So I just
ate brown rice, more brown rice, and almost nothing else for 10 days.
Welcome to
Ohsawa’s diet #7, the classic macrobiotic cleanse.
The basic
principle of macrobiotics is that foods are either yin (receptive) or yang (emissive).
Most of our diet is very yin, which can make a person kind of soft and mushy,
overly sensitive, and weaken the immune system.
Grains are
perfectly balanced yin/yang, so if you only eat grains for a while your system
can pull itself into balance. Also, since you’re almost fasting, the digestive
fire is free to detox and purify your body and energy.
What you can eat:
·
Brown rice
·
Millet
·
Buckwheat
·
Whole wheat
·
Barley
·
Bulgur
·
High-quality tamari soy sauce (in small amounts)
·
Roasted sesame seeds
·
Some teas but not the nice ones
· Sea salt
I’m not
exactly an ascetic person. I love eating and usually eat too much, and I’m
hooked on blazing-hot Indian and Thai spices. So 10 days of the blandest food
possible seemed like something I actually needed, as well as appealing to my
kind of hardcore spiritual athlete ego side.
I first
heard about the diet last year and finally got around to trying it. I ended up
doing it while my life partner/favorite human Ran was away for two weeks, which
added an extra challenge of loneliness.
It was
tough. Cool by the end but definitely tough. I took some notes every day, which
I wanted to share for the benefit of anyone else who wants to try this diet.
Day 1
Rice, rice, rain. Missing Ran.
Day 2
Rice in the afternoon. Hungry
but already have to force myself to finish the bowl. Cabin fever, desperate
loneliness, lack of prana.
Things start to turn around
when I go into town and drink tea at the Black Sheep. The taste is incredibly
strong. I drive to Whole Foods later and feel a sudden burst of inner energy.
I’m tired and weak, have to rest in the car and mentally draw in energy, but
after kung fu class I feel very strong and clear, almost like the morning after
ayahuasca.
Millet for dinner – very
exciting to have something different.
That feeling when you realize
that if you love someone, inevitably either they will die first and you will
have to grieve for them or you will die and they will grieve for you.
Day 3
Woke up feeling like everything
was going to be ok. Warm energy in meditation, huge heat in nauli kriya. Called
Ran, so happy to hear his voice and then miss him even more thinking about
Shabbat.
Burned the millet. Ate it
anyways, not really hungry or interested in tastes.
Going towards Shabbat and even
though I’ve been feeling pretty down on Judaism lately, I’m thinking wistfully
of that silly bread and grape juice. It’s clear how much my food attachment
isn’t about food at all. I miss the cooking, the time and space shared with
people I love, the jolt of pleasure, the expectation and satisfaction. When I
start missing Ran, immediately my thoughts jump towards craving food. I feel
like if I was eating normally I could dull the pain of missing him, or if he
was here I wouldn’t miss food either.
Day 4
Indigestion and vivid,
unsettling dreams in the night. Vamana dauti upon waking up, helped a little
but still very low energy, felt weak and almost delirious until eating some
millet around noon. Went for a walk in the woods and felt much better,
absorbing energy from the sun and trees, then did yoga. In general I’m tired
but my senses are very sharp and energy channels open, going deep in meditation
and hearing the nada very clearly. I have almost like a fever at times, the
cleansing is strong, I’m trying to embrace it – physical and emotional
purification symptoms – and do lots of tonglen. This diet is starting to have
the feeling of going into a retreat.
Day 5
Woke up at 10:30 (!!!) – sex
dreams again – and sleepy already by 9:30pm. Otherwise feeling pretty good. I
walked a little in the woods, bare feet in the leaves was like an orgasm.
Thinking wistfully about normal
food but not bad. Millet around noon, made whole wheat “pancakes” and rice for
dinner.
Day 6
Stronger today and feeling very
pure, the soul of the world flowing through me. Listening to lots of Hebrew
music and it’s stirring some latent Jewish embers. Ali ruhi ali naphshi ali
ali…
Beautiful clouds and snow on
the ground.
Deep gratitude for the holy
teachings in my life, for being shown that there are ways out.
Day 7
Water has so much flavor!!
“I wouldn’t have sought after
you if I hadn’t found you already.”
Day 8
Pleasantly surprised I’ve made
it this far.
Lots of energy now. Night yoga
until late, woke up around 8. Writing love poems from the soul to the Self and
from the Self to the soul.
Enjoying the taste of water and
rice, salt, tea.
Some disturbing emotions
because Ran is unhappy and his flight is delayed until Tuesday, and we just
lost our main writing gig. If I wasn’t on this diet I know I would be stress
eating.
Energy crash in the afternoon.
My body is yearning for rest, and before I fell asleep on the couch I felt a
sort of release, like some deep tension was working its way to the surface.
Slept for two hours, in a depression for the rest of the evening.
Day 9
Woke up ravenously hungry.
Heightened sense of hearing and
I can smell everything, by which I mean every food item within 100 yards.
I didn’t get to eat dinner
until 11pm but I don’t feel so enslaved to hunger and taste as usual.
Day 10
Here I am at the end, and very
grateful for this journey. I feel great today, very balanced and sublimated,
and also suddenly not lonely anymore.
Went to Whole Foods to stock up
on stuff to eat tomorrow, including some treats for Shabbat dinner tonight:
black rice and wild rice. Wild rice isn’t technically rice but it is a true
grain so I guess it’s ok for the last night.
Hard to believe it’s been only
ten days!
Breaking the fast
Ohhhhhhh I can taste the
universe in this piece of kale.
Everything is delicious!! So
many flavors!
Wowwwwww
End notes
I’m very glad that I went
through with this cleanse. I felt so clean and strong by the end and I was
having deep meditations, like I was less firmly bound to the material realm.
Even now, five days later, my senses are still heightened, especially taste and
smell. (My sense of smell was always pretty weak.)
Psychologically, it showed me
my attachment to food/sense pleasures and what it’s like to be without it.
Instead of grabbing a snack when I felt unfulfilled, I had to go inside and
find the source of pleasure.
The enjoyment that we get from
food is just a reflection of the bliss within. If I go after the external
reflection, it’s easy to miss the direct light.
I had some weird food cravings
though. First for coconut oil, then ghee, then red meat. (Plus a constant
longing for fresh fruits and vegetables, especially carrots and kale.) I
haven’t touched meat in years and never missed it, so it was a strange thing. I
even dreamed about eating meat before the last day of the diet.
By the last two days, I was
looking forward to my plain rice.
I’d definitely recommend Ohsawa
#7 to anyone, especially yogis who want a strong detox and a face-to-face
confrontation with the senses. You can (eventually) feel really good and be
proud of eating more boring food than anyone else.
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