by guest bloggers from Energy Star. Heating your home is not only hard on your wallet, but it’s hard on the environment, too. When power plants burn fossil fuels to make electricity, they release greenhouse gases. By using less energy at home, you can help reduce the emissions that contribute to climate change, and save money while you’re at it. Here are 6 helpful energy-saving tips:
Maria Recommends
My Top 10 Predictions for 2013
Over the years I’ve predicted trends for myself and expressed them primarily by saying “I knew that was going to happen!” after the fact. But this time I’m going to commit them to paper. Since it’s my first time, I’m not really making any promises. My methodology includes exposure to multiple sources of information and expertise, observing people in many different places, and most important, a feeling I get in my gut, a kind of craving.
4 Yoga Moves to Jumpstart
the New Year
by guest blogger Kathryn Budig. I absolutely love seeing people set intention. Yogis (people who practice yoga) set intention at the beginning of every practice. It’s a way of keeping us inspired even when we don’t feel it. I’ve chosen four “New Year Jumpstart” poses from my Women’s Health Big Book of Yoga because each pose creates strength, confidence and potential. Physically speaking they will all make you stronger.
The Year of Daring Greatly
The best book I read in 2012 was Daring Greatly, by Brene Brown. But 2013 is the year I’m going to put Brown’s discoveries into action. I think some people would say (including myself) that I’ve done my share of daring greatly—with both success and failure. I’ve certainly had my share of critics. But what is truly wonderful about Brene Brown’s book is that, as a PhD researcher, she has been able to help me understand how and why I do what I do, and why it’s good to do even more of it.
The Dangers & Delights of Downton Abbey
by guest blogger Maya Rodale. My mother, who has forced me to stay up past my bedtime to watch PBS’s Masterpiece Theatre (now called Masterpiece) all my life, has not seen Downton Abbey. Neither has my history-obsessed English husband. But why I ask, desperately. How can you not watch the masterpiece of all Masterpiece Theatres?! Interestingly enough, they both gave the same answer: fear.
What to Do with All That Holiday Plastic
By guest blogger Beth Terry. A common question I get from readers of my blog at the end of the holiday season is what to do about plastic gifts, wrapping, and other holiday accoutrements from well-meaning friends and family. For those of us working to reduce the amount of plastic we consume and the plastic waste we produce, the holidays can be challenging. Despite my best efforts, I sometimes still end up awash in unexpected plastic at the end of the holidays. Here are a few ideas for what to do with some of it:
5 Tips for Effective Resolutions
For a “woman of action” such as myself, this is most important time of the year for contemplating where I’ve been, where I’m headed, and much more importantly where I want to go (and what I want to do.) It’s a time of rebirth, and I use that energy to create the year that I want to have ahead of me, rather than let it happen accidentally. So are five things I’ve learned that help guide me towards a better New Year.
Scratch
Raised on America’s first organic farm, Scratch author Maria Rodale learned how to make everyday favorites from, yes, scratch — the way you remember them; the way they turn out best.
Order NowOrganic Manifesto
Drawing on findings from leading health researchers as well as conversations with both chemical and organic farmers from coast to coast, Maria Rodale irrefutably outlines the unacceptably high cost of chemical farming on our health and our environment.
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