If you know Matthew

Please wish him a very happy 30th birthday today.  I love you my dear, dear husband.

What non-organic cows eat

For full article

Here are excerpts:

There are organic farmers all over the world — in about 100 countries — who are certified organic nowadays. Traditionally organic has always meant that you raise crops without chemical pesticides or chemical fertilizers, and that you raise animals without drugging them up with hormones or antibiotics. You cannot take sewage sludge and put it on farmlands. You cannot feed animals things like blood, slaughterhouse waste, manure and municipal garbage, and you cannot use untested and hazardous technologies like genetic engineering or fruit irradiation. The animals have to be raised on pasture — which is their natural behavior — where every day of the growing season, weather permitting, they are out on pasture eating grass and foraging as they have evolved to do. What has happened recently is that Wal-Mart was buying their organic milk from genuine organic dairy farmers that pastured their animals, and then they turned around to that company — Organic Valley — and they said, “Hey, we want a lower price,” just as Wal-Mart always does. Organic Valley said no, so Wal-Mart then turned to Dean Foods, the largest dairy conglomerate in the world — which had bought out Horizon Organic — and said, “Would you sell to us?” To which Horizon said, “We will sell you the cheapest organic milk you have ever seen.”

Teflon

I’ve known for awhile that teflon was unhealthy but don’t know how to cook any other way! I read this article and would like to try the ceramic ones if I can find some.

Exercise where?

It’s winter now and I’m having to rethink my exercise outdoors philosophy. The winters we usually have here in the river valley of AR just mean bundling up and it’s still doable but lately . . . . so I think my rule of thumb is going to be that if the sun is shining and it’s at least . . . . . well I don’t know what temperature is acceptable . . . . if I don’t see my breath? . . . if I think I can do it, I will. If it’s cloudy, even if it’s warmer, I tend to shy away during the winter although rain won’t scare me in the summer. . . . well maybe a downpour.

So if I don’t exercise outdoors what are the options? Well, I do have plenty of exercise videos I’ve dusted off and put to use and the university here allows community members to walk around the coliseum. If you live where there’s a mall and can go when it’s not too crowded (or before they open the stores which a lot of malls allow) that’s a great option and one I miss.

Doing a video with a toddler crawling all over you is a challenge, but I could always do it during naptime or on preschool days. Anyway, there are still ways to avoid paying a gym!

I’ve also gotten the AM/PM yoga DVD which I’m trying to do every other day at least.  The AM is great if you’re stiff!

Sweeeet!

Ten Thousand Villages in Little Rock has Equal Exchange chocolate–the first brand of fair trade I’ve found that has no soy lecithin in it! Check them out.

Hilarious!

Smart feet.

Eat kefir, yogurt or take a probiotic for health and weightloss.

And don’t eat processed foods, sugar, a lot of grains . . . .

Everyone needs good bacteria in their gut but especially overweight people.

Real help (vs companies  getting rich off pretending to help you lose weight).

Nervous?

A lot of people eat when they’re stressed, sad, etc.  Recently I remembered that my mom started chewing gum while doing her masters because she felt it helped her de-stress.  She had always scolded my brother and I for chewing gum loudly with our mouths opened but she found that that’s the best way for stress reduction!

Something to think about . . . but you’ll want to find a sugar-free AND aspartame-free gum. I get some at my health food store that has xylitol.

Yeah!

I found out that you can buy seventh generation products on Amazon. I can get some at Kroger’s, otherwise I have to go to Little Rock but this would be another option. Two of my favorite companies getting together!

Chemicals–yum, what do you mean my kid’s got cancer?

Pledge, Lysol, Clorox, Windex all market to moms; Lysol and clorox commercials basically say: “Please protect your kid from ‘germs’ and spray everything they own with our product.”

Wake up, America! (And Canada since that’s where the link below is from.)
http://www.cbc. ca/consumers/ market/media/ cleaners_ rm_030311. ram