Day 17 at the Kushi Institute

Today is Sunday and it is very quiet here at the Kushi Institute.  It is a busy day for me because I have to work a double.  I work brunch and then I work dinner.  I am feeling better today after I went for a long walk and got into nature for awhile yesterday.  We usually do something exciting for brunch but today's special item was steamed sourdough bread with jam.  The jam was very good.  All we did was boil down fresh apricots and apples.  We did not  add any sugar at all, but by the taste you would have thought that we did.  It was eaten up very quickly and definitely satified most of our sweet cravings.
I have decided to do a 10 day brown rice fast because I have read a book by one of the macrobiotic founders named George Ohsawa.  He claims that many chronic illness have been brought upon us by our own choices in foods now and in the past.  I have suffered from constipation since I was in my teens and have taken laxatives since I was about 16 years old.  I am not happy about my dependency but I haven't been able to stop.  I have tried many times but after about 5 to 10 days of nothing moving I return back to taking them.  I remeber I tried to quit when my twin sister v
lived in Italy and her husband would ask me how I was doing and after the fifth day of no movement he called me the bomb.  After the 10th day I gave up and took my laxatives.  I have tried cutting back and slowing getting off that was also to no avail. My bowels have been a spot of contention with me while I have been here.  They have gooten more clogged up than usual.  At the beginning I gave in to the idea that it was discharge and I lived with it till I couldn't take it anymore and bought the Barley Grass.  That helps when I haven't gone in a few days, but then I think I am already taking a laxative and now I have to take something else. I don't like this so I am going to try to do the 10 day brown rice fast. 
One of the main point of the fast is to learn how to chew your food slowly.  You have to chew each bite at least 50 times.  I know that I inhale my food more than I chew it so this will be a good lesson for me to learn to slow down and enjoy my food. I don't know how I am going to do that in between patients, but I will figure something out.