Victoria Scanlan Stefanakos is a wife and mother, a homesteader, a writer. When she’s not gardening or cooking or picking up wooden toys, she writes stories for national magazines and Web sites about living simply, naturally and well. You can read several of late in Martha Stewart Living and Real Simple.
So Victoria and her family to live lightly and pitch in: growing, making, putting by, selling and sustaining themselves with whatever they can on seven rugged acres. You can follow her chronicle of their adventure at Project Homestead
Lauren Mangion is a writer, engaged citizen, and an eco-coach from Calgary, Canada. Lauren’s personal life and work are intimately intertwined, both being experiments in more sustainable, lower-footprint urban living.
Through Conscious Home, an eco-coaching service, Lauren educates and inspires her fellow Calgarians with tools and resources toward reducing the individual ecological footprint.
Denise founded, designed and manages a national childbirth education program and movement called BornClear — empowering scores of women and couples. Preparing them for the ‘new addition.’ Her work has been reviewed in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Vogue and NBC's Today Show to name a few. Her clients include: Google, Ogilvy&Mather, Conde Nast, Credit Suisse, Citibank, BBC, Tishman Speyers.
Her first book will be out in early 2009 with Wiley Publishing.
Latham is the founder of a boutique holistic lifestyle practice called- Tender Shoots Wellness. Specializing in maternal and child wellness, Latham served as Program coordinator for the Healthy Moms-Healthy Babies project for the B-Healthy organization. She has been featured on Fox 5 news as an expert on organic foods and kid’s health. She is the co-founder of Panela Productions, a company that educates parents and children about food, through cooking classes, and events.
Latham teaches plant-based culinary classes at Whole Foods Market and Natural Kitchen Cooking School, where she is a part of the guest faculty, and for a host of private clients. She gives lectures on plant based nutrition at Laughing Lotus Yoga Center, North American Vegetarian Society's Summer Fest, and Excellence Charter School, to name a few.
She currently teaches prenatal yoga classes at Om Factory, Golden Bridge Yoga, and Yoga Sutra.
Latham contributes to Working Mother Magazine, Naturally Savvy, and Yoga Mom Magazine.
A freelance writer specializing in environmental and health topics, Linda recently was part of a core team of writers who developed content for GreenYour, a website devoted to greener living.
She wrote an environmental column for five years for Good Housekeeping magazine called Green Watch. You can find her articles in Plenty Magazine’s online newsletter, Fit Pregnancy, Good Housekeeping, Arthritis Today, Profiles (Continental Airline’s in-flight magazine), and Microsoft’s Encarta.
She served on her town’s environmental commission for 15 years and remains an active volunteer. Her personal essay column for the local newspaper offers her take on the natural world and on environmental topics in her neck of the woods.
Lynn Fantom’s commitment to eco-travel is in direct proportion to her passion for Acadia National Park in Maine, where she hikes, climbs, bikes, and kayaks with her daughter Luisa. Lynn is publisher of OUR ACADIA. a Web site devoted to exploring, eating, and relaxing on Mount Desert Island.
Lynn posts on www.mdislander.com range from where to find great lobster rolls to what to do with kids on rainy days.
When not in Maine, Lynn lives in New York City, where she is an executive in the media industry. In 2008 her company was named one of the Best Places to Work in New York City in Crain’s New York Business.
Loretta White is a writer, educator and scholar who gained huge diversity of experience within varied industries; energy, government, high tech and more. The last fifteen years she brokered deals with the top multinational companies globally, her Rainmaker skills are unsurpassed and she remains an authority on BD, BI, sustainability and the Global Marketplace.
Frugality was the voice of her elders who endured wars, rationing and Depression, raised to respect, love and to co-exist with nature through sustainability, self reliance, need and RRR practices. Loretta’s juxtaposition of ideas, deep love for the planet and her Yankee sensibilities are the foundation of a lifestyle that is in partnership with nature. Loretta indulges her passions for renewable energy, organics and being green on her 17.5 acre farm in central Massachusetts.
Recently Ms. White has lead an Assoc. of Caregivers providing support to those caring for parents, disabled, and others.
Loretta is invested in the community of our species and our planet and her diverse background in technology and green living gives her a unique perspective on how to live with nature and with our own gifts of technology.
Ms. White’s work has been published by Corporations, magazines, readers digest and many others.
Heather O'Neill is the founder of Eco to the People, a green living blog.
Before founding Eco to the People, Heather O’Neill wore so many hats in the field of journalism that even the Queen Mother would envy her collection. She has worked as the managing editor of a beauty trade magazine; as a copy editor for an online tech magazine; as the associate editor of a city magazine and as a newspaper reporter and columnist, and as the senior editor at the popular online newsletter ecofabulous.
Her work has appeared in many publications, including Parenting, Alternative Medicine, Natural Solutions, Marin Magazine, Greenwich Magazine and HOME.
Heather earned a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from California College of the Arts. She lives and works in San Francisco.
Marie Oser is a best-selling author, columnist, and host/producer of VEG TV. A vegan lifestyle expert, and environmental advocate with a focus on nutrition and its role in disease prevention, Oser specializes in creating original gourmet recipes with a solid nutritional bottom line.
Many prominent medical and nutrition professionals endorse her work, including Dr. Colin Campbell, Professor Emeritus, Cornell University and principal researcher of the groundbreaking CHINA STUDY, and Neal Barnard, M.D. founder and president of Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine in Washington, DC.
Marie is president of VEGTV, Inc., a video production company producing content for TV and new media. VEGTV streams hundreds of lifestyle videos to more than 1,000 sites globally. In her role as Director of Product Development at Smart Planet Kitchen, she has created, Marie Oser’s Lean & Green, a new line of vegan and Fair Trade Certified products. Marie has appeared on CNN, ABC, National Public Radio, QVC, WUSA, WNBC, KCAL, KOVR, Home & Garden Television (HGTV), FINE LIVING, TECH TV, and Discovery Channel.
Vegetarian since 1971; vegan since 1990, Marie left a career in TV advertising to pursue her interest in food, health, and nutrition. Born and raised in Philadelphia, PA, she studied psychology at St. Joseph’s University. Marie is a gourmet cook and organic gardener living in California, writing her 5th book and hiking every day with Travis, her Yellow Lab companion.
Ted is always looking for ways to minimize his ecological footprint. Professionally, Ted is working to gain the skills necessary to turn his passion for sustainable development into action, as an entrepreneur or financing sustainable businesses.
Ted studied economics and international business at Saint Louis University’s campus in Madrid, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude and was honored as the Distinguished Student in International Business for his class. As the founder and president of the SLU Madrid Business Club, Ted focused the club’s activities on sustainability.
While working for commercial real estate multi-national Jones Lang LaSalle’s Madrid office, Ted strove to implement sustainable practices both within the firm and for its clients. He proposed and designed an Environmental Sustainability Action Plan for JLL Spain. Green Building and Environmentally Sustainable Development remain a passion for Ted: he believes that the intersection of sustainable infrastructure and sustainable attitude is where we’ll find a sustainable society.
Ted currently works for a private equity firm in Madrid, learning skills that he hopes to apply to finance Environmentally Sustainable Development in the United States and around the world.
In October, a few days before my birthday, I was evaluating what I really wanted for myself in this new year, my “personal new years” celebration, the day of my birth.
I declared that I was going to make sure this was the best year of my life so far. As I began to design this, I looked at everything I wanted and all that was having me suffer; all the places in my life where I was not proud of myself. Not based on what anyone else thought, but where I was being sloppy, resigned and not creating what I wanted. One area of suffering that was the loudest was my health and weight.
We all like to look good but just as important for me was feeling good, feeling strong, feeling vital. I was a trained competitive ice skater, ran the NYC marathon, gave birth to my children at home and was always very physical. I am best when my body, mind and heart are aligned. I knew bringing discipline to this suffering would make a big difference for me. The more I have become self aware and conscious, I realize the power and beauty of discipline. I was using my rebellion of not wanting to follow the rules, not wanting to be told what to do or how to do it, against myself.
The beauty of my rebellion is my tenacity, my creativity, my willingness to figure out unique different ways to cause solutions. It was time again to let go of my destructive rebellion and to embrace discipline. It was time to create a kind of “bootcamp”. As I was thinking about this, one of the contributors to my upcoming book called “Better Birth” was doing an infomercial of his health methodology and program. It was too late to be a part of his program because it had already started, but he recommended I auditioned for the next one. Audition—what was I thinking, audition for a fitness “info-mercial”, a version of the biggest loser, putting my weaknesses on display to be judged??
The day before my birthday, I went to the audition. When I arrived, I looked at all the signage and to my surprise, the program I was auditioning for was called “Insanity”. I thought shoot, I am already insane, I wonder what they mean by this. They asked me questions about what I wanted out of the program, they layed out the rules which was 60 days of a very intense fitness program where we would work out 6 days a week, eat the food they provided daily-no cheating, no alcohol, take all the before and after photos, take all the health tests: weight, blood tests measuring many dimensions of cholesterol, and body fat.
The conditions were clear: follow all the rules, work very hard or you will be thrown out. The rewards were great—be in the best shape of your life—endurance, strength and vitality. They expressed that this program would be marketed to athletes and some of the most “insane”, intense workouts of our lives. The day after the audition was my birthday, October 7th and the day I was accepted into the program. This was all a part of me “making sure” that this would be the best year of my life. Two days later I was taking photos in a large photo studio in NYC in my bathing suit. The day before the photo shoot, I cried as I was gathering my bathing suit, a workout outfit, and a pair of jeans I could barely fit in to. We can be so mean to ourselves.
I had to deal with and let go of my upset with myself for letting myself get sloppy with my nutrition and gaining weight, for not taking care of myself, for putting myself last, for wasting time suffering. To reveal myself, accept myself, love myself and my body for all it has provided up to this point in my life was part of what I had to deal with to put myself in front of those cameras. This was the action I was taking consistent with my commitment and I had to quiet my mind filled with brutal personal judgments and upset. This kind of “vulnerability” and sharing was powerful. This alone was transformational and I had not even begun the workouts.
For the next 60 days, I made sure I followed all the rules. It actually felt great that I thought about a bootcamp, was ready to take on my health and the opportunity arrived—truly manifesting.
I was in “it” with my body, mind and heart. The workouts were the most intense ever: football drills, suicide jumps, ski abs, mountain climbers, moving pushups, plank pushups, the infamous “cardio blast” (created just for this program)—we were dripping wet and used up by the end of every work out. We started the program with 54 of us but every week there were eliminations. There were weekly weigh ins, videoing of our workouts and camera interviews.
I carried my food everywhere, including business meetings and events, even a family wedding. It was wild; I did not make an issue of it because there was such personal freedom is following the rules I created and chose to follow; therefore no one around me created an issue of it. It actually inspired many friends and clients; they began looking at what they wanted for themselves and what habits were no longer consistent with that. After a few weeks of this, cravings for food and my love and/or addiction of red wine subsided and eventually left. I just had to stay with it long enough, not listening to all my tempting thoughts, irritations, annoyances, rebellion, resignation and thoughts of no real results yet. My mantra was “Action is the key to my success and positive thoughts fuel my actions best.”
This kind of mental discipline was causing my thoughts to become clear and my intent solid. The more I took care of myself, the clearer I was for all the people around me. My work was more effective; I was more loving not only to myself but my partner, family, friends, strangers—my heart opening. There was a calmness because I was powerfully “taking down” my bad habits, leaving room for believing, possibilities, creativity, abundance and love. I made it all the way through, there were 43 of us left in the end….18 pounds down and overall 20 and a half inches, back in my jeans. It was not just about the weight, it was about the clarity, vitality and ease that aligning brings me. Looking back to a few months ago, I could say that how I was suffering was “insane”. I am forever grateful for my body at any stage.
I highly recommend that you choose 60 days of “insanity” for the area in your life that is causing you the most amount of suffering—create your own rules that you will meticulously follow—enjoy the discipline, the personal power and clarity; truly “exercising” designing your life. Happy New Year!!
Stay current on easy ways to parent green, keep children entertained and active, plus ideas on how to raise your children in a healthier environment. Get parenting advice and exchange stories.
![[ X ]](http://www.ecomii.com/blogs/wp-content/themes/WP-Ecomii/images/close_btn.gif)
