The average woman exposes herself to 167 on her body every day… so begins a clever two and a half minute video about cosmetics and chemicals. Even though I try to be a minimalist, I definitely use the average 10-12 personal care and cosmetic products a day. Here’s my list: soap, shampoo, conditioner, face wash, face lotion, body lotion, deodorant, toothpaste, and chapstick. On a sunny day, add sunblock. That’s a total of ten. Thankfully, my kids use just four products–a shampoo/bodywash combo, soap, toothpaste and occasionally lotion. But that’s not even daily. Fortunately, I’ve used the cosmetic database and scrutinize ingredient lists, so I’m pretty confident the products I do use are as safe as they can be. Here are some of my favorite, low-chemical body products:
Filed under: Personal Care Products on July 19th, 2010 | No Comments »
I am 7 weeks post partum and have been exercising and trying to eat well (i.e. less sweets!) for 5 weeks. While I think I’m getting toner, the numbers on the scale aren’t budging. I know the weight will fall off around 6-9 months, as it has with my last two kids, but it’s summer now and I would like to lose the baby weight faster. Here are some of the things I’m trying to do despite significant results:
- Change it up. We all know that your muscles adapt quickly so for continuing changes, you need to challenge them. I just tried something new this week–drop sets. Start lifting the heaviest weight you can do 4-6 reps with, then decrease by 10-20% and do another set with more reps. Keep lowering the weight and upping the reps until you can do about 20 reps of a weight. Really only one exercise per muscle group like this and you’re muscles will be fatigued. Read more »
Filed under: Exercise on July 15th, 2010 | No Comments »
Our family recently took a trip to a local farm. My five year old loves the book Charlotte’s Web and we try to go to the farm at least once a year to see “Wilbur.” I think it’s important that children see farms and farm animals and understand where their food comes from. I also want my children to develop compassion for all animals, including the ones they eat, and to understand why Mommy is so particular about the foods we eat. The below scene prompted a lengthy conversation about why pigs should be allowed to lounge in mud and not have their tails cut and be put in cages so tight that they can’t turn around and have to defecate where they sleep. When we do eat meat, I want it to come from animals that had a happy life, like these:
Read more »
Filed under: Book recommendation, Children, Vegetarian/Vegan on July 12th, 2010 | No Comments »
Several months ago, we purchased a natural latex crib mattress for our newborn. It was pricey, but I couldn’t buy anything less, knowing what I know. Recently, we’ve decided to move my 5-year old into a full bed. He got all new furniture and of course, now we were in need of a new mattress. But a full costs oh so much more than a crib.
Again though, I couldn’t put my child on a traditional mattress, full of petrochemicals and flame retardants, off-gassing formaldehyde all around him for 10+ hours a day. So we did what we did before–we bought cheaper furniture and splurged on the mattress. The full 6″ natural talalay latex mattress made by a local company without any chemicals cost $1400. The organic wool mattress protector was $150. My son already has a nice natural latex pillow. We’re topping the bed with an organic cotton blanket, which will work for now until we need something warmer. The best thing about splurging on a natural latex mattress is that it will last 20 years–and so does the warranty. That means something to me when I have 3 kids that will likely use this mattress and when I’m already noticing that my personal 4 year old innerspring mattress is sagging. Read more »
Filed under: Children, Sleep on July 10th, 2010 | No Comments »
I’ve been wanting to read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle for some time now. I had trouble getting it through the library as the wait list was ridiculously long. But I finally got my hands on a copy and read it in just a couple days. Part of that was due to good writing, part due to my confinement in a rocking chair these days.
The author, Barbara Kingsolver, and her family of four move from Arizona to an area where they can more easily grow their own food. Then they try to eat locally for one year. The book is a fascinating account of that year, with additional useful information (recipes, facts about industrial food, etc, etc.) I learned a lot about asparagus and turkey mating that I doubt I’d ever hear about otherwise. I personally do like to eat local and grow my own vegetables, but eating healthy is still my number one priority. And if that means buying oranges from Florida and strawberries from California, then so be it. Still highly recommended though!
Filed under: Book recommendation on July 8th, 2010 | No Comments »
We tried this dessert for the first time on the 4th of July and it was delicious. I love that it’s sweet and satisfying while still super healthy. It is sweetened only with honey and each serving provides 9 grams of protein and 7 grams of fiber, plus antioxidants from the dark chocolate and raspberries.
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1/2 cup unsweetened dark cocoa powder
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups fresh raspberries
- 2 12 oz packages silken tofu, drained
- 4 oz quality dark chocolate
- additional berries and mint leaves to garnish
Read more »
Filed under: Recipe on July 7th, 2010 | No Comments »
This is a great time of year to try to eat seasonally and locally. Below is what we had for dinner tonight, inspired by the produce delivered to us by our CSA. We had spinach feta pie made with spinach and eggs from the CSA, and for dessert, another pie–strawberry rhubarb crumb pie, made with rhubarb from our CSA. Everyone, even the kids, had multiple slices of each!
Filed under: Food and Nutrition on July 1st, 2010 | No Comments »
With the recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, undoubtedly many of us are thinking about reducing our oil consumption. The first thing that comes to mind is transportation, but did you know that agriculture in America uses almost as much oil as our vehicles? Agriculture production consumes 400 gallons of oil per year per citizen, which comes to about 17% of our nation’s energy use. Not only do tractors, harvesters, and sprayers use oil, but it’s also the starting material of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides. More than a quarter of all farming energy goes into synthetic fertilizers. In addition to the production of food, oil is used to transport and cool food. The typical food item in the U.S. has traveled 1500 miles from farm to plate. According to the book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, if every U.S. citizen ate just one meal a week composed of locally and organically raised meats and produce, we would reduce our country’s oil consumption by over 1.1 million barrels each week.
So if you’d like to personally use less oil, drive less, but also try to eat locally and organically.
Filed under: Environment, Food and Nutrition on June 28th, 2010 | No Comments »
My son was born one month ago today and I think the natural post-partum weight loss is slowing considerably. It’s time to start eating like I want to loose this baby weight! This delicious summer salad is full of healthy ingredients and is vegan. Go easy on the dressing to make it “light.” It’s super colorful and would be a great addition to any BBQ or potluck gathering. My kids, husband, and I love it!!
Salad ingredients:
- 1 cup quinoa
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 cups fresh corn (2 ears)
- 1 1/2 cups cherry or grape tomatoes
- 1 cup finely chopped red cabbage (we gave ours a quick saute, as I’m not a fan of it raw)
- 1 cup diced cucumber
- 1 diced avocado Read more »
Filed under: Recipe, Vegetarian/Vegan on June 25th, 2010 | No Comments »
Somehow my husband and I managed to watch a movie this past weekend. We saw the documentary No Impact Man (see the No Impact Project website here, or a trailer of the documentary). It really should be called No Impact Family, as it’s about a husband, wife, and toddler living in NYC who try to reduce their impact on the environment. For one year, they ate locally (only food produced within 250 miles), tried to produce no trash, bought nothing new, used minimal to no electricity, walked/biked everywhere, washed their laundry by hand with borax, made their own cleaning products, and used no toilet paper. It’s very entertaining and thought-provoking. Here are a few interesting facts from the film:
- The average American throws out 1600 pounds of trash each year.
- 49 million disposable diapers are thrown in the trash each day in America.
- The average food item in the U.S. has traveled 1500 miles from farm to plate.
- Worldwide, meat eating is responsible for more carbon emissions than anything else, even transportation.
No Impact Man is also a book, although I haven’t read it.
Filed under: Environment on June 21st, 2010 | No Comments »
