TheFind Blog

Long Live Routine by OlenaInStyle.com

March, April and May are often the hardest months of the working year as they usually do not offer us a holiday or a vacation break. It is easy to become depressed and stressed when all you see is work, home and traffic. Sounds familiar? If so, there is some good news: as strange as it sounds, routine can become a background of good health. If you go to bed and wake up early, sleep enough, work and eat at the same times every day, your body will definitely thank you because it likes consistency and works better on a schedule.

It is certainly important to exercise but sometimes hard to accomplish with all the work during the day and kids in the evening. Such a situation seems kind of desperate. However, it also has solid advantages. It turns out that people who have kids, a job and a spouse (or a partner who lives in the same house) have fewer chances to become overweight after 50. Sounds encouraging.

So, exercise whenever you can, take daily vitamins, eat healthy and the next time you get stuck in traffic for an hour, remember: it is not too bad. Relax and enjoy your routine until the next vacation!

Have Fun Drinking Red Wine and Live Longer!

The controversial question of health benefits and damages caused by consumption of alcohol has been around forever. The truth, however, is in the middle (as usual).

AOL recently published an interesting article: "Four Healthy Changes Can Prolong Life 14 Years" written by Michael Kahn. Among other recommendations it mentioned "moderate drinking." I would like to add something else: moderate drinking of red wine will help you live longer. Dr. Rendall Holcombe from the University of California and his group of scientists conducted a study focused on health benefits of grapes. They were using a nutritional supplement derived from grape extract to prove that grapes can prevent development of colon cancer. To be exact, resveratol, a chemical found naturally in grape skins, wine and peanuts can prevent development of colon cancer. The necessary amount of this valuable component equals half a glass of wine or approximately a pound of fresh grapes daily.

It is important to remember, however, that the clue is in the "moderate wine consumption." But what is moderate and healthy? Where is the line? Harvard School of Public Health came up with a great response: no more than 1-2 drinks per day for men and no more than 1 drink per day for women (where 1 drink is about 5 ounces of wine that deliver 12-14 grams of alcohol). They also mentioned positive effect of moderate drinking on the heart and circulatory system, as well as possible protection against type II diabetes and gallstones.

So, go ahead and have a daily glass of wine with your dinner without feeling guilty.

And TheFind.com will make sure that you always have the best choice of wines and the most stylish wine glasses and accessories you will absolutely adore.

This story is brought to you by OlenaInStyle.com, Atlanta stylish boost online.

Beauty from Mother Nature

Hundreds of years ago honey symbolized fertility, health and wealth in many cultures. Ancient Greeks called it “the food of Gods”. I don’t know about gods but these days any regular person can buy various kinds of honey in a regular grocery store. You will probably mostly find it in a family kitchen or a dining room but I prefer to keep this delicious treat in my bathroom. And no, I am not insane. Natural honey is an essential part of healthy organic skin care.

Chemical and Engineering News page compiled a rather informative article about the chemical composition of honey. It explains that honey mostly consists of various sugars and acids, as well as minerals, vitamins, proteins, iron, manganese, copper, silicon and nitrogen. Even though many of these elements are found in honey in small amounts, it is obviously enough to create an effective organic skin care product. You can add some natural honey to a hot bath before bed, use it as a lip balm in winter, or just have it with a cup of tea: it’s equally good for your beauty and health.

Ann Louise Gittleman, a well known nutritionist and author of 30 books about health and nutrition, was recently interviewed by Houston Chronicle and asked what sweetener she personally would recommend. Ms. Gittleman’s definite response was “Real honey. Number one, it's an antioxidant. And you will get sweetness from it. I'm a big believer in honey in your tea, and even in your coffee.”

As for the cosmetic and skin care products with honey as an ingredient, you will be able to find a great choice of these items right here, on TheFind.com.

This story is brought to you by OlenaInStyle.com, Atlanta stylish boost online.

Combatting Winter Time Blues

Winter is a time when people tend to feel blue (aka depressed). While it's often not a clinical depression, the happiness that many of us know when the weather is great tends to slip away when the skies are gray and cloudy. It's cold outside, sometimes rainy or snowy and exercise may subside during the colder months. With all those agitators, who wouldn't feel a little blue?!?

Combat the blues by dressing to impress! You don't need somewhere special to go in order to dress impressively...dress for yourself! When you're feeling blue, skip dark and drab colors. Go for bright yellows, pinks and reds to liven up your day. Put on clothes that fit you well and make you look your best. Somehow wearing bright yellow sweats won't make you feel better. Pair a brightly colored top with your best fitting jeans or skirt, a cute pair of shoes, some flashy accessories and you're good to go. If you need a little attention once you're dressed to impress, take a trip to your local mall and watch heads turn as you go by. That will definitely put a smile on your face and warm your heart. While you're there, buy yourself something cute! A little retail therapy goes a long way.

For dinner, cook up your favorite meal or go to your favorite restaurant. They say that a way to a man's heart is through his stomach, right? Well, if that's true then you should be able to brighten up your day (or someone else's day, for that matter) with a great meal! Just avoid turning to a pint of ice cream. It really won't make you feel better. On the converse, it will probably make you feel sick! But I've digressed.

Finally, call a close friend or family member who you haven't touched base with for a while. Bridging the gap in time since you last spoke is sure to warm your heart and make you feel good. Good friends and close family members are great for making you forget your problems. And to me, feeling blue is a big problem! Even if it is only temporary.

Happy Searching/Shopping,

Payton

Toy Safety -- Be Informed

Being a parent of young children can be a bit frightening right now. Every time you turn around, there's another toy recall. I seriously thought that we were well beyond the days of lead paint. It really sickens me that we have to worry about lead! I understand the recalls for small parts or things that fall off the toy easily. It's definitely not a good thing, but it's more understandable than lead paint.

If you'd like toy recall updates, sign up here. In addition, there's a ton of information on the cpsc.gov site. If you'd like an easy to view list of toy recalls, go here.

Some basic tips for buying safe toys:
1. Check the recall lists BEFORE making purchases. It's amazing some of the toys that get recalled.
2. Make sure the toy(s) you're buying are age appropriate (there are reasons for this folks).
3. Skip the toys with really small pieces. You may think that your son or daughter would never ingest a toy, but I've seen small parts get stuck in kids noses and ears and that's not fun for anyone.
4. Check all attached pieces to make sure they're really secure (eyes, noses, accessories, etc).
5. Avoid toys with long strings and straps.
6. Assess the toy carefully and imagine the absolute unimaginable things that can happen with the toy and/or it's parts. Kids are very creative and if there's a one in a million chance that they can hurt themselves, they will figure out a way. It's sad, but true.
7. If all else fails, by "green" toys!

Happy Searching/Safe Shopping,
Payton

TheFindGreen Offers Tips for “Green” Holiday Products for Kids

Leading Green Shopping Search Engine Offers Eco-Conscious Gift Givers Options from Green Retailers; Give a Gift to a Child, Give a Gift to the World: A Lower Carbon Footprint

Mountain View, Calif. – November 16, 2007 – With consumers gearing up for the holiday shopping season, TheFindGreen, the leading shopping search engine and web destination for discovering eco-conscious fashion and lifestyle goods, today issued tips on how gift givers can select toys and gifts for children that are environmentally-friendly, safe and non-toxic.

Increased visibility and awareness of environmental concerns is yielding growing consumer support for eco-friendly retailers, especially as it relates to children and children’s products. Consumers are becoming more educated on the high environmental cost of mass produced plastic toys, including the plastic and paper packaging and pollution created by many toy-making plants. In addition, the recent rash of toy recalls due to toxic materials has heightened consumers’ concerns about the safety of children’s toys.

“More than ever, parents are aware of both environmental and safety issues when it comes to purchasing products for their children,” says Larisa Hall, Vice President of Marketing for TheFind Inc. “By purchasing ‘green’ toys, parents can not only decrease the family’s carbon footprint but can encourage green choices that have an impact on the future of their children.”

Hall outlines the following tips for “green” gifting:

Whenever possible, buy toys made from certified organic, recycled, or sustainably-grown fiber, paper and wood products. These are produced with a lesser impact on the environment than many other materials. Your choices help support these growing green industries.

Consider the number of plastic toys that you buy. Whenever possible, choose toys made from wood, metal, or cloth, which keep plastics and batteries out of landfills. Be cautious of products made from pressed wood and particle board, however, to avoid carcinogenic formaldehyde often found in the glues that hold these materials together.

If you purchase toys made from plastics, be sure to check the recycling sign on the packaging to determine the type of plastic. Be aware of products made from #3PRC or V (polyvinyl chloride), as this type of plastic can leak toxic chemicals. Look for “PVC-free” on the labels of soft plastic toys and teethers.

Share your eco-friendly toy wish list with friends and families: TheFindGreen.com offers an innovative “MyFinds” feature, which enables users to save selected green items directly from search results. Users can also easily email items from their “MyFinds” list to friends and family.

Look for toys and games that educate children on environmental matters. Examples include board games that teach children about endangered animals and resource conservation, and use buttons, paper clips or other household items to reduce manufacturing costs and wastes.

When buying art supplies, look for products with an ASTM D-4236 label. This indicates the product has been reviewed by a toxicologist and labeled with cautionary information.

TheFindGreen.com offers shopping search results inclusive only of eco-friendly products developed using ecologically conscious materials and processes, or those offered by retailers who are actively committed to environment preservation and conservation efforts.

For the next four weeks, consumer searches for eco-friendly products on the TheFindGreen that include the word “green” will generate $1 per search for leading environmental charity, Global Green USA.

About TheFind Inc.
TheFind.com offers the leading shopping search engine that delivers comprehensive, authentic and visually compelling results for products, specializing in the lifestyle goods category. From the most popular e-commerce sites to the most unique, hard-to-find brands, TheFind uniquely crawls the entire Web to find more than 200 million products from over 500,000 stores.  By using its patent-pending “product ranking” technology, TheFind displays the best-selling products, styles, brands and stores for any shopping search right on the first page of results – saving consumers time and money. TheFind Inc. family includes leading fashion shopping website Glimpse, which specifically caters to fashion-savvy shoppers searching for the latest trends and hottest apparel products, and TheFindGreen which finds organic brands, green stores and environmentally-friendly products all in one place. TheFind Inc. promotes shopping that gives back to the community through its Color For A Cause campaigns, which have included charitable beneficiaries such as The Susan G. Komen Foundation, Doctors Without Borders and Global Green USA.

TheFind Inc., headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., is backed by leading investors Bain Capital Ventures, Redpoint Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners.
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For more information, or for green product samples or photos, please contact:

Shaila Arora
Arora PR for TheFind, Inc.
Ph: 310-749-5006
Email: Shaila@arorapr.com

Cereal on the Go!

I've been on a "make your life easier" kick with many of the products I've been posting about lately.   Coincidentally, I was introduced to another product that fits this theme over the weekend. Cereal on the Go is the name of a cleverly stacked set of bowls that house milk and dry cereal (separately) so you can take your cereal with you and eat it later. This clever combo provides an insulated 5.7 oz cup for freezing milk before traveling with your Cereal on the Go. And it's topped with a 12 oz cereal bowl to keep your cereal crispy and dry before combining it with the milk. In addition, there's a folding spoon that snaps into the lid.

This is a great solution for people who can't eat first thing in the morning or who don't have enough time to eat before leaving the house. It's also perfect for those who hit the gym before going to work too!

I haven't tried this product yet, but I was told that the size has it's own pluses and minuses. Plus: It fits nicely into a water bottle pocket on a backpack. Minus: The bowl is a bit too deep and narrow. The user felt like the milk was hard to access through the cereal. Other than that, she really enjoys the product and owns it in all four colors!

I can imagine that this would work well with yogurt and fruit or granola. I would suggest a test run with freezing the yogurt though. :o)

Happy Searching/Shopping,
Payton

Finally, Lotion that Men Will Use Too!

The search for the perfect lotion is officially over folks! Skin MD Natural is the ultimate lotion. In fact, it's a formulated shielding lotion that actually protects your skin from irritants that dry it out in the first place. This allows your skin to repair itself naturally and to replenish it's own moisture. Other lotions add an unnatural moisturizers to your skin that causes two unwanted issues: 1) they're greasy and slimy upon application and 2) they trick your skin into thinking it's moisturized which actually dries it out more after all the greasiness dissappears. This lotion soaks in so fast, you forget you put it on.

I shared my bottle of Skin MD Natural with several friends and we all agree that this lotion is awesome! I know many men who will not use lotions and moisturizers because they don't like the way they feel and smell. I had a few men that I know who strongly object to putting products on their skin and they truly liked the product and the results! I am highly sensitive to smells and this lotion has a very faint aloe scent. A couple of my friends couldn't even detect a scent at all. That's a huge bonus by my standards!

Happy Searching/Shopping,
Payton

Best Friends Week -- Travel

In yesterday's list of things to do with your best friend, thing #100 was to take a spontaneous trip without luggage. How does that sound to you? Does it sound fun, interesting, scary, weird or just down right crazy? It sounds like fun to me! I've always wanted to take a trip without luggage. So far, the closest I've come was recently when I was in New York. I checked out of my New York hotel room and left my luggage there for them to hold while I met up with some friends from New Jersey. Meanwhile, the friend I was traveling with went back to the hotel to pick up her luggage and picked up mine as well. It was a nice thing for her to do, but we were staying in different parts of New Jersey that night, so I was stuck without any luggage! Oops! We stopped at a drug store and picked up a few essentials and made the journey to New Jersey. I met up with my travel buddy the next night and was reunited with my stuff. So, that's the closest I've come. Have you ever traveled without luggage? What's your story?

Come back tomorrow for travel ideas with your best friend!

Happy Traveling/Searching/Shopping,

Payton

Shouldn't Everyday be Earth Day?

Today is the day that we officially celebrate/recognize Earth Day, but shouldn't we observe it every day? While the technological advances that we've made over the past century or so have been amazing, many of them harm our environment. The biggest offender that comes to mind for me are the cars we drive. They may be sporty, fast, hold a lot of people, haul a lot of stuff, but at the end of the day, most of them are extremely harmful to the environment. But that doesn't stop most of us from driving...we have places to go and people to see and very little time. Isn't that how it goes?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not exempt from this lifestyle; I live it too. I often fantasize about moving to a smaller city where getting around on bike or mass transit is easier. Living in the Bay Area makes it tough. Everything is so spread out here, it's crazy. I would love to bike to work, but it's more than a 20 mile ride one way and I just don't have to luxury of time for that kind of commute both ways. Who knows, maybe I'll give it a shot one of these days.

Aside from giving up cars, there are other things we can do to save the environment. Planting trees is very good for the environment and it's gratifying to watch them grow (over time people, not like watching paint dry). If you plant fruit trees, you get the added benefit of home grown fruit!

Recycle as much as possible and reuse things like water bottles, canvas grocery bags, dishes and flatware. Disposable items are convenient, but they're not good for our environment, so take the extra minute it takes to wash your plate and fork after lunch.

This is a no-brainer, but don't throw trash on the ground.  If there are no trash receptacles around, use the camping rule: pack it in and pack it out. Go the extra mile and pick up trash that's lying around in the street, at parks or wherever you see it. I see a man out walking most mornings on my way to work. He carries a bag with him and picks up any litter that he encounters. That's a really cool thing to do!

The bottom line, do your part to help the environment. Do you have any other suggestions for Earth Day (or everyday)? Please comment and let us know.

Happy Earth Day,
Payton

Caffeine in the Shower

Caffeine is everywhere you look and now you can get it in the shower! No, you don't have to take your cup of coffee with you. You just bathe with Shower Shock Caffeine Soap and you'll be ahead of the game. The caffeine is absorbed through your skin instead of your stomach -- a caffeine buzz that's calorie free, doesn't stain your teeth, or give you ulcers; sounds like a good thing to me! Each "serving" is packed with a whopping 200 mg dose. The average cup of coffee typically contains 100 mg of caffeine. How easy is that? You get up, take a shower and you're 2 cups of coffee into your day and you don't even have to go to Starbucks.

Don't like bar soap? You might prefer Shower Shock Caffeinated Body Wash instead.

Happy Caffeinating/Searching/Shopping,

Payton

Do You Jog with Your Dog?

You may think that the title of this post is a funny question to ask, but I'm curious...do you jog with your dog? If so, how far do you go and how many times a week do you and your four-legged friend get out together? If you don't, why not? Running's good for you and your dog, right? But, the truth is that many of us dislike running. Some would even go so far as to say that they hate running (I prefer walking, personally). Or, maybe you don't have time to take your dog out running. Is that it? Or, even worse, perhaps you don't have the energy!

If you're not an ever faithful running partner for your dog, then I have the super, ultra deluxe gadget for you (or, your dog actually)! Have you heard of the "Jog-a-Dog?" I hadn't either until a friend sent me a link. I think this is a fabulous invention. Sure, it's pricey, but think of how much more your dog will love you if he/she gets to run everyday! Furthermore, you won't have to take your dog out running if you hate it, don't have the time or the energy. 

So, what do you think? Who's up for some doggy indulgence?!?

Happy Running (for your dog),
Payton