Conscious Articles

Discover Amanda Russell's Favorite Products in June's Conscious Box!

Thu, 02 May 2013 21:16:59 +0000

"Amanda is Carrie Bradshaw meets Ironwoman’, she has the innate ability break OUTSIDE the box, get INSIDE your head and transform you both mentally and physically—more than a class, ARfit is an experience, an experience that may very well change your life." - Dr. Kristin Stegamen

What products does a leading expert in fitness, wellness, and life transformation use on a daily basis? Discover Amanda Russell's favorite products in June's Classic Conscious Box! This month will be packed full of healthy snacks and pure home & body products; perfect for embracing summer!

Amanda Russell is a top-rated fitness and lifestyle writer, professional keynote speaker, Olympic-trained athlete, model, spokeswoman, founder of The ARfit Program, and ONE OF THE INDUSTRY’S LEADING EXPERTS in fitness, wellness and change. Amanda has her own professional online workout channel and talk-show and was named as one of Google’s ‘Next Top Fitness Trainer’s in 2012’.

Amanda can be found writing about life, fitness, wellness and change on her website: www.amanda-russell.com

Subscribe to the Classic Conscious Box before June 6th to receive Amanda Russell's favorite healthy & natural products!

Go Vegan with Author Ruby Roth this May!

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 00:13:31 +0000

"A new viewpoint on animals that we desperately need in today's world. Roth's message...is a great way to get children personally involved in making moral choices that are best for the animals." - Ric O'Barry, The Cove

"...enchanting illustrations." - Jane Goodall

"...a must-have for anyone who loves animals." - Alicia Silverstone

Featured on CNN, FOX, NBC's Today Show, and other major media outlets, Ruby Roth is a celebrated author and illustrator who has helped champion the effort for introducing children to animals rights and what that means for our diets. Combining beautiful illustrations with digestible prose (no pun intended!), Roth makes learning about the vegan diet easy and fun for the whole family.

For May's Vegan Conscious Box, Roth is excited to introduce us to her favorite snacks, sustainable home products, reusables, super power super foods, and much more. Crafted for vegans anywhere in their transition, May's box will provide exciting new selections - all vegan safe!

What are you waiting for? Subscribe today and discover Ruby Roth's favorite vegan products!

And don't forget to check out her books! Covers below!

3 Simple Steps for Starting Your Spring Organic Garden

Fri, 05 Apr 2013 20:39:28 +0000

As the spring season blooms, now is the time to start work on your home garden. The season brings warmth after a long, tired winter, and your fruits, vegetables, and flowers are eager to start budding and basking in the sunlight. Here's a simple Spring gardening checklist (along with a few how-to's) for planning, planting, and keeping your garden looking great!

1. Start with Soil - It's Key to Healthy Growth

Growing healthy, happy plants starts with the soil. It filters water, retains moisture for roots, holds essential nutrients for proper growth, and contains billions of organisms that play their part in keeping the land alive. The first thing you should focus on, then, is making sure your soil is up to the task of growing bountiful crops.

Keep these tenets in mind when thinking about your soil:

The best soil comes with a roughly equal balance of clay, silt, and sand particles
Protect your soil structure by minimizing digging, renewing surface layers with organic matter, and replacing layers in their correct order when disturbed
The cycles of decay and erosion play key roles in producing healthy soil. From microorganisms like fungal, bacterial, and algal life forms to larger organisms like beetles, worms, and other insects, you want to keep your soil teeming with the life that recycles organic matter into nutrient rich soil.

2. Prune, Prep, and Plan

With a strong understanding of what it takes to make good soil, you can now turn your focus toward getting the garden ready for growth. If you have yet to trim down your roses or prune fruit trees, early spring is the perfect time. Be sure to make the cuts before buds start to show, as to reduce stress on the plant and encourage fuller growth.

Now is also a good time to plot out your garden. Cinderblocks are great dividers (and you can fill their side ways squares with soil and plant flowers!). The main thing to keep in mind is how much area each plant will need. Here's what 1 square foot will get you, spaced proportionally:

1 tomato plant
16 carrots
2 cucumber plants
9 beets
4 turnips
8 pea plants
16 radishes

You get the idea! A great source for planning your garden based on square foot measurements can be found at My Square Food Garden. If you're still noodling on where to put what or what your space allows, another great tool is Mother Earth News' Vegetable Garden Planner.

Finally, be sure to walk through the regular steps of tending to the garden. Turn over stones to thwart out the frost, make repairs on beds, and make sure nothing has overgrown to cover or reduce sunlight on your garden. You're almost there!

3. Get Planting!

Now that your garden is ready to grow, get planting! With some of the prime planting dates still around the corner, it's never a bad idea to take a peek at a Spring planting schedule. The Old Farmer's Almanac has a great source for Spring, with planting dates alongside indoor seed starting dates.

And there you have it! With just a few square feet, you can grow a bounty of healthy, organic produce. Start with the soil, prep your garden, and plant your favorites! In no time, you'll be enjoying delicious homegrown food!

5 Ways You Can Change the World through Conscious Consumption

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 21:08:42 +0000

What does it mean to be a "conscious consumer"? How do our decisions as shoppers affect the world around us?

Let's start with a simple truth: the modern world represents the logical outcome of our current set of policies. Where our clothes are manufactured, where are electronics are assembled, and where our coconut oil is sourced all came about through a system of consumption that we have each subscribed to - and the result isn't always pretty. Children inhale lead and cadmium while sorting electronics in Agbogbloshie, a dilapidated suburb of Accra, Ghana known as a "global graveyard" for e-waste; Americans waste some 33 million tons of food while so many go hungry; and the vast majority of shoppers find themselves content (or unbeknownst) to the fact that genetically engineered foods have already steadily marched into our food supply.

But there is good news. As more people become aware of the ecosystem we've created (and are a part of), the cultural push toward a new system takes deeper root. Now, brands market their efforts for sustainability, fair trade, and zero-waste operations. We have organic, non-GMO, and fair trade certifications to look toward for direction. All in all, we see a growing attraction to the collective interest model, measured by our individual slow but steady transitions into more "conscious consuming."

No matter what "stage" you are at in your transition, here are 5 simple steps to help you stride further on your path.

1. Set a Goal

The first step to any good plan is setting a goal. We each come from unique backgrounds, cultures, and differing nodes-of-knowing. Take time to assess your situation and buying habits. Try to put a finger on the most wasteful practices in your home. Likewise, identify the practices that are hardest to give up - you'll need to spend extra energy on those later.

With a strong understanding of where you're starting, choose a destination. My personal goals include cutting out food waste completely and composting as much as possible. Maybe yours is recycling. Maybe driving less, or not at all.

2. Start a Moral Boycott

Now that you've determined what to do, it's time to decide what not to do. Think sugary cereals, unsustainably harvested salmon, monocropped GMO corn and soy. Your dollar either supports these practices or doesn't - it's your choice. To me, sometimes it isn't enough to 'feel good' about the benefits of organic or beyond organic farming. I've got to understand the negatives behind any "alternative" option.

Think about your morals. What defines you? How do you represent this in your shopping?

3. Cap Your Waste Stream

At the core of being a conscious consumer is understanding the afterlife of your products. Where does it all go? Thinking about your waste stream will likely wrap around with your main goal mentioned earlier. Why? Because tackling your waste is at the heart of lightening your tread on the planet.

Consider daily waste: Are you using reusable bags, utensils, or plates for lunch? How about using your own mug for the morning coffee? All these tiny things will add up in the grand scheme of things. Just consider getting coffee, say, 3 days out of the week. Multiply that by 48 working weeks - that's a lot of cups going to the landfill (144 to be exact).
Consider your home's waste: This isn't just food. Think energy, water, natural gas (if used). Your home is often one of the biggest contributors of your footprint.
Consider the luxuries: Everyone loves to get that extra something. Maybe a new sweater or pair of pants. Maybe some nice new leather shoes. Maybe an iPad. Just ask yourself - where are those old shoes going?

A key element to keep in mind is engagement. Without participation from those in your home (or business), effective waste management becomes downright impossible.

4. Shop Local and Go Beyond Organic - Grow Your Own

Among the favorites of conscious consumption, shopping "local" and "organic" are at the top of the list. Problem is, both of these can be a bit confusing. Local, to some, can mean as far as 400 miles. Organic may actually include additives that just aren't organic, take synthetic inositol for instance.

What does this mean for the conscious consumer? It means you've got to take a more vested interest in your shopping. One simple way to do this and avoid reading labels is to just grow your own. Indoor herb gardens are simple enough, and moving this to the outdoors isn't much harder.

If you're not a gardener, head to your local co-op or farmers market for better options. Engage in conversations with your growers and find out where your food is coming from. It ends up in your stomach, after all.

5. Encourage Collective Action

Most importantly, take time to encourage others - and not just when it comes to shopping.

Stacy Mitchell, a Senior Researcher at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR), argues that we can’t just make better shopping decisions and expect the world to change, but we must also couple this with collective power exercised as citizens. We must demand that the change and progress we exhibit as consumers is reflected in the policies and practices of government. (See her full TEDx Talk below).

While I personally carry a more optimistic outlook for the way shopping can shape the world, there is a certain cadence to Mitchell's point that cannot be ignored: as she puts it, the millions of shopping decisions we make as consumers is not unlike trout swimming upstream, against a current built by policies and practices that force a current in one direction.

Welcome to the New Conscious Box! Ready to Learn More?

Thu, 07 Feb 2013 23:29:01 +0000

Over the past year and a half, Conscious Box has been humbled by the kindness and unwavering support of its subscribers. With the new ConsciousBox.com, we hope to introduce you to even more pure and sustainable natural product companies. Ready to find out what's new?!?

Subscribe to Conscious Box!

First and foremost, you'll notice a new design to our box! Still made from recycled cardboard, printed with veggie inks, and produced in a 100% wind powered facility, this new box captures the essence of the adverture contained each month. You'll also notice some extra information tools printed on the box: Conscious Box is non-GMO and continues to be an active member with 1% for the Planet. Your box will also be sealed with a special Conscious Box sticker! As always, our shipping labels are completely BPA-Free.

Shop for Your Favorite Products!

The biggest (and probably most exciting) new feature is the Conscious Marketplace. Here, you can shop for your favorite products, purchase items you discovered in the box, and leave detailed ratings and reviews to earn points redeemable for discounts. Following the same standards for the box, each product is carefully chosen for its leadership in sustainability and commitment to promoting healthier, happier living.

Learn More About Companies and How to Shop Smart!

In addition to the new marketplace, we're adding fun, inspirational and insightful content. We want to make it easy for you to directly compare products you'd find in a local super store and, equally importantly, understand what makes natural products healthier for you and the environment. We'll be adding new posts, fun videos, and pictures everyday to make shopping smart easy and fun!

Thank You! Yes, You!

From this family-and-friend run team, we'd like to say "Thank You"! We're excited to keep introducing you to the finest products and making it simple for you to make the right decisions when it comes to voting with your dollar.

You rock!

Need a Boost? Foods for Energy

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 08:00:00 +0000

Maybe it comes at 11. Maybe it comes at 1, or maybe even 2:30. Whatever time it may be, though, it can feel like you just can't escape it - that feeling of fatigue in the middle of your day. What do you do? The first thing to realize is that you have to take a holistic approach to the problem of constant drowsiness. That means considering all aspects of your lifestyle. Ask yourself, did I have anything to drink last night? How many hours am I getting of rest? Am I eating right? This last one is especially important. Your "choice of chip", as it were, is a powerful decider is the game of your energy level, sense of motivation, and overall health. Lucky for you, fixing the problem of an unhealthy diet can be easily remedied with the right choices by you. Here are three tips for healthy, long lasting energy.

Number 1. Start off the day with [Insert your Form of Protein Here]

We all know it: breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Our parents have been saying it, our doctors have been saying it, and now we're saying it too. And for good reason. When we wake up in the morning, our body is quickly breaking away from sleep. Our sleep/wake cycle, or circadian rhythm, is making the change to a heightened sense of awareness in accordance with our cortisol levels. Because of this balance, skipping breakfast can mean gaining weight, suffering mid morning crash, and potentially being deficient in some vital vitamins and minerals. So we know we have to eat for breakfast, but what? A pastry? Piece of fruit? You may be surprised to learn that eating a balanced breakfast with plenty of proteinis the best way to get a hold of the day. Donuts and fruits can temporarily spike blood sugar levels, but they're unlikely to keep your energy sustained. Protein can help keep you feeling full, beating out that mid morning slouch, and this type of meal will moderate your blood sugar. No spikes, no slouches. Fry up that egg or blend that soy protein smoothie - you won't want to miss this meal.

Number 2. Snack Right, Snack Light

Inevitably, though, you may find yourself grabbing at a snack sometime throughout the day. For me, it's usually that time after lunch, but before my commute home, meaning I'll be spending a long while without a full plate. The key here is to snack light, but with powerful foods. For one, keep a bag of trail mixon hand. This should be made of up a variety of snacks, including raisins, figs, nuts, and maybe a few chunks of dark chocolate. With this, you'll find yourself getting a healthy source of fat and protein, too. Plus, this mix helps keep the taste diverse, energizing, and tasty. Another great snack is fresh vegetables and a light dip. It's quick to prepare, easy to pack, and easy on the wallet. Get yourself some carrots, celery, cucumber, and dark leafy greens (perfect for mini veggie burritos). You'll also get a delivery of essential nutrients like vitamin A, vitamin C, and vitamin K. Talk about benefits!

Number 3. Hey! That's not a Food!

Okay, so this last one may have you squealing, "That's not a food!!" And it isn't. But that doesn't mean it isn't a great source of energy - if not the most important source: Water. Water, in a systemic sense of things, is crucial for having enough energy throughout the day. Being properly hydrated also means being more efficient, as you'll avoid headaches and fatigue associated with dehydration. More importantly, hydration is essential for the proper functioning of our digestive system (what our energizing foods go through) and is subsequently key in the delivery of nutrients in body. Start your day out with a glass, and make sure you don't wait for that "thirsty" feeling to start drinking your water. Getting that hydration may indeed be the source of your fatigue in the first place!