Hard core vs. soft core double dipping rant!

Many of you know me in "real life" and know one of my pet peeves. I am freakishly stunned when people dip food into mutual food containers. I am not talking about double dipping as in sticking your half eaten carrot back into the container of ranch dip. I am talking about the act of having dipped the carrot into the dip in the first place.

I believe God gave us spoons to put into dips and the like so we could serve some up to our own plate for our own private dipping. My friends laugh at it whenever we are together and food is being served (which is pretty much any time we are together, duh!!) but it seriously revolts me. A member of my extended family (who shall remain nameless to save public shame) once dipped a potato chip directly into the crock pot of sloppy joes I had made for my son's birthday party. Yummy – there is nothing like my eating your potato chip crumbles in my sloppy joe. Revolting. Worse so is actual double dipping – unbelievably gross. If I saw actual double dipping into food – or even suspected it, you could be un-invited from the next food consumption event! HAH!

So, if you are over at my house and food is being served, please use the spoons or other appropriate apparatus to put dip or food onto your own plate. I'll be grateful, since I will then be able to continue to serve and eat the food I have so lovingly prepared. And, for the record, yes, at certain functions with certain offenders, I have been known to scoop some of the foods out first and put them on my plate in the fridge so I can still enjoy them later in the party.

Wondering what triggered this rant today? I read this in the July 2006 Readers' Digest and it blew my mind. This is the hard core double dipping – not the soft core dipping I am equally repulsed by:

"Fast Fact>> 46% of men and 31% of women admit to double dipping chips at parties."

Source: American Dietetic Association

Don't be "green washed!"

It seems that more and more people are trying to be “green.” This is a good thing for a lot of reasons – besides how good it is for our bodies and our planet, I love and appreciate the business it brings to me! Even so, you have to be careful. A lot of companies are getting on the green bandwagon, and them and their products are actually quite far from it.

Paraphrased from this weekend’s USA Weekend Magazine about “green fakers”:

1. Do your homework. If a company with a bad environmental history suddenly starts saying its green, check out the facts.
2. Buy goods labeled “post consumer recycled content” – not just “recycled”. The former tells you that it uses the products you so diligently place in your recycle bin.
3. Look for certification – words like “bio-degradable are not government assigned.

A note from me on number three …. I am not particularly fond of some government certifications on products. All that really says is that the company was willing to pay the price for the graphic, in some cases. There are some that you do have to look for – some that are beneficial, and others that are shady, in my never to be humble opinion. For instance, the company that I represent decided not to get the ADA certification on our toothpaste – it would have cost more than a million dollars to get it, and required an additional fee each year. They decided to pass on it and pass the savings onto the customers in not charging more for a product with that certification. I believe in the products in it and don’t need that certification to be confident in what I am buying. Read labels carefully, educate yourself on the products and the companies providing them. Let the buyer beware – don’t be “green washed”!!

You can read USA Weekend’s article here in the Think Smart column:
http://www.usaweekend.com/08_issues/080217/080217thinksmart-taxes-injuries.html

Hooray for Whole Foods!

This is a great first step for our society. If more stores would take this step, imagine how much less trash we'd have to deal with -- just for this one item!

Whole Foods will no longer be offering plastic grocery bgs. They'll offer recycled paper bags or encourage use (and offer for sale) those very cool re-useable shopping bags.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/2/16/whole-foods-to-stop-use-of-plastic-bags.aspx

Even if you re-use them before you throw them away, it's still trash piling up in landfills. Even though they are recyclable to some extent, most people don't take the time to take them to a recycling drop off station. I do -- if I use them -- but I generally use the grocery totes that are for sale at just about every grocery store now. Mine are pink with flowers!

Don’t wash your baby in that!

I’ve been telling people for years about the formaldehyde in baby shampoos. It’d hidden under a different name, of course, or you’d never buy that product and put it on your baby, right? It’s called Quaternium-15. It’s a legal, allowable amount of formaldehyde – just like every product that you are using -- shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, etc – many have that allowable amount. But, think about it – by the time you shower, shave, wash your hair, then brush your teeth, you’ve absorbed well over the allowable amount for your body, since each product can have that much. You then have to put on makeup, right, so that adds more chemicals before you even get out to start your day.

This story on chemicals in baby shampoos is on the front page of FoxNews.com this morning. It’s about the chemical phthalates in baby shampoo.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,328007,00.html

More on Yahoo, too -- a good read:

http://health.yahoo.com/news/ap/baby_products_chemicals.html

Phthalates don't have to be labeled on products. The only way to know for sure is to know and trust the company makig your products. I know that I do.

My products don’t have formaldehyde or phthalates – none of them. And they’ll save you money off what you are buying in the stores now. So, you’ll be safer, your kids will be safer, your home will be safer, and your wallet will have more money in it. What could be better? Contact me any time to find out how to get these fabulous products!

Triclosan is not for me!

Did you know that if a product that you are using has triclosan in it, it is recommended by the FDA that you wash your hands after using it. Triclosan has previously been linked to certain carcinogenic and hormone-disrupting effects – ugh.

Triclosan is an ingredient in Vick’s Early Defense hand sanitizer – marketed as a product you can use when soap and water are not available. Hand sanitizer – you know – the stuff that you use in place of washing your hands with soap and water. It is recommended that children not be exposed to tricolsan – yet Proctor and Gamble is encouraging use of this product in schools in their marketing campaign.

You can read more here: http://www.naturalnews.com/022554.html

Want products for your family that you can trust? Toothpaste, hand sanitizer, and soap that you and your kids can know are safe? Email me for details on a product line that will save you money, and make your home a healthy one. It is not tough to get the chemicals out – I’ll be happy to help!

Happy Birthday Randy and Happy Dry Cleaning!

Happy Birthday to my husband Randy today!

One way I help to keep Randy safe is by dry cleaning his shirts – you see if I had to keep washing and ironing them as I used to, I’d off him! Just kidding – but I do have his shirts dry cleaned, and I am aware of the chemicals that dry cleaners use being unsafe – or at least questionable.

When I bring his shirts home from the cleaners, I do the simple trick of hanging them somewhere to air out. Not in the closet – I read once that it is not the way to do it -- it traps the chemicals. I separate the hangers and hang them each a couple of inches apart in our infrequently used bathroom. Or, if there are a lot of them, I hang them in the garage so they really get aired out. I let them hang there until I think to hang them in the closet – at least a couple of days, usually.

I know that this airs them out and helps get some of the chemicals out that are lingering, helping to keep him safe!

More on dry cleaning chemicals can be found here:
http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/home/organizing/dry-cleaning-demystified-sep06
http://www.buildinggreentv.com/keywords/cleaning/1617

Wine a little!

It's a cold, winter Saturday evening – we're making pizza (with broccoli-infused sauce, raw milk cheese, and gluten free crust). For tonight's splurge, I'm anxious to have a glass of wine. Yum! Tonight it's a cabernet sauvignon, because I want the extra antioxidants if I am going to consume the calories. That is how I balance all of my foods – I try to minimize the bad stuff and calories, of course, and maximize the health benefits, even in something like wine! It all adds up!

From Family Circle, page 72, Health News, April 18, 2007

"New research shows that some red wines have more antioxidants than others. `Those made using traditional techniques have the most' says study author Roger Corder, PhD, of London's William Harvey Research Institute. They're fermented longer, so more of the disease-fighting compounds in the grapes' seeds and skins (tannins) end up in the bottle. Madiran wines, made from Tannat grapes found in Southwest France, tend to be the healthiest. If you can't find those, try one of these under-$15 bottles, suggests Leslie Sbrocco, author of The Simple & Savvy Wine Guide (William Morrow): Estancia Cabernet Sauvignon, California; and Don Rodolfo Tannat, Argentina.

Bon appétit!

Let's get this party started!

I feel inundated by everyone else’s resolutions already in this new year. Every commercial on TV seems to be for a weight loss product or weight loss program. The gym I attend has been twice as busy lately. While diet and weight loss are good goals, of course (I’ve been on that program for seven months now), it just seems like it’s the best way to fail. It’s easier to adopt healthy habits slowly every day than to try to (unrealistically) try to do it all now, at one time, because the calendar changed.

So, that is where my blog comes in. I’ll help you learn how to make your home and your body healthy. The products we use every day actually make us sick and most people don’t know it. Many , many products on the market today are dangerous and are not natural – not intended to be ingested or absorbed into our bodies. Autism rates are up, asthma and cancer rates are up, obesity and fatigue are becoming the acceptable norms in our society. Aspartame is poison and so many people drink and eat it, and so much more. Welcome to my soapbox – that is what a blog is about, right? Kidding – I’ll definitely give my opinions, but I’ll try to back it up with fact. All of these trends can be reversed – and it all starts with you in your home!

I’ve been teaching people how to get dangerous products out of their home with some regularity for about twelve years now. I use and promote a product line that can help you and your family be healthier and feel better. You’ll learn more about it as we go – so let’s get to it!

Happy New Year to one and all!

Happy New Year to one and all!

It's time for new year's resolutions -- it seems that everyone is making them. I am not doing that this year -- I decided to make resolutions all of the time and enact them year round instead of pressuring myself at this time of year. It seems like I had a higher failure rate when I tried to make several changes in January rather than implement new things all of the time.

Starting this blog has been a goal of mine for a while now -- I've been wanting to share the vast amounts information that I have on having a healthy home and body -- and this seems like a good place to do it.

Stay tuned for much more -- loads of articles on how you can be more healthy inside and out -- your body, your home, your environment, the world in general. I'll post lots of advice, opinions, and facts.

Enjoy -- hope you learn much, have fun, and have a healthy home!