Komatsuna, burdock root, daikon radish, and rice cakes.

The first three days of the New Year have passed, but I am still eating ozoni (New Year's soup).
I put in a lot of burdock root and boiled it with daikon radish and komatsuna.
I actually wanted to add something like chicken, but I didn't have any, so I gave up on that. I'm lacking protein.

It's not that I'm not thinking about nutrition at all, but since I'm in a situation where I can't go to the supermarket very often, I've resigned myself to the fact that it can't be helped.

They say that ozoni has regional characteristics, so I think I'd like to try ozoni from various regions, but that's quite difficult, isn't it?

The ozoni from my parents' home was simple: a soy sauce-based bonito broth with chicken, komatsuna, and rice cakes added to it. I'm the type who likes to add grilled rice cakes, but I think there are people who prefer the type where the rice cakes are boiled in the soup until they become soft and gooey, so I really think it must be completely different depending on the household.
Depending on the region, it seems there are various ways, such as using cut rice cakes, round rice cakes, using miso, or using rice cakes filled with sweet bean paste.

No matter the seasoning or the type of rice cake used, I think the taste we've been eating since we were little is probably the best for everyone.

I added a lot of burdock root because I had it at home, because I like burdock root, and because I have a hope that it might have the effect of flushing out bad things accumulated in the body—all of those reasons.

When I think about health, I've come to realize that I have to think not only about eating but also about eliminating.

Eating a properly balanced diet and properly eliminating excess things from the body.
I think that without both, you can't maintain your health.

When I was sweating a lot at work in the summer, it was very tough, but I also had a side of me that accepted it positively, thinking that it might be acting as a detox.
Now that the temperature is higher than it used to be and there is a concern about getting heatstroke, I can't easily say that sweating is good, but I think that sweating and releasing bad things from the body might also be important.

It seems that the skin also breathes, and by sweating, it is also a way to discharge excess things from the body.
The human body is really well-made, isn't it?

Just being able to have a healthy body is something to be grateful for. I think that is probably the same regardless of age or gender.

Even though I feel the importance of my daily diet every day, there are many aspects that I'm not doing properly, and it's a bit of a struggle.

Returning to the topic of ozoni, it must have been a great feast in the old days.

Nowadays, rice cakes are sold all year round, but I think people in the past used to pound a lot of rice cakes before the New Year and prepare them so they could eat them while resting their bodies slowly during the New Year.
In an era when rice was precious, rice cakes must have been very important too. When I think that's why the custom of offering rice cakes to the gods began, I feel that I must eat them with care.

Isobeyaki (grilled rice cake with soy sauce and seaweed) is delicious, sweet bean paste rice cakes are delicious, and kinako (soybean flour) rice cakes, rice cakes with natto, and rice cakes with grated daikon radish are all delicious.
It seems that freshly pounded rice cakes are sold sometimes, and I'm sure they are exceptional.

When I was a child, I was invited to a relative's house for rice cake pounding, and when I held the pestle for the first time, it was so heavy I couldn't lift it, and I thought adults were amazing. Thinking about it now, I realize that because it's so sturdy and heavy, you can turn steamed glutinous rice into delicious rice cakes, but when I was a child, I didn't know that and was disappointed in myself for not being able to lift the pestle.

Nowadays, I think there are fewer people who use mortars and pestles to pound rice cakes because there are rice cake machines, but freshly pounded rice cakes are truly delicious, so if you see them, please try them.

Since I started being careful to eat things with a lot of fiber like burdock root, sweet potatoes, and barley, I feel like my physical condition is gradually improving, and I want to continue doing this as much as possible.

Also, I think it's bad for my body if I don't get into the habit of avoiding high-calorie foods as much as possible while still eating properly, so I'm trying my best to be careful and do it at least while I'm at home.
Once work starts, there is a considerable amount of exercise, so I have to think carefully about not getting sick and not gaining too much weight, and I have to eat things that give me strength.
In the first year I started working, I didn't eat enough, and I couldn't move in the winter, so I had to take time off work.
That memory is so strong that I try to eat properly as much as possible when I'm at home.
Even when I'm working, I try to eat more in the morning. If I can't move and my work performance is insufficient, it causes trouble for others, and I can't be satisfied with myself either.

Also, I realized after losing weight that as long as you don't eat it with very greasy food, rice becomes energy when you are active, so it seems you don't gain that much weight as long as you are moving.

During my health checkup, I was told that I didn't have enough weight, so I should increase my muscle mass, but it seems that not only protein but also carbohydrates are necessary to build muscle.
Actually, there is also the fact that I need to take in various nutrients in a balanced way; for example, it seems better to eat various types of food such as beans, seaweed, vegetables, and mushrooms, and that is something I think I need to be careful about from now on.

Since it's a waste if I let them rot, I end up buying frozen vegetables and mushrooms to keep in stock and eat, but I would be happy if I could choose and cook them more carefully and in more detail than I have until now.

That's how it is😊