Clementine Vintage Clothing

Three neat things we like, from us to you, in no particular order:

1. Clementine Vintage Clothing in the tiny upstate town of Andes, New York. But they do online orders and ship! Nice website, too.

2. Blessed Herbs, a family-owned company in rural Massachusetts. What can we say? We like the way their gentle cleanses clean out our insides.

3. Design Sponge. Just a very nifty website. About design. Not sponges.

photo: Dan Mayers

Post from: BlissTree

In that spirit, we’re bringing back a topic that many readers seem to miss: Smoking. Or, quitting smoking, to be exact. Back in 2006, Blisstree posted a timeline of “What happens to your body when you quit smoking now”. The timeline, posted on cancer.org, is as follows:

20 minutes after quitting: Your heart rate and blood pressure drop. (Effect of Smoking on Arterial Stiffness and Pulse Pressure Amplification, Mahmud, A, Feely, J. 2003. Hypertension: 41:183.)

12 hours after quitting: The carbon monoxide level in your blood drops to normal.
(U.S. Surgeon General’s Report, 1988, p. 202)

Two weeks to three months after quitting: Your circulation improves and your lung function increases.
(U.S. Surgeon General’s Report, 1990, pp. 193, 194,196, 285, 323)

One to nine months after quitting: Coughing and shortness of breath decrease; cilia (tiny hair-like structures that move mucus out of the lungs) regain normal function, increasing their ability to handle mucus, clean the lungs, and reduce the risk of infection.
(U.S. Surgeon General’s Report, 1990, pp. 285-287, 304)

One year after quitting: Your excess risk of coronary heart disease is half that of a smoker.
(U.S. Surgeon General’s Report, 1990, p. vi)

Five years after quitting: Your stroke risk reduces to that of a non-smoker five to 15 years after quitting.
(U.S. Surgeon General’s Report, 1990, p. vi)

Ten years after quitting: The lung cancer death rate is about half that of a continuing smoker. The risk of cancer of the mouth, throat, esophagus, bladder, cervix, and pancreas decreases.
(U.S. Surgeon General’s Report, 1990, pp. vi, 131, 148, 152, 155, 164,166)

15 years after quitting: The risk of coronary heart disease is that of a non-smoker.
(U.S. Surgeon General’s Report, 1990, p. vi)

Comments on that original post have been rolling in by the hundreds since then, and they still are. Among them are success stories and frustrations, and a solid community that supports each other to help quit. We’d like to invite everyone to continue commenting here. We’ll do our best to post more info on the health benefits of quitting, and various methods to help kick the habit.

We hope you continue to visit Blisstree, but, more importantly, we hope you quit smoking and stay healthy.

Post from: BlissTree

a) Koga

b) Zumba

c) Kangoo

d) Hooping

…

If you guessed any of the above, you’re wrong. That’s right, even Kangoo is a real type of exercise (and not for marsupials). Read on for details about the latest fusion classes and wacky equipment to watch out for at the gym. This ain’t your mother’s Jazzercise.

photo: hooping.org

Hooping – Reconnect with your inner child just like First Lady Michelle Obama did last year on the White House lawn. Academy Award-winner Marisa Tomei used “hooping” to shape up for “The Wrestler,” and she shot a workout DVD for fitness company Gaiam that will debut this May. But this activity isn’t just throwing a plastic hula hoop around your waist and finding rhythm – hooping uses a heavier, wider ring that’s meant to spin around your entire body, not just your hips. It’s gaining popularity in some health clubs, and sites like hooping.org and Hoopnotica.com provide further info, equipment, and videos.

photo: thisislondon.co.uk

Kangoo – Boing! With the help of what look like futuristic ski boots, Kangoo gets you bouncing like a kangaroo on a pogo stick. The workout looks similar to a traditional step-aerobics class, but Kangoo Jump Boots supposedly reduce impact while increasing the difficulty of the exercise. Though the footwear is hardly standard athletic issue, classes are taught at some hip health clubs, such as Chicago’s Crunch Fitness. We haven’t tried Kangoo ourselves yet, but judging from this video, we believe the part about it being hard.

photo: neversaydiet.com

Koga – Welcome to extreme yoga. That might seem like an oxymoron, but Koga blends the high-energy and impact of kick-boxing with the stretching and calisthenics of yoga. Allegedly, one class can torch up to 800 calories. We’re unsure if they chant their “Om”s before or after sparring. (Watch this video from Fox News.)

photo: zumba.co.uk

Zumba – An untelevised season of “Dancing with the Stars” squeezed into an hour, Zumba blends salsa, merengue, hip-hop, and rock-n-roll dance styles for calorie-burning sessions with a Latin flair. Zumba.com touts the “zumba afterglow”, and tells you to “ditch the workout, join the party”. They also say the moves are easy to follow, but our two left feet are not convinced.

Post from: BlissTree

In New York, that’s a relief to more people than you might think. For years, the urban beekeeping bandits have been illegally harboring their pollinating pals on rooftops, fire escapes, and backyards – and trafficking them to new locations to avoid getting busted by the Feds.

Though legal in most U.S. jurisdictions, beekeeping has been banned in New York City – until yesterday. A recent New York Times article reported on city beekeeper and Brooklyn resident Kathleen Boyer, who was ratted out and fined $2,000 for harboring bees in her front yard. But the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene board shifted its stance on Tuesday, declaring Apis mellifera, (the honeybee) non-aggressive and no longer scary. Sweet.

Urban beekeepers will have to register their hives, but they won’t need a license. So this year, April showers bring May flowers – and lots of honey to the Big Apple.

Post from: BlissTree

Is there really a difference between white and brown rice? You bet. The only thing these two grains have in common is their initial seed-milling process. After that, they part ways. White rice requires several additional steps in its formulation, and these are where it loses most of the nutritional value brown rice offers. By removing white rice’s germ and inner husk, and then polishing the rice with either glucose or talc, what’s left is a piece of gluten deficient in vitamin E, vitamin B6, potassium, magnesium, iron, and fiber. Skeptical? One cup of brown rice equals three-and-a-half grams of fiber, nearly 20 percent of the U.S. daily requirement; whereas a cup of white rice provides less than one gram. The downside? Brown rice can be an acquired taste (it’s pretty bland). But while you probably won’t start using the phrase “like brown on rice” anytime soon, making the switch might just be worth it.

photo: Thinkstock

Post from: BlissTree

Fair Trade certification says that the producer’s working conditions and pay are, um, fair. The goal is to allow local producers to sell globally, while maintaining good labor conditions, environmentally sound farming practices, a decent standard of living for employees, and sustainable business models. To do this, producers are guaranteed minimum prices for their goods (partly why Fair Trade-certified stuff usually costs more); workers democratically choose how to use earnings; and items must be directly traded. (Cutting out middlemen means more money goes to farmers and producers.)

TransFair USA has been certifying and promoting Fair Trade products since 1998. Ones that qualify are usually raw agricultural goods from developing countries. Coffee is one of the most widely marketed Fair Trade products in the U.S., but others include tea, cocoa, spices, sugar, nuts, rice, and fresh fruit.

You’ll find Fair Trade items at more than 35,000 U.S. retailers, including Starbucks®, which for a decade has guaranteed that all of its coffee is Fair Trade-certified.

The FT gist? Equitable prices; positive working conditions (and no child labor); democracy and transparency; community development (health care, new schools); environmental sustainability; and no middlemen.

Post from: BlissTree

In a study released this month in the journal Sleep, researchers tracked sleeping patterns and the amount of belly fat gained for five years in subjects younger than 40. Those who slept five hours or less each night showed the greatest accumulation of flab; those who got more than eight hours of rest a night gained slightly less; and those who snoozed between five and eight hours a night? You guessed it. They gained the least.

Though the research isn’t conclusive about overall fat and weight gain, it does substantiate links between lack of sleep and belly fat increase. Researchers aren’t only interested in weight, though; abdominal fat is directly connected to heart disease and diabetes.

The perfect amount of sleep for good health and minimum flesh expansion? Take your cue from Goldilocks. Not too much; not too little. Between five and eight hours a night seems just right.

from reuters.com

Post from: BlissTree

Stewart + Brown Lauren Sundress in Olive

100% organic woven cotton ($178)

Smartwool FootSPA Socks in Key Lime

66% sustainably farmed Merino wool ($18.95)

Gaiam Organic Cotton Studio Sweatshirt in Stem

95% organic French terry cotton ($58)

Patagonia Women’s R2 Jacket in Gecko Green

60% recycled polyester; recycled through the Patagonia Common Threads program ($175)

Loomstate “On the Fence” Tank in Misty Green

100% organic cotton ($39)

Eileen Fisher Soft V-Neck Dress in GreenGrass

100% organic cotton jersey ($138)

Seabags The Knot Bag in Green

made from recycled sail cloth ($110)

Lululemon’s Tank On Me Tank in Lagoon

organic cotton and spandex ($52)

Stewart + Brown Brigit Tank Dress in Dew Drop Print

100% organic Pima cotton ($159)

Post from: BlissTree

We learned something new today! About something creepy and bottom-feeding that was not Terry Richardson. Because today, we learned that the carmine/cochineal ingredient (it’s a red dye) found in many lip glosses is just crushed up beetle shells. Somehow, I feel like if reading The Jungle didn’t stop me from eating hot dogs, then this probably isn’t going to stop me from buying lip glosses that use carmine dye. But, if you’re someone who actually acts on information like this, then here are some Carmine-free lipsticks:

Uruku lip pigment by Aveda

Lipstick by Real Purity

Lipstick, by Hemp Organics

Josie Maran Lipstick (Flirtatious)

Photo: Thinkstock/Creatas Images

Post from: BlissTree

photo: Thinkstock

Part Two:

Four days later, as I pondered whether to eat a bag of chips or not scrub the bathroom, the Centerpointe package arrived. It contained a pile of printed literature and a CD. I threw the paper on the floor with the cardboard mailer, popped the disc into my computer and uploaded the demo track it contained to iTunes. I didn’t bother moving it onto my iPod – just plugged in my earbuds and clicked play. My computer said the track would run for 20:02. I had a feeling it would be over long before that.

Surprisingly, though, I immediately liked what I heard. It started with the “white noise” sound of falling rain; then that pitter-patter was joined by tones that sounded to me like timpani drums or ringing bells. Dum, dum, dum, dum. I was into the idea of replacing the self-flagellating voices in my head with this mind-numbing music.

Then he started talking. “Hello, this is Bill Harris, Director of Centerpointe Research Institute.” His tone on the demo track was just hypnotizing enough to make me suspect he might be a relative of Charles Manson. I listened anyway – I was still impressed by my Internet friend Marshie’s positive assessment of this strange head-shrinking experiment. But really, how much killer instinct could 20:02 impart?

He talked for 13 minutes, to be exact, and he said some compelling stuff. The Holosync hocus-pocus, he explained, was about special sounds (based on scientific research) imbedded beneath the rain and “crystal bowls” chimes I was hearing. In order to best benefit, he said, I should listen while sitting in a comfortable chair, and with my eyes closed. I also needed to listen with stereo headphones – without which the music could not do its magic. With relaxation comes many rules.

“These tones,” Bill said as the bowls bonged away in the background, “are giving your nervous system a stimulus of a very precise nature.” He continued: “In order to handle this stimulus, your nervous system is …creating new neural pathways between the left and right hemispheres of your brain.” I sat there, picturing a hot, deep-voiced Dr. McDreamy inserting cool, thin rods to reconnect my formerly feuding lobes. I’m not kidding. It felt really good.

As I understood it, listening regularly would let the two sides of my brain work in tandem, instead of in the usual left, right, left, right way. Apparently, this CD would up my learning ability, creativity, mental clarity, memory skills, and self-awareness, along with (and most importantly for me at this point) allow me to take a daily deep-relaxation break from my prickly existence. I wondered, would it help me make embryos that turn into kids? This guy seems to think his supernatural tapes can help me do anything. Even better, thanks to a money-back guarantee, I could listen for a year and still get a refund if the mysterious Holosync sounds didn’t fix me.

“In observing over 100,000 people using Holosync in 172 countries on six continents since 1985,” this Harris guy said, “We’ve noticed that dysfunctional feelings and behaviors…like anger, depression, anxiety, sadness, overeating, substance abuse, and a large number of others, fall away… .” As I’ve mentioned, I felt my fertility woes were in large part due to my constant worry and stress over whether or not I would ever pop out a kid. In any case, why wouldn’t I want to do something that could make me happier and smarter – and possibly even snuff my interest in those chips? (I doubt, however, the discs will convince me to clean the bathroom.) The final seven minutes of the demo consisted of rain and music only, no voices, facts, or figures infiltrating. As I listened, my clenched fists relaxed and my forehead began to feel Botoxed. When the sounds ended, they had been seven pretty damn good minutes.

Next morning, I went to the Centerpointe website, clicked “purchase” and authorized PayPal to transfer the $179 I owed for my first set of discs. Stick with me. I may not be as crazy as you think.

Carole Braden is a freelance writer based in New York City. She’s currently seeking her bliss on a three-month trip zig-zagging South Africa.

Post from: BlissTree