When you eat certain foods, you discharge other foods. If you vary your macrobiotic diet, then basically Monday you discharge dairy food, Tuesday meat, Wednesday sugar, and so on. If you become too regular this way, you establish a routine and then basically your body gets bored and nothing happens. In other words, diet has to be very flexible and adaptable. When you do the same thing again and again, you get bored, whatever it is. If you do the same thing, then everything you do loses its effectiveness. That is why you constantly have to change what you are doing. That is what we call variety in macrobiotics; constantly changing, like the weather and the seasons. It is necessary to do this. Sometimes unconsciously, but really by your feeling and your intuition.

A number of years ago, I observed in a macrobiotic community that some people always made the same meal on the same day, including almost every dish with the same ingredients. This is very common. But every day calls for different foods to make balance. That is good for everyone. Within that we have certain individual needs. Basically we are trying to become more harmonious, aligned with nature. Then we are constantly changing in a very relaxed way. Naturally, that takes time.

The point is, you can’t eat with your head! This is more a feeling, a kind of general direction to go in your diet. You need to include certain things on a regular basis, but not too regular and too steady. This is not a mathematical formula. You have to keep randomly, constantly changing according to how you feel, what you crave. If you do that, discharging happens automatically. It is a daily process. You don’t have to be too concerned with it. You can push yourself to get a start, but then be very relaxed. Set your course and then go naturally.