Feeling tired? Exhausted? Lacking concentration? Lacking motivation? Whilst energy drinks, coffee, and pharmaceuticals may offer a quick short-term solution and “hit” of energy, they are not doing you, your loved ones or the planet any favors.

If you’d like to get off the roller coaster ride of energy highs and lows, it might be a good idea to consider other options. Following is a number of lifestyle choices and rituals specifically targeted to help improve energy levels. I encourage you to challenge yourself this next month by making a conscious effort to implement these alternatives in to your everyday life, and take note of how you feel in four weeks’ time.

Invigorate your body and mind. Take a few minutes to give yourself an energizing massage. Focus on your breathing. Stretch and exercise your body. Movement is the key to a healthy body, mind and soul. Moisturize your skin with invigorating oils. Nourish yourself with a well balanced meal and drink an adequate amount of purified water each day. Radiate with life.

Diet

Give up stimulants such as coffee, sugar and mainstream chocolate for one month and make a conscious effort to become aware of the difference in how you feel. Yes, you may suffer withdrawal symptoms such as headaches and fatigue for a couple of days but once you push through these 2 – 4 days, you’ll come out the other end feeling so much better.

Choose herbal teas instead of coffee.

Choose protein rich foods such as nuts, seeds or hummus on carrots, cucumber and celery as snacks instead of chocolate and sweets.

I used to be a coffee-a-day girl… nothing serious… just the usual morning “pick me up” that I became dependent on. But one day I started to think that coffee had control of me and I detested the fact that I “needed” my coffee fix. So I decided to give it up. The first day was horrid. I lay in foetal position for 4 hours with a splitting headache that no painkiller could suppress. But then something magical happened after day-two, I no longer had that “need” for my morning kick starter and it was like a cloud had been lifted off my mind. More clarity. More energy. Myore morning motivation.

General dietary advice for sustained energy, health and wellbeing
Graze rather than overeat. Large meals are harder to digest, place a strain on your organs and can result in indigestion and sleepiness.
Eat a balanced, nutritious diet based on organic and biodynamic wholefoods: fruit, vegetables, wholegrains, nuts and seeds.
Choose a wide variety of brightly colored fruits and vegetables that are in season.
Take either a heaped tablespoon of ground flax, pumpkin, sesame and sunflower seeds, or a tablespoon of blended seed oil. My favorite is Udos Omega 3:6:9 Oil Blend.
Eat probiotic-rich foods to improve your digestive and immune health. eg, kefir
Drink clean filtered tap water and herbal teas.
AVOID alcohol, caffeine, smoking, processed foods and take-out food with added chemicals and processed ingredients; AVOID fat free, diet, low or no cholesterol packaged foods. AVOID cage eggs, dairy and meat that is not pasture fed. AVOID refined table salt, sugar and margarine. AVOID soft drinks, cordial, bottled juices and vitamin waters that are full of sugar and artificial additives.

Exercise
Being unfit and overweight places a massive strain on the body, depleting your energy. There is so much research out there stating that regular exercise is one of the best physical stress-reduction techniques, that it relaxes tense muscles, helps you to sleep, improves blood flow to the brain and releases chemicals called endorphins in to your blood stream giving you a feeling of happiness. Oh, and the fact that a little exercise each day is wonderful for improving stamina and oxygenation of the body.

For the next month make the effort to move your body every day. Whether its a brisk 15 minute walk around the block, a half hour jog in the park, a yoga class, workout at the gym, swim at the beach, laps in the pool, or bicycle ride, do something to get your body moving and body sweating.

Personally I really start to feel it if I dont exercise for a few weeks: I become more lazy and sleep in that little bit longer, I become brilliant at conjuring up reasons why I deserve my sleep ins, my mood drops, I lack inspiration and no longer have that spring in my step or vibrant energy that I love so much. The simple truth is that movement is the key to a healthy body, mind and soul. Your body loves to move. It was designed to move.

Aromatherapy
Aromatherapy is a true holistic approach to healing in that it uses oils extracted from plants and flowers to treat the physical, mental and spiritual body. Essential oils stimulate receptors in the nose which relay messages to the limbic system, the part of the brain that regulates emotions. The use of essential oils is nothing new, dating back thousands of years. The most beneficial part of aromatherapy, in my opinion, is that it can be incorporated into daily life via creams, massage oils, bath oils, compresses and for burning in an oil burner; and that blends can be tailor made to suit your requirements, for example, to uplift and invigorate.

Uplifting and Invigorating essential oils
Lemon is reputed to have properties which can lift the spirits and overcome mental fatigue.
Peppermint is renowned for enhancing concentration and stimulating circulation.
Eucalyptus is renowned for restoring vitality and reviving spirits.
Rosemary is associated with clearing thoughts and is renowned for promoting circulation of energy.

Morning Ritual
Start each morning by body brushing your dry skin to stimulate the lymphatic system. Shower, and then gently massage your body with a light layer of body oil scented with invigorating essential oils to help wake up your body and mind. If you’d prefer not to use a scented body moisturizer then add a few drops of invigorating essential oils to the shower and transform your morning cleanse into an uplifting experience to help wake you up.

Daytime Ritual
If you work in an office, how about going for a walk in your lunch break in a nearby park, around the harbor, by the beach or simply around the block to help clear your mind and improve energy levels for a more productive afternoon. Use the opportunity to fill your lungs with fresh air. Find a quiet place and take a moment to focus on your breathing. With every inhale, breathe in energizing oxygen. With every exhale breathe out stress, fatigue and stale thoughts.

When Im at work, I make the effort to take regular breaks from my computer by getting up and going for a walk around the garden in the sunshine, to help recharge and refresh my mind. It works!

Afternoon Ritual
If you’re one that feels drowsy and lacking concentration around 3pm, please don’t reach for the nearest chocolate bar or coffee cup. It may be due to the natural cycle (and dip) of your circadian rhythm and the associated anticipation of sleep. Try burning uplifting and invigorating essential oils in an oil burner around this time, or sip on a stimulating herbal tea such as gingko, peppermint and schisandra that are all renowned for their uplifting properties.

Most importantly, please remember to be kind, gentle and patient with yourself as you’re learning these new ways of thinking, doing and considering. Keep in mind that every moment in the day is a new opportunity to make a different choice – a choice to help improve your holistic health and happiness that not only benefits you, but your loved ones and the planet we all share.

Improve Your Energy Levels by Sam Sample

Ten years ago, Marguerite Alston was faced with a major health challenge that would change her life forever. A malignant melanoma diagnosis sent her stress levels off the scale. Her future was suddenly uncertain.

“I vowed at that point in time that I would do all that I can to look after my body, mind and spirit,” she says, now fully recovered. “I wanted to learn all that I could about nutrition and gain a deeper understanding of what I can do to make sure I live a long, vibrant and healthy life and I never wanted to deal with cancer ever again.”

Before we bring you the second installment of our interview with the BodyMind Institute founder, Lars Gustafsson (see below), The Green Dove brings you this inspirational Q&A with Marguerite (pictured below), BodyMind student and now practitioner.

Students of the Institute not only learn the fundamentals of nutrition through body, mind and spirit, but also discover how to apply the information to their own lives to make gentle yet major shifts that last a lifetime.

If you missed part one of our interview with Lars, please click here.

TGD: What courses did you study at the BodyMind Institute?

MA: I started with the 90 Day Renewal course and have since taken the Level I, Level II and am currently enrolled in the Raw Certification.

TGD: Can you give an insight into what brought you to the Institute?

MA: In 2000, I went through some significant life changes that resulted in lots of stress throughout the year.

You just have to browse the web or your nearest book store to see the world is obsessed with dieting. Yet if statistics are accurate, were not just tipping the scales, were on our way to breaking them. It has taken many of us years of restrictions and meal replacements to figure it out: diets dont work.

From calorie counting to cutting out carbs, a Pandoras Box awaits those who still dare to follow the latest diet craze. Yet achieving and maintaining your ideal figure is actually more simple than what weve been lead to believe-and it comes with a bonus: vibrant health.

There is one major requirement thats needed on this path to ultimate wellness and the body weve all dreamed of: taking full responsibility. Taking charge and becoming our own nutritionist and not relying on big business to deliver a magic bullet that is nothing more than body-disruptive chemicals dressed in drag.

Perhaps its an assumption to say most of us were taught the same stuff in school, none of which covered off real nutrition and how to actually apply it. Yet, the lesson of nutrition is one of the most important life lessons we can ever learn. We also werent taught that nourishing ourselves is actually fun and can lead us to a full, love-fueled life. A nourished, healthy body results in clear thinking, more energy and, for many, a channel to the divine. No pill could ever compete with that.

Enter Lars Gustafsson: author, speaker, life and nutrition guide. Born in India to Canadian parents, he grew up living an authentic mix of tribal and western life. “This upbringing,” he says “created a balance between the scientific passion of the west and the ancient wisdom of the Far East.”

For 23 years, Lars has explored nutrition, fitness and healthy lifestyles. As founder of the BodyMind Institute-a global enlightened school of learning-he teaches that nutrition is so much more than just the food we eat. Its the total way we nourish our mind and body.

“Over these years I found that I needed to personally experience something in order to accept it as fact. In the end I have found that it is only through personal experience in the application of any information can you make your own informed decisions. Your own level of personal truth will grow according to your willingness to experience more.”

In 2003, Lars introduced The BodyMind Nutrition Certification online programs to meet an emerging demand for true to life systems, formulas and programs, creating the opportunity for people everywhere to discover and pass on a nutrition and lifestyle process that creates a personal discovery of balance in body, mind and spirit.

“I believe in the scientific method, that there are natural laws that govern our physical universe … yet in these 23 years I have often found the ‘unexplainable’ happening all around me,” Lars says. “These have created questions which led me to find hard scientific data that hasn’t found it’s way into the mass media or awareness of the masses.”

“Over these years I found that I needed to personally experience something in order to accept it as fact. In the end I have found that it is only through personal experience in the application of any information can you make your own informed decisions. Your own level of personal truth will grow according to your willingness to experience more.”

Most recently, Lars has teamed up with raw food nutritionist and expert David €˜Avocado Wolfe to deliver a program in raw food nutrition-a course that shares more than 15 years of Davids sought-after knowledge. With this course and other programs including 90 Day BodyMind Renewal and Sports Nutrition, the BodyMind Institute is changing the way we look at real nutrition, forever.

As a student of the BodyMind Raw Nutrition, the 90 Day BodyMind Renewal and the Nutrition I certifications, I wanted to reach out to Lars, to hear first hand how these online courses are bringing real nutrition to people at their own pace, in their own time. What I discovered is a man with a passion that goes beyond simply developing courses. Lars Gustafsson is making a difference, one person at a time through life-enhancing education that literally changes lives.

So passionate is he about reaching those who share his dream to make a difference, that with David Wolfe, Lars is offering free entry to the BodyMind Institute Level I BodyMind Nutrition Certification for those who sign up for Davids Raw Nutrition Certification. Its a $1,500 gift, he explains, to reach those who also want to make a difference-to their own health, the health of others and the health of the planet.

“Lets bring about a stunning shift to our planet together,” Lars (pictured left) says.

We hope you enjoy part I of our interview with Lars (below), as he takes you behind the scenes of his passion that is giving back in a big way. Next Monday (May 17) we will share part II of this special interview.

To find out more about Lars and the BodyMind Institute, please click here.

The Body Mind Connection: The Key to Ultimate Health by Shanon Dunn. Main photo courtesy alicepopkorn

With our global emphasis on green and sustainable living, many people are actively doing their part to engage in “green acts”. Whether its recycling, toting reusable grocery bags, there are a number of ways to engage yourself in balanced living

Seeing Differently

Step one to realigning your lifestyle using eco-principles is to begin seeing differently. See your entire existence as emerged within eco-living, rather than you as an individual acting out green acts.

Stuart Haygarth would have taken this advice literally, inventing a sustainable eye glass chandelier that uses 620 pairs of discarded lenses to form a globe-like chandelier. For the designer, perhaps his living art is not only an example of using creativity to craft lifestyle choices, but also symbolic of what visionary work we can accomplish if we begin to see a little differently.

Turning a Domestic Green Leaf

Turning over a green leaf begins with ourselves, in how we think and then in how we carry out those thoughts. Once we have internal balance, our focus can shift smoothly to an external balance. And while you may not be able to go save the rain forest, you can begin by changing how you view your home.

View your home as an eco-habitat in itself, and once you perceive your home this way, youll treat it with more green care. The simplest way to begin thinking this way is to look at what toxic elements could be in your home – perhaps in your vacuum cleaner, carpet, paint, whether you have energy-efficient appliances, or even checking to see if the plastics you use to cook and eat with are made with toxic chemicals.

Traditional Beauty Tips that Pass the Test of Time…

Everyone may not like being told “I told you so”, and most women may also not like thinking their mother was right. However, on stepping upon the threshold of 30, and with my mother now in her early sixties, I cant help but notice that on a good day, she looks not more than maybe only five or ten years older.

And with each wrinkle, thinned out skin or spot I notice, I hear her quite literally echoing voice telling me “I told you so”. So what was it exactly that she used to always harp on about while growing up?

Quite simply, endless beauty tips that at that time seemed to have been written on stone tablets alongside Moses 10 Commandments. But these then thought of as primitive beauty routines now seem charming and simple in an age where we’re constantly fed a barrage of beauty adverts and overly photo-shopped images of perfection.

In my own desperate attempt to look great, I have ventured down every possible winding road that ultimately lead me nowhere, and pick-pocketing

Reason and emotion, mind and heart, are the regulators of the bodys response to whole food medicine. It has been demonstrated millions of times and for thousands of years that whole food diets, colonics, mono diets and fasting restore disturbances in metabolism, the immune system, respiratory function and mental outlook.

It is considered that the increasing levels of pollutants, chemicals, and food additives encountered by anyone living in an industrialized society can create a toxic overload in the body which can lead to more than 95% of all human diseases. The human body is designed to be able to clean and repair itself. It is only when it is overwhelmed, that good health goes south and greater Self-Care is called for.

Every moment of the bodys existence, whether in health or disease, is wrapped in and electro-chemical matrice of emotional molecules, generated by the limbic emotional centre of the brain. The neutral circuitry there causes neurosecretors to create actual molecules in response to emotions.

These emotional molecular crystalline structures are an electric chemistry that oscillates in frequencies that match anatomical and physiological structures throughout the body. In this, €˜like is drawn unto itself. Simply stated, the chemistry of the emotion we call “anger”, moves through the body as molecules, then, when we no longer need them, because molecules of calm have replaced their need in the body, they are collected and released by the bladder.

If anger doesnt erupt, or is not released, over time €˜feelings of resentment and hostility can develop and can become persistent. This constant state overwhelms the bladder because negative emotional molecules are going to wreak havoc. It may be as simple as a bladder infection.

If the feelings persist and whole foods – whose electrochemical messages that generate calm emotional feelings to release the stress molecules – are not eaten, the infection could lead to a tumor (for instance) to contain them. Over time and distance this could lead to cancer. Its intriguing to me that our language has even developed phrases that allude to this reality.

We usually say that, “these people love to, piss and moan.” For more of the science behind the creation of emotional molecules, see the discussion on ‘set point energy’ in The White Stone Carillon segment, starting on page 500 of the Farmacist Desk Reference. I think that you’ll find it fascinating. Impulses are the medium of electrical surges that generate and build into emotional states. The seed of all impulse is a feeling generated by neurons in response to an impression made upon our senses bursting for expression into action.

All of the bodys responses are created by emotional molecules of photo-electric biochemistry. For more information about the relationship between human emotional frequency and whole foods, youll find an entire section on Feeding Your Emotions in my Encyclopedia of Wholefood Medicine, the Farmacist Desk Reference (FDR).

__________________________________________________________________________________ Feeding Your Emotions written by Don Tolman. Copyright Don Tolman International 2009. All Rights Reserved.

Don Tolman International publishes the popular P.O.W.E.R. (Pearls of Wisdom, Enlightenment and Results) weekly eZine with over 9,800 subscribers from all over the globe. If you’re ready to discover the wisdom and power of Self-Care and Self-Education and receive FREE tips and EVENT news from Don Tolman International, join our online community today and you’ll immediately be emailed a FREE eBook entitled “WHAT MAKES A BALANCED DIET”. Subscribe to: P.O.W.E.R. now

Salt is a vital substance for the survival of all living creatures, particularly humans. Water and salt regulate the water content of the body. Water itself regulates the water content of the interior of the cell by working it’s way into all of the cells it reaches. It has to get there to cleanse and extract the toxic wastes of cell metabolism.

Salt forces some water to stay outside the cells by balancing the amount of water that stays outside the cells. There are two oceans of water in the body; one ocean is held inside the cells of the body and the other ocean is held outside the cells. Good health depends on a most delicate balance between the volume of these oceans and this balance is achieved by salt – unrefined salt.

When water is available to get inside the cells freely, it is filtered from the outside salty ocean and injected into the cells that are being overworked despite their water shortage. This is the reason why in severe dehydration people can develop an “edema” and retain water.

The design of our bodies is such that the extent of the ocean of water outside the cells is expanded to have the extra water available for filtration and emergency injection into vital cells. The brain commands an increase in salt and water retention by the kidneys. This is how we get an “edema” when we dont drink enough water.

Initially, the process of water filtration and it’s delivery into the cells is more efficient at night when the body is horizontal. The collected water, that mostly pools in the legs, does not have to fight the force of gravity to get into the blood circulation.

If reliance on this process of emergency hydration of some cells continues for long, the lungs begin to get waterlogged at night and breathing becomes difficult. The person needs to sit upright to sleep. This condition is a consequence of dehydration. However, you might overload the system by drinking too much water at the beginning. Increases in water intake must be slow and spread out until urine production begins to increase at the same rate that you drink water.

When we drink enough water to pass clear urine, we also pass out a lot of the salt that was held back. This is how we can get rid of “edema” fluid in the body; by drinking more water – not diuretics, more water!

In people who have an extensive “edema” and show signs of their heart beginning to have irregular or very rapid beats with least effort, the increase in water intake should be gradual and spaced out, but not withheld from the body. Naturally, salt intake should be limited for two or three days because the body is still in an overdrive mode to retain it. Once the “edema” has cleared up, salt should not be withheld from the body.

Salt has many other functions other than just regulating the water content of the body. Here are just some of the more vital functions of salt in the body:

1. Salt is most effective in stablizing irregular heart beats and is essential to the regulation of blood pressure (despit what we’re told)
2. Salt is vital to for the clearance of the lungs of mucous (essential for asthma cases)
3. Salt is vital for the rapid healing of infection and viral overwhelm
4. Salt is vital for balancing sugar levels in the blood (an important element for diabetics)
5. Salt is vital for the generation of hydroelectric energy in the cells (the body’s power source)
6. Salt is vital for the absorption of food particles through the intestinal tract
7. Salt is essential for preventing muscle cramps
8. Salt is critical for making the structure of the bones strong (osteoperosis is largely the result of a shortage of water and salt)

To discover more on salt, check out my Farmacist Desk Reference (FDR). It contains over 1,600 pages of self-care, health and healing wisdom. It’s the world’s first Encyclopedia of Wholefood Medicine. CLICK HERE to find out more.

The Dirt on Salt (and Water) written by Don Tolman. Copyright. All Rights Reserved.

__________________________________________________________________________

Don Tolman International publishes the popular P.O.W.E.R (Pearls of Wisdom, Enlightenment and Results) weekly eZine with over 9,500 subscribers from all over the globe.

If you’re ready to discover the wisdom and power of Self-Care and Self-Education and receive FREE tips and EVENT news from Don Tolman International, join our online community today and you’ll immediately be emailed a FREE eBook entitled “WHAT MAKES A BALANCED DIET”. Subscribe to: P.O.W.E.R. now!

Watching your pennies? Are you allergic to some of the cosmetic products on the market? Here are some concoctions made with simple ingredients right from your kitchen, courtesy of nature.

Brighten up your dark hair color with the addition of one tablespoon of strong coffee to your conditioner; apply and leave on for 15 minutes, then rinse well. Redheads try this recipe of 1 cup of steeped cranberry tea, let it cool and pour over your hair. Let it stay on for about 15 minutes, then rinse. Blondes can follow the same directions but with chamomile tea to give a bright luster. Fresh lemon juice diluted in distilled water (half and half) will also produce a sunny shine.

For all hair colors that need some shine, mash half a banana, and a half of an avocado together with a few drops of jojoba oil. Apply this mask on all strands of your hair, paying close attention to the ends and let it stay on for approximately 20 minutes. Rinse with warm water and towel dry, applying a bit more of the oil to the ends. The salons charge a big buck for this treatment, of course under a different name.

Allergic to lip colors? Take a small piece of a beet and apply it not only on your lips, but also on your cheeks for an excellent blusher To remove dark spots from face and body rub the inside rind, (the pulp and juice) of a lemon over the area, let it dry, do not rinse off. For a refreshing mask to tighten and clean the pores mix an oatmeal paste in the palm of your hand and smooth it over the face and neck. When dry, rinse with tepid water and follow with splashes of cool distilled water.

White and brighten your teeth with the inside of orange rinds (the white inner skin). Just rub over the teeth after brushing. It not only whitens but also leaves a pleasant taste. The same with strawberries: rub the pulp over the teeth and gums and leave on for a few seconds then rinse out. This also leaves a fresh taste on the palate. For alluring eye-shadow blueberries and grapes are excellent.

The tomato pulp mask is great for blackheads and whiteheads as well as blocking oily skin and shrinking large pores. Just apply the inside pulp and let dry, then rinse off with tepid water, pat dry with a terry cloth towel and apply witch hazel as an after toner.

You can look good without the commercial products just try a few things yourself and experiment with fruits, vegetables and natural grains, found right in your kitchen. Or write me for more natural make-up and skin-care ideas. Pantry pretty skin care and cosmetics may take a bit longer to take effect, but the money (and environment) saved is certainly worth the time.

Be Pantry Pretty for Pennies by Betty Guy-Willis. Betty is a columnist/author, motivational speaker and beauty consultant, specializing in anti-aging and age subtracting. You may write her at P.O. Box 10713 Beverly Hills, CA 90213 Please include a stamped/self-addressed envelope.

Photo: Style O Sight

Dr Michael Klapper, is a man who really knows his stuff when it comes to real nutrition – from food the body does and doesnt need to survive (and thrive). He believes strongly that proper nutrition and a balanced lifestyle are essential for health, rather than merely treating the symptoms when someone becomes ill.

Check out this video of Dr Klapper where he shares information, insights and the truth about foods we eat that are killing us. You can also find out more about him here.

One important word on soy, which Dr Klapper recommends in part six of this video. Be sure it’s fermented soy, as most soy products on the supermarket shelf aren’t good for you, stopping the body from absorbing nutrients. To get the lowdown on soy, check out this video on soy from Dr Mercola.

By Adria Vasil

Maybe it’s the half-Greek in me, but there’s nothing that makes me giddier then the sight of a table full of food (well, other than actually eating the food). Trouble is most of what we stack onto our plates isn’t just weighing on our hips, hearts and cells, it’s also bloating the planet with packaging, pesticides and climate-changing gases. How can you get your fill without, er, tipping the ecological scales?

Just follow Ecoholic’s 5 earth- and body-friendly tips.

1. Eat Close To Home: And by that I don’t mean ordering takeout from your local pizza joint! Search for produce grown in your own county/state. If you can’t find homegrown garlic/greens/grapes at the grocery store, don’t be shy, ask the produce manager for more local options and trove farmers’ markets for freshly picked goodies. Not only does buying locally translate into fewer dirty fossil fuels trucking or shipping that food to you, it also means you’re helping to preserve nearby farmlands and valuable green spaces. Plus, betchya didn’t know that the vitamin content of a just-picked tomato is higher than in one plucked before it was ripe then carted 2500 miles. It tastes a hell of a lot better, too. To track down the greenest local food sources near you, punch in your zip code at localharvest.org.

2. Try Tofu Tuesdays. Eating fewer meaty meals isn’t just good for your cholesterol count, your waistline and your pocketbook — it’s also one of the top moves you can make for the planet. Gassy livestock literally burp and, um, expel more of the world’s greenhouse gases than cars, trains and planes combined! In fact, one University of Chicago study found that eating 20% fewer animal products every week reduces your greenhouse gas footprint as much as switching from a sedan to an ultra efficient Prius! And since, despite what your mom told you, there won’t always be more fish in the sea, pick your seafood choices wisely with the help of a pocket-size guide from seafoodwatch.org. Smaller fish like sardines aren’t only more sustainable than big daddies like tuna, they’re also way lighter in pollutants like mercury.

3. Get It Fair and Square: Quick, pick three things that get you through the day and I’ll bet you twenty bucks that coffee, chocolate and sugar make the list. Since none of the above grow on U.S. soil (well other than beet sugar), you want to be sure you buy the kind with a Fair Trade Certified label on the package. Why? Well, the workers that pick those ingredients are generally paid so poorly they’d have to work 3 days just to afford a Starbucks grande latte! Fair trade certified farms, on the other hand, pay farmhands in developing countries a decent wage, give their families access to health care and education and forbid the use of ultra toxic pesticides (which makes them better for your health, too). Bonus: your sugar-/caffeine-/chocolate-rush blissfully guilt-free.

4. Pass on packaging (especially the plastic kind): What goes into a Ding Dong is one thing; what’s wrapped around it is a whole other ball of plastic. Just stop emptying your kitchen’s trash bin for a week and you’ll find yourself knee deep in the food packaging (think milk cartons, cereal boxes, frozen food trays and all the double to triple layers of wrap around cookies, crackers, you name it). No wonder nearly a third of all the garbage we toss every year is packaging! Avoid the whole landfill bound mess by buying in bulk and bringing your own storage sacs shopping (you’ll find some at reusablebags.com). Choose loose lettuce instead of the boxed stuff. Buy concentrated ingredients like broth in dry form instead of bulkier watered-down cartons. And when you have a choice, pick the jam/juice/soup that comes in glass (it doesn’t leach dodgy toxins like tin cans and some plastics can).

5. Fork out for the right organics: In my dream Ecoholicland, everything in the grocery stores would be deliciously organic and we could all afford to eat chemical-free 365 days a year. But in the real world, most of us have to budget our pesticide-free picks. If you have young children, look at what they eat the most of (like milk or grapes) and switch those items to organic first. And though, yes, 73% of the fruits and veg checked by the FDA tested positive for pesticide residues, to be fair, some are worse then others. Spend your money on certified organic peaches, peppers and spinach before buying, say, organic broccoli (since conventional broccoli is quite low in residues). For a guide to the 12 worst and best produce items you can print or download to your phone, head to foodnews.org. Of course the cheapest (and tastiest) organics are the ones you grow yourself in your backyard. Okay, fine, so it’s a little late to start tomatoes, but you’re right on time to plant spinach, kale, lettuce and more. Money can’t buy greener greens.