Today: Be healthy, Boston. {Day 2}

[tweetmeme source=”elizabethev” only_single=false]While I’m usually an early riser, this morning’s 5:40 alarm came all too quickly.  I fought my eyelids to get my contacts in, bashed my elbow on the shower door, and managed to get toothpaste on not one, but two shirts.  Craving a do-over for the day, I contemplated getting back into bed, but Clark was patiently waiting at the door, so out we went.  After watching a beautiful sunrise of Broadway with my dog, I couldn’t help but smile.  I was decidedly not going back to bed.

I grabbed my yoga mat and I made it to the Westin on time for the second day of Be Healthy Boston, which kicked off with a morning stretch and flow led by lululemon ambassador Leslie Salmon Jones.  One of the women I sat next to in one of yesterday’s workshops raved about Leslie and her infectious attitude, and it’s no mystery why.  I left the session feeling energized, warmed up and quite like someone who had not woken up on the wrong side of the bed.

I met up with my new pal Elizabeth for the morning keynote, Organize Your Mind to Organize Your Life, delivered by Margaret Moore, founder of Wellcoaches Corporation and a 17 year veteran of the biotech industry.  Ms. Moore offered several rules of order for the brain, and techniques for improving brain health and function.  She talked about the disadvantages of multitasking, remarks that resonated loudly with me, a person who seems to be perpetually multitasking and often running on empty at the end of a busy workweek.  Ms. Moore shared important connections between negative emotions (including feeling stressed or frenzied) and impaired working memory and overall brain function.

Now I know why I often forget where my car is parked.  Yikes.  Fortunately, Ms. Moore offered several proven steps we can take to improve cognitive health and flexibility… and they’re sort of… no brainers.  Bahahaha.

• Exercise
• Meditate
• Engage in mindfulness practices
• Breathe and take breaks from tasks that require sustained focus

Ms. Moore shared that, generally, people who do not suffer from ADD or ADHD can focus deeply on a task for an hour before needing a break.  Multitasking may seem like a necessary evil in our day-to-day lives (I certainly feel pressure to get six things done at once), we divide our attention when we multitask.  I’ve had a printout on the Pomodoro Technique at my desk for ages.  Perhaps I should give that thing a look on Monday morning.  Though I was never much of a scholar when it came to science, I am a nerd through and through and was fascinated with the research and practical application Ms. Moore offered.  Verrrrrry interesting.

Next up was Live Practically Green: Make healthy green choices for your family, home and workplace with Susan Hunt Stevens, Founder and CEO of Practically Green.  Attendance was a bit down from the day before, and there were only four other people in this session.  Susan had such great information to share, so I wish the room had been full, but it was really nice to be able to ask a lot of questions of such an expert.  I am looking forward to digging into Susan’s site, which features 400 actions you can take to live more greenly.

Susan shared some great advice for making better choices about what we put in, on, and around our bodies. A few of the many, many tips I noted in my little (recycled paper) notebook:

• In addition to food, drink, water and personal care items, we need to be mindful of packaging and food storage.  Food should not be stored in plastic, and plastic should never go in the microwave.  I shall henceforth be digging into our extensive Pyrex stash.
• When purchasing cosmetics, lotions, and beauty products, avoid anything containing parabens or fragrance.
• Most new mattresses are made from petroleum-based foam, which is highly flammable.  As such, mattresses are treated with flame retardant, which is highly toxic.  Like the Britney Spears song, except awful.  Because infants spend 80% of their time in their cribs, it is especially important that they have safe mattresses made from natural materials.  Our Tempurpedic mattress literally changed my life, so this one broke my heart… hard.
• Wash all new clothing before wearing to limit the risk of dyes and other chemicals.  Susan recommended organic cotton lines from Eileen Fisher and Nike, as well as buying clothing at vintage and secondhand stores.
• Indoor air is between 5 and 5o times more polluted than outdoor air (this shocked me, to be honest).  Wiping your shoes on a mat and leaving them at the door can reduce up to 80% of toxins you might otherwise track through your house.
• We can save on energy costs by reducing the amount of meat we ate (I am so ahead of the curve, unintentionally), investing in high efficiency and Energy Star appliances, and getting an energy audit to identify sources of waste in our homes.
• Only 50% of Americans have access to curb-side recycling.  I am feeling especially fortunate to live directly across the hall from our condo building’s recycling room.  Even though one of our new neighbors apparently missed the “no cardboard boxes in the trash/recycling room” memo and unloaded a full condo’s worth of boxes this morning.

Susan concluded with a great quote, reminding us that everything adds up.

“It’s not that you can make a difference…it’s that everything you do makes a difference.”

–Phillipe Cousteau, CEO of EarthEcho International, and grandson of Jacques Cousteau

I started taking the quiz and building a sustainability plan at Practically Green and continue to soak up even more information from Susan Hunt Stevens.  I highly recommend visiting her site.

Before heading home to tackle a few Sunday errands and chores (hello, Mount Saint Laundry) and get myself on track for the week, I met up with Elizabeth for a Yoga Beats mini-class hosted by Healthworks.  Hitting the mat twice in one morning with a new friend felt like the ultimate luxury, one that I thoroughly enjoyed.  This was a day well worth getting up for, toothpaste on the shirt and all.

Also On Tap for Today:

• NHL All Star game aaaaand the NFL Pro Bowl (that’s a whole lot of rich people playing games)
• Bath time for Clark! 🙂
• Love this: Twitter accounts all Bostonians should follow

Have you been to any interesting events or conferences lately?