Raw Foods Diet & Raw Food Weight Loss Blog

Hi there, Pure Jeevan family!  Jim here… A few weeks ago, I’d been reading about Bibi McGill, the guitarist and musical director for Beyonce. It was a fascinating piece (linked to below, actually) and, to my complete surprise at the time, touched on her fairly serious interest in raw foods — and, wouldn’t you know, she also lives right here in sunny Portlandia!

Soon, I realized that I’d seen her name around town before — and Wendi did, too! There are these absolutely addictive kale chips, you see… (We like to get them at our local food co-op from time to time because they’re truly something special.)  But, until recently, we didn’t piece it all together — that one person manages to produce this distinctive brand of raw snacks, teach yoga classes here in Stumptown, AND somehow also tour the entire globe as lead guitarist  for world-class acts like Beyonce and Pink!

So, we met up for tea at this zen little spot up on SE Belmont — indoor waterfalls & a 10-page tea menu. I was glad we had a chance to chat before doing the video because we got to talk about yoga, rock and roll, guitars, culture, and other non-dietary fun stuff. Whenever diet came up, I’d just say, “Wait, let’s not talk about that yet!” (because I knew it’d be better to cover that on camera).

We decided to walk to a park for the vid shoot, but it was jam packed with kids. So, we ducked into the doorway of a closed art gallery. I think you’ll enjoy the interview, even though trucks passed by a few times on the street. After a while, a man came out of the gallery to see what we were doing. He was pretty nice (which is how most people are here in Portland!), so I asked if we could finish the interview inside the gallery. As you may have guessed from the picture, above, he let us in.  Fun times!

Here’s the video… (In case you haven’t seen Bibi in action, I tossed a 10-second clip of her on stage toward the beginning of the video — but you can search YouTube for many more.)

Special thanks to Gallery Zero in Portland (near 34th & Belmont) for allowing us to film inside. The striking painting behind Bibi (above on this page and behind Bibi in the video) was painted by Portland-based artist Liz Gill Neilson.

Bibi Links

• Bibi’s Kale Chips
• Bibi’s OM Page
• Bibi’s Fan Page on Facebook

More Interviews w/ Bibi from ’round the ‘net:

• Edge Magazine
• OM Times
• About Face Magazine

Here it is, the final stop along our 40-day cross-country tour, Chicago, IL, before returning home to Jim! It’s been an incredible time, meeting so many wonderful people, seeing so much natural beauty across the country, deciding where we’ll relocate once our home sells, tasting incredible raw foods along the way, and spreading the word about the raw food lifestyle whenever an opportunity presented itself!

Below you’ll find the final notes I wrote about our tour, along with some videos and pictures of our final stop in Chicago, Illinois.

We definitely arrived in Chicago refreshed and ready for some adventures. So, we headed directly downtown to search out a new raw food restaurant that our friends Kathy and Danny Living had mentioned to us.

RAW, the newly opened restaurant by Polly Gaza and Carole Jones, is situated inside the Ogilvie Train Station in a recently constructed French Market food court. When we figured out how to get into the market, we were impressed. It’s a nice concept and has a fun feeling to it, just strolling along a market place (all while inside a large building housing a train station) that seemed as though it was almost outdoors. When we found the new RAW restaurant, we were thrilled. The colors, decorations, and displays were all very well done. We had to wait a while to talk with the owners, since the restaurant was doing some great business when we arrived. You can see a video we took of the owners, below, and find out more about the restaurant on their web site: Chicago Raw Food. The video was edited down because the sound quality wasn’t very good, but you’ll hear some inspiring thoughts from Carole about manifesting your dreams and how she and Polly simply manifested the restaurant by beginning with their thoughts. Carole advises: Live Your Passions!

After leaving the restaurant, we headed straight to Borrowed Earth Cafe to visit with our friends Kathy and Danny Living. For those of you who don’t already know them, Kathy and Danny are incredibly loving people who are down to earth and doing some incredible things with their lives (manifesting along the same lines that Carole touches on in the video, above, and also inspiring others along the way to live their dreams and treat the planet with kindness). We first met Danny and Kathy last year during a visit to Chicago, and we immediately loved them. If we hadn’t met them last year, our route back home during this tour wouldn’t have included a stop in Chicago. However, we did meet them and I wanted to spend more time with them so a stop in Chicago was added to our trip itinerary. I love their energy, their soft and gentle loving nature, and to top it off the raw foods they serve in their Borrwed Earth Cafe are delicious. So, KDcat and I were looking forward to spending time with them again (and Jim was sad to miss out on seeing them this time).

When I told Danny and Kathy that we were coming in for a visit during our tour, they asked if we’d be interested in talking to their raw food meetup group. We agreed, of course, and they introduced us to David Hanley, a member of their large group. David hosted us for our stay in Chicago and we had a nice time getting to know him. He’s into stairclimb racing, yoga, software development, loves fixing homes (like Jim does), raw foods, and so much more. In his home, David has a massage chair that KDcat really enjoyed a lot. David drove us to our talk at the meetup, where we met with even more incredible people. It was a large group, so we met at a Whole Foods meeting room not very far from the cafe. There were a lot of questions from those attending the talk, which I always enjoy. It’s nice to meet so many people who are interested in learning a about ways they can improve their health.

That evening, we shared with David the generous amounts of raw foods that Kathy and Danny had sent home with us for the evening. We enjoyed things like Borrowed Earth’s World Famous Salad, Burrito Loco, Sweet Potato Quesadilla, a green smoothie, some cheese cake, and the most incredible raw apple pie I’ve ever tasted. I’m not kidding about that statement, either. I used to consider myself queen of the apple pie back when I baked my foods, and this raw apple pie that Kathy and Danny have created was even more delicious than my best baked apple pie. If you don’t believe me, it’s worth a trip to Chicago just to check it out! Absolutely DELICIOUS! Maybe if enough people ask, Kathy and Danny will share the recipe with all of you through one of our special guest chef editions of Makin’ It Monday!

Before leaving Chicago and heading toward home, we stopped by Borrowed Earth Cafe once more to spend a little extra time with Kathy and Danny. We had great fun together and as much as KDcat and I were looking forward to being with Jim again, we wished we had more time to spend with Kathy and Danny. While there, we talked a lot about the power of intention and creating our futures. Danny also brought out some tuning forks and balanced my energy using them. Let me tell you, that was some powerful healing he was doing. After he was done, I felt euphoric and grounded all at the same time. I was filled with even more love than I normally feel flowing within and without my body. Wow! When I told Jim about it, we agreed that we’d like to learn more about tuning forks, too.

Danny and Kathy are always a wealth of knowledge and inspiration and I was sad to leave their company. Before going, they sent us out the door with even more delicious raw foods to feed us until we returned home. There was even some leftover to share with Jim when we arrived home the following evening!

Below, you’ll see a video we took while visiting Borrowed Earth Cafe last year during our visit to Chicago. You can see in this video how incredibly sweet Kathy and Danny are, but you can tell even better by meeting them in person, yourself. If you’re in the Chicago, IL, area, be sure to stop by and introduce yourself to them!

So, that ends our tour! After Chicago we headed back to Pittsburgh to be reunited with Jim. The next time we cross the country, we’ll be doing it together as a family. Being apart like we did it this time (which was necessary for budgetary reasons) took away from some of the fun we could have all experienced together.

Again, it was such a joy meeting so many of you as we visited different cities and states. Thanks, again, to everyone who hosted us and showed us a great time in your little part of the country! It’s a trip we’ll never forget, and one that will always bring fond memories to mind.

Lots of love to all of you,

Wendi
XOXOXO

p.s. Don’t forget to show support of our Trip Snack Sponsor, Natural Zing, who made the snack portion of this trip possible! Thanks, again, Helen and Jeff! We love you both!

We hope you’ll check out our generous snack sponsor for the trip, Natural Zing, who made our travels extra enjoyable! They have the best selection of raw food snacks, supplies, and appliances for a raw food lifestyle!

So, what did you think about there being snow in New Mexico? Were many of you thinking it was more of a consistant hot climate like I used to think?

We left New Mexico, renewed, and headed to Oklahoma. Here’s where we left off yesterday:

When I arrived in Oklahoma, KDcat and I were surprised with how windy it was. The wind continued to be as severe as it was when we were in Prescott Valley, AZ. We started off our Oklahoma visit in Oklahoma City, where we met the lovely Penni Shelton, of RealFoodTulsa and RawFoodRehab. When Penni heard we were finally headed out on our tour, she asked if we’d be willing to do a talk for her raw food meetup in Tulsa. We agreed, of course, and from there Penni made other plans for some more fun.

Penni contacted the newly opened 105 Degrees raw food culinary training school, located in Oklahoma City, to see if there was a chance we’d be able to stop in and meet some of the staff and do some interviewing. I knew Russell James, one of the better known raw food chefs in the raw community, was going to be teaching at the school and hoped he’d be around so that we could meet him and ask some questions for our Pure Jeevan family members. Well, not only was Russell going to be there, but we were invited by Dara Prentice, a managing partner of 105 Degrees, to be special guests during the graduation celebration of the level one students. What a treat that was!

When Penni and I arrived at 105 Degrees, we immediately saw Russell sitting at one of the tables, having a meeting. I quickly snapped a picture of him and then we had a light lunch while he was in his meeting. Russell was brought over from the UK to share his culinary genius with students at 105 Degrees. If you don’t already know about Russell, be sure to check out his amazing raw food web site, The Raw Chef, where he shares many of his beautiful raw food recipes (which are like works of art).

The students wouldn’t be ready for us to join them for quite a while, so after our lunch we headed out to an Asian market to see what interesting raw food items we might be able to find. You can see some photos from that visit in the photo set, below. Then we headed back to the school to see what the students were doing on their final day.

I’m sad to say that the wonderful video footage I took of the graduation celebration, interviewing the students and hearing about their creations as they were being assembled, as well as a few separate interviews with Russell to inspire Pure Jeevan family members, didn’t turn out well enough to share here on the blog. The sound quality wasn’t very good because we were all in one big kitchen, everyone talking at the same time, and it was difficult to pick up on the intended sound for each video. The photos of the students’ creations and the celebration that day turned out great, however. So, those are visible in the photo set, below.

The students who were present, Vicki Morrissey, Aimee Dufresne, Austin Cummins, and Andrea Conneely created some incredible recipes. Not only were they beautifully presented to us for tasting, but they were unique and delicious, as well! Each student seemed to have at least one dish that really stood out above their other creations, something that was truly unique and creative, as well as delicious. I was impressed and I could tell that Russell was proud of how much the students had learned during their level one course with him. It was an honor to be invited as a special guest at their graduation celebration. We also met a couple of the Level Two students there that day, Alissa and Helen. If anyone out there is looking to hire a raw food chef, look no further than these incredibly talented students we met.

After the celebration, we headed to the unique apartment Penni rented for us for two nights during our stay in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The apartment building was round, and Penni joked that it was like a building from The Jetsons cartoon. It really did seem quite futuristic looking. Penni showed us around the building, which had a meeting room where I talked with some of the Tulsa Raw Food Meetup group the next day. During the talk, I met a lot of nice people and answered a lot of great questions.

Before leaving, I was able to meet Penni’s charming husband, Gordon, and her sweet dogs. Penni and I talked a lot, catching up on what each other has been doing since we were last together at the 2008 Raw Spirit Festival, and we interviewed each other for our web sites. Here’s the interview I did of Penni, where I asked her to share what she’s been doing with all of you. While I was away from the raw community during most of 2009, dealing with lyme disease, Penni created her own raw community group as well as published a book on cleansing (you can find her “Raw Food Cleanse: Restore Health and Lose Weight by Eating Delicious, All-Natural Foods — Instead of Starving Yourself” book through many popular online bookstores)! You can learn more about Penni and what she’s been doing by watching this interview:

To see the videos in which Penni interviews me, you can click below and be taken to her blog where she shares the videos. It’s a candid two-part video in which Penni asks me to share information about a lot of different things relating to health, diet, healing from lyme disease, and more. I hope you’ll check it out and let me know what you think!

You can also see these videos, commentary by Penni, as well as clips from my talk that day in Tulsa, by following the links, below, that take you to Penni’s Raw Food Rehab membership site:

Wendi Dee & I at 105degrees:

http://rawfoodrehab.ning.com/forum/topics/wendi-dee-i-in-okc-at

Wendi Dee in Tulsa:

http://rawfoodrehab.ning.com/forum/topics/wendi-dee-in-tulsa

Penni Interviews Wendi Dee:

http://rawfoodrehab.ning.com/group/mediaroom/forum/topics/wendi-dee-interview-by-penni

NEXT UP: Family stops in St. Louis, MO, and Geneseo, IL!

We hope you’ll check out our generous snack sponsor for the trip, Natural Zing, who made our travels extra enjoyable! They have the best selection of raw food snacks, supplies, and appliances for a raw food lifestyle!

Hi everyone! It’s Wendi here, back to updating the blog and giving Jim a much-needed break. He did an amazing job with all he did while we were away (his full time corporate job; assisting me with a part-time computer job; keeping the house ready for realtors and potential buyers to stop by; dealing with some sad issues around our dog, Julia; connecting with our hosts and those requesting meetups/talks across the country; catching up with KDcat and I for a bit each evening to hear how we were doing; collecting pictures/videos/notes from me to then go through and create blog posts for all of you; helping friends fix up their attic into a useable place; and so much more)! He missed us a lot, and we missed him a lot, too.

So, here we pick up from where we left off with our travels yesterday…

It wasn’t easy leaving Arizona. KDcat and I both wished we had more time to play on the rocks in Sedona. But, we’ll keep that for a time when all three of us (next time with Jim) can be there to experience the wonder of that beautiful place. So, it was off to New Mexico! Since our host in Albuquerque was going to be busy until the evening, we slept in a bit before leaving Arizona.

In Albuquerque, NM, we stayed in the home of the beautiful Darshanie, who was out of the country visiting her daughter and attending the wedding of her brother. I met Darshanie at the Peaceful Valley Ashram a few years ago (the same ashram where I held a raw food spiritual retreat). She’s one of Leela Mata’s beautiful and talented daughters, creating candles which she sells as well as offering intuitive readings [click here to learn more about Darshanie]. It was wonderful to be invited to stay with Darshanie during our travels, and I was a bit sad that she wouldn’t be there when we arrived, but who would ever miss out on the chance to attend an Indian wedding?! If you’re ever invited to attend one, consider it a huge honor and accept the invitation. Indian weddings are breathtakingly beautiful in so many ways.

Greeting us at Darshanie’s place were her son, Shiva, his girlfriend, Cori, and Darshanie’s friend, Jeff. KDcat was especially fond of Darshanie’s cats, Daphne and Binx. We had a nice time talking with everyone, learning more about who they are and what they enjoy doing. As you’ll see from some of the pictures, Jeff plays the guitar; so, he and KDcat had some fun jamming together. Jeff also runs a yoga massage and wellness business there in Albuquerque, called YMAW.

We had a refreshing sleep and then headed out to Santa Fe the next morning, where we met up with our next host, Terri Mares, and her lovely friend, Sarah Moore. We had a raw lunch there in Santa Fe and then Terri and Sarah showed us around the cute little artistic town. Just like Arizona, New Mexico was quite windy. It was refreshing and beautiful at the same time — I love the wind. We enjoyed seeing the historic buildings and visiting some natives selling their crafts (KDcat found a hand-made, engraved brass guitar pick). We took pictures of some of the art in Santa Fe, which is filled with some truly talented artists.

When we arrived at Terri’s place in Las Vegas, NM, I was thrilled to be shown to my “Hogwarts” room. Terri is a big fan of the Harry Potter series, as are we here at Pure Jeevan, and she invited us to stay in her Hogwarts castle bedroom. What fun! She had a digital photo frame (all photos in the world of Harry Potter have moving pictures) that was filled with pictures she captured from our Facebook photo pages, since she knew we were a bit homesick. It was sweet to see photos of Jim waiting there for us to see!

It seems we’ve been visiting a lot of musically talented people as we’ve been crossing the country. At this stop, Terri’s daughter, Xena, and her friend, TJ, played guitar and sang songs to entertain us. We didn’t capture of picture of them playing for us, but we were able to get a video of Terri sharing her success with the raw food lifestyle. You can find out more about Terri by visiting her account on sparkpeople.com.

What an incredibly relaxing and healing place New Mexico is! My morning started off with a personal EFT session with Terri’s close friend, Sarah, whom we met the day before. KDcat and I both loved Sarah and Terri immediately. They are both very gentle, loving, fun people. My EFT session with Sarah was very healing. I have read about EFT, heard about it many times through friends who have had great experience with it, but never really gave it much time. I’m thinking Sarah is a gifted healer on many levels and brings to her EFT sessions something that may not always be there with other EFT practitioners. If you’re ever in the Las Vegas, NM, area and you’re interested in meeting a gentle healer, be sure to contact Terri and ask about meeting her friend, Sarah.

Later that day, we visited the Montezuma area, in the Gallinas Canyon, that’s within ten minutes of Terri’s place. We saw a beautiful place called Dwan Light Sanctuary. It’s so incredibly beautiful and peaceful. We took photos of us in the rainbows that are produced by the large prisms that make this place so special. We soaked up some of the colors and then headed to some hot springs. The springs had three tiers, starting with the hottest and getting to a nice very warm temperature. We sat for a long time, soaking up the healing energy of the water. I loved feeling the warm water, feeling the cold breeze, hearing the sounds of the hot spring, the wind in the trees, the creek at the bottom of the hill. It was so peaceful and beautiful. Then we took a drive to the top of the mountain, which is called Sangre de Cristo, to see the views. I did a quick video up there, saying how I thought I was done with the snow but here I was in New Mexico (which I thought was a dry, hot dessert) with my winter coat on again out in snow flurries!

[In this video, you'll see that Wendi's not too pleased to learn that she thought she left the snow behind her in Pittsburgh forever, only to realize that New Mexico gets snow, too. She's blissed out a bit, if you notice, from a day of intense healing (beginning with EFT, followed by incredible light healing, a soak in lithium hot springs, and now surrounded by nature's healing beauty).]

That evening we had a great time eating some raw foods with new friends. I met Miguel, a lovely man who used to be raw for many years and was inspired to get back into the raw lifestyle, again. He was a joy to talk with and I look forward to seeing him again in the future. We all talked about growing nourishing plants that are local to our areas, so that we can have abundance with little work of trying to tend to plants that are having a difficult time growing in a foreign climate. It was a lovely way to end our stay in New Mexico.

NEXT UP: Oklahoma!

We hope you’ll check out our generous snack sponsor for the trip, Natural Zing, who made our travels extra enjoyable! They have the best selection of raw food snacks, supplies, and appliances for a raw food lifestyle!

After leaving the windy area of Prescott Valley, AZ, Wendi and KDcat headed up to Sedona. Today is part one of their Sedona visit, focusing on their visit with raw chocolatier, Kelly Johnson. We’ll pick up with Wendi’s travelogue, where we last left off:

It was great driving to Sedona, since I have a fond place in my heart for this magical spot. I’ll talk more about that later, though. When we arrived, went directly to a raw restaurant I remembered visiting a few years ago. The name had changed, and there was a lot more going on there.

KDcat and I placed an order for some food to go (we wanted to have a picnic, rather than be inside when there was so much beauty around), and then met the lovely Kelly Johnson. Kelly is one of the owners of the raw restaurant and he agreed to do a quick interview to tell us about the restaurant and what had changed since the last time I was in Sedona.

Here’s that video:

Kelly was great to talk with. I loved his energy and KDcat really liked him a lot, too. As you’ll see in the video, the raw restaurant I visited in the past has expanded and is now called ChocolaTree Cafe. There’s a beautiful outdoor garden area, complete with waterfall and hammock, among other things. It’s a peaceful setting in which to eat a delicous raw meal. They’ve made some nice changes within the cafe, too, including adding beautiful cases for their products (which includes the most impressive variety of raw chocolates I’ve ever seen!).

After the initial interview, Kelly showed us around the chocolate production area he is running right there at the restaurant, under his company called Chocolate Super Foods. The place smelled divine! I wish there was a way to bottle up smells so I could share them with everyone. We met one of the chocolate production staff members, and got a peek at the main tool used to produce the chocolates and truly raw nut butters. The tool was something that was created specifically for Kelly and his chocolate business, but he was happy to share it with all of our Pure Jeevan family members who might be interested in creating their own chocolate companies. I love how so many companies in the raw community are open to sharing what they’ve been learning and doing, rather than keeping it all proprietary and competitive.

Before leaving, Kelly gifted us a case of his delicious L.O.V.E. cups! Wow, that’s some great chocolate! Before we left, he also handed me a chocolate bar that was made from 100% cacao, with the warning to only take small nibbles on it. I’ve been sampling raw chocolate as we cross the country and this chocolate is definitely some of my favorite. I was thrilled to hear that our snack sponsor, Natural Zing, sells Kelly’s chocolate products. I shouldn’t be surprised, since Natural Zing seems to focus on some of the best raw products around! Did I say how much I love Natural Zing? Stay tuned tomorrow to hear more about how that love came to be!

Tomorrow: Sedona Part Two!

We hope you’ll check out our generous snack sponsor for the trip, Natural Zing, who made our travels extra enjoyable! They have the best selection of raw food snacks, supplies, and appliances for a raw food lifestyle!