TheDailyGreen.com — I truly love this website. If I had to take 2 sites with me on a desert island with WiFi, it would be this one and Treehugger.

If you don’t have these websites bookmarked, do so. I ALWAYS come away with something new and most important for me — actionable. Thus, as one of your beYOU.tv bloggers, I want to keep you informed on things that I hope can make a difference to your healthy lifestyle and that can truly inspire and motivate you.

I’m always seeking information that can actually be incorporated into our busy lives, and regularly I will be writing on green, healthy and organic tips that you can use. Let’s start with our beautiful bodies.

Eating organic, but our medicine cabinets and beauty products aren’t quite there? Why not throw out all the sodium lauryl sulfate (also seen as SLS: the stuff that makes your products foam) and petroleum (mineral oil) based products and bring some Pangea Organics love into the bathroom. Pangea Organics is a beautiful, healthy, well-priced line of delicious smelling products that can transform your daily cleansing into an anticipated ritual. Read about the super cool guy, Joshua Onysko, who started the line and some of his tips and thoughts. More green to come.

Namaste,

Michelle

Do you ever wake up in the morning feeling flat, like you have no energy? Something is off, you’ve rested all night, but you can’t place your finger on it. Could your qi, or energy, be imbalanced? Qigong can help you balance and cultivate your qi (energy) to put that spring back in your step - naturally.

Benefits Of Qigong

Reduce Stress - The natural, slow movements of Qigong help to lower stress by reducing respiratory and heart rate.

Longevity - Qigong promotes longevity by improving blood pressure, cholesterol, kidney function and bone density. Qigong also has many anti-aging benefits.

Clear Skin - Qigong helps to eliminate toxins, this helps to improve the skin.

Stimulate The Immune System - With just three hours per week, Qigong can stimulate your immune system. A study from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne found that adults who practiced Qigong three hours per week developed more antibodies after receiving flu shots than those who didn’t practice Qigong.

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Hmmmm, where do we begin with this phenomenon? As I’ve been tracking the FDA’s decision just last week to approve food from cloned animals for consumer consumption, I got mad, then I got really sad. My anger came from the Federal Government’s overall lack of sensitivity for food safety (remember the Dole brand lettuce debacle) and the complete disregard for promoting real and whole food to the society at large.

According to a recent piece on NPR, “… the agency ignored the ethical problems with cloning. Cloning creates a genetic copy of an animal, so making clones of a cow that produces an amazing amount of milk, for example, could be quite lucrative…” I don’t know about you, but the idea of the business of cloning as it connects to our food source(s) is rather disturbing.

But then you have the other side of the debate: that cloning is just fine – that it’s a duplicate of the animal and that’s better than factory raised. I’m not a scientist, but I feel that constant replication or cloning from a source has got to get mutated and watered down at some point. However, I’m trying to think from a business standpoint where this could possibly work – perhaps in a country with zero grazing land, shortage of cattle, shortage of farmers, famine, etc. We are one of the most agriculturally rich countries in the world and our American farmer can barely stay alive. Shouldn’t we be promoting more natural, hormone free, healthier food for our society than cloned and pay our good farmers to do so?

According to bloggers over at Slow Food, they’re articulating some of my sentiments completely: “The FDA’s decision dismisses both concern from scientific communities regarding the risks of cloned food, but also ignores ethically questionable practices intrinsic to the cloning process. The FDA has also indicated that it will not require food from cloned animals to be labeled, so the public will have no way of knowing whether they are purchasing a cloned product…”

If you have concerns about this issue and want to read more, check out the Center for Food Safety. You can also take action on this public interest group’s site with a direct link to your Senator to urge him or her to push for labeling on cloned food products. And if this isn’t reason enough to buy organic or from known farm sources, I don’t know what is. Check out Local Harvest for a national directory of farmers’ markets, family farms and organic food. Let’s hope that the government goes through with proper labeling, so that at least the consumer knows that they’re getting a food product from a cloned animal.

Please submit comments to me and let me know what you’re thinking on this issue. In the meantime, I shall have a veggie burger.

Namaste,

Michelle

Please welcome Kristin Misik to the beYOU.tv blog. She is a licensed acupuncturist and will be a featured contributor from time to time. As a bit of a non believer (and someone who also happens to be afraid of needles), I was a bit skeptical going into my first appoint with her to treat some stomach ailment. But after noticing immediate results, I became such an advocate that it was something I felt I had to share with all of you. She also specializes in treating stress, pain, anxiety, depression, insomnia and symptoms related to those conditions. To find out more, please visit www.kristinlac.com/.

- Kareem Kouddous, President, beYOU.tv

Tune Your Dial With Acupuncture

Explaining the elusive and seemingly esoteric mechanisms of acupuncture is no easy task for today’s acupuncturist. The most common question people ask is "how does it work?" I am constantly challenged to come up with a wonderful analogy that the masses can not only understand, but also believe. After 8 years, I think I have come up with an explanation many can relate to. Even if I fail at convincing you there are forces at work in the body which science can’t prove or disprove, an acupuncture treatment is usually convincing enough.

As a practitioner, I easily accept the existence of qi in the same way I accept the existence of love. I don’t need to see it to believe it. But for the majority of people walking through my door this concept is not so apparent.

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Did you know a coconut isn’t a nut at all, but is a drupe? I know, that’s what I said.

What’s a drupe? A drupe is a fruit in which an outer fleshy part surrounds a shell. Aside from coconuts, some of my favorite drupes are coffee beans, mangos, olives and pistachios. If this is news to you, you probably don’t know how healthy and wonderful a coconut, its water in particular, can be.

Coconut water is a popular drink, common in tropical regions. Its amazing taste and health benefits are extraordinary; I’m pretty sure it’s just a matter of time before coconut water becomes the latest fad in the U.S. too - you heard it hear first. (more…)

As I get older, this day has more and more meaning to me. My family has always been involved in civil and human rights and geared our childhood and adolescence to service and peaceful co-existence.

Even though my sister and I had our occasional rows, Mom and Dad would always say, “If we can’t get along in these four walls, how are you going to get along in the world?” So as I watched an amazing special on CNN last night, I was constantly struck by the acts of peaceful non-violence in the face of unfathomable violence and fear – especially amongst the young people that were mobilized as foot soldiers against the war on segregation.

So in his honor, and all those who fought side-by-side with Dr. King, take a moment to be thankful for our own freedoms; practice kindness, patience, non-violence and compassion. And as my favorite quote by Mahatma Gandi states, “Be the change you want to see in the world….” Dr. King surely embodied that in his short but profoundly powerful life.

If you’re interested in a wonderful book that highlights 20 peacemakers that is truly inspiring, read: Great Peacemakers: True Stories from Around the World. And if you want to download some of his greatest speeches, iTunes has that covered.

Namaste,
Michelle

When I came upon this high tech, high performance and aesthetically pleasing toothbrush, I had to share. Well, calling the new Ultreo merely a toothbrush, is like calling a Ducati merely a bike, but I digress.

We all know that strict dental hygiene is paramount to overall wellness. For those of you who aren’t flossing regularly, step up. For everyone else — this is the next generation. According to their website, Ultreo uses ultrasound waveguide technology and creates microbubbles that are powerfully activated by nearly 4 million cycles. Whatever that boils down to, the fancy toothbrush has garnered some pretty amazing press.

And don’t fret, if you’ve recently purchased the fabulous Philips’ Sonicare, you can one-up the Ultreo crowd with Sonicare’s UV sanitizer for your brush. Personally, neither one of these 2 oral wonders can fit in my tiny New York City bathroom, but I clearly have toothbrush envy.

Namaste,
Michelle

View our Be Resolved - January Newsletter here.

My new healthy “addiction” are goji berries. I’m sure like myself, you are running from appointment to obligations, sometimes not getting in the proper meal let alone proper nourishments. And, we’ve all gone the route of trying to tote an arsenal of supplements around and are lucky if we can down an Emergen-C pack. Well let the modest but powerful goji berry come to your dietary rescue. Of course, nothing is a sure fix and this is not a medical endorsement, but according to my acupuncture and TCM community, goji berries have been used for 6,000 years by herbalists in China, Tibet and India. Some of their remarkable benefits:

- protects the liver
- improves eyesight; can aid in decreasing age related vision loss
- improves sexual function and fertility
- improves circulation
- boosts immune function
- promote longevity

Goji berries are rich in antioxidants, particularly carotenoids such as beta-carotene and zeaxanthin. Zeaxanthin is the antioxidant that works primarily on ocular health. With all these benefits and an appealing taste (sort of a mix between a cranberry and a cherry) why not pick up a bag; keep one with you and one at home for a nutrient packed, healthy and beneficial snack. Shop around though, prices really vary on this product.

Namaste,
Michelle

You see them in movies, magazines, billboards and on celebrities. I’m talking about six pack abs. How do you get and maintain a flat, great looking mid-section? Good lighting and photo retouching certainly helps; that’s for sure. I can’t overstate the importance of good nutrition in helping shape your mid-section. Nutrition is about half the equation.

If you’re looking to build a strong core and a tight torso, here are two videos that I’ve been doing and seeing great results. Men’s Health may not be calling quite yet for a cover shot, but it’s only a matter of time.

Tiger Abs

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