Who you listening to these days? Kanye? Mos Def? Common? Pharrell? Mike Adams?
Wait... wtf? Mike Adams?
Yes! Mike Adams the founder and lead writer for the very popular NaturalNews.com has just reminded everyone why he is indeed the original gangsta. Well, more like the original health gangsta.
Mike's just released single, "I Want My Bail Out Money" is a commentary on all the economic madness that's been taking place over the last year. Here's Mike in his own words on the motivation behind creating the song:
I wrote this song to help spread the message about the unprecedented
theft of money from the American people that has been masterminded by
the white-collar criminals running our country today. U.S. Treasury
officials and Federal Reserve officials have conspired to steal
trillions of dollars from everyday Americans by creating insane
quantities of new money and handing it over to their rich, incompetent
banker friends. It is one of the greatest financial cons ever
perpetrated in human history, and yet few people seem to understand
what's actually going on.
Man, there are so many fantastic things happening in the world of raw food. Here are some links to just a few of those fantastic things:
Organic Young Thai Coconuts
My buddy Alex from Raw Guru could use your help. He's supporting a
company who is importing young organic coconuts to the market - check
out the RFRN review.
Right now the coconut company is in need of some funds, so they are
asking Alex to reach out to anyone that can to help bring in their
initial pallet of coconuts. They need about 250 orders or so to reach
their goal. Once this happens we will have year round organic cocos and
soon will even be able to distribute them to health food stores.
Rawkathon, a 7 day raw food event Kevin Gianni, the Renegade Health Blogger, is up to some big stuff again. October 19th he lauches Rawkathon - a 7 day Raw and Living Foods event filled with some of the raw food communities most experiences teachers. Rawkathon will last 1 week and it's totally free to sign up.
Pure Cafe, gourmet raw food to go I've been meaning to give some major props to Cynthia Beavers. Her shipped raw meals are amazing, some of the best I've had. We'll be doing an interview with Cynthia for our "Raw Business" series soon. Stay tuned.
All Raw Directory, one-stop-shop for raw resources My buddy Wendi has launched the All Raw Directory, a site thank makes it easier to find every single source of raw food info available on the web. She's trying to collect all the best raw resources, books, website and more under one roof and could use your assistance. Check out ARD and 1) make sure your site is in there (if you have one) and 2) add any raw/live food site you can thing of that you enjoy.
eduFire, simple language learning In addition to being one of the coolest people I've met this year, Jon Bischke is also an amazing entreprenuer. Jon came out to our GI2MR Poconos retreat and it was there that I got to learn about his love for education and language first hand. And since so many raw foodies love learning and have way too much energy ;) , I thought recommend Jon's company eduFire as a fantastic resource. I'm currently using eduFire to learn Hindi.
Health Ranger Podcast I've been really enjoying the podcasts that Mike Adams has been putting together over at Natural News. His latest one is with Byron Richards on Fibromyalgia.
Catch A Healthy Habit Cafe in West Haven, CT
Raw all-star Glen Colello has an exciting series of events planned at his cafe for the month of October. I'm talking Food Demos, Movie Screenings, David Wolfe, Raw Parites and all that jazz. Glen's cafe is only a few skips north of NYC.
Vibrance Magazine launches Raw Food community organizer Dave Klein has just launched Vibrance Magazine. Vibrance is the new digital offspring of Living Nutrition magazine (conceived in 1996). It's freely available through the web and Dave would appreciate any feedback you have.
SoapNuts, soap that grows on trees I haven't had a chance to use this, but it does looks sweet! "Soap NutsTM are the dried fruit of the Chinese Soapberry tree (Sapindus mukorrosi), similar to the lychee. A long time ago, local folks in the South East Asia figured out that when the nuts get wet, they release saponin, a natural cleaner used for thousands of years to clean clothes, just like the plants used by Native Americans for washing."
Dhrumil.com This is where I share my love for music and random internet tid-bits that I come across. Yes... more links!
It's an especially great read for health enthusiast who want to take their love for raw food/health and turn it into a living.
One of my favorite quotes from the post:
When you accept that first love dollar, you tell the universe,
“Okay, I’m willing to be paid for this kind of work. Can you bring me
more opportunities like this?” And the universe will say, “Absolutely…
no problem.”
My Own Journey
Recently in my own life I've been making shifts to align my passion of health with my career. Or, to take it one step deeper, I've been allowing it to happen instead of resisting it. I've seen many signs over the last 2 years, but I'd always tell myself I wasn't ready yet. I had other things I needed to do before I embarked on this.
Then one day, while listening to an audio book, I heard Eckhart say (I'm paraphrasing), "Instead of trying to define your life's purpose, let the universe work through you. Pay attention in the present moment to signs that show up and flow with them."
Not exactly "new" information, but what clicked for me was that I had been defining my purpose on paper for so long that I didn't let the magic of life flow into my work. I was so fixated on MY vision for my life that I wasn't allowing anything else in.
Since that shift I've slowly been allowing things to take place and I couldn't be more enthusiastic about the direction that it's headed. Over the next few weeks I hope to share more details.
I'm writing about this topic because I have a feeling that a high percentage of WLIR readers are very interested in making shifts in the space of work, money and livelihood. Because when you start eating raw food, something that is so different and so on purpose, you bring that same sense of purpose to other areas of life. You may not be sure what you want to do, you just know that your energy may not be best expressed with that you're doing right now.
In my recent travels to Chicago and ATL I noticed that more conversations about business of raw taking place at the meetups than ever before. The younger folks are especially fired up to make shifts. Not only are they eager to start making some love money, but they also see the opportunity to change the game:
1 in every 7 dollars in America is spent on/in the health care system
Over 50% of all bankruptcies are due to medical debt
1.07 Trillion Dollars a Year: The estimated cost of managing the reality that 1/4 of America will be
living with more than one chronic disease in the year 2020. (via SuperFoods Rx)
The world is both in need and ready for hundreds of thousands of people to bring the message of health via business.
Over the next few weeks we're going to be talking more about the business of raw and doing what you love. If you have any suggestions or questions you'd like us to include in that discussion, feel free to send them to blog [at] welikeitraw [dot] com.
I don't eat Larbars any more, only because my taste has changed a bit over the years, but my interactions and communications with the company have been great. I also respect what they've been up to so far. It's hard work building a successful business.
I have no opinions on the sale. But I do understand the communities concerns about "selling out". I'd just like to add that things are never that black and white.
I'm going to take a few of the best questions from the community and see if I can get the exec team from Larabar, preferably Lara herself, to write a guest post on We Like It Raw. I have a feeling she'd have some very interesting things to say.
Update: I also wanted to say, selling a business is a big deal and I want to congratulate Lara and her team on their success.
TED online, the site that showcases talks from the famous TED conference, just hit it's 50 millionth view. And in honor of that the TED team has released the Top 10 TED talks of all time.
TED online is one of my all time favorite sites. So much inspiration from so many amazing people.
These links have nothing to do with raw food, but I love what they're about - our global world.
6 Billion Others 6 Billion Others tries to draw a portrait of contemporary mankind by asking questions about universal values. What is happiness? What lessons can we learn from life's difficulties? What's the meaning of life? [thx Tina Su]
Mango Languages Mango is designed to equip you with conversational abilities from the very start. Whether you're learning how to buy a mango or ask when the game starts, Mango immerses you in real, everyday conversations in 12 different language courses.
NPR World Music page National Public Radio's World Music page is a great place to discover inspirational world music that NPR features on it's national shows. I often hear about world music here and then buy the tracks on iTunes. -
Bonus: here's a 4th site that I've been recently enjoying:
The Big Picture A dead simple site by The Boston Globe that features an astonishing new & big photo each day. Sometimes the site is inspirational and sometimes scary. [via Kottke]
The Basics: Anthony talks about how he got started eating raw and how vanity, his initial motivation to go raw, was soon replaced by something much, much deeper. Anthony also talks about what it's like to date someone who is also into live foods and his big new project in Minnesota.
Note Worthy: My favorite part of the interview is Anthony talking about the importance of eating wild foods, especially wild greens. Two months ago Anthony and Philip came down to Delaware for an entourage hang out and picking/eating wild greens at a local state park was the highlight of the trip.
The Basics: Gala Darling is a Cosmo columnist, a well respected fashion blogger, entrepreneur and all around female superstar who's looking to become successfully and abundantly raw. She's been reading WLIR now for a few months and asked me if I knew a coach who could help her transition into this new paradigm of living. Of course the first person I thought of was the wonderful, the charismatic, the sexy... Miss Karen Knowler! I'm glad Gala and Karen hit it off and I'm totally stoked that their coaching call turned out so well. Highly recommend that people knew to raw (especially the ladies) check it out.
Note Worthy: Karen said something during the coaching call that was an Ahh-Haa moment for Gala and for myself. She said, and I'm paraphrasing here, that the big reason that people, especially achievers, become addicted to bread is that they are looking for food that will force them to slow down. Meaning, most people don't take time out of there day to relax and enjoy down time. Since they don't enjoy downtime consciously, they eat bread as a way to force their body to slow down because bread 1) takes a long time to digest (which zaps energy and makes the body tired) and 2) slows down the mind because it makes the body so mucusy. I don't eat bread any more, but I can attest to that statement. 6.5 years ago, before raw, I was totally addicted to eating bread and looking back now I know for me it was a way to force myself to take a break during the day. AND, I notice how I still do that sometimes with heavy raw foods.
Two fantastic interviews for sure. Big ups to Tera and Gala for being great hosts and Anthony and Karen for sharing some enlightening information.
