For many people our furry companions are just another member of the family. We want our pets to live happy, healthy and long lives. When it comes to your pet’s lifestyle, there are many ways that you can make it more eco-friendly – which is good for your pet, your family and the environment. Read on to learn how to green your pets favorite pass times; eating, sleeping, playing and pooping.
1. Eating Consider choosing a natural and organic pet food that is free of pesticides, hormones, antibiotics, artificial preservatives, artificial flavors, artificial colors, artificial ingredients or genetically engineered ingredients. Click to Tweet: If you pet has any type of allergy, simply switching their food to a natural, organic version can have a huge positive impact on their health. You could also take classes to learn more about the value of organic and natural pet food for the health of your pet!
2. Cleaning You don’t use chemical-laced shampoos, beauty products or toothpaste on your human family – so why use it on your pet? Especially since your pet most likely grooms themselves from time to time, ingesting residual cleaners from their fur. And if you have pets like ours (meet Noodles the Pug and Olive the French Bulldog) they are very sensitive to the products that we use on them. Olive, our Frenchie has crazy allergies (when we brought her home her skin was rashy, bumpy and itchy), once we switched her to an organic shampoo, she started to feel better instantly. Since she does have allergies, we bathe both of our dogs every Monday – it keeps the dander on their fur down and removes any allergens that they pick up when playing outside.
3. Sleeping Pets love to sleep – it is one of those things that they do really well and a lot of. Most likely your pet spends a large portion of their life snoozing away. Choose an organic pet bed that is cozy and safe for both your pet and the environment. I like to keep a doggie bed in the spaces in our home that our dogs inhabit the most, for example the living room, bedroom and their kennels.
4. Playing Choose pet toys and accessories that are sustainable, recycled and organic – you don’t want your pet chewing on a toy laced with toxins or chemicals. There are many great eco-friendly pet toys available that have a very small impact on the environment and are safe for your pet to chew away at. In fact, you can braid your own chew toys out of recycled organic tee shirts or sheets.
5. Pooping Always clean up your pet’s poop with a biodegradable poop bag and dispose of it properly or compost it. (Just don’t use this compost for your vegetable garden!) Cat lovers, choose a natural, eco-friendly kitty litter that is safe for your pet, your family and the environment.
If there is one goal that all of us should have for 2014 – it’s to be happier. After our health, isn’t our happiness really the most important thing? Too many of us go through each day not completely involved, engaged and happy. We find ourselves overworked, over-scheduled, exhausted and craving bedtime! Yet, we only get one life and to live it to it’s fullest is what truly matters. And as a parent, we usually only get to have our children in our home for 18 short years, you want those years to be the happiest they can be.
If you are looking for ways to be happier this year and you are a busy person (like me!) read on for my 7 favorite ways to get more happiness out of the new year. Even if you can only focus on a couple of them, I guarantee it will have a huge impact on your life – happiness and all!
1. Live in the Moment I seen couples eating dinner together in a beautiful restaurant, only to tap away on their phone and never even look up at each other. I have seen children and spouses being ignored while social media sites are updated or emails checked. I know that I have been guilty of being addicted to my phone – taking it with me everywhere, checking emails on the weekends, and posting Instagram photos instead of enjoying the actual moment. While the mister and I don’t bring our devices to the dinner table, it seems like media surrounds us everywhere. I would love to put my phone away even more than I currently am. Really, I would love if I didn’t even touch it after I pick Eben up from school and skip it all together on the weekends. I don’t want to look back and regret any moment that I wasn’t truly, fully present. I don’t want to miss a single conversation, smile or moment with my family – I want to live in the present.
2. Pick Your Perfect People For many years I found myself surrounded by people who weren’t helping me live my happiest life. I would be with these people and be thinking in the back of my mind – is it time to go home yet? Even worse, there were people in my extended family that brought me down every time I would see or talk to them. I decided that in order to live my happiest life, it was time to only surround myself with people who lift me up and let the others go. I want to celebrate those fun experiences in life with people that I actually enjoy being with and who are happy to be with me too. Plus, did you know that you are who you surround yourself with? Meaning: If you surround yourself with successful and happy people, it makes it easier for you to become successful and happy too!
Remember: You can’t change other people, you can only change yourself, so make the number one perfect person that you spend your time with – you! Tweet This!
3. Let Things Go By letting things go – I mean both physically and mentally. If your home is cluttered to the gills, unorganized and simply a mess, it will most likely affect your happiness. The same goes with your mental clutter – if you are constantly thinking of negative things that happened to you in the past or worrying about what is to come in the future, you are missing out on the beautiful life you already have right in front of you. Take some time each day, even 15 minutes and start to declutter your home and your mind. Give yourself permission to donate all of those items that you don’t love and to let go of all of the negative thoughts that aren’t serving you. You deserve it!
4. Make Yourself Your First Priority As parents, we all do this – we put our families before ourselves. I am extremely guilty of this, I will find myself not exercising on the weekends because I feel guilty that I haven’t been able to spend 100% of my time focused on the mister and Eben. Or, I will skip going out to dinner with a close friend because I feel like I should really be doing something for my family. This year, I really want to make myself the first priority. I want to get up early exercise so I can guarantee that it gets done everyday, since it is something that makes me truly happy. And overall, I want to make myself a priority so that I will be healthy and happy, which is what my family needs the most.
5. Say No! For many years I was a yes person – any time someone would ask me to do something, even if I didn’t have the time or didn’t want to do it, I would say yes. I learned over the years that it is definitely better to say no if I am unable or unwilling to do something. If you are constantly saying yes when you really aren’t going to be able to fill your end of the bargain – you let people down. If you find yourself repeatedly calling people at the last minute to cancel or reschedule because you really didn’t have time to begin with, it’s time to rethink saying no. Remember: It’s important to tell your children no too – you are their parent and one of the best things you can do for them is to set limits. 6. Date Night with a Twist One thing that I definitely want to work on this year is date night with the mister and Eben, separately. Since the mister works long hours, I do find myself enthralled with him when he is home. I really can’t get enough of him and sometimes when we go out to dinner I will find myself engaging with him more than Eben. This also happens on the flip-side, if Eben has been busy and I haven’t seen him a ton, I will get sucked up in him and the mister is left all alone! In the past, I have found that going on date nights with them separately has really helped. Eben and I will go out to dinner alone and chat about the new book he is reading, his favorite video game or the latest gossip at school. It’s a fun way for me to be completely focused on him and helps us reconnect. This year, I really want to go out on a date night at least once a month separately with each of them – and then of course the rest of the time we will be together as a family.
7. It’s Called a Vacation for a Reason How many of you have vacation time that you never use? I have heard time and time again that people don’t feel they have time and they will take that vacation next year. Forget it! It’s called vacation time for a reason – you need a vacation. How can you be the best you can be if you never get a break or never have anything to look forward too? For many years, (especially when I was starting my business) I would never take a vacation from work. I would literally take my laptop and phone with me on my family vacations and get up early to work each day, and then stay up late getting caught up on anything that I missed during the day. WHAT!? I would never feel like I had a break – I never got to sleep in, and was always worried in the back of my mind that work was waiting for me back at the hotel when we would go out. Last year, was the first time that I took an extended vacation from work (and left my laptop at home!) and I plan to do it every year from now on – maybe twice! It gives me the time to recharge, relax, refocus and I am excited to get back to work when I get home.
Remember: Your vacation should be as long as you can take one for – since it takes a few days for your mind and body to even begin to relax! Tweet This!
P.S. The above photo makes me smile – Eben was so tiny! YOUR TURN: Which of these 7 ways are you going to try to focus more on in 2014? Please leave your comments below – they support us all!
We have been adding a lot more meatless meals to our 2014 meal plan. One of our family’s goals to cut back on any organic meats that we were buying and replace those with great meatless alternatives. We recently picked up a beautiful head of cauliflower from the farmer’s market and the mister made the most amazingly creamy, organic, gluten-free, vegan cauliflower soup, it is so good and a great way to warm up on a cold winter day.
Eben has an odd aversion to cauliflower so when he said, “This is the best potato soup ever – can I have another bowl?” Of course, I just smiled and said, “Yes, of course you can!”. Ha! With it being kid-friendly, it makes it that much more a must for our winter meal plan, we hope you will add it to yours. Here is the recipe:
Ingredients
1 organic head of cauliflower
1 organic onion, chopped
2 cloves organic garlic, chopped
4 cups organic vegetable broth
2 tablespoons organic extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper
Directions:
Chop the cauliflower, onion and garlic. In a saucepan heat the olive oil over medium heat, add the garlic and onion. Cook until soft about 5 minutes. Add the cauliflower, vegetable stock and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until the cauliflower is very soft, about 15 minutes. Remove from heat and using a handheld immersion blender, puree the soup. Of course, you could add larger chunks of carrots, potatoes and celery too! Eben likes his served with a gluten-free grilled cheese sandwich. Serves 6.
The mister and I decided to kick off 2014 with another juice detox. I decided to give it another go because I have been in and out of the doctor’s office for the past few months struggling with an undiagnosable issue.
I have been having a pain above my rib cage, right below my left breast. At times it was so bad that I couldn’t fall asleep at night because of the crushing pressure. It hurt to breath, bend or lay on that side – so I went to the doctor. I thought that the issue was caused by a fall that I had sustained a few weeks before and assumed the doctor would tell me that I had broken a rib. However, after several doctor appointments including my gynecologist and a gastrointestinal specialist – several x-rays, ultrasounds and a CT scan later – the doctor’s couldn’t find anything wrong.
My doctor suggested that I do an elimination diet to see if the pressure could be due to an allergy to diary or gluten or possibly my diet in general. I figured now was a good time to do another juice detox, since the only thing I would be consuming is vegetables and a few fruits, (although she did recommend that I steer clear of cruciferous vegetables, since they can cause gas and bloating). I am currently on day 6 of the detox and the pain has subsided a little bit. I am focused on doing this fast for 2 weeks, last time I completed a 30 day detox, but because I suffer from anemia (I do take an iron supplement), I don’t want to go longer than than this time. Then, I plan to start adding in foods slowly while paying close attention to how my body feels overall.
I will keep you updated on my progress and let you know if at the end of the fast, the pain has gone away. My next steps are going to see a Chiropractor (I wonder if my body is out of whack from sitting at my desk all day) and then possibly an Acupuncturist.
Have to tried an elimination diet before to try to pinpoint a health problem? Was it successful for you? Do you have recommendations? Please share your thoughts below in the comments section, your tips help us all!
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P.S. The photo above is of my favorite breakfast juice, here is the recipe if you are interested:
Let’s face it – eating healthy can be expensive. Actually, groceries in general are expensive – and in today’s economy it is important to stretch your family’s budget in any area that you can. Next to our house payment, our grocery budget is our family’s largest monthly expensive. That is mostly because we eat almost exclusive at home. All three of us pack our lunches and snacks for work and school each morning, and other than an occasional meal out, we eat at home.
The mister is our family’s chef, so he plans out all of our meals for the week, making some ahead of time for night’s that he has to work late and even making all of Eben’s breakfasts and lunches for the week on the weekend. He does all of our cooking from scratch and says that this is the single best way to save money. Since boxed foods are expensive and packed full of perservatives, I agree that cooking from scratch is the way to go.
However, there are other ways that you can save money on your grocery shopping bill, and these ways are also great on the environment too. Read on to get started and save some money in grocery budget in 2014:
1. Track Your Food Budget
Keep all of your grocery shopping receipts for an entire month and place them in an envelope in your kitchen or office. At the end of the month, tally up your food spending for the month. Then, spend some time analyzing your spending to determine what items you could cut from your shopping list and where you could save money. Take that total dollar amount and divide it by four, that is your new food budget for the month – now stick to it for the entire year. By doing this alone, you should be able to cut down on your grocery budget considerably.
2. Stick to the Budget and the List
Once you have established a budget for your grocery shopping, the next step is to make a list and stick to it. I like to organize my list by the layout of my grocery store. I divide it into different sections; produce, dairy, dried goods, household items, etc; This makes it much easier to ensure that I don’t miss anything and don’t have to track back to one area once I have moved on. Most importantly, you have to commit to only purchasing what is on that list and avoid all impulse buying – tell yourself if it isn’t on the list, I am not buying it.
3. Join A CSA Or Co-op
A CSA (community supported agriculture) gives you the opportunity to develop a relationship with your local farmers and is a simple concept that can have a profound impact not only your health but on the farm that you support and your local community. We have found that by building a relationship with our local farmer, she is willing to give us any surplus produce at a discounted rate.
Another great option is a food co-op, which is is a collectively owned grocery store. The common goal of a co-op is to bring together a community by providing products that are eco-friendly, organic, fair trade, and socially responsible, many food co-ops will have the option to purchase items in bulk – which can save you money in the long run.
4. Meatless Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday….
Let’s face it organic meat is expensive, not only on our food budget but also on the health of our families and the environment. In our home we do still consume some fish and poultry, however when we eat those proteins we treat them as a side dish and not the main course. We try to have a meatless dinner several times a week, and this has definitely cut down on the size of our grocery bill and our family feels healthier too!
5. Buy More Vegetables and Fruits
In our home, we plan our weekly menus based on what we find in our bi-weekly CSA box (when we are a member of one). We plan meals that are plant based and have found that not only is this great on our budget, it has really boosted our health. We have replaced our regular morning breakfast with smoothies and green juices made using the fresh fruits and vegetables that we receive in our CSA box. If you don’t have a local CSA, other great options include the farmer’s market and produce stands. Eating more fruits and vegetables has not only shrunk our budgets but our waistlines are shrinking too – and that is a good thing!
What ways have you found to cut your grocery store spending?
———————————————————————– The photo is from our stop at our local produce stand – they have the best selection and are a great way to supplement any items that we run out of in between CSA boxes.
