10 Tips for "Going Green" at home

More than ever before, individuals are taking responsibility for the environment – and with good cause. As the result of simply being on this earth, each of us impacts the environment. That effect is commonly known as a carbon footprint.

According to Wikipedia, a carbon footprint is a "measure of the impact human activities have on the environment in terms of the amount of green house gases produced, measured in units of carbon dioxide. It is meant to be useful for individuals and organizations to conceptualize their personal (or organizational) impact in contributing to global warming.”

The size and type of our homes, the cars we drive, the amount of air travel we do – almost every aspect of daily life adds to the size and scope of our individual carbon footprint. Below are some steps that each of us can take to make our homes – and the Earth – a greener place.

Let there be (efficient) light!
Use Compact Florescent Lightbulbs (CFLs). According to PathNet.org, if every family in the U.S.A. replaced their five most-frequently used light bulbs with CFLs, greenhouse gas emissions would be reduced by one trillion pounds.

Eliminate junk mail
5.6 million tons of catalogs and other direct mail advertisements make their way through American households each year, eventually finding their way to U.S. landfills. This accounts for about 100 million trees. To reduce the amount of junk mail that gets delivered to your mailbox:

• Register with the Mail Preference Service of the Direct Marketing Association (DMA)
• OptOutPreScreen.com enables you to remove your name from solicitations by credit card and mortgage companies.
  
• Download a Stop the Junk Mail Kit.
  

Charged by the sun
Your MP3 player, laptop, PDA, cell phone, and camera can all be charged with portable solar chargers. The added benefit is that you will never again be caught hunting for a wall outlet when the battery in your phone or laptop gets low.

Plain and simple
Sometimes the most effective measures are the most obvious ones: If you’re not using it, turn it off and unplug it. Remember that even power strips and electronic appliances that go into a “sleep” mode are still pulling a current, even if they are switched to the “off” position. To optimize this tip, unplug unused appliances, or use power strips that can be turned off at night.

Cool it
Did you know that 25% of your home’s energy use can be accounted for by your refrigerator? Perform these quick tests to make sure yours is operating at peak efficiency:

• Close your refrigerator door on a dollar bill, then try to pull the bill out. If it comes out easily, the seal on your door isn’t tight enough, which means cold air is escaping from inside, causing your refrigerator to run more than necessary.
• Open your refrigerator door, and then let go. If the door doesn’t close again by itself, your refrigerator may need to be leveled. If you have a refrigerator that’s more than 10 years old, it’s time to replace it.
  

Man or Machine?
You may be surprised to learn that it can be better to wash your dishes in an energy-efficient dishwasher than it is to wash them by hand. Just make sure the dishwasher is full before running it.
Speaking of cleaning…
Try using eco-friendly products around your home. www.EverydayHealth.com provides a list of alternatives for cleaning, home maintenance, auto, and hobby products you use every day.

One man’s treaure
GreenDisk.com can help you turn your electronic media such as DVDs, CDs, zip drives, and audio and video tapes into items that can be reused. When items can’t be reused, GreenDisk.com can also make sure they are properly and safely disposed of.

Keep it in tune
Taking care of your car with regular maintenance and tune-ups will help you burn less gas, and help prevent car trouble down the road. According to Yahoo! Green, if every American’s car tires were properly inflated we could save around 2 billion gallons of gas each year.


By following these simple suggestions you can make your home healthier and cleaner, while reducing the carbon footprint you and your family leave behind.

Don’t miss a thing! Subscribe to Greenbrier Women's Community by Email and receive valuable articles, updates and program announcements right to your Inbox.

Is stress causing you to gain weight?

We've all heard about the far-reaching effect that stress can have on our health. But did you know that stress can cause you to gain weight?

Stress creates actual physiological changes in your body. Specifically, it is responsible for the production of cortisol - a hormone that is a powerful appetite trigger. Simply put, when you're rushing through a day that's crammed with deadlines and filled to the brim with anxieties, you eat more. And cortisol doesn't just trigger your appetite; it creates cravings for carbohydrates and sweets - the foods that are most likely to be stored as abdominal fat.

In her article, 10 Toxic Weight-Prevention Tips, author Dr. Pamela Peeke offers 10 tips for avoiding weight gain due to stress. Among them are some simple things that everyone can do such as scheduling meals, controlling food portions, and drinking more water. Read her article at DiscoveryHealth.

Dr. Pamela Peeke is a former speaker at Women's Wonderful Weekend, an exclusive event designed for today's woman - only at The Greenbrier.

Feeling stressed? Springtime is the perfect time for a getaway at The Greenbrier. Rest and rejuvenate with a package at our award-winning spa or unwind with the whole family by taking advantage of our exclusive family or Mother's Day packages.

Don’t miss a thing! Subscribe to Greenbrier Women's Community by Email and receive valuable articles, updates and program announcements right to your Inbox.

Teach your body to burn fat by eating more

Want to teach your body not to store fat? Follow Nutrition Rule #1: Eat five meals a day. Read on to learn the science behind how and why following this rule will help you lose weight.

Your endocrine system produces powerful hormones that control growth and energy, among other things. If you eat too infrequently, your body recognizes a famine situation and this system will respond by making changes that are counterproductive to weight loss. Your body does this to protect you. This is how human beings have survived periods of time when food has not been available. (Cavemen didn’t have a friendly grocer's freezer.)

When you severely restrict your calories, your body doesn’t know you’re choosing not to eat; all it knows is that the stretches between food intake are too long, so it must be that you don’t have access to the food you need. Your body does what it has to do to protect you – which means slowing everything down and storing more of what you do eat as fat.

If your objectives are to lose weight, build a little muscle, and have enough energy for an active and fun life, then you must teach your body how to support those needs. Food intake is one of the ways in which you communicate with your body. When you eat strategically, you will begin to direct your body to do the things that support your weight loss and fitness goals.

By eating five small meals throughout the day, the first message you send is that there is an abundant supply of food, and that your body needn’t worry about starvation. It’s similar to the way you budget your money. Expenditure decisions are made based on cash flow, reserves, and income. Your body acts in a similar way with fat storage. If your body knows that more food is always coming in, it won’t be as likely to store fat, and it will be more likely to let stored fat go.

In addition to teaching your body that it doesn’t need to hoard fat, frequent meals create another very beneficial situation. Every time you eat, your blood sugar level increases. Blood sugar gives you energy. When you go for long periods of time without eating, your blood sugar level drops, and so does your energy level. Small, frequent meals spread evenly throughout the day encourage consistent energy levels. By eating every three hours or so, you will no longer have the lags and dips in energy that most people experience throughout the day.

Here’s another important thing to consider: Whenever you eat and your blood sugar level rises, your pancreas releases the hormone insulin. It is the job of insulin to help transport blood glucose (sugar) into your cells where it can be used for energy. When you eat bigger meals that are higher in sugar, your body will respond by releasing a surge of insulin which will then wipe out all of your blood sugar, causing your energy to plummet shortly thereafter, and resulting in food cravings, which make you want another big meal, which causes another insulin spike, and on and on it goes.

Smaller, more frequent meals lead to:

• smaller increases in blood sugar


• smaller releases of insulin


• less fat storage


• greater mobilization of stored fat


• more consistent energy levels
  

That’s five fantastic reasons to stop skipping meals and switch to five small meals a day.

---

There's no season like the holiday season to treat yourself to The Greenbrier experience. Enjoy luxurious accommodations, gourmet dining, and signature spa treatments. A stay at The Greenbrier is also the premier way to get much needed rest and relaxation. Learn more at The Greenbrier.

Six Easy Tips to a Better Night’s Sleep

According to Dr. James B. Maas, author of "Power Sleep: The Revolutionary Program That Prepares Your Mind for Peak Performance," 40% of Americans are moderately to severely sleep deprived. That’s 100 million people - are you one of them?

The top health benefits of sleep include reduction of stress and inflammation, and an increase in memory and immune function. And if all that isn’t enough to make you want to take a nap, sleep also increases productivity and alertness – and it really does make you more beautiful; during sleep, your skin is restored, healing itself from the daily damage of UV light.

If you’re one of the millions who just aren’t getting enough shut-eye, here are a few tips to help you get a better night’s sleep – beginning tonight.

• Stick with a schedule: Our brains regulate sleep according to a “circadian clock” of wake and sleep patterns. A consistent waking time in the morning (even on weekends) strengthens the circadian function. A stronger circadian function means that when you are ready to go to sleep, your brain will be ready, too.

• Make the transition: With such busy lives, we tend to go from work, to dinner, to family activities, to the late news, and then expect to drop off to sleep on demand. Try establishing a routine that takes you gently from the hubbub of the day into the quiet of night. Take a warm bath and then enjoy a cup of chamomile tea while reading a chapter in a book. Creating a little space for your body to unwind can go a long way toward a restful night.


• Create the right environment: Cool, dark, quiet, and comfortable is the best environment for sleep. If street noise or house noise distracts you from falling asleep, add some white noise to your bedroom with a fan, humidifier, or a commercial sound therapy device. Have a partner who snores? Keep a set of ear plugs handy. Room darkening shades can help create the right environment even if street light or sunlight interferes with your ability to drift off.


• Refrain from eating during the 2-3 hours before bedtime. Digestive activity can make it difficult for you to relax. You’ll also discover that giving up the bedtime snack will make weight management a little easier.


• Avoid caffeine later in the day. Caffeine affects different people in different ways. If sleep is an issue for you, try eliminating caffeine after 3:00 pm. If you don’t notice an improvement, try making noon your cut-off time. Experiment to discover your own individual tolerance for caffeine in order to determine its affect on your sleep patterns.


• Count sheep. (Seriously.) Sometimes our inability to fall asleep is due to our inability to silence the chatter in our minds. Focusing on a mundane task such as counting sheep, naming the U.S. states in alphabetical order, or recalling grade-school timetables can serve as a resting meditation that clears your thoughts enough so that your brain can let go of emotional thought and slip into sleep mode.

Naturally, if you experience on-going difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, or if you experience extreme sleepiness during the day, consult your physician.

For more tips on enjoying optimum health through sleep, visit http://www.health.discovery.com

Autumn is the premium time to enjoy running, biking, hiking, and other outdoor activities at The Greenbrier. Afterwards, you can treat yourself to a gourmet dinner, or a signature spa treatment. A stay at The Greenbrier is also a luxurious way to get much need rest and relaxation. Learn more at The Greenbrier.

Five Tips for Reducing Stress During the Holidays

Remember how you used to count the days until the holidays began? If you find that you are now counting the days until the holidays are over, then you’re probably experiencing higher than usual stress levels. Try these tips to decrease stress and increase your enjoyment of the holiday season.

Wrap it up
As soon as you bring a new gift home from the mall, wrap it, label it, and stack it. You may even want to paper-code your gifts: red wrapping for your side of the family, gold for his. That way, everything is wrapped and ready to go at a moment’s notice, and you can see at glance which packages to grab on the way out the door.

Let it go, let it go, let it go
During the holidays, most of us are obliged to spend time with people with whom we may not normally tend to socialize: spouses’ co-workers, distant relatives, etc. Keeping your focus on the spirit of the season will enable you to turn a deaf ear to comments and conversations that might rub you the wrong way. Set aside grievances for a more appropriate time for discussion.

Take care of yourself
With so much more to do on a daily basis at this time of the year, you may find that you are scrimping on sleep, relaxation, and exercise – yet all of these are powerful anti-stress tools. Even if all you can manage is a 20-minute walk or a quick power nap, find pockets of time to care for yourself and you’ll be better equipped to handle the challenges – and enjoy the joys – of the season.

Learn to say “No”
If you agree to tasks or social obligations that you’ll resent later, you’re setting yourself up for additional stress. The first step in saying “no” is saying, “Can I get back to you on that?” Then, when you have a moment to think clearly and honestly, objectively decide what your priorities are. If you determine you don’t want to meet a particular request, simply respond with, “I’m sorry I won’t be able to make it, but thank you for thinking of me.” No additional explanations required. Like your money, your time and energy are yours to invest as you see fit.

Have fun!
Go sledding with the children in your life. Make cookies without trying to copy the photos on the magazine cover. Listen to seasonal music and sing along. Treat yourself to a peppermint hot chocolate at your favorite café and enjoy some reading time. This is YOUR holiday, too, so find some time to do what makes you happy.

Interested in additional tips? Sing along with the CDC’s 12 Ways to Health Holiday Song at http://www.cdc.gov/family/holiday/12ways.htm

There's no season like the holiday season to treat yourself to The Greenbrier experience. enjoy running, biking, hiking, and other outdoor activities at The Greenbrier. Afterwards, you can treat yourself to a gourmet dinner, or a signature spa treatment. A stay at The Greenbrier is also a luxurious way to get much need rest and relaxation. Learn more at The Greenbrier.

Run – for your health!

It relieves stress, helps you manage your weight, combats loss of bone density, enables you to enjoy nature, increases your energy, and can even make you look and feel younger!

Running: There’s a reason why people have been doing it for years, and why 5Ks, 10Ks and Marathons are among the most popular community events. But you don’t have to be a competitive runner to enjoy the benefits that a running program can bring. Those benefits include:

• Weight loss: Running requires a lot of energy and on average burns about 500 calories an hour. Together with a sensible nutritional plan, running can go a long way toward helping you reach your ideal weight.


• Improved cardio-vascular health: While you’re running, your arteries expand and contract approximately three times as much as they do when you are sedentary. This leads to better elasticity of the arteries. Running also can lower your blood pressure, and reduce your risk of heart attack and stroke.


• Better bones and muscles: Your bones and muscles become stronger in response to physical demand. Running encourages muscle development and higher bone density – two qualities that we associate with youthfulness.


• Grace and balance: Whether you’re navigating mountain trails or paved surfaces, running requires that your body learns to coordinate many parts and functions, which leads to greater balance and agility.


• Psychological benefits: Running – or any form of regular exercise – releases hormones called endorphins into your bloodstream. Simply put, endorphins make you feel good. The feeling of accomplishment that comes from completing a physical challenge and maintaining a healthy lifestyle is one more way that exercise can improve your mood and general outlook.

Of course, before you begin any program of exercise or nutrition you should check with your health care provider. Once you get the “green light,” here are some tips to help you meet with success on your running journey:

• Start off slowly: Begin your run with five minutes of brisk walking. This will help warm up your muscles, reducing the chance of injury.


• Wear loose fitting, light colored clothing to stay dry, comfortable, and visible to others.


• Buddy up: Find someone else who may be interested in taking up running and make plans to run together. Running can be a lonely business, so having a partner provides extra motivation – as well as an additional layer of accountability.


• Keep it flowing: Dehydrated muscles don’t function well. Sip water before, during, and after your run to stay hydrated.


• TLC for injuries: Most runners experience minor injuries from time to time. Don’t push through the pain of injury. See your health care provider and remember the R.I.C.E. program of recovery:
  
  • Rest
  
  
  • Ice
  
  
  • Compression
  
  
  • Elevation

Personal education is a key success factor in any physical endeavor. Ask your health care provider or local fitness center proprietor to recommend a personal trainer who can get you started off on the right foot for a long and productive running season!

Autumn is the premium time to enjoy running, biking, hiking, and other outdoor activities at The Greenbrier. Afterwards, you can treat yourself to a gourmet dinner, or a signature spa treatment. Learn more at The Greenbrier.

Wonderful woman profile: Bonnie DiLeone

Bonnie DiLeone, Clinical Instructor
University of Carolina at Chapel Hill

If you ask Bonnie DiLeone what she likes best about Women’s Wonderful Weekend (WWW) at The Greenbrier, you don’t get just one answer. Bonnie’s experience with the weekend is reflective of the richness and variety this signature event has to offer. From personal growth seminars to top-notch financial information, Bonnie finds value in every aspect of this weekend, designed exclusively for women.

How did you hear about WWW?
About 10 years ago, I moved to North Carolina, and in order to stay in touch with friends, we established The Greenbrier as the halfway point between us. So every year, we would meet there to catch up. When The Greenbrier introduced Women’s Wonderful Weekend, we decided to plan our weekend around it, and we’ve been doing that ever since.

What is your favorite aspect of the event?
The presentations, the breakout sessions. The keynote is always excellent. I like to use the weekend to reflect on my personal and professional life goals. I love the sessions that Anne Wolf conducts. She is a nutritionist and she always presents valuable programs on health and wellness. She introduced us to Nia and led a walk on The Greenbrier meditation trail.

For me, during that weekend, I feel I can really just be myself, and we all celebrate each other’s self-hood. I attend many conferences in my work, and WWW doesn’t have that stuffiness of a professional conference, yet we’re getting top-notch information on everything from finances, to spirituality, to health and wellness.

I love the dining, and in addition to the cooking demonstration that is part of the event, we like to go down to the Gourmet Shoppe for the regular demonstrations they give. We get copies of the recipes – we all enjoy cooking – and then we try out the recipes at home.

What are you most looking forward to at this year’s event?
Terry Graedon of The People’s Pharmacy is really going to be interesting, and I’m also looking forward to hearing Elaine Honig of the Wine, Women, and Shoes event. And of course, I always look forward to seeing the women that I’ve met over the years.

A lot of strong connections are formed at WWW. It’s very inspiring for me to see both young women and women who are a little bit older, all making fantastic contributions to the world.

Do you have a personal or business maxim that you live by that you’d like to share with other women?
“The most wasted of all days is that during which one has not laughed.” – Nicolas DeChamfort

If you had to describe the WWW experience in one word, what would it be?
Dynamic.

Bonnie has spent 30 years in the field of early childhood/special education, most recently doing teacher training all over the state of North Carolina. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her husband, Ralph, son Daniel, and puppy Roxy. She also enjoys cooking, reading, and spending time at the beach.

Learn more about Women's Wonderful Weekend at The Greenbrier, March 6 - 9 2008.

Don’t miss a thing! Subscribe to Greenbrier Women's Community by Email and receive valuable articles, updates and program announcements right to your Inbox.