As the Executive Chef at Miraval Resort & Spa for 12 years, Chef Macy has pushed the boundaries in his cooking by combining the flavors of international cuisines while staying true to Spa Cuisine’s goal of creating a healthy, nutritional and appetizing plate.

Chef Macy’s food mission is simple: “I enjoy the challenge of taking delicious, but highly fatty dishes and transforming them into meals with sensible calorie counts and full-flavored, complex tastes. It really blows people away.”

Caution: listening may activate your appetite for wholesome, healthy food.

For over 30 years, Anne has helped transform lives as a professional therapist. She has degrees in music therapy, counseling psychology and health services administration as well as post-graduate studies in integrative arts therapies.  Ann combines executive administrative experience with therapeutic skills and spiritual practice to bring a unique outlook and practical understanding to creating and enhancing wellness.

Andrew earned his master’s degree at the Human Performance Lab at UT Austin and specializes in exercise performance enhancement and diabetes treatment and prevention through enhanced metabolic function. His expertise can help you better understand how your fitness level may be impeding or aiding in the prevention of today’s most common and preventable diseases.

Dr. Nicolai has a special interest in whole-person medicine – he addresses patients as mental and emotional beings, energetic and spiritual entities, and community members, as well as physical bodies. His expertise is in combining conventional medicine with the intelligent use of complementary and alternative therapies, including herbs and other botanicals, vitamins and supplements, nutritional counseling, lifestyle management, and stress reduction.

Dr. Nicolai is a board-certified family practitioner and a graduate of the Integrative Medicine Fellowship at the University of Arizona in Tucson, under the direction Dr. Weil. A graduate of the Indiana School of Medicine, Dr. Nicolai completed his family practice residency at St. Francis Hospital & Health Centers.

Junelle will share with you why she believes nutrition is a fundamental building block to good health and well being. As a registered dietician, Junelle provides practical and individualized strategies to attain optimal health and specializes in weight management and the integration of nutrition in disease prevention. She works with individuals to set attainable and achievable goals as they learn how to transcend the enticement of fad dieting and unhealthy weight management.

What is the anti-inflammatory diet and why is it important? What is the color eating spectrum?  Listen to the podcast below to find out.

1. Climate change can cause disruptions in rainfall, snow or wind patterns and alter the distribution of plants and animals.

2. Over the past 200 years, heat-trapping gases, called greenhouse gases (GHG) have become increasingly concentrated in the air directly above the Earth’s surface.

3. These GHG cause the Earth’s temperature to rise because they prevent heat from escaping from the surface.

4. University of Arizona scientists,  in cooperation with other western scientists,  recently completed a research project and book, The Southwest Climate Assessment for Decision Makers, one component of the ongoing federal science agencies’ National Climate Assessment. In this report, scientists predicted that by the end of the century, temperatures in southern portion of Arizona will increase by 3-5 degrees and further decreases in precipitation may occur.

5. Although many GHG occur naturally and are necessary for life (carbon dioxide, water vapor, methane) the additional gases generated by human activities are thought to be a major catalyst for changes in the Earth’s climate. 

6. Carbon dioxide is the largest component of these human produced GHG. Sources of carbon dioxide include the burning of fossil fuels in motor vehicles and the energy used  to heat and cool buildings.

7. In its most recent inventory, the Environmental Protection Agency reported that U.S. GHG emission rose 11 percent from 1990-2010.

8. The results of a recent PAG GHG inventory report show that Eastern Pima County’s GHG emissions grew by 41 percent over this same 20-year period.

9. The majority of the County’s GHG  emissions are from electricity use and vehicle travel (which means we CAN have an impact!)

10. Small changes in our everyday activities can help reduce the amount of GHG we produce.

What is the very good news I have to share?

PAG is hosting an Air Quality forum on June 18, 2013, in which additional information on climate change and local GHG emissions will be presented. You are ONE click away from learning more about the forum and from registering to join me there.  And guess what else?  It’s free! Click!  

p.s.  Stay tuned for our announcement about entire Down to Earth with Mrs. Green show about Clean Air. It’s going to be another fun, informative show you won’t want to miss.  www.mrsgreensworld.com

Michelle Gerster, President, Hearts.com

If you read my last newsletter, you read all about this small group of dedicated individuals changing the world. Hearts is a team of 10 people ON A MISSION TO INSPIRE PEOPLE TO THINK DIFFERENTLY about their purchases, not just in the fashion industry but in every aspect of consumerism. Hearts believes that when you have the facts, you will work towards CONSCIOUS CONSUMERISM and make demands for other companies to do the same. I’m in. How about you?

Thanks to The Fairfax Companies for sponsoring this show.
Download audio file (05-18-13_HeartsCom.mp3)
Download as MP3

Alisa Gravitz – Green America

Their tagline? Growing The Green Economy for people and the planet. Their mission? To harness the economic power – the very strength of consumers, investors, businesses and the marketplace – to create a socially just and environmentally sustainable society. Their vision? To work for a world where ALL people have enough, where ALL communities are healthy and safe and the bounty of the Earth is preserved for all generations to come. Think you are ready for this? I know I am because one of my dear friends, Molly Stranahan, has been friends with Alisa for many years and cannot say enough about Alisa’s passion for making a difference. Another show I look forward to with GREAT anticipation. Thanks to Chapman Tucson for sponsoring this show.

Download audio file (05-11-13_GreenAmerica.mp3)
Download as MP3

I don’t know about you but when it comes to someone actually touching my head and putting “stuff” on my face, feet, hands & arms, I want to feel good about them and the experience.  It really is up close and personal.  I write VerVe quite a bit on Facebook and usually always post a picture after I have had a service there.  Because it’s always that good.  I tell family members, friends, people I meet, strangers on the street (a bit of a stretch, okay)   to check them about because they are green, because they do use healthy products & because they DO provide great service. So here are Mrs. Green’s Top Seven Reasons why I love VerVe Lifestyle Salon.

#1  Because of the warm, sincere welcome I get the minute I walk in the door (always offered a cup of soothing tea or spa water

#2 Because once I am in my chair, the atmosphere is friendly, soothing and overall relaxing.

#3  Because when I am getting my hair dyed, I know that the products my stylist are using are 97% plant-based, don’t burn my scalp like my “other” salon products did and are less harmful to my body and to the planet. Want to meet some really neat people there?  VerVe is locally owned AND are making a global impact.  Now if I could just get better on video…

#4  Because while I am sitting there letting the color work its magic, I get a wonderful, soothing, hot foot soak just because! This shot after I had a foot soak and an over the top pedicure.  How many people do you know are that excited about their pretty GREEN  toes?  I’m just sayin’….

#5  VerVe collects all of my bottles caps, sends them to Aveda, which recycles them and uses them to make the bottles for its own products. Why do I care you might ask?  Because we throw them away  millions of them end and they up in the ocean.  I know mine are not causing any little  sea critters harm when I take them to Verve.

#6 Aveda believes that beauty is as beauty does.  A visit to aveda.com  will inform you why I changed my personal practices and am blessed to have a place like VerVe in my hometown.  Look at this brief description of what Aveda is all about.  “To care about the world we live in….”

#7  Because the stylists & staff there know me, listen to my stories, REMEMBER them (well, at least they tell me they do) and they even laugh at my jokes!