Every act of kindness creates a ripple, spread it now!
We don’t have to agree on anything to be kind!
Author: health4earth
I have a diet for you!
A Seven Day Diet Challenge!
Get ready for Monday, the best day of the week to plan for sustainable food. Instead of trying this diet and that diet, how about considering the Planet Earth Diet when you choose your meals and purchase groceries. Monday is the best day to start! An international panel of scientists has just finished their study on what is needed for health and sustainable diets. We need to change our eating habits, reduce food waste and improve the way we produce food. “The food we eat and how we produce it determines the health of people and the planet, and we are currently getting this seriously wrong,” said Tim Lang, a food scientist at the City University of London, and one of the authors.
For some of their thoughts on how we can be healthier and more sustainable. the researchers have prescribed a new diet for the planet: more vegetables, less meat, fresh fruit, whole grains, give up sugar, and waste less.
Below are some good ideas from the Seattle Times:
Reduce meat and dairy. Reduce doesn’t have to mean eliminate. Meat and dairy are excellent sources of protein and essential nutrients, so if you enjoy these foods and feel good when you eat them, continue to include them in your diet. But many people eat more red meat than is recommended for good health. If all — or most — typical eaters reduced their meat and dairy intake by swapping a few servings a week for plant-based protein foods with low-carbon footprints — like beans, lentils and soy foods — we could have a large collective impact. So if you’ve been meaning to observe “Meatless Monday” but never quite followed through, there’s no time like the present.
Eat more fruits and vegetables. Local is best, but not the easiest in the winter.
Reduce packaging. Broccoli has a small carbon footprint, but broccoli florets packaged in a bag or plastic container have a much larger footprint than a whole head of broccoli. It’s the packaging that makes a difference.
Reduce food waste. In this country, we waste about 40 percent of the food 
produced. Meal planning can help.
Give it a seven day challenge. Good luck!
Good tips on eating sugar-free here.
Friendship February
Welcome to February!
See the Actions for Happiness calendar below. I’m wishing you kindness and happiness in February.
Friends are the sunshine of Life!
Yes, it is Cold, But….
Yikes, it’s cold where I live! The high today is -15 F, and with the wind it 
feels colder. Please don’t feel sorry for us. It is just another extreme, and we are all living in a time of extremes. We have extreme droughts, extreme rains and storms, and extreme heat. Minnesota might be back to 40 degrees in just a few days, a 70 degree high temperature change in a few days! Yes, extreme!
Most of us would rather be here in the cold than in the extreme heat and drought Australia is experiencing. While our cold weather is a short blip, they are experiencing a long-term extreme. Read about it here.
There are some advantages to a short cold snap like this. We can hope that some of the invasive bugs that are unchecked because of our warmer winters will be stopped or slowed down. The cold will completely freeze over the lakes which make them safer for winter activities, and can also lessen summer algae. My favorite thing about the cold is that the sun often shines making for beautiful bright days.
Is this part of climate change? Why does this Arctic air escape the Arctic? The Arctic has warmed faster than the 1.8 degrees the Earth has recently warmed. This warming has weakened the jet stream winds that would normally stay north, but this climate warming has caused these winds to seep south. Our warming planet has confused the jet stream causing them to rush where they normally don’t blow, bringing the Arctic winter cold with them. The extreme heat in Australia is a more serious problem that isn’t a passing scenario like our short-lived northern cold. Yes, our changing climate is real and we are experiencing it every day.
A Simple Message
Don’t waste food, don’t waste plastic and don’t waste energy!
A simple message from David Attenborough
New Beginnings
A new year brings new energy, new projects and hope into our lives. May we move on to a positive new beginning for us all. One thing that 2018 told us is that our Earth is struggling with harmful human activity. Our warming climate and our dependence on single-use plastic can have tragic implications as we move into the future. We can’t predict the future, but plastic waste and climate change are not going away.
If everyone does a small amount it can make a big difference! I have two things you can do to make a big difference on the Earth this new year. Even if you change one thing you do, and focus on that one thing in 2019 you will be making a difference!
When I started this blog years ago, I was trying to get people to recycle. While I hope you will still recycle what needs to be recycled, it has become harder and harder to recycle that pesky plastic. Glass, aluminum and paper have markets, but we just use so much single-use plastic and there aren’t enough markets for plastic. Plastic can’t be recycled over and over like glass and aluminum.
We need to reduce our plastic footprint. Start by changing one thing you purchase in plastic. At our house we refill bottles/containers with bulk at our local coop: soaps, lotions, teas, nuts, rice and almost every dry product we eat. We make our own yogurt, humus and cashew milk. Even as hard as we work on this we can’t avoid all packaging, it is too ubiquitous. As human beings we haven’t figured out our complicated relationship with plastic. The best thing is to avoid it.
Tackling food waste is another way we can all make a difference. If you purchase in bulk you can get just the amount you need. Forty percent of our food in the USA goes to waste, I mourn the valuable water and energy wasted on uneaten food! How have you done on your holiday leftovers? Freeze, cook, eat that food! Be vigilant. I make it into game with myself to be creative making new items from left-overs to keep from wasting food. Just think of the water and energy that we could save! Also, rotting food waste in landfills creates methane contributing to warming the planet.
Some other ideas to make a difference: Make changes in your kitchen and 10 green resolutions from Earth911. PBS offers three science based ideas here.
Some inspiration from Dan Rather: ” I stand at the precipice of 2019, alongside all of you, and breath deep a spirit of empathy and a determination to do our part to help make this world a better place.”
Happy hopeful new year!
January Joy
“Happiness is the meaning and purpose of life!” Aristotle
What are you looking forward to in 2019?
The Actions For Happiness calendar is here. I hope the actions for January will bring you joy, happiness and kindness.
Happy New Year!
31 days of Reducing Trash and Waste
Work for zero waste and reducing food waste!
From Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day, household waste increases by more than 25%. Added food waste, shopping bags, packaging, wrapping paper, bows and ribbons all adds up to an additional 1 million tons a week to our landfills. (Source: EPA)
We can all do something about this tremendous influx of trash and I will be posting ideas for 31 days on how to reduce trash and waste:
Day 31, Set new goals to help the environment for the new year. Suggestions: Be more vigilant about recycling, start a compost bin, recycle all shampoo and cosmetic plastic, use less chemicals, and make a commitment to get outside and appreciate our beautiful earth.
Day 30, Recycle, recycle, recycle Instead of throwing everything in the landfill trash recycle all plastic including plastic wrap and bags. Many communities recycle wrapping paper without glitter. Compost your food waste, and re-gift(give to someone who…
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New November
“As long as you live, keep learning how to live!” Seneca
Be curious, ask questions, listen, volunteer, read a new book, take a new class, meet a new person, try something new!
What new things would you like to learn? I love this month’s happiness calendar. It’s about learning something new. A friend of mine attends the University Of Minnesota every weekday to study French, just for fun. She’s curious and learning something new! There is so much to learn and enjoy about the Earth and about difference cultures and ideas. So much to learn about science and geography, about history and literature, and on and on. I hope the below calendar makes you curious and helps you learn some new things. I hope it helps you set new goals, and that you have a “New Things November.”
Sundays: Super Sunday! A perfect day for kindness. How can you show people they are special to you, and that you are thinking of them?
Mondays: Make It Respectful Monday! Demand people show you respect, and show them respect back. Aim high, never gossip, lie, bully or make fun of people. Compliment, and active listen.
Tuesdays: Good Thoughts Tuesday! Give yourself a boost of positive energy. Enjoy the day and have fun. Turn off politics, Facebook and Twitter.
Wednesdays: Zero Waste Wednesday! Bring your lunch, use only reusable dishes, glasses and utensils. Cook your dinner, no take-out, and no wasted food! If possible leave your car at home. Have fun being good to the Earth!
Thursdays: Thankful Thursday! Think of all the people you are thankful for. How many times you can say, “Thank you.”
Fridays: Listen/Friendship Friday! Check in with an old friend or make a new friend. Listen and ask questions.
Saturdays: Smile Saturday! The more you smile the happier and better you feel. Good luck!
October’s Superior View
October is a magical month. Nature’s paint brush thrives with the fall colors. The hues change from green to red to orange to yellow to brown. And the fleeting colors and leaves hang on for life as the wind blows. Today the leaves gently fell from the trees like the first light snowfall. The first half of the month was unseasonably cold, cloudy and rainy, but the bright autumn colors kept the landscape bright and happy. I love October!
The wind dominates the weather. Eighty-mile an hour winds were recorded with twenty-foot waves pounding the Lake Superior shore. Some days and nights the waves from the lake pound our sandstone cliff. The spray can actually travel 75 feet to splash our house.
Interesting birds are migrating through from the north. Yellow rump warblers eat flies sunning themselves on our house, hermit thrush jump in the leaf litter, palm warblers wag their tails, and my favorite white-throated sparrows look for food in the brush. The junkos, harbingers of winter, are everywhere, and groups of snow buntings have just arrived.
Wildlife and humans hunker down into thoughts of the winter ahead. The brisk temperatures and short days become a message that our warmth is fleeting. The chickadees, gold finch and nuthatches are busy emptying our bird feeder. It is amazing they can remember where they hide their seeds. The squirrels and chipmunks wait below for scraps to be part eating and hiding fun.
The big lake is seldom quiet. The sound of moving water and lack of human noise is refreshing. We love our sounds from nature, and our one square inch of silence. https://onesquareinch.org/
Health4earth 