 In order to thank you for all your help this year, Celtic Naturals and Ride with Heart, along with our sponsors would like to invite you to a party at the Rumba Cafe in Columbus, Ohio!
The Cyndi Black Big Band is going to be on-stage all evening swinging your cares away. Have you heard these guys? To the backdrop of some of the more fun and talented local musicians, Cyndi stands out. Good times and good tunes.
What’s a party without an auction? Have you heard of some of the prizes? General Mills has donated two (2) customizeable Wheaties boxes. Want to see your favorite athlete or community activist on their own private Wheaties box? Now you can!
Clintonville Outfitters has donated awesome stainless steel water bottles to keep you hydrated in this heat – and a headkerchief to catch the sweat, if you need it. A great gift combo!
Ladies! There’s also a one-year membership for Dames Bond being offered up! If you’re looking to spread your entrepreneurial wings, meet a lot of energetic and exciting women, check out Dames Bond. You won’t be sorry. Worth all the time you put into it!
Alvera Pickerington has donated a body wrap and foot detox. For those of you (men and women) who have lost weight this summer, but seem to find sagging skin as a result, check out the skin toning effects of this body wrap. I personally was amazed. Not only did I lose a few inches in those critical every-woman-hated areas, but my muscles felt looser and more prepared for the next workout / race after a body wrap and foot detox combo. Did I mention this is an all natural body wrap? Love ‘em!
So, more donations are on the way! We’re planning a few fun games to keep you entertained…and of course, Rumba will have their full staff available. So, check out their great bar and enjoy the evening.
Hope to see you there. No tix in advance. $5 donation at the door!
Rumba Cafe pdf
 2011 Pelotonia is now 6 weeks away. In Columbus, Ohio, it is “Pelotonia Season.” You’ll see the green jersey on one rider in every pack. Pledges and events are being planned. Grab your helmet, it’s time for some fun!
This year, Angela has rounded up some fantastic sponsors for “Ride with Heart.” Here’s a quick overview of the sponsors and a reveal of the jersey. Expect more to come on each of these businesses. They are organizations that are deeply committed to community – and health and wellness. If you get a chance, please thank these people and their businesses for their generosity.
So, in no particular order:
The Shawn Ireland Show (check on her radio show, online and on radio)
Dames Bond
Clintonville Outfitters
Project 908
Greenswell
Om2Ohm
Easton Farmers Market
The charity that we are sporting on our jersey is called Believe in the Cure. A young woman is fighting to bring you all natural and organic tips for living and fighting against cancer. She lives each day to spread the word on healthy living — and to have one more chance to kiss her two adorable children goodnight. Find out more about her story at the Believe in the Cure Facebook page.
Many regions of the United States have seen record rains, leaving many a runner or walker with soggy shoes. Wet shoes have a tendency to stretch and slip, leading to blisters on our feet. Here are a few tips to help the healing process.
Hotspots
Inspect your feet after a long walk or run. Do you see any red or hotspots forming? Use a nutrient rich moisturizer after your shower to support the skin’s healing. For regular use, try our Re-CycleMint Shea Butter Whip. The peppermint will refresh and rejuvenate and the tea tree oil will help keep nasty feet fungi at bay.
Blisters
If you are beyond hot spots and the beginning of blisters are forming, thoroughly wash and dry the affected area. Apply a dab of the Celtic Naturals Chamois Cream, the blend of herbs used in this formula helps reduce swelling, blistering, infections and promotes healing of the skin. Leave socks and shoes off as long as possible. When shoes are required, protect the area from further friction. Tip: If you don’t have a stash of Moleskin(r) immediately handy, try the sticky portion of a Band-Aid(r) applied directly to an unpopped, but small blister. Try to maintain the health of the blister as long as possible. Resist the urge to pop or drain it.
Prevention during Healing
Consider keeping an extra pair of socks in your purse or car. Blisters are deeps wounds in epidermis. Even after the blister has healed externally, it can take months for the area to toughen again. Caring for the blistered area will help it heal more quickly.
If possible, avoid multiple blisters in an area.
- Wear alternate shoes to avoid excessive friction
- Consider wearing different types of socks
- Let the skin toughen slowly. Like building muscles, the skin needs time to heal. Increase distance slowly to give the skin time to toughen without getting damaged.
Questions about blisters? Feel free to mail angela [at] celticnaturals.com with questions!
After a long harsh winter, spring has arrived. Have you been out enjoying the beautiful sunshine and fresh air? In our neighborhood, we are seeing runners flock to the multi-use paths. Spring is a great time of year to start increasing your running/walking distance.
With increased running/ walking distance, however, comes the increased likelihood of blisters. Here are a few tips to prevent your running from being derailed by blisters.
- Healthy Skin
- Invest in Socks
- Shoes – Fit & Function
Healthy Skin
Healthy foot skin includes a few callouses. These callouses have built up over time to protect your foot from blisters. It’s OK to have callouses, but many people head for a pedicure as flip-flop and sandal season approaches. Great. Tell your pedicurist that you are a runner. Advise him or her that the callouses have been hard-earned. A good pedicurist will recognize the tell-tale signs of an active lifestyle and clean up your feet nicely while leaving the callouses intact. Yes, they can soak, soften and file the rough edges.
Ramp your mileage slowly. Yes, this is primarily to protect your knees, back and build support muscles and tendons while preventing injury, however, your skin needs time to adjust as well. A slight rub can send the signal to the skin to thicken in order to protect itself from blistering. Skin thickening is a slow process. By carefully ramping your distance, you give your skin a chance to heal between runs.
Keep your skin dry during the run as much as possible. After the run, wash, dry and moisturize your feet with a product like our ReCycleMint Shea Butter Whip. Not only will the menthol in the peppermint rejuvenate, but the tea tree oil will aid in preventing foot fungi, while the shea butter will moisturie and nourish the skin.
Invest in Socks
Thanks to a better understanding of wicking properties of materials and newer manufacturing techniques, some great socks are now available on the market. Find the sock that fits well on your foot. I recommend finding that perfect sock BEFORE finding the shoe. Different socks offer different advantages. If you have particularly hot feet, select a light weight sock – perhaps consider a high quality bicycling sock. They are thin, lightweight, versatile. If you prefer trail running or walking, perhaps a thicker sock is more your style. Years of hiking and wearing steel-toed shoes has personally left me a huge fan of toed-socks. Toed-socks help prevent blisters from forming between toes. Compared to shoes, socks are cheap. Try a variety early in the season while your distances are a little shorter. After each run/walk, look at the skin on your feet. Take note of how your feet feel, how the socks performed for you. The next time you head to the store for athletic shoes, take those favorite socks with you.
Shoes – Fit & Function
A glance at the shoes on the wall of a running store will tell you that every foot is different. Your body’s needs are different – and the sport that you choose has different requirements as well. When buying your shoes, consider the following:
Toebox – is there enough room for the toes to wiggle, but not too loose that you’re sliding around on the ball of the foot?
Heel anchor – is your heel sliding around, giving the chance to develop blisters?
Seams – check the internal stitching of the shoe, a seam that is misplaced relative to your foot can lead to disasterous blisters.
The terrain for your sport – are you running hills? just flats or walking? off-road or road running. Do you love to run through puddles and water?
The fit of your shoe and your sock will combine to help you combat blisters. Although there is no one answer to avoiding blisters, taking all these items into consideration will certainly help reduce the likelihood of getting blisters. See our next post when we discuss what to do if those nasty blisters happen to sneak up on you.
Happiness is watching your toddler take joy in one of your favorite pasttimes: running. This morning, my son came up to me and asked to go running. He put on his “race suit,” collected his socks, shoes and track suit and brought me my running shoes. I was amazed. Our early morning routine usually includes much nagging and reminding of tasks in order to get him dressed. This morning, while I checked Facebook, balanced the checkbook, he dressed himself. Socks on correctly, shoes on the right feet. He was ready to go.
Words cannot describe how happy I was to take this first run with him. He was laughing, maintained decent form, remembered to stop at the corners to look for cars and just enjoyed himself. As I jogged alongside I was reminded how grateful I am to have him in my life. We are a family blessed with health and we focus on maintaining it with healthy habits like eating and exercising.
At the schoolyard, we twirled, we climbed hills, we ran past the soccer girls (he somersaulted to show off for the crowd of watchers). In the parking lot we jumped the stripes for car parking, we ran up steps, we chased another jogging couple with their sleeping baby in a carriage. He stopped to look at the bridge, he asked to pet the puppy going by. We walked home. In all, this 45 minute adventure covered about 1 mile of running and 1/2 mile of walking.
I’m proud of my little guy. We purposely do not focus on winning when he’s around, but only encourage him doing his best. I have mixed emotions when I see others out with their child. I don’t want to push him into activities while he’s too young, but I do want to encourage him in activities that make him happy.
I attribute this request of his today to a demonstrated love of running by both my husband and myself. While we continue on our journey as parents, we hope to model healthy eating, sleeping and exercising.
Really, for today, although the sun was in the sky, the real sunshine was in my soul. I hope this run is the first of many that I will be honored to share with my son.
Checking the Status of Your Insulation
 Well, it’s too late to expect Santa or reindeer on your rooftop for Winter 2010-2011, but a glance at your roof just after a recent snow can tell a quick story about the state of the insulation in your attic. It’s fairly transparent for all to see, if you know what to look for. If you see any of the following characteristics, you are losing money right out your roof. It’ll only take a few minutes to know if you need to spring into action.
- Does the snow melt in parallel lines running up the roof?
- Is there one section of the roof that melts before the others?
- Does the snow on your roof melt sooner than all the others in your neighborhood?
- Look at the corners as well, next to gables and chimneys. These areas are particularly difficult for contractors to reach. Has the snow in these areas melted sooner than the others?
When comparing your roof to neighbors’ homes or along your own rooftop, remember that darker shingled roofs or roofs facing the sun will melt sooner than the shaded sides or lighter roofs. Be certain to make a fair comparison.
Parallel lines of melted snow indicate that the rolls of insulation have shifted apart, usually at the beams. If only a few lines are apparent, perhaps getting into the attic and shifting the insulation back into place is enough, but if your entire rooftop shows lines, you may be in need of some extra insulation. If you don’t go into your attic but have easy access, consider blowin as an excellent, environmentally friendly insulation option. For a nominal fee you can rent the equipment at your local equipment rental or home improvement store. They typically carry the blowin as well.
If you have one section that is melting prematurely, perhaps the insulation was shifted during attic work. The most common cause for local melting in newer homes is the running of electrical wiring or cables after the home was built. The 15 – 30 minutes you spend climbing into your attic to readjust the insulation can be well worth it in your next energy bill.
As you green your home, consider installing cellulose blowin insulation. In my opinion it is the most environmentally friendly option. Cellulose blowin typically consists of recycled newspapers treated with a non-toxic boric compound as a flame and mold retardant. Cellulose blowin does not have any chemical off-gassing associated with some foam blowin options.
In some cases, your energy savings can be so significant, that you recoup your costs in the next winter month. The return on your investment will depend on the extremity of weather, the state of insulation at the start of the project and how much cellulose you installed.
Have a great time saving money, and know you’re doing a good thing for the environment, too!
Balance
Please welcome Lori Crock from Written Impact, a Dublin based marketing firm. As a mother, wife and business entrepreneur, Lori reflects on achieving balance between work and fitness. Please visit theWritten Impact blog for more posts from Lori Crock and her team.
Thank you Angela for allowing me to guest blog on your site!
 Balance: finding it, keeping it and making it a priority can be tough when you are an owner of a small, startup business.
I am founder of Written Impact–a small marketing team in Dublin, Ohio who serves other small businesses and non-profits with creative and affordable marketing, writing, web and social media services.
In the past year, since our children have gone off to college, my inclination has been to work more than I do anything else.
However, being a workaholic is not my true nature. I do really enjoy running a business though; it is exciting, intellectually stimulating and it connects me with so many great new people. This entrepreneurship thing has become, well, addictive.
So what did I do to achieve balance? For a long time, nothing. But now I am exercising.
My husband convinced me to join a gym and work out with a strength coach, Jeff Turner of Fit2Play. It has opened my eyes to the possibilities of enjoying life even more. Lifting weights takes me away from my computer in the morning and gives me new goals, new focus, and happily, a new obsession that makes my body feel good.
As hubby and I work out with our coach, we laugh, talk and energize for the day ahead. The activity relieves stress and reminds me to be thankful for this human body that can at least minimally stretch, lift, run and jump–and that is truly a blessing.
What else am I doing to achieve better balance? Reading for pleasure. Praying. Volunteering. Cooking on weekends. Visiting my children. Speaking to groups. Spending care-free time with hubby and friends — and hopefully relaxing with some Celtic Naturals products now that I know about Angela and her business.
Finding balance helps us become happier and more productive — and I hope it helps me become a better business person too.
“Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance, order, rhythm and harmony.” ~Thomas Merton
So what are you doing to achieve balance in your life?
What better time of the year to use the antioxidant rich ingredients of chocolate and coffee in your skin care than Valentine’s Day? Capture the power of these rich ingredients to exfoliate and protect your skin with antioxidants. The darker the chocolate, the more antioxidants it has, so when choosing cocoa powder, darker is better. Multiple research studies have shown coffee to be the leading source of antioxidants in most American and European diets.It is full of polyphenols, a powerful type of antioxidant. When selecting coffee for your skin care, choose organically grown, locally roasted, unflavored coffee.
The following scrub and mask contain chocolate and coffee as their source of antioxidants. Following these recipes and the instructions will leave you with a sweet and glowing face. I recommend you prepare the scrub and mask before beginning your wash.
Wash
Begin with a natural bar of soap to wash your face. Lather the soap and rub your face gently using circular motions that are upward and away from the mouth. Rinse with warm water and pat dry using a clean towel.
Scrub
Apply the scrub to damp skin using gentle upward circling motions. Avoid such delicate areas as the eye. Focus on problem areas such as the T-zone. Feel free to use this gentle scrub on the neck and chest area as well. Rinse well using warm water and pat dry.
Mask
While your face is still warm from the scrub, apply the mask. Using your fingertips, apply the mask liberally to face and neck area. Wait while the mask begins to dry. When you begin to feel the tightening of the mask, it’s time to rinse again with warm water. Pat dry and follow up with your preferred toner and moisturizer.
Coffee Scrub
2 T. finely ground organic coffee beans (espresso level grinding is best so as not to scratch)
1 T. organic sugar or fine sea salt
2 T. organic almond oil
Mix ingredients together in a bowl, let sit for 5 – 10 minutes to allow the beans to seep into the oil.
Chocolate Mask
¼ cup organic yogurt
2 T. honey
1 T. organic chocolate powder, dark.
2 T oat flour (using blender to ground oats)
1 vitamin E capsule
Crush the capsule so the Vit. E is added to the yogurt. Discard the capsule. Add the remaining ingredients, stir and let it rest for 15 minutes. If the yogurt is very runny, add up to 1 T more chocolate powder and 1-2 T oat flour to absorb moisture and ease application.
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/skin-care-articles/sweet-complexion-for-valentines-day-4031819.html
About the Author
Angela is the founder and Chief Sustainability Officer of Celtic Naturals. As a mother, trained engineer and environmental enthusiast, she believes it is possible to be green and glam. She specializes in teaching others how to live toxin-free. Her blog topics range from green living to healthy cooking, from gardening to organic self-beauty tips. Please visit www.celticnaturals.com for toxic free skin care tips and products.
At Celtic Naturals, we support everyone who is trying to make an environmental difference. To date, we have cheered local companies, farm markets, and supported small business. We spent time educating ladies, moms, and athletes about improving their environment and reducing their exposures to toxic chemicals. It is seldom that we spend time supporting large business. However, ultimately, we are here to support consumers in making healthy choices, and we cheer all the efforts, big and small, to clean the environment, to encourage recycling and reuse.
So, we would like to make you aware of a potentially game changing strategy by Proctor and Gamble. They are launching a program called Future Friendly, in which they are challenging you as the consumer to increase your awareness of all things environmental. Naturally (pun intended) this includes buying their products to help you do so.
Informed consumerism is important. Buying products that have been reformulated certainly can reduce overall environmental load. We all make small steps to support each other in the quest for a healthier environment. When a giant makes a small step, the values add up very quickly. Let’s face it, P&G is a giant.
Although I prefer to support small and local, inevitably, I find myself in a strange town, with some minor emergency, needing a product from a large chain grocery store. I’ll always read the ingredients label before I make a purchase, but maybe being aware of their new Future Friendly program, I’ll be more likely to consider one of their products.
At least check out the wonderful Challenge Tracking tools and Kids Coloring Chart.
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In order to thank you for all your help this year, Celtic Naturals and Ride with Heart, along with our sponsors would like to invite you to a party at the Rumba Cafe in Columbus, Ohio!
