Coffee Grounds!

I love my French Press, but it's left me with tons of used coffee grounds.  I grind my own coffee, so these grounds can be pretty coarse.  Since it's winter and I don't want to open my outdoor compost bin, I'm left to find other uses for these grounds. 

So far, I've made an invigorating exfoliating and moisturing scrub and an air freshener.

The scrub consists of coarse coffee grounds, a tiny bit of olive oil (for moisture), water, and a tiny bit of brown sugar.  It works great!  Plus, you start your day smelling like coffee.

The air freshener is some grounds in a nylon knee high (I tied it, wrapped it around the grounds, tied it, and repeated a couple times to ensure there's no leakage!) with a few drops of vanilla.  My wife keeps it in her car since her work uses cleaning products that smell like very, very strong vinegar.

Take the Good with the Bad

A very close family member was recently diagnosed with endometrial cancer.  She is undergoing a hysterectomy soon and has to stay healthy.  I brought her some green tea with honey, organic cinnamon, ginger, and lemon in a big mason jar.  She doesn’t like the taste of green tea, but really enjoyed this stuff.  I also gave her garlic and kiwi to help keep her healthy.

A friend from work also gave me a jar of elderberry syrup her sister made which staves off cold and flu.  It tastes pretty good, too!  The recipe is here and I’m definitely going to make it soon!  I gave her some of that, too.  Family members have been providing her with holistic remedies, too.  She’s starting to use kale…finally! And eating healthier, taking Echinacea, and drinking tea.  I showed her some basic yoga moves to help get her a little more active.  I have a big notebook filled with healthy and green tips that I go through with her when I see her.  She’s slowly working to watch the containers that she buys things in. 

It can be difficult to watch out for crazy chemicals.  I just bought a yoga ball that I’m using as an office chair to help with balance, posture, and help me focus (I get ADD as a side effect of bipolar at times).  The Gold’s Gym Stay Ball has a warning on the box that states the product contains chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer, birth defects, and reproductive issues.  YIKES.  I’m sure that all yoga balls contain these chemicals, but this brand actually calls it out.  It’s pretty disconcerting, especially considering the family history of colon cancer (both sides of the family), uteran and now endometrial cancers.  These things are in the products we use daily, whether we realize it or not.  Below is an great starter article from one of my favorite green living sites on toxins we ingest without even realizing it.  We shouldn’t have to weigh the benefits against the risk of products that we buy.  But alas, the cost of industrialism in the modern world hits medically home.

http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-10504/10-things-i-wish-all-americans-knew-about-toxins.html

Another thing I battle with is being on bipolar medicine.  That’s a huge benefit versus risk.  When I have a baby, certainly some of the chemicals in the medicines will have transferred to it.  I’ve talked to my prescriber about it, and he says that I’m on the only medicine that is safe for pregnancy.  Just because it’s termed safe doesn’t mean it is ideal.  In my situation, I take the good with the bad and will remain on Lamictal during pregnancy.  I’ve had friends who have gone off medication and used marijuana instead.  Though for a few months it seemed to work, they ended up needing to go back on medicine which immediately improved their lives.  It’s times like that where chemicals are necessary and work far better than relying solely on herbal remedies.  Much like my family member with cancer, having surgery is absolutely happening, but taking holistic precautions isn’t harmful and will help her stay healthy and positive.

Green Gift Wrap?

The holidays are over, but there are always birthdays and next holiday season to prepare for.  Wrapping paper is a huge waste, if used like most of us do.  Over-wrapping, tearing open, and tossing in the trash.  Try to open evenly so you can reuse the paper.  A different way to do it is to use old newspaper (comics section for kids, travel for adults) or buy some recycled plain brown paper and use your own stamps, markers, and stickers to make it custom for the gift receiver. 

The following infographic is from dailyinfographic.com (one of my favorite sites). 

The problem with helping others...

The problem with helping others is that sometimes it can feel like a lost cause.  It's easy to focus on the negative aspects of people.  How often do you have a less than pleasant interaction with another person...even a total stranger?  Once a week?  Several times a day?  When we focus on that, it's hard to get motivated to help others.  We have to assume the best in people because so many people only show the worst.  My wife has a hard time understanding how I can be so into helping others when so many of the people we encounter are rude or selfish.

Here's how I feel about it.

People can suck, this is true.  Most people, however, are just caught at the wrong time or are the result of a bad circumstance.  Maybe their dog is sick or they just caught their partner cheating.  You never know.  How many times have we been the ones being the jerk because we were having a bad day?  Probably more often than we realize.  It's normal and it happens.  I like to think that when you help people, it makes them a better person, too.  They see that there is good in the world and pay it forward.  I'm a blood and platelet donor.  I go through the Red Cross which is completely voluntary with no monetary compensation.  I'm lucky enough to be healthy and have a blood type that is greatly needed for platelets.  A guy I met the day after Christmas while waiting to give platelets said something that I will never forget "if the worst thing we have to do is sit in a chair for an hour and a half to save someone, then we are very lucky."  I try to give platelets every 2-3 weeks and though it can be tedious, it's an incredibly small and easy thing to do to save someone's life and let them see another holiday, birthday, wedding, or new family member.  These people are already down on their luck and incredibly happy to receive anonymous donations.

Around the holidays, lots of churches and shelters set up food drives or ask for people to help deliver meals to the less fortunate.  It usually only takes a couple of hours in the morning so you can make it to your family's meal on time.  And you've given someone food, hope, and kindness.  Sometimes that's all it takes to turn someone's perspective around.

I feel blessed to be a lesbian.  When I donate or help others, people see someone who cares and not someone whose lifestyle they might not agree with.  It gives an inside peak into what so many people hate or fear (homosexuality) and just maybe it sticks in their mind that maybe it isn't so terrible or scary.

We have the power to help others.  The hardest part is remembering that not everyone is a jerk and that helping someone might just make them a better person, too.

Quote of the Day

I have a daily desk calendar with inspirational quotes.  Yesterday's quote of the day was a great one from Anne Frank. 

How wonderful that no one need wait a single moment to improve the world.

 You don't even have to physically do anything to improve the world...even just changing your way of thinking can help.  Think about the ways you can help others or spread news about a great cause.  So much of this can be done from your couch.  You can repost information on facebook about green technology, social injustice, or funny things to put a smile on someone else's face.  Another thing you can do is sign online petitions.  They are easy and can make a real difference.

Simple Ways to Save

A huge problem that we, as a society, face is waste.  We waste so much every day.  I caught myself about to waste.  I had a large bottle of lotion that was too low for the pump to reach, and too deep for my hand to reach it.  So I decided to cut the bottle down and found that there was a half inch of lotion still in there!

Also, I got one of those white board packs at work.  It had four markers and an eraser.  The cardboard backing is recyclable, but the plastic front of the packaging is not.  Instead of tossing it in the trash, I tried to think of ways I could use the plastic.  I can use it as a palate for different paints when I'm feeling crafty! 

It's easy to toss shampoo or conditioner away when you've squeezed and squeezed and not much comes out.  A very simple "hack" is to add a little water to the bottle.  You'll get a few more days out of it and it cleans out the bottle for whatever else you might use it for.

Waste has made us a lazy society.  We are a disposable society that is conditioned to buy something new instead of wearing the older thing out or fixing it.  Zipper shops, shoe repair shops, and tailors are losing business because people think it's easier to go buy a new jacket, pair of shoes, dress or pants than paying someone less than $20 to fix what they already have.  Not only would it keep major stores from getting even richer and supporting the local economy, it will save you money!!  A trip to your local fix-it shop is better for the whole world...less demand for sweatshops, less global corporate traffic, less pollution from factories, ships, trains, trucks and every other aspect of what goes into getting your pair of shoes from its factory overseas to your feet.

We see something as trash...very often it's packaging...and it goes into the trash...and then into a dump...and then into the earth contaminating soils (and our food) and water.  If we take a step back and think of ways to REUSE, then maybe we can slow it down a little.  I'm not saying that I'm going to use this one plastic packaging for my entire life, but it will save me from using paper plates or other disposable things.  If we think outside of the box and take that extra step, we can influence others to do the same and work toward a cleaner environment. 

A Simply Green Lifestyle

Hello!  I'm starting this blog to share things I've learned, tried, and want to do in order to live a simply green lifestyle.  I decided that I can't sit back and let the earth fall apart without doing something.  Part of doing something is sharing something...even just some facts or simple DIYs.

It can seem pretty impossible to reverse the damage done to our planet by greed, negligence, and ignorance.  One person can't do it all and it certainly can't be done over night, but everyone can find at least one reason to make a change, even if just for their own benefit.  Living green sometimes entails doing a little bit extra...or even a little less.  Either way, it's the healthiest for the earth and therefore, healthy for us. 


My reasons for going green are:

• Do my part to save the environment
• Be healthier
• Be happier
• Not be as wasteful as society conditions us to be
• Make an impact on others who may not be aware of environmental issues
• Be a role model for others and for my future children so that hopefully they will go on to help save the planet

Maybe growing your own vegetable garden is a small way to reduce your carbon footprint (the transportation of the produce, the transportation of the chemicals to "protect" the food, the fuel for the planes that spray crops...the list goes on and on).  Or maybe your own garden is a way to eat healthier for free, plus it's much easier to pick a delicious tomato, squash, herb than to drive to the store and buy food that was picked days, possibly even weeks, ago.  Another  benefit of working in your own garden is the exercise that goes into it.  The initial work can be difficult, especially if you're creating a new garden space.  Getting all the grass cleared, the rows set up, and the seeds sewn (or plants planted if you buy baby plants or if you started seeds inside) is definitely a workout, but working in the garden actually makes you happier and healthier, so the slightly sore muscles the next day don't feel so bad.

I'll talk more about gardening in the spring :).  The point here is that one small (okay, growing your own vegetables is kind of big) green activity helps you be happier, healthier, feel more rewarded (there's no feeling quite like watching the fruits of your labor come to life), and is very environmentally and socially conscious. 

Here are a few of my favorite films on living a green lifestyle:

• Food Inc. 
• An Inconvenient Truth
• Yert: Your Environmental Road Trip
• Dive
• Hungry for Change
• Forks Over Knives
• Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead
• Chasing Ice
• Hot Coffee
• Tapped

These are ones I'm planning to watch in the near future:

• Food Fight
• Addicted to Plastic
• Garbage!

These all either talk about the attrocities that occur daily against our planet, how to get back at corporate and greed-fueled destruction, and how to take care of yourself...since no one else will!