Lifestyle

By Alanna Brown, a LuxEcoLiving Advocate, creator of Brown House Online, and author of Moonpennies John Locke broke an independent publishing record in 2011. He...

By Alanna Brown, LuxEco Editorial Assistant What says Fourth of July better than friends, fireworks, and good food? For a traditional celebration, not one of those three can be sacrificed. However, you can make healthier food choices without sacrificing flavor. Believe it or not, there are healthy alternatives to the yearly cheeseburgers and hotdogs dripping with grease, and that fattening potato salad. CBS News has shared with us some great recipes that will leave you and your friends satisfied and guilt-free to enjoy the fireworks.

By Hannah Canvasser LuxEco Editorial Assistant Vegetarians can receive the proper proteins and nutrients they need with many health benefits. The trick? Eating meat, occasionally. Obesity is a current main health topic because it is unfortunately a growing one. With obesity rates rising in America many studies have aimed their focus to find the root of the problem, narrowing in on eating trends in the United States. It was typical of my grandparent’s generation to sit down to red meat three times a day. Maybe some sausage and eggs for breakfast, a beef casserole for lunch, and meatloaf and french bread for dinner; sound a little excessive on the arteries? In 1971, Vegetarians and Vegans became popular with Frances Moore Lappé's publication of Diet for a Small Planet- revealing the waste build up behind grain-fed meat production, and arguing that a plant diet is best for one’s body and the earth. Though Lappe was one of the first to come out with valid arguments against grain-fed meat production, being a Vegetarian does have its set-backs, and receiving proper proteins and nutrients wasn’t as easy as it seemed.

By Jessica Borges, LuxEco Living Editorial Assistant MyBike is an electric bicycle retailer based in Boston, MA that provides an alternative mode of transportation that reduces individuals’ carbon footprints, as well as the stress and hassle of sitting in traffic. With motor vehicles as the single biggest source of air pollution it’s about time we find less abrasive ways to get around.

By Lorri Ballance Laird, Luxeco Advocate The holidays are over, and for many people in many parts of the U.S., winter has set in with a vengeance. One way to beat the winter blahs might be to try adding some houseplants to your indoor landscape. According to a plantsforlife.org report, not only can plants help boost your mood, reduce stress, and speed recovery from illness, they can also help improve indoor air quality.

The Fairmont Miramar Hotel and Bungalows gets 5 Paws! Excellent location, fabulous service and extra treats for Journey.

By Lush Huxley, Editorial Assistant Beth Nielsen Chapman is one such songwriter who has succeeded in the competitive field of modern music. You may not have heard of her, but her resume is stacked (as they say). She’s written for the likes of Willie Nelson, Elton John, and Mary Carpenter, and performed with country crooners Emmylou Harris and Bonnie Raitt. Remember the Faith Hill song “This Kiss?” Yeah, she wrote that too. Beth’s very well respected and established among the songwriting community in Nashville, TN, where she makes her home. Her story is an unconventional one. In the 70s, Beth was being lauded among record company big shots as one of the songwriting world’s up-and-comers. Around 1979, her song “If I’d Only Known” appeared next to Bob Dylan’s “Slow Train” in the “Singles to Watch” section of industry magazines across the country. However, when her record failed to meet the expectations of the label, the big money people pulled the plug on her publishing deal. Perceiving her musical career as virtually terminated, Chapman entered a new chapter of her life as domesticated mother and housewife. But the songwriting bug stayed with her.

By Nancy and James Chuda, founders of LuxEcoLiving and Healthy Child Healthy World Dr. Bojana Jankovic, Celebrating 23 years at the fabulous Montage Hotel in Beverly...

by Mary Elizabeth Williams-Villano, LuxEco Editorial Assistant Approximately one billion Valentine cards are sent worldwide each year, making Valentine's Day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year behind Christmas. One billion. How many trees does that represent? Perhaps you ought to reconsider. By LuxEco Editorial Assistant Mary Elizabeth Williams-Villano

By: Janelle Sorensen, courtesy of Healthy Child Healthy World Looking for a pediatrician is no easy task, especially if your concerns and parenting methods aren’t exactly the same as mainstream America. My husband and I scoured the city for a full year before finding the right one for our daughters. But, it totally paid off. We found an amazingly supportive and brilliant pediatrician whose philosophy was to tell us everything she knew and then let us choose what to do. She had only one provision; if she ever thought the results of a treatment were sub-par, then she would intervene with an alternate recommendation. That never happened and I was always overwhelmed with how much she knew. She could rattle off statistics about best practices in the EU, pertinent studies regarding alternative remedies, and recent outbreaks that could put my children at risk. She was a dream come true. But, alas, we moved. Now we are on the hunt again.

By: Joanna Bateman, Luxeco Editorial Assistant I’m a mid-west girl who recently moved west to California to spread my wings and fly. And if it weren’t for this past August, I’d be one stressed-out-Sally in the big sea of crazy known as Los Angeles. I needed to ground myself so that I didn’t float away in La La land. I needed Yoga camp!

By Nancy Chuda founder and Editor-in-Chief of LuxEcoLiving and co-founder of Healthy Child Healthy World           The movie, Fifty Shades of Grey is meant to be...

By Alanna Rosette Brown, a writer/filmmaker, LuxEcoLiving Advocate, and author of Moonpennies. Follow her blog at alannarosette.com Self-doubt is one of our biggest gremlins, as...

By: Molly Rovero, LuxEco Editorial Assistant For the majority of the time that the BP oil spill has been happening, company officials as well as...

Some call her Liv, others Livvy, and if you're a close family friend and want to get her attention you say, OLIVIA. But to...

By Lush Huxley, LuxEco Living Editorial Assistant Are you a junkie for culture? Feel an aching nostalgia for a time you’ve never known? Are the...

By Nancy and James Chuda founders of LuxEcoLiving and Healthy Child Healthy World Luxury for Less. The most beautiful authentic jewelry, custom designed, one...

By Nancy Chuda founder and Editor-in-Chief of LuxEcoLiving and co-founder of Healthy Child Healthy World What's a hat got to do with it? The Kentucky...

Actor, director, producer, and social activist George Clooney has been journeying throughout Southern Sudan this past week in an attempt to bring attention to the war-torn area. The region is three months away from an independence vote which could possibly see the largest country in Africa split into two sovereign nations.

By Nancy Chuda founder and Editor-in-Chief of LuxEcoLiving and co-founder of Healthy Child Healthy World. This year Healthy Child Healthy World is celebrating its twentieth...

By Alanna Brown, LuxEco Editorial Assistant In 1978, the FDA proposed to ban over-the-counter ingredients triclosan and triclocarban, found predominantly in antimicrobial soaps. According to the National Resources Defense Council, these two common chemicals can cause damage to reproductive organs and production of thyroid and sex hormones. However, it has been more than 30 years and the FDA has done nothing beyond testing. One unnamed environmental nonprofit has had enough, and is suing the FDA for its alleged negligence.

They were thought to have been extinct since the 1980's but the thumbnail sized Palos Verdes Blue Butterfly (also known as the El...

By Nancy Gould Chuda founder and Editor-in-Chief of LuxEcoLiving and co-founder of Healthy Child Healthy World The Brazilian Court turns  a spectacular wedding into a...

By Alanna Brown, a LuxEcoLiving Advocate, creator of Brown House Online, and author of Moonpennies They're like the bullies on the playground. Those snot-nosed, mainstream-published...

By Nancy Chuda founder and Editor-in-Chief of LuxEcoLiving and co-founder of Healthy Child Healthy World National Chocolate Chip Day Today is National Chocolate Chip Day! It's...

By Alanna Brown, LuxEco Editorial Assistant Imagine if the very thing you used and depended on to protect you from skin cancer was capable of exacerbating the growth of epidermal lesions and tumors. Well that’s what the Environmental Working Group claims may be the case. A recent study shows that retinyl palmitate, a synthetic form of vitamin A, is carcinogenic on skin exposed to the sun.

By Laurie David, Author, Producer and LuxEco Advocate After 50 days of watching BP's pathetic failure to stop the oil from gushing and hearing stories...

By Rachel Sarnoff, Interim Executive Director, Healthy Child Healthy World, Founder of EcoStiletto and LuxEco Living Advocate Steep yourself in information about rates spiking to epidemic proportions in childhood autism, asthma, cancer and more, and you’re bound to become a maternal hypochondriac.....At this point, I must sound like a broken record. But believe me when I tell you that the more I learn about the connection between a child’s environment and his or her health, the more I understand how incredibly high the stakes have come to be. This is about our children. It’s about their right to breathe. It’s about their right to live. It’s about doing everything that we can to prevent the nightmares that Nancy, Jim and Christine endured. If this is what we’re fighting for, I’m all in.

Pope Francis, called the unfettered pursuit of money "the dung of the devil." Capitalism is key when it comes to Apple.

Time matters whether its the simple observation of the stars, changes in the seasons, or day and night.. from the beginning, prehistoric man needed to measure nomadic activities to tell time.

By Nancy Chuda founder and Editor in Chief of LuxEcoLiving and co-founder of Healthy Child Healthy World "We've been asked many times, "Why a Cheese...

By Nancy and James Chuda founders of LuxEcoLiving and co-founders of Healthy Child Healthy World    The Point was spectacular in ever sense of the word....

Introduction by Nancy Chuda founder and Editor-in-Chief of LuxEcoLiving and co-founder of Healthy Child Healthy World Twenty two years ago Jim and I lost our...

Introduction by Nancy Chuda Founder of LuxEcoLiving and Editor in Chief and co-founder of Healthy Child Healthy World I am proud to say that my charity, Healthy Child Healthy World, earned early recognition when I was a journalist and reporter for ABC news. Our first grant was an Apple computer. The irony in all this is that we lost Steve to cancer. He was a hero. A person with a rare intelligence. Steve Job's brain was wired for success. He had a synaptic response to create just about everything Apple. We lost a legend but we gained a universe that in its totality has created a new religion: Interconnectedness. Life goes on for Apple and I will be true to the core.

Due to the constraints of money and commitments at work and home, many of us don’t have the flexibility to zip down to Louisiana...