've done the proper breakfast) will have your fire burning hot and you want to fuel this. So animal fats/proteins and a larger amount of food is fine. Add some variety in the actual meal so that it's not just one thing, but an assortment of things that will work long term and short term
Evening - your fire is dwindling so you just want to stoke it a little but not too much. Here's where you want to eat your raw vegetables, leafy greens, beans, a little rice or tempe. You don't want to eat a lot. Like a fire that you want to go out by bed time, you wouldn't put a large log on the fire, instead some smaller sticks so that your body will be ready for bed and not working on something as you try to settle down.

As far as breaking through plateaus, you must fool your body. When I train for endurance, I often put many sprint exercises randomly in my routine. The body is amazing at figuring out patterns and conserving, so you have to be random and explosive, then return to the normal pace. You'll find that your body will give it its "all" when called on, thinking that it's run away from saber tooth time, but then you ask for more as you go back to endurance mode. At this point your body will say, ok, I'll give you all the stored up energy I have.

I hope these concepts help you.

Cheers,

CraigD