Caught your eye–didn’t I? I’ve had to learn how to catch people’s attention since I started blogging to support my efforts to help people green their lives.

The average baby goes through some 8,000 diapers before potty training, and the ease and convenience of disposable diapers is making that number grow. As a working mom, I struggled with the Great Diaper Question since my first son was born. I like the convenience as much as anybody, but I need to choose what’s safest for my children and the planet.

According to the EPA, diapers account for 3.4 million tons of landfill waste. They’re like little bundles of infant poop wrapped loosely in essential indestructible packages. Plus they’re made of bleached paper fibers, sodium polyacrylate absorbent gels, plastics and other materials you don’t want near your baby’s skin.

You can wash and reuse cloth cotton diapers, so they may seem like the perfect choice. But it’s not that simple. There’s the energy and water you use to wash them, plus the environmental costs of growing the cotton and producing and bleaching the cloth.

You can find cotton reusable diapers with organic cotton and even wonderful Velcro closers instead of scary safety pins. And you can find disposables that aren’t as bad for the environment. They’re made without the nasty chemicals you want to avoid, and some come with biodegradable liners you can flush. The decision about diapers has to work for your lifestyle, your budget and, of course, your healthy home.

For more simple steps, buy Green Goes with Everything: Simple Steps to a Healthier Life and a Cleaner Planet (All net proceeds go to charity)

Here’s the continuation of my top 10 tips for living healthier. 

1. Shop the perimeter of the grocery store and avoid processed food. Even better, choose organic and locally grown meats, dairy, fruits and vegetables.
2. Try to get the plastic containers out of your kitchen and replace them with glass containers.
3. Make a vow to stop buying bottled water–NOW. Instead, buy a water filter pitcher and keep two in your fridge at all times
4. For cleaner and healthier air, open your windows once a day when the outside temperature is comfortable.
5. When buying new stuff for your home, focus on green products especially mattresses and carpets.

For more simple steps, buy Green Goes with Everything: Simple Steps to a Healthier Life and a Cleaner Planet (All net proceeds go to charity)

Green Goes with Everything: Simple Steps to a Healthier Life and a Cleaner Planet focuses on easy ways to help your family live healthier. As the book points out, I don’t live in a log cabin. I don’t bake my own bread. I’m normal. I’m you. And I’m far from perfect when it comes to being green. But I’m trying, and I think there’s a lot of value–practical value for you and your family–in trying too.

I firmly believe that you do not need to sacrifice your convenience, pocket book or even preferences to make a healthier home for you and your family.

Here are the first 5 of 10 simple steps from my book to get you started (check back tomorrow for the next 5)!

1. Start by replacing a bunch of your cleaners (your general spray cleaner, glass cleaner, counter top cleaner, floor and bathroom cleaners) with a natural, nontoxic all-purpose cleaner. You will only need one to do that. Really!
2. Replace your laundry detergent with a natural nontoxic one so the clothes you wear and the sheets you sleep on have no fumes for you to breathe.
3. Go to your bathroom and read the shampoo, makeup and moisturizer labels. Ask yourself, “Do I really need scent in these products?” Take stock of all of your other products and try to replace one a week with a safer, greener choice.
4. Use BPA-free plastic baby bottles and fill them with breast milk or organic formula. Choose powdered formula over canned formula to avoid BPA leaching from the can-lining.
5. Pay attention (without freaking out) to the toys you buy for your kids. Avoid lead paint and soft plastics that contain phthalates.

Check back tomorrow for the next 5 tips!

For more simple steps, buy Green Goes with Everything: Simple Steps to a Healthier Life and a Cleaner Planet (All net proceeds go to charity)

After 10 years as a journalist, my all time hardest AND most successful TV interview – Matt Lauer. After Green Goes with Everything: Simple Steps to a Healthier Life and a Cleaner Planet came out, I sat down with Matt to talk about how easy it is to create an truly healthy and green home.

Matt asks tough questions about my research for the book. For example, I had 17 vials of blood drawn for analysis. We found PCBs, flame retardants, plasticizers, Bisphenol A. Matt brought up a statement from the Center for Disease Control about chemical levels in our body: “The number or sum of chemicals detected in the blood and urine of an individual… may not be a useful measure for assessing a person’s health. We do not know what the presence of most chemicals mean. … It is the concentrations or amounts in the blood that determine whether a particular chemical has a health effect.”

My point to Matt is that the CDC makes a good point … we really don’t know what these chemicals are doing to our bodies. My grandmother taught me better safe than sorry, and that’s what my message is all about.

For more simple steps, buy Green Goes with Everything: Simple Steps to a Healthier Life and a Cleaner Planet (All net proceeds go to charity)

Last year I wrote an open letter to our future president and first lady.

“In your acceptance speech you called for a new spirit of patriotism and responsibility, where, as you so eloquently put it, ‘each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves but each other.’ Like most Americans, I took those words to heart. So, as you enter the White House I’m stepping forward to look after you and your family the best way I know how: by offering to help you to truly green the White House.”

I was amazed with the response from readers of the Huffington Post. Their voices reminded me of the strength we have when we work together. With their support, we launched a new home for the best ideas for greening The White House.

GreenTheWhiteHouse.com is an interactive site enabling users to upload suggested “green” features into virtual rooms in The White House. The goal is to inspire America to lead the charge in greening their own homes and help teach the rest of the world, including The First Family, how to green theirs.

For more information, read the blog post on the launch of the site, or just visit the site!