Know Any Literary Animal Lovers?
Hi there PureJeevan readers! We wanted to let you know that Jim's new novel CHROO is available on Amazon. It's a crazy adventure involving a billionaire heiress, her Chihuahua BFF ("Chroo") and a host of human and animal characters. Find out more on Amazon! Here are some links:
As Pure Jeevan blog readers probably know, we're big fans of running ongoing series. A good blog can never have too many, really. So today we mark the official kick-off of another super series. We're calling these articles "Pure Jeevan Guides."
Guides to what , you may ask. Well, to various topics of interest to raw foodies, of course!
Rawbin brings healing laughter and an unusual gift to unwell Wendi Dee.
Are raw foodists invincible to the common cold? I have to admit that I kind of assumed that was the case. If it's true, at what point does the invincibility kick in? I've been raw for over three years (over two at 100%) and yet the past few days have found me overcome with sneezing, sore throat, runny nose, and fatigue.
My first thought, once my throat started to hurt, was: "Did I eat anything different recently that I'm reacting to in a negative way " But, nothing had changed.My diet is relatively clean, with the exception of the times when I consume too much nut dip. So, when the sneezing and runny nose were added to the sore throat, I knew something else was going on. I had to admit it: "I'm not invincible."
So it's time to continue that discussion on the aforementioned fringe one percent -- those people who will not accept your conscious intention to pursue your own health via this path. Please keep in mind during this discussion that we're only discussing just that one percent, not people in general. So, this is, I hope, relatively rare.
To begin, I'd like to stress a few points:
After so looooong, the much-awaited Episode 6 is here of "Know Your Food"! Aren't you thrilled? Well, WE are. We're fantastically excited to announce that we have SIX thrilling new eipsodes "in the can" (as we film buffs like to say). So, here's the first of those six, in which your humble nutrition researchers reveal the hidden secrets of cacao, that delicious tropical ambrosia that opens your heart like nothing else. So, grab a raw chocolate snack of your choice and curl up in front of your favorite flat screen. Here's the vid:
Whoa, what'd you think of the "Monkey Brains" scene ! Have we finally used EVERY SINGLE hoaky feature of the Windows Movie Maker software? (Don't answer... Those were rhetorical questions.) In case you couldn't read some of the nutritional information, here's a summary of the key components of this delicious bounty from the Earth's equatorial regions. Raw chocolate contains:
Who's been making small changes and feeling a bit brighter lately, since we've been talking about brain health? Today, let's continue focusing on some things we can actively do to minimize our chances of developing memory problems like Dementia or Alzheimer's in the future.
Yesterday we focused on heart-healthy tips to increase brain function (since heart disease seems to be linked with Alzheimer's) and I shared a heart-healthy recipe with you. Today, we'll focus on inflammation.
Read more: Extinguish Inflammation: Anti-Inflammatory Recipe
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As we have mentioned here and there, our home (affectionately called "The Luck House") is currently for sale. Once it sells, we will be hitting the road full-time, educating people all across the country about the benefits of the raw foods lifestyle. Until then, we're spending a good amount of time going through the motions of selling the place. It's a wonderful home!!!?
Continuing on, again, with Wendi s San Francisco travelogue:
After leaving Pete and Blessing, we had a little time before our next meeting. So, KDcat and I explored San Francisco a bit. We saw the largest rainbow flag we've ever seen, experienced the steep hills (much steeper than the ones in Pittsburgh), and checked out an overview spot called Twin Peaks. Our San Francisco host taught us later that evening about how to "curb" your car and always apply the parking brake (which is necessary in a place with such steep hills).
Later we met up with Shivie and Cemaaj, who heard we'd be in town and invited us to visit them for a raw meal? in their home. Wow, what a delicious and beautiful meal we were served! Shivie and Cemaaj are gentle, loving people with a true gift for preparing and serving gourmet raw foods. We were honored to be invited to visit with them and loved them both instantly. They were a lot of fun getting to know, and very generous (sending raw foods with us before we left to eat and share with our San Franciso host). Cemaaj is also a gifted musician and taught KDcat some rhythms on the djembe African drum, which she quickly learned and enjoyed very much! Cemaaj is a gifted teacher and great with kids. It was fun watching him ease her into the instrument, which she now says she'd love to own and practice on!
Read more: Part 3 of 4: Glowing Gypsy Gals Glimpse the Glorious Golden Gate's Gastronomical Goodness
It's been a while since we offered an update on Wendi's health challenge. So, I asked if she felt up to writing a blog post to let everyone know what she's going through, highlighting a few new directions taken of late. As usual, I added some color splashes and graphics here and there, just for aesthetics. But, the following post is from Wendi. -Jim
Many thanks and lots of love go out to all of you for the love and support you ve been sending my way. I can t spend much time at the computer, but Jim has been trying to keep up with my email and he s been passing along your love, concern, advice, and healing energy. Thanks so much for everything, including the things that have arrived through the postal service. I definitely feel the love from all of you and I want you to know that each and every one of you means so much to me! * blows kisses *
***** DISCLAIMER: As with all of our posts here at Pure Jeevan, and particularly those coming up over the next week and a half (which will all be tagged with a new term, "Nadi Balance"), please refer to the disclaimer that runs at the bottom of all Pure Jeevan Pages. Wendi and Jim are health researchers, educators, and extreme self-experimenters; not doctors. ******
Nadi Balance: Part III
To summarize yesterday's post, even though this sounds dramatic, the truth is: Wendi was dying. The first doctor essentially sent her home saying there was nothing wrong. The second doctor confirmed she had Lyme disease, but was too late for his method of healing, since the Lyme had already become chronic at that point. He could only offer understanding of her situation and a trial and error method of conventional medications, which rarely (if ever) heal Lyme patients. A supplement that many raw nutrition gurus recommend as essential to health for all people was actually putting Wendi's body, already struggling with Lyme bacteria, into an extreme state of distress. And finally, our own knowledge of health, diet, and healing (even though extensive and accumulated over 30 years) wasn't adequate for healing Wendi's body of Lyme, either.
Wow, with literally years of raw food coverage under our belts here at Pure Jeevan, we don't think we've ever devoted an entire post to fermented foods. Well it's high time we do, don't you think ? Check out the video and then we'll discuss it further...
Yesterday, we covered the concept of "unsubscribing" from unhealthy practices. This was of course based on the common Internet practice of subscribing and unsubscribing to various things like newsletters and email lists. I receive quite a few of these each day, many raw foods ones and many non-raw ones. Among the non-raw, one that has been interesting to me lately is called the Art of Non-Conformity, penned by Chris Guillebeau. Basically, Chris' site chronicles his adventures in reaching his personal goal -- to travel to every country in the world! Along the way, he writes about all sorts of out-of-the-box things, as the blog name implies.
Today, he posted something that is remarkably insightful and applicable to our subject matter here, even though his context was completely different. The entry, entitled simply "Before and After," discusses the drinking water problems in much of Africa, focusing for the moment on Liberia. Atop the piece (the "before" picture) is a muddy water hole, the only source of drinking water for one village. The next picture (the "after" shot) shows a different, very happy village obtaining fresh, clean water from a newly installed well. Chris closes his article with the following quote: