Now obviously we don’t have the ultimate ‘green’ solution to guaranteeing you’ll conceive but we do know how practicing a greener lifestyle can help you better the odds.

1.    The natural order
The human body is an amazing and delicate mechanism. It’s build to self-heal. And with that being said, if it finds itself not strong enough to sustain hosting an additional life then frankly it just won’t take on the task. Falling pregnant is just one part of the game, sustaining the pregnancy is the other. That’s why you keep hearing the advice, eat well, sleep well and exercise well. Incorporating a green lifestyle (organic and non processed foods, chemical free environment, etc) boosts your health and overall well being thus increasing your chance to have a baby.

2.    The play
You want to have a baby; you’ll have to “work” for it in the bedroom. Now obviously you should think of it as a chore but honestly if you’ve been hopeful and desperately trying without any luck for an extended period of time then believe me when I say that it will take a toll on you and it will feel like a chore as you rush to find the right day and specifically the right time to “do it”. And frankly we’re all just human– our emotions can run high at such times of destitute and it affects us mentally and physically – men have issues with erections and women have issues with vaginal dryness.
For the latter, we just instill the use of lubricants, but did you realize that most lubricants can harm those precious little swimmers – even the organic ones? If you want to increase your chances or at least not reduce them, then perhaps you should look into making the switch to a fertility friendly lubricant such as Yes Baby (also happens to be organic and eco-friendly!)

Good luck to everyone trying to conceive.

Now even if you aren’t into the idea of dabbling into clothes making, be it for fun or as a prospectful career move surely you too recognize how important using the right fabric is. I mean have you ever been drawn into shop from the street by what appears to be a magnificent dress on display only to walk out empty handed because the fabric wasn’t right?

As a well informed eco loving consumer, your knowledge about fabric shouldn’t stop at what makes the clothes look or feel right. You should be aware of the green alternatives out there. There are quite a few you know and we’re going to share about some of them here. Mind that this list isn’t exhaustive:

1.    Flax Fiber (Flax Linen)
Made from: Fibers from the stalks of the flax plant – Linum Usitatissimum.
2.    Bamboo Fiber
Made from: The from the pulp of the bamboo grass.
3.    Hemp
Made from : Hemp fibers (primary and secondary bast fibers)
4.    Jute
Made from : The natural fibers obtained from the bark of the jute plant.
5.    Soy Silk
Made from: Soy protein fibre (SPF) which is obtained as a byproduct of the manufacturing of soybean cake/tofu.
6.    Milk Silk
Made from:  Milk casein fiber (milk protein)
7.    Ramie
Made from: The fibers of China Grass
8.    Modal
Made from: The fibers of the beech wood trees.
9.    Organic Cotton
Made from: The cotton plant that is grown without the use of pesticides and insecticides under a more sustainable condition.
10.    Tencel
Made from: Innovative cellulose fibers

All of these fibers spun out into yarn and then weaved into fabrics have different textures and uses but one quality they share in common is how they are all good for the environment and safe for you.

1.    Clean your nails.
Did you ever notice that toothpaste cleans your fingernails? When you’ve got rather yellowed nails, give them a brush like you would your teeth and watch it clear up.

2.    Wall filler
How much to you hate it when you put a nail into your beautiful white wall only to find that wasn’t the right spot? Well just fill it up with toothpaste and paint it over and it will be good as new.

3.    Fog be-gone
When you need to wear goggles, you’ll learn how irritating it is for it to fog up. I’m a water fan so I can only safely speak for how irritating and dangerous it is to be underwater with a fogged up goggle. I assume you experience the same with ski goggles….Anyway for the water fans, I know the sure to work, quickly effective solution is to apply your saliva to the goggle but if that irks you out, then spread toothpaste and wipe it off. I’ll stick to spit because minty goggles can be irritating to the eyes.

4.    Clean the piano keys
Those old pianos likely are made from ivory (not animal friendly I’ll have to note) and they do turn yellow after a while. Well just like your own nails, wipe them down with a coat of toothpaste and you are good to go.

5.    Clean the bathtub
Found rings forming around your tub? No worries, the abrasive texture of the toothpaste will clean it out.

6.    Remove scratches of surfaces
So far, I know it’s been used on glassware, CDs, watch faces and leather shoes (most likely patent leather) and has been successful. But with I would stress, do a test patch before applying all over. And never leave it on for too long.

7.    Cleaning the iron
Well this would refer to only the older irons – not the non-stick ones more of us use today. I remember the old days well before the arrival of non-stick, temperature control irons – dear me did we ever have to be careful not to burn our clothes. Well for those heavy irons, even if you don’t burn anything with it, there tends to be a build up on the surface after a while. Scrub it off with toothpaste!

8.    Cleaning watermark off wooden furniture
You’ve got kids or perhaps has guests? Then chances are you’ve got watermark staining your nice wooden table top. Take a soft damp cloth and wipe it away with toothpaste. Again don’t leave it in.

See how handy toothpaste can be?

Now I don’t mean to sound like a pampered poodle but it’s just a flaw that I cannot help myself with. I should know better than to have anything painted on when I’ll be away for such an extended period but still I  do anyway which means finding myself in the situation where my nail lacquer is chipped and peeling off without me having any nail polish remover to save my modesty is an always. If you question why I don’t just carry around removers, well it’s because I just refuse to.

Which means I’ve frantically tried practically every “homemade nail polish remover” around and I’m here today to share my experience:

The stubborn dilemma: OPI in Bubble Bath under a layer of top coat

The trial: Citrus/Vinegar concoction

The result: Fail! Lemon does wonders to whiten the nail but nothing to remove the lacquer. Vinegar just smelled.

The trial: Perfume

The result: Fail! I could not even get past trying it on more than one nail. Honestly who can stand so much perfume.

The trial: Hot water

The result: Semi-fail. Immersing your hand in hot water (not boiling of course) sort of makes the nail polish detach from the nail by lifting it but it’s not a clean come –off. So it just makes it even worse looking.

The trial: Surgical Spirit

The result: Pass! The one and only solution that worked.

The trial: Toothpaste

The result: Fail. The minty freshness of toothpaste did nothing to the polish. This stuff may be a great substitute for wall fillers but it’s just useless at removing nail polish.

So that’s the result of my experiment. I do believe that it’s probably the layer of top coat that makes it more impossible for these homemade remedies to work, but at least you know what does.

But there are many who come too quickly to judge this as a very sinful against the environment indulgence – they argue about how much water is wasted but I don’t quite agree.

Here are the facts:

A bath tub can limit your consumption of water usage because there’s only so much you can fill into one-i.e. tubs have fix consumptions and the standard one probably holds 24 gallons. And you can always be more considerate by doing the following:

1.    Check to ensure that you have a good fitting plug which avoids the water from leaking and us from refilling.
2.    Don’t fill it to the brim; fill only as much as it takes to submerge your body. The smaller you are the less water you need.
3.    Use non-toxic eco friendly bath products so it won’t poison the water and you can reuse it in your garden – granted it’s a bit of work getting them from your tub into your garden but if you want to feel better about your bath then there’s no easy way out unless you have been mindful and fortunate enough to be able to install a grey water system for your house.

Now another interesting thing to note is how bathtubs aren’t the biggest ‘consumers’ of water in our house – it’s the toilet and un-minded showers we take each day that are the lead culprits for that.

Beauty is always on a woman’s mind and part of that obsession with beauty is the desire to hold back the clock – retaining youth is synonymous with retaining ones beauty. So if we opt for green lifestyle then cosmetic surgeries and interventions would be out of the question, but deciding on a natural alternative isn’t always necessarily a better option.

I’d like to bring to your attention something I saw on a documentary – about how people were doing the tango with death by eating poisonous toads, all in the name of beauty and health. They were careful about how they prepared the toads for meals as it was a delicate process to not poison the toad. Personally I think it’s a little too much for me and I’m not prepared to trade wrinkles for a meal of toads, but the woman they showed in the documentary who subscribed to this natural remedy looked 10 years younger than her true age!
I wasn’t too convinced about this “natural remedy” until I found an article about how extracts from frog and toad skin could help treat more than 70 diseases was discovered by researchers from Queen’s University in Belfast.

It goes on to explain about how the secretions from the skins of these amphibians – the same ones they produce to protect themselves from predators are also able to control the growth of blood vessels – a process known as angiogenesis, which could be a great progress in the fight against cancer!

Well all this sounds great, but it didn’t quite explain how they extract the secretions from the animals. If we eat them and then kill them also for the secretions – very soon we’ll have an extinction issue and that always tips the balance on the food chain – a huge green no no.

So some refrain from surgery and opt for the “safer” option – weight loss or weight management supplements. To be even safer they opt for the all natural varieties, but here’s the problem – just because it’s natural doesn’t mean it is safe.
Take fat blockers for example. The natural options are made from cactus powder which has the ability to slow down the absorption of fat in the body. Sounds good? Yes we think so too but not when you abuse the use of it.

You see fat blockers slow down the absorption of fat but it does not distinguish between the types of fat it works against. Our body like it or not needs some good fats and these are all blocked out by the fat blockers if we take them irresponsibly.

We need to appreciate that there are no short cuts to success and the same for weight loss. If you are serious about losing weight, you’ve got to sweat and suffer a little for it. You can’t expect to keep downing buckets of greasy fried food then swallowing tablets of fat blockers in hope that it will reverse the negative impacts of those foods. This is no different from people who binge and take laxatives.

It’s worth reading this short article about the specific effects over-consuming fat blockers will have on you by a Naturopathic Physician.

Prevention is better than cure
No drinks equals no hangovers, but that’s a bit of wasted advice since you or someone you care about is already wasted. And so maybe this will be wise to keep in mind before the next drinking session – eat before you drink, but don’t just eat anything – make sure it’s fatty and greasy. Yes, I am aware it doesn’t at all sound healthy but then again neither is drinking so you’re good. The greasy fat will do what it does best – clog your innards which affects the rate at which alcohol is absorbed – i.e. slow…
As prevention did not work, the morning after you wake up feeling like a ton of bricks was showered over your head and your stomach is doing a tumble dry cycle. You feel lethargic and everything is a little too much – too bright, too loud, too everything for comfort. Welcome to the morning of a hangover. So what can you do?

1.    Down water like there’s no tomorrow
The idea here is to dilute and flush the alcohol out of your system.
2.    Don’t reach for the medicine cabinet
The aching pains will have you tempted to reach for pain killers but don’t because they will do more harm than good when you already have too much alcohol in your system. Aspirin as a blood thinner will intensify the effect of alcohol as they both do the same, acetaminophen damages your liver and ibuprofen can cause stomach bleeding.
3.    Breakfast is eggs
I know it’s an unbearable thought to have breakfast during a hangover and the idea of eggs might make it worse but eggs contain cystein which has the talent of breaking down the toxin, acetaldehyde in the liver’s easily depleted glutathione. Acetaldehyde is the culprit of hangovers.
4.    Fruit Juice cleanse
In between your takes of water, drink fresh fruit juice, especially pure orange juice. Replenishing the vitamins in your body will help your body pick up its metabolic rate made sluggish by alcohol and that in turn will help wash over the effects faster.
5.    Sleep in
Time is all you need…hangovers need to run its course and it’s best you’re fast asleep most of the duration its “running”.

So again Happy New Years dear readers and kudos to you for surviving a hangover the natural way!

The fact is the period after Christmas and before New Years is an absolute nightmare because we’re all trying to look our best in 6 days just to be perfect for New Years Day and worst for wear on the second day of it. It’s hard to imagine how 2 days of wreckless dining can cause our body so much havoc but it does…God bless those tasty sweet Christmas treats….

So what can you do in 6 days? I would suggest aside from pray for the Christmas miracle…we all try the following:

Step 1: Cut out the sweets and pack away that minced pie – even if it is a mini one. Forget about alcohol because you’re staying sober until the last day of the year.

Step 2: Drink up on water, add a little lemon in it for flavor and to kick start that hibernating metabolism.

Step 3: If you’re serious about waking up your sleeping energy burning abilities, you’ve got to do some exercise. You may say I’m mad for suggesting a run in winter, but hey if the French can sustain their runs on snow laced mountain tracks then surely we can manage 30mins on the treadmill in the warmth of our homes.

Step 4: Cleaning diet only please…so for the coming few days you’ll have to suck it up and take some blend “organic” food.

Step 5: Come 3 days before new year’s, be realistic about what you can achieve and whip out that Eco Friendly DuMi Shapers for that shape support you need.

Good luck and have fun…

But sometimes even if you did put your best thought into picking out the most thoughtful gift, it could prove to be a bad choice as a product recall in the eco friendly market which I think we all should help spread the word about.

The product is the strung seed bracelet sold at the Eden Shops, which to me is quite attractive as it reminds you of little lady birds. However, they have been identified to be as attractive as they are deadly because they are made with Jequirity bean the deadly seeds from the Abrus precatorius plant.

The Eden Project in Cornwall does not manufacture these bracelets but instead imports them from Peru via the suppliers, Suffolk wholesaler Rainstick Trading, where the brightly coloured seeds are laced into a string. They have been in their Eden Stores for over a year.
Seeds from Abrus precatorius contain the poison abrin which is very toxic. The ingestion of any quantity of chewed, crushed or drilled seeds should be regarded as a serious emergency because, if fully absorbed, even slightest amount of abrin can be fatal. It known that the ingestion is fatal if just 3 micrograms is swallowed, that an amount 75 times smaller than a fatal dose of ricin.
The symptoms of intoxication to look out for are vomiting, abdominal pain or diarrhea and fatal kidney failure, but it can take around 3 days from the point of ingestion before these signs start to show up. It was noted that if swolled whole and not chewed, it would not cause as severe problems.
For more details about the product, how it affects you and how you may get your refund, please visit the Eden Project website. And lastly do remember, just because it’s natural doesn’t necessarily make it safe.