By: Dr. Margaret Lewin, Medical Director of Cinergy Health

Careful as we are all year, we seem to lose our inhibitions against junk food when Halloween rolls around – snacking on the sugar-laden treats we bought for neighbors’ children as well as the ones our own children bring home from their trick-or-treating.  Here are some tips for resisting temptation:

• Buy treats only a day or so before Halloween – so they’re not around long to tempt you
• Keep the treats in an inconvenient, difficult-to-reach place till Halloween arrives
• Buy treats which you don’t particularly like, making it easier to resist
• Buy healthy mini-packs of
  • Raisins or other dried fruit
  • 100% juice
  • Sugar-free hot chocolate mix
  • Trail mix
  • Cheese and crackers
  • Sugar-free gum
• Buy non-edible treats such as
  • Stick-on temporary tattoos
  • Mini bottles of bubble bath or blow bubbles
  • Costume accessories such as wax false teeth or a stick-on mustache
  • Sidewalk chalk
• Take your children out after dinner – when you’re not hungry
• Go through the “goodie bag” when you arrive home – discarding any outrageously unhealthy treats or those with questionable packaging
• Put the remaining edible treats in that same difficult-to-reach place – to be dispensed one at a time on a scheduled basis (such as dessert time)
• When you yourself get that urge to indulge, take a look at your watch and wait ten minutes (if you’re lucky, you’ll get distracted and forget about the urge)
• Set a date – maybe two weeks after Halloween – when you’ll dump the leftovers

So… plan ahead and – when it comes to the leftovers – think “waist” instead of “waste”!

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“Times are bad. Children no longer obey their parents, and everyone is writing a book.” Roman philosopher and orator Marcus Tullius Cicero, 106-43 B.C.

Not long after the second of my three children was born, I sat at the kitchen table late one evening talking to my dad about parental responsibility. It’s a big topic and we were covering lots of philosophical ground, but what I remember most is my pronouncement that my primary job could be boiled down quite simply and starkly: I had to keep safe these beings released into my charge. I needed to keep them alive.

These were the musings of a new parent, of course. The circumstances, too, should be considered; the first child had been born in Jerusalem during the intefadeh, and the second was born as I was reporting from Moscow during the collapse of Communism. In both situations, I repeatedly came face-to-face with life’s fragility.

But even in calmer times, even after the birth of my third child, I never lost the feeling that my main duty was to pass them on into adulthood as unscathed as possible, as healthy in every way as they could be.

It sounds pretty simple, on the face of it. We perform many jobs as parents: nurturers, playmates, cheerleaders, short-order cooks, nurses, disciplinarians, detectives, spiritual leaders. Keeping them safe should not be the hardest, not with the help of baby monitors, plastic devices to cover electrical outlets, pads for sharp corners, child-proof medicine bottles, the list goes on.

And in fact, we passed through well, with just the usual rounds of stitches, one violent dog attack, a rabies scare and a few months when my youngest fell so often and got so many bumps on his forehead that my husband and I joked someone was surely going to call child services on us.

Now, though, my youngest is 14, and as they’ve grown, I recognize my job has been transformed. It is to give them trust and space so they can develop confidence in their ability to make their own lives. And yet the two oldest, at ages 19 and 20, are in a period of time that seems almost like a parentheses in their lives. They are certainly not children, but nor are they quite adults. Meanwhile, I say and think all the usual things parents have been saying and thinking since—well, perhaps ever since Cicero, whose words I keep taped to my office wall: it’s rougher out there than it was in my time. More chaotic. More violent. More dangerous.

And everyone is writing a book.

It was, in fact, into my latest novel, 31 Hours, that I channeled my fears. Among other things, the novel offered a chance to explore what it means to be the parent of someone on the cusp of adulthood but not yet there. The mother in 31 Hours, Carol, is strong and independent, free of empty nest syndrome, but her maternal intuition is strong and she’s concerned about her 21-year-old son’s growing emotional distance, the way he seems tense and depressed. Her fears are amorphous and hard to convey; nevertheless, as she lies awake in the dark, she decides to trust the hunch that something is wrong, and to spend the next day trying to track her son Jonas down and “mother him until he shrugs her off.”

There are many themes in the novel, but one question it asks—one pertinent to all parents and one I’m still trying to answer for myself—is this: after years of being vigilant and protecting our kids, what should we do—and what are we allowed to do—to keep them safe once they are nearly, but not quite, grown?

Masha Hamilton is the author of four highly acclaimed novels, including the newly released голова болит секс 31 Hours, a gut–wrenching tale about a mother, her son, and a world of danger.

Photo by oscarwilliams

голова болит секс

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But now that they are back at school (just about), I’m ready to do a little something for me.  I’m not much of a shopper, but I do love it when I get a great green deal…especially on little things that perk up my day.  So check it, there is a new website called Hip Green Deals that is right up my alley these days.  Here’s how it works:  HipGreenDeals.com has partnered with some of the top leading brands in the eco-fashion industry to give you (and me!) big fat discounts from companies such as The Andean Collection, BYOB, Moonrise Jewelry, and Priti Nails NYC.

HipGreenDeals founder and Green Parent Christine Altavilla had this to say about her desire to launch this great green business.

“As a new mom I found myself wearing the same black dress all too often in order to dress conservatively and hide the baby weight. I needed to freshen up my wardrobe but I wanted to be environmentally and socially responsible just as I was teaching my son to be. I chose to purchase a few key accessories rather than spending the money on new clothes.  Because eco-friendly jewelry is handmade, I tend to get many compliments and questions about where I make my purchases. I created HipGreenDeals.com to make eco-friendly shopping easy, fun and affordable for women like myself.”

Thanks Christine for making these great green deals available to moms like me!

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As the world’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart has earned quite a reputation for their rock-bottom price tags (and the questionable strategies they use to attain those prices.)  But in the future, those price tags may also be accompanied by another label…a green label that gives consumers information about the product’s carbon footprint…the energy and water used to create it, and the pollution left in its wake.

Wal-Mart is apparently on a mission to determine the social and environmental impact of every item it puts on its shelves. And it has recruited scholars, suppliers, and environmental groups to help it create an electronic indexing system to do that.  Their goal is to create a universal rating system over the next 5 years that scores products based on how environmentally and socially sustainable they are.  And down the road they hope that other retailers will adopt their green labeling system as well.

“We have to change how we make and sell products.  We have to make consumption itself smarter and sustainable,” Michael T. Duke, Wal-Mart’s president and chief executive, told about 1,500 of the company’s suppliers and employees on Thursday at a “sustainability meeting.”

I know, I know, it seems a little scary that Wal-Mart may control the future of green labeling.  The potential for greenwashing is astronomical.  But so is the potential that something incredibly good could come out of this.  Let’s face it, nobody else is doing it…and as the mega-giant of world consumption, Wal-Mart is about the only company that could pull this off.

via the New York Times

Photo by zev tiefenbach

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The summer berries are out in full force this year…in backyard gardens and at the grocery store.  And they’re so darned good and good for you, it makes me want to serve ‘em up in one form or another almost every day.  Last nnight I made a Mixed Berry Crumble by baking blueberries and rasperries in a pan with a little flour/brown sugar/butter mixture spinkled on top.  Delish!!  Tonight, I think I’ll try this treat.  The recipe was sent to me by the folks at Driscolls to celebrate National Berry Month (who knew??)  So grab a batch of organic berries and mix up this yummy summer dessert:

2 (16-ounce) cartons vanilla low fat yogurt

2 ½ cups Driscoll’s organic blackberries

½ cup light-colored corn syrup

¼ cup sugar

½ cup coarsely chopped semisweet chocolate (3 ounces)

In a blender container or food processor bowl, combine half of the yogurt, ½ cup of the berries, half of the corn syrup and half of the sugar.  Cover and blend or process until almost smooth. Pour mixture into ice cream freezer container.  Repeat.  Freeze mixture in an electric ice cream freezer according to manufacturer’s directions.  Remove dasher from freezer.  Add remaining 1½ cups berries and the chopped chocolate; stir to distribute.  Ripen*.

*Note:  To ripen frozen yogurt or ice cream, after stirring in berries and chocolate, cover top of freezer can with waxed paper or foil.  Plug hole in lid and replace lid. Pack outer freezer bucket with enough ice and rock salt to cover top of freezer can, using about 4 cups ice and 1 cup salt.  Ripen about 4 hours.

Nutritional Information Per ½ Cup Serving: 175 calories, 3g total fat (2g saturated fat), 5mg cholesterol, 70mg sodium, 32g carbohydrate, 3g dietary fiber, 4g protein.

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The supermarket chain Wegmans received top ranking followed by Ahold USA, while Whole Foods dropped to third place from its December 2008 first place ranking. Trader Joe’s remains ranked at # 17, the worst ranking of the national supermarket chains surveyed. Three regional chains ranked at the bottom.

Of the 20 largest supermarket chains in the United States, nine remain that have made no visible effort to increase the sustainability of their seafood operations and continue to ignore scientific warnings about the crisis facing global fisheries and the marine environment. These include: Aldi, Costco, Giant Eagle, H.E.B., Meijer, Price Chopper, Publix, Trader Joe’s, and Winn Dixie.  Despite the progress of many companies, all continue to stock “red list” seafood like orange roughy, swordfish, or Chilean sea bass – some of the world’s most critically imperiled species. None of the companies featured in the report guarantee that they won’t sell seafood from fisheries that are harming sea turtles, dolphins, seals, sea lions, or other marine mammals.

“The good news is that seafood sustainability is now on the radar of many major retailers so we are seeing a shift in practices, but much more progress is needed,” said Greenpeace’s Senior Markets Campaigner, Casson Trenor. “Unfortunately, our oceans remain in crisis and retailers that ignore this fact are contributing to the collapse of our marine ecosystems.”

The rankings follow:

1. Wegmans
2. Ahold USA (Stop & Shop, Giant)
3. Whole Foods
4. Target
5. Safeway (Dominicks, Genuardi’s, Pavilions, Randall’s, Von’s)
6. Harris Teeter
7. Walmart
8. Delhaize (Bloom, Food Lion, Hannaford Bros., Sweetbay)
9. Kroger (Baker’s, City Market, Dillon’s, Fred Meyer, Fry’s, King Soopers, Ralph’s, Smith’s, Quality Food Center - QFC)
10. Costco
11. Aldi
12. A&P (Food Emporium, Pathmark, Super Fresh, Waldbaum’s)
13. Supervalu (Acme, Albertson’s, Bristol Farms, Jewel-Osco, Save-A-Lot, Shaw’s)
14. Giant Eagle
15. Publix
16. Winn-Dixie
17. Trader Joe’s
18. Meijer
19. Price Chopper
20. H.E. Butt (H.E.B., Central Market)

Photo by ba1969

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During World War II citizens were urged to recycle (or “salvage”) metal, rubber, paper and even kitchen fat to help in the war effort. Today’s soldiers don’t need recycled steel for guns, salvaged kitchen fat for explosives or scrap paper for packaging, but recycling is still patriotic.

By recycling, we show our love for our country by protecting our nation’s resources, reducing our dependence on the resources of other countries and boosting our economy.

Here’s how:

• Recycling plastic reduces the need for virgin plastic. Of course, virgin plastic isn’t a natural resource, but the petroleum used to make it is. In fact, approximately 4% of our annual oil consumption is used to make plastics. By recycling more plastic we reduce the need for the production of virgin plastic and that reduces our dependence on foreign oil.

• Manufacturing products using recycled materials instead of virgin materials requires a lot less energy. Making an aluminum can from recycled aluminum requires 95% less energy than making an aluminum can from virgin aluminum. In 2003, we reduced our oil usage by more than 15 million barrels by recycling 54 billion aluminum cans.

• Of course, oil isn’t our only source of energy. Recycling materials also reduces our need for coal—and that protects those purple mountains majesty.

• Using less energy also saves money. Saving money improves the national economy, but the recycling industry has given the national economy a real boost by creating over a million jobs. In fact, a recent report by the Pew Charitable Trusts found that jobs in conservation and pollution mitigation (including the recycling industry) make up 65% of the United States’ clean energy economy.

• Recycling reduces the amount of solid waste we need to dump in landfills, which in turn, reduces the need for landfills. By protecting our land from being “filled” with garbage, we’re helping to keep America beautiful.

• Recycling paper protects our forests by reducing the need for trees to produce paper. Recycling cars and other objects made of steel and iron reduces the amount of iron ore we must mine and recycling aluminum reduces the amount of aluminum we have to pull out of the ground.

There you have it. You love your country. You just have a different way of showing it. Now, gather your friends and family and enjoy your 4^th of July barbecue. Don’t forget to grab your reusable or recycled plates and your American flag.

—This is a guest post submitted by the cool cats at RecycleBank

—Photo by uhuru1701

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Rarely a day goes by that I don’t recieve some version of the following email or comment on my blog:

“I really love all of the information you provide about going green…but I just feel so GUILTY because I just can’t seem to do it all.”

To which I always wholeheartedly reply:

“OMG!  You think I actually do ALL of these things???”

I can assure you dear readers, I do not even come close to eco-perfect, nor do I want to.  I choose the things that work best for me and my family and I pass on the things that would make us crazy.  I write about a lot of different things because I find them interesting, and also because I know that even though it may not work for me, it may be great for someone else.

To keep things real, I write the occasional post laying out my eco-confessions or even telling everyone point blank, how I trashed the planet on Earth Day.  For this month’s Green Moms Carnival, I thought it would be fun to hear the eco-confessions of the other greenies in the group.  And boy did we get some good ones.  Here goes:

Foodies: I suppose it’s not surprising that a LOT of the eco-confessions of green moms have to do with food. Organic Needle confesses her love of fine wine and cheese.

Perhaps being a vegan, tee-totaling, locovore would, in fact, be much greener…but so would being dead. (Organic Needle)

And Katy from Non-Toxic Kids reveals her love of coffee, bananas, and sodas.  Oh, and speaking of soda…it seems this eco-nightmare-of-a-beverage has more than one green mom in it’s grasp, including myself, Sommer from Green and Clean Mom,  and Tiffany from Mommy Goes Green.  Another killer for a number of us is fast food, as commented by many, and confessed by Ruchira of Arduous Blog.  Even Beth from Fake Plastic Fish admitted to fast food cravings, although she does a much better job of resisting than the rest of us!

And here’s where the rest of us tend to get tripped up:

• Plastic and Plastic Bags: Lisa from Retro Housewife and Micaela from Mindful Momma
• Vacations: Lynn from Organic Mania
• Fleece and Painted Toes: Lisa from Condo Blues
• Newspapers and Magazines: Deanna from Crunchy Chicken and Diane from Big Green Purse
• Laundry: Deborah from Pure Mothers
• Moving : Karen from Mother Earth (although, as I said to Karen, just as calories don’t count when you’re on vacation, green doesn’t count when you’re moving!)
• Sick kids: Michelle from Green Phone Booth (this one doesn’t really count either.  Green hits the fan at my house when the kids are sick!!)
• Gas guzzling: Leslie from Recycle Your Day

So what’s your eco-confession?  Go on, spill it…you’re in good company!  Oh, and if you liked what all of these cool green moms had to say, why not join us for next month’s Green Mom’s Carnival as we all chat about “Food Matters?”  Hmm, after today’s confessions, that should be pretty interesting!

Photo by bigdodaddy

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So how do you decide which products will really make a difference?  It turns out that you don’t need to buy green to go green after all.  In fact, the essence of going green is to simply use a little less…and that actually saves you money.  But that doesn’t mean you have to do without either.  Here are 5 great ways to go green, and do more, by using just a little less.

Energy: You don’t need solar panels to go green.  Simply adjust your thermostat by a few degrees “greener” and you could save big bucks and make a substantial difference when it comes to protecting the planet.   Aim for 78 degrees during the summer months and 68 degrees in the winter.

Water: Do more with less water by multi-tasking.  Use the same water more than once while grooming, cleaning, washing dishes, and playing.  (eg, let your kids play in the sprinkler while you water the lawn.)

Beauty: The average adult uses approximately 9 personal care products each day, for a total of 126 unique chemical ingredients. That’s a lot of chemicals that wind up in your body and down the drain.  The good news is that you don’t have to give up washing your hair or smelling good in order to go green.  Do more with less by revaluating your beauty regimen.  For each product you eliminate, you’ll save money and reduce the chemicals in your body and in the environment.

Fashion: Want to go green?  Don’t worry about replacing your entire wardrobe with organic blends.  In fact, the greenest stuff  is the stuff that’s already in your closet.  Get the most green from your wardrobe and your wallet byfixing or re-tailoring the clothes you already own. Learn how to sew a button or stitch a hem (or make friends with someone who can) to increase the lifespan of your family’s clothing. Too boring? Give new life to old clothes by re-tailoring worn out duds. For a fraction of the cost of new, you can turn worn out pants into shorts or a pre-pregnancy dress into a shirt or skirt.

Driving: Want to get great fuel economy?  Don’t drive! Take public transportation, walk, or bike whenever possible. When you do need the car, pair up with a friend or a colleague and share rides to work, school, and even the grocery store.   Even if you only do it once in a while, you will save money, decrease the wear and tear on your car, and reduce pollution.

This post is my entry for the TROP50™ Be a Guest on The Juice contest running over at Blogher.

Photo by karenr

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