Healthy Living

By Jessica Borges, LuxEco Living Editorial Assistant I recently moved into a new apartment, and with that came a massive scrub down of both old digs and new. My roommates and I spent hours cleaning the old place after moving everything out, but the products we used were hardly eco or health-friendly. When scrubbing the Comet-filled bathroom tub, the smell was so overwhelming that I nearly passed out. While cleaning bathrooms isn’t normally an enjoyable task, it doesn't have to be one that puts people’s health and safety at risk.

By Dow-Yung Kou, LuxEco Editorial Assistant Vintage is a very affordable eco-alternative, because it is giving clothes a second life, while reducing the amount of waste both during production and post-consumption. What it boils down to is good old fashion recycling. An average American throws out 65 pounds of clothing a year, and cumulatively as a country we add 11.8 million tons of clothes to landfills a year.

Cancer Patient’s Best Friend By SULEIKA JAOUAD reposted from The New York Times Blog  Suleika Jaouad writes about her experiences as a young adult with cancer. When...

By Nancy Chuda founder and Editor in Chief of LuxEcoLiving and co-founder of Healthy Child Healthy World How walking can add years to your life What...

By Robyn O'Brien, Founder of Allergy Kids Foundation and LuxEco Advocate Now, I’m not sure where you stand on this whole food thing. But if you’re anything like me, you probably don’t want someone telling you what to eat. So when friends first started trying to educate me about terms like organic, local, natural and grass fed, I have to admit, I tuned out (and probably rolled my eyes). Because the reality is that food is never just food. Food is comfort. Food is family. It is security. It is politics. And it is loaded.

By Nancy Chuda founder and Editor-in Chief LuxEcoLiving and co-founder Healthy Child Healthy World Queribus Castle and the Cru overlooking Maury France If you had to...

By Bethany Colson, Managing Editor of LuxEco Living and Beauty Expert In 2006, James and Nancy Chuda completed their labor of love: their Green Home under the "H" of the iconic Hollywood sign. Drawing from the couple's environmental activism and Jame's prolific career as a nationally board-certified architect specializing in the creation of non-toxic living and working environments, the Green Home is a culmination of many years of the Chuda's dedication to learning, living and advocating for a natural, environmentally-safe and sustainable lifestyle. However, going green didn't mean that their classic good taste would be sacrificed; their modern design would meet green architecture.

By Nancy Chuda founder and editor-in-chief of LuxEcoLiving and co-founder of Healthy Child Healthy World. Do drop in when in San Luis Obispo. Visit the...

I love food. I mean, I really love food. Good food. This is no puppy dog love relationship: it is a border line obsession.

By Lisa Adams, Designer and CEO of LA Closet Design and LuxEco Advocate Maximizing a closet is the number one issue for most people, and...

By Lacey Szczepanik, LuxEco Living Editorial Assistant I have two beautiful pet babies; Diggs, my proud, empathetic and cautious boxer, and Mo, my silly, sleepy Staffordshire terrier. I take my role as their guardian very seriously. When my pet Diggs was two years old, he was diagnosed with mast cell tumors, a form of cancer prevalent among boxers. I was devastated. I went through all the stages of grief. Denial; “Excuse me Mrs. Veterinarian, my dog has a small ‘bump’ on his side. Bump. Not lump. Lumps are scary. This is simply a ‘bump’.” Anger... directed more at God than anyone in particular. I lost Diggs’ brother much too early in life and found it cruel to be faced with another premature goodbye. Bargaining. Depression; full on who-needs-food and why-would-I-get-out-of-my-pajamas-or-leave-the-house-when-I-could-sit here-and-stare-at-my-beautiful-dog kind of depression. And finally Acceptance, and by acceptance I mean he’s alive today and he’ll be alive tomorrow SO THERE. Maybe the anger and denial are still sprinkled on top of the acceptance. A shocking 20-25% of our furry four legged pets end up dying prematurely due to Cancer. (Perdue University Department of Veterinarian).

6 Ways to Make a More Sustainable "Green" Home By: Molly Rovero, LuxEco Editorial Assistant Many homes weren't build with Green in mind and home improvement...

By Nancy Chuda  Founder and Editor in Chief and of LuxEcoLiving and co-founder of Healthy Child Healthy World How many of you have seen...

By Alanna Brown, LuxEco Editorial Assistant You are terrified and frantic. You cram yourself, with six other women, into a three-foot by four-foot bathroom in...

By Nancy and James Chuda founders of  LuxEcoLiving and Healthy Child Healthy World Los Olivos California Saarloos and Sons Field   Forget the BLT and hold the...

  In 2004, CHEC (The Children’s Health Environmental Coalition) now Healthy Child Healthy World,  the organization Jim and I founded in memory of our only...

Candice Held dresses have inspired us at LuxEco Living to think outside the box when it comes to sourcing eco-conscious materials. Saving the environment is not just about finding rare and exotic eco-friendly materials. In fact, sometimes it can be as simple as extending the life of the clothing already in our closets.

By: Molly Rovero, LuxEco Editorial Assistant Nancy, LuxEco founder and garden guru recommended that I try the Topsy Turvy. Excited about the success of her flourishing tomato plants at The Green Home Under the H she showed me pictures of them on her Blackberry one day while we were chatting. This eco-friendly planter would be perfect for my busy schedule she said, no weeding necessary! Aside from the initial planting, all that Topsy Turvy requires is watering once daily.

By Nancy Chuda founder and Editor of LuxEcoLiving and co-founder of Healthy Child Healthy World Solvang California, Bacon and Brine Chef Pink and Courtney Rae are...

By Rachel Sarnoff, Writer and Founder of EcoStiletto.com and MommyGreenest.com and LuxEco Advocate via www.ecostiletto.com Want to keep chemicals out of your home? Start with your furniture. Carcinogenic formaldehyde is...

It’s a question as old as campfire, and the answer is getting more and more difficult to produce: “Hey Ma (or Pa), What’s for dinner?”. The realities of mass food production in this modern age are out there, and perhaps the harshest light of all has been shed on the meat production industry in particular.

Cook with Nancy's Organic Kitchen and learn how to to turn everyday recipes into tasty and healthier new ones.

By James and Nancy Chuda founders of LuxEcoLiving and Healthy Child Healthy World Santa Barbara California Earl Warren Showgrounds   "The most dangerous 8 seconds in sports."...

Meridith Baer is a storyteller. For the past 15 years, Meridith has designed interiors by imagining who might live in them and telling their...

By Nancy Chuda, co-founder of LuxEco Living.com and Healthy Child Healthy World Here in Nancy's Organic Kitchen at The Green Green Home Under The H, I am challenged daily by the special dietary needs of my LuxEcoLiving and Healthy Child/Healthy World friends and colleagues. There are so many variables when it comes to defining your plat du jour. At LuxEco, health is the main objective, so I’ve decided to help you figure out where you should look among the various choices within the food chain.

By: Linsley Oaks, LuxEco Living Editorial Assistant I have a friend who knits. A lot. She is better than any machine. She gets...

"The sound of water is so   relaxing," says Peter Logan of Peter Logan Designs in Tujunga California.  "And the water garden is a...

By Alanna Brown, LuxEco Editorial Assistant "Isn't it wonderful that none of us need wait a moment before starting to change the world," Penelope Jagessar Chaffer quoted from the Diary of Anne Frank after Nancy Chuda (Healthy Child Healthy World and LuxEco co-founder) presented her with the HCHW Moms-on-a-Mission honor for inspiration Wednesday night. Penelope is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and the first black female director to receive a BAFTA award nomination. Above all, however, she is a mother, proven by her dedication to complete her most recent documentary, Toxic Baby, despite the adversity that arose in the process. In accord with Anne Frank’s legacy, she waited not a moment before embarking on her five-year journey to make this film and thus start to change the world, one mother at a time.

By Nancy and James Chuda founders of LuxEcoLiving and Healthy Child Healthy World There are reasons why you should care and support the California Rangeland...

By Christopher Gavigan, CEO and Executive Director of Healthy Child Healthy World and LuxEco Advocate Interview Conducted By Nancy Chuda, Founder of LuxEco Living and...

By Nancy and James Chuda founders of LuxEcoLiving and Healthy Child Healthy World Heading Sideways in Santa Ynez Valley from Los Olivos to Buellton Two Great...

By: Leslie Harris, Interior Designer, Leslie Harris Interior Design and LuxEco Advocate In October 2009, the U.S. Department of Energy sponsored what has turned out to be a biannual competition called Solar Decathlon on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. 20 teams from colleges and universities from the U.S., Canada, Germany and Spain were selected and asked to design, build and operate an energy efficient house powered exclusively by the sun. The winning team produced a house that best blended affordability, ease of living, attractiveness, comfortable and healthy indoor environmental conditions, enough energy to run all household appliances and hot water as well as producing more energy than it consumes. Workshops were provided about the current state of green design technologies, jobs and the future of the smart grid.

By Nancy Chuda founder and Editor in Chief of LuxEcoLiving and co-founder of Healthy Child Healthy World Making Waves Over 60 It takes guts! You stand...

By Trish Holder Courtesy of Greenspiration Home “We’re going to die,” I pronounced. We were in the third hour of our drive to Folly Beach, SC for...

By Nancy Chuda founder and Editor-in-Chief of LuxEcoLiving and co-founder of Healthy Child Healthy World For most people the diagnosis of cancer is a daunting...