Having Fun Outdoors as a Family
The days are getting longer, the sun is shining harder, and I can’t help but feel spring is right around the corner! This is the perfect time for guest blogger, Ken Myers, to impart some inspirational advice about getting active outdoors with the entire family. As summer approaches most of us start to plan our vacations or at least begin thinking about getting out of doors and basking in the sun. Sometimes life gets so busy that we put very little thought into our lives and we get into ruts. We go to the same places and do the same things every year without much thought. Spending time outside doing things with your family can…
Tesla stealing Toyota Prius drivers
Who’d switching to Tesla? Owners of BMW, Mercedes, and Audi luxury vehicles, but also a whole ton of Toyota Prius drivers.
Homemade Shampoo Review: Coconut Milk and Aloe Vera
After 3 years of faithful no-pooing with baking soda I noticed that my hair has become brittle and dry, I did a pH test which proved that while I was saving my hair from toxic chemicals in commercial shampoo I was destroying it with the highly alkaline baking soda. Read more about the pH of baking soda and why you should not use it as a shampoo. I set on a journey to find easy to make homemade shampoos that will not only replace baking soda but will also be pH balanced. A few weeks ago I tested rye flour shampoo and…
Death By Stubbornness: What’s A Doctor To Do?
Over the years that I’ve worked in acute inpatient rehab centers, I have been truly vexed by a particular type of patient. Namely, the stubborn patient (usually an elderly gentleman with a military or armed forces background). I know that it’s not completely fair to generalize about personality types, but it seems that the very nature of their work has either developed in them a steely resolve, or they were attracted to their profession because they possessed the right temperament for it. Either way, when they arrive in the rehab unit after some type of acute illness or traumatic event, it is very challenging to…
9 Important Productivity Habits My Parents Taught Me When I Was Small
My mother taught me more about productivity, the power of consistency, and making a positive impact in the world than any other person in my life. Someday, I hope I can be half the person she is. To honor the lessons she and my father introduced to me, I compiled these nine important productivity habits my parents taught me. Enjoy!1. Stop trusting yourself to remember stuff.Tell me if this sounds familiar: you go to the store and tell yourself, “I don’t need a grocery shopping list! I’ll remember everything I need”, but then within mere moments of getting home, you realize you forgot something so important that you have to go back to the store again …
Minding common ground: “Poly-farming” in northeast Ohio
Just about any road I take that leads me out of Wooster, Ohio, very quickly guides me past vast fields of corn or soybeans. Agriculture plays a vital role in Wayne County’s economy, and for several decades now, commodity crops have contributed more than their fair share to our local economy. Smaller farms that emphasize fruits and vegetables (so-called “specialty” or “differentiated” crops)…
How to Deal with Stress: 33 Tips That Work
“The time to relax is when you don’t have time for it.” Sydney J. Harris “One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one’s work is terribly important.” Bertrand Russell “Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under the trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.” John Lubbock Feeling stressed in today’s society is pretty much inevitable. But how stressed you get or how often this happens are two things that you can have a great influence over. Without smart habits for dealing with situations that could be stressful…
Making Sure Your Elder Parent Eats Well
If you’re a regular Live Lighter reader, you’ll know that over the holidays my Mom was hospitalized. Part of the reason for this was that she wasn’t eating right — which is absolutely essential when you have diabetes and when you are elderly. So I’m very happy to present today’s guest post by blogger, Kimberley Laws! “Finish your broccoli or there will be no dessert.” You remember your mom uttering those words so clearly that it feels like it was only yesterday. It was, however, decades ago. And, now, the roles have reversed. It’s your turn to make sure that your …
How to Whiten Your Teeth Naturally
Unpleasant as it is, as the years progress, our teeth tend to lose their pearly white color for a yellowish tint that is not as attractive and is a sign that something is wrong. Luckily, there are a number of things we can do to prevent our teeth from discoloring. There are not only ways to prevent it,but there are also many ways to bring back the white and get that perfect smile everyone wants. Teeth are made up of 4 tissues: enamel — the strong white covering that protects the tooth dentin — a hard yellow material that carries nerves; supports the enamel pulp — at…
7 tips for green spring cleaning without toxic chemicals
Happy Spring Equinox! In the grand old tradition of spring cleaning, we’ve rounded up some of our best ideas for green cleaning.
Fit Family Challenge 2013: Ten Tips For Fast, Healthy, And Affordable Meals
I’m very excited to be the nutrition coach for the Boys & Girls Clubs’ Fit Family Challenge again this year. In surveying the finalist families, I discovered that the two most important nutrition issues on their minds were cooking speed and food affordability. Far down the list were things like food allergies, weight loss, …
Six Ideas For A More Productive Work Day
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)As the new year begins, a lot of you are probably evaluating 2013 to figure out what worked and what didn’t. For me (and most of my co-workers), the last year was a roller coaster: the startup I co-founded, Ministry of Supply, took off and our customer base more than quintupled. As I became more and more busy, I tried to experiment to find out how I could become more productive and keep up with the workload. I tried it all, from scheduling 15-minute meetings to not taking any meetings; from sleeping less to sleeping more.In the end…
Slow what?: Review of “Slow Gardening”
By now, I’m sure that all good Ethicurean readers are familiar with Slow Food and the tenets of this movement: the pleasure of good, clean, fair food and celebrating our many food traditions. The idea of “Slow” has shown up in other organizations and ideas, such as Slow Cities and Slow Money, both of which encourage local engagement in community and economic life. Now the concept of “Slow Gardening” comes in a new book of the same name, from gardener and author Felder Rushing. So…
5 Secrets To A Long Healthy Life
Wouldn’t it be great to know the secret to a long, healthy life? Here today is guest blogger, Carol, who believes she has 5 tips to do so. These do not necessarily reflect my beliefs, but read through them yourself and choose what resonates with you. Then share your thoughts in the comment section! Tweaking some changes in your lifestyle can not only help you live a long life but also live it up to its fullest. A comprehensive study conducted by nutritionists and researchers across the country concluded that four principal behaviours were responsible for putting people in an early grave, and causing them to age faster than …
White House and USDA announce "support for innovative, sustainable" wood construction
“Building stronger markets for innovative new wood products supports sustainable forestry, helps buffer reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and puts rural America at the forefront of an emerging industry.”
Onion and Olives Vegan Bread Rolls
I only recently discovered onion in bread and I kid you not, every time I incorporate it in a recipe, it’s a mind-blowing success. So, when last night I took a dozen of these bread rolls to a friend’s party, everyone quickly forgot their reasons for being on a diet and the tiny fluffy rolls were the first to disappear from the table. For this recipe I use equal parts whole wheat and white flour …
Social Media May Be Better Than Tests And Credentials At Identifying Good Doctors
I am consistently bemused by those who recommend more rigorous or more pervasive standardized testing as the primary means for insuring physician quality. The vast majority of physicians have already passed through a complex gauntlet of multiple choice exams, extended credentialing and certification processes, and lengthy tests of knowledge and skill. And yet, some physicians (to put it bluntly, sorry friends) are very bad at what they do. Intellectual intelligence is necessary, but not sufficient, for doctoring. …
6 Time Management Mistakes You’re Probably Making
There’s never enough time in a day, especially if you’re making these six mistakes. Manage your time more effectively, and you’ll be amazed at what you can accomplish.Tim Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Workweek, calls it “time famine.” Your doctor calls it “dangerous levels of stress.” The ’80s band Rush called it “too many hands on my time…
53 Inspiring Self-Esteem and Self-Love Quotes
Some things may be equally essential but nothing is more important than a healthy sense of self-esteem and loving yourself. Why? In my experience, three of the most important reasons are: Life becomes simpler and lighter. When you love yourself more then things simply become lighter and easier. You won’t make as many mountains out of molehills (or out of plain air) as you used to. Or beat yourself up or drag yourself…
Shedding light on a permaculture farm: Review of “Bioshelter Market Garden”
As small farmers look for ways to cut costs and increase their profit margins, they focus more attention on the energy used on the farm. Whether they implement energy efficiency measures or find ways to produce home-grown energy (through wind, solar, biofuel, and more), farmers who examine the energy invested in their business often discover new ways to practice good stewardship on their land. Darrell Frey is one of those conscious stewards. He started homesteading in the back-to-the-land movement of the 1970s and soon developed an interest in permaculture, a process-oriented approach to agriculture that takes a broader look at everything involved in farm or garden production. In 1983, he and his wife Linda established Three Sisters Farm in western Pennsylvania, seeing a…
Stop Smoking for Good: 3 Motivational Techniques You Haven’t Tried Yet
New Year’s is long over with now, nevertheless, it’s always a good time to consider stopping smoking (at least, that’s what I keep telling myself but my subconscious is arguing with me)! I’ve tried almost all of the smoking cessation methods except the following three, graciously presented to us by Juliana Weiss-Roessler. If you’re a smoker, you already know that regularly smoking cigarettes is bad for you. You’ve likely already heard some of the frightening statistics from well-intentioned friends and anti-smoking ad campaigns, but the problem is, just hearing the facts…
Cuckoos and crows teach us how parasites can be good
Birds previously seen as parasites can actually provide benefits to their hosts.
