Surviving Cancer | An Interview With Paul | 90 Pounds Lost!

On this show, Raederle and Lytenian interview a raw vegan named Paul Klein.

To listen to the audio for this show, click here.

Paul says: "I started losing a pound a day. My friends thought I was goner. I knew that I was okay. I felt great. I felt better than I ever had in my life." He goes on to say in regards to his allergies and diverticulitis: "I haven't been bothered with that stuff in the past thirteen years." The doctors said it would never go away. "But it did go away when I changed my diet."

The following is a written description written by Paul of his story and edited by Raederle (previous to the show recording).

Following that is an excerpt from the book that had such an impact on Paul, Nature's First Law.

Paul Klein, photographed by Raederle February 2012

Paul's Story

My motivation for changing to a raw organic diet was to avoid surgery, poisonous drugs, radiation, chemotherapy, extreme sickness and the possibility of a painful death.

Years earlier, I went through an experience with a business partner who died within four months after being diagnosed with melanoma cancer. His attempt to regain his health via the conventional medical method was futile. He and his family suffered greatly.

My business partner's life ended in four months of horrific pain and suffering. He left behind a young wife, son and daughter. My own cancer symptoms were identical to his and I did not want to go that route. Because of many other prior health issues, I had been learning and studying alternative healing modalities.

I had heard of macrobiotics. I knew of Dr. Satarino who chose to go the route of building up his immune system with healthy whole foods. Dr. Satarino was in his thirties at the time. He knew that the standard medical treatment would not be successful. He chose to change his diet. He literally "ate his cancer away."

When my cancer was discovered, I immediately changed my diet to a completely organic diet of raw vegetables, fruits, seeds and nuts. The bulk of my diet became green leafy veggies. This diet was outlined in a book called "Living Foods for Optimum Health" written by Dr. Brian Clements, Phd., the director of the world renown Hippocrates Health Institute in Boca Rottan, FL.

I had also researched "Nature's First Law" by Arlin, Dini & David Wolfe, along with the books written by the originators of Hippocrates Health Institute, Dr. Ann Wigmore and Viktoras Kulvinskas.

Overnight, my black, itchy, fast-growing-cancerous mole gave me the push to start detoxifying. I made the commitment to filling up all of my trillions of cells with powerful Life Force.

I changed my diet radically from acidic to alkaline. My cancerous mole disappeared within four months. My arthritic pain – of thirty-three years – went away. My diverticulitis – of eighteen years – went away. My lifelong allergies vanished as well.

Forty years previously I had been in a serious car accident that had plagued with me severe back pain and a bad knee. That pain also vanished in the same four months.

My energy levels shot sky high. My clarity and happiness skyrocketed.

The eye doctor who examined my eyes said that I was born with astigmatism and that can never be corrected. After two years on this organic raw food diet I got rid of my reading bifocals and driving glasses.

In over eleven years I've been eating organically grown raw foods, I haven't had one cold or flu. I never get indigestion or acid reflux.

When I went fully raw, organic and vegan my spirituality took a huge upward spike. It was the most amazing experience of my entire life.

An organic, raw and vegan diet, in my opinion, is the most sensible and economical way to eliminate and prevent disease and pain.

Through years of seminars, lectures, documentaries, books, workshops, interviews with raw fooders, I have attained the knowledge to heal myself. It's a shame that this information is not embraced at universities.

This information may be repressed because of the negative economical impact it would have on the established pharmaceutical and medical corporations.

Only a few industries have made money from my healing: Organic farmers, organic grocery stores, and those teaching natural healing through food, exercise, clean air and water.

The money I've invested in my raw food education has been far less than what most people throw away in prescription drugs, surgeries, doctor visits, and expensive hospital stays.

Hippocrates said, over two thousands yeas ago, "Make food your medicine, and medicine your food". He was right, and anyone can prove this. Try this diet for one month and keep a journal of your feelings and health improvements.

If you can afford it, take every test available in the medical community. Get your levels of each vitamin measured, as well as cholesterol levels, etc. Then, after a year of on a natural lifestyle, go back and have all the exact medical tests taken again.

It will blow those medical examiners away and open their eyes. Responsible doctors are admitting that prevention is far superior to treating the symptoms.

I have never been happier and more in love with life, my self, my wife, our family, friends and all our acquaintances as I am now.

If you need any help or encouragement, just give me a call, I am happy to share this "Life/Love Altering Experience" with anyone wanting to take responsibility for their own health and happiness.

Namaste, Happy Trails, Much Love

– Paul Klein

#716 884 0099

To see what a nori wrap looks like (what Paul called "sushi") and to get a couple recipe ideas, check out this nori wrap recipe.

To find local groups in your area that have raw vegan potlucks, visit meetup.com and type in "raw food" in the search engine on the site. Also try "living cuisine" and "vegan" because these groups will have overlap in the sorts of events that they have.

Below are some statistics that Paul shared with Lytenian, Raederle and other folks at a potluck from a book. We considered having Paul read these during the show, but ran out of time. But, for your benefit, here they are anyway:

The following stastics were primarily compiled by John Robbins and Howard Lyman. They were revised and updated in the book Nature’s First Law. Most of these facts compare a vegetarian diet to an omnivore diet. Remember that the differences are much greater when compared to a raw food diet.

Humans and Livestock

Human population of the United States: 300 million

Number of humans that can be fed by the grain and soy beans eaten by U.S. livestock: 1.4 billion

Percentage of corn grown in U.S. eaten by livestock: 85% Percentage of corn eaten by humans: 15% (99% is cooked)

Percentage of oats grown in U.S. eaten by livestock: 95% How frequently a child dies of starvation: every 2 seconds

Potatoes that can be grown on 1 acre: 20,000 pounds Beef that can be grown on 1 acre: 165 pounds

Percentage of U.S. agricultural land used for the production of animal foods: 85%

Percentage of U.S. agricultural land used to produce beef: 56%

Amount of grain and soybeans needed to produce 1 pound of feedlot beef: 16 pounds

Number of children who starve to death each day: 40,000

The amont of land needed to feed one omnivorce can feed 20 vegetarians.

That same land can feed around 150 raw vegans.

Trees

Amount of U.S. forest which has been cleared to create cropland to produce a meat-centered diet: 260 million acres

How often an acre of U.S. trees disappears: every 8 seconds

Trees spared yearly by each individual who switches to a vegetarian diet: 1 acre

Rainforests

Rate at which precious rainforest land is being lost: 2.4 acres per second

A driving force behind the destruction of the tropical rainforests: American meat habit

Current rate of species extinction due to destruction of tropical rainforests and related habitats: 1,000 per year

Water

Cost of common hamburger meat if water used by meat industry was not subsidized by U.S. taxpayer: $35 per lb

Current cost for 1 pound of protein from wheat: $1.50

Current cost for 1 pound of protein from beef steak: $15.40

Cost for 1 pound of protein from beefsteak if U.S. taxpayers ceased subsidizing meat industry’s water use: $89 per pound

Medical School & Nutritional Studies

Number of U.S. medical schools: 125 Number of U.S. medical schools with a required course in nutrition: 30

Training in nutrition received during four years of medical school by the average U.S. physician: 2.5 hours

Percentage of the U.S. National Cancer Institute’s budget devoted to nutritional studies: less than 1%

Heart Attacks

A heart attack strikes in the U.S.: every 25 seconds

A heart attack kills in the U.S.: every 45 seconds

Most common cause of death in the U.S.: heart attack

Risk of death from heart attack by average U.S. woman: 46%, man: 52%

Risk of death from heart attack by average American purely vegetarian woman: 3%, man: 4%

Source: Nature's First Law

~ Raederle Phoenix

~ Lytenian

~ Paul Klein

If you have a heath or fitness question you'd like us to answer on the show, e-mail us. Visit the contact page.

Visit the Site Map to find more radio show episodes or articles of interest.

Click here to return to the top.

5 Different Ways To Love Kale

Kale is available at most grocery stores in the produce section. Some stores, like Whole Foods, will carry organic baby kale in tubs. If you don't find it at the super market, look at farmer's markets.

Curly Kale

Dinosaur Kale

Red Kale

Mediterranean Kale

From Chef Jennifer Cornbleet

In the above video, she mentions in the video that kale has protein. All dark greens have protein. In fact, all raw foods have enzymes which your body turns into protein effectively.

Kale protein (and the protein from all leafy greens) is the best sort of protein. It is the most readily utilized by the body.

The enzymes found in kale are utilized in digestion. This is true for of the enzymes in all raw food. Enzymes are destroyed between 105 and 115 degrees Fahrenheit. Depending on the particular enzyme type in question, it might be denatured at 105 or at 107 or at 118. Most cooking involves heating foods over 200 degree Fahrenheit, which means that all the enzymes are removed from cooked foods. (As well as vitamin C and many other vitamins.)

Your body needs enzymes to digest food. When you eat cooked food your body pulls metabolic enzymes from your organs to aid in digestion. It takes eight metabolic enzymes to do the work of one digestive enzyme. This depletes your organs over time, and this process is called "aging." ("Aging" also refers to losing telomeres off the end of chromosomes, but that is a different topic entirely.)

Eating raw foods (that are thoroughly chewed) is easier on your entire body.

You do not need protein powder: you need kale.

Spicy BBQ Kale Chips

From Russell James

I adore making kale chips at home. You can buy them pre-made at the store or online, but they're generally very expensive. It's much more cost effective to go ahead and buy a dehydrator and make your own batches of kale chips regularly.

Kale chips from the store generally range from $6 to $8 for 2.5 ounces to 3 ounces. That is around $2.50 per ounce. In my dehydrator I can fit two bunches of kale (which costs me $3 per bunch for organic kale at my local Co-Op, but I've seen organic kale bunches for $2 fairly often) which we'll say costs $5 on average. I use $1 to $3 on spices and foods to flavor the kale, so we'll call that $2. So I spend $7 for a "batch" of kale chips.

My "batch" of kale chips would easily fill at least four of the 3-ounce kale chip bags at the store. Which means I'm spending $7 for four times the amount of kale chips. Besides, I can invent many more flavors than I could ever purchase.

However, if you're only interested in consuming a tiny bag of kale chips once a month, then spending $250 on a dehydrator would take years and years to pay for itself.

Marinated Kale Salad

From Diana Stobo

I personally don't like plain kale, but a marinated kale salad is wonderful, and I also love kale chips. I also find kale tolerable once it has been juiced with fruits. You don't have to like plain kale to benefit from it's power.

Kale-Spinach-Parsley-Celery-Pear-Apple Green Juice

From Dan, the man with a plan A.K.A. The Life Regenerator – Can you dig it?

Dan also mentions protein and amino acids. This is because people today have been so continually lied to about protein that they believe they need to worry about it. Unless you're deficient in calories, or deficient in raw food, you are not deficient in protein. We create protein most effectively when we eat raw food.

It is unnecessary to eat "already formed" proteins in nuts, meat or beans.

Our body doesn't have a use for ruptured cooked proteins. That juice Dan is making in the video above is a better source of nutrition than anything any scientist could come up with.

"Strengthen your teeth with kale," Dan says. It's actually been shown that chewing on green leaves is the best way to clean your teeth.

The healthiest teeth on the world were found in tribes that didn't have dental care, or toothbrushes. They didn't have fluoride or toothpaste.\

About Kale

Kale or borecole is rich in numerous health benefiting polyphenolic flavonoid compounds such as lutein, zeaxanthin and beta carotene. Kale is widely cultivated across Europe, Japan and the United States for its "frilly" leaves.

Kale belongs to the “cabbage” (brassica) family. It is similar in growth and appearance to collard greens. Botanically, borecole belongs to Brassica oleracea (acephala group) and is closely related to broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts etc.

Easy Kale Chips

From John of "OK Raw"

Popping Joints | What To Do?

"My bones are bothering me constantly. They pop without even trying. What should I do?"

There are many possible causes for this, both coming from a lack of iron and calcium:

• Refined sugars
• Excess of animal protein especially from dairy
• Excess of toxins/proteins/sugars in general
• Lack of magnesium or vitamin D (which will lead to not absorbing calcium)
• Lack of vitamin C (which will lead to not absorbing iron)
• An unbalanced calcium to phosphorus ratio in your diet

Sugar, acidity, and too much phosphorous all cause calcium to be stripped from the bones.

Refined Sugar

Whenever the body gets too much sugar at once (I.E. when someone eats refined sugar), some of the sugar (most of the sugar) must be eliminated. Excess sugar in the blood is dangerous and sharp, damaging to capillaries. In order to expel the sugar as safely as possible the body uses calcium to bind to the sugar. If there isn't lots of calcium excess hanging around, then it will come right from the bones.

Anyone who eats refined sugar regularly develops bone problems. Sugared drinks, soda, candy, etc, are the very worst things you can do for your bones, even worse than milk.

For more information about refined sugars, check out the book Sugar Blues.

Dairy

Milk is also high hazardous to bones. While consuming excessive amounts of calcium from dairy and supplements does result in short-term bone mineral density, the long-term effect is the opposite.

In Greece the average milk consumption doubled from 1961 to 1977 (and was even higher in 1985), and during the period 1977 to 1985 the age adjusted osteoporosis incidence almost doubled too.

In Hong Kong in 1989 twice as much dairy products were consumed as in 1966 and osteoporosis incidence tripled in the same period. Now their milk consumption level is almost “European” – and so is osteoporosis incidence.

Those are just a couple of examples, but if you look it up, this is the case all around the world. More dairy leads to more osteoporosis.

Phosphorous

Grains, seeds, beans, nuts, and legumes generally have a lot more phosphorous than calcium. In fact, in a chart I created for Vitamin Confusion Solution, I was only able to find two foods in this class of foods that had more calcium than phosphorous.

For every bit of phosphorous we consume we must have calcium to balance it. Most diets today are rich in phosphorous but low in calcium. This is due to diets high in meat, grains, and beans. Many typical "health foods" such as whole grains, including quinoa and long-grain brown rice, have more than triple the amount of phosphorous than calcium. Almonds, amaranth, pine nuts, chicken, kidney beans, etc, all have more than twice as much phosphorous than calcium. This is why we're seeing an epidemic of tooth decay.

The solution is leafy greens. All leafy greens contain more calcium than phosphorous.

Halogens: Fluoride, Chlorine & Iodine

Fluoridated water and chlorinated water play a huge role in overall health, and through their body-wide adverse results, the bones are also done harm. This is explained in detail in the book Empty Harvest.

To reduce risks from fluoride and chlorine:

• Consume iodine (a halogen like fluoride and chlorine essential for thyroid health) 
• Use fluoride-free tooth paste (baking soda, good gums, tooth soap, etc) 
• Consume distilled water or reverse osmosis water (filters generally don't remove fluoride)

Provide the body with the minerals and vitamins required to build strong bones:

• Kale, 
• Chard
• Collards
• Chia seeds
• Sesame seeds
• Berries, especially currants and cranberries 
• Raw seaweeds such as nori and dulse (iodine source)
• Fresh wheatgrass juice
• Sea salt and/or celery salt (dehydrated celery)

To your health and bones!

~ Raederle

Summer 2010 | Raederle's Raw Blog

This summer I'm working up to going 100% raw.

(Summer 2010 - Living in Walnut Creek, California – The summer I married Lytenian)

June 7th 2010

I wrote my first entry the day after meeting the amazing speaker; Markus Rothkranz. That first entry was three weeks ago today. Before then, I was trying somewhat to eat more raw foods, but with little success.

It's hard to go raw when you think that all there will be to eat is salad, salad, more salad, and a fruit salad. I knew there was more than that because I have been to several raw food potlucks over the past year, and in fact, I hosted my own for the first time yesterday.

I'm still annoyed with myself for not taking photos of the potluck yesterday. I did, at least, take some photos of a couple of the dishes I made before anyone showed up.

There were so many delicious dishes brought;

Avocado Wraps

A very sweet woman who I met at the free-Sunday-morning yoga-in-Civic-park brought Avocado wraps which consisted of guacamole wrapped in large lettus leaves. I quite enjoyed them in particular.

Tahini Lemon Salad

I learned yesterday that I don't like Tahini personally; although everyone else loved the fresh tahini-lemon dressing served over a fresh garden salad. Tahini is sesame seeds blended with water.

Sweet Wilted Kale Salad

Consisting of a base of kale, covered in a sweet fruit sauce. (Click here to check out recipes for kale similar to this one.)

Fruit Avocado Salad

A salad with a base of avocados and fruits also containing some leafy greens.

Mango Pudding Two and a half mangos, most of a banana, some peach, one strawberry, and some kiwi; blended into a pudding consistency and topped with crushed pecans. (Optional pineapple in a bowl to the side.) I posted my Mango Pudding recipe here.

Strawberry Pudding

Half a mango, a bite of banana, two peaches, five strawberries, and a kiwi; blended into a deliciously creamy pudding consistency, topped with crushed pecans and four or five sliced strawberries. (Optional pineapple in a bowl to the side.)

Fruit Balls Dried cherries, two kinds of dried figs, a couple dates (pitted), dried apricots, pecans and other raw mixed nuts, almond butter, and dried currants rolled into balls on cocoa and coconut shavings. I posted my very first video demo for this recipe – it's just the first video I've ever done like this, so please be understanding of the unprofessional attire, camera, quality, etc. I wasn't even yet 100% raw vegan at the time.

My Raw Food Journey Progress

For the past three weeks, I've progressed to having salad or smoothie for breakfast, and then salad or smoothie for lunch, with an apple, kiwi or a few slices of pineapple for brunch.

Sometimes I make an elaborate raw dinner, but sometimes I still have a cooked dinner.

However, my cooked meals (and raw meals) do not include any meat, dairy, sugar, breads, flour, or pastas unless it's brown rice pasta.

Raw Food Photos

A raw food diet is not boring in the least. This is just the beginning; the first three weeks trying to reach for 100% raw. I'm more and more excited about this each week, and my confidence and level of energy just keeps growing.

In other news: Yesterday morning – Sunday morning – Yoga in Civic park; entirely free yoga under the sun! Or in the shade of the lovely trees; as I prefer. The yoga is taught by various teachers from lululemon.

I can't imagine having a more energizing and productive day than outdoor yoga followed by a raw food potluck! And to think, just last year I could barely get into the downward facing dog position!

August 28th 2010

Written roughly two months after the post above. I went 100% raw on September 3rd 2010, so this is just preceding that.

To be honest, I've been struggling with going 100% raw.

I believe deeply in the value of not eating any poisons.

I believe in the value of every single morsel that I put in my mouth bursting with nutrition.

But even though I believe, there are several walls I've been hitting.

The first and most difficult issue is that I hate the taste of most vegetables. The smell of sprouts makes me sick to my stomach. I can't stand raw peas, or green beans. My favorite beans I don't like sprouted or raw (lima beans and garbanzo beans).

Cabbage and kale I find so disgusting I can't begin to adjust to them even in small portions... Well, except that my green drink had a bit of kale in it today and I didn't find the drink unbearable because of it. So I guess that's a start on kale.

Fortunately, I'm beginning to circumvent this problem. One thing I've been doing is trying new vegetables. For example, today my husband and I went to the farmers market, and one of the things we bought were beats. I discovered that shredded raw beets on top of a salad is pretty darn good.

Another way I've been working around this issue is to try adjusting to things that I simply dislike, but don't hate. I've been successful with a few vegetables.

I've discovered that while I don't want to simply much on a cucumber, I don't mind it in a green drink, or sliced up small on my salad.

While I won't simply snack on spinach, I can sneak a handful in a smoothie or chop up some finely on a lettuce salad.

I dislike raw broccoli quite a bit, but I don't mind crumbled up broccoli-head-bits on my salad either.

And while I don't like celery much, I'll tolerate it a few sticks of it with raw almond butter down the spine.

Unfortunately, while these measures do improve my health, I'm still not excited about eating celery, spinach, cucumber or broccoli. I'm proud of myself for coming far enough to be able to eat a good amount of each of them, but it's still not something I can be enthusiastic about.

Another wall I've come up against in trying to go raw is in growing my own things. Something really important about going raw is eating fresh, fresh, fresh food.

Grocery-store fresh is not enough.

My husband I bought plants. We bought an Aero garden which came with tomatoes, which is flourishing, and now has begun to flower, but as of yet, no tomatoes. We bought basil plants, which seemed to be the best investment since we've eaten a lot of fresh basil. We also bought sage, strawberry, and rosemary plants which have all but entirely died because we simply don't get enough sunlight on our balcony for them.

We thought that we could use the Aero garden light to grow plants indoors, which was all well and good until we managed to get an aphid infestation. I wasn't happy with the idea of so many bugs in the house, so the plants moved to our nearly-sunless balcony, and have since then mostly wilted and died. What's left is some basil chives, one strawberry plant (which has not produced any strawberries since we bought it, which may not really be unusual), and the basil.

The was quite the expenditure for so little result. It's possible to grow things in pots successfully; I've seen it done. But you can't do it without sunlight, and this apartment just doesn't get enough. I ought to be growing edible weeds (such as dandelions) I suppose. They might hold up even without plenty of sun. But somehow I'm skeptical...

So, that's something to keep in mind. If you don't have sunlight access from your apartment, these are your options for getting things fresh: hydroponics, and farmer's markets. Although, not everything at a farmer's market is very fresh, and it's still not the same as eating something directly off the plant. Another option in some places is to buy/rent a bed at a local community garden. Then you can grow and eat fresh produce without needing anything set-up at home.

Of course, growing sprouts doesn't require sunlight, but I can't stand sprouts. Lytenian loves them though.

We're planning on moving at the end of January. I'm excited about moving into a place where we'll be able to grow things. (We didn't actually move to Buffalo, NY until April 2011.)

The other major obstacles people face when going raw are not as much of an issue for me since I've already long-since sworn off of all sugar, breads and so forth. So I'm not experiencing harsh sugar cravings or withdrawal.

I already gave up coffee years ago (mostly just because I didn't like it without milk and sugar in it.) I already gave up milk years ago, and eventually all dairy, including butter most recently. (Somehow, I didn't really realize butter was a diary product...)

It's just those last few things it's hard to give up on; long-grain brown rice, cooked lima beans, shrimp (I didn't give up shrimp when I gave up meat), eggs, fried plantains, yam-fries... Those in particular are really hard to give up for me.

So I've been waffling about what to do. I've managed to get by without so many of the things I was used to by introducing so many new and interesting things into my diet like mango pudding, fruit balls, raw cake, and intricate salads with fancy dressings...

But now I'm facing the question; am I'm going to go all the way? 100% raw foods, with nothing cooked, at all?

I'm not sure what my answer is yet, but I do know this: I'm going on an intense three month detox. It's likely I'll stay entirely raw after the fact.

This intense three month parasite-killing detox is going to be as follows:

[Parasite Killing Detox]

• Daily super-clean showering.
• Daily sanitation of various surfaces.
• Lots of Water & Garlic Tea.
• An enema every other day.
• Clove oil once a week.
• Daily Grapefruit-seed Extract
• The first few days: Onions & Garlic & Cinnamon oil in the ears
• 100 crunches every other day.
• 20 push-ups every other day.
• At first: No food/drink.  All water.
• Starting after week 2: 1 daily probiotic at night
• Starting after the water fast: 2 Green Drinks daily.  (No fruits; all vegetables.)
• After the green drink phase: 2 Green Drinks daily, 1 Smoothie Daily, 1 Salad daily

August 2012

Looking back on this, it is amazing how far I've come! I now make kale salads regularly, enjoy mild green juices (click here for recipes) made from lettuce and cilantro, and I even eat celery without almond butter! My tastes have entirely transformed.

The detox plan to raw worked, but I only managed three days of water fasting. It isn't something I'd recommend as an introduction to raw. A juice feast would be better.

Thanks for reading and supporting my transformation with your kind words and love. You can read more of my personal journey here: Raederle's Memoirs

~ Raederle Phoenix

Want To Be My Apprentice?

I'm looking for a future business collaborator who is willing to start out as my apprentice. (If you know what a master mind group is, you'd be part of my master mind group.)

As my apprentice, you will learn the following skills:

- Editing, proofing, copywriting
- Article writing and book writing
- How to stay positive and optimistic
- How to stay healthy on an optimal raw diet (or 90% raw diet)
- The art of turning ideas into reality
- How to grow a large influential social media network
- Maintaining a well-read and well-loved blog
- How to budget effectively and living happily within your means
- Using knowledge to constantly better your surroundings and life
- How to deeply and genuinely love yourself (and rid yourself of any self-esteem problems you may have)
- How to grow a business
- How to find time for yourself, your loved ones, your business and your other interests
- Many other skills related to the above skills

You will learn the above without paying me with money. Instead you will invest time.

You can compare this to taking several college courses and getting a life coach at the same time.

What you will need to be able to consistently provide:

- 10-20 hours of time per week
- Willingness to learn
- Willingness to provide opinions and feedback
- A positive attitude (I will help, but you must work to maintain it)
- Compassion and understanding (for yourself, me and others)

You must already possess the ability to type at a reasonable rate. If you can not type quickly, or if you don't have the patience to type up a typed page in a day, you will not enjoy working with me. If you currently type slowly but are still interested and want to increase your capacity to type, we can work around it.

You will be able to read my books without paying for them with money. Instead, I will want your time and mind. You will use your mind to learn and absorb what you read, and to give feedback. You will need to be willing to invest the time to reading, but as well as to acting on what you've read. You will need to be willing to consistently make lifestyle changes to better your life.

I will not demand that you become something you do not want to become.

I will demand that you become the best version of your self that you are capable of becoming.

What do I get out of it? Feedback on my work, including:

- Error corrections (I self-edit quite effectively, but you will let me know if I missed anything)
- Highlighting areas you find unclear (What is clear to one person isn't clear to another.)
- Testing recipes and letting me know your opinions for improvement or just letting me know how much you liked it (or didn't like it).
- Informing me if you had to go anywhere special to purchase ingredients, and if you felt the recipe was inexpensive or expensive to make.

Also, your transformation is a benefit to me. I will want:

- Before and after photos.
- Your testimonials for your experience with my recipes, books and mentoring.

As my apprentice you will not be working nearly as hard as I am at maintaining and running my business, but you will become an active participant in it. You will not be paid except with knowledge. Once you've completed your apprenticeship you will have all of the skills I listed. (Anyone who has read Think And Grow Rich knows what an incredible offer this is.)

Once your apprenticeship is complete, we will hopefully then go on to become business collaborators. You will have your business and I will have mine (unless we work so well together we decide to embark on the same ventures together), and we will be able to refer customers and clients to each other. (What you do will be up to you. You will have many options when you combine the skills you currently possess with the skills I will teach you.)

Further down the line you may decide to live on my land when I build my raw community. This is not just an idle dream of mine, but a plan that I and my husband have been working on for a long time now. Ideally, I hope to find an apprentice who specifically wants to be my business collaborator and then later join the community living space.

As a last requirement, you will need to have $10 to $40 per month to spend on books. You will need to purchase around ten books and study each of them carefully. You will read these at your own pace.

These books will be different from my own, by quite a bit. To elaborate: When you read my books you will be learning but you'll also be helping me with your feedback. When you read these other books I'm going to instruct you to purchase, you will be gaining life-shifting perspectives that will help you in all aspects of your apprenticeship as well as your life.

The apprenticeship will take anywhere from two months to two years, entirely depending on where you are currently on your life path. I expect it to take seven to fifteen months.

If you are interested, please send your query to raederle at gmx dot com. Title your e-mail with "I'm interested in being your apprentice" or if you have questions, title it with, "I have questions about being your apprentice."

I will accept an apprentice on a "first come, first served" basis, so don't wait even if you think your life is "too busy" right now. (Believe me, life is always "too ______" right now.)

To apply, provide the following information:

Your full name, what you'd like to be called, best e-mail address, facebook page, twitter page, blog and/or website
Your business and/or employment
Your amount of time you're willing to dedicate to this per week
Your amount of money you're willing to spend on reading material per month
The approximate speed at which you read
The approximate speed at which you type
Current experience with editing and proofing
Current diet
Current dietary goals
Level of physical and mental health
Current opinion of yourself
Your relationship status
Current aspirations for the future

Please do not miss any of these points in your message. If it does not apply to you or you do not wish to share, please say so. For example, you can say "I do not have a twitter account" for that point if that is the case.

Just to be fair (and to give an example), my application would look like this:

Full Name: Raederle Phoenix An Lydell-West-Jacot (call me Raederle)
E-mail: raederle at gmx dot com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Raederle.Phoenix and http://www.facebook.com/pages/Raw-Chef-Raederle-Phoenix/182466575124046
Twitter: https://twitter.com/phoenixsmuse
Website: www.raederle.com
Business: I work for myself; my services can be seen on my website.
Employment: I also work as the editor for The Vegetarian Health Institute
Time: I have ten to twelve hours available per week to dedicate to teaching an apprentice currently
Money: I am willing to spend $20 per month on books to educate myself

Reading Speed: I read a page in 40 seconds to 2 minutes depending on content, mood and print size, 1-4 chapters per day, 1-5 books per month
Typing Speed: It's been a long time since I checked, but last time I checked it was about 60 words per minute (faster than average by a lot)
Editing Experience: Fairly extensive. I've been doing editing, proof reading, transcribing, beta reading, etc, for six years. I've worked on all kinds of projects from novels, to college essays, to poetry to lengthy articles and much in between.

Diet: 80-100% raw vegan, it varies from week to week, still experimenting
Dietary Goals: Find a perfect balance that makes me feel like I'm on top of the world and stick with it

Physical Health: I can work mildly actively for 8-10 hours, moderately actively for 4-6 hours, or very actively for 1-3 hours. I don't catch colds or flues anymore, but sometimes I overwork myself and have to rest for a day or three. I am still recovering from stomach ulcers and am sensitive to an array of foods. I love yoga, chi gong, dancing and swimming in the ocean, but I don't do any of these nearly often enough. I could stand to exercise a lot more.

Mental Health: I used to have depression bouts, and an array of mental problems such as not valuing myself properly. Now, I'd say I'm one of the most mentally healthy people I know, but I do still have a tendency towards solitude for long periods of time. I am not always comfortable in social situations. I have strong cravings sometimes and when I do, I have 70-80% chance of overcoming them at this point, but that isn't 100%.

Current Self Opinion: I rule!

Relationship Status: Happily married.

Future Aspirations: Whew, this would be a lot to write out in detail. But, here is the short of it: Lots of land, permaculture, a raw commune/community, large extensive artistic cob buildings, tons of fruit trees of countless varieties, a large selection of talented loving people, many able and healthy children, and a business a hundred times as thriving as it is today.

Thanks for considering me.

 ~ Raederle

And there you have a detailed sample of what your application should look like. If writing the above seems daunting to you, then this probably isn't a role you're interested in taking.

I look forward to hearing from you, my fantastic new friend, apprentice and future business collaborator.

Sincerely,

Raederle

PS: This probably goes without saying, but just in case – both parties will have the right the terminate the arrangement at any time. Of course, a week or two's notice is polite if we're jointly working on something.

Scarlet Globemallow Herb

Also Known As...

Scarlet Globemallow is also known as Sphaeralcea Coccinea.

Using Scarlet Globemallow

The upper part of the plant is what is used (not the root).

Make a tea and let it sit and gel. It forms a very soothing compound for throat, sinuses, bladder, any sort of infection or cold.

The leaves can be chewed or mashed to make a paste. The paste can be used as a poultice or plaster on inflamed skin, sores, wounds and sore or blistered feet.

The mashed leaves can be simply used for dry skin as a lotion.

The dried leaves can be dusted on sores.

Fresh leaves and flowers may be chewed to relieve hoarse or sore throats and upset stomachs.

The whole scarlet globemallow plant may be used to make a tea that will make other medicines taste more palatable.

This incredible herb is known to reduce swellings, improve appetite, relieve upset stomachs, and strengthen voices. The Dakota heyoka people chewed the plants to a paste and rubbed it on their skin as protection from sun burning.

Hair Treatment

This can also be used to curl your hair if you put it in your hair and then go out into the sunlight.

Identification

The leaves have a sandpaper texture and are shaped somewhat like a maple leaf. The flowers are red-orange.

Distribution

Common on grasslands and prairies in all parts of Montana, USA. Primarily a species of the Great Plains.

The Navajo used tea made from scarlet globemallow as a remedy. The roots were used to stop bleeding, and they were also chewed to reduce hunger when food was scarce.

The leaves are slimy and mucilaginous when crushed.

Getting This Herb

You can purchase seeds online (25 seeds for $3) and grow it at home. It is perennial (which means it will keep coming back each year). Even if you hardly use it, the flowers are lovely. It regrows quickly after harvesting, which is another great bonus.

Learn More

A lot more fantastic information about herbs and food can be learned from Markus Rothkranz's informational set Free Food & Medicine. I learned so much from these DVDs and I still keep learning more every time I watch them. They're a great buy. Well worth their price and then some!

I wish you wonderful health.

~ Raederle Phoenix

Click here to return to the top.