How to Trick Your Friends into Cleaning Your Bathroom

Harsh chemicals bombard our everyday lives.  We get so caught up in cleanliness that we forget about the nasty combinations of toxic fumes, formaldehyde, asbestos, petrochemicals and pesticides that we're putting onto our skin, clothing, and using when cleaning our homes.  In addition to being dangerous to our health, they are expensive.  We use our hard earned cash to voluntarily poison ourselves!  That's crazy town.

Sparkes Wellness and Motivated Nutrition say no more!

We're here to show you how to make a homemade bathroom cleaner using as little chemical as possible. 

It's cheap.   It's fast.  It will make your tub and shower clean!  (It made my tub smell like vanilla cake because of the milk and honey soap we used. Mmmm!)  AND, it's so novel, your friends will beg to help you!  (Rubs hands together with sinister smile).

Check out our homemade recipe below and watch as I get Sparkes Wellness to fall for cleaning my shower as I sneak off to eat lunch!

You will need: 

•  Mixing bowl, spoon, sponge
• 1 2/3 cups baking soda
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup liquid soap
• 2 Tbsp vinegar

***This recipe make a lot!  We cut it in 1/2 because I have a very tiny Brooklyn bathroom.  Depending on your space, you may want to do the same.  

Directions:

1. In a medium bowl, combine baking soda, water, and liquid soap.  Mix well.

2. Add vinegar, watch it get frothy and mix again.

3. Apply to a sponge and scrub.

4. Convince your friend how fun this is so they scrub too!

5. Rinse

6. Back out of the room slowly as your friend cleans your bathroom.  ;)

Leave a comment if you have your own homemade cleaning recipe that you'd love to share. 


In healthy home happiness,

Joanie


www.motivatednutrition.net
joanie@motivatednutrition.net

*Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channels so you don't miss any of our "Spring Cleaning from the Inside Out" series!

Sparkes Wellness 

  Motivated Nutrition 

Vita D- Get naked and lose the sunscreen!

#StyleMeJuly Day 12 (yesterday's challenge): Sunglasses

Vita D-Get naked and lose the sunscreen!

Instagram awesomeness by Micah B. Rubin

Healthy Tip: Vitamin D- it's essential to our bodies.  If you are a NY'er like me, we need to make a special effort to get enough of it as we tunnel to work in our speeding bullets and hunker down in our dark little work caves for 10hrs a day.  A lot of foods these days make health claims of being "Vitamin D fortified", don't buy into it.  You have to consume a LOT of Vita D fortified foods to get your daily dose.  A lot as in 10 tall glasses of milk a day.  No thank you.  You can achieve the same result by spending 10-20 min outside depending on how far you are from the equator.  Our bodies make Vitamin D when we are hit by the ultraviolet rays of the sun.  AND did you know sunscreen blocks our bodies ability to generate Vitamin D?  (Something the sunscreen companies don't want you to know.)  Live dangerously!  Get outside today and take a walk without greasing up first.  Gasp! Spending 10min unprotected in the sun every day is not going to give you cancer.  

Fashionista Wannabe:  These are the only sunglasses I have and I picked them up for $8 from a street vendor.  I break sunglasses.  I scratch sunglasses.  I sit on, mangle and destroy sunglasses.  Thus my reasoning for always having a cheap pair.  Sigh.  Someday I'll have nice things.

In sunny health,

Joanie

Joanie Johnson, CHC

Motivated Nutrition

www.motivatednutrition.net

814-442-5311

A Short(s) Story: Getting a bum you love

#StyleMeJuly challenge Day 7

A Short(s) Story

Instagram awesomeness by Micah B. Rubin

Healthy Tip: Shorty shorts mean more skin.  More skin means hit the gym.  Hit the gym means hire me.  I'll get your hiney in shape, you'll see. (Yes.  Thank you.  I do have mad rapping skills.)  My clients at the gym have been begging me to incorporate more bum busting exercises into their workout to tone up for summer.  Here are two of my favorite exercises to help you fall in love with your bum again. 

Dancer Plies:

• Stand with your feet a little wider than shoulder width apart, toes turning out, hands on your hips.

• Lower into a squat without letting your knees move past your toes.

• Keep your back straight, abs pulled in, and your butt and legs squeezing in tight. 

• Repeat slow plies for one minute.

Plank with Leg Lifts:

• Begin in a plank position making sure your shoulders are tracking over your wrists and your body is in a straight line from head to heels. 

• Contract your abs and squeeze your butt.  Lift your right leg off the ground about 6 inches and pulse your leg up towards the sky 15x.  

•  Drop your knees, push back into child's pose to rest for 10 seconds.  

• Repeat on the left side. 

Fashionista Wannabe:  I caved and purchased my first pair of denim shorts for the first time in 10 yrs!  I still wasn't 100% confidant that I would love them so I headed over to NYC's new Joe Fresh and found these for $9!  I've owned them a week and have worn them at least 3 times.  They've turned out to be a great investment for this scorching summer. 

In love at first sight health,

Joanie

Joanie Johnson, CHC

Motivated Nutrition

www.motivatednutrition.net

814-442-5311

Channeling Audrey and finding balance for #StyleMeJuly

#StyleMeJuly challenge Day 6

Channeling (a balanced) Audrey
 

Instagram awesomeness by Micah B. Rubin

Healthy Tip: For today's "Channeling Audrey" challenge, I did a little research on the elegant Ms. Hepburn and her healthy habits.  I found a quote from her first husband Mel Ferrer saying, "She was very careful about her diet, did not drink alcohol except an occasional glass of wine with dinner, and avoided desserts. She chose her diet as a dancer would: plenty of protein and lots of vegetables and salads. She ate sparingly and rarely splurged."

Eat sparingly and rarely splurge.  That's great advice for all of us.  Our amazing lives should be fueled by the food we eat, not controlled by it.  Audrey seemed to know the importance of balance. 

Fashionista Wannabe:  My favorite little black Brooklyn Industries dress and my newly cut (by myself) side swept bang.  :)  Instant Audrey fashion.  

In perfectly balanced health,

Joanie

Joanie Johnson, CHC

Motivated Nutrition

www.motivatednutrition.net

814-442-5311

"You look like the 4th of July!"

I'm just hoping this doesn't make you want a hot dog reeeeaaaaal bad!  In honor of 4th of July, I'm giving you a few hot doggin' facts. 

• The cities of Los Angeles, San Antonio, and New York consume the most hot dogs by volume every year. * 

• The average American eats 60 hot dogs a year.*  (bleh!)

• According to the National Hot Dog and Sausage council, Americans will consume 150 million hot dogs today.

• Joey Chestnut, 27, 230lbs, holds the Major League Eaters record of eating 68 Nathans Famous Hot Dogs and Buns in 10min.  He's wont the contest 5 yrs in a row.  Check out his impressive Bib Sheet!   

• Other names of for the hot dog include: frankfurter, frank, red hot, wiener, weenie, durger, coney, or just "dog" *

• The Coney Island, Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest began as a duel between four immigrants to determine who was the most patriotic in 1916. 

Me?  Oh no, forget it!  I'm a vegetarian.  I'm not going near them!  Don't over do it at the backyard BBQ and have an amazing time celebrating the 4th today!


In healthy, patriotic love,


Joanie

Joanie Johnson, CHC

Motivated Nutrition

www.motivatednutriton.net

814-442-5311

*Who knows all this stuff?!  
http://www.hot-dog.org/ht/d/sp/i/38579/pid/38579
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_dog
http://fillyourplate.org/blog/hot-dog-facts-and-trivia/
http://nathansfamous.com/PageFetch/

Are you ready to make some healthy changes in your life?

Motivation

When was the last time you were motivated to make a change to better your health? We're not just talking nutrition, but mental, emotional, relationship and spiritual health as well.

My most recent change is the process of downsizing my life. I have a new goal of trying to make my life more simple and strategic. I'm finding it harder than I thought to make some much needed sacrifices. There is always the fear that the change I'm making isn't for the better. When that self doubt sneaks in, I (gently) remind myself to get over it and stop sulking.

For support, I've turned on the power of "The Secret", and have been repeating a few mantra's in hopes that my subconscious will help me out. I've written them on my mirror so it's sure to catch my attention every morning. Here are the two that I've come up with:

My life is simple, open, loving and strategic.
I am one with the universe and all life loves and supports me.

You may judge, but they get me through the day with a positive attitude. Give it a try.

Here's your first Motivated Nutrition Challenge. Take a few minutes to come up with a mantra or some motivational words of your own. Write it on the bathroom mirror, or if your roommate won't appreciate that, whip out the good ol Post-It's and stick it some place that you will be sure to read it every morning. That's the easy part. The real challenge is believing it everyday for a week to see what happens.

Have you noticed any improvements in your attitude? Share your mantras and experiences here!


In Health,

Joanie


Joanie Johnson, HC
joanie@motivatednutrition.net
www.motivatednutrition.net