Day 15 at the Kushi Institute

Last night after dinner we had a drum session in the library.  One of the teachers brought a bunch of her drums and other instruments and we got a cushion and picked an instrument and we started playing.  It didn;t matter if you couldn't play an instrument there was something anybody could play to beating two rocks together to my favorite a gourd covered with a shaker hat.  That is what I hit all night.  It was a nice session and some of us got up and danced.  I think everybody had a good time. 
You can even learn abour skincare here.  One of the teachers was telling us that brown rice bran is good for washing your face because it gives the face a little exfoliation but also helps to nourish it because of the vitamin E and B vitamins.  They say that the women in Japan use it a lot.  I purchased it at the Kushi store and it is very nice.  They call it "Nuka".  You put about a teaspoon of the powder into a piece of cheesecloth and then you rub it on your face.  The residue you you massage into the face and then rinse with warm water. The cheesecloth will last about 3 days before you have to change it. You can also put it in the tub if you are suffering from dry skin, You then put about 2 tablespoons into a cheesecloth and let it soak while you run the water for the bath.   I also purchased oraganic Rose Hip Oil to help moisturize the face.  The two together give the face a nice glow.  Both items can be purchased fro the Kushi Store on line.  The more I learn about different things for the skin I will let you know.

Day 14 at the Kushi Institute

Today iit is beautiful.  The sun is shining and it must be about 75 degrees outside.  I have been here for two weeks and the time is just flying by.  It has been nice being some place that doesn't have a TV so at dinner and afterwards many of us spend a lot of time talking and getting to know each other.  Make-up and facy clothes is not important since we have to get up early to exercise and then go to classes I skip on the make-up and my hair is going to be in a bandana later in the day so it gets pulled back into a headband.  At the beginning I felt naked without my make-up and my hair looking perfect but after awhile your skin feels better by the foods that you are eating that you don't want to cover it in make-up and chemicals.  My hair is starting to have a nice shine so I don't want to douce it with hairspray.  When I get home it will be interesting to see if I will go back to wearing foundation or not.
Tonight I am going to practice my shiatsu massage technique on one of my collegues called Noemi.  She is from Japan and she is a student in Level one classes.  She owns a restuarant and got sick by eating all the fried foods that she was cooking.  A friend told her about Macrobiotics and she started following the diet and got better.  She came here to learn more and is going back and changing her restaurant into a Macrobiotic rstuarant.   I asked her if she was going to loose all her clients and she said no they are excited about the change.
Today for lunch we had some steamed squash which was great.  If you are looking for a quick vegetable to eat I would just cut up some butternut squash, acorn, or one called Kabocha.  It is so good for your digestion and will nourish the pancreas.  The squash is naturally sweet so you won't be have a sweet tooth later in the day.  All they did was  add a pinch of salt into the water and that was it.  I am learning how to just let the vegetables stand for themselves instead of always trying to add things to them or change them.

Day 13 at the Kushi Instiute

Today we woke up with the snow being all over the ground and everywhere.  It lasted till about 11:00a.m. and then it all disappeared, but it was beautiful while it lasted.  Today we learned how to cook with Barley and how it helps to break up animal protein and mucus from the body.  You can cook it in a pot like rice, the pressure cooker, or in the clay pot in the pressure cooker.  Th barley has to be soaked over night to help break it down a little bit.   My favorite way it was cooked today was called the "5 element" barley dish because you added 5 different vegetables to it and then put it in the clay pot and then the clay pot into the pressure cooker  to cook.  The 5 vegetables were carrots, corn, shitake mushrooms, lotus root, and dried tofu.  The only seasoning was a pinch of salt and the vegetables came out sweet and juicy with the barley being just the right consistency.  All the vegetables in the dish were diced about the same size.  This is a wonderful hearty dish to make during the fall and winter or when it snows in late April.   The kitchen made vegetable tempura for lunch also to keep us warm and at breakfast the chef added grated ginger too so we could stay warm while we sat in class all day.  It is fun learning how to tweek your diet for the weather or for whatever kind of energy you  are going to be spending for the day.  For example if I was going to at home writing a chapter of my book that day I should eat lighter and more greens so I could concentrate and stay seated to write.  If I was going to work outside and do physical labor I can up my nuts and natural sugars like fruit or a liitle brown rice syrup to give me the energy I need for that activity.  I am loving how I can help my family, friends, and patients with the different foods.

Day 12 at the Kushi Instiute

Well my husband says if you don't like the weather in New England just wait 5 minutes and today proved him right.  It was a cool sunny day and then suddenly it got cold, cloudy, and then it started to snow, so this is a picture of the snow that was falling for about 10 minutes and then it got suny and hot again.  We all ran outside to take pictures.  Today I learned how to cook Nishime.  This dish is good for tonifying the digestion and the intestines.  You cut up squash, carrots, shitake mushrooms, and burdock and then you layer them in a cooking pot begining with the shitake mushrooms first, squash, then the carrots, and the burdock last.  Put about 1/2 and inch of water and bring it to a boil.  Add a pinch of salt cover and cook for about 20 -40 minutes or until the vegetables are soft.  Be careful not to burn the vegetables or to pull them out before they are ready especially the burdock root.  It contains a volatile oil that needs to be cooked out.  This dish is very delicious and with the weather going from cold, then cold rainy, and then a little sunny it warms the belly and nourishes the digestion.
Burdock Root if you have never seen burdock before you can buy it at most Asian stores it is a loon brown root that is kinda of beige on the inside.  The helps to clear the skin but also helps to tonify the large and small intestines.  It is very yang so it also give you energy and warmth to intestines.  I love cooking this root I guess because my weakness is my large intestine and every time I eat it I just feel good inside.
At the Kushi Institute they don't use much seasoning at all except for some salt, soy sauce, mirin, ume vinegar, and miso.  At the beginning it can be a little disconcerting but then after a few days you get used to it and you really get to enjoy the real taste of the food.  I am liking how the different vegetables just burst with flavor in your mouth.

Day 11 at the Kushi Institute

For all you that have kids or teenagers you are going to love what I learned in the kitchen today.  We made a pasta dish that was just as creamy and delicious as pasta alfredo, but it did not have any of then cream, butter, or regular pasta.  The chef  used spelt spagetti that is a grain pasta and then he made a sauce out of roasted pumpkin seeds.  After he roasted them he put them in the blender with some ume vinegar, water, and some soy sauce and it was gone in a few minutes.  He did add some brocolli, carrots , and  scallions to the dish so it just wasn't pasta and sauce, but I can't wait to get home and cook it for my 15 year old son who loves pasta alfredo. 
The other exciting thing that happened yesterday was I finally got it when the chefs would say let the knife do the work and just help it.  It felt amazing when you finally get it and you are not pushing the knife against it's will but it is doing most of the work and it does it so effortlessly.  I flet like the knife and I were friends or when you horseback ride and you and the horse become one.  It was a nice feeling.  It just took me 10 days to finally get it.  I guess on this issue I was a slow learner.

Day 10 at the Kushi Institute

Today is Sunday and this weekend is very quite.  I like it slow for a few days.  You get to catch up on your reading, do your laundry, and hang out with the students that remained.  Today for brunch we had corn meal and blueberry pancakes with maple syrup or brown rice syrup diluted.  The pancakes were a nice treat.  The other thing the chef made that I loved was broccoli flowerettes with grated mochi and then it has a chickpea, tahini, and lemon sauce.  That was my favorite and I can't wait to cook it for my children and for family.  The mochi kinda melts so my kids will think it is cheese but it is not.  Mochi is a pounded sweet rice that has been dried into hard block.  You can then grate it with a very fine grater so it lookes like parmesan.  I am on my way to cook dinner and another adventure in the kitchen.

Day 9 at the Kushi Instiute

I got to do breakfast and lunch today so I was a litle tired at the end of my shift.  One of the chefs today taught me how to chop an onion.  The first onion I did did not look so good but I finally did get used to it.  I also got to help in making a pressed salad out of red cabbage, pickled daikon, and grated radish.  He added Ume vinegar to it instead of salt because the pickled daikon was already salty.  They came out great too.  My big project this afternoon ws making the black gomachio.  Black gomachio is a seasoning that you put on your food.  It is made up of black sesame seeds and sea salt.  You first roast the sesame seeds in a frying pan and then in another you roast the salt.  It was 6 cups of black sesame to 4 1/2 teaspoons of salt.  You then first put the salt into a pottery bowl that is serated on the sides and you take a wooden pole and start grinding the salt down till it becomes lke a powder and then you pour that into a bowl and start grinding the black sesame till they kinda break in half and then you mix it together.  The black sesame seeds are high in calcium, iron, good omega oils, and the black sesame seeds   I love it.  If you are interested you can go to the health food abd buy it at Chamberlins or Whole Foods.  Just sprinkle it on your greens, and grains.
I'm off to do my laundrry

Day 8 at the Kushi Institute

When I have been receiving the shiatsu massage for the last 2 days it was for the back part of the treatment, but today I got to experience the front.  It entailed an acupressure massage up and down the six meridians of the legs and arms.  It was incredible and I am going to figure out a way to incorporate it into my acupuncture treatments.  In school we put dots and studied the precise location of each point but I never got to feel what it was like just to have the meridians massaged it it relaxing and very healing.   We also wake up each morning and stretch out all the joints and press on all the meridians before we start our day.  It is a wonderful way to start the morning and then a massage after that I felt great.
We serve fish Friday nights at the Kushi Institute so tonight we got to make fish cakes and we used organic polenta as the binder to hold them together.  They also had carrots, onions, shoyu , and chopped up white fish.  They were a real treat and fun to make.  Some of the students left for New York for the weekend so it is going to be pretty quiet till Monday.

Day 7 at the Kushi Institute

Today I have been here one week and I think the gods shone down on me today because I got to be the model twice for the shiatsu massage class.  The massage was so good that all I wanted to do was sleep and enjoy the relaxation, but work in the kitchen called.  I learned how to make Kimpira tonight.  It entails making matchstick slices of carrots, burdock (root vegetable that can be found in most Asian stores) and Hijiki.  Burdock is a long brown root that helps to cleanse the liver while Hijiki is a seaweed that looks like black thin short noodles.  It is very high in minerals and helps to nourish the blood.  They saute them all together and them simmer them in a little water for 20 minutes.  The two roots are very yang in nature so the help to nourish and energize the body. 
The kitchen was fun tonight and the chef was in a good mood that he even started to sing.  One of the songs he sang was "That's Amore'  now I have the song in my head and I don't know if I will be able to get it out before I go to bed.  Oh by the way I was more confident with my new knife and I am really get a handle on it.  (a little kitchen humor).

Day 6 at the Kushi Institute

Yesterday I attended a class about Transition and discharge for level one and the teacher talked about that if you start experiencing constipation because of the new foods that one should go to the Kushi store and buy Barley Greens.  After the class I went running to the store because since I have been here that has been my complaint.  It has made me feel bloated, irritable, and out of sorts.  I didn't know if it would work because my Chinese herbs hadn't helped or my probiotic but I was willing to try anything.  I have to say it worked in less than 24 hours and I feel a lot better.  There are others who have been here for almost 5 days and are experiencing the same thing I did and I am passing around the Barley Greens to them too.
On a lighter note I was attending a shiatsu massage class today and I was fortunate enough to be chosen to be the model that the teacher uses while the others are practicing.  The technique was a massage on the backside of the body using mostly your feet and then hands on the back.  It felt incredible and I can't wait to go home and try it on my family.
The other exciting thing that happened today was that I got to use my new knife.  I have to admit that I was a little scared after the gentleman I purchased it from told me that it was very sharp and then the Chef in the kitchen told me to to be very careful not to cut myself because it was very sharp that I tredged along very cautiously during the preparation of the meal.  I finally felt that I was feeling a little more confident with my new knife and at that moment the Chef said that the prep was done.  I will have to wait  till tomorrow to feel like one of those guys that cooks for you at the Japanese Kobe Steakhouse.

Day Four

I was off today so I got to take some of the classes for level one.  I took a shiatsu massage class that was very informative and a great chair massage technique that I can do for my patients  that have some neck and shoulder issues.  The other classes were an introductory cooking class that I should have gone for a walk because I had already learnd most of it while I have been working in the kitchen.  The one thing it did do was inspire me to purchase my first real cooking knife.  We have great cooking knives in my home but they are all Philip's knives and whenever I use one he is looking over my shoulder to make sure I am using it correctly.  I think it is about time that I have my own. Virginia Wolfe had a room to her own, and I have a knife.  I hope it will inspire me to feel confident in teaching my own cooking classes and take more ownership in our kitchen.
The fun thing we got to eat today was fish tacos with sproated corn tortillas with carrots, cabbage, and a sesame miso kinda of sauce.  It was very good.  For the people are complete vegetarians they did have tempeh. 
The weather is finally starting to warm up and I don't have to wear so many layers of clothes.  I definitely miss Florida when it is cold, rainy, and dreary up here.

Day 4 in the kitchen

Today I got to attend an Energizing rebalancing exercise class before I went to work in the kitchen.  It was very good to start the day doing a few stretches and stimulating the different meridians of the body before you go off to work.  I felt energized and I had no problem doing my shift in the kitchen.  Last night I was reading the "Zen f Macrobiotics" by the founder Goeorge Ohsawa and he wrote about the 7 main conditions of health and happiness.  If you have the first six you give your self 5 to 10 points for each one, but the 7th point if you have it you get 55 points because it is that important to your health.  They are:
1.  No Fatigue- If you catch cold quickly or get sick quickly it means your body is exhausted and cannot fight.  The person also says things like "It is too difficult", "It is impossible", or "I am not prepared".  and the fatique is the real foundation of all diseases.
2.  Good appetite- That means a good appetite for food, life, sex, and new adventures.
3.  Deep and good sleep- Because thhe body heals itself when you sleep and you should wake up refreshed.
4.  Good Memory- with short and long term things
5.  Good Humor- Aman of good health is free from anger, fear, or suffering and is cheerful and pleasant under all circumstances.
6.  Clarity in Thinking and Doing- People in good health have the ability to establish order everywhere, and make decisions and go with it to action very quickly.  They don't hem and haw they move forward.
7.  The Mood of Justice- For people and the environment and you want to work to bring about change in areas that you see injustices.You should be actively involved in some way to bring about change. It is also living with the environment instead of against it.
I definitely know that I have to work on my humor, memory, and justice so that I can live a long healthy life.

Day three in the Kitchen- Brunch

On Sundays we serve brunch at 10:30a.m.. You have to show up at 7:00 to get things going and I have moved into a dorm with 2 other women so you try to be as quiet as you can geting up and getting down to the kitchen.  The energy is high because most people are excited about brunch.  My job tofay with to make "Ohagis"  They are a sweet brown rice treat that tastes delicious and is fun to make.  You first cook the sweet brown rice (You can buy at any Asian store) in a pressure cooker for about 40 minutes and then spread it out into a pan.  You then commence to pound the rice with a wooden stick until it becomes gelatinous (about 20 minutes).  You then roll the rice into rice balls that will be rolled into jam and sesame seeds or brown rice syrup and then cover in walnuts or almonds.  They are very tasty and healthy for you.  Those little rice balls are full of energy that you can only eat about one.  The rest of the breakfast was steel cut oats, stewed onions with a little scallions, kale, split peas in a puree, and miso soup.  I was all very good.
Everybody is excited because we have a group of about 40 people arriving from all over the world to start their classes tomorrow so the energy of the quiet little repose is starting to fade and the Institute is becoming an international place of education and healing.

Detox time

Well before I write how I did in the kitchen today.  I want to tell you how I am feeling.  When you check into the Kushi Institute they give you a list of detox symptoms you might experience while your body rids itself of the junk you had been eating before.  When they first gave me the list I looked at it and thought I am not going to expereince anyo of these symptoms because I thought my diet was pretty good.  Well I was completely wrong.  I seem to be going throught the list and checking each one off.  The first one was fatique and the first two days I was here all I wanted to do was sleep.  I didn't even think I could do my first shift in the kitchen because I thought I would over sleep and not get up.  The second one was you might experience diarrhea or constipation.  I did and I did not like it.  The third was body aches or joint pain.  This one I thought for sure I was immune to becauae i am in pretty good health and I exercise, well again I was wrong.  my legs, knees, and calves are very sore that I even had to forgo a walk with my coworkers and getting up and down the stairs I feel like I am 80 years old.  I am hoping this one will go away very soon.  The fourth is flew like symptoms like a sore throat, fever, or cough.  I got the sore throat.  I guess I thought I was Super Woman but macrobiotics is teaching me that I am just as toxic as everyone else.  They say that after about a week I will be feeling great and full of energy.  I am waiting for those glorious days to show up soon.
In the mean time I am still plugging around with a sore throat, achy legs, and a disturbed bowel system but still very happy I am here.

Day 2 in the kitchen

Today I am on the lunch shift so you begin at 9:30 and work till 2:00p.m. I got to rinse all the vegetables and then the Chef taught me how to hold the chopping knife the right way and how to chop.  I was pretty slow at chopping up the collards but he didn't seem to mind as long as I was consciously doing it correctly.  The chef today was named Shaun and he did like to teach the volunteers different methodologies and he was interested in Traditional Chinese Medicine so we had a nice conversation while we worked.  Today's lunch was Millet with Cauliflower, Lentils, Cabbage with Arame, Greens, and a pressed salad.  Now the pressed salad was leeks with green apples which was very good, but when they are preparing it they slice it all up, toss it, and then put a big stone weight on top to leech out the water.  It stays like that for about an hour.  I even got to blanche the greens today, which is a big step up from day one.  They just drop the green vegetables into boiling water for about a minute and then then they serve them at warm temperature.  They taste great with a little olive oil and ume vinegar. This process of learning is slow and deliberate and they don't push you.  You go at your own pace.  They say that tomorrow 40 people are arriving to take classes so we are going to be slammed for one week.  Some of the people are coming out for a  class called "A Way to Health"  It is for people who are sick that want to learn how to cook macrobiotically for themselves or a loved one.  The other groups class is called " Macrobiotic Leadership Program level One".  They are coming to start a year program to be Macrobiotic Counselors in their Communities so the energy is going to change significantly tomorrow.

Day one in the kitchen

Yesterday was my first day in the kitchen.  I thought it was going to be a walk in the park and by the end of the shift I was exhausted and went to bed.  I don't know if it is the cold rainy weather that is making me so tired or just doing something completely different. 
My first shift was to assist with dinner.  The Chef's name is Chris and he is the head Chef.  I was excited to start and I knew that my responsiblitities were going to be few.  I got to wash dishes, empty food remains into the compost, swwep, mop the floor, and get the dining room ready for quest.  It was very tedious but somehow very medatative.  They have no music playing in the kitchen and most of the people who are working are quiet doing their tasks.  it took me awhile to get used to it because I wanted to have some music playing in the back ground and I wanted to learn all about the other volunteers, but that takes away from the energy that they are putting into the food.  It makes you work each task from a conscious point of view and at the end of the shift I even learned how to concentrate all my energy into my task at hand even if it was just cleaning the pots and pans.  (no wonder I was so exhausted at the end of the shift).

Just Arrived

Today I arrived at the Kushi Institute in Becket Mass.  I had to fly to Washington Dulles and then to Albany New York.  From there I had to take a Taxi to drive me to the Institute and that was a 90 minute trip so by the time you get here.  You want to go for a long walk and the place has some beautiful trails.  It feels a little bit like being in a cabin in the woods and bit like camp because you have to share a room with another volunteer and the bathrooms are communal. It is a little rustic but it is exactly what I need to recharge my battery.  I have to admit since I knew that was going to be devoting my full energy to Macrobiotics for a month I splurged and had my last nonhealthy meal at the airport before I arrived and now my stomach is fighting with the good mcrobiotic food I had for dinner.  I guess one never learns except by experience.

Dinner tonight was- Whole Weat Vegan pizza with no soy cheese, steamed rudabagas, steamed collard greens with radishes, navy bean soup with kale.  It was delicious.