International Earth Day, a day we celebrate by planting trees, switching to energy saving light bulbs, building bird houses, cleaning up their community parks/neighborhoods, recycling, etc.

Earth day is a good reminder of our responsibility to preserve and protect our environment. But we should do something every day to protect the health of this beautiful place we call home. The health of this planet and our own health are dependent upon each other, so part of our good health comes from taking of our planet’s health. 

Let’s adopt some of these changes in order to achieve a more environmentally friendly healthy lifestyle:

Eat Local as Much as Possible

Introducing local nutritious foods into your diet allows you to support your health, support your local economy. It also reduces the impact on the environment that is caused due to food transport, processing, storage and energy use.

Use Natural Cleaning Products

Chemicals and toxins in cleaning products can contribute to asthma, skin problems, and hormone disruption. Many chemicals, such as fertilizers and household cleaning products, are washed away by water and rain and may end up water supply and in rivers/streams, therefore harming both humans and animals. See here for natural cleaning methods.

Drink Water

 Water is a necessity for all organisms to survive and has many benefits from helping you lose weight to removing toxins from your body. By reducing your soft drink intake, you can make a significant reduction in the amount of calories you consume, as well as protect yourself from the harmful additives and preservatives that these drinks often contain.  When you are on the move, make sure you carry your own BPA– Free water bottle to reduce your exposure to this harmful hormone disruptor. This will also reduce the amount of plastic in our landfills.

Try Meatless Monday

Give your body a break and reduce your risks of heart disease, stroke, and cancer by cutting down on meat products.  This also reduces your environmental impact, since it takes a lot of natural resources to raise animals for food.  For example: It takes approximately 13 pounds of grain to produce 1 pound of meat, which means we are using more land and water for growing crops that are used for animal feed.  For more information and recipe ideas : http://www.meatlessmonday.com/

Go for a Walk

This allows you to reconnect with nature and emphasize respect and appreciation for it. You also get your daily dose of sunshine, a.k.a Vitamin D + Mood Enhancer. Taking a walk will also help reduce the use of gym facilities, which run on a sufficient power supply.

Fun fact: Witnessing a sunset or sunrise just twice a week is shown to significantly reduce depression.

Drive Less

Bicycle to work/school or the local corner store instead of driving will help you burn calories while also reducing pollution and congestion on the roads. Public transport or carpooling is another way to cut down on fuel emission.