Go Green on the Little Things is a 7 part series, providing various tidbits and advice about green living and choices for the following: home living, office spaces, school, shopping, health and beauty, money and finance, and buildings.

Today, we are finishing up our 7 part series with Go Green on the Little Things: Health and Beauty. Looking good on you does not necessarily mean your look is good for the environment. Did you know that consumers use about 200 pounds of plastic a year and that 60 pounds of it is just packaging that we discard? The health and beauty industry is a whopping $160 billion dollar a year industry and not very keen on caring for the planet in their big packages and unnatural products or toxins they use. Let's take a look at how you can green your planet in the area of health and fitness with the following steps:

1. Showering: Drop your showers to once a day instead of two and save about 200 gallons of water, or 30,000+ gallons a year.
2. Exercise Outside: Leave the electrical elliptical and treadmill and run outside when you can.
3. Swimming: Swim in saltwater (saline) or solar-ionized pools instead of chlorinated ones; healthier choices for your skin, eyes, hair, and lungs, as well as the environment.
4. Baby Oil: Instead of baby oil (which is made from petroleum), use oils produced from the seeds of nuts and fruits.
5. Shampoo and Conditioner: Use the 2-in-1 and save on plastic, time, water and money.
6. Deodorant: Avoid anti-perspirants as they use aluminum salts to seal your pores, a toxin to the body and costly ingredient to mine (dig, unearth!).
7. Eyeliner: Use eyeliner contained within wood chips versus encased in plastic.
8. Foundation: Use foundation in recyclable glass containers.
9. Lipstick: Make sure you lipstick made from plants instead of from paraffin waxes, synthetic oils and toxic coal tar dyes.
10. Hair Dye: Choose semi- or demi-permanent dyes made from plants versus synthetic dyes.
11. Mascara: Choose mascara made from plants and minerals versus petroleum.
12. Perfumes/Colognes: Switch to natural botanical perfumes and colognes. Most perfumes and colognes are derived from petroleum.
13. Razors: Buy recyclable razors, saving on packaging and energy.
14. Soap: Forget the liquid soap as the packaging is expensive and wasteful; stick with bars of soap.
15. Sponges: It's time for us to return to the good old reusable hand cloth, saving money on the packaging and production of the synthetic nylon sponge.