Rochelle Campbell's Blog: The NoteBook Blogairy, page 2

Weekend Inspiration: Angels in the Outfield

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Do you remember the classic Disney movie starring Danny Glover and Tony Danza Angels in the Outfield?  A movie about a little boy who wants his family to be together again.  But, his father tells him that is as likely as the Angels (a baseball team) winning the pennant.  And real angels are put on the task to make that most long-shot of wins happen.

Twenty-three years ago, the world was a little softer.  A bit kinder.  More open.  A movie like this could be written, produced, filmed, distributed and watched.  Today?    It better have a vamp in it.  Or better yet, a zombie-vamp.

We live in a time where predictability, consistency, reliability, and entertainment are priorities.  We want what we want right now.  We want it exactly the way we had it the last time and if you can give it to us at a better price than last time even better.  And, heaven forbid, we don’t get what we want, or it’s a schoosh late?  Forget it!  Our fingers are off clicking to find TNBT.  (Yeah, we can’t even bother to write out full words either…)

Who the heck has time for something as ephemeral and nonsensical as angels?  Angels are for little children, people not wrapped too tight, pagans, religious extremists, and/or New Agers.  Am I right?

No, I’m not.

I’m no angel buff.  I did not grow up hearing about this, or that angel, or saint, or anything like that.  I grew up a regular old Baptist.  I heard about angels in bible class.  You heard mention of one here and there.  And who doesn’t remember Shirley MacLaine’s Out on a Limb and Defending Your Life?  Angels, in a very background sort of way, permeate our lives.  We can’t forget Angels in America, recently run in the UK in the British National Theater, no less.

But in our own personal lives, on average, how many of us think about actual angels in the traditional sort of manner?  Where they watch over us, keep us safe and help us out of things we’d rather not muddle into.  I personally did not think of angels in that way since I was a young child saying my prayers on bent knees before bed.

Yet, one morning while I was walking towards the train, my heart felt heavy,  I took a deep breath and forced levity into my heart and mind.  I made myself repeat an affirmation that always fills me with lightness.  Yet, it didn’t work that morning.  For some reason, I happened to look up into the sky.  Above me I felt/saw/experienced an overwhelming feeling of love, happiness…radiance.  It seemed as if there was — an angel in the sky watching over me that morning.

On a tiny island not even attached to mainland USA, in a neighborhood that was still too sleepy to notice, I had a wonderful feeling of alright-ness.  Sure, not a word but it’s a most wonderful feeling.

So while you may not see what I saw in the picture above.  I know what I felt.  It felt real and true.  You could say that my recent health challenge could have precipitated my, err, atypical aerial visitation.  You could say that I was in desperate need of my morning coffee.  Or, like me, you could say…

Wow.

 

Eco Friendly Fashions and shoes!

I’m on an eco-revival.  Uhm, yeah.  Okay, I’ll go with that!

Healthy Home with Green Cleaners

As you’ve read, I’m transitioning to using healthy cleaning products in my home.  (No more Fabuloso and Tilex for me!)  And, the first green product I used was City Maid Green’s all-purpose cleaners.  It took me a little over a week to try it and another few days for me to get used to the extra elbow-grease needed when using green products.  But, now I am fully committed to using green products!

TIP: Fellow author and health-enthusiast, Patricia Lynne, told me to use a scrub sponge, or a brush, when using green products.  She says it reduces the amount of elbow-grease needed.  Thanks Pat!

But I digress.

Long story short.  City Maid Green products?  Finished!  I went looking for more at health food stores in my area.  Zip.  But, I can’t wait for products to be shipped before keeping my bathroom clean!  My last resort?  Whole Foods in midtown (new one opened up!).  However, no CMG products!  Arrgh.  I looked at the WF 365 Everyday Value product line of cleaners.  It’s Whole Foods.  It’s got to be good, sustainable, and safe.  Right?  I looked at the label of their All-Purpose Cleaner: Orange & Lemon Verbena.  It read as follows:

Our Full Ingredient Declaration: Aqua (Filtered Water), Sodium  Citrate (PH Control), Denatured Alcohol (Solvent), Laureth-7 (Plant-Derived Non-Ionic Surfactant), Methyl Alcohol (Solvent), Natural Fragrance, Ethyle Acetate (Solvent), Methylisothiazolinone (Preservative).

Biodegradable * No Animal Testing

Safe for Septic and Grey Water Systems

Bottle is Made From 50% PCR Material

Made in Canada

I scratched my head at a few of the ingredients.  I had no clue what they were.  But, with precious few options I decided to try it.

I wasn’t that happy with the scent.  Think I’m not in love with Lemon Verbena but it was OK.  The sheeting action  was pretty good without too much elbow-grease (and no scrub sponge!).  Hmmm.  Maybe this would be okay!

After cleaning with it for 2 days, I decided to research it and see what others had to say about it.  You know what I found, right?  The Environmental Working Group gave All-Purpose Cleaner: Orange & Lemon Verbena a “D”!  In fact, only 80 green household cleaning products received an “A” while 199 scored a “D”, and 152 scored an “F”!  The EWG is pretty stringent and has high standards for our health and for the planet.

Some of the top rated product in household cleaners for 2017 are created by the following companies: Attitude, Aunt Fannie’s, and Lion Bear Naked Soap Co.  Click here for the full list of products that scored an “A”.

The lesson?  Do the research before buying anything! I totally agree with this meme — cleaning IS harder than it looks! LOL.

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Ta-ta for now,

Rochelle

 

 

 

Weekend Inspiration: Clean Eating Does Wonders

I woke up wanting a hamburger and cheesy fries.  Yep.  Open eyes, dream of tantalizingly delicious juicy burger. [Insert your favorite burger here.]

Then, the immediate next thought was, What about all I’ve been learning?  How will my body respond to this influx of gluten, grease, calories and cholesterol?  Okay, so maybe it didn’t go exactly like that.  It could have gone more like this…

I want a frickin’ cheeseburger and fries!  To hell with this healthy eating.  I want to be happy, fat and NORMAL.  

And, it could have started yesterday when I ate both Jarlsberg and Smoked Gouda cheese for dinner because if I looked at another salad I was going to murderlize someone…

Woke up with a bloated tummy and flatulence.  But — still wanted a frickin’ burger!

Do We Need to Care About BPA?

In a word…Yep.

BPA (bisphenol-A) is a chemical used in plastic production that mimics estrogen.  It is most dangerous for children which is why it is banned in Europe, Canada, and China.  However, it is widely used in the USA.

Where can BPA be found?  Everywhere there’s plastic and canned food.  So, it is in canned coconut milk, canned fruit, canned meats, canned juices, yeah — pretty much everything in a can.

For those who say that you don’t buy canned products, no problem.  It’s in the plastic containers that your water is shipped and stored in leaching into the “clean” mineral, and spring waters we drink so religiously.  Therefore, we are imbibing this toxic chemical each and every time we drink that life-sustaining beverage.  A better alternative?  Drink filtered water and store it in a BPA-free water bottles such as Contigo, or a stainless steel water bottle, such as The Flow bottle.

Also, don’t put your plastic containers in the microwave as the microwaves will break down the plastic and allow BPA to leach into your food.  Fun, right?

However, this is what we are supposed to do.  Check our environment, and our daily actions, to ensure that we are living in harmony (as much as is possible in today’s world) with the earth and our bodies.

You can read more about BPA and what can happen to our bodies if we ingest too much of it here.  As noted earlier, babies and children are the most susceptible to BPA ingestion.

Ta-ta for now,

Rochelle

 

Weekend Inspiration: Intentions & Sisterhood

It has taken a full week for me to truly process and be able to speak about my participation in Start Within, Finish Strong!, a sisterhood New Moon event hosted by Coach Colette Ellis.  I am very glad I went as I had an uplifting inspiring afternoon filled with new thoughts, reminders of practices I used to do in my early 20’s, and nudges to release old behavior patterns that lived and breathed in my psyche’s blind spot.

Due to the busy morning I had last Saturday, 6/24, I arrived at the event 30 mins late.  I was bummed…until I walked into the heart meditation.

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Coach Colette asked us to visualize the sister to our right and imagine her heart full of all of the love she has and how it fills her, and how that love can heal that woman, and all of the women in the room.  Then we were directed to imagine the woman on the left and visualize the same.  After that, we were to visualize the world, however that appears in our mind’s eye, and all of the sisterhood groups in the world doing the same new moon gathering.  To see and know that we are connected to these other groups and we are sharing our energies with them, and they with us.  To see our combined global energies healing the world.  It was a beautiful meditation!!

There was sharing afterwards about how we each felt and what we experienced during the meditation.  It was lovely to see how each woman had a different perspective and a different meditative experience!

Then we went into breathing with Amy Jindra of Choose Love.  Amy showed us four breathing techniques to help us energize and clear our chakras of stagnant energy.  These were powerful experiences that raised my inner fire and my body temperature!  These breathing techniques also flooded me with endorphins in a natural uplifting way.

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Something key that Amy said during the sharing after the breathing exercises was this (my paraphrasing):

Find out where the fear lives in [your] body, recognize the fear feeling and sensations and do whatever is opposite of the emotions.  OR, step back, review the intuitive information, and then respond to the situation (never react).

This is very compelling yet difficult to do when in a moment that is full of emotion.  Yet, this is precisely what we should do; this is also a form of mindfulness.

Did I mention the pasta salad that Chef Allie Pisano prepared?  She kept people with food allergies/sensitivities in mind when she made a pasta salad made from Banza pasta (made from chickpea flour!) with walnuts and veggies.  [Did I mention she’s available to cook for your next event?  Or, just for you?]

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And the delicious healthy snacks were to die for!  Especially the Divine Chocolates!  I loved the Kale Chips covered in yummy goodness.

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Lauren Servin of DiLoren Acacia Silk was on hand providing facials to all participants using her company’s product Acacia Silk in which the main ingredient is desert date oil, aka dattier du desert oil.  This oil is rich and moisturizing without being heavy so it will not clog your pores, or leave you feeling oily.  This oil was found in the tombs of  the Ancient Egyptians.  They used it as a part of their beauty regimen.

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The most gratifying portion of this half-day event was the section where we discussed our intentions for the upcoming month.  After a discussion about the New Moon in Cancer and what it could mean for each of us in our personal lives, we were asked to digest the information and create intentions for what we want to accomplish for this next month to continue our plans for the year.  This event is the half-way mark of the year and is meant to invigorate us and help propel us towards our annual goal(s).

There was also a crafting/vision board table for us to use while we set our intentions as well as a deck of Angel Dream cards to help pull down inspiration.  There was great conversation and networking  among the women as well as quiet reflection time, if you so chose.

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We closed with another breathing exercise from Amy; a Yes! breath that filled us with joy and a feeling of powerfulness.  I’m going  to leave you with my first impressions of this event…

Powerful
Energetic
Uplifting
Spiritual (in a non-religious way)
Creative
Nurturing
Helpful

I will definitely be at the next event which will be held on Thursday, July 27th, 2017. Will you be there?

My Thoughts 2 Weeks in on Green Cleaning Products

For two weeks and three days, I have been testing out some green household cleaning products by City Maid Green.  Their tagline is: Powered by plants.  Cute, catchy, environmentally alluring.

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Or, is it a bunch of fluff to capture the awareness of a particular demographic?  When you’ve only used Comet, bleach, Lysol, Windex, Fantastic, Mr. Clean, etc., this is actually a real concern.  You know, like I have.

For the first three days after I purchased City Maid Green’s Eucalyptus Mint Multi-Purpose Cleaner and their Lavender Multi-Purpose Cleaner, I left both untouched and unused.  I was absolutely petrified that these ‘plants’ would not remove germs and leave my house in a less than ideal condition.  I mean, come on!  All that’s in these cleaners are:

Water
Saponified Olive and Coconut Oil
Borax
Eucalyptus and Tea Tree Essential Oils

Okay.  But, what the heck is saponification anyway?  Merriam-Webster’s dictionary states that to saponify means, “to convert (something, such as fat) into soap; specifically to hydrolyze (a fat) with alkali to form a soap or glycerol.”  Okay, good.  Next question, what is the compound used to start the saponification process?  In bar soaps, NaOH, or lye.  In liquid soaps/cleaners, it is potassium hydroxide (KOH).  What?!  This sounds un-natural to use lye, or potassium hydroxide in a natural product.  However, what my brain did not initially compute is that this is a chemical reaction.  There is but so much that can be done to avoid getting to certain compounds, such as soap and cleaners, without using actual science.  I checked around to see what else can be used and I kept seeing KOH and NaOH no matter where I looked even on the From Nature With Love website.  FNWL (a wholesale brand) offers a full range of organic, natural and essential personal care items.  FNWL also prides itself on its green initiatives including “harnessing 100% clean energy to power its 30,000 square foot corporate headquarters.”

Alright.  KOH won’t kill me!

How Do You Spell Empowering?

Short and sweet Sunday Inspiration post for you today.

We sometimes may feel that the rigors of the world are upon us without easing up.  To get around that, look in the mirror and say, “I love you.  You are beautiful.  You empower me to do great things!”

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Weekend Inspiration: Mother Earth & Sustainable Shoes

For a long time I felt the desire to take a look at the Earth and help her heal, and be stronger and better than she was last generation.  But how?  I am just one tiny, teeny little person, right?

Wrong.

There are so many ways we can help our planet, and ourselves.  We just have to think about a few things differently.  For instance, I love shoes.  [What woman doesn’t, you say. :-)]  But, if you think about it, shoes, as we know them to be, are NOT sustainable.  They use up plenty of earth’s resources (animal kingdom, plastics, polymers, and other man-made materials…)  What if there were shoes that…ahem…walked lightly on the planet?  And, looked good?  Impossible, you say?  Well, take a look at these inspiring footwear.

Adidas UltraBoost Parley Shoes (sneakers)

Made from reclaimed plastic from the ocean!

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Adidas Terrex Climacool Boat Shoe

In the same Parley line as the previous shoe.  This Terrex boat shoe is also made from reclaimed plastic from the ocean.  Read the May 1st, 2017 article from Forbes discussing its release.

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VivoBloom Shoes

Made from algae from harmful algal blooms in high risk bodies of water.  Blue-green algae is a polymer!  Who knew?  [Yep, you did!]

These shoes will be available in July 2017.  You can read the Smithsonian article from May 31st, 2017 here.

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VEERAH Shoes (Vegan!)

VEERAH, the Sanskrit word for ‘warrior’, is an appropriate name for these stylish shoes that are making a statement while turning heads and saving the planet simultaneously.  These fashion-forward shoes have an organic cotton lining, Italian resin outsole and is PETA-approved.  Read more about what VEERAH shoes are made of here.

I first came across these shoes at the Green Festival Expo held at the Jacob Javitis Center in NYC on June 11th.  That’s why you see an array of shoe designs below.  I was there and fell in love with these shoes instantly.  They are comfortable and you’ll be the belle of the day, night or ball! Did I mention the accessories (tassels & clip on jewels) are interchangeable?  And, you can wear them on your wrist, or around your neck if you so choose?

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As you can see, this topic inspired me to dig and find out more!  I will definitely write more about sustainable shoes in the future.  But for now, please check out these shoes, and the companies that created them.  Then, share the word with your friends and family.  We can help our planet one step at a time. [Pun totally intended.]

Ta-ta for now,

Rochelle

 

An InDepth Look at Acai Berries

As many of you know, I am diving deep into the pool of wellness and seeking answers to the hard questions about which foods are healthiest to eat, and more importantly, how often can we eat them.  So many times we find out that this, or that fruit, herb, or grain is great for our bodies and we eat it every day.  (Or, maybe that was just me…)

However, as the old maxim states, Everything in moderation.

This is true even in the case of Acai Berries which according to Dr. Brent A. Bauer, writing for the Mayo Clinic’s website, “Acai is safe to consume, as long as you’re not allergic to the fruit.  But, use caution when consuming products made with acai that may have other ingredients, such as caffeine.”  [Obvious advice, but here’s the real question, Why would you add caffeine to a product with Acai in it??]

Okay, Dr. Bauer, you’re telling us Acai is safe. Great!  So, what are they?  And where do these berries come from?  The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) tells us that the acai (a-sigh-ee) berry comes from the acai palm tree which is “native to tropical Central and South America, [and] produces a deep purple fruit.  The acai fruit has long been an important food source for indigenous peoples of the Amazon region.”  The NCCIH also let’s us know that acai fruit pulp has been “used experimentally as an oral contrast agent for magnetic resonance imaging (MRIs).  Therefore, if you have an MRI scheduled and you’re using acai products, please tell your doctor.

The NCCIH also states that a preliminary study shows that a juice blend with mainly acai berry juice in it has an antioxidant effect in humans.  This is good!  WebMD tells us that antioxidants protect our bodies from harmful molecules called free radicals (me speaking: free radicals wreck havoc on our bodies!).  And HealthLine tells us that acai berries “contain high levels of important fatty acids such as omega-3, omega-6 and monounsaturated oleic acid.  [All of which are] essential for good health.”  Healthline also states that the acai berry would not be what it is without its blue-purplish skin.  “Like many other fruits, the skin contains fiber, and various nutrients, and most of the antioxidants.  If you’re buying a supplement, or a drink made from acai, you’ll want to make sure the product contains plenty of skin.”

I am comforted to know that while there may not be a lot of peer-reviewed studies about acai berries and their effect on humans, what is known is both positive and very encouraging.  What the doctors and scientists have already shown us is that acai berries, due to their high antioxidant properties, along with the other high level of vitamins and minerals contained within acai berries (like other berries contain) have the following health benefits:

Great for Your Skin
Powerful Anti-Oxidant
Provides a lot of Energy
Helps You Look Younger
Reinvigorates Your Immune System
Is a Cancer-Fighter

 

One last thing.  Acai berries spoil within a few days of being picked.  Therefore, when we here in America consume Acai, it’s most likely going to be in the form of a capsule, pill, powder, or a juice.  It goes without saying that acai can be quite costly especially since it is being shipped from Brazil, and other similar places.  Shop smart and check labels to ensure the product contains acai berry skin.

You can read more about Acai Berries by clicking on the links below.

7 Powerful Health Benefits of Acai Berry (Food Matters blog)

Acai Berry Juice Benefits (LiveStrong.com)

What Are Acai Berres: Do they have health benefits? (Mayo Clinic)

What is the Acai Berry? (HealthLine)

Alrighty folks.  I’m sold!  I’m going to run over to Amazon and pick up some powdered Acai Berry powder today and I’ll let you know how I feel and what I think in the weeks to come.

Ta-ta for now,

Rochelle