You wouldn't linger in a garage with your car running. So why would you glide away the hours in a Zamboni-polluted ice rink? Nitrogen dioxide fumes from a Zamboni won't kill you, but they can damage your lungs bad enough to do this or this, or worse. If only there were an eco elite IceCat that could save us. More about that in a moment ...

According to this investigation, the ultra-fine carcinogenic particulate matter (aka "microscopic toxic dust") spewed out by Zambonis making the rounds at poorly ventilated ice rinks reportedly:

• reduces ice skaters' lung capacity while skating and sometimes for hours after
• increases skaters' risk of cardiovascular disease, lung disease and lung cancer
• worsens asthma sufferers' symptoms

"We found the ice-rink athletes, all the skating athletes, the figure skaters, the short track speed skaters and the hockey players, had a higher prevalence of exercise induced asthma … and their lung function was chronically low," Kenneth Rundell, head of the human performance lab at Pennsylvania's Marywood University, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. 

Great. I'm taking my kids ice skating tomorrow night. I won't be breaking out the gas masks, but noxious Zamboni burps will be on my mind (and perhaps in my lungs).

Also on my mind: the slippery-ice environmental impact of water- and energy-guzzling ice rinks, which isn't any better than Zamboni's respiratory rap sheet.

Bye-bye, Zamboni. Hello, IceCat.
It looks like Zamboni's reign is finally fizzling out. Enter the UKKO IceCat, the world's first and only zero-emissions electric ice resurfacer. The Finland-made hybrid is far cheaper and cleaner to operate than a Zamboni, but costs twice the price (six figures!). Maybe Zamboni won't be left out in the cold after all. At least not for a while. At the moment, there are only four IceCats operating in Canada, the world's hockey hub, of course.  

Sure, ice skaters and hockey fans will definitely breathe easier in IceCat-manicured rinks, but will the eco ice slicker's gel batteries be just as easy on soil when they're spent? I doubt it. Hopefully they'll be properly recycled. (Click here to see a slick IceCat in action. Meow?)

I'm French-Canadian. So naturally I'll miss the mechanical le roar of the Almighty Zamboni, not the fumes.

I'll do you one better, IceCat. Why not eliminate the ice (and the need to groom it) altogether? Go take a skate on one of these ice-less energy-saving rinks instead. Don't worry. I'll dig up the ecological skate-print of this new, synthetic "Ice Magic" later.

(Photo credit:UKKO IceCat Technologies)

High-tech fitness isn't very sustainable. Treadmills, exercise bikes, brightly lit gyms with their air-conditioners blasting ... Surely someone's come up with a greener alternative? In fact, someone has—lots of someones. Eco-savvy companies and fitness fanatics alike are rigging up gear that's energizing their businesses and workouts with sweat equity, turning manpower into renewable energy.

Remember the guy I've mentioned in a fitness article here before who walked off 90 pounds on a treadmill while playing video games? A little ingenuity, and this dedicated dieter managed to have his game and play it, too. His setup wasn't that complicated—and eco-savvy types are catching on, creating treadmills and other exercise equipment that power themselves, mp3 players and portable fans, and even contribute to powering gyms themselves.

• HOGGAN's "human-powered" treadmill needs no power to run.
• The Human Dynamo harnesses your arm and leg energy to create power.
• The Green Microgym (Portland, Oregon) employs green tech to reduce its carbon emissions by 60%, employing everything from energy-producing cardio equipment to sustainable touches such as compact fluorescent lighting (CFLs) and a no-bottled-water policy.
• The whole family can get into the act at this green gym in Maine, where the focus is on sustainability, energy efficiency and family.
• ReRev retrofits exercise equipment to create alternative energy.
• The Green Revolution helps you make your local health club more eco-friendly.

Just how green is your gym, anyway? Ultimately, it's much more sustainable to simply step outside and walk the dog, take a jog or play a game. Still, we know there are plenty of reasons why that's not always possible. Here are our tips for losing the chubs, not the rubs.

(Photo credit:SashaW, flickr)

Every September is an opportunity for a fresh start as students head back to school. It is important to remember that old adage "well begun is half done" when planning your green dorm strategy. Let's face it, it's a pretty small room so it is important to be careful what you cram it full of.

To ensure yourself a year of good air quality and eco-friendly living, you've got to be lean and clean, here are some helpful tips for greening your dorm:

1. The very first thing to do is examine your room thoroughly, checking for bed bugs and other unwanted pests that may have been left behind by former occupants. Acquaint yourself with the whole Bed bug issue before heading to school.
2. A good and thorough cleaning will be the next step. Use simple homemade cleaning products like the big three: lemons, baking soda and vinegar. These are cheap and effective cleaning solutions. Avoid anti-bacterial cleaners, you don't need them to get your place clean and they have some serious downsides.
3. Leave the grime and dirt from the street on your shoes not your floor. Adopt a "No Shoes" policy for your room, people are usually happy to remove their shoes before entering and before you know it, you won't even have to ask. 
4. Use recycled, re-purposed, upcycled furniture, accoutrements and clothing items to outfit your room and closet. Avoid the urge to clutter your space!
5. Be aware of energy sucking, vampire appliances and take measures to green your computer.
6. Keep your indoor air quality good by not buying items that are likely to offgass. If you are going to paint any surfaces use a no-VOC paint. Stay away from heavily perfumed anything, natural oils used sparingly are enough to improve the way your room smells. A little bowl with ground or stick cinnamon--refresh monthly--is enough to give your small room a welcome smell. Do not use paraffin or lead wicked candles, if you must or are allowed to burn candles in your room, stick with eco-friendly varieties.
7. Save yourself a sore throat and get an eco-friendly shower curtain, you won't regret the investment!
8. Stick to eco-friendly, organic bedding solutions whenever possible for a good night's sleep.
9. Green your laundry by using low impact detergents and avoiding toxic dryer softener sheets.
10. Choose green personal care products for your bod! Try a great gluten-free cosmetic resource.
11. Plan your meals and eat simply and well. Always have plenty of healthy snacks on hand as a survival tool, fruit, nuts, crackers and cheese travel well and keep you going between meals. Here is a resource for gluten-free snacking, and gluten-free eating for college students.
12. If you are unsure about water quality at your college, and don't want to waste money and the precious natural resources by buying bottled water, a PUR water filtration system is a great idea.
13. Go paperless whenever possible, use recycled paper and recycle what you use.
14. Remember to get up and out and get some exercise have a green moment, a green hour, a green day!

Good Luck and have a great year!

(Photo credit:manuelfloresv's on flickr)

In a University study published on July 13th in NeuroReport, researchers at Keele University's School of Psychology in England, found 68 student volunteers willing to place their hands in icy-cold water to see how long they could endure it.

The participants were able to keep their hands submerged in icy water for prolonged periods with the aid of repeated swearing. In contrast the volunteers experienced a lower pain tolerance when repeating mundane words. I can personally attest to the value of a peppery swear and its effects at lessening the pain of a broken toe!

"Swearing has been around for centuries and is an almost universal human linguistic phenomenon," explained Richard Stephens one of the study’s authors, "It taps into emotional brain centers and appears to arise in the right brain, whereas most language production occurs in the left cerebral hemisphere of the brain. Our research shows one potential reason why swearing developed and why it persists."

We all know that cursing is sometimes part of life, most of us have sipped, guzzled or--on those special occasions--completely drained the swearing cup. Talk about indoor air quality! There is even a book about the history of expletives.

In my experience the most popular, common and supposedly vulgar expletives have lost their shock value and are so overused linguistically, that they have become downright banal.

It is often a fact that common use swear words uttered in public do not even raise an eyebrow, you are better-off yelling "Free Ipod!!!" at the top of your lungs if you want to get someones attention. I'm thinking that a good old-fashioned Fie!, Nay! or Scoundrel! or Zounds! might have more impact, they would certainly be more thought provoking. What the #@*% ?

Here is a great article on the subject and fashion of swearing.

So here are a few good sources for some wonderful, organic, retro expletives to reuse and recycle while we reduce the mundane, ubiquitous curses of the day:

1. Classical Swearing A Vade-Mecum by Barry Baldwin
2. Burges Johnson, The Lost Art of Profanity (1948)
3. The Anatomy of Swearing by Ashley Montagu (chapter 8 is entitled "Swearing in Shakespeare"!)
4. The Shakespeare Insult Kit Expanded and adapted for the Web by Chris Seidel.
5. Some quotes about swearing!

Finally a little food for thought, swearing must be good or else why would they hold Swearing In Ceremonies, hmmm... and what is the Oath Of Office all about?

Have a beautiful pain free day!

(Photo credit:ms.lume on flickr)

Sustainability should be an expectation, not a selling point. That's the idea behind Green Silence, Brooks' greenest, coolest-named running shoes yet.

The eco foot forward company wants to sell your sole on the idea that shrinking your environmental footprint isn't as painful as running a marathon. Here, here. But are you willing to race in a flat that's this funky-looking?

Just how sustainable are Green Silence sneaks? Let's run the numbers:

1. They're half as toxic. Using nontoxic dyes, colorants and water-based adhesives lowered the shoes' VOC emissions by 65 percent. Atmosphere-friendlier and safer for factory workers' lungs. What's up with the clashing ketchup and mustard colors, though? Fitsugar compared them to Ronald McDonald's goofy clown shoes. Burn! Cross your fingers they debut prettier color combos soon.
2. They're half the shoe they could have been. The lightweight flats are constructed using 48 percent fewer parts than comparable running shoes. Nice. Less landfill stuff is more.
3. They're made out of everything but the recycled kitchen sink. In fact, more than 75 percent of their 26 parts come from recycled stuff. Old CDs comprise the heel cups. The shoe laces, meshes, linings, gillies (what are those?) and tongue webbings (and those?) were once water bottles. The outsoles are made of recycled rubber that can take a pounding on city streets and back trails.
4. They require less energy … to make, not to run in. Brooks claims greening up these kicks from the outset shrinks each pair's greenhouse gas energy footprint by 41 percent. Not bad. And Green Silence's petroleum oil footprint? Not so much, saving only .5 liter less per pair. Still, it's something to run on.
5. They're biodegradable, mostly. Three parts of the shoes are 100 percent easier on landfills: the midsoles, collar foams (made from old sofas) and sock liners. Eco enough to earn a nod from the NY Times' Green Inc. Blog.

Want your own high-performance slice of Green Silence? Just do it, but please don't trash the old to make way for the new. Why not wash your old sneaks and give them to people who really need them instead of trashing them? Tom's Shoes' shoe donation program should get you off and running, and Ethiopian children suffering from the foot disease podoconiosis a second chance.

Unfortunately, you can't get Brooks' newest eco runners yet. Green Silence hits store shelves in February 2010. They'll probably come in a fully biodegradable, 100 percent recycled materials paperboard box, like the ones the company pioneered in 2008. How about no box at all? Just carry them by the laces.

The price? Pretty steep in my  book. Exactly $100 steep … because there's nothing like a flashy shoe that says, “You gotta' have plenty of green to be this green." Can you tell that I find it really frustrating that greener apparel (and a slew of other eco-leaning consumer products) aren't more affordable and accessible to everyone?

Kermit had it wrong. It's not cheap being green, but it sure feels good for 26 miles.

(Photo credit:Brooks)

Drop the chips. Your ankles look thick. That's what I was thinking as I raided the sodium overload chip dip at a Fourth of July party. Yup, 'tis the season for salty eats in the summer heat.

Hot dogs, hamburgers, French fries, Flamin' Cheetos. You name it, I'm scarfing it. I'm also paying for said sodium O.D. by looking like a greasy, overstuffed puff pastry. Fingers, toes and nose. Hot, I know.

Exactly what are the telltale signs of water retention, medically known as edema, better known as too-bloated-to-squeeze-shoes-on? Just ask your pregnant friends or try this, MotherNature.com's dead-on definition: "Your fingers are so puffy, you need soap to pry off your rings. Your legs are so swollen, your socks leave a rosy ring around your calves. Zippers aren't budging. Buttons are popping." Add to those sexy symptoms poor digestion, weakness, joint pain and general lethargy and you get the big, waterlogged picture.

So, how can we summertime salt-lickers (and gestating or on-their-moon mamas) safely deflate our ballooning bods and still stay hydrated? By taking five: Five surefire ways to fight evil water retention. And, naturally, they're all natural:

1. Go bananas. Load up on potassium-rich bananas and bring those ankles back down to size. Eat them as-is or on top of oatmeal, cereal, yogurt or in a cool, creamy smoothie. Other excess water zapping (diuretic) eats include: raisins, cabbage, beets, parsley and asparagus (hold your nose). Diuretic drinks: lemonade, cranberry juice, orange juice, green tea, and, my personal addiction favorite, coffee. Drink 'em on the rocks. Go easy on the last two if your preggers. Better yet, check with your midwife and/or OB before sipping.

2. Take your Flintstones. Specifically Vitamins A and C. Both give water retention the squeeze by beefing up fragile capillaries and giving free radicals a run for their money. Vitamin A is found in liver (which I actually look forward to devouring every Thanksgiving ... poor turkey), whole milk and several fortified food products. Vitamin C is easier for meat-me-nots to stock up on. Take in the gorgeous in-season citrus bounty at your local farmer's market or fresh produce shop, or juice your own locavore OJ.

3. Salt not ... at all, if you can. Or at least cut back to no more than 2,000 to 2,400 mg of sodium per day. Salt is notorious for boosting the body's uncanny ability to balloon up like the Goodyear Blimp. If you can't shaft the shaker, try cutting back on processed and frozen foods, canned soups, condiments, lunch meat, so-called "sports drinks," and the biggest baddie of them all, fast food drive-thru sludge. If your taste buds go into withdrawal shock (mine would!), simply substitute with black pepper and other savory-tangy low sodium spice mixes instead.

4. Walk it off. West side walk it out, moonwalk, spin, kick and do a split. Whatever. Just move. Blood-pumping activity, any kind that you're ticker's up for, wrings a bloated body out like nothing else. Don't forget to drink plenty of clean, pure liquids while dancing extra liquids away. Hydrating to help banish excess hydration seems counterproductive, but--go figure--it's not.

5. Stock up. When all else fails, shimmy those tree trunks gams into a pair of sexy(ish) compression stockings. These graduated hose are organic, infused with fragrant essential oils and even defy gravity and fashion! Take a load off and put those Cabbage Patch Kid feet up a while. Your calves, and, er, other parts will never look and smell so good, or so these Ozzie chemists claim.

I draw the line at triple-thick stockings. Thanks, but I'll stick to bananas. Bananas smothered in low sodium peanut butter and sandwiched between thick, chewy walls of whole wheat, then grilled to perfection in NO SALT butter.

Did you feel that? I think Elvis just rolled over.

(Photo credit:EmilyPorterPhoto.com, flickr)

The Atkins diet seems so naked without meat and cheese, kind of like a burger would.

Unless your mouth gushes at the thought of bacon wrapped sausages stacked on steak drowned in cheesy scrambled eggs, the old Atkins diet isn't for you. Definitely NOT for vegetarians or vegans.

Well, hold the A.1. Steak Sauce. Atkins isn't just for carnivores anymore. (I channeled my inner ad geek for that cheesy gem.)

The new Eco-Atkins doesn't sacrifice a single cute, fuzzy animal. Quite the opposite, actually. It's a long-overdue, vegan-friendly update on the old meat overkill routine, and every bit as low-carb as before. Think soy, nuts, fruits, veggies, cereal and wheat protein (aka gluten). Tons of them, and not one morsel of past-tense flesh.

The brain behind this greener, leaner Atkins plan, a Toronto University researcher who brought us the cholesterol-clobbering Portfolio diet, claims anyone disciplined enough to follow the new plan (probably to a tee) will shed an amazing 8.5 pounds in four weeks. (Really? I lost 20 pounds on old-school Weight Watchers/Stalkers in 10 weeks. I'm oh-so proud and oh-so hungry. If you find my kidneys, call me. We'll talk.)

Bonus: While shrinking their waistlines, the new crop of meatless Atkins-ites can also significantly lower their blood pressure and LDL cholesterol levels (unlike the original high-fat diet, which often sends LDLs through the roof).How do we know this "Vegkins" deal isn't too good to be true? It's not. The proof is in the study.

But will Eco dieters' taste buds survive? Of course. Why wouldn't they with so many mock meat nummies, like Tofurkey, Fakin' Bacon and Wheatballs, on the menu? No PJ Bland's corrugated cardboard carrots. I promise. Just real, delicious (depending on how skilled you are at meatless cooking), nourishing, hopefully slimming vegan foods.  

Sorry, an official Eco-Atkins book is yet to be published. When one does go to print, you can bet it'll make the New York Times' Best-Seller List in the time it takes to nibble exactly one-fourth of a brown rice cake. In the meantime, this soybean-sized 411 should help you get skinny started. Bonne chance and bon appetit!

Who knows? Maybe I'll give it a go, too. Check back soon to be the first to know the moment I break down and break into the nearest In-N-Out Burger. Mmm. Double-double. They don't call it "animal style" for nothin'. Do extra tomatoes help?

(Photo credit:aloalosabine, flickr)

You’re gonna’ hate me for this, but I lost 5.6 pounds Easter week, despite having whipped up back-to-back Betty Crocker bunny cakes suffocating in cream cheese frosting. 

Yup, I ate like an Easter chick. Salmonella be damned, all I indulged in were two licks from the batter bowl and a measly Peep. All for the dumbest reason: sheer vanity. I want to look smokin’ in my teeny weeny polka dot bikini (fine, mom-tastic tankini) this summer. In my best Jon Lovitz doing his best Harvey Fierstien, I ask, "Is that so wrooooong?" 

But wait. Hold your poison dart. I have a small-but-mighty peace offering for all who stuffed themselves silly this weekend. With a little inspiration from our friends at Shine, I give you three quick, no-brainer ways to reconcile those guilty Easter excesses:

1. Play outside with your kids. You sort of owe them for last night's midnight basket raid, right? So unplug the Wii, grab a ball and play catch or kickball outside. Then run. Race. Dance. Freak your kids out and do the worm. Anything! Just move for one Green Hour. Don’t forget to stretch first.

2. Walk it out. For at least 10 to 15 minutes. Lace up your organic Simple ecoSNEAKS, get to steppin’ and kiss yesterday’s jelly beans all-gone. Recommended iTune: Unk's dirty South "Walk it Out." 'Sure gets my booty ba-donkin’ down the sidewalk. Oh, and when you figure out what “Stop, pop and roll” means, do that do too.

3. Trash the candy. No she di-in't! Oh, yes, I did! And you can, too. Okay, maybe after biting Peter Cottontail’s chocolate head off. Yeah, you paid for it, but you don’t want to pay for all the calories and fat again and again with busted buttons and indigestion. Can’t chuck it yourself? Call in backup (my fit friend Suzanne is my personal candy assassin). Anyone but the kids, of course. Spare a few of their favorite Easter vittles where you won’t be tempted.

Now—quick!—get out there and feel the burn. You won't regret it (like you do that Cadbury cache?). You'll feel refreshed, reconnected to your brood and to that place bursting with lush Spring beauty, the Great Outdoors.

(Photo credit:Kim Lachance Shandrow)

Ever noticed how blissed-out spring gardeners seem to have loopy grins perpetually plastered on their faces? (We dare you to find a dreary post around here by Sarah Gilbert—go on, give it a shot.) There may be a scientific reason people who dig around in bark chips are so chipper. New research by British scientists shows that bacteria commonly found in soil activates serotonin in brain to produce a mood-lifting boost.

Research published in Neuroscience found that Mycobacterium vaccae activates a specific group of neurons in the brains of mice that produce serotonin. “These studies help us understand how the body communicates with the brain and why a healthy immune system is important for maintaining mental health," said Dr.Chris Lowry of Bristol University. "They also leave us wondering if we shouldn’t all be spending more time playing in the dirt.”

Lowry isn't the only one to wonder. Author Richard Louv started the ball rolling with his idea of nature deficit disorder. We humans simply feel better when we're connected with the world around us, from nature to neighbors. Earth Day (nine days and counting!) isn't only about taking care of the world—it's about engaging and living fully in it, too.

• Get the kids back on their feet and walking to school.
• Flip off the TV and laptops and enjoy a "green hour."
• Celebrate Earth Day as a true holiday at your house.
• It's not only about getting back to nature—city living can be eco-friendly, too.
• Find your little square of nature and hold on tight.

(Photo credit:kvanhorn, flickr)

Having lived car-free for almost three years, and having invested considerably in family biking for the past 12 months, there is one thing that continues to amaze me anew: parents on bikes can't wait to share the joy. I ride my "mamabikeorama," as I call it, around town even without my kids, and when I'm headed out to pick up four gallons of milk I'll be chatted up at stop signs and as I slowly pedal up a hill. "Nice bike," a dad in my neighborhood will say, looking me up and down in a chaste version of the same look I used to get at bars in my pre-kid years. "Don't you just love that bike?" another will say as he commutes home, bubbling over to tell me about his longtail.

I do love my bike. I love it with such passion, in fact, that I can't stop telling others about my adoration. I've added "family biking evangelist" to my Twitter bio, and picked up a lot of other fellow proselytizers. There are Marion Rice and Jonathan Maus at BikePortland.org, the acknowledged internet clearinghouse for family biking news. There is Julian Davies of Totcycle, whose often-rhyming, hilarious, photo-strewn posts are sure to convert the masses with a smile. Kidical Mass, with its tag line, "Kids are traffic too!" promotes group rides with kids; the Xtracycle kids gallery is an entirely unfunded effort to be the "most comprehensive gallery of Xtracycle photos on the planet." My friends at Clever Cycles (who have five children spread among two families) say the shop encourages biking as primary transportation "because it is immensely pleasurable."

Though we all may have been inspired to think about biking with our families because of the guilt of spewing fossil fuels into the atmosphere, fear of climate change, and a belief in paying the "true cost" of our transportation, when it comes down to it, we do it for the love. As I wrote once, life with kids and without a car is existing in an extended state of dreamtime. When doing something you love this much has the added benefit of being green: you'd preach too.

(Photo credit:sarah gilbert)