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You know the old story of the tortoise and the hare – every new year I fancy myself the hare – come January 1, my life is destined for drastic change. Out go the sweets, the coffee, the alcoholic beverages, the wasteful purchases I made in the previous year and in comes the fruit smoothies, the fitness gear, ardent recycling and loads of veggies – all the tools I need to excel at living an enthusiastically healthy, green and virtuous year.
Big changes like the big, fast start the hare had in the famous race, are hard to maintain. If you want proof check out that expensive exercise equipment sitting in the corner and collecting dust since last January. When I look back at my life, I find that the most lasting changes have been the slow and steady ones – not the radical changes I vowed to make overnight.
So below I list seven slow and simple changes that can improve your health, and fitness while contributing to greening our planet. Happy New Year!
- Add more laughter. Physiological changes take place when we laugh. We stretch muscles throughout our face and body, our pulse and blood pressure go up, and we breathe faster, sending more oxygen to our tissues. Some researchers believe that laughter may offer some of the same advantages as a workout. Maciej Buchowski, a researcher from Vanderbilt University, conducted a small study in which he measured the amount of calories burned in laughing — 50 calories burned in only 10-15 minutes of laughter.
- Drink green tea. Tea contains antioxidants that can help slow down aging and help your cells to regenerate and repair. Teas of all varieties contain high levels of antioxidant polyphenols that can help keep your body healthier and some studies suggest even ward of some cancers. Tea has less caffeine than coffee, and drinking lots of caffeine is hard on your heart and other organs. Tea can provide the pick-me-up of coffee with less caffeine, making you less jittery and helping you get to sleep when you want. Personally, I like to drink tea in the morning – I feel that my breath feels fresher after a cup of tea than it would after a cup of coffee!
- Drink more tap water. Most North Americans walk around somewhat dehydrated – and often mistake thirst for hunger. Hydration, through drinking more water is a positive change that can improve your health; and choosing tap water can have a positive impact on the environment. The energy required to produce and transport plastic bottles could fuel an estimated 1.5 million cars for a year! More often than not, plastic water bottles are not recycled—they end up in landfills, litter roadsides, and pollute waterways and oceans. The bottled water industry sold 8.8 billion gallons of water in 2010, generating nearly $11 billion in profits. Yet the industry is not required to report testing results for its products. Independent studies have shown that some of the most popular brands of bottled water contain pollutants like pharmaceuticals, fertilizer residue and arsenic. Public tap water, on the other hand, is subject to strict safety regulations, and you are paying for it anyway –so drink more! If you have any concerns about your tap water, install a water filter.
- Buy local! Instead of relying exclusively on large supermarkets, consider farmers markets and local farms for your produce, eggs, dairy, and meat. Food from these sources is usually fresher and more flavorful, and your money will be going directly to these food producers. Author and consumer advocate Michael Shuman argues that local small businesses are more sustainable because they are often more accountable for their actions, have smaller environmental footprints, and innovate to meet local conditions—providing models for others to learn from.
- Go for a ride. Carpooling and using public transportation helps cut down on greenhouse gas emissions, and your gasoline usage. This year I renewed my membership to City Bikes in Washington D.C., a bike sharing programs that allows me to rent a cool red bike for short trips. As long as I keep the bike for under 30 minutes, my one-time a year membership fee pays for it. More time comes at extremely affordable rates. Similar programs exist in other cities, and are in the planning stages in other places. This is a great baby step for my health and for the planet. It takes me about the same time to ride the bike from one stop to the next as it does to ride the metro – it saves me the metro fare and gets me moving at the same time!
- Reduce your meat consumption. You don’t have to become a vegetarian or vegan, but the small baby step of substituting one meal day with a vegetarian option can go a long way toward improving your health and that of the planet. In general, meat consumption is higher than the daily recommended amount, so cutting back one meal a week is a great baby step. Meat lacks fiber and other nutrients that have been shown to have cancer-protective properties; it is also high in saturated fat –which contributes to a number of preventable diseases. Livestock production accounts for about 18 percent of all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions and accounts for about 23 percent of all global water used in agriculture. Websites such as Meatless Monday offer numerous vegetarian recipes that are healthy for you and the environment.
- Take 20 minute walks. It turns out that simple, regular walking may provide all the mental and physical health benefits you need. Walking has been proven to lower “bad” cholesterol, raise “good” cholesterol, lower blood pressure, reduce risk of type 2 diabetes, manage weight, and improve mood and energy. And what’s more, walking is convenient and cheap – you don’t need a gym membership or any fancy equipment. It’s good for the environment as well – cutting down on the greenhouse gas emissions your car would be making. Try walking to work, and if you work miles from your home try other strategies – short walks through your neighborhood, parking in the last row of the parking lot when shopping or parking at work. Remember it’s about small steps and every step helps!
Cornucopia Institute’s New Report, Cereal Crimes has given me reason to continue to ask that question. As I kid I remember loving my bowl of cereal in the morning, and as I grew and went off to college, graduate school and professional life I know my tastes in cereal have changed, but cereal is often just what I want for breakfast. For years now I have taken issue with just how sweet most brands of granola have become so within the past year, I have started making my own homemade granola.
I am super grateful for my bowl of rolled oats as I read through Cereal Crimes and the scorecard that accompanies it. Sugar was just one of the ingredients that I had to worry about! It turns out that when a company lists “natural ingredients” it doesn’t have to list the amount of herbicide and pesticide are sprayed on those ingredients. In contrast, “Federal law requires that organic food products be produced in ways that promote ecological sustainability, without the toxic inputs and genetically engineered ingredients that are common in the conventional food system” (Cornucopia Institute 2011 p. 5).
I continue to explore this question because everywhere you look there are claims being made “eat this, it’s healthy,” “it’s good for you,” “it’s all natural…” Thanks to the Cornucopia Institute and a new report due out tomorrow – you might have available at the click of a mouse more information about the contents of some of the most popular breakfast cereals that we all believed were wholesome options. Turns out “all natural” is not equal to “organic…” Enjoy this sneak preview of their new report and tune in tomorrow for more information!
I have become really aware of the way that lunches generate trash. I live and work in Washington DC where boxed lunches are often provided at meetings. I am almost always shocked by the paper plates and napkins; plastic flatware and cups that are left after the meetings’ end. I am fortunate enough to work at a place where we have a small kitchen, so I can leave food in the fridge and heat it if I need to on a little stove. Realizing not everyone has this option – especially teachers and children attending school – I was really happy to see that the Environmental Working Group EWG post an article on how to pack appealing lunches for children that are healthy and don’t cause too much environmental destruction. Heck, a lot of the suggestions look pretty darn appealing to at least this adult!
Thanks to a young girl’s experiment — we now know that we ought to be careful about the produce we choose. See for yourself:
I am back. I wish I could tell you that I went somewhere fabulous, far, far away from any internet connection in the weeks and months I have not written. I have been busy living life to the fullest – though, I have to admit, on some days the fullness of life can be painful and vexing…
Four months ago, I accompanied my best friend Carol, as she grieved the loss of her youngest sister, Mary, to suicide. Such a sudden and tragic death in the family is destabilizing for any human, but for Carol, living into her 22nd month after being diagnosed with an aggressive stage IV breast cancer, this news was devastating. If you ever doubted the mind-body connection, I am here to tell you that one’s emotional state contributes enormously to one’s physical health.
Just days after Mary died Carol found that she was unable to do much more than sleep. For about 2 weeks she did not venture far from her bedroom. The cancer which had spread to her lungs, adrenal glands, bones, brain and liver left her in unbearable pain. That pain, added to her broken heart landed her in Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital in New York for a three-week stay in mid-May. I traveled to New York, leaving much of my work behind to be with Carol in the hospital – checking in with Carol’s other friends and family members to ensure that she was well accompanied on a full-time basis.
On June 8th Carol was released from the hospital and sent home to her sister Susie’s 24-hour care. Susie and I were making plans so I could spell her over the weekend, when she called me Friday morning, June 9, to completely change the plan. Carol could no longer walk, and Susie needed more help immediately. I rushed to New York again and in the span of 5 days Carol’s health continued to disintegrate before she took her last breath on June 16.
The days at Carol’s home were intense. There was the steady stream of visitors to coordinate, and the pain medications and just getting her up to go to the bathroom took 3 people 20 minutes to do. It’s all a blur now – did I eat? Drink? Sleep? It’s just too hard to remember now. What I do know is that I felt the greatest sense void on June 16 after she died. The care-giving that had organized all my previous days was over. I headed back to DC the next day – grieving and empty. I went to work on Monday – trying to focus on answering the email that had accumulated in my absence at my advocacy job and found myself unfocused, sad, and exhausted.
Mourning the death of a loved one rakes you over the coals. I know that the grieving process is different for everyone – and I find that each time I grieve the loss of someone I love, it is different, depending on the relationship and my sense of self at the time.
The body may die, but the relationship continues! I now find myself thinking of Carol constantly. When I see something funny or something beautiful that I know she would enjoy, I think of the way she really loved life and fought so hard to live. Although I miss her wisdom, humor and compassion, I often remember what she would say or do when new situations come up for me.
Going through this experience has really taught me to seize the day. Carol was robbed — she wanted so much to spend more time on this earth — loving the people who surrounded her. Losing Carol has taught me that life truly is short, and I want to live every minute of it as the most healthy, integrated, balanced person I could be. I now recommit myself to doing this — not only for my sake, but for Carol’s.
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My husband and I planted blueberry bushes last year. It was hard to believe that the little twigs we put in the ground would produce anything. This year, however, the tiny flowers have turned into the beginnings of blueberries. My mouth waters whenever I walk out the front door and catch one of the plants out of the corner or my eye. These plants have “flung a powerful craving upon me.” So powerful, that I have been plowing into the blueberries Rick brought home from one of his shopping forays. A perfect breakfast compliment to fresh blueberries is homemade granola — so feast your eyes on the dish I whipped up for breakfast this morning and follow the homemade vanilla coconut granola recipe to make your own!
This was something that we were told perhaps many time when all of us were growing up. It seems, however, some people have forgotten how to do so. Over-consumption is not making anyone happier. If fact many of us complain that we have too much stuff, or that we are too “stuffed” and literally weighed down by what we consume. Rachel Botsman and Roo Rogers, authors of What’s Mine Is Yours: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption, are convinced that the pendulum is swinging the other way — mainly because social media has made it much easier to share! Check this out, and think of the implications for your own life.
If you believe that industrial agriculture is great because it ensures that we have plenty of cheap food to choose from in the marketplace, think again about its environmental cost. The The Losing Ground Website set up by the Environmental Working Group tells the story of soil erosion which leads to dangerous pesticides and herbicides making their way into streams, ground water, and eventually our drinking water. Go to the website and watch the video! Then consider whether or not the 2012 Farm Bill has any impact on your life!
- Get rid of products loaded with simple sugars and those that are loaded with high fructose corn syrup. These kinds of things are high in calories and wreak havoc on your digestive process making your body dependent on regular “sugar hits.” Replace these simple sugars with natural sweeteners like agave nectar, honey or brown rice sugar which much sweeter than sugar – so you will use less. Agave nectar, in particular, does not create a sugar rush, and is much less disturbing to the body’s blood sugar levels than white sugar.
- Get rid of products with chemical additives like preservatives, flavors and coloring. A good rule of thumb, highlighted by Michael Pollan in his book Food Rules, is to avoid eating anything you cannot pronounce. This is especially important if you have kids, food additives may have a disproportionately greater health impact on children.
- Get rid of soda and energy drinks. Sodas and energy drinks are loaded with sugars, artificial coloring and flavoring. Many people forget to count the calories in these kinds of drinks, and they really add up. Instead, drink lots of purified water; and if you are addicted to a sweet fizzy treat, try sparkling mineral water with a slice of cucumber, lemon or lime. You can also add a dash of juice to give it a soda-like feel and taste.
- If you cannot live with out crackers or chips around the house; choose ones that have three to five ingredients which you can recognize and pronounce. Stay away from anything partially hydrogenated and check sodium content. According to the 2005 Dietary Guidelines you should not exceed 2,300 mg of sodium a day if you’re a healthy adult, and not over 1,500 mg if you have high blood pressure, kidney disease or diabetes; if you are African-American; or you’re middle-aged or older.
- Clean out your supply of white rice; and replace it with brown rice – which takes longer to cook, but as a whole food, it takes longer to digest than white rice, providing the body with sustained energy throughout the day. Brown rice contains the highest amount of B vitamins out of all grains. Additionally, it contains iron, vitamin E, amino acids, and linoleic acid. It is high in fiber and is extremely low in sodium.
- Break your habit of eating refined white flour bread and semolina or white flour pastas. Replace white bread with whole grain or sprouted wheat bread, and try whole grain or brown rice pastas.
- Get rid of sugar-filled breakfast cereals. Select instead all natural, whole grain breakfast cereals – look for the cereals with fewer ingredients and remember you will want to be able to pronounce each of the ingredients. You can also turn left over brown rice into rice porridge, or make up some old-fashioned or steel-cut oats for the fiber of a whole grains.
- Check the ingredients on your peanut butter and get rid of it if it contains added sugar and hydrogenated oils. Replace it with all natural peanut butter – to be certain read the label. If it has more than three ingredients and you have trouble pronouncing any of them, look for another brand. You can also try other varieties of nut butters such as almond, cashew or macadamia butters. My personal favorite is sunflower butter. Please note that these can be pricey, you can also try making your own by putting nuts through a food processor.
- Get rid of sugary yogurt filled with artificial flavors, gelatin, and preservatives. Replace them with all-natural yogurt with live cultures. You might want to try Greek yogurt, since it is strained through a cloth, it’s thicker, more filling and it contains twice the protein than other yogurt. If you want to sweeten your yogurt add fresh fruit – especially berries, or sliced bananas.
- LOOK at “sell by” dates and throw out old condiments and spices that have expired. Spices can grow moldy and lose their flavor. Try shopping at a food co-op or similar place where you can buy fresh spices in bulk – getting only as much as you need for a week or two of recipes. The most expensive aspect of spices is the packaging, so buying in bulk is both a fresher and more economic alternative. You can also grow one or two of your favorite spices in a garden box outside your window – some will even do well in a flower-pot inside the house. Use your home-grown spices fresh or dry them to add to your dishes.
