Archive for July, 2007

What this event is
This year is the 10th anniversary of this summertime holistic and spiritual family event. It has a yearly theme and this year’s theme is "One Heart, Many Hands". The event is sponsored by the Laborer’s District council Health and Safety Fund, Local 332. "Philadelphia’s leading holistic, spiritual and community leaders discuss and present important information regarding holistic healthy; proper nutrition; exercise; stress; energy healing; spirituality; relationships; family; parenting; forgiveness and much more."

This year’s speakers
Gwen Foster, Philadelphia Health Czar Dr. Paul Bodhise of The Bodhise Holistic Healing Group, Queen Afua, Steve "Katriel" Wise, Zemoria Brandon and WURD radio hosts.

Logistics
Date:            Sunday, July 29th Rain or shine
Time:            Noon to 7:00 PM
Location:     Philadelphia Horticultural Center
                      Belmont Avenue and Montgomery Drive
                      Philadelphia, PA
Tickets:       $10 at the door for everyone over 12. Children 12 and under are free.

Why
This event benefits the "Sickle Cell Holistic Project" and will also include a memorial tribute "to honor the late Dr. David Harmon whose birthday celebration began this annual event".

Last year’s event
It was a nice gathering of people with varied backgrounds and interests with a common goal of living a healthy lifestyle. I really enjoyed it and made many new friends. I also purchased some nice jewelry, clothing and toys. There was music, classes, lectures and vendors. There was much love, acceptance, friendship and joy.

Conclusions
Attending this event is sure to shift your perspective and make you think of some things in a new way. It’s just one of those events that transcends barriers and brings unity, joy, love and peace to all.

I’ll see you there.

Visit the website The Urban Sage for more information

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Carol Alt, actress, model, and author of two raw books including her latest The Raw 50 is coming to Royersford, PA this Saturday for the Living Food Expo. Carol granted me an interview and had here’s what she shared with me:

Dawn Good morning, Carol. It’s really exciting that you’re going to be coming to Royersford on Saturday. Are you excited about it?
Carol Yes, it will be really, really nice to meet everybody. The potluck-ers down there were very supportive of my book, they allowed me to use recipes that they had created and I’m really looking forward to meeting them and seeing Royersford.
Dawn It’s a cute little town. I think you’ll really like the park.
Carol I’m looking forward to it, absolutely.

Dawn When was it that you decided to share with your friends that you were 100% raw?
Carol I’m not exactly 100% raw. What I’ve tried to do it make raw accessible to more people. I think people, they freak out thinking their whole way of life is going to change: they can’t ever eat cooked food again and … they could never do this. They freak out and they get defensive and I think, really, what happened was, with the books, people were asking me, “How do you stay looking so good? How do you stay so thin? How do you do this, how do you do that?” Airline attendants, especially, were coming up to me on airplanes and saying to me, “With all the travel you do, and we do the same, we’re so tired, we feel so bad. Every time we see you you’re smiling. How do you do it?” And I say, “I have to tell you, it’s the raw food.”

I have to tell you, what happened when I came back to New York, I live in Canada and New York, so I came back to New York, I bought an office here, I was opening my office, and the newspaper called. The Post called and they said, “Can we take a photo?” and usually they’re chasing me to take a photo, nobody’s ever called to ask. I was like, “What do you mean?” and they said, “There’s a raw food restaurant and we hear you’re a raw foodist and I thought, ‘How odd. I don’t really publicize that.’ I mean, more on a personal level, one on one, somebody asking me, I tell them what the secret is that I had found. But I don’t really publicize that. And they said, “We’d like to take your picture at a raw restaurant.” I thought, ‘A restaurant?’ I’ve been raw for 12 years, raw in LA and raw in Toronto. I can eat at Japanese restaurants, etcetera but there were no such things as raw restaurants. And I thought, ‘This is something I’ve got to go see.’ So I allowed them to take my photo in the restaurant. I tasted all the food, it was just incredible that raw food had taken that leap forward, that there were actually people with raw restaurants.

The book itself just happened out of the blue. So many people were asking me, I was pitching a different book and Miramax books was actually the first people who said, “You are so passionate about this one chapter in your book and that’s how you eat. That’s really the book you should do because you’re so passionate about it.” I thought about it and my agent pitched the book and it was bought immediately. And I thought, ‘Okay, God works in mysterious ways and this way is not so mysterious, He’s telling me what He wants me to do. It’s just a road and I’m just on it.’

Dawn How has sharing raw foods changed your life?
Carol It hasn’t really. That’s the big thing. It’s brought different people into my realm, it’s not like I just deal with fashion people or movie people now. I seek out different restaurants and talk to the people there about food, whereas before I would go into a restaurant and just eat. So food has become more of a social experience. Actually, it’s become such a social experience that I didn’t have before because half the time, before this, I didn’t eat. I wasn’t going to restaurants; there was no social activity over meals or over food because eating was so traumatic for me because I was always gaining wait every time I ate. So this opened up a whole different aspect of my life: I was actually socializing over food.
But physically what has changed for me was just about everything. I mean, my health, my energy, my ability to control my weight, to control my health. I wasn’t on pills or over-the-counter meds. I just ate and it was fantastic.

Dawn Wow, that’s great. I know that’s one of the biggest issues when people start “going raw” and I know some of the earlier books that I read said that, “You can’t socially eat anymore, that’s the end of it. You can’t eat when you go to parties.” So it’s really great that you’re able to incorporate that as well and see other people coming to parties with raw food dishes. It’s cool.
Carol You know, I think that’s doing a disservice. The two main doctors that I worked with in terms of going raw and maintaining my health and doing my check-ups, etcetera, and where I’ve gotten a lot of my information, these doctors who’ve shared with me, the main thing they tell me is 80-100% raw, sometimes they’ll say 75-100% raw, but 80 to 100% raw you can cure yourself of anything. And if you’re educated, I think that’s the biggest thing: is that people are just not educated about raw food. I know I wasn’t 12 years ago but I had a doctor on hand who was a raw foodist who was teaching me and showing me how amazing, things like salad, he was showing me how amazing salads could be. Those salads that he was making and how he was creating things and a whole other world opened up. But he also said, “Listen Carol, if you’re at an event and for some reason you feel like eating a pretzel, go ahead. What’s going to happen is, you’ll feel it the next day because your body is going to be so clean and you’re going to be so relaxed and so happy that when you stress it by eating cooked food, it’ll tell you and ultimately you are going to choose to start eating more and more raw foods,” which is exactly what happened. For me, when I eat cooked food, and sometimes I do, but I know, immediately, that I’m going to get heartburn the next day and I pop 50 enzymes to digest that food for me.

Dawn What’s your favorite raw food?
Carol I really like easy, quick things. I really like hummus. I like making raw hummus: germinating chick peas and throwing them in my blender. I just love it. I love it with flax seed crackers. I love it on manna bread. I put it in my salads. I like guacamole. What other people call side dishes, I call main dishes. Salsa, for example, making fresh salsa, fresh guacamole, they’re so easy to do. They take literally seconds and they can sit in my refrigerator, in a vacusystem [vacuum sealer] for weeks. I can go there, I can pick on it, I can much on it while I’m watching TV. It’s easy, it’s simple, the clean-up is non-existent, basically. So I really like those kinds of things.

View product details at Amazon:
Eating in the Raw: A Beginner’s Guide to Getting Slimmer, Feeling Healthier, and Looking Younger the Raw-Food Way
The Raw 50: 10 Amazing Breakfasts, Lunches, Dinners, Snacks, and Drinks for Your Raw Food Lifestyle

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What this book is about
Buddha began life as Prince Siddhartha. His spiritual quest lead him to become Buddha, which means Enlightened One. This story takes us from conception to his life after becoming enlightened. He even returns home to assure his wife, son and father that he is still alive and that his quest was successful. Siddhartha had a rival and nemesis that I had never heard of before and his relationship with his father was, at times, rocky. Deepak Chopra satiates our curiosity by explaining Buddhism at the end of the book. Then there is a question and answer section for questions you might have about Buddhism. The explanation of "mindfullness" sounds very much like what Ekhart Tolle talks about as "watching your thoughts". I’ve done that and I see how it helps to create gaps in your thoughts where stillness is found.

Truth or Myth?
Deepak Chopra told me that most of the book is based on truth and the stories he heard about Buddha while he was growing up.

Writing
The narrative is very well done and engaging. I hardly wanted to put the book down.

My experience 
I found it very inspiring and had several enlightening moments when my perspective shifted. I also enjoyed reading about Buddhism.

Conclusions
I would recommend this book if you like stories that have a spiritual and uplifting effect, if you’re curious about the stories surrounding Prince Siddhartha, want to learn about lore and mythology from India, want to hear more about Buddhism or just want to make sure you read everything that Deepak Chopra puts out! There are some violent moments in it so don’t read the book if you don’t want those.

View book details at Amazon: Buddha: A Story of Enlightenment

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What this event was
A raw and living food expo with more than 20 vendors offering products and samples to help make preparing and eating raw and living foods easier and more accessible. There will be food tastings, demonstrations, exhibits, music and Carol Alt signing her new book, The Raw 50: 10 Amazing Breakfasts, Lunches, Dinners, Snacks, and Drinks for Your Raw Food Lifestyle. I assume the book will be on sale there but you can also get your copy ahead of time and have her sign it there.

Event history
Lisa Montgomery puts together a monthly raw potluck with speakers as popular and diverse as Brian Clement from the Hippocrates Institute and Sue from Sue’s Salves. It’s popular over five states. Once a year she holds a "Family Potluck" in July. This year it happened to coincide with the release of Carol Alt’s book which includes recipes written by Lisa and several of her potluck attendees, so they turned it into a major event: a living food expo. It will be held at Victory Park in Royersford, PA 19468.

Event details
This event has passed.

Volunteer
If you like raw foods, feel so inclined, and have the time, and want to be on the inside, and want to get the vendors to yourself for the first hour (10AM) then consider volunteering as a greeter. Greeters are stationed at the entrances as people come in. There will be three greeters per entrance so there’s plenty of opportunities to help out. You will also enjoy the event, having the added benefit of being on the inside. What fun and great dharma for you. Greeters would arrive at the park by 10:00 AM and can enjoy the vendor booths in for the hour before the official opening. According to Lisa, "The greeters and helpers would get the vendors all to themselves in the beginning." She sounds so cool. I can’t wait to meet her. Since this event is a labor of love, and not a money making event, greeters and helpers are still requested to pay the $10 but that’s a small price to pay. If I didn’t have a little one to tend to I would volunteer since the side you get to see of these events is always inspiring.

Comments
This will be my first year at this event so make sure you come out and join me. It looks like it’s going to be a really great one. I’m getting excited about it, and you know what it means when I get excited about something. (It means I’m being Divinely guided.) See you there, and make sure you introduce me to all the friends you bring!

By tickets online at Living Dynamically

View book details at Amazon: The Raw 50: 10 Amazing Breakfasts, Lunches, Dinners, Snacks, and Drinks for Your Raw Food Lifestyle

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