Green Teen: Clean Air Means More Money?

We've all heard that pollution negatively affects human health--and it makes sense. Things like smog are unnatural, clog your lung like black dust filling it from the inside.

However, efforts to regulate toxins in the air are always pushed back. The reason given for this is that "environmental safeguards will paralyze an economic recovery."

But a study done in 2011 done by the National Bureau of Economic Research makes a good care--that environmental standards can be beneficial for the economy, if you look at the effects of pollution on humans and how that affects their working ability.

The study shows the when the concentration of atmospheric ozone fall by 10 ppb (parts per billion) an agricultural worker's productivity will increase by 4.2%.

This reaches a logical conclusion: that "an investment in human health is an investment in the economy."

Eco-Tip:

With the holidays coming around, everyone's going on mass decorating time. Christmas lights outside the house as well as inside; on the tree, around the living room, etc. The holiday time is one of the times where we use the most energy and it's because sometimes people never turn off their lights until it's time to take them down.

To save some energy and some money, make sure to turn off your lights when it's daytime--no one's going to notice them anyways and you save money. Turn them back on at night, when you can notice them and appreciate them.

iPhone Apps that Help:

This iPhone app decodes al those "green" labels to tell you which products actually help and are green, and which don't. It's called Eco-Labels and lets you know which eco-products are the real deal and which products are just putting it for the good reputation. It costs $0.99, but it is definitely super helpful when shopping!

Also, you can visit Greenchoices.org to get try the alternate version of this app.

Green Teen: Better Way to Clean Up Oil Spill

Dr. Tom San Giovanni, orthopedic surgeon and president of Mendes Oil Trap Technologies, teamed up with one of his patients, Joe Mendes, who patented a system to clean up oil spills

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They were motivated after the big BP spill last year during the summer that polluted the water, killing all sorts of wildlife, and "fouling thousands of miles of shoreline."

The Mendes Oil Trap is basically floating plastic crates, filled with oil-absorbing material made from recycled plastic bottles--they can be "deployed" to encircle an oil platform or a spill, and are chained together to protect the shoreline (like train cars). They are also designed so that they can be towed by boats.

This seems to be an easier method than the boom that was used previously to clean up the spill--boom is basically an oil containment device--orange inflatable floating lines designed to contain oil on the water's surface. Even experts say that boom works in a limited way as it can't contain oil in choppy waters. In the ocean, it contains maybe 10% of the oil.

They plan on researching and developing a little more to make the trap more commercially available and to convince big oil companies to invest in his traps as opposed to boom and chemical dispersants.

EcoTip: Buy a thermos in place of using a new water bottle everyday. Saves you the trouble of having to spend 2 to 3 bucks every time you run out of water bottles and saves the planet the trouble of plastic. I'm sure we've all seen the Brita commercial, that the U.S. produced enough water bottles to circle the globe 154 times--and none of these were recycled. Think of supply and demand: the more people use water bottles, the more they're going to be produced, which means that there's still a significant number of people who don't properly dispose of those water bottles.

Getting over a breakup

I think I figured out the best way to get over a breakup. Instead of sitting on the couch, apathetically consuming pints of ice cream while watching old reruns, I’ve decided to take a healthier approach to dealing with the awkwardness of being newly single: exercise.

They always tell you to focus on yourself when you get out of a long-term relationship. Improving my health seemed like the best way to go about doing this.

Exercise will literally strengthen your heart, and really helps clear your mind when a particular person pops into your thoughts. I’m not necessarily the “athletic” type (I’m relatively short, have very little patience, and can be somewhat uncoordinated) so my past interest in exercising has been generally short-lived, but I’ve been consistently working out daily for a week with great results. I just started, but I already feel more energetic and confident.

I guess it’s difficult to get over the first couple of days, but once you’re ready to get moving, go for it. Your mind and body will thank you.

As my beloved freshman PE coach often said; “looking good, feeling good!”

Learn From These First Nine Weeks

For Broward County High Schools students, the first quarter of the academic year has wrapped up.

If you're on a seven-period schedule, it marks the half-way point, and your first interim.

If you're like me, on a block schedule, I know you've felt the stress of taking midterms and have your first official four grades under your belt already.

How do you feel?

If you could take something back, would you have:

Studied for the chemistry test you knew you were going to have some trouble on? Started your Spanish notebook way before it was due? Got off that gaming website that was sucking all your time away?

As always, there's some good news and bad news.

The bad news is that you can't actually take it back; you earned your grades and there are no "do-over's" in high school.

The more inspiring news, and the point of my blog, is this cliché: You can learn from your mistakes.

So you may have started off a little badly, but we're all human here, right? We have every right and all the power within ourselves to turn it all around and have a successful year with minimum stress. If you're aware of something you could have improved on, well, IMPROVE UPON IT!

There's no sense in fueling the fire.

Look back on these first nine weeks, and take it as a learning experience. You know what you did incorrectly, so target those tasks and figure out how to convert them into "good" skills to have, like shutting off your phone while you work, or really paying attention to what you're reading.

I guarantee that it will pay off in the long run, and you'll realize that you can still have fun along the way :)

Balancing Act

Let's face it, most people would love to be able to do one easy thing and be fit forever. To much dismay, that may not be the case.
To get where you want to be, a good balance of healthy eating and regular exercise are necessary. It's such a huge misconception when people think if they eat healthy then no exercise is needed, or if they exercise all the time they can eat whatever they want. Here are the problems with both assumptions:
Sure if you keep up with a healthy diet, your body will thank you, but not strenuously using the muscles you have for a long period of time can leave an individual weak. I'm not saying that individuals who do not participate in sports or outside of school physical activities are week. I am suggesting that everyone take thirty minutes out of each day for about three days a week, and take a nice brisk walk, or ride a bike. Other fun activities like dancing, walking your dog, or even bowling can help tone some muscles.
On the other hand, exercising 24/7 with the necessary breaks is great too. However, to have the energy and nutrients to actually exercise you need to eat right! Eating without conciously choosing your foods could get you seriously ill. Not enough vitamin C? You might end up super prone to getting the flu. It is imperative that you eat well.
When it comes to eating well, you have to eat breakfast. It's what fuels your tank for the day. Try a peice of whole grain bread, toasted, with a layer of peanut butter for complex carbs and fiber to fill you up. Eat a lot of simple ingredient foods so you know nothing is refined or processed. Fist sized portions consumed about eight times a day is good for keeping your metabolism up.
Stay away from soda's, too much candy (HALLOWEEN), and other foods that your waistline might regret in a week or two. Lot's of fluids are also essential. Water is just about the healthiest beverage out there. Feeling bored, which leads to hunger, on a school night? Brew yourself a nice mug of green tea to stifle that fake hunger.
The trick is to keep a good balance of nutrition and exercise. Anyone can do it :)

Scariest part of Halloween is the Candy

So we are all aware that the festive holiday of Halloween is soon to arrive. Sure dressing up is great and so is going to crazy Halloween parties. However, from here on out I'd like to avoid the candy part.

I read in an article on Yahoo.com that three mini reeses cup candies have more sugar than a glazed doughnut. Can you believe that? I remember eating those things like chips when I was little. It kind of made my stomach churn to think I ate so horridly in the past. Then again, it is the past, and I'm ready to make some changes.

It's not that surprising that people might be prone to gobbling up the pounds of candy they get in a matter of days. Doesn't make you sick thinking about the amount of sugar people ingest during this holiday? I mean it's literally sugar for breakfast lunch and dinner. I remember trying to hide my stash from my mom so she wouldn't hide it somewhere herself.

So let's take a step back from all that candy. There are other healthy alternatives to tasty halloween treats. You should not skip dinner on halloween night. You need some good cources of energy and nutrition other than empty carbs. Perhaps you could play on the color scheme of black and orange. Maybe make whole grain cupcakes with orange cake and black icing. The combination of celery sticks, peanut butter, and raisins can be made into celery stick spiders. Or maybe canteloupe scoops can be peeled eye balls. These are just some spur of the moment ideas.

Let's try being a little healthier this Halloween, shall we?

De-Tox

I have completely changed my eating habits for about a year now. No, I am not on a restricted diet. I'm just eating healthy.
That is such a broad statement, I know. What I mean is that I'm eating frequent fist sized portions of all the healthy things this Earth has to offer.
I have refrained from eating pastries, candy, soda, chips, and anything fried.
I did break my rules last week after my school's homecoming game. My friends and I were trying to find some place that was not crowded to eat. We decided on Burger King where I rodered onion rings. BIG MISTAKE. The next morning was horrific. I woke up with the worst stomach aches of my life. I could barely move.
I guess the fact that I has refrained from eating that type of unhealthy food for months is a good thing. My body wasn't used to digesting that type of thing and certaintly let me know.
I have kept up with eating simple foods; foods with ingredients that I know and can pronounce.
I still eat as much as I did before, I just make sure that everything I eat is good for me; even the next morning.