Katie and I just returned from the annual LOHAS conference in Boulder. If you’re not familiar with LOHAS, it stands for Lifestyles Of Health And Sustainability, and is the umbrella for all the companies that make products and offer services for making life better. It was my first time at the LOHAS conference, but I hope it’s not my last. We had a wonderful time interacting with people from all the companies we buy things from on a regular basis, everything from herb tea to environmental organizations to non-allergenic lotions and potions.

A big highlight for me was on the last morning of the conference, when I  appeared on a panel with actor/activist Ed Begley, Jr. and Simran Sethi, spokesperson for Sundance Channel’s Green Channel. The audience was lively, asked great  questions and was lots of fun to be with.

This year, LOHAS was also combined with the Gaia Film Festival, which had more than 700 entries in the spiritual cinema and environmental cinema genres. Katie and I got a huge surprise when the movie we produced, Five Wishes, won the Audience Prize for Best Short. I had never shown the movie at a film festival before last weekend, so I was particularly thrilled that we won. I’ll also tell you that sitting in a theater with a hundred or so people watching it on the big screen was one of the most nerve-wracking experiences I’ve had in a long time. Fortunately they loved it and gave director Michael Goorjian and myself a big round of applause after our Q&A session.

With only two more weeks left of the challenge, I hope a lot of exciting things have started happening for you! Maybe you’re experiencing abundant energy (or at least more energy), a new outlook on health, or a brand new consciousness about the body.  Maybe your day starts with a glass of water instead of coffee, and if that is the change you take away from all of this, that will stick, then I am happy you have made that progress!
Now I’d like to introduce the three T’s!

1) Drink green TEA a few times a day. If you are a big coffee drinker, try to swap some of your coffees to green tea, where the caffeine content is lower and not so stressful on your body. Green tea carries many benefits, and one of them is that it can aid in raising your metabolism, at the same rate as it contains antioxidants which strengthens the immune system and slows the aging process. It also helps with eventual cravings, if you have any left after stabilizing your blood sugar. Instead of following the impulse to eat when stress arises, nurture your body with some healing Tea.

2) Get some Tanja! I know it sounds NUTS to plug myself, but on the other hand what I’m suggesting to you is to get one of my DVD’s, or any of Gaiam’s fitness DVDs that you don’t have, and try something new! This can be your new  workout for the next couple of weeks. Make a change, get inspired, turn it up a notch. If you have tried all of them, then reply to this post with any question that I can help you with. I will be happy to connect and help you move forward and upward.

3) TRY some thing NEW (ok, that’s a T and and an N). Invest in a new book or a DVD about something you are curious about. How to read horoscopes, Asian cooking, or how to build a tree house, anything that tickles your intellect and makes you think with an interest. Sometimes even 20 minutes is enough to give your brain cells a Boot Camp boost. Learning creates insight and strengthens your self image in so many ways. Maybe it is time read about why the sky is blue, that you’ve wondered about for so many years (or that’s just me!)!

 Make an entry in your diary about what you would like to explore as it relates to trying something new. Anything from the physical, to asking someone you know something about their life that you don’t know. Reconnect with yourself and reconnect with your surroundings and people you love.

Live Life Loud and let me know how it goes!

Tanja

A couple of months ago I wrote about some of my family’s favorite adventure vacation spots. Well, since it’s turning out to be a long, hot summer with no break in gas prices in sight, I thought I’d share a few more laid-back locales that are big on nature adventure and family fun.

Lewis and Clark Caverns, Montana
Montana’s first state park features one of the largest limestone cave systems in the West.  These spectacular caverns, filled with stalactites, stalagmites and helictites are naturally air-conditioned and electrically lighted for a safe and comfortable guided visit that takes visitors on a two-mile walk through this subterranean wonderland.  Kids may even thrill to a few bats along the way.  Camping and cabins are adjacent, on the Jefferson River, one of the Missouri River headwaters.

Wekiwa Springs State Park, Florida
We explored this 7,000 acre nature preserve just outside Orlando by canoe, to decompress after a Disney World visit a few years back.  When we asked our kids which they liked better – Disney or Wekiwa – our son, then 7, said he “could not pick.”  We took that as big applause for the natural world!  The crystal-clear springs and lazy Wekiva River, a federally designated Wild and Scenic River, are home to a host of wildlife including alligators, great blue herons, egrets, river otters, turtles, and even Florida black bears.  Guided and self-directed canoe and kayak trips are available, starting at just $15 for two hours.  Sixty campsites are available at the park. 

Blue Hill Peninsula, Maine
We rented a cabin near here and fell in love with this tranquil slice of the Maine coast, well away from the frenzy of Acadia National Park.  A July hike to the top of Blue Hill, a gentle mountain just outside the town of the same name, afforded chances all along the trail to pick wild blueberries.  The Maine Environmental Research Institute (MERI) Center for Marine Studies offers ecological cruises for all ages, including whale watching and puffin sighting, out of Blue Hill Bay.  In nearby Brooksville we visited The Good Life Center at Forest Farm to learn about Helen and Scott Nearing’s pioneering venture.

Every week we highlight the best articles, blogs, news, videos and interesting Web tidbits to help you live green, be healthy, and connect with your sense of spirituality. Read our roundup for info that just helps you live better.

Yogis Have More Fun With New Yoga Forms

Yogis are letting loose—combining their love of asana with a passion for off-the-mat physical activities like circus arts, theater, dance, and outdoor adventure. These new yogic art forms—AcroYoga, Yoga Trance Dance, and yoga slacking among them—cultivate risk taking, trust, connection, and playfulness. (YogaJournal)

Growing Up With God

Are children born to spiritual leaders given a boost in their spiritual development? Several kids of leaders from different traditions were asked about their childhoods and what they recommend to parents seeking to cultivate a child’s inner life. (Common Ground)

Built for Two: On Biking With Kids

Umbra Frisk on why biking with children is so awesome, and the numerous bike and cargo options for parents who want to start riding with their kids. (Grist)

Fuel Prices Fuel Protests Around the World

It’s crazy out there! Drivers in Canada , Hong Kong , India , Nepal Portugal , South Korea and Spain took to the streets to protest the rising cost of fuel. (TreeHugger)

Allergy and Asthma Rates 50% Higher Near Roads

A study of nearly 6,000 children in Munich has found that children are much more likely to develop asthma, allergies and skin rashes if they live near major roads. (The Daily Green)

Protect Your Pet

Toxic toys. Food contamination. Pesticides. We worry about all this for kids, but what about pets? A recent study shows that cats and dogs carry a much higher “body burden” — the amount of persistent toxic chemicals in the body — than their human caregivers. (YogaMates)

VIDEO: Wa$ted Sneak Peek

The trailer for Wa$ted, a new show on Discovery’s Planet Green channel that’s all about showing environmentally unfriendly families how easy it is to reduce their waste, energy, water and transportation consumption. (Planet Green)

One of the current casualties of global warming is the size and scope of many of the world’s glaciers. From the Arctic to the Andes, many of these moving tongues of ice are melting faster than at any time in the past 10,000 years, when they were formed during the last Ice Age. While glaciers have been shrinking since the middle of the 19th century, the pace of their dissolution has accelerated dramatically in the last couple of decades. Glaciers in the Alps, in particular, are disappearing very rapidly, and some glaciologists predict that the Alps’ glaciers will be gone entirely by 2050.

James Balog, a photographer for National Geographic, has been providing stark documentation of this trend through his Extreme Ice Survey (extremeicesurvey.org), a project that seeks to capture glacial retreat in a series of time-release photographs shot during every daylight hour from December 2006 through fall 2009 at locations around the world. Already the results are stunning.

Glaciers are shrinking so quickly that one scientist I met at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., was planning to take his kids to Alaska’s Glacier Bay now, since he wasn’t confident they could have the same experience once they are adults and could afford to go themselves.

I’m feeling a similar compulsion to re-visit some of the spectacular glaciers I encountered while I was a tour director in Alaska during the 1980s and early ‘90s, while I still can. If you, too, would like to experience the cold majesty of these far-north frozen realms, consider a summer visit to this sampling in our 49th state:

Columbia Glacier, Prince William Sound
Among the world’s fastest-moving glaciers, Columbia has shrunk in length more than 9 miles since 1980. One of Alaska’s 51 tidewater glaciers, it winds down from the austere heights of the Chugach Range, discharging a mind-boggling amount of ice into the sea in a single day. Day boat cruises from Valdez or Whittier bring visitors to the terminal moraine.

Harding Ice Field, Kenai Fjords National Park
Covering 300 square miles, this massive ice cap spawns multiple tidewater glaciers that can be viewed on small boat cruises out of Seward. Exit Glacier, lying inland, is accessible from trails off Exit Glacier Road, which intersects the Seward Highway just north of Seward. (Note: Natural Habitat has a fabulous trip called Hidden Alaska that includes a small-boat cruise on the Fjords as part of a 13 day adventure).

Portage Glacier, near Girdwood
About an hour’s drive south of Anchorage, Portage Glacier pours into Portage Lake, filling it with bobbing icebergs. While the glacier was previously visible from the Begich, Boggs Visitor Center next to the lake, it is now best seen on a boat cruise across the lake on the mv Ptarmigan. The one-hour cruise takes visitors within 300 yards of the glacier’s face.

Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve
Glacier Bay lies about 50 air miles west of Juneau and encompasses 12 tidewater glaciers that disgorge giant bergs into the bay. It’s also home to a host of marine life, including whales, sea lions, seals and otters. While the bay is renowned for kayaking, the park service also offers a daily high-speed catamaran trip from Glacier Bay Lodge. At the head of the bay, you’ll experience life at its most primal, where barren bedrock has been newly uncovered by the receding ice and brand-new life is just beginning to take hold.

Mendenhall Glacier, Juneau
Just north of Alaska’s capital of Juneau, this 12-mile-long glacier is the most easily accessed portion of the 1,500-square-mile Juneau Icefield. Though often crowded with cruise ship day-trippers, it doesn’t take much to get close to the glacier in a more intimate way. Easy hikes to the face begin at the visitors center, or opt for an organized tour: options include a helicopter landing atop the ice, with a chance to walk on its surface wearing special foot gear, or a float trip on the placid Mendenhall River flowing from the edge of the glacier, punctuated with drifting chunks of ice.