A healthy pat on the back
Does embracing healthy living feel like you have to fuss about everything you do all the time, be deprived all the time and suffer tons of rules? All the things you wish you could leave behind, right? Okay, then, do so!
In this blog, I bring things to your awareness so you can make better choices. Become aware; choose differently; move on. I don’t want this to be discouraging; I want you to become enlightened to lead a healthier and more enjoyable life.
So, along with putting into place things that bump up the chances of you getting or remaining healthy, add this one:
Notice what you’re doing right. It’s there. Honestly. Give yourself some credit for what you already do that makes a difference in your health.
Beating yourself up for not having a perfect health scorecard isn’t going to help at all. Sure, it’s good to realize where and how changes will help you. But focusing on the positives as well is going to make a difference. Congratulate yourself when you have success, and don’t just simply think that whatever you did wasn’t enough or doesn’t counteract the negatives.
Isn’t that a more inviting approach?
Too often, we look at what we don’t do instead of acknowledging the things we do already. We’ve been trained to highlight the negative. So, banish that training; it isn’t useful. Highlight the positive this upcoming week, and see how you do. Notice how that feels. See if that just doesn’t encourage you to do more.
The power in small acts
“Too often we under estimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear,
an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring,
all of which have the potential to turn a life around.”
~ Leo Buscaglia
The dose of BPA you don’t realize you’re getting
I hope, by now, you’re aware that you don’t want to use plastic products that contain BPA, an industrial chemical believed to cause cancer and interfere with your endocrine and reproductive systems. You use more glassware and stainless steel, and you check to make sure the plastic items you do buy — like water bottles, baby bottles and even canned goods — are BPA free.
But, guess what? An even bigger dose might be invading your cells nearly every day.
How many days of the week do you go to the store? Get gas? Use the ATM? Eat out? Go to the library? All of those might be exposing you to BPA.
How? It’s in many paper receipts. And in extremely high levels. John Warner, from the Warner Babcock Institute for Green Chemistry, says that data he’s collected suggests that store receipts could be a — if not the — leading source of BPA exposure in Americans.
“When people talk about polycarbonate bottles, they talk about nanogram quantities of BPA,” Warner told Science News magazine. “The average cash register receipt that’s out there and uses the BPA technology will have 60 to 100 milligrams of free BPA.”
The Environmental Working Group investigated receipts in seven states and the District of Columbia last year, finding high concentrations of BPA in at least one of several samples from Chevron, McDonalds, CVS, KFC, Whole Foods, Safeway, the U.S. Postal Service, Walmart and the cafeteria at the U.S. House of Representatives. Nearly half the samples contained BPA, some at 250-1,000 times the levels found in canned foods.
A receipt for a McDonald’s Happy Meal, purchased in Clinton, Connecticut, had an estimated 13 milligrams of BPA, which equals the amount of BPA that you’d get from 126 cans of a product found to have some of the highest concentrations of BPA in a 2007 EWG test.
Testing showed no BPA in receipt samples from Target, Starbucks, Bank of America ATMs and the U.S. Senate cafeteria. Why? Because BPA-free paper exists — and should become more prevalent soon — but it does cost approximately five percent more.
When you get these BPA-carrying receipts, not only are you handling them at that moment, you most likely are carrying them around in your purse, wallet or car, and storing them at home and in your office. That means you are spreading BPA potentially everywhere. And, of course, if you work at place where your job includes handing out these receipts, your exposure is even higher.
Until more places use BPA-free receipts, here is how to keep yourself safer:
- Tiny red rayon fibers are now being incorporated into BPA-free paper. If you turn the receipt over and see these, you know it’s safe.
- Decline receipts where you can.
- Store receipts in a separate envelope in your wallet, purse or car to stop the spread of the chemical to other items.
- Never, ever give your child a receipt to hold or play with.
- When you’ve handled a receipt, wash your hands.
- Do not use alcohol-based hand cleaners after handling a receipt. A study showed this increases the absorption of BPA.
Use your key
“So often times it happens that we live our lives in chains,
and we never even know we have the key.”
~ The Eagles
What gives you joy?
“We should all do what, in the long run, gives us joy,
even if it is only picking grapes or sorting the laundry.”
~ E. B. White
