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Celebrate Earth Day April 22

April 12, 2010 by Melisa M. | Comments (0)


Earth Day is a day designed to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth’s environment, held on April 22. It is celebrated in many countries and has been receiving added attention in current years with the newfound popularity of going green and our increased consciousness of how we are harming the planet. As active motivated women, we, here at CRAVE, think Earth day is a wonderful chance to help women discover new ways to help our earth and conserve it for generations to come. The Nature Conservancy has some wonderful tips to do just that, pertaining to activities a lot of women deal with in their everyday lives.

Use reusable totes
You can help save oceans when you use reusable shopping bags instead of plastic bags. Sure, it’s a small step — but it can make a big difference in the health of our oceans. Unfortunately, 90 percent of the debris that washes up from our oceans are man-made and shouldn’t be there. Most of it has – unfortunately – come to be expected: derelict fishing equipment, disposable plastic bottles, plastic bags, cigarette butts, bits of unidentifiable plastic, Styrofoam. To help encourage others, share where you take reusable bags or where you’ve found your favorite tote.

Eat  food
Just like you, conservationists, fishermen, chefs and consumers are working together to find new ways of living off our oceans and waters while keeping nature healthy. In a day and age when many of us “harvest” most of our meals by filling a grocery cart or skimming a menu, it can be easy to overlook nature’s role in putting food on our tables. This is especially true when it comes to seafood. For centuries, the oceans’ bounty seemed inexhaustible. Now, as scientists unravel the intricate relationships between fish and the vast lands below the water’s surface, we’re gaining a clearer picture of how humans have altered our oceans’ ability to provide for us. The Conservancy is tackling the problems by working with communities to restore degraded habitats and rebuild depleted fisheries. But sustainability also depends on how fish are brought to market.  A service called FishPhone is Blue Ocean’s sustainable seafood text messaging service that instantly puts sustainable seafood information at your fingertips. To find out about your seafood choice, text 30644 with the message FISH and the name of the fish in question. They’ll text you back with their assessment and better alternatives to fish with significant environmental concerns.

Green your gardening
Even while you’re gardening in your very own backyard, you can make a big difference in the health of the ocean. Fertilizers and other chemicals used in conventional gardening are washed into watersheds and eventually to sea, where they can harm coral reefs and other marine life. To help cut back on pollution, go native! Native plants require much less water and fertilizer than non-native plants do. Make your own compost! Composting kitchen scraps is a great way to create (free!) all-natural fertilizer. Set your mower to a cutting height of 2”-3” — which will eliminate undesirable weedy plants. Don’t rake your clippings; leave them behind as fertilizer. You can even try square-foot gardening. This method uses 90% less water and 95% fewer seeds than a traditional backyard garden and requires no chemicals!

You can find all the details on these tips and plenty more at earthday.nature.org

Celebrating Women’s History Month

March 8, 2010 by Melisa M. | Comments (1)



Did you know that March is Women’s History Month? Women’s History Month can be traced back to 1911 when the first International Women’s Day was celebrated. But it didn’t become a month long celebration until 1987. The popularity of women’s history celebrations continues to spread as more people are becoming aware of the contributions of women and girls. A President’s Commission on the Celebration of Women in History in America recently sponsored hearings in many parts of the country. The Women’s Progress Commission will soon conduct hearings to promote interest in preserving areas that are relevant in American women’s history. Some of the groups promoting this interest are state historical societies, women’s organizations, and groups such as the Girl Scouts of the USA. CRAVE would like to celebrate Women’s History month by selecting five women who have made a positive impact in the last ten years.

Hillary Clinton
During the last decade, she was First Lady, Senator, serious presidential candidate of a major political party, and Secretary of State, First former First Lady to hold major elective office, January 2001 (Senator from New York); first woman candidate for U.S. president to almost win a nomination from a major political party (declared candidacy January 2007, conceded June 2008) and first former First Lady to serve in the cabinet, in her capacity of U.S. Secretary of State, confirmed January 2009. All of this after her presidential husband cheated on her for the whole world to see. Need I say more?

Oprah Winfrey
Oprah was the first black billionaire, as reported by Forbes in April 2004. Although she is not in politics or changing laws, her power and conviction is known the world over. She has used her power again and again to shed light on good causes on everything from women who are sold into slavery to animal cruelty. Her latest endeavor is getting people to stop talking and texting on the phone while driving. She puts massive amounts of money into charitable causes and her show is now approaching an unbelievable 25 year run. In 2009 she announced that the The Oprah Winfrey Show will end in 2011. It’s hard to find a woman who doesn’t know who she is.

Melinda Gates
Melinda Gates is the co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which is the largest transparently operated private foundation in the world. The foundation is “driven by the interests and passions of the Gates family.” The primary aims of the foundation are, globally, to enhance healthcare and reduce extreme poverty, and in America, to expand educational opportunities and access to information technology. The foundation, based in Seattle, Washington, has an endowment of US$35.1 billion as of October 1, 2008. The scale of the foundation and the way it seeks to apply business techniques to giving makes it one of the leaders in the philanthrocapitalism revolution in global philanthropy. In 2007 its founders were ranked as the second most generous philanthropists in America. Bill and Melinda were also named Time magazine’s Persons of the Year in December 2005.

Michelle Obama
Because Michelle is the first African American first lady and the first wife of an African American President, she has an influence and gets attention that prior first ladies may not have received. Michelle represents the loving, working mother who came from difficult circumstances, had the opportunity to attend an Ivy League school, and achieve great things in the causes that she’s taken on as a lawyer, and now, as a first lady. Even her fashion sense is turning heads because she tends to wear little known designers, giving them well-deserved attention, instead of going for the more typical pricier names that everyone would expect. When Michelle decided to grow a vegetable garden outside the White-House, all of a sudden it was all the rage. Right now she is taking on reducing childhood obesity and encouraging children to have a healthy active lifestyle.

Ellen DeGeneres
Though it is easy to argue that Ellen doesn’t have half the achievements under her belt as any of the rest of these women do, her talk show and her name have become so synonymous with positivity and acceptance, it seems that laughter really is the best medicine. Besides being widely adored and accepted as an openly gay woman, Ellen and her talk show have won the daytime Emmy for Best Talk Show and talk show host 4 years in a row and the show averages about 3.0 million viewers per episode, according to daytime television ratings, which makes it one of the highest-viewed daytime shows. The refreshing style of her humor and the unyielding extent of her kindness make her a stand out woman of the last decade.

Information from wikipedia.com.

Finding Light in the Dark Months

January 18, 2010 by Melisa M. | Comments (0)


Our definition of winter is more or less “the dark time”. Clouds, rain and 4pm sunsets have a way of draining all the energy out of you until you almost can’t remember what the brightness and warmth of the summer months felt like. If you happen to live in a northern country, you probably know exactly the feeling. We spend a majority of the fall months gathering, celebrating and being thankful with family, good food and colorful warm lights. What a perfect time of year for whole cities to light up and fight the darkness. But come January 2nd, the plug is pulled. The family is gone, the diet starts, the work resumes, the lights go out and you’re left alone. Some people even suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD, a mood disorder that causes depressive symptoms in the winter months. Here are just a couple of ways to bring the light back into the dark months.

Your home is the most important place to fill with warmth and light. It’s where you go to get away from work or errands or anything that leaves you dealing with stress and the dark outdoors that always seem to encroach on your happiness. Don’t leave your home too dark. It’s easy to leave a light bulb unchanged for weeks  after it’s burned out because you just can’t seem to get around to it. You may be able to live with it, but you’d be surprised to realize how much the change in light actually affects your mood. Some psychologists suggest using full-spectrum lighting to help treat SAD. Full spectrum is a type of light that covers the entire electro-magnetic spectrum from infrared to near ultra-violet. This is the closest type of artificial light that man has been able to produce to emulate natural sunlight.

Stay connected with your friends and family. Have a summer-themed party in your home with tropical drinks and bright outfits to help remind yourself that summer is coming and your attitude is what you make it. You have the power to make yourself optimistic and so do your friends. When you’re down, shop in indoor malls or go to the movies and see a bright comedy (nothing gets you down more than watching a dark depressing movie in a dark theater in the middle of a dark nasty winter). Take a hot yoga class or just exercise at the gym instead of fighting the weather.

Exercise! It’s been proven scientifically that the lack of light and the cold temperatures of winter cause some people’s bodies to go into a sort of hibernation response where they are more fatigued, find themselves hungrier and actually have more trouble burning fat. Not only does exercise fight off the extra weight but the added oxygen flow to your brain is crucial in raising energy levels, stimulating your mind and boosting your mood.

Or if you’re like some of us you’ll just keep the Christmas tree up till February and leave the shades closed so the neighbors can’t tell. Whatever you do, the most important thing is to keep a positive attitude because spring always follows winter.

“Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.” –Chinese Proverb