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:
This has been floating around the web for a day or two, but for those who haven't seen it, here's former President Bill Clinton talking about his plant-based diet, and what he hopes to gain through it. How amazing to see an *American president* discussing this sort of thing!! Who'd have ever imagined this (considering the strength of the beef and dairy lobbies in this country)?
Stories like this give me hope that the world will become more health conscious -- and will begin to understand that things like irradiation, GMO technology, pesticides, and all of the scary discussion floating around about the "Codex" are all unnatural, unsustainable, and unhealthy for us and for the planet. All you need is love -- and delicious organic foods! Glad to see Bill Clinton advocating this.
Read more: Bill Clinton Shares Details of His Plant-Based Diet, Cites the China Study!
Jim here... As you may have noticed, Pure Jeevan was offline for the past week. I wish this absence had been for some pleasant reason that I could now write about. But, in truth, it was because my mother passed away last Thursday afternoon. It's not easy to write about so soon afterward; we're all painfully unprepared to describe my mother using the past tense. Her passing still just doesn't seem real to me or to anyone who knew her.She was without a doubt a remarkably beautiful, happy, and loving person who, for 65+ years, really made a difference in a lot of people's lives.
Beyond her ties to Wendi, KDcat, and me, she was also known to some Pure Jeevan family members as well as others in the raw food community. She appeared here just a few months ago to share a raw hummus recipe. And, I know she had visited and/or joined a few other raw foods sites during the past two years. She really did have an interest in it, and always loved her veggies and a good salad. In fact, she was one of those people who actually ate fairly healthfully, relatively speaking, yet still faced serious health challenges.
It's not much longer before I'll be serving all kinds of delicious foods to those attending the 3-Day Raw Food Spiritual Ashram Retreat! I've been working on the recipes and taking pictures to include with the bound materials going home with everyone attending the retreat.
A while ago, I received an email asking whether I had any thoughts on how old or young a person needs to be in order to benefit from a raw food diet. Yes. Yes, I do have thoughts on that! Lots of thoughts! ... Here goes:
The easy answer, of course, is that people of ALL ages can (and should) benefit from raw foods. I can assert with confidence that, for most people, increasing your intake of raw fruits and vegetables will likely bring about positive changes to your health, regardless of your age, dietary habits, or current state of health. (Naturally, reducing or eliminating the "bad" things is also paramount.)
Jim here with another intriguing installment of Weird Wednesday.Look, I'm a hugefan of gigantic, mondo salads. If you (well, not raw foodists but most SAD-diet Americans) were to visit our house at lunch time, you'd likely think that the individual salads on our table are as big as the salads bowls put out for entire families (for those few families, relatively speaking, that serve any salad at all these days, that is).
Seriously, when I have enough prep time, I like to pile 'em high with organic green leaf (though I'll take red leaf or romaine frequently), tomatoes, carrots, onions, peppers, apple slices, pepitos, sunflower seeds, raisins -- basically everything but the kitchen sink.
"An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory." ~ Friedrich Engels
When people talk about goals and planning, two distinct camps tend to emerge, in my experience:? (1) the "aim then fire" types, and (2) the "fire then aim" types.? I've used those specific terms for a reason, and will return to them in a bit. But, let's look at the two types, and relate them to the way in which one might approach raw foods.
Here's a picture I took at Portland's Saturday Market last week. We've been pleasantly surprised to find that artichokes grow rather well here in the Pacific Northwest. We don't recall seeing them much back East, but many of our neighbors grow them (both for the artichokes and, I suspect, as ornamental plants).
I suspect that some raw foodists tend to overlook artichokes because they're so traditionally linked with the image of something steamed, stuffed with breadcrumbs, and drizzled in butter -- so, "cooked," "breaded," and "dairy" all together in one recipe! Being half Italian, I grew up eating them this way. My mother almost never said "artichoke"; she always called them an Italian word that sounded like "ga-GO-che-lee." ?She made them just a few times per year, and they were always a huge treat (and we'd often fight over the hearts -- by far the best part!).
Thank you, thank you, thank you! Today for Thankful Thursday, we wanted to say a special THANK YOU to our readers. It means so much to us that you come to visit our blog. With every new comment (both here on the blog and through email) it fills us with great happiness!
Is there something you'd like to see more of here on our blog? Something you'd like us to discuss? We know you are looking for more recipes, since you've told us (be sure to check out our recent posts where we've linked to some fantastic sites offering recipes!). What else would you like to read about or have us share with you?
We at Pure Jeevan are making MAJOR life changes!
Did you think our lives solely revolved around raw foods---that once we went raw, there were no more major life changes to be experienced? Well, maybe it's true that our lives do, in a way, revolve around raw foods---they give us the health and vitality necessary for living a truly vibrant life! However, we are each (Jim, KDcat, and Wendi) unique and interested in many different things. Somehow, we pull all of our differences together and stand united as a loving family. It will be together, as a family, that we embark on an amazing MAJOR life change.
A few of you may already know what I'm talking about, but the rest of you are about to find out all about it, too! You may have noticed that we've temporarily discontinued many of our raw food services---for those of you who have written to ask for help, I am still responding to your emails. If I can't help you at this time, I'll do everything I can to assist you in finding the help you need. This was a necessary part of preparing for the change that is about to take place. In addition to cutting back on our services, we may not always be consistent here with our blog postings, and our email responses may not be very timely (as some of you may have already noticed). We will answer your emails, however, so please don't stop sending them to us. Hearing from all of you makes my heart fill with love and happiness!
In a recent post, I answered part of a message I received from Violet, one of our blog readers. Below is the continuation of my response to Violet (much briefer than my last one!).
Following my response to Violet is a response to Sarah, who has a fantastic raw food blog that I enjoy reading.
Violet's message continued:
Read more: Reader Questions: Raw Transition Support, Identify Peas
I am extremely thankful for sleep. I can't imagine striving to sleep only four hours a night. Jim always says he wishes he didn't have to sleep, that he's wasting his life when he sleeps. For me, I've always loved sleeping. I feel so great after I wake up. Not only that, I thoroughly enjoy dreaming. I wouldn't want to miss out on the amazing dream life I've been able to enjoy while I sleep.