Attn: Giveaway at the bottom of this post!
The Whole Foods market is celebrating Earth Day and beyond this year by transforming their stores into a hub for Earthings – humans inspired by the beauty and bounty of the earth. They are hoping to create a place for people to gather and share ideas for Earth friendly activities both online and in stores. In honor of this initiative they have created EarthlingMonth.com, which is a snapshot of all those participating via Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. There are prompts on the site to give you ideas on what to share. Just now I see this on the site “Vintage charm. What is salvaged, repurposed or reclaimed in your home?”.
I uploaded a photo of my vintage Pyrex refrigerator dishes.
I love how this initiative allows you to show the little things you are ALREADY doing for the earth. It’s great to be out there planting trees or collecting garbage from your local waterways but we do lots of little things every day and it’s nice to celebrate those as well. if you look at the site you see a variety of answers and photos…pictures of people gardening, showing off their flowers, talking about how they reuse things every day, photos of bees and a beehive, etc. We all live different lives but we can unite in this common cause and there are TONS of ways to do it.
Just share via Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram and use the hashtag #wfmearthling if you want to participate. By adding to the stream you are entered to win a $150 Whole Foods market gift card.
Discovering that you are about to have a baby is often one of the most joyous times of a woman’s life. It can also be the most nerve racking. You are now responsible for the healthy development of another human life and everything you eat, breathe, and come into contact with for the next nine months can impact that growth and development. Being pregnant is weighty enough as it is without scaring moms to be and throwing a bunch of rules around. Yet the high incidences of autism, asthma, allergies, ADHD, cancer, and so many other childhood illnesses and issues require us to give some thought to raising our children green and healthy, even before they are born. They get their start in our bellies. Are we giving them the best possible start we can? It is something we all need to think about because our choices impact them greatly and also the planet. Here are a few ways to keep it green during pregnancy:
Prenatal Vitamins – In my earlier post on the dangers of synthetic vitamins I highlight all the reasons why you want to stick to vitamins that are made from whole foods and not those that are created in a lab. Synthetic vitamins offer you much less than you think are receiving and now is not the time to skimp. There are a few whole foods prenatal vitamins on the market. Try Garden of Life Vitamin Code Raw Prenatal Multivitamins and/or Rainbow Light Just Once Prenatal One Multivitamins.
Organic Foods – Eating organic can be more expensive but there are numerous tips and tricks out there to keep it affordable. Avoiding pesticides is just too important when you are pregnant. With some menu planning, buying in bulk, and perhaps cutting back on other purchases you can find a way to opt for that USDA organic sticker in stores. At the very least you can avoid the foods that have the highest pesticides residues when grown conventionally, also called the Dirty Dozen.
Farm Fresh & Nutrient Dense Foods – When preggo is it also important to make sure your meat is raised as healthfully and ethically as possible. We don’t want to expose our unborn children to all the growth hormones and antibiotics found in conventionally raised animals products. Go with grassfed meats, free range eggs, and pastured dairy. It is best, and usually cheaper too, if you go direct to the source…aka the farmer. Look for more nutrient dense options as well such as organ meats (liver, heart) and eggs other than chicken (like duck). For seafood you will need to look for wild caught instead of farmed and avoid canned foods as much as possible because the cans are lined with BPA. When cooking make sure you are using healthy pots and pans that are free of dangers like chemical ridden non-stick surfaces and aluminum.
Maternity Clothing & Baby Clothing – I think that our consumer society goes a bit too far with all the all the pregnancy and baby stuff it tells us we must have. When I was expecting I simply bought clothing a size bigger until I was forced to buy a couple maternity items. Once I bought them I kept them for all three of my pregnancies and if I needed to buy anything else I went the second hand route. I managed to look nice without spending money on clothing off the rack that no doubt had lots of chemicals in it. Clothing in general has a BIG environmental impact and since we wear it all day long every day it can greatly impact our health. Second hand clothing has been worn and washed enough to negate the health impacts and buying used is better for the planet than buying new.
Natural Cleaners – Wash all your clothing (and baby’s future clothing) in an eco friendly and healthy detergent. There are some really horrible ingredients in conventional detergents and green moms want nothing to do with them. Now might be the perfect time to try soap nuts, which are berries that naturally contain soap and can be used (and reused) to clean your clothes. I love them! For house cleaning go with natural ingredients such as vinegar, essential oils, baking soda, and castile soap.
Healthy Nesting – Nesting is the urge to make your home ready for the new baby. Just like mama birds we want to get our nests in order before our little one arrives. Often time this means getting a nursery ready, doing some renovations, and buying items we think we will need for our little bundle, such as nursery furniture. Buy second hand when you can to avoid the offgassing associated with brand new products. This means it may be better to get a second hand crib rather than a brand new one. Just be sure to do your homework and make sure what you buy hasn’t been recalled or painted with lead based paint because it is so old. New items might be best put outside to “air out” for a couple weeks if possible and when painting use zero VOC paints.
Clean Indoor Air – You are eating for two and breathing for two so making sure your air is clean and free and of harmful pollutants is important. This is no time to be breathing in mold, mildew, fumes from paint, or other chemicals that cause allergies and asthma. One cheap and green solution is to get some houseplants that clean and filter the air such as spider plants, English ivy, Boston fern, and rubber plants. Open windows and let fresh air inside the house as much as possible. Takes daily walks outside in the fresh air (and get some sun while you are at it). You can also run an air purifier to be on the safe side. I have Permatech Air Cleaners in my home and as an added bonus they are also ionizers so they give me a mood boost when I run them.
Healthy Body Care – Dangerous chemicals are abundant in personal care products and now is not the time to put your faith and trust in big corporations that make the lotions and potions you see in conventional stores. These products are not well regulated and legislation does not consider the cumulative impact of all these products. Sure the deodorant might be safe in their minds but what about when you use it along with lipstick, blush, lotion, shampoo, hairspray, and toothpaste? That is a lot of chemicals (phthalates, parabens, formaldehyde, sodium lauryl sulfate) you are rubbing all over your body! Many of those components will pass through your skin into the body that is currently nourishing your unborn baby. I recommend more natural products such as Earth Mama Angel Baby, making your owns products using natural ingredients, and perhaps avoiding some entirely. Why not try going no poo?
I don’t typically shop at WalMart but as with most conventional stores there are usually a couple things I might need or buy there, even if the bulk of my shopping is done elsewhere. There are two items I might go to WalMart for. The first is organic coconut sugar since it is $1.30ish less than my regular grocer, for the exact same brand/size. I don’t use it often but there is at least one recipe I make once or twice a month that tastes best when I use coconut sugar and I cannot stand to pay more money than I have to. Organic whole foods are expensive enough as it is! The other product I might buy there is White Cloud toilet paper. My only other option for this is to travel to Whole Foods, which is not close to me, and spend quite a bit more on 100% recycled fiber toilet paper. I always try to buy green and ethical but I also need to keep an eye on the budget or I wouldn’t be able to make the conscious choices that I do.
‘Living theGreen’ doesn’t have to be about buying expensive products that will break the bank or about sacrificing quality for your ideals. GreenEarth products proudly maintain Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification. FSC is an independent, non-governmental, not-for-profit organization established to promote the responsible management of the world’s forests. All in all it is a good product that I can feel good about buying and we do use toilet paper still, even if we do have some family cloth (washable wipes) that we use too. Most households are going to use toilet paper so making sure it is made from recycled paper is big progress.
It is also very affordable and that is a blessing because who wants to spend loads of money on something that we wipe our tushies with and then throw away? Not me. ;) White Cloud makes ‘green’ a bit more affordable and within the reach of the average person. So, while I may not be a big WalMart shopper you can make some concious choices there and that is always a good thing.
White Cloud is currently running a ‘Living the Green Sweepstakes’ via Pinterest.
I have made no secret that I am not really big on juicing. I have a Vita-Mix and we just seem to prefer whole foods juices and smoothies, with all the pulp and juice combined. That said it can be very nice though to have a cup of fruit or veggie juice without all the frothy pulp and the full tummy that comes after drinking a whole foods juice. My kids especially like juices and we are loathe to buy them at the store because of all the unsavory ingredients (like lots of added sugar) that often accompany those products. Organic and natural juices are available but have you seen the price on those???
Plus, sugar is sugar and most kid’s juices have a lot of it. A green juice is much preferred. Just something refreshing that they can drink with their meal and not fill them up so fast they won’t eat their dinner. We used to own a juicer and we used it often enough but back then we had a different house with a teeny tiny kitchen and we simply did not have room to store a juicer anymore. So goodbye it went.
At any rate I didn’t like the actual juicer very much. It was my first one and I bought a cheap Jack LaLanne model. I disliked cleaning it and I hated handling the blades. It made me nervous every time I used it and we kept misplacing the little magnet thingy that helped you put the blades in correctly. I swore that someday I would get a better one and as luck would have it the folks at NutrioPro recently offered me one of their cold press juicers to try. I have been hugely impressed with it.
Here it is after removing it from the box. This is everything you get…
The list of items/parts for the juicer are:
-New Bella NutriPro Cold Press Juicer with quiet induction motor
-Stainless steel juice strainer
-Single juicing screw auger
-1 pulp container with handle
-1 juice container with handle
-1 cleaning brush
-5 year warranty
I LOVE that the containers have handles. It was also super easy to put together and I had it raring to go in about 2 minutes and it is MUCH quieter than our previous juicer and our blender. I also love that it is a cold pressed juicer. It has no blades so the fruits and veggies are not pulverized into juice, they are pressed or squeezed, using a two step system. The pressing action won’t oxidize the fruit and vegetables and it will help keep the nutrients and enzymes intact. This is also because anything with a blade, like a blender or a juicer with blades, will heat up and start to destroy the nutrients. Cold pressed juices are a much healthier way to go. I hate handling and cleaning blades so double whammy bonus points here.
Another aspect that thrilled me was the fact that you don’t have to shove the fruit/veggies down into it…you basically throw them in and they get sucked in on their own. The only thing that has needed a little help from me thus far has been greens, like Kale. Everything happens so smoothly, I love it. Perhaps this is why NutriPro Juicers are said to get more juice from certain fruits and vegetables than other juicers. For example, the NutriPro got 66% more pineapple juice than one of its main competitors.
The next big win for me is the ease with which you can clean the NutrioPro. I HATED cleaning our other one and that fact often made me shy away from juicing. This one was very easy to clean and I had it done in about 3 minutes. The fact that there is not a whole lot of pulp and debris leftover is a big help. The hardest part to clean was the stainless juice strainer. I spent 2 of the 3 minutes scrubbing that with the brush. Everything else could just be run through some soapy water and rinsed. Easy peasy. It is dishwasher safe too but my dishwasher was full when it was time to clean up.
The very first juice I made was something I am now calling my winter wellness juice. It is full of fresh ginger which is so very good for you…like a natural wonder drug. It is perfect for winter time when illness is rampant and yummy too.
Winter Wellness Juice
1 large apple
3 large kale leaves
3 stalks celery
1-2 inches of ginger
To your health!!
It has a paleo, primal foods, traditional foods and lifestyle slant and I have had my eye on several of them. Well Fed, Lacto-Fermentation, Nourished Baby, Paleo CrockPot, The Wild Life, Freezer Cooking Guide for Grain Free Meals, Paleo Ice Cream, and many, many more. I just love that I can read all these on my tablet and take them with me everywhere I go. How many times have you been stuck in a line or waiting somewhere with nothing to read? Well, opening an ebook to educate yourself is a much better option than playing Angry Birds on your phone.
If you have had your eye on a few of these then it makes sense to buy this bundle to get ALL these great goodies and save yourself some money in the process. Enjoy!