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How to Prevent Your Family From Getting Sick During the Transition to Spring

March 22, 2018 0

If you have a family, you probably know how important it is to make sure that everyone stays healthy throughout the year. When one person becomes sick in the family, things tend to spiral out of control. Your kids might have to miss school, you might have to miss work, or your whole family might have to miss out on major events.

The change from winter to spring can be rough on many people. Allergies are on the rise and sickness is in the air. To prevent your family from coming down with any illness this spring, there are many things that can be done.

Rose Medical Groups suggests making time for regular exercise. You might not like the idea of getting off the couch and heading to the gym, but exercise can really help maintain your health and prevent coming down with an illness.

Now, you don’t necessarily have to go to the gym in order to get your exercise in. If you have kids, take them to a trampoline park or rent a bounce house. A mere 10 minutes of jumping is a better cardiovascular workout than 30 minutes of running. It’s a really easy way to make getting out and getting active fun, without forcing your entire family through the doors of a health club.

Drinking plenty of water is another key to staying healthy during this time of year. Get your family in the habit of drinking eight to 10 eight-ounce glasses of water every day. The water can help get rid of your body’s bad toxins and can help prevent any cracks from developing on your skin. Children especially should be drinking plenty of water each day if they want to maintain their skin’s youthfulness.

Spring cleaning is one of the easiest things you can do to help prevent your family from getting sick when the seasons change. Go through your home and dust the corners that haven’t seen the light of day in about six months, get rid of any boxes you neglected to throw out after the holidays, and use steam to kill all germs and bacteria hiding in your carpets. Steam has been said to kill 99% of common household germs and bacteria like E.Coli, salmonella, and staph, as well as dust mites and bed bugs.

According to NBC 2, spring cleaning is also the perfect excuse to get rid of any expired or unwanted medication you have in your home, and to do so properly. You can even bring the medications to a take-back program to properly dispose of the unwanted pills. They also suggest using your spring cleaning time as a period of making sure your home’s first aid kit is up-to-date and that all of your emergency contacts are updated in your cell phone.

Taking any of the steps listed in this article can help prevent your family and household from coming down with any springtime illnesses.

Spring is Almost Here! Turn your Garden into a Magical Eco-Friendly Haven!

March 20, 2018 0

NOTE FROM SWEET GREENS: Thank you supporting the companies that keep Sweet Greens in business.
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A beautiful, well-kept garden can be the best part of any home. It’s a perfect spot to get close to nature, watching butterflies and bees hover around flowers. It’s also an ideal location to relax after a busy day at work or looking after the children. A garden can be at its most magical in the evening, but too many people head indoors as the sun sets. Here are three ways to enjoy your garden in the evening, turning it into a central feature of your home right round the clock.

Install Night Time Landscape Lighting

It’s hard to enjoy the beautiful sights of your garden in darkness, but you can give nature a hand with the latest technology by installing landscape lighting from factory direct companies, which can help reduce landscape design project costs. When planning your lighting project consider path lights, well lights, or lights that are positioned in trees, so you can have evening lighting that’s subtle or strong to suit your taste. After your project is complete, you’ll be able to enjoy your garden’s beautiful light, when nature’s lights go off. This is especially useful on warm summer nights, and evening illumination can create a truly magical feel.

To learn more about night time lighting projects, visit: https://www.voltlighting.com/

It’s not always easy to appreciate your garden’s beauty after sunset, but the right lighting can change that. With custom landscape lighting, you can showcase the best features of your outdoor space while creating a warm, inviting atmosphere that reflects your personal style. Thoughtfully placed path lights, uplighting for trees, or accent lights around key elements can transform your yard into a stunning nighttime retreat. Whether you prefer a soft, ambient glow or more dramatic illumination, custom lighting lets you set the perfect mood. It’s especially ideal for warm summer evenings, turning your garden into a magical, relaxing space you can enjoy long after daylight fades.

Warming Up Those Cooler Nights

Even with the perfect garden lighting in place, you still may prefer to relax indoors at certain times of the year when evening temperatures start to dip. This problem can be fixed with the addition of strategically placed patio heaters. These can be placed next to the popular spots in your yard, such as, a garden bench, table, or garden building, and they make sitting outside a pleasure despite the cooler temperatures. The latest models of heaters are also designed to be environmentally friendly, which can help you “green” your garden even more!

I know what you’re thinking – running lights and heaters outside uses electricity. There’s got to be a more eco-friendly way! You know I wouldn’t let you down. Check out these VERY affordable solar panel kits! Just charge up your batteries during the day, and you’ll have enough power to keep you warm and glowing all evening long.

A Perfect Place To Entertain

Do you like to host dinner parties in your home? One of the most enjoyable parts of a dinner party is when guests gather together to share entertaining stories. Guests often gather in the living room or in the dining area itself, but your guests will be even more impressed if they gather in your garden. With lighting and heating in place, a garden room or gazebo is an ideal place to meet and greet guests or to entertain them before dining. Gazebos and garden rooms come in all sizes, and as they are an attractive garden feature while also adding value to your property as a whole.

As a bonus, you can install rollaway screens around your gazebo, so you can keep insects at bay without having to resort to zappers or chemical-laden sprays. You’ll get all the benefits of outdoor dining, while sharing it peacefully with the wildlife around you.  

These three features can each add evening magic to your garden, but when added together they create a spellbinding place to sit back and watch the world float by. With subtle lighting and a source of heat nearby, you can relax by your gazebo and gaze up at the stars in the night sky. The only way to improve this experience is to have the person you love by your side and your favorite drink in your hand.

Contrary to Popular Belief, There Is Good Environmental News

February 28, 2018 0

It seems like every day brings more bad news about the environment. We have global warming running amok, rising sea levels, pollution everywhere the eye can see, and polar bears set adrift. Well, enough with the bad news. This article will take a look at some of the tricky situations we are facing in the natural world, and give some examples of what is being done, right now, to help the environment.

Plastic Pollution

America is home to a great many things. From the mountains to the prairies, deserts, deciduous rainforests, concrete jungles, volcanoes, and canyons, the United States plays host to just about every type of environment imaginable. In fact, the U.S. and its territories have 95,471 miles of shoreline.

That’s why it’s certainly a shame that plastic bags comprise 10% of coastline debris. The amount of plastic bags used every year is well into the billions, and very few of them ever get recycled. In fact, for all plastic products produced, we only recover 5%.

This is a big problem which will likely require a large cultural shift toward renewable materials and better recycling habits.

What is being done right now?

There are some initiatives in American supermarkets that incentivize buying a reusable shopping bag by charging for plastic ones. The general phasing out of plastic bags might take a long time still, but progress is being made.

Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom, Theresa May proposed an incremental removal of plastic packaging from supermarkets.

Greenhouse Gas Emissions

We all know about cars and fossil fuels and what we need to do to stop it, but one thing is left largely unsaid, and it is because we don’t have a solution yet.

Flights contribute 5% of all global warming causing emissions.

This is no small amount. And although commercial airlines make up the lion’s share of aviation emissions, they are not the true efficiency problem. In fact, catching a full 747 from New York to Los Angeles would most likely generate less green gas emissions per person than driving would. This is because most people drive alone in fuel inefficient cars, and while planes are less fuel efficient, the amount of people they carry makes up for their thirstiness.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the United States accounts for 49.7% of the total private jet market, and Europe takes a close second place with 20.8%.

What is being done right now?

All major airlines now offer the ability to buy a carbon offset. This is a certified tree planting program that customers can opt into for a negligible fee by donating the amount it would cost to plant the necessary number of trees to cancel out your flight’s carbon footprint.

Even though the environment has been taking a beating lately, it’s good to see that there are initiatives to take on global warming and pollution and overcome our fossil fuel addiction.

How Eco Artwork Can Improve Your Room Design

February 26, 2018 0

NOTE FROM SWEET GREENS: Thank you supporting the companies that keep Sweet Greens in business.
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Artwork is definitely an important element of any room design.  You can easily add interest to plain walls with fun and unique pieces of art.  Artwork can also bring together different elements of a room by providing color inspiration, a focal point or even by being a harmonizer.  Artwork often makes or breaks a new space. Incorporating a work of art is also a simple way to update your space in an eco-friendly way. By hanging a photograph or painting, you will refresh your walls without perpetuating the use of toxic paints or non-recyclable wallpaper. In this post, we’re looking at some of the main ways in which artwork can help improve a room’s design.

Artwork Adds Movement
In most spaces, you can use artwork to help create movement.  In the art world, movement is used by artists to help direct the viewer’s eye.  In interior design, it will also influence perceptions of the size of the room.  Using a piece of art that easily conveys a lot of movement will help create a rhythm between the chosen furniture your new wall décor.  Overall, this is how a room can evoke a certain emotion or convey a specific feeling.

Wall Art Provides Color
If you’re a little stuck when it comes to the color scheme you want to use in your new living space, artwork can help dictate or even enhance a color palette.  Firstly, try selecting a piece of artwork that matches the space and then create a new color palette influenced by the artwork. You can then narrow down accent colors from the work to help enhance it. If you’re bored with your wall colors, adding a piece of artwork is a great way to liven things up without worrying about the environmental consequences of repainting all the time.

Online sites like Fine Art America offer hundreds of thousands of artist’s works, so you can easily browse their expansive collection and find something that catches your eye.

Balance Texture and Scale in Your Room Design
Depending on the type of building you are furnishing, you’ll need to consider how art can help balance scale and textures.  For example, if you prefer sleek, low furniture with a modern design but your space has high ceilings, investing in a bold piece of wall art will immediately make the room feel more balanced as the eye will be drawn upward to the painting. An investment piece of artwork will also last you a lifetime and can be passed down to future generations, making it both eco-friendly and sentimental.

You can also use art to create a more dynamic room design. Textures, patterns and colors can all be pulled together with the right wall art.

Create a Rotating Gallery
If you’re the kind of person who easily changes their mind or gets bored with your space and you’re itching to switch up your décor, introducing a rotating gallery of artwork can be a quick and easy way to keep your walls feeling fresh.  Different pieces of art will help to highlight different furniture or other elements in your space. Since there is always a market for artwork, you don’t have to worry about being wasteful by replacing your pictures and paintings regularly. Instead, donate them to a used art retailer or make a little extra cash by selling them online. Either way, you know your art won’t end up in a landfill; there is always someone who will appreciate a painting or photograph you’re tired of.

Make a Statement with Your Art
Your artwork doesn’t always have the be the main focal point in a room.  You can also use art in subtler ways to add an element of sophistication to your room design.

The main thing you should take away is don’t be afraid to experiment with different art mediums.  Art is always a great investment that will help inspire new room designs.

3 Natural Ways To Treat The Symptoms Of Seasonal Affective Disorder

February 7, 2018 3

As winter rages on, many Americans from northern climates may be in the throes of SAD, or seasonal affective disorder — a form of clinical depression that typically worsens as the seasons change. If you’re like most people with the condition, your symptoms are at their worst during the months with the shortest days — December, January, and February.

Interestingly enough, experts say those affected by SAD first experience symptoms between the ages of 18 and 30. This means that millennials may be more likely to experience ongoing symptoms that any other age group. However, millennials are growing up and starting to take wellness seriously. One indicator of this is the fact that 56% of millennials have visited a spa within the last year, according to the International Spa Association. With a greater focus on mental health awareness and treatment options, younger generations can find natural treatments that boost mood and relaxation.

Here are just a few natural treatment options to explore if you’re experiencing any of the symptoms associated with seasonal affective disorder.

Light Therapy

Light therapy is proven to be one of the most effective forms of natural treatment for seasonal affective disorder. Since natural sunlight comes in very limited quantities during the winter months, supplementing the amount you’re exposed to using a light box can help you see significant improvements in mood. Many experts say that light therapy is the best treatment available.

Although the effects of light therapy don’t last too long, getting just 15 to 30 minutes of light therapy each morning can boost your mood for the rest of the day. Light boxes are available without a prescription, but if possible, it’s recommended to consult a health professional before use due to the fact that the treatment involves UV exposure.

Clean Eating

Eating healthy foods can be difficult when your body craves sweets and other junk food, but it’s important to do what you can to try to make healthy replacements whenever possible. Figure out which healthy foods you enjoy, and then incorporate them into as many meals as you can. And don’t be mistaken — contrary to popular belief, it’s not all about nutrition facts. During your next trip to the grocery store, take some time to look at ingredients. A bit of research into our food industry will provide insight regarding many ingredients that are incredibly common in today’s processed foods, yet come with some unsavory health effects that can even affect mood. A good rule of thumb is that the fewer ingredients something has, the cleaner and less processed it is. Again, making small replacements here and there can really help you develop a cleaner diet.

Better Sleep

If you have trouble getting to sleep or staying asleep as a result of seasonal affective disorder, you may have already tried some natural remedies, like having a cup of tea at bedtime or turning off the television early. But if these methods aren’t doing the trick, using the elements of sound may help you ease into restful sleep. Even something as simple as a beating watch next to your pillow can help soothe your senses and lull you to sleep. The beat of a watch is the sound of it “ticking,” usually about 1/5 of a second — the escape wheel striking the pallets produces the sound. Of course, you can also invest in a sound machine for a wider variety of sounds, or take to YouTube for the virtually infinite white noise options.

Don’t Forget…

These options may help to provide temporary relief from the symptoms associated with seasonal affective disorder. However, they certainly do not replace the informed advice of a medical professional. While you might not be joining the approximately 110 million ER visits that occur annually, you have resources. There are plenty of medical professionals whose sole job is to help patients who are suffering from depression or other mental health issues. And of course, if you or someone you love is in immediate danger due to poor mental health, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is available 24 hours a day to provide confidential support through both cellular and online chat.

No matter how you look at it, the facts speak volumes: over 80% of depressed individuals do not seek out professional help. And regardless of the type or cause of your depression, understanding natural treatment options and knowing when to reach out to a professional is the key to improving your quality of life.

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