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By Melissa Ackerman, AKA Health Mama
I have always been an organic connoisseur and wannabe and attempted the vegan lifestyle in a fit of fitness “obssessiveness” a couple of years ago. Although with each attempt I learn a great deal about food and healthcare, I never seem to be able to commit to a complete lifestyle change. I even failed at using cloth diapers and still feel that twinge of guilt about my contribution to landfill pollution. It’s not like I didn’t try, I arranged all the pick up and delivery dates with a reputable cloth diaper company, glowingly fulfilled the necessary training on how to use a cloth diaper, and was well prepared to be an Earth friendly new mother. However, in my hormonal first-day-back-home-from-the-hospital haze, I looked at the pocket-sized piece of cloth, looked at my daughter’s tiny bottom and went blank. I had no idea how to put that minuscule piece of cloth on that wee bum and burst into tears. My husband rushed to the corner store and, much to my chagrin, I reverted to the easy way out.
Truthfully though, why choose organic beauty and healthcare products over those we think appear to do the trick quickly and painlessly?
That’s just it, what you can’t see, or in this case, don’t know can hurt you. Naturally, pun intended, with all the fear tainted Chinese imports has stirred, it’s a wonder all of us are not using natural products. But then we Americans believe, in general, that the government is inspecting product contents and ingredients (locally produced as well as imports) and that there are tests and requirements to insure our safety, or at least I did and I was woefully wrong. While looking into why to buy organic, I found an enlightening and educational, if not disturbing, sight called Environmental Working Group (EWG), www.cosmeticsdatabase.com, which said, “No safety testing. According to the agency that regulates cosmetics, the FDA’s Office of Cosmetics and Colors, ‘…a cosmetic manufacturer may use almost any raw material as a cosmetic ingredient and market the product without an approval from FDA’ (FDA 1995).”
What does this mean?
First of all, there are no definitive tests completed to directly tie the industrial chemicals used in our beauty aids actually cause illness and birth defects. So no need to just dump your entire beauty regime today or even next week, however, according to EWG “… In August 2005, when scientists published a study finding a relationship between plasticizers called phthalates and feminization of U.S. male babies, they named fragrance as a possible culprit. When estrogenic industrial chemicals called parabens were found in human breast tumor tissue earlier this year, researchers questioned if deodorant was the source.” We quite simply just need to be aware of what we are putting into, onto, and around our bodies and how it affects us as well as the earth. To make choosing healthy natural products as painless as possible, EWG has created a convenient search that allows you to quickly locate organic products that fit your criteria as well as a list of “Safer Shopping Tips” (http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/tips.php). Check out the products you currently use for their safety rating, thousands of products have been reviewed by EWG, and you might find a lot of what you consume meets a healthy standard.
Jacinta O’Halloran’s article on divinecaroline.com discusses the same report titled, At What Price Beauty? She describes “These (as) the worst-offending ingredients that you need to recognize and avoid:
- Petrolatum/ Petroleum jelly: This is considered a probable human carcinogen (in the EU but not in the U.S.). This chemical is found in high levels in the tissues of women with breast cancer.
- Phthalates (or ingredients with this word in the name like dibutylphthalate): This is linked to fertility problems and abnormal genital development in infant boys whose mothers were exposed during pregnancy.
- Parabens (or again, ingredients that contain this word in the name like methylparabens): This mimics estrogen in the body and has been linked to breast cancer and birth defects.”
If adults should be concerned, children must be at greater risk do to their size and lack of development. EWG has produced a Safety Guide to Children’s Personal Care Products outlining a page of specific ingredients to avoid and healthy product alternatives. For example they list four tips: use fewer products and less frequently, don’t trust the claims – read the ingredients, buy fragrance-free products, and visit cometicsdatabase.com. They’ve made it easy to read and in a printable PDF form (http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/special/parentsguide/EWG_parentsguide.pdf).
Thankfully many companies have complied or been formed with those specific concerns in mind so there are a myriad of cosmetics and earth friendly products to choose from. I am researching some of the key companies and their products for next month’s article. Using EWG and documented personal experiences, I’d like to discuss merchandise reviews, which items are not only safe but useful personal care products as well. If you have experience you’d like to share for the article, please pass along your information to Mel Ackerman at mj7acker@sbcglobal.net.
A final note to leave you to contemplate from, of course, Oprah.com, in which Dr. Oz was speaking to Deirdra Imus a proponent in taking earth healthy actions:
“… Americans are exposed to more than 82,000 chemicals in our environment, yet the Environmental Protection Agency has reviewed fewer than 2 percent of them for safety. ‘Knowing that information,’ Deirdre says, ‘Why wouldn’t we decide to identify, control and ultimately prevent those environmental factors that are making us sick?’”
Great Reads on the Subject:
What’s Toxic, What’s Not
by Gary Ginsburg and Brian Toal
Not Just a Pretty Face: The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry
by Stacy Malkan
How Everyday Products Make People Sick: Toxins at Home and in the Workplace
by Paul D. Blanc MD
Melissa is the mother of a six year old little girl, Madeline, and the wife of a former ship captain. She and her family just moved to Maine a year ago from Monterey, CA to experience a change in lifestyle and become middle aged entrepreneurs. After 22 years of teaching, Mel (Melissa) needed more time with her family and so she and a friend started Dancestones.org; the business of giving comfort through Maine’s rolled stones. Reading and Writing are her deepest passions- when she’s not collecting stones in remote areas of Maine!
By Christian Piatt, AKA Big Daddy
I read a piece recently in The New Yorker about the latest environmental buzz phrase: your carbon footprint. Though I’ve had some vague idea before now what it was, I didn’t realize how complicated it really can be to figure out what my carbon footprint is, or how to do anything about it.
Now, I did know that things like changing my light bulbs to the more energy-efficient compact fluorescents and turning down our thermostat helped shrink my carbon footprint, as do walking and mass transit over automobiles. But there is a whole lot more to it than I ever considered.
Take, for instance, the food we eat. There’s a big “buy local” movement in the United States now, both based on the idea of supporting local economies and also to cut down on carbon emissions. Makes sense, right? After all, if you buy food produced nearby, it takes less fuel to transport it, so you’re doing right thing.
Not necessarily.
First, there’s the matter of packaging. Is the food you’re buying packaged in cardboard, plastic, or maybe both? Remember, all of that packaging takes resources and energy to create. We can assume that buying bulk produce is lower-impact for the environment, but what about the cartons it was shipped in? Are they reusable or recyclable, or do they just get tossed? And if the food you’re buying is refrigerated or frozen, well, that’s a whole new layer of energy consumption.
Thinking that going organic is the way to go. Maybe so and maybe not. Though avoiding using pesticides and fertilizers is kinder to the earth, we know little to nothing about the equipment used to plant, maintain, harvest and clean our food. Could be solar-powered hippie tractors, or they could be diesel-cloud-spewing mammoths.
The whole “home grown is better” idea gets more complicated, even if we’re literally comparing apples to apples, so to speak. For example, a bottle of wine shipped by sea from the Bordeaux region of France to New York consumes less energy than it does to cart a bottle of Napa red by semi from California to the Big Apple. And who doesn’t like strawberries in December? If you are measuring your carbon footprint, consider that it may actually take more energy to grow food in a local greenhouse than to ship the same stuff from the southern hemisphere.
Top that all off with what happens to your food once you get it home. You may have bought the most earth-friendly potatoes on the planet, but once you take them home, boil them, squash them up with your electric mixer and heat them up again, you may be using more carbon-dependent energy per potato than they use to make French fries at a fast food restaurant.
It’s enough to make you want to throw in the dye-free, organically grown hemp towel.
It’s been said that awareness, at least, is the first step. It’s not like we can stop eating tomorrow, but at least knowing what impact the things we stuff our faces with does make us a little bit more sensitive to the long-term effects our lives have on the world. The good news is that, in most cases, the things that are better for our bodies also are better for the earth. With this as a starting point, I might not only cut down on our carbon footprint, but I might drop down a belt notch in the process.
Got a question for big daddy? Email me, at: BigDaddy@mommyscompany.com
Christian Piatt is an author, columnist, and owner of http://www.mywordtree.com/ , a professional writing, editing and marketing service company. Their flagship service, Branching Out, is a custom weekly drip campaign service for only $129 a year. He is the father of four-year-old Mattias, and husband of Rev. Amy Piatt, pastor of a new church in Pueblo, Colorado, where he leads music. For more information about Christian’s books, and to read his personal blogs, please visit http://www.christianpiatt.com/
By Erin Nowak, 2008
Spring is right around the corner, and “green” is still the buzzword on everyone’s lips. I recently had the pleasure of attending a runway show featuring garments created by Syracuse University fashion design students. The theme of the night was “Recycled with Style.” Besides being treated to some beautiful sights and sounds, I have to confess I learned a great deal about how to be stylish and responsible at the same time.
The Council for Textile Recycling reports that over four million tons of post-consumer textiles enter our waste stream every year. A million tons are collected by charity organizations, but only about half of the textile products collected end up sold as second-hand items. The rest eventually goes to rag graders. Everything else goes to landfills. And that’s only the post-consumer waste we generate! Add to that the additional 25,000 tons of new textile fiber that’s disposed of yearly by North American manufacturers, and it’s easy to see the importance of eco-friendly fashion.
Reduce
I’ll admit it, before this fashion show I had not given much thought to reducing my “fashion footprint.” I was not aware of the wide variety of eco-friendly fabrics available on the market and I was even less knowledgeable about why they’re beneficial to both the earth and consumers. Conventionally grown cotton often uses genetic engineering techniques, as well as a large amount of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. Organic cotton may be more expensive, but benefits the environment as well as the health and well being of the workers farming it.
As consumers, we can reduce our textile waste by buying clothing made with organic materials that can be easily re-grown, are biodegradable, or both. I was amazed when I checked out some clothing made of bamboo, one of the earth’s most prolific and fastest growing plants. Bamboo fabric is very soft and silky, and it’s reported to have excellent wicking and anti-microbial properties. Which means it keeps you cool, dry, and smelling fresh as a daisy.
Re-use
Buying vintage is probably my favorite way of helping the environment! It’s stylish, easy, and if you keep your eye out there are bargains to be had. I love the nostalgia and history captured in vintage clothing and accessories. Vintage garments were usually created with the finest of fabrics and in many instances they were hand-sewn and tailored with skill and care. Whether you wear vintage garments as is, or re-style them for use with other modern pieces of clothing…I’ve always found it easy to make someone’s fashion trash my style treasure.
Another way to re-use old clothing is to re-purpose it. You know the latest batch of t-shirts you were ready to toss? Don’t let them end up in a landfill or your rag pile. Take those memories and turn them into a cozy quilt, or have someone make one for you. I’ve also found it easy to make children’s clothing with some adult duds that have seen better days.
Recycle
It’s probably doubtful that your community has a textiles recycling program, but if you choose to donate discarded clothing and linens to a second-hand store, they can be re-sold locally, in a foreign country, or otherwise processed. Preparing garments for recycling is easy, just wash them and try to make them as stain-free as possible. This makes it easier for charities to sell them again. Speaking of easy, many charity organizations will actually pick up items at your home! Why send all those cute baby outfits to a landfill, when they can easily be dropped off at your local thrift-store, re-sold, and put to good use keeping some other baby snuggly warm.
At first, socially conscious fashion may seem expensive and a bit inconvenient, but with just a small bit of time and effort I’ve already discovered the benefits of an eco-friendly wardrobe. By recycling my old clothing my closet is less cluttered and I recently discovered a few fun new pieces after visiting a local vintage shop. I’m also trying to think up new and creative uses for old clothes. I even found instructions on turning a shrunken wool sweater into a new and improved backpack! So give one of the ideas above a try and I think you’ll see why green is definitely the new black!
About the Author: Erin McKenna Nowak, is an entrepreneur, wife and the mother of two stylish little girls. After receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts in graphic design and printmaking, she worked in New York City, Chicago and Providence, RI. Having been everything from a children’s book designer to the art director of several magazines, in 2004 Erin struck out on her own and started Bride Design. Bride Design features Erin’s fashion-forward, custom wedding and event stationery and accessories. Each of her one-of-a-kind creations reflect her clients’ personal style and highlights the unique details of their event. Erin is also the pen and paper portion of Invitastions™—edible cookie invitations—the tastiest trend in event stationery! An author and illustrator, Erin loves just about everything pop culture has to offer. When she’s not busy designing or chasing after her kids, she can be found chasing after the latest styles in beauty, fashion, home interiors, music and more!
http://www.bridedesign.com
http://www.invitastions.com
About a year ago I read about a new company called ChaCha. I was poking around on one of my favorite WAHM message boards and saw that a bunch of people had started working there as guides. The concept was very interesting. In a nutshell, there are people who train as guides to find information on the internet for other web searchers. If you go to Google you are on your own. You need to figure out what the best terms are to search for and wade through the content to find exactly what you need. At ChaCha you have experienced web searchers available to help you through live chat.
I’m a nerd, obviously I’m the Tech Mama. At first I thought this was a ridiculous idea that would never work. Really, who needs help searching the web. I can find anything I need in mere seconds, most of the time. Then I realized that there are a lot of people out there “surfing the web” that have no clue, ie my mom. People in this category would love ChaCha.
This inspired me to look into it as a WAH opportunity. At the time it didn’t fit what I was looking for and I quickly moved on to other things and proceeded to forget all about ChaCha. I didn’t hear anything about it, it didn’t have a huge IPO or anything.
Imagine my surprise today when while “surfing the web” I found an article talking about ChaCha on cNet News. It made me feel very short sighted. The owners of ChaCha have made a wonderful business move, genius even. They are partnering with large venues/events across the world to provide specific information via text message. Most recently they partnered with the Sundance Film Festival. Anyone in the area could text a question for free to ChaCha. They had the itinerary, maps, guest lists, etc. They were able to answer attendees questions quickly and for FREE! Now that they have taken on this market it just seems so obvious.
No matter what type of phone/PDA you have, even if you have an iPhone, getting information from the Web is annoying. If you have a specific site you want to visit, great. If you want to check email, great. If you need information on an obscure topic, then good luck and god bless. Clicking through multiple sites, refining your search, and so on, is just cumbersome. Now you can text ChaCha and have someone do the leg work for you. Since it’s FREE it beats your regular 411/Information by a mile. With a new generation of texters the customer base is huge. Just goes to show that you need to think outside of the box.
Check out ChaCha and tell me what you think- www.chacha.com
Brandon with his mentor, Doug
So with the championship meets around the corner, three months of mentoring and coaching behind us, we have decided that it is time for Brandon to slow down and take a little break. This will be Brandon’s last week working with Doug, at least for a while. And that has been the source of my pained reflection. But how silly is that? As I write this, I realize that Brandon has truly had a wonderful blessing brought into his life. Doug has become a surrogate big brother. He has truly been a gift.
If you have a child who is passionate about his sport or other hobby, consider looking at finding him a mentor, or even becoming a mentor. Talk to your coaches. I bet they would not only support the idea but embrace it as well. The experience will yield far greater rewards than you think.
Lets just get down to the nuts and bolts of how to rid yourself of unwanted weight, which for many of you is quite easy. The phantom puzzle piece that keeps eluding you is the piece on maintaining the results.
Maintaining the results is not so easy if you don’t know what to do. You may fall prey to the crazy ads and claims that feed off your emotions and not upon your ability to rationalize and determine for yourself what makes sense and what doesn’t.
What saddens me is not the tons of money being lost but the loss of self respect, confidence, and ability to know what is best for yourself in the perpetual effort to “lose weight now.”
As a lifestyle fitness coach, I know how important it is for you to maintain a healthy weight. And as a woman, I know how important it is to feel confident and sexy within yourself, how your appearance reflects who you really are. To stop hiding and bodaciously express yourself as if you were your nail color. (I love that quote by Mary Foley)
So how are you going to find that phantom puzzle piece and finally place it in your weight loss/fitness puzzle to achieve your bodacious figure?
I have the solution!
First, it is important that you realize that doing just one thing rarely works for achieving lasting weight loss results. It usually takes a combined effort of putting just the right puzzle pieces in place to get rid of unwanted weight and live a healthy, joyful lifestyle. This isn’t rocket science, you’re probably familiar with a few of these but all you need is some tweaking.
A weight loss program needs to combine supportive mindful nutrition, focused daily exercise, a strong mental foundation, and an inner sparkle that ignites your motivation.
Second, is something that most women rarely do. Believe it will happen! When I interview women who have lost 50, 60, 80 pounds there is one common factor I see. They started believing in themselves, and visualizing themselves as a fitter, healthier, and happier woman. Taking one pound at a time and celebrating their successes.
Visualize yourself doing the things you love as the new you. Start taking positive action that reflects who you really are. Prevent yourself getting caught up in guilt, discouragement, worry, and frustration. This always sabotages your efforts.
Third, watch your language! “We are of what we speak” If you keeping speaking about how fat you are, you subconsciously sabotage your efforts and keep yourself fat. I know…doesn’t that sound absolutely ridiculous! But never under estimate the power of your thoughts, language and subconscious mind. If you keep telling yourself how much you hate your fat thighs you must change your language. Start expressing gratitude for all your thighs have done for you. “My thighs are getting stronger and toner through my exercise efforts. They allow me to glide effortlessly through the shopping mall or while I cross country ski and they help me lift my groceries out of the mini van.”
Switch your thinking so that the language comes through in a more positive, uplifting compassionate way. Do this every day in conversation and inner self talk.
Fourth, look at your past diets and how they effected you not only physically but also emotionally and spiritually. Most diets cause a backlash of intense emotions that drive women to binge after depriving themselves of what society calls “bad food.” Diets cause a complete disconnection to the body and mind. A person learns a mindless form of eating through exposure to one diet after another. Diets alone have taught us not to live in the now but always look into the future. As you diet, you look forward to the time when you can eat normally again. Diets become an outside source of what to eat, when to eat, and how much. Mindful eating on the other hand has been proven to have an 85% success rate because you learn to honor your hunger and reconnect body and mind to eat when hungry until satisfied. This is normal eating, watch any two year old eat. They will leave a half of an Oreo cookie on the counter and be totally content with one bite. How about you?
Reconnect your body and mind with food and listen to your inner biological cues for hunger and satisfaction. Enjoy the chocolate chip cookie, taste it, smell it, swish it around in your mouth and enjoy the pleasure and feeling of it go down your throat. You just may notice that a couple bites are all you need.
Sign up today for Amy’s life changing course Self-Care Before Sit-Ups 10 Week Transformation by visiting www.selfcarebeforesitups.com Learn how you can effortlessly eliminate excess weight for good and end the cycle of dieting and weight loss failure so that you can live a healthy, vital life full of joy and energy.
Amy Lundberg owner of Aim For It – Fitness Coaching LLC helps women build an inner foundation to find balance and to bring about a healthier fit body and lifestyle. She has developed Self Care Before Sit-ups E-book and 10-week course. Amy is a certified Intuitive Eating Coach, Personal Fitness Trainer and Lifestyle Fitness Coach. Go to www.aimforfitness.com for more information and receive a free 45-minute consult to gain clarity on what is best for you in reaching and maintaining your goals.
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Chief Mom Officer, Laura, reviewed a wonderful little treasure of t-shirts for our wee-ones. They are soft, trendy and offer a little blessing in each one. Laura’s son Cooper, sports ham’sa in green, meaning:The hamsa symbolizes protection against negative energies. It is a sacred gesture symbolizing receipt of blessings from the universe. Hamsa T-shirt $42.00 Combinations available: slate/gold, pink/fuchsia Sizes: 12-18M, 2T, 3T, 4T |
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Julie founded Buddha Belly NYC with a little bit of coincidence and a lot of confidence. An entrepreneur at heart who always kept style in mind (even for the youngest of fashion headliners), Julie was making t-shirts for friend’s tots and babies and the trend caught on! And so it goes . . . Her friends started ordering, the secret was out, and people came calling for the duds. Thus, Buddha Belly was born.The 29-year-old founder resides in new york city with her husband Gustavo. Working as a free-lance event planner, founder of Fresh Paint New York, and Author of “Baby’s Rock N’ Roll Guide to the Alphabet”, Buddha Belly is another perfect creative outlet.. Inspired by her muses, Nick and William, two boys she nannied for, this line keeps her connected to her life as a nanny which she has very fond memories of. The shirts are designed with world symbols and spellings easy enough for tots to learn and connect with.Julie continues to broaden Buddha Belly’s horizons with as many as 12 private shows a year, a new line featuring six new embroidered designs as well as a denim line set to launch in 2008; she has a constant drive to keep the new designs coming. But loyal fans of the original Buddha Belly designs need not worry . . . Julie will continue creating the signature t-shirts that put Buddha Belly on the map. |
T-shirts are 100% Cotton jersey with Blind Stitching. 100% Cotton Threads. The t-shirts are nontoxic dyed and washed. No shrinkage. Excellent stretch and recovery.
Thermals are 50/50 cotton/ poly lightweight blend. Micro waffle weaves. Vintage inspired. Onesies are 100% prima cotton. Three snaps at bottom wrap. 100% cotton threads. Garment washed. No shrinkage.
Each piece is made with a cotton underlay beneath the embroidered design. This will peel away or wash away after laundering. They are terrific!
Check them out here: http://www.buddhabellynyc.com/details.html