Be good to the planet and save $60 a week by following these tips:

- Use cloth napkins instead of paper.  This saves trees and lessens the load in landfills.

- Turn down the thermostat to 62 at bedtime.  It cuts smog-forming pollutants.

- Cook at home one additional night a week, which saves a drive to the restaurant and takeout container waste.

- Eat one vegetarian meal a week.  Animal protein production uses more resources than vegetable protein production.

- Cut shower time by two minutes, saving water and energy.   

- Do some errands on foot, saving gas, oil, antifreeze and brake fluid.      

Most of these are relatively easy and have additional side benefits. Cooking at home, for instance, would naturally progress into a family dinner. When I was a child, my family dinner was at 6:30pm. It didn’t matter if I was down the street at a friend’s house or on the other side of town, I knew I had to be home for dinner.

This ritual is a dying one in today’s day and age, but studies show its effectiveness in preventing problems during adolescence. A 2004 study by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University found that teenagers who had family dinner only once or twice a week were 1.5 times as likely to have problems with smoking, drinking, and illegal drug abuse, than teenagers who had family dinner five to seven times a week.

What this reflects is the influence of a parent in their child’s life. Family dinners simply forces a role model into a teenager’s life, one that is abound with opportunities for escapism through iPods, MySpace, and cable television. What we recommend is creating lifelong rituals for you and your family that promote togetherness and your steadying influence… anything from family dinner to family exercise days, as long as you do it together.

Change your life. Change the world. Zigo