Practically Green by Mindful Momma, Micaela Preston

Practically Green takes the guesswork out of reading labels and will show you how to make smart, healthy purchases for your family without spending tedious hours researching the pros and cons of all the products available on the market today. Each chapter is broken down into a “Buy It” section that provides key information about everyday purchasing decisions, and a “Do It” section that gives DIY ideas for how to make things that are good for your family and good for the environment. Plus, the author shares some of her favorite recipes that are sure to please the entire family!

Reisenthel (www.reisenthel.com) has an entire line of reusable shoppers and accessories that are make perfect gifts!

With the Reisenthel Bottleshopper dining essentials can now fit safely in one tote, complete with six pockets for beverages that won’t bang into one another. A great way to bring wine and cheese along in a uniquely designed reusable bag.

The Reisenthel Bottlebag Single safely holds a wine bottle, complete with its own thank you note.

The Reisenthel Streetshopper is perfect to bring on board with six outer pockets and a deep interior. Made from durable sail material and adorned with graphics based on the international code of signals.

All products are available at www.touchofeurope.net.

The Luzia Energy Report

The Luzia Energy Report
by Luzia, Inc.

When buying, selling, or making improvements to your home, you can plan, budget, and capture the value of energy efficiency with Luzia.

Whether you are selling your home and want to display its energy advantage or you own the home and want to get an at-a-glance reference for your home’s energy systems, Luzia’s technology brings all of your information in one place.

The Luzia Energy Report gives your home a personalized score powered by ENERGY STAR® that ranks the home’s energy bills as compared to similar homes. The profile describes the home’s heating and cooling systems, lighting, insulation levels and windows, and major appliances, along with their efficiency levels. A Savings Summary with an estimate of your possible savings from small steps to major upgrades, including their return on investment and other statistics highlight your home’s energy friendly ways.

The Luzia Energy Report gives you a simple, effective way to know your home’s energy friendly features and achieve the next ones. Luzia works with you in a short turnaround time so you receive your home’s Luzia Energy Report and can begin using the information.

Selling your home? Showcase the energy friendly features with a Luzia Energy Report.

Home buyers or owners, get the energy facts for your home with a Luzia Energy Report. Use your report to make informed upgrades and save on home improvement costs using rebate and tax credit resources.

Get the power of home energy information you can use with Luzia. Visit www.LuziaEnergy.com to see a sample report or email, request@luziaenergy.com, to get started on your own personalized report.

“I am very excited about the Energy Report, it’s been very well received,” claims Erin Green, marketing agent for PRG.

Meet Lara Greden, PHD

Meet Lara Greden, PHD
by Shelley Hawes

Lara Greden was inspired by energy efficiency at a young age. Growing up on a farm in Pine City, MN, her family was at the forefront experimenting with home energy systems; Their home integrated high thermal mass passive solar design elements.

Greden’s interest moved toward the engineering end of construction, eventually leading her to graduate school in Building Technology at MIT where she concentrated on computer modeling for designing energy efficient buildings. The results led her to question how to communicate their results.

About a year ago, Lara and husband/business partner Bruno Miller became inspired while looking for a car and checking CARFAX reports. They thought to apply the idea to homes and soon partnered with George Matthews, a software engineer, to develop the Luzia Energy Report.

Not just a checklist, the Luzia Energy Report includes Energy Star’s benchmarking system; the Home Energy Yardstick. It is a marketing and educational tool that measures how improvements are actually performing. When making energy improvements at home, it helps to ask the question “Does it work?”

Fireplaces

Fireplaces by Tulikivi
pronounced: TOO-lee-KEE-vee

Technically known as masonry fireplaces, or heat-storing fireplaces, there is no better material for building a fireplace than soapstone, nature’s most heat-retentive material.

Long used in their native Finland and the surrounding Scandinavian countries, Tulikivis are catching on in the United States, as people discover the efficiency and environmental friendliness of this form of heating.

Wood-burning fireplaces have been around since, well, man discovered fire, but a lot of government jurisdictions are banning them because they are polluting. The way we look at fireplaces, or biomass-burning appliances, science speak for a fireplace that burns wood or other living or once-living material, is rapidly changing.

There are several reasons why masonry heaters like Tulikivi are winning converts and approval. At its core is the way it burns the wood. A fire burns hot and fast inside the Tulikivi, causing the near total consumption of the wood, thus resulting in very little smoke and particulate matter, and Tulikivis surpass the toughest air quality standards in the world.

In a Tulikivi, the fireplace will generate sufficient heat to warm the room for as much as 24 hours after a two hour fire is out.

Earlier this year President Obama signed into law a 30% tax credit up to $1500 for consumers who purchase a biomass-burning appliance of at least 75% efficiency. The key word in this new legislation is efficient; hence, Tulikivis qualify for the tax credit.

For more information visit www.tulikivi.com.

Fat vs. Fiction

Fat vs. Fiction
Photos by CM Photography

Most of the questions I hear as a trainer revolve around one thing, you guessed it, “How do I lose weight?”
Coincidentally, the people who ask me these questions are the same people who have tried numerous diets and exercise programs all promising fantastic results. My goal today is to clear up some of the myths about losing weight, especially when it comes to body fat.

Myth #1 Carbohydrates make people fat.

Truth #1 Consuming too much of anything whether it’s fat, protein, carbohydrates, or even alcohol will make you fat. Most snack foods have a very high concentration of simple carbohydrates or sugars, which provide little to no sustenance and often lead to overeating. Eating a combination of protein, carbohydrates (especially fiber), and fats will fill you up longer than carbohydrates alone.

Myth #2 Aerobics or “cardio” is the best way to lose weight.

Truth #2 Burning more calories than you consume is the best way to lose weight. While aerobic activity helps you burn calories, it doesn’t increase your resting metabolic rate (RMR) like weight resistance training does. Our RMR makes up the majority of the calories we burn in one day, unless you happen to be an ultra endurance athlete. Resistance training boosts our RMR by increasing our muscle mass. Weight training not only burns calories while doing it, but also has a residual effect of helping burn more calories 24/7.

Myth #3 You must train in the “Fat Burning Zone” to lose body fat.

Truth #3 We burn a combination of carbohydrates and fats all day long. The “Fat Burning Zone” is when the percentage of calories used from fat is higher than that of carbohydrates. This doesn’t necessarily mean you are burning more fat calories overall. As the intensity of an activity rises, our use of carbohydrates increases, while our use of fat remains the same. Only the percentage of calories burned from fat goes down. In addition, higher intensity exercise increases EPOC (Excess Post Oxygen Consumption) after the workout. This is commonly referred to as the “After Burn” of exercise, when metabolism is elevated following completion of a workout.

Myth #4 Working out on an empty stomach helps burn more body fat.

Truth #4 Although the percentage of calories burned from fat will be higher, working out on an empty stomach usually shortens the duration and limits the intensity of exercise you can perform that workout. The best policy is to eat a small snack or meal 1 to 2 hours before exercise. Eating a small amount of calories before exercise, especially early in the morning, will help ensure you don’t fatigue prematurely during your workout.

Myth #5 Weight training turns fat into muscle.

Truth #5 Fat is fat and muscle is muscle. Over time, when we weight train, we build muscle and it increases our metabolism. If we don’t increase the amount of calories we eat after building the muscle, we may burn off the fat for energy to support the muscle. Sometimes people believe their fat turns to muscle because they appear smaller even though they weigh the same. Muscle is very dense, so a pound of muscle appears smaller than a pound of fat.

Myth #6 You can exercise specific areas of your body to burn off the fat located there.

Truth #6 Working out a specific area of your body will increase muscle activity in that area, but won’t necessarily reduce body fat there. Body fat typically comes off in just the opposite order it comes on. Although you can’t target areas to burn off body fat, usually you can predict where you will lose it first, last, etc. If the last place you noticed a little more chub was your abs, then as you start to lose body fat that will most likely be the place you notice shrinking first. Likewise, the first place you put on body fat is often the last place you are able to burn off the unsightly nuisance.

Mark Brandenburg is a fitness professional with a B.S. in Exercise and Sport Science from Iowa State University.
He serves the greater Twin Cities area as a personal trainer and fitness consultant. For more information about the services Mark has to offer go to www.fitandfitted.com or call (651) 366-1988

Choose the perfect wine for your big day and remain sustainable

Tips from an Expert: Choose the perfect wine for your big day and remain sustainable by Leslee Miller

As the most important day of your life approaches, you check your lists over and over, dotting your I’s and crossing your T’s making sure that every last detail is in place for the big day. Don’t worry over the wine list – it should be fun! Take the stress out with these easy steps.

1. Be original! When the banquet manager passes you the wedding wine list, don’t get roped into the traditional ‘wine packages’
that are provided by the hotel or event space. Ask to take a look at their regular wine list, one coming from their main dining room or bar area.

2. Pick up to four wines; one should include your ‘toasting’ bubbly. Keep it simple with the number of varietals. It eliminates headaches for your guests, the staff, and your budget.

First, choose a sparkling. Champagne from the Champagne Region in France is expensive. Your best bets for bubbly are: Cava, Prosecco or Sekt. Cava, sparkling from Spain, Prosecco, sparkling from Italy, and Sekt, sparkling from Germany, are all great options to save money. Many are produced sustainably or organically.

Next, choose a white. To satiate the appetite of all your white wine drinkers, your best bet is to select something crisp, clean and delicious. Chardonnay is a white grape that most will recognize. Pick an ‘unoaked’ version of the grape, and for a great tip on ‘affordable’, I’d go with one from the Pacifi c NW. Washington and Oregon do a wonderful job producing organic and generally, inexpensive delicious Chardonnays.

Reds, Reds, Reds… This is where most folks will head if they are drinking wine for the night. My first recommendation is to chose a lighter bodied red – something like Pinot Noir or even, Tempranillo. Pinot Noir is a great grape- however, it has taken a big price increase in recent years due to demand. Check into northern Italy or even Argenti na to fit your bill. Many are grown sustainably and fit the profile…easy-drinkin’, light and delicious.

Most folks like Cabernet. You can also lookinto Malbec or Syrah as a savvy alternative. Chile and Argentina give you great price
points, and again most are grown in part, organically. As your last red, for selecting a good, green, affordable wine head to South America; some of my favorites come from Spain, Argentina and Chile. The farming in many of these regions truly sticks to the livelihood of these green areas. Handled and produced by people, in a way that sticks to keeping the wine traditional.

3. Ask questions. Ask the banquet manageror event space director questions. Is the wine sustainable or organic, does the winery use recycled glass or labels? What are your favorite wines on the list and why? Can we taste through a couple of them before we
decide? Do some homework before you go. Pick up some of these regional wines, and try them for yourself.

4. And, last but not least…enjoy! Because, after all, it’s just grape juice for Pete’s sake, and it is, don’t forget, the biggest day of your life, so enjoy it. Salut!