You’re itinerary‘s perfection, car, hotel, entertainment, sight-seeing, including plenty of local color. But are you macro-ready? Am I what? Yep, are you prepared to eat well and within macrobiotic diet recommendations while away from your macrobiotic kitchen?

There are a few parts to this puzzle. It’s do-able, easy, and well worth it. Why? Because you’ll feel 100% better on your travels, and keep your direction of health at the same time. Avoid jet lag, sleep well, and be up to all the sightseeing and visiting you’ve planned. We actually give a complete macrobiotic cooking class on this subject. Here are a few pointers.

Take your most important macrobiotic items with you! Lino Stanchich, our first macrobiotic counselor, use to say always be prepared. You never know what items will be difficult to find when you are away.

This was before the present restrictions on flying. We use to take more with us, in the original bottles and jars. We once packed a suitcase with 84 pounds of just our food when visiting Fred’s brother in Monaco. No more. Car trips afford luxurious space so we pack the minimum size of all our macrobiotic essentials: shoyu, ume plum, miso, kuzu, si salt, etc. But on the plane we strictly travel with carry-on luggage. We may take a small eye dropper bottle of shoyu to insure we have the best quality, and teeny jars of miso and ume plum as well. The Container Store sells these for minimal charge. 

Google and email ahead to your destination to find local health stores, and contact them for products are availability. If staying in a facility permitting cooking – a suite hotel perhaps, or condo, you’re in like flint. Purchase your organic or bio veggies, prepare breakfast, and maybe rice balls to add to your lunch. Then a divine dinner at a special restaurant – you’re on vacation!

Use this easy way to cook in a thermos. Even on an airplane, you can carry an empty open wide-mouth thermos. Measure your grain in 1 cup portions: brown rice, quinoa, bulghur and yes, go ahead add the pinch of si salt. Put this measurement into a small wax paper bag, fold, and slide these into a plastic baggie. Brown rice -short, medium and long – should be rinsed, roasted til dry, and let cool before bagging. The other mentioned grains can be measured out without roasting.

So it’s now as easy as boiling water to make your grain. Just bring 1 1/2 cups water to boil, place the grain the thermos, pour in the water, and tomorrow morning you have delicious grain. We actually take 2 thermos with us: one for breakfast, and one for lunch.

Enjoy breakfast on your balcony, or join others in the bed and breakfast area, and you’re off and running for the day! No guilt about keeping a great macrobiotic regime! And the best benefit – you’re tiptop condition for the demands of travel!

Remember, what a meal is! Warren Kramer teaches a meal is a grain or grain product and a vegetable! Carrying kukicha tea bags with you is a great idea to end your meal. A bit us of wild caught fish is very nice, and often you can enjoy the local specialty as well, avoiding farm-raised fish.

What about ordering, when you don’t speak the language! Research the macrobiotic avoid words before you travel, and carry these with you on a typed, laminated wallet-size card. Duplicate this list to hand the person taking your order, and no worries about cheese, butter, milk being added to your cuisine! Relax and enjoy the ambiance. Bon voyage ! !

Summertime, and travel to other time zones may be on your agenda! So how do you make the most of your trip, and eliminate the jet lag issue, truly enjoying each and every moment of your stay? Especially if you’re like me, with so much to do before leaving, it’s hard to get to bed on time that final departure week.

On a Macrobiotic Diet it’s so easy! Three simple, magical words: ume sho kuzu!

What’s that? A very soothing drink, easily made, in about 7 minutes. Three ingredients plus water: umeboshi plum, shoyu – a special soy sauce, and kuzu – the harvested root of the kudzu plant. Yes, the very plant that grows throughout the southern states, covering huge trees along the highways. Imagine the strength of that hardy plant’s root, harvested for this drink, and coating your intestinal walls. No wonder this drink boosts our immunity! We love teaching this in macrobiotic cooking class because it is helpful for so many health conditions.

• Just dissolve 1 teaspoon of kuzu in 1 cup cold spring or filtered water.
• Bring to a boil, stirring continually to avoid lumping.
• Add one-third umeboshi plum
• Once the water becomes transparent, add 6 drops shoyu.

Drink while hot. Enjoy this drink daily two days before the trip, and the day of travel, and if possible the following two days. You may also repeat for your return home.

Especially at this present time with concern about the swine flu and travel, the ume-sho-kuzu drink becomes a no-brainer for travel because it is considered the Macrobiotic Diet Antibiotic!

*Top quality ingredients can be ordered from Natural Import Company at 800 . 324 . 1878

• 89500 Sakurazawa Shoyu 5 oz.
• 89333 Mitoku Umeboshi Plum 6 oz
• 89408 Mitoku Kuzu 3 oz

For more information on benefits of Ume Sho Kuzu, and macrobiotic cooking classes, please check our website:

www.atlantamacrobiotics.com or email: marsharueff@mac.com

Books: The Macrobiotic Path to Total Health, Michio Kushi and Alex Jack    See the section on Home Remedies