6 Easy Steps for Sustainable Picnic Gatherings

6 Easy Steps for Sustainable Picnic Gatherings

It is summertime and thankfully we are starting to see the light at the end of the pandemic tunnel, and can safely celebrate the season of picnic parties with friends and family. Before you head out and stock up on throwaway picnic staples, like plastic cups, plates, utensils, napkins, take a minute to tune up your eco-friendly lifestyle and learn how to ditch needless plastics.

As we eat, drink and be merry, there’s no need to fall back into wasteful habits and trash our planet with needless single-use plastics, according to Sandra Ann Harris, the author of Say Goodbye To Plastic: A Survival Guide to Plastic-Free Living. Here are a few tips from her book to help you reboot your picnicking habits. Continue reading →

How to Stay Active Working from Home

How to Stay Active Working from Home

Remember those mornings, not too long ago, that you strapped on your bicycle helmet and pedaled a few miles to your workplace? Or the lunch hours you spent on a jog with other sporty colleagues before returning to your desk? What about the long, head-clearing walks home from the office in the evenings?

Working from home can offer many benefits—cozy surroundings, daytime pajama bottoms, and great coffee, to name a few. But transitioning from an office building to a corner of your bedroom or a backyard studio affects some workers adversely.

Per Gallup research, some remote employees have reported increased depression and loneliness, and some state that it’s difficult to stay physically active without the habits they’ve cultivated over years of in-person work. (Think lunchtime tennis with colleagues or a daily group power walk between meetings.)

It’s no secret that exercise increases endorphins, those feel-good chemicals that flood our brains and contribute to a sense of wellbeing. Without it, we can feel anxious and sluggish. Fortunately, ways to ensure daily movement when you work from home abound. And you can tailor routines to your particular needs to keep your body and mind at peak fitness. Continue reading →

Phone Free Day

Phone Free Day

Did you know that March 19th is Phone Free Day?

 

Phone Free Day was started by Taino Bendz, an engineer based in New Zealand with 10 years experience in the tech sector. He’d had enough of how adults were using their phones in front of the kids and decided to take a stand. For the last year and a half, Taino has been running workshops and presentations around social media and smartphone usage, and empowering people to make a change. Continue reading →

5 Reasons to Go Whole Food Plant-Based

5 Reasons to Go Whole Food Plant-Based

As we (thankfully) step into 2021, we are hearing from more and more new viewers of The Whole Food Plant Based Cooking Show that they are taking their first tentative steps towards making the life-changing decision to switch to a plant-based diet. This uptick in interest is yet another indicator to us that Veganuary (January) 2021 will kick off what will prove to be a profound year of global transformation as the world moves towards recovering from the devastation of COVID 19 and the chaos of the last few years.

When we hear of people making the switch to a whole food plant-based diet, we are always interested to hear their reasons why. What we hear back tends to run along some common threads so we thought it might be useful to outline the five main reasons people make the shift to a plant-based diet. Whatever your initial reason for making the switch may be, learning about all of the other good reasons to live a plant-based lifestyle can serve as motivation to make your switch permanent. You will find a great selection of recipes in our our new book Plant Based Cooking Made Easy. Continue reading →

Tips for a Plastic-Free Holiday

Tips for a Plastic-Free Holiday

Did you know that turkey day is actually a very trashy day? But it doesn’t have to be that way. Too much plastic is needlessly purchased for the holidays. Are you ready to say goodbye to needless plastic this holiday season?

My new book called Say Goodbye To Plastic: A Survival Guide To Plastic-Free Living is packed full of tips to help newcomers to the plastic-free lifestyle as well as inspire practiced veterans to continue to dramatically reduce their holiday waste print. Studies have shown that very year Americans needlessly throw away 25% more trash between Thanksgiving and New Year’s than any other time of year.

Let’s bring on the holiday cheer this year (yes, even in a pandemic) and put the brakes on using and discarding plastic. After all, why pay money for plastic packaging that is destined for disposal when you can save money and our planet by opting for biodegradable solutions and reusables instead. Continue reading →

Zero Waste Tips for Fall Hiking

Zero Waste Tips for Fall Hiking

No matter where you live, there’s something energizing about the fall. School starts, new projects begin, and those lazy summer days are now a distant memory.

There’s no better place to enjoy the changing of the season than on the hiking trail. Breathe in that crisp autumn air all while leaving no trace with our zero-waste tips and tricks offered below. Continue reading →

5 Tips for Balancing Remote Work and Full-Time Parenting

5 Tips for Balancing Remote Work and Full-Time Parenting

Many parents are currently navigating an entirely new normal: Working from home while taking care of their kids full-time. As school picks back up and many kids remain at home for remote learning, figuring out how to balance their schedule and a full-time job sometimes feels totally unmanageable.

Most parents have had experience working remotely in one-off, unplanned situations. However, working at home day in and day out for the foreseeable future while also caring for (and in some cases, teaching) kids at home proves to be a major struggle without careful planning where needed and flexibility when possible. Continue reading →

5 Signs You Need to See a Therapist

5 Signs You Need to See a Therapist

COVID, recession, unemployment, protests, and an upcoming election — 2020 has set out to stress out even the most stable minded among us. Even those full of optimism cannot help but become depressed or anxious during one or more of these circumstances and need help beyond what a trusted friend or loved one can provide.

So many of us right now may be asking ourselves — “Am I in need of a therapist?” How can we tell when it is time to find a professional to help us process the things we are going through? To walk us through some of the signs we should be observing, we have Dr. Sanam Hafeez, who is an NYC-based licensed clinical psychologist with a faculty appointment at the prestigious Columbia University Teacher’s College. Dr. Hafeez is also the founder and Clinical Director of Comprehensive Consultation Psychological Services. Continue reading →