Back to Eating Clean & SLEEP

This year I'm back to eating clean, and after a few weeks I am feeling so much better. OK, so I am currently getting over some kind of crud... I think my entire office has been out sick at some point the last couple of weeks. I tried to avoid it, even denied it, but got sick anyway. But besides the sniffles, sneezing, coughing, headaches, and fever... I feel great! :)

I set off the new year by getting back to clean eating - which means I cut out processed foods, ditch the sugar (except for some treats here and there), balance my carbs and protein, and have been getting back in the habit of taking vitamins. The result? I FEEL better! It's hard to explain, I just feel like my body is back in balance. The best part? For the past 3 or 4 nights I've actually had really good full nights of glorious SLEEP - which is a rare celebratory event for me. Sad I know, but you have no idea how important sleep is, until you are not able to... I really think I got sick last week because I wasn't sleeping well while I was waiting for the clean eating/vitamins to take effect (it had only been a couple of weeks) and being stubborn about not taking a sleeping aid.

I credit my improvement in sleep mostly to taking a Calcium/Magnesium/D supplement. I had no idea how important magnesium is for you until I read YOU: The Owner's Manual, Updated and Expanded Edition: An Insider's Guide to the Body that Will Make You Healthier and Younger and You: Staying Young: The Owner's Manual for Extending Your Warranty by Dr. Roizen and Dr. Oz which led me to look more into this mineral.

Here is a list of the vitamins I take:

• Alive Multi-Vitamin by Nature's Way
• Calcium, Mag, & D Complex by Nature's Way
• Fisol Enteric-Coated Fish Oil by Nature's Way
• Iron 28 mg

Most of them recommend taking them 3 times a day. I am lucky if I remember to take them twice! Better than not taking them at all! Plus, eating clean, I don't feel like I have to take them so often... I see them more as an insurance policy. Except for the Cal/Mag/D complex which I know I need everyday.

If you're curious about what eating clean is about and other stuff I mentioned above... check out the list of resources below (though a lot of these are listed on the right hand side of this page too). A simple explanation of clean eating, directly from the Clean Eating Magazine website is,

Clean Eating? It's simple, really. Consuming food in it's most natural state -- or as close as possible to it -- is the soul of clean eating. It's not a diet; it's a lifestyle approach to food and its preparation, leading to health, well-being and a lean look.

The Eat Clean Diet (I swear it's not a fad diet, not matter what this website makes it look like)
Tosca Reno's Eat Clean Diet Blog
Eating Clean Works Blog
Clean Eating Magazine
Health Benifits of Magnesium
What's your Real Age?

Go-Green Changes of 2008

While thinking up my 2009 resolutions, I couldn't help but think that 2008 is going to be hard to beat! I made a lot of changes last year - all in the effort to green my household. I decided I should make a list, so here we go!

My list of Go-Green changes of 2008:

1. Buy in bulk instead of individually packaged items (saved $ too!)
   
2. Began diligently using reusable grocery bags and produce bags
3. Switched to eco-friendly house cleaners, laundry detergent, etc. (yay for Shaklee!)
4. Became more conscientious of where our food comes from, and now buy more local produce
   
5. Buy more organic fruits and vegetables, especially the ones on the worst list for pesticides
   
6. Use my purchase power as a vote -- buy brands that use less packaging, and choose glass over plastic! Basically, live like I love the ocean!
7. Became more knowledgeable about the power we consume, and made efforts to reduce our household energy consumption.
   
8. Reduce the amount of waste I consume by packing a waste-free lunch for work, or buying lunch with the least amount of packaging possible.
9. Ditched the petroleum based candles for soy based ones, though unfortunately I have not made my own DIY soy candles yet.
10. Collected and disposed hazardous wastes from around the house - the right way!
11. Signed up with ProQuo and drastically reduced my junk mail!
    
12. Started a compost
13. Reduced the amount of curb side waste by at least 50%, probably more.
    
14. Greened my online shopping
    

What's on your list? What are your goals for greening your household in 2009?

Twitter, my new addiction!

Curiosity got the best of me... The other day I signed up for Twitter and instantly became addicted! You can find me at http://twitter.com/newshadeofgreen.

What is Twitter? Well, it's hard to explain... at least it's hard for me to explain to people. But here's an excellent video explaining what the heck Twitter is all about, in plain English! After watching this you'll all want to sign up! When you do, let me know so we can follow each other on Twitter :). What is following? Just watch and learn my friend.

NASA Rover in Inaugural Parade

Here are some videos of NASA's Lunar Electric Rover (LER) that was in the Inaugural Parade yesterday! I know I'm delinquent on blog posts, but I'm off to a slow start this year. I have a few posts in the works that I hope to have posted in the next week - including one about my resolutions for 2009 with a recap of all the go-green changes I made in 2008.

For now, here's some cool NASA stuff!