Hi and welcome home to my Blog

I would like to thank everyone for your support and patience with me over the past year.
I took some time off form my blog last spring to focus on perfecting the recipe section and menu plans for our newly released book, The Complete Macrobiotic Diet. Even though I had a lot of material compiled, that was intended for my cookbook (Taste With Integrity), this was still quite the project. All the hard work was well worth the effort as now I am an officially published author.
I must admit it is pretty cool seeing your book on the shelves of the Barnes and Noble store at Rittenhouse Square and knowing that it is also on bookshelves in all the major cites throughout the US. whew, deep breath Susan!

The next significant event of my 2014 year was moving out of the space that was the home base of The Strengthening Health Institute for the past 8 1/2 years. I have heard that three of the most stressful things one faces in life are getting married, the death of a loved one and moving. I get it on many levels. Packing and moving an entire commercial kitchen was no joke, not just the things we accumulated over the 8 1/2 years we occupied the SHI space, but in reality 17 to 18 years of stuff. Many relationships don’t even last that long.

For me it was a very emotional experience. The kitchen was my space as I custom designed it to meet our needs for cooking and teaching. I filled it with state of the art cookware, kept it impeccably clean and took personal pride in assuring that the finest quality of macrobiotic food was served. It really was quite a beautiful space. To leave all this behind I felt a deep sense of loss. At the end I sat in the empty kitchen, sipping my hot beverage and just reminiscing of all the all the memories. Both joyous and sad, my emotions were flooding and I began to cry.

Now just to make it perfectly clear, SHI is still operating and holding live classes. In addition
we are offering all of our classes via the internet. We have been nudged in this direction for quite some time and finally jumped into the 21st century and the new era of education. Offering courses online allows people from all over the world to take our classes and study with us. Just to reiterate, we are still holding face to face classes. It is just the physical venue site that is changing. For our new and improved venue we really do not need to maintain our own commercial space, which requires quite a lot of work. This change allows us to reach more people and concentrate on developing new courses.

This brings me to the last part of my news in that our educational development team of Michelle Nemer, Denny Waxman and of course me is working on our newest course offering which is the first step in an ongoing process to educate and personally mentor a new generation of macrobiotic leaders. This course offering which focuses on self development skills is a precursor for more advanced course offerings. The Great Life Design and Mentoring Program will teach our unique approach to macrobiotics, living a macrobiotic lifestyle and how to create a positive impact in an ever changing world. It is exciting, exhausting and exhilarating. I am fortunate to be working together with these people and everyone who decides to take this course will be even more fortunate because it is uniquely one of a kind!

And as for me personally, I am working on creating new recipes, taking beautiful pictures of my food, spending more time taking care of my self (food, yoga massages and fine wines, ahhh) and taking time for the most important people in my life like my family and close friends.

To my teammates, my family, my friends, I thank you for all the love and support you have given me to continue our important work of spreading macrobiotics and making it a common household name. Hey we work hard and we play even harder! Oh and don’t worry a second post with a fresh recipe is to follow!

Hello, and update

Some of you may be wondering where I have been these past few weeks. My schedule took off in late spring and I haven’t had a chance to stop and post until this week. Here’s some of what I’ve been up to. In addition to teaching the Strengthening Health Institute’s regular seminars, I taught a hands-on sushi making class. Despite the meltingly hot weather, we had a packed house, and I think that a great time was had by all. I’ll be doing more cooking classes like this one at The Strengthening Health Institute,   so be sure to check out our websites for updates and please register early because space is limited and the classes fill quickly!


In June, Denny and I went to the West Coast to teach and counsel. Our first stop was in San Diego, where we had 2 lectures and a cooking class held at Casa de Luz, a vegan community dining and educational center. Our classes were a big hit. We were fortunate to also have a little play time which we spent connecting with some good friends and having fun with our family members who live in San Diego. Next we headed north to Seattle,WA, where we had a weekend seminar of lectures and cooking classes. Seattle in the summer is beautiful! The weather could not have been any more perfect with cool nights and warm days. The seminar was held at a sustainable farm called 21 Acres. The building is "green" with a market on the first floor and a commercial kitchen, dining area and conference space on the second floor. It was the perfect place for macrobiotic cooking classes. I must say I was very impressed with the whole concept and even excited about the self-cleaning toilet! The people in Seattle are both hip and receptive to our teaching which makes for an overall great experience. And, since all work and no play makes Susan a dull girl, we did get to spend some fun time with our friends and have a quick tour of downtown Seattle.

When we returned to Philadelphia, we had Strengthening Health Intensive
and the June session of our CCP seminars. I was lucky to fit in a Phillies’ game
over the Fourth of July weekend.

July is another exciting and busy month for us as Denny and I are off to Taiwan. We were invited by some new friends to explore the local, traditional foods and offer insight on the best ways to adapt a macrobiotic practice to the local environment. I am looking forward to exploring the Taiwanese cuisine. My goal is to learn a few new recipes and adapt them to plant-based cooking. I’ll be back in Philadelphia briefly at the end of July, to teach the July session of our CCP seminar, before heading off to the Kushi Summer Conference. I am going to try to post a few times during my travels this month, so stay tuned...