Making the ultimate compromise

For Meatless Monday, learn about one man’s decision to go vegetarian. This is the second installment of a three-part series. Read the first installment here.

By Mark Donahue

For my wife and I, the start of our domestic life together started there in the basement kitchen of the hipster hovel where she resided. Besides tofu, she also fed me seitan, TVP and tempeh — all kinds of fake meat. But I was a little more resistant to everything else, save potatoes (in a concession to my Irishness). Early on I wrote her a list of the vegetables I wouldn't eat, and she took it as a challenge to convert me on every item.

We also went out to restaurants a lot, hitting all the Chicago standards for vegan dining. It soon became apparent that as great as these places were, they were few in number and in need of reinforcements, this city not being particularly sympathetic to non-meat eaters. Such was my introduction to the Us vs. Them situation my girlfriend found herself in when we left the cozy basement kitchen looking for food.

I felt for her — most acutely when we were on the road or stuck in some remote part of the city. Where I could've easily walked into a McDonald's as a last resort, Erika sometimes had to go hungry till we got back to home base. In the time before smartphones it was hard to find a decent ethnic (read: Thai) option if you didn't know the area.

But I never gave her a hard time about how this sometimes inconvenienced me because I did plenty to inconvenience her in the early days. And she kept making me such incredible food. When we moved in together in the spring of 2004, I was fully under the roof of a vegan, and that's what I ate all the time, save lunch.

Lunch was my last vestige of meat. Particularly the grilled and ham and cheese from Big Herm's across the street from my office in the West Loop. I informed her with guilty, mocking pleasure whenever I ate one of these monstrosities. Erika would shake her head. I would laugh. But it was more a matter of me flaunting my last outlet for dietary bachelorism. I was like a travelling salesman on the road.

This gloating was perhaps too much to bear for her, considering how happy it seemed to make her to make me happy with her cooking. It should be all her, as it was in the rest of our relationship. And I know she was also concerned about my health. Even a 20-something young dude can only take so many greasebombs for the team before he starts to get sick in the many ways food can make you sick.

I heard this concern in her voice and saw it in her eyes. So I said I Do. I Do to vegetarianism. And I was equally happy when she said she'd give up her cancer sticks, the final gate to living fully healthy.

Look for the final installment next Monday!

The unexpected vegetarian

For Meatless Monday, learn about one man’s decision to go vegetarian. This is the first installment of a three-part series.

By Mark Donahue

Why did you become a vegetarian? Once in awhile I get this question, though not as much as I used to, which suits me fine because I’ve always hated answering it. And that’s because I've never just cut to the chase to conserve the effort.

I did it for a girl.

This is 100 percent true. I did it for my wife, who at the time of the pact was my girlfriend — or fiancée to be precise because it was a wedding pact. Very simple, really: Erika challenged me to stop eating meat after we tied the knot, and I challenged her back to stop smoking. It was a playful, loving bet borne of our mutual concerns for each other's health. We metaphorically shook hands and sealed the deal when we married on June 18, 2005.

I was 28 years old and had been eating meat all my life. Erika was 24 and a vegan since 15 — she'd started smoking around the same age as well. I was not a "meat lover" or "vegetarian hater." My diet was given to me as a child in a meat-and-potatoes Catholic Midwestern home and survived into my young manhood out of habit and laziness. I had no real attachment to it, save maybe the fried chicken and ribs (and white borscht, and Cuban sandwich — okay, enough.)

Erika's own reasons for being a vegan are more complex, but they were definitely the product of the times. Like me, she was a music-loving leftist in the '90s, and for many people that meant adopting a non-meat diet, more out of politics than health concerns. By the time I met her in early 2003, that cause-conscious epoch had passed, and many young people we knew had slid back into eating meat, along with a lot of other new bad behaviors.

I was impressed by Erika's continued rigor. She and her good friend Marie had never wavered, even as the mohawks and chain wallets disappeared, and it gave me a glimmer of hope. Hope that young people of our generation could actually stick to a good cause, not just to things like, say, a coke habit.

And she could cook. She cooked like no girl I'd ever met, and I soon became her biggest customer, supplanting the starving hardcore boys and coffeehouse crowds she'd fed before. I'm a very liberal person in support of total equality of the sexes, but something stirred in my blood when this beautiful young woman would put a plate of food before me. Maybe one of my Austrian ancestors in some tiny mountain hamlet had experienced the same thing hundreds of years ago*. Of course, he was probably served mutton, not tofu.

Check back Monday, Aug. 27 for the next installment. 

How your family can make a change at Hetch Hetchy

By Kathy Schrenk

A few weeks ago, my sons and I took a two-train adventure to San Francisco to help make history with other advocates for Yosemite National Park. We turned in 15,806 signatures to the elections board (we needed 9,702 valid signatures) to get the Water Sustainabilityand Environmental Restoration Planning Act of 2012 onto the November ballot in San Francisco.

This legislation is sponsored by Restore Hetch Hetchy, which is working to remove San Francisco's reservoir inside Yosemite National Park. No other city is allowed to store its water inside a National Park. Why should San Francisco get a free pass, without even studying restoration?  Check out our plan and donate if you are so inclined. Thanks!

Plastic and foam going the way of VHS?

Cities continue to ban Styrofoam containers. 

By Kathy Schrenk
It's probably been a while since you thought much about the effect of county government on your day-to-day life. But in my part of the world, those supervisors are having a big impact.

Last year, San Mateo County (just south of San Francisco) banned styrofoam containers for takeout food. This action affects restaurants (and their diners) within the county, but only in areas that aren't in an incorporated city (Redwood City, Burlingame, South San Francisco, Half Moon Bay...). The county supes encouraged cities to follow suit, and many of them are doing so, some faster than others.

Redwood City is just a couple miles from me, and they have all the good, quick, inexpensive food, and they are finally getting in on the act. That means I will soon be free from nasty chemicals leaking into my food when I get takeout from the restaurant that has the best Indian food, yet the worst service. It seems some restaurants are already changing their inventory; when I went to my favorite taqueria last month they already had cardboard (or maybe plant-based?) take-out containers.

Next up? Plastic bags! How fantastic would that be?

If you aren't lucky enough to live in a city or county that's taking such actions, you can take action: let your local governments know what's happening in other parts of the world and that you'd like them to follow suit. It's not as hard as you think; plus, it's their job! You're their boss!

Biking keeps family together

By Kathy Schrenk
This blog post about a mom who has six kids and no car blew me away. Instead of a car, she has a fancy Dutch bike that carries up to four kids in the front. There's a standard kid seat right behind mom and a trail-a-bike-type contraption coming off the back for the sixth (and biggest) kid.

What an inspiration. But, you might be thinking, my family needs two cars for times when biking isn't possible, and I can't afford the $4,000 bike if I don't sell one of our cars. Not to worry, it's easy to bike your kids around without dipping into their college fund.

When my first son was infant, I got a Burley bike trailer. It was just big enough to fit his infant car seat (aka, the bucket) so I biked all over the place with him in there, attached to either my road or town bike.

When my second son was born less than 2 years later, I got a double Chariot trailer and they rode together in that for a while. Then, I discovered one of my favorite ways of biking with kids, the iBert. Your child can start riding in it as soon as they are strong enough to sit up with a helmet on. It's wonderful for you and your kid because he gets a great view of the ride, and you can easily have a conversation with him. (Just make sure to get him a helmet that's round and not pointed at the back.)

Once my older son outgrew the trailer, it was big-kid time: the Trail-a-Bike. This attaches to the grown-up's bike and allows the kid to practice pedaling and to get an idea about what it's like to ride in traffic. When my younger son outgrew the iBert, he went back to the single trailer, which was attached to the Trail-a-Bike. Yes, it was quite a train. The good news is, it's really hard for drivers to not see you.

If I had a bigger family, I could envision having up to four kids on a bike using a combination of gear: one kid in an iBert, one a trail-a-bike, and two kids in a double trailer. I've even seen tandem Trail-a-Bikes.

Yes, this is a large number of accessories. But you can buy them when you need them instead of spending a lot of money all at once on a cargo bike. All of these items can often be purchased used through craigslist or your local mom's club and have good resale value if you decide to buy new. In fact I bought my iBert used and then sold it for almost the same price when we were done with it. (I bought the double trailer new and sold it for about $100 less than purchase price about two years later.)

These days all I need is the Trail-a-Bike because my older son (age six-and-a-half) can ride on his own and (almost) keep up. (I imagine the mom with six kids only lets her oldest one ride on his own because kids don't always make the best decisions while riding in traffic, and corralling more than one while piloting your own bike-bus can be pretty stressful.)

Oh, and the bike this stuff all gets attached to is a Kona mountain bike that I bought for less than $400 13 years ago at my local bike shop.

Finding beach treasures

By Mary Rose Roberts
I consider myself a well-traveled person. I’ve been to a few countries, including Japan and Costa Rica, and have seen much of the U.S. Yet one of my favorite geographical locations is the shores of Lake Michigan. There’s something about the lake shore's landscape—the evergreen forests, the moist cool air and people’s laughter along the shoreline. It’s just such a nice place. And there is no doubt I'd like to keep it that way, although it often seems I am losing the battle against the McManisions that keep replacing forested acres. There is no way I can control the building, as money and tax dollars are the core focus of city councils. Plus, landowners have a right to build. Instead, I can do my part to preserve my paradise in small ways—like cleaning up the beach.

Maybe I am strange, but I actually enjoy it. I stroll along the beach as waves crash on my feet. As I see trash—no matter how little—I pick it up. In between, I collect small treasures like beach glass. Beach glass is water-worn remnants, often from glass bottles, found in a multitude of colors along the shore in the rock bed. Green is most prevalent, while turquoise to locals is a special find. You also can find fossils and pieces of clay pots or tiles.

As I move along the beach, the bag of trash I carry always gets heavier. I usually end up dragging it along the sand towards the end of my clean-up stroll. I do my best not to get upset about it, but of course it would be best if everyone picked up after themselves to keep our environment clean and safe.  I can’t control that. What I can do is my small part while also enjoying the lake and getting some exercise.

If each of us walked around our neighborhood with one garbage bag, how much cleaner would the earth be? How about making a commitment this 4th of July to do the same, whether at a local park or waterway?  

Finding god in nature

By Mary Rose Roberts

Whenever I am in northwest Indiana, I attend church at St. Ann of the Dunes in the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. The national park is the backdrop for the Catholic church, and natural themes continue inside as well as in the priests’ homilies. 

According to Christian and Islamic tradition, St. Ann was Jesus Christ’s grandmother and has been canonized by the Roman Catholic church as a saint. I’ve heard a lot of misinformation about the Catholic churches' use of saints, including it being compared to praying to pagan gods in an evangelical church I sometimes attend in my new hometown. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Like Paul used the term “saints of the church” in his biblical letters, Catholics honor those who modeled their lives around Jesus’ teachings. They are just good examples of being Catholic, so we honor them.

I like to go to St. Ann’s when I really need to get my church on, as I feel closest to god when in nature. The church is surrounded by evergreen forests. Inside the entrance, there is an aspersorium (the basin that holds holy water in Catholic churches) shaped like an acorn. The alter is made of shellacked drift wood and is in front of floor-to -ceilings windows, letting light and wildlife inside.

The alter, where the priest 'runs' the mass.

If you are unfamiliar with Catholic church, there are a few songs, two readings, a reading from the gospel and then a homily with communion thereafter. Unlike evangelical church sermons that are theme-based and then backed up using different references from the bible, Catholics read a gospel verse verbatim. Then, the priest's homily offers historical background about the time it was written, cultural issues and more, followed by ways to apply the message in our modern-day lives.

At St. Ann’s, nature always seems to come into play during the homily—especially by one priest who grew up in Utah. His homilies reflect his experience living in a rural area, and his message always touches me.

Indeed, last time I was there he talked about watching the sunrise on the sand dunes overlooking Lake Michigan, a short distance from the church. He felt so close to god, he said. Then he encouraged each of us to turn off the TV, store the iPad and silence cell phones and spend time in nature to experience the beautiful world god gave to us to steward, safe-keep and admire.

Outside St. Ann of the Dunes

“God may ask, ‘what did you think of all the wonderful things I gave to you to look at down there?’” the priest said.

The church reinforces my own belief, something written in Christian and other religious texts, that we are expected to be stewards of the earth. That was our first assignment in Eden and, if you are truly religious, it should be one of the main ways you serve god.


"The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it." (Genesis 2:15)

Where is one of your favorite places to be spiritual or close to god?

Validating the value of stay at home parents

Society needs to place a value on stay at home parents.

By Tonya Yancey

Recently, I was at my monthly Bunco meeting and a fellow female player mentioned she put in an application at the local school district.  She was a stay at home mom of a senior in high school, an eighth grader and a preschool-aged child, but now was headed back into the working world of the 9- to 5-ers. 

“Oh that is going be so difficult,” I said.

“Thank you,” the woman said. “You are the first person to say that to me.”

As stay at home moms, we know the challenges that every working mom faces, whether they are in the working environment or “just” a stay at home mom.  We moms all understand that parenting is a verb; it is active 24/7.  There are no breaks and there are no vacations, unless you pay someone else to monitor your children.

Where and when did we get so far off track, in that our value is based on whether or not we have earned income?  Someone has to raise the children. If it isn’t you or your spouse, then you will have to seek out proper, paid child care.  It seems to me that raising a child is the most valuable job position anyone in any society could have.  Perhaps, I’m wrong.  What I do know is that parenting has most definitely been my most challenging job.  Not just the physical challenges, such as feeling as though I had chronic flu the first trimester of my first pregnancy or the sleep deprivation headaches I got for the first five years of their precious lives, plus the added pressure of the fact that I was raising little sponges who absorb everything I do and say. 

All of my behaviors have a direct impact on how my children will perceive themselves and then be able to relate to others. Marianne Williamson says, “If hours of active mothering were calculated even at minimum wage, then mothering would be the largest industry in the world.”  So what is this idea or perception that being a stay at home mom or dad has little value?  The idea may be that the stay at home parent is just lounging about on the couch eating bonbons, when the reality is the stay at home parent just wants to be able to use the bathroom before their bladder burst and alone would be a treat if not a mini-vacation.

What all stay at home moms and dads want, the one thing they really, really, want is validation. They want to hear that the job that they do, the hours spent diapering, feeding, cleaning up something or someone, endless piles of laundry, driving someone to and from, getting up at 3 a.m. to clean up someone’s vomit, every hug, kiss, smile given and received, matters.  It matters and is honored.  And when the stay at home parent at a social gathering is asked the inevitable question, “What do you do?” and when one replies, “I’m at home with the kids,” honoring them with a response of gratitude and a simple “thank you” would be so healing and gratifying.

We stay at home parents are in service for our families and ultimately our communities and no amount of earned income can ever buy back these priceless years of childhood.                                                                    

Find out the salary a stay at home mom would earn here. 

Ready to commit to driving less?

Ready to start a drive less challenge in your city?

By Kathy Schrenk
There's a project called Drive Less Challenge, which started in Menlo Park, Calif. three years ago to get people biking, walking, riding transit and carpooling. It focuses on events like bike safety checks, giveaways and rallies at schools. It also has a website where people sign up, log their trips and enter to win prizes.

It's grown each year. Earlier this year, it celebrated 10 cities on the peninsula south of San Francisco. Corporate sponsors help with an end-of-challenge party and buy donating prizes. Check out the Drive Less Challenge website. Maybe you can help start one in your town?

Welcome to the new nextgengreen!

By Mary Rose Roberts

We are excited to launch our newly designed blog today. Our editorial team worked with the design guru at hello belle studio, located in Chicago, Ill. The studio reworked the blog layout and helped develop the brand mark, an artistic rendition of the tree of life. The tree of life concept has been used in science, religion, philosophy, mythology, and theology to represent the interconnectedness of all life on Earth--an apt representation of the blog's mission of reuse, recycle and renew.  

I started the blog less than a year ago to have a central location to post information—such as healthful recipes, conservation tips and eco-product reviews—where all my friends could access it. And that is still the core of the blog’s mission: Create an online community where people can share ideas on how to reuse, recycle or renew products. This includes how we buy products, the type of products bought, and environmental/social-justice issues associated with consumerism.

We’ve made a lot of changes to the blog to meet this mission statement. A navigation bar has been added so it is easier to quickly find information, including a new tab for People. This area showcases people making a difference by changing their lives or those in their communities. It also highlights people who follow the blog, including product giveaway winners. Look later today for a profile about an islander who won our last giveaway, WIRED earrings. Of course, we will continue to throw in surprise product giveaways often. (You will have only one day to enter so check back with us often to get your chance to win.)

Visit our new About page and find bios of the blog’s contributors, including Food Editor Anna Fischer Wulff and Health Editor Tonya Yancey. Our two contributing bloggers are Nikki Golden, a DIYer and marketing/grammar guru, and Kathy Schrenk, who covers West Coast issues. (For blogging opportunities, visit our Contact page.)

Finally, sponsorship has been added to the right side of the page. Please take a moment to visit the banner ad(s) and tell them nextgengreen sent you!

We love feedback, so let us know what you think of our new look. And thank you for your support.


With love,


Mary Rose

Tackling the taboo about being second-hand

By Mary Rose Roberts

Growing up, the majority of my wardrobe consisted of hand-me downs from my sibling. While my parents did it to save money, my sibling was a boy. As a result, I spent much of my childhood dressed in Wrangler jeans and flannel shirts. To make matters worse, my mother was practicing her haircutting skills in the basement so I usually sported a short, choppy hairstyle.

It wasn’t until I entered high school that I let go of the taboo of having second-hand clothing. Like most middle-class kids of the 1980s, little money was wasted on clothes and name-brands. Kids didn’t get everything. At that time, having a Gap or Forenza sweatshirt paired with Guess jeans meant you had money. I didn’t have either.

What I did have was a group of cool, artistic girlfriends in my Chicago neighborhood. What they had was creativity. So instead of hitting the mall on Western Ave., we would head to the south side of town, across the tracks, to a thrift store called Unique.  Now people can find a Unique in the swankiest part of the city. But back then, it was in a bad neighborhood.

Us girls would head to Unique with a mission and little teamwork. It was about hitting the racks and finding a treasure, then comparing who found what. Treasures included carpet bags; long gold necklaces featuring insects or animals; polyester patterned shirts; even Levi’s and Guess jeans. Rarely did anyone buy shoes. But we all walked away with a sense of personal style.

This was the memory I had while walking around my local Goodwill and a reminder about this blog’s reuse, recycle and renew philosophy. Since that day in Unique, I enter thrift stores with excitement. I never know what I may find. For example, my last trip I scored two belts as accessories to my newest Anthropologie tennis dress, a Fossil reusable bag and two shale serving bowls. The grand total? $12.

So don’t be afraid to go second-hand. There may be a surprise waiting just for you to discover. 

It's never OK to be abused, only reused

By Mary Rose Roberts
I spend most of my alms on environmental groups and safe houses for women. They are both causes close to my heart. I firmly believe that our world is a gift and should be respected—and the idea of more as a value system just creates junk that clutters the natural environment.

I also support domestic violence causes. I spent nearly a decade married to a bipolar abuser. Abuse can be physical, mental, or emotional—and all of these are reasons to leave the situation pronto. If a man hits or grabs you, leave. If a man calls you names, like “worthless” or always accuses you of cheating, leave. If a man threatens suicide or threatens to hurt you, a friend or loved ones, leave. Here is a link to “Am I being abused.” Answer the questions honestly. If you fail, go talk to a trusted friend or family member who can help you see the truth about your abuse.

What’s the best way to combine my favorite two causes? By fashion, of course! Last year, a local organization held an annual vintage fashion show to raise money for their safe house for women. Local antique stores outfitted and styled volunteers who modeled vintage wares on the catwalk.  In addition, attendees were invited to dress in vintage clothes.

So I headed to an area antique shop and started to look through the racks of clothes. One piece caught my eye. It was a black velvet spaghetti-strapped dress with chiffon cut outs. I tried it on in the dressing room and it fit like a glove. I looked at the price tag: $25.

“I’ll take it,” I told Laurie, the owner.

I paired the dress with long faux pearls tied into a knot and red lipstick.

Needless to say, it was a fun night. Money was raised for a great cause. Fashion and artistic styling by an area salon was top-notch. And, I was able to reuse something and still look fabulous. (I only wish I would have had a camera instead of my phone to take pictures, as these came out pretty blurry.)

Here's a link to a video clip from iluvlocalplaces.com www.youtube.com/watch?v=vs0WkfeFWlQ. And a picture they took... 

Dirty habits are the hardest to break

By Mary Rose Roberts

This may surprise you, but I love to smoke. I quit my daily habit more than two years ago. But if I have a cup of coffee, I crave a cigarette. And sometimes if I have a glass a wine and I’m with smokers, I will ask for one. It’s a difficult habit to break, as are all unhealthful habits. It is one I struggle with, just like nutrition.

That’s one of the reasons I support Meatless Monday on the blog. The challenge is to go just one day a week without meat and to choose organic products. When I go meatless, I feel great all day, having more energy and less sluggishness. This week for breakfast, I had a vegan, gluten-free quinoa blueberry muffin, snacked on a berry-almond milk smoothie and dinner was a veggie sandwich made sweeter with a homemade-ricotta-cheese gluten-free crepe for dessert.

Making homemade cheese is easy. In fact, I will never buy ricotta cheese again. Making it homemade not only ensures I know what it is made of. It also saves on plastic containers and gas used for shipping the processed version. Instead, I reused an old plastic container from deli olives I bought a few months ago.

Plus, the ricotta tastes fresh and nothing like store bought. There’s less salt, zero preservatives and guaranteed organic because of the ingredients I used.

I’ve included the recipe below. I used it within an hour of making it to treat my friends to gluten-free, homemade ricotta lemon crepes with raspberry sauce.  I recommend this easy recipe as one way to use the homemade ricotta.

I made enough ricotta for a second recipe, a grilled veggie sandwich, for dinner that night. Look for it next week!

Homemade, organic ricotta cheese

Ingredients

2 qts organic whole milk

1 cup organic heavy cream

½ tblsp. salt

3 tblsp. fresh lemon juice (have extra on hand)

Materials

Large bowl

Large strainer

Fine-mesh cheesecloth

6-qt heavy pot

In the sink, place a strainer inside a large bowl. Measure and cut the cheesecloth long so you can place it neatly over the top of the strainer and tie it along the bottom of the bowl in a knot. The cheesecloth should be elevated from the bottom of the strainer.

Next, in the large pot, bring milk, cream and salt to rolling boil over moderate heat, stirring occasionally to prevent scorching. Add lemon juice, reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring constantly until mixture curdles, about 2 minutes.

If your milk isn’t curdling, then add another 3 tablespoons of lemon juice and continue to stir to prevent burning. Once it starts to curdle and thicken, pour mixture into cheesecloth-lined strainer and let drain for 1 hour.

Cover ricotta and chill. Ricotta will keep in refrigerator for 3 days. I’ve heard you can save the liquid for baking but I haven’t tried it yet.

The cheese has 214 calories per servings, with a total of 4 servings.

Homemade Ricotta, Gluten-free raspberry lemon crepes

Ingredients

Pamela’s Baking & Pancake Mix

2 lemons

½ tablespoon natural vanilla extract

¼ cup of powdered sugar

2/3 cup homemade organic ricotta cheese

1/3 cup of All Fruit raspberry sauce

Make gluten-free crepes according to Pamela’s recipe on the package. The mix should be runny. Heat a frying pan over medium-high and coat generously with organic cooking spray. Pour mixture and physically move the pan in circles to form a round, flat crepe on the bottom of pan.  Lower to medium. Bubbles will form on top of the crepe. Gently check for a nice brown color and flip.

Turn the heat up on the pan and repeat process. Should make about 8-10 crepes.

In a medium-sized bowl, mix ricotta, vanilla extract and powdered sugar. Take a cheese grater and scrap the edges of ½ the lemon into the bowl. Only take the yellow—not the white of the lemon. Taste. Add more lemon to taste.

Take four crepes and place in a large skillet. Drop two tablespoons of mixture on each crepe and spread vertically. Roll each like a burrito. Cover over medium for about 3 minutes.

Heat All Fruit in the microwave until completely melted. Take each crepe, plate each one, take 2 teaspoons of All Fruit and drizzle over top. Sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Makes 4 servings.

Reiki natural healing may trump man-made antidepressants

"Life's not easy."

I am not immune to this cliché. Lately, bad memories from the past surfaced with the help of corporate job stress, a car accident involving a semi-truck, adapting to a new town and never-ending family responsibilities. The result is a terrible sickness: stress. 

Even good things have added stress. For the past few months, I have been helping small, locally owned businesses grow their social media presence. It's been rewarding. But it also was one more to-do on my to-do list.

I've helped my yoga studio by advising on better Facebook exposure and placing them in the local newspaper. I also have been coaching its yoga teachers by setting up and educating them on how social media grows businesses. As part of this work, I met Tonya, a 30-something woman who does Reiki massage.

While Reiki sounded familiar, it was the first time I had met a practitioner.Tonya explained that Reiki is a Japanese technique for stress reduction that promotes healing. It is administered by laying hands and is based on a life force energy. It has been given the thumbs up by Dr. Oz and used by more than 800 U.S. hospitals.

I have to admit, after Googling the term, I was pretty skeptical.  It sounds weird, right? If you break down the word, Rei means "God's wisdom or the higher power" and Ki is "life force energy." I am a spiritual person who believes in God. Yet I never put a lot of faith in healing arts besides yoga, which I’ve taken for years on and off to cure mental alignments and get stronger physically. Luckily I have an open mind, and Tonya's just a regular mother and wife with a contagious laugh who happens to be a Reiki  practitioner. Because if it wasn't for her inherent normalcy, I swear I would never have tried it.

Tonya applies Reiki techniques on one of my yoga studio's teachers, Margaret. 

The treatment starts in a quiet room. I laid on my back on a massage table. Tonya placed her hands on my head, while my mind spun with appointment dates, chore lists, hurt feelings and a visual snapshot of getting rear-ended and spun like a top by a semi.

After a few deep breaths, it felt like a black cloth was—inch-by-inch—cloaking the negative images that were racing through my mind.

Tonya kept moving throughout my body, including the neck, the shoulders and the arms. Then she placed her hands at the end of my rib cage. I almost lost my breath. It felt like shock waves moved through the rib cage upward and also towards my abdomen. It was such a strange sensation that I felt a little scared.

When the session was complete a little over an hour later, Tonya smiled and asked, “Stressed out much?”

That was an understatement. She also asked if I got headaches—something I had been suffering from in the mornings for the last 10 months. On some days, the pain was downright debilitating. "I have too much on my plate," I said.

While I didn’t feel like my entire life changed that day, I knew instantly that I left a lot of unresolved feelings and stress with Tonya. I am not sure how it works, but if you are going through tough times, try Reiki. At least “Like” Tonya’s Reiki for Healing Facebook page to learn more about it.

GoingGreen: Eco Tourism || Low Impact Travel || Advice and Tips

Hello travelers, (physical and virtual).

My name is Adam Leaders and I am the founder of a new website YIPPYtrip that helps people find bar/restaurant specials, hotel deals and transportation discounts in Costa Rica.

Every day, I am introduced to new and exciting activities, restaurants, and lodging. Some more eco-conscious than others and others that go above and beyond the call for environment friendly eco-tourism.

I would like to share those places/activities/businesses with you as we help build awareness for their cause and applaud them for their valiant effort in making the travel industry have less of an impact on the environment and more sustainable.

To start, check out Koki Beach in Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica video that shows that they care about the environment by building their restaurant almost completely from recycled materials. Not wanting to negatively impact their surroundings, the site is 100% removable and built around the nature that was present before they arrived, including trees and bushes.

Adam Leaders

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Give up meat, only one day a week, for Meatless Mondays

Ready to give up meat one day a week?  In collaboration with Johns Hopkins’ Bloomberg School of Public Health, nonprofit Meatless Monday launched The Monday Campaigns, which encourages people to skip meat on Mondays to reduce their risk of chronic preventable conditions like cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesity. The nonprofit believes it also can help reduce people’s carbon footprint and save resources, such as fresh water and fossil fuel. At the same time, they are recommending grass-fed, hormone-free, locally-raised options whenever possible.

To support this movement, Next-Gen Green will be posting a Meatless Monday Meal recipe every Monday at noon. Look for one today that will be packed with nutrients and also super yummy!

Health Benefits to Meatless Mondays

Limit Cancer Risk: Studies suggest that diets high in fruits and vegetables may reduce cancer risk. Both red and processed meat consumption are associated with colon cancer.

Reduce Heart Disease: Recent data from a Harvard University study found that replacing saturated fat-rich foods (for example, meat and full fat dairy) with foods that are rich in polyunsaturated fat (for example, vegetable oils, nuts and seeds) reduces the risk of heart disease by 19%

Fight Diabetes: Research suggests that higher consumption of red and processed meat increase the risk of type 2 diabetes.

Curb Obesity: People on low-meat or vegetarian diets have significantly lower body weights and body mass indices. A recent study from Imperial College London also found that reducing overall meat consumption can prevent long-term weight gain.

Live Longer: Red and processed meat consumption is associated with modest increases in total mortality, cancer mortality and cardiovascular disease mortality.

Improve your diet: Consuming beans or peas results in higher intakes of fiber, protein, folate, zinc, iron and magnesium with lower intakes of saturated fat and total fat.

Environmental Benefits to Meatless Mondays

Reduce your carbon footprint: The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization estimates the meat industry generates nearly one-fifth of the man-made greenhouse gas emissions that are accelerating climate change worldwide, which is more than transportation. 

Minimize water usage: The water needs of livestock are far above those of vegetables or grains. An estimated 1,800 to 2,500 gallons of water go into a single pound of beef. Soy tofu produced in California requires 220 gallons of water per pound.

Help reduce fossil fuel dependence: On average, about 40 calories of fossil fuel energy go into every calorie of feed lot beef in the U.S. Compare this to the 2.2 calories of fossil fuel energy needed to produce one calorie of plant-based protein. 

Source: MeatlessMonday.com

Ditch mercury-filled eco-bulbs with mercury-free, made in USA Sylvania Super Savers

By Mary Rose Roberts
Did you know that compact fluorescent light bulbs contain mercury and, if broken or tossed into landfills can be harmful to you, your family and the environment? 

Right now, the U.S. has begun to switch off its production and import of traditional incandescent light bulbs forcing consumers to move to more efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs. Many consumers are annoyed that most of these light bulbs are made in China. Others are concerned about the mercury pollution and the lack of education about their dangers if dropped or if discarded into landfills. But there is a solution: Sylvania’s Super Saver energy-efficient halogen light bulbs made in Wellsboro, Penn.

Unlike compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFL), halogens do not contain mercury. Yet they still meet the energy-saving criteria of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 enacted by then-President George W.  Bush.  One of the provisions of the act was to require that light bulbs sold in the U.S. use 25% to 30% less energy by 2014. When the act was passed, the only bulbs that met that requirement were CFLs. However, CFLs need mercury to produce light.  The mercury in a CFL is encased in the glass tube and does not pose a hazard when it is recycled or does not break in the house.  But if it does break or crack in landfills, the mercury will seep into the earth and later into steams and rivers—and into fishes’ bloodstreams.

It also is important to remember that mercury has been shown to cause birth defects, brain impairments and even death. If a pallet of these are dropped in a warehouse, it is considered a hazmat situation and the local fire department is called in for clean up.

Sylvania Super Savers are a common-sense replacement for incandescent lamps being phased out by the Energy Independence and Security Act and a much better choice compared to CFLs. The bulbs operate on a halogen capsule and provide an energy savings of up to 33% when compared to incandescent lamps. Unlike CFLs, the bulbs offer an instant-on (meaning no warming up before they provide light), are fully dimmable and also mercury-free.

If you do decide to stick with China-produced, mercury-filled, light bulbs, remember to recycle them and do not thrown them away in the trash.