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Posts Tagged ‘environment’

Go Natural with Wai Lana's Supplements

Getting ready

Want a change in your life?  Go healthy, go vegetarian. Adjusting can be quite difficult, but the results are very rewarding .. In this article, we will help you to make the transition easier by giving you some tips about living the vegetarian lifestyle.

Eat a variety of foods
Many people fear becoming a vegetarian and think that they need to make many different lifestyle choices in order to meet their daily values of protein. There really is nothing to fear. As long as your diet contains grains, beans, vegetables, and nuts, you will easily meat your body’s protein needs without having to supplement your diet. There are so many great resource people like Wailana to get information about the vegetarian diet.  You’ll be surprised to know that vegetarian food is actually extremely delicious when prepared correctly.  She has many wonderful vegetarian recipes that all vegetarians and meat-lovers alike simply love to eat.

The joys of karma-free meals
One thing that you can do that will make it easier for you to eat vegetarian is to do an inventory of the foods that are already in your diet. Odds are, you already enjoy some dishes that are based in vegetarian cuisine. Other dishes that you enjoy can easily be turned into a vegetarian dish with a minimum of difficulty. For example, if you enjoy spaghetti with meatballs, making the switch to spaghetti with marinara sauce can bea suitable alternative.

Watch what you buy

Another thing that you are going to want to do in order to keep your diet varied and fresh is to visit a natural foods store. While grocery stores these days tend to have sections that cater to vegetarians, going to a natural foods store can be immensely helpful when it comes to finding vegetarian fare. You will be able to find many different types of prepared vegetarian meals at these types of stores that you might not have known about otherwise, so be sure to make a visit.  Wai Lana yoga is a great source of information on natural products.

Also, you should consider trying some of the meat alternatives that are available for sale. Soy-based products such as tofu can be made into imitation hot dogs and hamburgers, which is an option that you may want to consider. Additionally, a product known as Quorn is a protein-rich meat alternative that many vegetarians find helpful when it comes to replacing meat in their dishes.

Adventures in cooking

You’re also going to want to pick up some vegetarian cookbooks. There are plenty to choose from, and it can really help you to keep your diet varied without having to resort to dishes with meat in them. Wai Lana is a good resource for vegetarian diet tips, lifestyle and delicious vegetarian recipes even non-vegetarians appreciate.

Roadblocks
Some people find going vegetarian extremely easy, while others have a hard time. Once you get used to the vegetarian lifestyle and you find dishes that are suitable to your palette, it will be much easier to remain a vegetarian in the future. Becoming a vegetarian will be helpful to your health, to the welfare of animals, and to the state of the environment, so make the right decision today!

The economic downturn has hit a lot of households really hard and they are needing to place limits on every day expenditure including socialising and trips out and of course every day essentials, but what about the very staples of life for example light and heating

Apart from the economic gloom mongers out there, there is also a constant buzz about managing carbon footprints and caring for the environment so how do you put the two together.

Lighting is for the most part quite easy with a little forethought. Simply make sure you turn off all unused appliances and lighting if nobody is in the room and don’t leave your electrical appliances on standby as you will be astounded at the cumulative cost of all that wasted electricity.

A little household focus will have you saving money in no time as well as doing your bit for the environment too.

That only leaves the householdheating bills which can soon escalate depending what part of the country you live in. We were lucky enough to be introduced to cast iron wood stoves as a viable alternative source of not only heating the house but also for cooking too.

Woodburning stoves are very popular in some parts of the country and yet in others they are relatively unknown or even considered, which is a shame because they really are very effective and even cosy too if you want to huddle round a real wood fire.

The beauty of woodburners is the fact that on the one hand you can save yourself a serious amount of money on your domestic heating bills, but you will also be doing your bit for the environment by using recycled fuel and living neutral carbon footprint.

Once you start investigating them you will quickly find that a cast iron woodburning stove can come in all sorts of shapes and sizes and are useful for a whole range of options for example:

You could choose a stove with a back boiler to heat the radiator or supply hot water or you could get a stove that you could use for cooking. Equally if you are happy with you cooking arrangements you could just get a nice cosy log burner to supplement and reduce the cost of your existing heating.

In the past some people have been put off these very cost effective and environmentally friendly stoves as they only ran on wood but manufactures (bless their cotton socks) have introduced cast iron multifuel stoves as well.

Multi fuel stoves are really the answer for those who want their cake and want to eat it. You can for the most part switch from using real or recycled wood (or even peat depending on your locality) to your normal gas or electric supply so you never need to worry about running out of fuel.

Save your self money and do your bit for the environment and check out the latest range of cast iron stoves at your local supplier as soon as possible.

How to Install a Low-flow Faucet Aerator

You may have noticed a new trend lately in going green, but this choice doesn’t have to put you in the poor house. It can be as simple as attaching a $2.99 attachment to your kitchen faucet. Remember, it’s easy to make more expensive mistakes if you don’t spend some time on research. Many manufacturers label their product as “earth friendly” or “green” but there are no government standards in place currently to define what makes an item eco-friendly or not.

Follow these 5 tips to assist you on your journey to create a kitchen that will save you money, give you a fresh new look, & save the world all at once:

1. Buy a low-flow water faucet/aerator

• Why: A shiny new faucet is a simple upgrade, but kitchen faucets can vary from 1.5 – 4 gallons per minute in the amount of water that come from them. Low-flow bathroom faucets with the Environmental Protection Agency’s new WaterSense label are usually 30 percent more efficient than older models.

• Simple Eco Upgrade: Until the government comes up with some industry standard for low-flow kitchen faucets, for $3 to $11 you can make most new or existing taps more efficient simply by attaching an aerator. These simple devices save water plus lower utility bills as well, because less hot water is consumed. Because of this, low-flow aerators will typically pay you back in about 90 days.

• Cons: With lower flow, it might take a bit longer to fill that 2 gallon pot for spaghetti night.

• Suggested Purchase: Look for a gallon per minute rating of less than 2 gallons per minute or GPM (some are as high as 4 GPM). Many Kohler models offer an aerator that can reduce the GPM rate by about 25 percent. Don’t forget, even though it’s more expensive, you can purchase an adjustable aerator for your faucet. Keep the aerator on the slow speed when using the sink for typical use and set it to high speed to fill up big pans with water. Another green choice is a hands-free faucet, like the Danze Parma D421058, $480 or other low-flow Danze faucets.

• Keep in Mind: When you find a faucet that fits your budget and style, make sure it has a lifetime warranty that covers stains and water-wasting leaks. Also, some kitchen aerators will allow you to flip between two flow rates without affecting the water temperature

2. Switch to low wattage lighting

• Why: Modern kitchens can use up to 2,000 watts for lighting (especially track lighting) because standard incandescent, halogen, and xenon lights are energy vacuums. All that burning heat from your inefficient lights might motivate you to turn down the A/C to keep the room cool.

• Simple Eco Upgrade: Switch to cool-burning compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) in your fixtures, and also consider adding some LED or fluorescent under cabinet task lighting. This simple remodel costs a little under $200 for 5 fluorescent fixtures.

• Cons: A handful of CFLs and LEDs cast a bluish or other odd color light. Before you buy, double check the return policy to see if you can return it even if you don’t like the way the light looks with your décor. Better yet, try the brand new light in your local Ace Hardware or ask an associate for their opinion.

• Suggested Purchase: Strips are the most common type of task lighting, round “hockey puck” lights are best for casting pools of light onto a counter and linear lights are best if you need more versatile fixtures. Both round “puck” lights and linear lights can be discovered with LEDs.

• Keep in Mind: If your cabinets don’t have a built-in valence to hide task lighting, either add one or choose a fixture with a sleek housing that’s not as noticeable.

3. Install a ceiling fan

• Why: Kitchens get hot, and if you use an air conditioner to cool things off, it will gobble up a lot of energy and money.

• Simple Eco Upgrade: A ceiling fan in the kitchen will use only a fraction of the electricity that an A/C would.

• Cons: Aesthetics, few people have ceiling fans in kitchens for a reason, it doesn’t usually look good.

• Suggested Purchase: There are a number of great models from Hampton Bay, Harbor Breeze, and Hunter, and most circulate air about the same. So rather than shop for a particular brand, go for a style the lady likes and you find on clearance and remember that lighting affects energy use.

• Keep in Mind: You might be able to find CFLs designed for ceiling fans that can replace the original bulbs and save energy. You need to remember CFLs on the market now don’t function correctly with fans that have light dimmers.

4. Refurbish with second hand materials

• Why: A new countertop or cabinet face can change the whole look of your kitchen, but producing them keeps coal power plants polluting the air and some “earth friendly” materials aren’t as green as they might seem.

• Simple Eco Upgrade: Before you buy new, see if you can find used materials.

• Suggested Purchase: Salvage shops are stocked with new or lightly used stone countertops, hardwood flooring, decorative lumber, and kitchen cabinets, so they’re a great place to look for bargains. Even better, Habitat for Humanity sells used and surplus building materials at outlets called ReStores.

• Keep in Mind: If you will buy brand new, at least search for greener cabinets and other products made from sustainable lumber and materials.

5. Trade in/Sell the biggest energy hogs

• Why: The appliances in your kitchen that take the most energy to operate are refrigerators and dishwashers. The more geriatric these appliances are, the less energy efficient they are and the more expensive they are to run.

• Simple Eco Upgrade: Only open the doors when you know what you want. Open fridges are the biggest energy hogs so don’t waste time & energy browsing with the door open. Also, it usually doesn’t pay to salvage working appliances with new ones. But when you choose to update, search for models that require less energy & are quieter. Though energy efficient models can cost more, you’ll recoup the money as your utility bills shrink.

• Suggested Purchase: Look for appliances that are Energy Star qualified. These ENERGY STAR qualified refrigerators need only half as much energy as models manufactured before 1993. Also ENERGY STAR qualified refrigerator models use high efficiency compressors, improved insulation, and more precise temperature and defrost mechanisms to improve energy efficiency. Switching out a dishwasher manufactured before 1994 with an ENERGY STAR qualified dishwasher can save you more than $32 a year in utility costs. These also use significantly less water than decade old models. This can help extend the life of your septic tank.

• Keep in Mind: You don’t have to get rid of all the old appliances at once. Start with the ones that are the biggest energy hogs. When repairs would cost more than 50% of a new appliance, it makes sense to go ahead and replace them with a new one.

If this is all seems complicated some online retailers make it easier for you such as Designer Plumbing Outlet with the help of Site Search technology by SLI Systems. When looking for kitchen items on their e-commerce store you can easily refine your search by “Eco-Friendly” results. This helps makes the search easier and makes going green even simpler when buying new.

It’s not such an unfortunate thing that exorbitant gas prices are making it necessary for us to reevaluate our driving routines. Even at the regular prices (if there is such a thing), many of us never really slowed down how much we drove and, for this reason, caused a lot of air pollution from our cars. With a cheap moped, we can get excellent gas mileage so we’re going to save a lot of money, and in view of the fact that a moped dispenses far less pollution into the air than our car, you could say that we’ll be helping to save the air, as well.

What a difference it would make if everyone bought a cheap moped and used it in alternating fashion between trips they take throughout the day. Let’s say you’re heading to lunch, alone, and not planning on bringing anything (big) back. A cheap moped is absolutely your ride. It’s not only reasonable gas-wise, but fun,, which is another way of saying that you’ll really enjoy saving money!

Even in deadlocked traffic, you’ll arrive at your destination and back again, more quickly. Take lunch time, for example. It appears to be a tradition that everyone goes to lunch at the same time, so you have to allow for the time in traffic in your short 30 minute or one hour lunch break. You’ll be able to cut through traffic legally and easily (and for the most part, safely), riding the line between lanes. Plus, once you get to where you’re going, you won’t have a challenge finding a parking space just about anywhere. You’ll also get a nice exhilarating ride that differs a lot from driving in a car (even with the windows down), which can’t help but to get you a new lease on your day.

There are a whole bunch of benefits to driving your cheap moped to and from work. It saves a huge amount of money in your gas budget column, cuts down on air pollution, lets you to get from Point A to Point B a whole lot faster, makes parking when you get to wherever easier, and the ride, itself, can give you a whole new lease on life. Imagine getting to work quicker, not sitting in traffic, saving money, and having fun, all at the same time. Changing the way you drive to work and around town just seems right. Cheap mopeds are so affordable that you and a friend could each purchase one and “ride” together as well, which could double your fun!