Skip to main content

Going Green

Like most people these days, we have made an effort to reduce our "carbon footprint" and to, generally, find healthier ways to live. We buy organic food as much as we can (i.e. what we can afford) and use the car as seldom as possible. We replaced our toilets with water efficient ones, we got a tankless hotwater heater, we got a digital thermostat, we use canvas shopping bags and non-toxic cleaning products.

I am totally in favour of all of these changes but I will admit there are a few things I really miss. One is my favorite perfume that I wore religiously for years: Angel by Thierry Mugler. I love, love, love the scent but was getting increasingly uneasy wondering what kind of crap was actually in it. According to info I found through a Google search, some very, very bad crap. That, in addition to the fact that it is now politically incorrect to wear heavy scents thanks to all the (annoying) people who have sensitivities, finally convinced me to give it up. The crystal bottle remains hidden in my underwear drawer because I cannot bear to throw it away. Now I wear all natural perfume oil (vanilla) and body lotion (lavender) from Whole Foods. It's just not the same.

I also miss regular hairspray. I will admit, due to my fine, curly hair, I am a hairspray junkie. But it did start to concern me that I was inhaling toxins everytime I sprayed it. So I switched to an all natural one from the health food store. Frankly, it does nothing. Today I found a bottle of my old favorite under the sink in the downstairs washroom. Feeling as guilty as if I was secretly snorting coke, I spritzed my lid a few times. Oh glorious hair product! I am having the first good hair day since...well since I started using the all natural stuff. Now I'm feeling rather ambivalent...do I go back to the wonderfully effective toxic product or stick with the useless all natural stuff? I think I'll have to sleep on it.

The other thing I miss is plug in air fresheners. They work so well! Too bad they are incredibly carcinogenic. But as someone who is often trying to get rid of strong cooking smells (curry smell can linger for 3 days!!), I lament the end of the plug in air freshener era. The grapefruit oil spray from the health food store just doesn't work as well.

I may get struck down by lightening for saying this, but humans DO make some things better than nature. They just have some nasty and unfortunate side effects...

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Book Review: The A to Z of Children's Health

Hey there, welcome to Monday!  We had a delightful, relatively quiet weekend.  How was yours?  Hopefully no one in your home was sick...there is a lot of nasty stuff going around these days. If you're a parent, than you have probably spent far more time that you would like to desperately searching Google and/or parenting books trying to figure out if your child's rash, cough or fever warrants a trip to the doctor or if there is something that can be done to treat it.  It's hard not to worry that it could be something more ominous that just an every day infection and while you'd make yourself (and everyone around you) nuts if you panicked every time your kid has the sniffles, as a parent, you naturally want to do everything in your power to prevent your child from harm. Recently I was sent The A to Z of Children's Health , written by doctors Jeremy Friedman, Natasha Saunders, and Norman Saunders, of Toronto's very own Hospital for Sick Children .  One of th...

How to Look Like a Celebrity

Okay, I know you're going to be interested in this post! I am sure virtually every woman in North America has wondered how Hollywood celebrities achieve such 'perfect' bodies.  Well, at CAN FIT PRO last week, one of Hollywood's top fitness trainers, Eric the Trainer , was there to tell us fitness professionals the secrets! Eric the Trainer, gave several presentations, and I caught the one on Celebrity Secrets, and it was most interesting!!!  I also found some of what he said rather disturbing. First off, he was very upfront about the fact that celebrities come to him for improve their appearance.  Not to improve their health or athletic performance.  To look their best.  He admitted that his approach then, is entirely dedicated to that end. Male and female celebrities are trained in completely different ways because Hollywood wants women to be lithe and thin and in his words, "look like they dropped out of heaven looking this way without every having ...

Blackfly Coolers: Product Review

Summer is over! Well, at least if you're a student. Officially it doesn't end for a few weeks, and it certainly still feels like summer. Yeah, I hate it. This f*cking hot, humid weather needs to end NOW! We made the most of our last weekend of the summer with our annual trip to the CNE on Friday, with a crowd of friends. It wasn't unbearably lot, thank goodness, and the girls and their friends had a blast on the rides.  Saturday I had to work, and Sunday was errand day. Monday we took the girls berry/apple/pear picking but didn't last long due to the heat. I organized the house to prepare for the construction workers starting back up yesterday, while Adam took the girls for a swim in our neighbourhood pool. Yesterday was the first day of school. Grade 2 and Grade 5. Yep, the girls are growing up.  We are fortunate that the girls don't have much anxiety about school, they are so much more confident than I ever was as a kid! But now, in the midst of our reno ch...