Green and Healthy Resolutions

I have been procrastinating making a list of goals for the new year. Then last weekend I attended a new year training conference and one of the topics was on setting, writing down and tracking your goals. I started thinking about how I could bring this idea home for my family to set "green and healthy resolutions". I am constantly trying to balance teaching my children to make "healthy choices" and allowing them some of the "not so healthy" pleasures of childhood. So our first family goal is to make sure we are eating a colorful diet of fresh raw veggies and fruit every day. Second, I am trying to get all of us to drink more pure water every day. I recently read where we should all be drinking 1/2 of our body weight in ounces of pure water every day. Then, we are adding a few "green" goals as well.... Making sure we are all turning off the lights when we leave a room, unplugging phone chargers and appliances when they are not being used and we bought a space heater which allows us to keep the furnace temperature down and just heat the space we are in. We can't do everything but we can all do something. If you and your family have other ideas, please feel free to share things you are doing in your home to make green and healthy choices for the new year.

Happy New Year!

I can hardly believe that we are in 2009. The Fall just flew by and even the holiday season almost seems a blur. I have really enjoyed spending Christmas with our family and friends! We have played cards, gone to the movies and rented movies (Bedtime Stories, Seven #'s and Mama Mia), stayed up late and slept in late. This year we had a big Nerf Christmas; my husband and the boys have shot Nerf guns all over the house - they have had a lot of fun! We went to Michigan for Christmas with our families, had friends (adopted family) in from Florida and Chicago and more family stay with us on their way up from Florida back to Michigan. It has been a great holiday - it has just flown by so fast! The kids are not ready to go back to school and I admit, I am wishing we had a few more days too.

Filtered Water Bottle

I was out Christmas shopping and found the coolest thing .......... Liv Pure fit & fresh filtered water bottle. The bottle filters 50% of chlorine from tap water and you can fill the bottle on the go where ever you are. I bought one for myself and several as gifts. The box advertises that it keeps up to 500 bottles out of the landfills. It is a great alternative when you are at the gym or out for the day. Fit & Fresh is BPA free and also plastic #4 which is a safe number. Instead of trowing away the bottle, you can buy replacement filters. I purchased the bottles at Walgreens but you can look at their website above for other locations.

Green Christmas Ideas

I was thinking what our family could do to be more green this Christmas. I suggested an artificial Christmas tree; however, the idea was vetoed by my husband and daughter. We have had the tradition of a real tree for many years and I must admit, they smell wonderful. So unfortunately, I lost that one.

However, we have done a significant amount of shopping online this year. It was not only convenient but cost effective.. many retailers are offering great deals online. It just made sense to take advantage of the online specials, shop at our convenience without the crowds and then sit back and packages arrive. What a great way to shop!

My next idea was for teacher gifts. Every year I wonder what to buy. The dilema is to give them something they will use - while letting them know how much they are appreciated. So, this year I gave our teachers Basic H2, a super concentrated non-toxic cleaner and a Christmas ornament. One personal and one not so personal but more practical gift and something I know they will use and hopefully think of our family when they do. Giving gifts of health this Christmas.

p.s. when I was out Christmas shopping... I finally bought a set of glass drinking glasses to replace all the plastic ones I recycled last month. I love knowing they are safe.

Teens and Toxic Skin Care Products

As a mother of a teen, it can be difficult to limit their skin care, cosmetic and fragrence choices to only those you know are safe. Being a teen is hard enough (I do remember what it was like); they have a lot of things on their mind and safety and ingredients are usually not top of the list. However, we know it is so important to watch what we put on our skin - think about the nicotene patch and birth control patch - both provide medicine through our skin. Everything that we put on our skin is absorbed the same way... good or bad. If you are like me, I have bought my teen safe skin care and cosmetics; however, I still get questions and I don't think there is a complete buy-in on my daughter's part. Good news! A free ebook is downloadable from: http://www.gonando.com/healthier-lifest... that lists and identifies the major toxic, synthetic chemical ingredients that we should be concerned about and that could appear on personal care labels. Most teenagers are not always open to mom's recommendations; however, if we can persuade them to read a resource where they can learn about the health risks on their own... that may be a different story. I know I will again be filling my teens stocking with organic safe alternatives and hopefully she will soon understand and appreciate more fully why I don't allow her to wear what "everyone else" is wearing at school. I am sure there are a few other mean moms at school just like me.

Kid Safe Chemicals Act

The United State's toxic chemical regulatory law, the Toxic Substances Control Act, hasn't been changed or updated since it was passed in 1976. More now than ever, we need safer laws in place for our children. The Kid Safe Chemicals Act, will change the system and put children's safety first. According to the Environmental Working Group, here are 10 ways Kid-Safe will help...

1. Kid-Safe requires that industrial chemicals be safe for infants, kids and other vulnerable groups

2. Kid-Safe requires that new chemicals be safety tested before they are sold;

3. Kid-Safe requires chemical manufacturers to test and prove that the 62,000 chemicals already on the market that have never been tested are safe in order for them to remain in commerce;

4. Kid-Safe requires EPA to review "priority" chemicals, those which are found in people, on an expedited schedule;

5. Kid-Safe requires regular biomonitoring to determine what chemicals are in people and in what amounts;

6. Kid-Safe requires regular updates of health and safety data and provides EPA with clear authority to request additional information and tests;

7. Kid-Safe provides incentives for manufacturers to further reduce health hazards;

8. Kid-Safe requires EPA to promote safer alternatives and alternatives to animal testing;

9. Kid-Safe protects state and local rights; and

10. Kid-Safe requires that this information be publicly available.

It's easy to see why families support the Kid-Safe Chemicals Act. If you would like to learn more... go to EWG's new web page with loads of user-friendly information at: our Kid-Safe web page. Including a 1-page fact sheet that clearly compares what is currently in place (TSCA) with what could be (Kid-Safe).

Plastic Clean Up

BPA continues to be a hot topic in the news and among many moms. Although the FDA still maintains that BPA is safe, a recent finding by independent scientists reported that the FDA's August decision to find BPA safe was inappropriately based on studies funded by the chemical industry. And according to USA Today, excluded studies show that BPA could harm children at 10x the level allowed by the FDA. BPA is believed to alter cells inside the body, leading to cancer, obesity, type 2 diabetes and early puberty.

With all the news about safe plastics... I decided to go through my cabinets. According to the Environmental Working Group, we want to avoid plastics with #7 on the bottom and look for #1, #2 and #4 plastics as these do not contain BPA. I am recycling a bag full of plastic drinking cups we have brought home from different restaurants, sporting events, etc. Some of them with numbers 5 and 7 and some without any numbers at all. Better to be safe.

Next step... replacing with glass.