Take our Green Goals Poll Here and tell us about your “green” goals for 2007!

To the Poll

Quite a while ago when I made the decision to ditch junk food and eat organic, I thought I had a big struggle ahead of me. And it all truthfulness it wasn’t an easy transition. When I was younger I worked as a manager at a movie theatre and my diet consisted largely of super oily popcorn and soda pop and maybe an occasional hot dog. I spent 80% of my week there working and playing…this was before I had children. :)

A few years later I was doing marketing for a national physical therapy network and I rarely if ever brought food from home. If I did, it was processed junk and no better than the fast food eateries I would frequent instead. I was eating at least 2 out of 3 meals outside the home and all of it was junk. I think I pretty much drank soda exclusively. Looking back I not only want to vomit when I remember eating those hot dogs but I can also “see” why in my late twenties I was diagnosed with colon cancer. I am doing some major back peddling now.

So why can I say that I am kind of happy this happened to me? Well, I know now that my children MUST be raised to eat healthy and to view foods the way I do now. Yes, it sucks to have cancer and I often think about the fact that it is possible I will not see my children grow up to be adults but despite that I can still see why I needed to have this experience. I DO NOT want my children to have to go through this. Every day I have is just one more day to instill in them a healthy lifestyle and attitude. I am thankful for that opportunity.

I started to think about all of this just yesterday when I was out and about with my kids and they shyly hinted that maybe we could stop at McDonalds to eat since they were “starving”. In times past I would have agreed and I was kind of taken off guard when my stomach actually started to get queasy about the thought of eating anything off the McDonalds menu. I was getting ill just thinking about their food and I used to eat 2 or even 3 meals a day there or at similar places! So instead of McDonalds my kids got a lengthy lecture about why we would NOT be stopping at McDonalds and then when we got home they helped me make a healthy lunch in our very own kitchen.

Every dark cloud has a silver lining. :)

I just read an article about how the city of Cincinnati has filed a law suit against nine paint manufacturers asking that the companies be required to clean up all lead hazards in properties in the city, pay for a public awareness campaign about lead’s dangers and repay the city for years of testing and investigating lead hazards.

While I am not sure that this case is entirely fair to the paint companies I do believe that they should be putting a hefty percentage of their profits toward organizations that help homeowners deal with lead paint issues. It was their product after all that is causing so many problems and posing such a danger to us. But then again…the article does say that these companies knew of lead’s toxic nature as early as 1900 so maybe I need to rethink that.

Children with lead poisoning can suffer from:
Damage to the brain and nervous system
Behavior and learning problems (such as hyperactivity)
Slowed Growth
Hearing Problems
Headaches

Adults can suffer from:
Difficulties during pregnancy
Reproductive problems (both men & women)
High blood pressure
Digestive problems
Nerve disorders
Memory and concentration problems
Muscle and joint pain

This issue interests me especially since I have an older home in Ohio that needs some renovations and I am unsure about how to go about dealing with the layers of lead paint that house has inside and out. Scraping to repaint would be bad….but then again so is using vinyl siding. I have a problem on my hands for sure.

Here is the article.

Got a hankering for some warm weather activity? So do I! That is why I have been reading back issues of my surf magazines like crazy this week. I am seriously considering signing myself up for a week long surf camp in Costa Rica….well, I can dream can’t I?

Anyway, I featured one of my favorite natural health and beauty product lines on my surfing blog. It is called Salty Girls and I LOVE their products. You may want to check them out if you happen to live in an area where it is warm enough to surf still. :)

But be warned some of their products are pretty natural but others like the shampoo contain parabens. Thanks Erin for the heads up on that one!