Isabel Smith Nutrition

April 22nd, 2019

10 Tips for Greener Living

It’s Earth Day!

This Earth is a place we ALL want to be able to enjoy for a longer period of time (and explore more too). We’ve all got different tips and techniques for the how to’s of saving the earth, and while walking back from my morning gym, inspired by the beautiful flowers in the park, and gorgeous day, I decided to whip up a little list of mine that I LOVE to suggest to clients (and now to you!).

1. Shop at the farmers market:

Why? Because it supports local business, and if you think about it, you don’t use plastic baggies when you pick up your produce there either. So it’s a win win. PLUS! The produce is mostly organic or much less pesticide ridden than you get at the grocery store.

2. Buy a great in home water filter that you refill:

Ditch the water bottles please! They’re bad for you and really bad for the environment. Instead try something like THIS Berkey water filter- it’s GREAT.

3. Natural makeups:

Do you know how much CRAP is in your makeup? Most women don’t. From the plastic containers, to the petroleum products that are used as fillers. By the way your body absorbs most of it, but so does the environment – and the demand for the ingredients from purchasing these products is also not great for our environment. Instead- check out my BEAUTY section of my Shop on my website! These are some of my favorite brands. They’re good for you, and good for the environment.

4. Ditch the TIDE and other fragrance-filled in home cleaners:

They’re also loaded with garbage that goes down the drain and into the water system- not to mention your body and skin absorbs much of these too. Also not good! Best case scenario, make yourself a 1:1 water to white vinegar mixture for cleaning, but you can also try some of my favorites too:

I also really like the Trader Joe’s “Everything” Cleaner (made from grain alcohol!!)

… I’ll add more as I remember them!

5. Go paperless:

Enough said.

6. Ladies:

Ditch the toxic tampons, go for organic tampons like LOLA or the Diva Cup, OR even better try these Thinx underwear- no tampon or pad required. You see, traditional pads and tampons are TOTALLY toxic for us women, but also really toxic for the environment, so this is one of those things where we’ll do ourselves and the environment a favor.

7. Set up an easy compost:

Look I’ll be honest, I’m not quite there yet either but, if you’ve got a backyard, this is a great option, and thanks to The Kitchn for giving us the “how to”- RIGHT HERE.

8. Use natural toothpaste:

Regular toothpaste though important I think to oscillate through your dental routine, on a regular basis, is pretty toxic. I like to use THIS one- but there are plenty of others out there. Think too that when we spit chemicals down the drain they go into our environment too. So by cleaning up our dental routine a bit, it also helps out the environment as well.

9. Fast fashion… I love it too:

…but this is one of the best ways to save the environment- buy less or none of it; instead, save your money and buy clothes made from cotton instead of poly blends- they’re virtually impossible to break down in a clean way for our environment. So at LEAST look at the tags of what you’re buying, see what they’re made of and where they’re made. Try to look for mostly cotton or other natural fibers, less poly blend.

10. Microwave popcorn:

That bag your favorite quick-pop popcorn comes in is REALLY bad for you and even worse for the environment. Make it like this instead: Get a little brown bag (like the one you used to take to school with you)- put 1/4 cup organic kernels in it- and fold it over (so that you don’t end up with popcorn EVERYWHERE) and place in the microwave for 2 minutes on high- then add your fave toppings. Like THIS recipe.