BUT there are some fundamentals you will need to abide by. Your body needs balance in four major areas; eating, sleep, emotions and exercise. Exercise will increase your metabolism which helps you to drop the pounds, it also helps us sleep better. Eating a balance diet of protein, veggies, fruits, legumes and whole grains feeds our body and our brain. If you are eating a good balanced diet and taking a multivitamin your body will be less likely to have those nasty cravings for sweets or salty food. Conversely if you starve your body, it gets depleted of many vitamins and that can throw off the signals from your brain to tell your body when it’s full, what your body needs, etc.

The next post will talk more about weight loss without diets and how exercise plays a major role AND what type and how much exercise is needed. Stay tuned for more…

The Verde Solair website gives some great information on different ways to go green and save money in the process. If you are planning on buy and installing a new hot water heater this year you may as well check it out.

Is that what my life boils down to?

I went to college thinking I’ll make lots of money and hire someone to do home improvements and home repair when I’m older, but I have come to find great joy in doing some of the work around the house!

You may have read my articles on “killing your carpet”. Carpets are really bad for your health. When they are new the chemical off-gassing is enough to fry your brain, but over time they collect ever germ, dust ball, food spill in your house.

I ripped out every carpet in my house and installed tile and wood flooring. My allergies and chemical sensitivities improved more than they’ve ever improved in my life!

So last month, I moved to a few house and ripped all the carpets out. This time I decided I was going to learn how to tile. It was hard work but not that difficult to learn. The best part is that I get constant gratification walking on these floors, knowing I took part in the creation. So be it tiling or a plumbing repair job, take heart, you can learn new skills! Here’s another one of my favorite websites for home repair. http://www.louisvilleplumbingandheating.com/

Well honey, it’s the 21st Century! Home repair jobs are not that hard, it’s just having someone show you how to do them. Believe me, now that I’ve learned a few new skills, I’m wanting more. I find a lot of my information online.

We have used the longmontplumbingandheating.com website many times and they have consistently had reliable, trust worthy and great information. When we have a plumbing, heating or air conditioning problem we always check this website to get the issue fixed. Look for their eco-friendly advice on clogged drains.

There are lots of sites like to to give you step by step advice on repairing heating, plumbing, etc. Good luck ladies!

The biggest secret is that you can easily fix many of the things yourself! We’ve just never learned how to do it. Now, don’t get me wrong. If the compressor is broken on my air conditioning, I’m calling an air conditioning repair service, pronto. But do you know what you can fix and when to call a repair guy?

So take control ladies. It’s the greatest feeling in the world to fix something in your house. The internet has provided our generation a plethora of information on just about everything you can imagine. Some of it takes a little googling (searching on google.com) but you would be surprised at the information available. Go to google and type on “plumbing repair” and you will be surprised at what pops up.

I’ve found some websites that give tips on how to fix common plumbing repairs and what things they recommend a professional for. Some of these websites give written instructions as well as videos. Louisville Plumbing and Heating is a website that I’ve used with great tips on plumbing, plumbers in my local area and air conditioning repair. For a natural way to unclog a drain check out Erie Plumbing and Heating.

Take the challenge ladies, next time you have a home repair get online and see if you can fix it yourself.

1. I recycle paper, cans and glass

1. I drive a hybrid or electric car

1. I buy organic food

1. I have reduced the chemicals in my life

1. I consume less water and electricity than before

Not too many of us are eco-saints and can honestly say they do all 5 from the list above. The trends on recycling are great, many people are moving to hybrid cars and organic food but there has not been as much progress with reducing the amount of chemicals, water and electricity we consume.

Are you thinking “I don’t consume chemicals”? Let’s review some of the common chemicals we consume in our daily life.

• Fertilizer for your lawn is about as bad as it gets, start using an organic fertilizer. This is a big one!

• House-hold cleaners can be a detriment to your indoor air quality and our environment. Have you switched to eco-friendly cleaners that are not toxic to you or the water supply they enter?

• Have you made steps to reduce your water consumption? Try looking into a tank less water heater which saves water and lowers your utility bill.

Each year I try to review what new changes I can make to improve my indoor air quality, reduce the chemicals in my house and in general reducing my footprint on this earth.  Try going “greener” one step at a time and before you know it you will have a much healthier environment.

He started Steadman Hawkins Research Foundation which has been the the perfect platform to house a base of scientific evidence that supports some of his innovative orthopaedic techniques. The Foundation makes it possible to collect, organize, analyze, and make available to the world’s medical and research communities hundreds of data points on every Steadman-Hawkins patient. Thanks Dr. Steadman for this wonderful contribution to science and society!

Our latest humble contribution has been our new plumbing and heating repair website. Check it out at www.erieplumbingandheating.com. We thank all the people that contribute to WordPress websites for this wonderful open source tool.

This year I’m doing things a bit different. I’m taking a new look at how I can do all my old tasks in a “greener” way. If we each continue to make new eco-friendly choices we can do our part to help make our world a better place.

So here are my top 5 eco friendly things to do this spring:

1. This year I’m eliminating any chemicals from my garden and planting all organic plants. It’s a little more expensive and a little harder to find, but it’s a lot healthier for your kids if they play in your yard to get rid of those awful fertilizers full of chemicals.
2. My spring cleaning will be done with lots of vinegar, baking soda and plant derived cleaners. Get rid of those old cleaners that are made with petrochemicals, unnatural fragrances and use products that bring a healthier environment to your home. Did you know that your indoor air could be causing health issues to you and your family?
3. Open your windows and let the fresh air in. Wash your windows with a mixture of half vinegar and half water, usually this will improve your indoor air quality and leave your windows spotless.
4. Is it time to clean out a few clogged drains? Here are some helpful tips for a more natural way to clean drains. Throw away those chemicals; they go straight to our water supply.
5. Time to go green with your hot water heater; your water heater uses a lot of energy to keep water hot 7/24. Check out tankless water heaters or called hot water on demand systems.

For starters just do one task in an eco-friendly way and then pass this list on to a friend and encourage her to do the same. We can create a better planet one step at a time.

Stay tuned for the next update after my surgery. In the mean time check out our latest website at www.louisvilleplumbingandheating.com

The spinal discs are cushions that separate each set of bones in the back. Their primary purpose is to act as shock-absorbers, which prevents the bones from absorbing this shock and helps you avoid quite a bit of pain.

Each disc is composed of two parts – a strong outer covering called the annulus, and a soft jelly center called the nucleus. This structure essentially resembles a jelly doughnut.

When an individual has a bulging disc, the strong outer covering of the disc tears and the jelly begins to shift out of the center into the area where the disc is injured. This creates a bulge in the disc, which applies pressure to the spinal nerves.

This is actually why this condition is so painful and debilitating – the spinal nerves control everything in the body, so when they have pressure applied to them, not only is it painful, but whatever they control in the body will begin to malfunction.

One of the most difficult things about healing a bulging disc is the fact that the spinal discs do not receive a good amount of blood flow. The body normally relies on the blood to supply oxygen and nutrients to an injured area for faster healing.

However, because the spinal discs do not receive a good blood supply, they can be very difficult and frustrating to heal efficiently.

This is actually a very important point to bring up when talking about bulging disc exercises, because the spinal discs receive their oxygen and nutrients in a very different way. Remember how we were discussing the fact that each spinal disc has a jelly center?

Well, this jelly center is very important, because the disc will actually store oxygen and nutrients in this jelly for proper healing. So, one of the exercises we’ll be covering will be helping to refresh this oxygen and nutrient supply so you can experience faster healing.

Alright – now that we have that background, it’s time to talk about some specific herniated disc exercises you can do. I’m actually going to give you a routine that you can do, which I use in my clinic for the fastest and best results.

The first exercise I will recommend will require the use of a mini-trampoline, which is a small trampoline that’s about 4 feet wide. They’re very reasonably priced, and you can find one at most sports stores.

However, you will not be using the trampoline in the way you may imagine – in other words, you will not be jumping on the trampoline. Basically, I’m going to recommend that you simply stand in the center of the trampoline and march in place. This needs to be a very controlled movement, and you need to make sure you keep your head looking straight ahead and your arms at your side when you are marching.

This exercise should be done for 5 minutes every day. The goal of this bulging disc exercises is to improve your balance, which strengthens the smallest muscles that surround the spine. When you strengthen these muscles, it not only balances the spine, but it removes pressure from the discs, allowing them to heal more efficiently.

The next exercise I’ll recommend involves the use of a therapy ball, which is one of those large balls you see in health clubs or physical therapy clinics. Basically, you just need to sit on the ball, and gently bounce up and down, keeping your head looking straight ahead and your arms to your side.

This exercise should be done for 5 minutes every day, and it’s best that you do it immediately following the trampoline exercise we just mentioned. This exercise is actually the most important one I’ll be covering today, because this is the one that’s going to help bring new oxygen and nutrients to the injured disc for faster healing.

Basically, when you bounce on the ball, you are pumping every disc in the spine. This pumping action (called imbibition) is literally pumping new oxygen and nutrients into the disc, and pumping toxins from the injury out of the disc.

Finally, we need to talk about stretching and strengthening bulging disc exercises. Stretching should also be done every day, but I recommend that you do your stretches immediately following you do the trampoline and ball exercise. These exercises combined will act as an excellent warm-up and prepare your muscles for your daily activity (which lowers the risk that you will re-injure your bulging disc).

Strengthening exercises, on the other hand, need to be done just 3 days a week. These exercises are a little more aggressive, so I don’t recommend you begin these until you’ve been doing the stretches for two weeks. The stretches will prepare you for the strengthening exercises, and you should always stretch before strengthening.

In other words, I would recommend that you start with the trampoline exercise, then the ball exercise, then stretch, and finally strengthen. This routine will gradually warm up the area around the bulging disc, which ensures the fastest result.