Revolutionize Your Kitchen

Step 1.

Stop buying processed foods, immediately. During the few days (or a week for those of you hoarders) when you are revolutionizing your place of food storage, either live off what you already have, get (healthy!) take-out, and/or buy fruits and veggies.

Step 2. 

Take inventory. What, and how much, do you have? This could save you money--I recently found 3 bottles of the exact same seasoning. I recommend taking care of the fridge in one sitting. The pantry or cabinet can go one shelf per day if you need to. If you have a very busy schedule, don't panic, just make sure you mark where you left off the day before.

Step 3.
Is it expired? Throw it out. Empty bottles and recycle them. The easiest way to empty old salad dressing or sauce is to shake it first. If you can't find the expiration date, and no one remembers when it was bought, it's probably best to toss.

Step 4.
Check the ingredients. The fewer ingredients, the better. I cannot stress this enough. If the ingredient...

...is too hard for you to pronounce, get rid of it.
...cannot be easily spelled by anyone other than chemist, get rid of it.
...ends in -ose, it is most likely a sugar--get rid of it.
...is derived of corn or soy, get rid of it.
...is "emulsifier" (carrageenan is also one), get rid of it.

Why?

I (influenced by several food documentaries and articles) consider the simplest food to be the best for me. If I suspect an ingredient is highly processed, how am I supposed to know how my body (a body that has evolutionarily survived and thrived on foods found in nature, AKA natural foods) will derive nutrients from it? 

Ingredients ending in "-ose" are usually forms of sugar. The sugars you should be eating are the ones that are unrefined/unprocessed. Think that you're not eating that much sugar? Think again.

Gross!

Do you know how much corn products you consume? Probably way too many. Watch King Corn to understand how powerful corn is in American society.

Regarding emulsifiers, they are what keep your liquid/gooey products from separating. Seriously people? Have we gotten so lazy that we can't shake a bottle for two whole seconds? There are no proven health risks from emulsifiers, but there is no reason to be using them in the first place. Read. Key line: "Emulsifiers are necessary if you have oil- and water-based products. The real question would appear to be: do we need oil- and water-based products? Often, the answer is no." (Pat Thomas)

Whatever is left, keep!

Step 5.
Donate the food you are getting rid of. Yes, that means that someone else will be eating it, but in the end, artificial food is better than no food, and someone may not have the same opportunity you have to take the next step.

Step 6.
Go grocery shopping! If you are suddenly left with a few healthy jars of applesauce, almond butter, and coconut milk, here's your chance to change your life.

New and Improved Shopping List

• fruits
• apples!
• melons!
• berries!
• bananas!
• avocados!
• pomegranates!
• vegetables
• kale!
• spinach!
• carrots!
• beets!
• lettuce!
• radishes!
• cucumbers!
• seeds
• pumpkin!
• sunflower!
• chia!
• buckwheat!
• hemp!
• flax!
• nuts (and nut butters :) )
• almonds!
• walnuts!
• hazelnuts!
• cashews!
• macadamia!

My goodness people! There is so much DELICIOUS food out there. There are pinto beans and mushrooms (personally not my favorite) and lemons and zucchini. Don't put your body in extra stress from what you put in your mouth. The best part about this is that there are SO many options. You just need to find what you like, and the more looking you do, the more you will find. I promise.

A scrumptious snack of applesauce and cinnamon.

P.S. If you want a more gradual change into a fresh-food lifestyle, keep the processed foods you know you will eat. This way you can eat all the food you have and slowly introduce more unprocessed food! Yay!

What is Eco-Friendliness?

Like many other terms that sprout from movements, "eco-friendliness" is in danger of becoming distorted. Fortunately, it has not reached the dismal point of "feminism," which actually means the advocacy for women to have equal social, political, and economic equality to men. Now, there are people who just associate "feminism" with something negative, like women who have penis envy, are bitter, and want to kill all the men. Somewhere along the way, radicals and stereotypes ruined everything without even meaning to. Same goes for how people who practice Islam are now all assumed to be terrorists. I don't know about you, but I sure wouldn't want to be defined by people who identify with my religion, but went all crazy (i.e. Westboro Baptist Church).

Anyway, this makes me wonder where the term "green" is going. (Haha, get it? Green is going, like "going green"?) While being "green," or "eco-friendly," is by definition a positive concept, I'm afraid it will be warped by the advertising world (greenwashing). But since the environmental movement does not only fall upon the producers of "green" products, I like to focus on the things that I can do on a daily basis to produce less waste. See what I wrote about eco-friendly products here.

Por ejemplo, some guidelines:

• Lights out. You can say, "Oh, but I'm just getting a snack." Unless you are some kind of mutant that doesn't get distracted by everything on the way to the kitchen, you're probably not going to be back in that room for another 10 minutes. Let's be honest here. I even get distracted when I want to get a snack and I'm Skyping someone. There are just too many things to encounter! The dogs are cute, so I have to stop to pet them, we don't have any fruit at the moment, so I have to find something else, someone is watching TV and it turns out to be my favorite movie, etc, etc. Ten minutes later, I'm like, "Crap! What'stherface is waiting for me on Skype!" That leads me to...
• Unplugging. Electronics can suck up a lot more energy than you realize. Yes, I love the internet, but I realize it's better to put my computer to sleep, put down my phone, and go for a long walk with my dogs, and (unfortunately) clean my room. 

Goodnight sweet laptop, I will read you a story.

• Take quick, cool showers. OK, so you've heard of not wasting water before, but cool showers? WHY?! Just to convince you that I understand your indignance, let me tell you that when I was a wee little girl, I loved to take hour-long, hot showers. This desire was probably due to the fact that I get cold very easily, and I really don't like being cold. When I heard about taking cold showers, I thought, "No way in a million years!" Ah, how fickle the brain is. Other than not spending energy heating your water to a steamy 90 degrees, cold water is better for your health. Don't believe me? The easiest example is how athletes take ice baths. I also have a friend who is an esthetician, and when I told her I washed my face with hot water, she nearly had a heart attack. If it's not good for the skin on your face, why would it be good for the skin on the rest of your body? So I've been trying to make it a habit to turn down the heat, and I do like cool water more than hot water. Who knew? I still can't handle cold, unless it's right after a workout.
• Reduce, reuse, recycle. This is the big one that no one wants to hear about anymore. I won't go into detail, but I am often struck by how brilliant this plan is. I feel like an idiot, thinking how brilliant it is, because it's so simple! But it's so brilliant! Parallel to "I came, I saw, I conquered." (Get it? Parallelism? Any grammar nerds out there?)
• Are you getting enough sleep? If you need one more reason to get dreamy, use the environmental one! Think about it: humans only produce waste when they're awake. Unless you sleep-walk. Then I have no solution for you.
• Adjust your thermostat. Keep your home on the warmer side in the summer, and on the colder side in the winter. Why I support this: I don't want to have to change 50 times in one day. Summer scenario: I sit outside in my shorts and a t-shirt and when I come inside, I feel like I have contracted hypothermia. Winter scenario: I come inside in my coat, scarf, hat, gloves, and five more thick layers, and suddenly I feel like I'm in a sauna. I realize there has to be some kind of adjustment, but I really rather not break out my long pants and sweatshirts in the summer, just because I'm inside. Rawr.

You're probably thinking, "As if I haven't heard all of this before." Well then act on it! Don't just sit there and read me ramble about these things. If you like the earth in all its splendor and richness (if you don't, go away), then take care of it! I don't like the phrase "do your part!" Ugh, it makes me feel like I'm in elementary school and I have to clean up someone else's mess. I much rather motivate myself by knowing why I want to be green.

I'm still learning how to Photoshop. Don't make fun of me.

For me, the biggest part of being eco-friendly is paying attention to what I'm doing. When I realize I am doing something wasteful or unnecessary, I know it's time to stop or change something. Like that mantra we had to repeat in elementary school. "Stop. :) Think. :) Make a good choice. :D" Do teachers realize how much of an impact they have on us? Do they know we will have this sing-songy motto stuck in our heads for the rest of our lives?


TL;DR: I hope you at least enjoyed my green face. It took me forever to make it.

Rising With the Sun

“Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.” Benjamin Franklin

Remember when, approximately a week ago, I said that I am a night person? Well, I'm not really a night person, or a morning person anymore. I'm in this weird transitional state that I never thought I'd reach, and I've found some benefits.

Environmentally, I am spending more time awake while the sun is providing natural light. This means that I use less energy on electricity. Yay! (Brings me back to the days when we had to use candles when the sun wasn't up. Wait. I kind of want to do that now.)

Time-wise, I don't have to rush to get somewhere on time. School starts soon, and I'm going to be able to work around the traffic. Less stress!

"The time just before dawn contains the most energy of all hours of the day. This has helped me become an early riser and an early doer.... When I wake to see that it's light out already, I feel the world has started without me." Terri Guillemets

Nutritionally, I am hungry when I wake up, but I don't want to eat (weird dilemma?) at 6 AM. Instead, I spend my time getting ready for the day, blogging, or reading, and drinking the full 24 oz bottle of water that I left for myself the night before. Vater eez gud.
I also have more time to prepare myself a sit-down breakfast, instead of grabbing a banana to go. 

Biologically, we are not creatures that have been primed to see in the dark. It would make sense that we spend the most time awake while the sun is up. There has been some speculation that going to bed early and rising early promotes better sleep because we are working with natural circadian rhythms, but I haven't found a study of that yet. The National Sleep Foundation has some interesting information though. (Who knew something like that existed? Amazing!)

Personally, I like to listen to morning sounds. :) Birds chirping, clocks ticking, airplane engines whirring, blenders blending. It is wonderful.


What spurred me to wake up so early, you ask? My boyfriend works an early shift, and I thought it would be easier to have the same sleep schedule so we can Skype. :) Love Skype. And my boyfriend too, I guess. 

How I did it without wanting to collapse in a pile of poofy blankets by 3 PM: I set my alarm clock half an hour earlier every day, and accordingly went to bed a tad earlier every evening. Does going to bed at 10 PM make me old? Nah, I still want to get my groove on till the wee hours of the morning. Just not regularly. (Especially since I'm usually not getting my groove on when I'm going to bed at 3 AM. I'm really just doing nothing.)


TL;DR: "Hi, I'm Emily, and I'm a night person." "Hi Emily." Ha! Not anymore!

If I Could Buy You This Movie I Would

Hungry For Change is my new all-time favorite movie. (Pirates of the Caribbean will have to move to second place.)

If I could host a screening at each high school, college, workplace, neighborhood, senior living facility, I would.

If I could force every American to sit and watch this movie, I would.

If I could be a dictator for a day, I would order everyone to watch this movie.

Everything I have been learning (might I add, outside of school?) about health for my entire life (granted, I'm not very old, but it is something I thought I should point out) is pulled together in this movie. The best part is that my discovery of this movie (and my sister's recommendation) is coinciding with a time in my life when I am able to make all decisions for myself, and take responsibility for my own health. Sugar, self-love, advertisements, juicing, stress, the business of diets--this documentary is so strong and stable in its content, if I could implant it in your brain, I would.

It reveals both the problem, and the solution. It has a realistic, and a positive, perspective. It is based on history, science, economics, and best of all, common sense. It does not have a bitter, nor belligerent, nor violent attitude to the perpetrators of the ginormous problem our society has with health. If you watch this, you can change your life for the better. If you let it sink in, you can change your life for good. If you decide it is your new favorite movie, you can encourage others to watch it as well.

"This isn't some little frou-frou new-age notion... this is hardcore science."
"Where does my food come from? What went into the food in terms of attitude or care or love or compassion? What is my intention of doing with the food?"
"Your body is designed to be healthy. Health is the natural state!"
--Hungry for Change


TL;DR: Hungry for Change. Go watch it now.

My Favorite Ingredients (to not eat?)

This summer I began cutting harsh chemicals out of my life. When I got to the part where I clean out my bathroom, I had to make some strict rules of what I keep. I love my yummy-smelling lotions and unnecessary hair products as much as any other girl, and I had to do my research to find substitutes. I was definitely on the path to becoming one of those women who buys a 3-ounce bottle of moisturizer for $50, because it contains "all the best ingredients." And what I found was that the natural stuff works way better than any product I've ever bought.

The most important thing to consider when using any product is that your skin is absorbent. The easiest rule to give yourself when using something is if you wouldn't put it in your food, you shouldn't be putting it on your skin. If for some reason you need convincing that your skin is absorbent, have you heard of nicotine patches? They release nicotine into your system, just by being on a patch that you stick on your body. Same thing goes for the birth control patch.

So here are my beauty secrets, although they aren't really secrets if plenty of women blog about them already. :) I'm not going to tell you why they help, I am not a scientist. I just know that they work, and they work for a lot of people.

1. Honey

• face/body mask
• breakout treatment
• sparkle like Edward Cullen in the sun

There are so many recipes for fancy, combinations of honey masks on our wonderful World Wide Web. Other ingredients probably help make things less sticky, but I don't mind. Keeps it from falling off my face! You don't need a lot at all. Just pour some honey (preferably local!) on your hand, and use your fingers to dab. Keep it away from your hair. I'm sure there are people who make honey masks for their hair, but I've never done it. It comes off your skin very easily with some lukewarm water. You can use it everyday! It will bring out the yucky stuff on your skin, so things might look worse before they're better. That's just how it works. :)

2. Coconut oil

• lotion/moisturizer
• lip balm
• hair mask
• soothing agent

Again, you don't need a lot. With all of the ingredients on this list, you don't need a lot. A little definitely goes a long way. If you put it in your hair, put conditioner on your hair for a few minutes before you wash it out. And wash it out with WARM water. Cold water, or weather, will make the oil harden, and that's the opposite of what you want. Shiny, soft hair. I use it on sunburn as well :)

3. Jojoba oil

• make-up remover!
• moisturizer

You can use jojoba oil on your reusable cloth makeup remover pads. ;) I like to also use it as a moisturizer when I get tired of coconut oil.

4. Baking soda

• scrub
• tooth whitener
• shampoo

It's a perfect, gentle scrub (no, I don't want no [harsh] scrub--looks like they need some jojoba oil). Mix it with water in a little bowl, just enough to make it mushy. You can brush your teeth with it too, although it doesn't taste very nice. I've used it as shampoo once or twice, but I don't know how I feel about it. 

5. Apple cider vinegar

• toner
• breakout treatment
• hair conditioner
• block out any other scent

I love this stuff. I put it on with my reusable cloth makeup remover pads (have I convinced you to get some yet?) after I scrub with baking soda. Once it dries, the smell goes away. (But if you start sweating you can smell it again! Solution: put it on before bed and rinse your face in the morning.) You can use it in your hair and rinse it out, and your hair will look shiny and feel soft.

Do I look like Edward yet?

For most of this post I've had honey on my face. I think a combination of using these things (along with a better diet) has decreased the early rosacea I had on my cheeks. The dermatologist gave me some chemical stuff, but I thought I don't even know what this is! Why am I putting it on my face?! You can also switch off using coconut oil and honey as a lip treatment. I have a tendency to bite my lips, and they really help.

TL;DR: Honey, coconut oil, jojoba oil, baking soda, and apple cider vinegar are your new best friends, my friends! 

Food: Use Your Brain

Given the complexity of the relationship Americans have with food, I would like to offer a simple solution to the ongoing controversy. And when I mean simple, I mean everyone could do this. I don't know much about diets or counting calories, but I do know what makes sense to me, and a lot of other conscious eaters out there. So here is my list for the day.

• Eat fresh, local produce. (Grow your own!)
• If you don't know what an ingredient is, don't eat it.

Yup. That's it. Yes, it's highly simplified, but I strongly believe in it. Processed foods make my brain go just as haywire as it does when I try to wrap my head around waste. Yes, I do like my cookies, but I would much rather make them, and know what and how much of it is going in them, than buy them from the store. (Also, mine are better. Fact.)

So I found this lovely website where you can learn what grows when wherever you are in the US or Canada (I'm sure something like it exists for other parts of the world as well). So here's what is in season during what time period in Illinois.

For the rest of the year, you can use the canned and preserved versions of these. Preferably canned and preserved by yourself. I also found something called The Meatrix on this website. Being a fan of The Matrix, I had to watch it, and it repeats what I've seen in more than one documentary. And the names are hilarious if you get the reference. The first movie: 

If you would like to read more about how intricate our animal-food relationship is, I highly recommend Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat, by Hal Herzog.


TL;DR: Processed food bad, fresh food good. *grunt grunt* Tarzan. Actually yes, eat like Tarzan.

P.S. My favorite cookie recipe so far is this one. Yummyyyyyy.

Why I Make a To-Do List at Night

I am a night person. I always have been, and I was afraid I always would be. My highest levels of motivation come to me at 9 PM, and I have spent many nights leaving a half-finished de-cluttering project at 3 AM, only to have my room stay that way until the next time I felt like dealing with it.

I don't consider this healthy behaviour. I figure I have a few choices here:

1. I can embrace the fact that I am a night person, and change nothing.
2. I can accept the fact that I am a night person, and resist the temptation of starting a project at midnight.
3. I can change my sleep schedule, and try to accommodate a different lifestyle.

Ding ding ding! We have a winner.

When I look back at my high school years, when, how, and where I slept is really quite cringe-worthy. I actually believe my body is still recovering. Because I don't live at college, I have the luxury of being able to have a regular sleep schedule now, and I'm working on implementing that. I found that a to-do list written the night before helps loads.

Here's why.

First of all, I love lists. (Did you notice that before? I bet that you'll notice every time I make one now.)

Second of all, I love colorful things. I once bought multiple Post-It notes in different colors, and I'm still working through them. (Guess what? Post-Its are recyclable! Ha!)

Third of all, I am very slightly addicted to cool apps. Wunderlist. That is all.

Fourth of all, I always remember what I have to do the next day as I'm falling asleep. So if I write it down, I don't have any excuses in the morning!

Fifth of all, checking things off my to-do list feels incredibly (to the point that it's embarrassing) great.

     "Shower. Check."

     "Eat breakfast. Check."

     "Pet the dogs. Check." (OK, that was a joke. I don't put that on there. Kind of.)

          My sister laughs at me when I put everyday things on my list, but I would like to object. I get TO DO them, don't I? They have just as much right on my TO-DO list as anything else. So there.

The point is that I wake up knowing what I want to achieve every day. This is key to not being sucked into Facebook and such nonsense when I have down time. 

Something that I think is very important with to-do list making: be conscious of how much you list. Motivate yourself to get a good amount of tasks done, but don't make the expectations too high. If you don't finish everything, just put it on the next day's Post-It. No stress. The list is there to help you, not make you feel bad about yourself.

And if you are feeling really productive, try getting 3 things on your list done before noon. (Make them things that aren't daily, though. No cheating!)

TL;DR: Write down what you need to do tomorrow as you get ready to sleep. Lists are cool!

Nurture: Reusable Products

Take a moment to think of what you consider "repulsive." Is it something natural, such as bodily fluids, or is it something artificial, such as cosmetic products?

For those of you who find natural things repulsive, I would like to ask you to reconsider. For those of you who find artificial things repulsive, hooray for being my new best friend. This post is about some reusable options for products that are accepted in our society as disposable. The term disposable is yucky! Don't look for it! It makes no sense to use something once, then throw it away! (OK, there are some cases, but here are a few things you might want to look in to.)

1. Handkerchiefs

I have to be honest on this one. I don't use handkerchiefs. But starting today I am! Turns out someone's got the sniffles, and given it's the first time I'm sick since my passionate outbreak to change the way I live, I have to get me some handkerchiefs. Not only are they super pretty (!) (or manly, you could get those too), but it will be much nicer to wipe my nose with something soft. And my nose will be so happy that I am not throwing away dozens of facial tissues that it will even agree not to be red!

Click here on a quick guide on how to make your own. :)

2. Shopping Bags

If you kept every bag you were given when you went to a store, how many would you have right now? We've got loads of them, and they are great to re-use when packing for a trip, but we really don't need any more. I keep one reusable bag in my car at all times, so I never forget it at home. And when I forget it in my car (whoops), I feel so bad that I carry my groceries in my arms. My suggestion is to have a few available: designated bags for groceries, clothes, and miscellaneous.

Also, you don't even have to buy reusable bags. When I studied abroad, I used my backpack as my grocery bag. ;)

3. Menstrual Products, for my ladies

Time to get personal. I used to hate my time of the month. Until I got a hold of two things that transformed my life. Without any pushing, some women close to me have also changed their ways and they love it.

I'll let you do the research yourself, but if you're confused, just call me or something. :)

Cloth pads:
PIMPs 
Glad Rags
Lunapads

AND THEY'RE SO FREAKING CUTE. Again, you can make your own, get them from Etsy, AND you can even donate them to girls who are unable to attend school because of their period. (I found this website in two minutes--there are plenty of organizations that are working to get women the products they need.)

Menstrual cups:
DivaCup
Lunette
Mooncup
Miacup

I know it seems weird. Trust me, I know. But it really isn't.  :) There are plenty of blogs about these things that explain everything.

P.S. This saves A LOT of waste, and A LOT of money. And here's a good way to remember that "a lot" is two words.

4. Make-up Wipes

How many cotton balls do you go through a day? Surprise! You have options.

5. Diapers

I'm pretty sure my internet audience does not consist of many parents with babies. Perhaps this website will help you feel like you have an option other than disposable when the time comes. Just read the first page!

6. Towels

Again, I'm way guilty here. In my opinion, my family uses too many paper towels. They're convenient. But my patience with disposable-product-convenience has run out. Time to use regular towels, and keep the paper towel usage to a minimum! Anyone with me?

7. Snack Bags/Anything to Not Use One-Use Plastic Bags

I've recently become passionate about sewing (more on this later), and when I got my hands on laminated cotton fabric, the first thing I made was a snack bag.

If I can make this, anyone can.

There are video tutorials on YouTube, and instructions online on how to make these if you don't want to buy them. You can use old t-shirts you never wear, and then have a yummy snack of figs or something at work. Yay!

I also made a slip-in holder for my toothbrush, instead of using a plastic baggie. (I don't have a travel shell/case/thingamajigger.) The point is to be creative! And colorful. Colors are good. :D



And on that note, I leave you to your earth-loving ways.

TL;DR: If there is something you throw out regularly, there's probably something you can replace it with that is also a lot cuter.