By Mary Beth Gonzalez, iVillage.com
I think I’m making myself sick. When I’m not thinking about new ways to go green, I’m thinking about how to get rid of the things in my life that aren’t green. As my green options have increased, so does my anxiety over making my life even greener.
Seven years ago, when I first started learning how to live an eco-friendly lifestyle, green products and information on how to go green were not easily available. There were just a few local options for where to get local and organic food, and only a few companies (many online or catalog companies) who made non-toxic cleaning supplies, natural personal care products and organic sheets/towels. Back then, finding low VOC paint, reverse osmosis water filters, natural carpeting, natural fiber clothing and sustainable furniture was very difficult. Yet, committed as I was to this eco-lifestyle, I searched out and found the few, true, green companies and just resolved myself to knowing that I was doing my best.
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By Leslie Goldman, iVillage.com
I have recently come to realize that I am the most horrifying monstrosity of non-eco-chicness to ever walk the face of our ailing earth.
Or the floors of my local gym, anyway.
It started to dawn on me when I found myself tossing plastic cup after plastic cup away during my daily workouts. Considering the fact I live in a near-constant state of dehydration – I hate H20, preferring Diet A&W and Starbucks Americanos instead – Ive always been grateful to my health club for the water and ice machines dotted throughout. The span of time between 6 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. is pretty much the only time I actually gulp water with pleasure and abandon, during and after a sweaty StepMill session. But all of my cups, along with my co-members, go straight into the garbage. The non-recyclable kind. Ive had it in my mind to say something to the owner of the place but havent gotten around to it.
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By Mary Beth Gonzalez, iVillage.com
Eco-Staycation
Ah August…the perfect time to get away and escape the stress of the eleven other months of the year. Typically, my husband and I take a week to ten days off in August and travel locally to Shelter Island, Nantucket or the Catskills. This year a variety of reasons kept us in NYC including the high price of gasoline and airfare. (What a shame that our politicians couldn’t manage to vote on the new energy bill before their massive FIVE week vacation.)
So to make the best of it, I planned my five day “staycation” to escape my day-to-day routine and pretend I was visiting a fabulous eco-spa.
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By Nicole Ohebshalom, Radiant Living Wellness
It’s a question many fathers and mothers are looking for answers. Health officials in Canada and United States are putting more attention on chemicals being used to make baby bottles, water bottles, and food containers. The focused chemical is bisphenol-a, or better known as BPA.
Research has shown that trace amounts of BPA migrate to our food and liquid through polycarbonate (PC) plastic bottles. There is still debate on how much of a health worry BPA is, but retailers like Wal-Mart are withdrawing baby products manufactured with it. Canada has declared BPA to be so toxic that it’s not allowing anything containing it on their shelves!
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When I first picked up The World Without Us by Alan Weisman, I thought to myself, “Self, hang on for a depressing ride”, but after the first chapter I was actually feeling optimistic. For someone who is not into science as much as she is into shopping, the way Weisman describes the cyclical process of nature is easy to follow and I eventually began to understand that yes, the stresses we are putting on the environment are leading to potentially disastrous results, but at the same time nature can and will evolve to correct the world with us. But only if we change our ways. Starting yesterday.
So, why the title of this blog? Well, there was one section of the book I did find a little unappetizing and I bet you can imagine what it is about…plastic. Since 1945, Weisman explains, we have been living on a diet wrapped in plastics. This was a convenience generally unknown to the world until then, but within 10 years the term “throwaway society” had been coined by Life Magazine and our consumption of it has only grown. Plastics keep our food fresher longer, they bring us junk food in individually wrapped packages, they bring our groceries home from the store, and you really don’t have to look very hard to find them literally filling up your desk.
So following the natural breakdown cycle of elements from wind erosion to the land to rivers and eventually out to the ocean, it is safe to assume that plastic is in our ocean. Much more of it than we think. Sure, there’s a garbage patch of plastic waste nearly the size of Africa hanging out in the Pacific Ocean, but that is just what we can see! Studies of the itty bitty particles of the ocean result in the astonishing figures: 1/3 are identifiable as natural fibers, like seaweed, 1/3 are plastic and the other 1/3 are unknown, which means those unknown could also be plastics that have degraded into particles so small that they are unidentifiable.
Those are some staggering numbers! Before the International Olympic Committee has to create an obstacle course event in the Garbage Patch, I invite you to join our Green is Universal Carbonrally.com team and to start reducing the amount of plastic waste in your life – all our lives, really.
Nicole Walters, GreenisUniversal.com
By Nicole Ohebshalom, RN,CHHC, AADP, Radiant Living Wellness
As Sara was filling out her nutrition history form, I took a glance at her nails. Her nail beds showed up as thin, concaved, and had raised ridges. I suggested she gets her iron tested. People don’t come into a nutrition consultation reporting nail problems but I check them anyway. They offer so many clues to what is going on inside of a person.
Sara returned to our next session with a doctors report of iron deficiency. Her nails gave us a great lead to not only what is going on with her health but also what nutritious foods to bring into her life to make it healthy and happy. The imperfections that may not look like much to you can provide valuable clues about your overall health to a trained eye.
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By Mary Beth Gonzalez, iVillage.com
I gladly switched to better tasting organic produce and jumped at the chance to experiment with natural beauty products but using an organic dry cleaner seemed like such a risk. Since I moved to NYC in 1988, I have made a weekly trip to my friendly neighborhood, Korean dry cleaner. Until recently, in NYC the organic dry cleaner options were primarily outer borough businesses that would send a messenger to come pick up your dry cleaning at your building. Could I trust our expensive suits, my husband’s custom shirts and my white silk blouses to a dry cleaner I couldn’t actually look in the eye? Was it possible that my “dry clean only” clothes could get clean without those noxious dry cleaning chemicals I had grown up with?
You bet. This Earth Day my husband and I took the plunge and switched to Green Apple Cleaners – a new friendly neighborhood C02 green dry cleaner. This natural carbon dioxide technology is like washing your clothes in fizzy water…like club soda…and it is safe for our clothes as well as the environment. In fact, CO2 will actually remove the residual harmful chemicals hiding in your clothes from traditional dry cleaners who use harsh chemicals (perchloroethylene, hydrocarbons and silicone) that are hazardous wastes and ground water contaminants. These chemicals have been linked to the high incidents of leukemia among dry cleaner employees.
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By Nicole Walters, GreenisUniversal.com
When it comes to pests in and around my home, I must confess my first instinct is to kill, with swift and brutal force and usually as many chemicals as possible. My vegetarian, literally would-not-harm-a-fly husband recently brought to my attention that because I work for a green website, I might want to look into modifying this behavior. I see his point, but personally, I think he just wanted to save the little buggers from certain death.
With bug season now in full swing, I’m getting that certain itch and while it’s easier to make a call to the local pest control company my reluctant research has brought some very scary connections between pesticides and child health & safety to my attention. This got me thinking that the alternatives might just be better for my family and pets.
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By Mary Beth Gonzalez, iVillage.com
Last week I hit the wall.
Literally.
Well, actually, I hit the door. In the middle of the night, I walked head on into my bathroom door and gave myself a concussion. So I’ve been trying to recuperate this week and thought I’d share the green concussion “cures” as prescribed by my doctor/husband and enhanced by me.
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By Mary Beth Gonzalez, iVillage.com
Do you ever try to put a particularly tough day in perspective and calm yourself by saying “hey, it isnt like Im curing cancer”. As if curing cancer is commonly known to be the toughest task in the world and the act of doing so would justify all extraordinary and self-less efforts. What if you could help prevent cancer in you and your family partially through simple green living? What if this seemingly difficult task was made easier by adopting the principles of adopting an organic and eco-friendly lifestyle? What if you could help prevent cancer by changing the choices you make everyday?
Sound too good to be true? I know. I hear it everyday. People are immediately skeptical. My husband, Dr. Nicholas Gonzalez, has been treating cancer patients for over 20 years with his own medical protocol based on personalized diets, nutritional supplements and a non-toxic, green lifestyle. He can best explain his treatment and results so Ill provide a link to his website where you can find case studies, press, testimonials and details on his protocol.
What you wont find on his website is what you can do yourself to create the safest, least toxic environment possible for you and your family.
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