Macrobiotic Life

I have find out about Peace Pilgrim today. Some thoughts from the website:

I have walked 25,000 miles as a penniless pilgrim. I own only what I wear and what I carry in my small pockets. I belong to no organization. I have said that I will walk until given shelter and fast until given food, remaining a wanderer until mankind has learned the way of peace. And I can truthfully tell you that without ever asking for anything, I have been supplied with everything needed for my journey, which shows you how good people really are.

1. Purification of the bodily temple.
Are you free from all bad habits? In your diet do you stress the vital foods – the fruits, whole grains, vegetables and nuts? Do you get to bed early and get enough sleep? Do you get plenty of fresh air, sunshine, exercise, and contact with nature? If you can answer “Yes” to all of these questions, you have gone a long way toward purification of the bodily temple.

I know enough about food to nourish my body properly, and I have excellent health. I enjoy food, but I eat to live. I do not live to eat, and I know when to stop eating. I am not enslaved by food.

Steps Toward Inner Peace by Peace Pilgrim

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As I put on my simple clothing one day after a swim in a clear mountain lake I thought of those who have closets full of clothes to take care of, and who carry heavy luggage with them when they travel. I wondered how people would want to so burden themselves, and I felt wonderfully free. This is me and all my possessions. Think of how free I am! If I want to travel, I just stand up and walk away. There is nothing to tie me down.

One outfit of clothing is enough. That’s all I’ve owned since my pilgrimage started in 1953. And I take good care of my things. I can always find a wash basin in a public restroom or a nearby stream to wash my clothes, and drying them is even easier: I just put them on and let the energy from the sun evaporate any dampness.

Living the Simple Life

7:00 get up
9:00 – 9:15 stretching
9:15 – 9:45 freshly pressure cooked 50% rice + 50% emmer grain, boiled carrot and parsley, chewed 50-100x, proper sitting with straight spine (you can feel the full stomach much quicker in the straight position, when sitting hunched you will usually overeat, but the straight spine has many other positive effects ofcourse)
11:50 – 12:30 the same
4km bike trip to the forest, bare foot training chi kung and eye stretching (Bate’s method)
15:15 – 16:15 same grains, boiled cabbage with miso and wild plants (herbs)
17:45 small cup of freshly cooked red beans with kombu (1 hour 40 mins – soaked overnight)
19:25 – 21:00 same grains; boiled carrot; oil fried bread with 3 day pickles + shoyu + little water; white flour pastas + barley malt; almonds + barley malt; kuzu+shoyu drink to compensate my yin overtake

Listening to a new music (to me) The Bouncing Souls – very speedy funny style. I am dancing all over the flat till midnight I have also started to get interested in the natural house building processes. I want to learn some techniques how to build simple cheape houses. I am very interested in the traditional Japanese building techniques, but it will be really hard to get to know someone who can really make old tatamis and old Japanese houses. But after watching samurai DVD series I fell in love with their houses simplicity and effectivity. I have also read, that Tatami does smell very nicely, because it’s made from the rice straw – imagine sleeping in the straw and the beatiful smell. I am thinking about trying to make my own tatami from the writings I have read about it. It will be just for fun, at least the smell of fresh strow will be there
I got also offer to live or spend some time in the Russia beginning alternative village (according to the Anastasia dreams). There are people of Czechs, Russia and Srbia and their main aim is Love in the Nature – what could be better. Yeah, one thing is missing from our macrobiotic view – they are mostly vegetarians, but still eating sugar and other more extreme yin/yang energies. They would be much more connected with the Nature line if implementing macrobiotic lifestyle (eating habits). I the past I was finding big problems with living in such a community where people are not eating macrobiotics. But the more I chew and more I am humble, I can imagine living anywhere, as long as I could cook my macrobiotic meal there and be happy with some small personal space (house).
I am on the crossroads in my Life now. I have many great options what to do and where to move now. One is the Russia village, another is Holland Kushi Institute, another is macrobiotic community in the sounce France and another new one is to work as a Security man in the UK. The last one is not spiritual, it’s just simple money making opportunity. The job is very easy, good for meditative people, because all you do is walk and watch at some places like supermarkets, construction places etc. And the earning is nice for this simple job – it’s 6 pounds per hour. The living costs there would be 200 – 400. So with the 10 hour shift, the real net income would be from 800 – 1000, which is quite nice if you consider the type of the job. I feel I will need money in the future to start my living in the nature, to build my simple cheap house (cob, wood, bamboo – i don’t know yet) and to buy the land place, or I can use our land that my mother inherited, but I don’t see it as the perfect dream place, it would be the last option. I don’t need too much money for the house, I imagine maximum of $35.000 to get me builded nice low energy natural house. But still I need these money at least. I am not sure which path to choose now, but I feel I don’t need the money now and I will concentrate on experiences and money will come somehow later. My new dream, growing inside me and completely strange to my computer professional life is to be “Natural House builder”. To learn some techniques (my dream one is Traditional Japanese Houses) and to get better and better, to study, to travel and learn from other people and work hard in the sunny nature, not inside some building while sitting before computer. It’s my BIG dream now. I am more moving from the computer and closed buildings to the outside Nature beautiful world and feeling very happy there, something I have never felt before. It all began with my intensive rice chewing and humble asking the Nature for my new life direction. And since then (3 months before), I started to really live and my life changed by a big amount – complete 180 degree turn for somebody who was used to sit before computer and earn money with building spammy SEO sites.
Thank you mother Nature for everything

5:50 get up
8:30 – 9:10 yesterday grains (rice + millet) with water deep-fried broccoli + roasted flax seeds (50x chewing)
12:20 – 12:40 small portion of fresh cooked kuskus with carrot and daikon + 2 plates of seitan; going out to school and taking 2 jars of this food
15:00 – 15:20 eating 1st jar at school, being very hungry, not chewing at all
18:10 – 18:40 chewing well 2nd jar, still at school

I am feeling very warm and very fine, happy minded. Outside temp is 0 *C. I have bought another camping tools for my traveling future plans. I have new gas cooker (var2 – czech made), new camping cooking set (2 pots – 1.5 liter and 1 liter) – but they have very thin bottom, i am not sure how well will these serve for macrobiotic foods cooking, because they need longer time preparation and lower flame. These camping cookers are prepared for maximum effect – high flames, rapid boil, but not for the low simmering. Anyway, for the longer trips to the foreign countries (Asia, Russia, Mongolia etc.), I imagine taking small 3.5 liter WMF pressure cooker. Yes, it sounds crazy, but I was inspired by Nelissen, who pictures I saw, when he was traveling China and taking not only one but two of these WMF pressure cookers in the backpack – their handles were sticking out of his bag like a two samurai swords But you need a lot of gas bombs for long time cooking too. Hope I will get more experiences. And what better could I do, than going to sleep in the nearby woods tonight. I was really feeling very warm, even hot. I have also bought new professional all-season groundcloth (14mm strong). It was veeery adventurous to go outside in the night for me, it was first time sleeping without tent, under the beautiful sky and trees. I packed my stuff and also some food to enjoy the morning breakfast in the nature and to test my cooker. I had head-light already boughten.
I went out at 22:30 and was preparing my sleep place at 23:30. Although I have slept no more than 3 hours, the enjoyment was VERY VERY cool. I felt like I can really go and sleep anywhere. I fall asleep fast, because I was heated from the trip and I was even sweating. But then I woke up and being cold. I couldn’t slept at all, I was feeling completely awake and was thinking about many thinks where I will travel. But while being still chilled, I went out and do a quick muscle training set (crunches and quick nunchaku set – yeah, I took my nunchaku also). And then went fast to the sleeping back and was ok and fall asleep again for a 1 hour. Woke up at 5:30. All birds were singing and I started to hear something very similar to barking, it was quite close to me. I looked around and I realised that even roebucks are barking I fall in love with sleeping outside. I fall in love with Nature. I want to spend more time outside than in the house. And with today’s achievement, I feel very powerful. It was my first trip in the quite cold weather, sleeping without tent. I forgot to say, that it was -3 *C through the night.
At the morning I made a lot of streching, some fast runs, Bates eye stretching method for my shortsightedness (I have very strong – minus 6 dioptres and I consider this as a biggest goal in my life, to corect this shortsightedness problem and to enjoy the World without glass crunches, it limits me in many adventurous dreams and sports, I need to wear contact lenses, but I am ok with them only for 12 hours, sometimes I would need more hours without glasses, especially if I would like to hike in the mountains).
Then I warmed my leftover grains (kuskus + rice with millet) in the bancha tea. All went ok with the VAR cooker. And chewed 50-150 times in the meditative morning forest atmosphere. I eat that from 6:50 – 7:40.
I come home at 8:30.
But now, while writing (10:00), I feel like I have small higher temperature. But I am happy for this, because the yin overeating in the previous days needs to be eliminated. I am very thankful it goes out in the natural manner – higher temperature and sweating. I will definitely support my body in this process with small food portions and perfect chewing today.

I have also finished the school. Actually, I call it school, but it was course in the “Www administration” that belongs under the Labour Office, because I am unemployed at this time. From today I have all my time for my future plans. I have some money stream coming from my internet website projects. But it’s not much and I will need to live frugal life, if I wouldn’t want to go to work.

Thank you Nature for this beautiful World.

6:00 get up
6:50 shoyu + kuzu drink; my lower lip is swollen (classic reaction to the extreme yin state of my large intestine)
9:55 – 10:25 porridge – rice+barley (yesterday) with water; 15 minute stewed cabbage
11:45 – 12:00 the same
12:20 – 12:45 seitan fried on sunflower oil + shoyu + rice with barley; roasted seeds
18:00 – 18:40 rice + barley + onion + sunflower oil (1 spoon)
23:00 sleep

I would say, perfect day from the eating regime point of view. But the reason I haven’t overeaten is pretty visible. I was out from 16 am to 22 am and I couldn’t sit at home while eating unconsciously while watching some movie or reading internet. It’s a big change when I am occupied by something interesting. But because I am working from home and many times not going out at night, I have problems not to think about food, when my energy slows down and I have no idea what really interesting to do. I am single also, and this adds up a lot. When having gf I would have plenty ideas to conduct with her I need to build my discipline more, it was not such a big problem in the history. But now I am trying not to be so hard on me and rather watch consciously what my body needs/craves and not to restrict anything, but be more in the yin/yang flow of energies. If I see I do crave for sweets, I am trying to find the real reason now. I hope this overeating experiment, with no push to be disciplined, will show me some new path to my problems.

I was doing a lot of stretches through the day – the “Sun greeting” set many times and many other stretching styles.
I also met a girl by accident that is going to Iceland for 5 month and we were chatting in the Shopping store for 3 hours about her and my life.

And I bought my first new rucksack – Deuter Aircontact Pro 60 + 15. The price is in the highest range of the rucksacks prices, but I decided not to spare on two things – rucksack and boots. Because I don’t see no logic in saving $125-$200 bucks on rucksack if my backs will hurt on a long trip, the same with boots. I am slowly getting more ready for my planned future trip. I want to live in a nature for a while. I see a healthy/spiritual aspect in this trip. I want to eat and cook and chew and exercise and meditate for few days/weeks in the mountains. One of the reasons is, that I hope I will be occupied by many interesting things and the food will be no more my top daily priority. Also the food reserves will be low, so I won’t be able to eat and eat and eat.. I will need to think and spread my foods over the whole trip. That’s what I call real life discipline, not the artificial part that I would achieve at home.

The question of traveling + macrobiotic does interest me a lot. I would like to pack and start traveling all over the world, while eating pure macrobiotic. I am interested in wild nature, where there are no places to shop for 1-2 weeks. The favorite regions to visit are SE Asia, S America, Mongolia, Tibet, India, Russia and all the beautiful mountains on the whole Earth.

I wonder if anybody traveled to wild places and lived on macrobiotic?
I am searching someone with experiences from the adventurous places to give me more courage to realise my plan, because I am still hesitating how to overcome all the problems with food.

I see the purpouse of these trips also from the spiritual view.
I would like to conduct very good macrobiotic lifestyle while traveling, because I won’t have another option and clean my body/spirit while traveling and while being connected with nature.
At home, while spending 10 hours at work, it gets hard to eat well. It needs a lot of discipline to not overeat, to not take too much jin foods, to chew 50 times, to eat slowly and in relaxed manner, to spent time outside and if possible walk barefoot each day.
I envision how my trips will give a completely different charge to my macrobiotic life. Maybe I am only dreaming and the reality will kick me hard and return me back to my city house living. But I hope, it will be the opposite and I will fall in much bigger love with the Nature and that I will feel completely at home in the deep mountains with simple foods.

The more and longer I eat macrobiotic, the more I feel being pulled to the natural life style. To build and live in a house in some mountains and be self-suficient. I really like this direction that macrobiotic leads me.

My big problem with traveling is also that I am alone for this. Not many people would like to undertake 1-2 month living in a strange places and exploring the nature. But maybe I was searching at wrong places. I was searching only localy and today I realised why I don’t share my dream here. If anyone is of the same feeling about the traveling + nature + macrobiotic, please let me know, maybe we can start planning something together

Bellow are photos are from my summer 2007 trip to Iceland. I was eating mostly macrobiotic there for 15 days and I can share a lot of tips and experiences with the Iceland in general if you want. Just let me know in comments.

This last one is not from Iceland, but from the Slovakia – High Tatra mountains, exactly from the east part called Belianské Tatry.