FIJI Green Gal: This week, one of my colleagues is joining this blog to share her thoughts on FIJI Water. As she is the proud mother of twins – and therefore one of the toughest women I know! – we”ve dubbed her “FIJI”s Favorite Mom.”

Admittedly I am a Mommy who talks about her kids WAY TOO MUCH! And this blog just gives me another outletÖ

Fact: I love my kids. But having responsibility for them is already scary enough, and what I feed them is at the top of my anxiety list!

It started before they were born. I would travel as far as necessary to shop for groceries, paying double for a prenatal vitamin, organic waffles (they”re all I could keep down the first 4 months), other organics, pesticide/hormone/flavor-free everything…just so I knew my growing babies were getting the best nutrition available. Now add to that the fluid intake I needed. I”ve never been one for soda or highly caloric juices, so I relied on water. With most foods, I got heartburn. I tried all the water I could, whether based on a cute bottle, flavor, or price, but even water gave me heartburn! Then I tried FIJI Water and loved the taste. And I could drink more without getting heartburn. Other mommies-to-be told me it was the purest water I could drink and provided natural minerals both the babies and I could benefit from.

Fast forward a few years later, I”m now an employee at FIJI Water. A week into my job, they sent me to the island of Fiji to see where the water comes from. I have seen where the water comes from and gets put into the iconic square bottle. I am proud to work for a product that is as natural and untouched as the product claims. And I am proud to serve the best in my home – especially to my kids!

BTW: Since working here, I”ve learned about BPA, and the product has never had it!

FIJI Water is proud to announce a wonderful new partnership with Ecco Ultra Lounge, Hollywood’s first eco-friendly lounge! Located in the heart of the popular Cahuenga Corridor, Ecco sets the standard for an eco-friendly nightlife experience by minimizing and neutralizing its impact on the environment.

Celebrities like Hayden Panettiere and Nicole Richie have been spotted at Ecco, and Discovery Channel’s Planet Green – recognizing the eco-friendly milestone Ecco will establish in the nightlife industry – will feature the venue on its show “Alter Eco,” hosted by “Entourage” star Adrian Grenier.

Ecco serves FIJI Water as its exclusive bottled water and also offers two cocktails made with FIJI Water:

• Absinthe-Minded (Enjoy with Caution!): Organic Lucid Absinthe, Sugar, FIJI Water, Wormwood
• Alter Eco: Juniper Green Organic London Dry Gin, Fresh Lemon Juice, a Few Drops of Rose Infused FIJI Water

So the venue is a place to see and be seen, the water tastes great, and the cocktails are yummy. But what makes Ecco eco-friendly? Well, it features (among other things):

• Multi-colored, energy-efficient, state-of-the-art LED lighting system, exclusively designed and installed by Disco Designer and Cosmos Lighting
• Power supplied by LA Department of Water & Power”s Green Power resources
• Superior Organic cuisine and liquors
• Cold & Heat Insulation, saving 20% of standard energy use through high quality insulation
• Energy efficient recycled steel air pressure toilets and waterless urinals
• State of the art “Dyson Airblades” hand dryers
• Free valet for hybrid vehicles
• Paperless Solution for ticketing and reservations – Provided by UpCode Solutions USA and its Mobile Access & Interaction technology (MAI)ô
• Audio provided by Turbosound, winners of the Best Club Awards 2008 “Best Sound System & Best Sound Product”

It’s amazing to see how many details the club owners, designers, and operators thought about as part of their effort to minimize Ecco’s environmental impact. Click here to learn more!

What better time than the New Year to look for a healthy buzz? Here’s a message from our friends at POM Wonderful on how to get one…or two…or more. And keep reading to find out how to get a healthy buzz for FREE!

Glad we have your attention now…since you love FIJI Water, you might also be interested in an exclusive offer from its sister company, POM Wonderful. POM is now offering its newest product, POMx Iced Coffee, for delivery to your home or office at shopwww.fijiwater.com (you know, the same shop where you can get FIJI Water delivered for less than $1 a day!).

POMx Iced Coffee is an antioxidant rich coffee energy drink that is a blend of all-natural ingredients and the only iced coffee that will provide you with a Healthy Buzzô – a potent combination of polyphenol antioxidants and caffeine.

Click here and enter code POMX78 at checkout to receive a FREE CASE of coffee with the purchase of one case! POMx Iced Coffee comes in two delicious flavors – CafÈ au Lait and Chocolate – so this is a great chance to try each one!

You can also visit us on MySpace or Facebook.

A while back, I wrote in this space about the demise of my microwave and its impact on my eating habits, sleep schedule, and carbon footprint. A big thank you to all of you who wrote in with suggestions – there were so many good ideas, many of which I have since adopted. I’ll update you soon with more details about the recipe ideas, stove reheating tips, appliance and furniture shopping guidance, and more that I received from several readers.

I also appreciate the concern of those who felt skipping dinner would be unhealthy. Believe me, I am the last person in the world to advocate not eating as a way to lose weight. Apart from the obvious health implications, I just love to eat. So even if it were a good idea, I couldn’t ever pull it off!

That said, I do believe there are many food and beverage choices we can make that are healthier for us and for the environment. For example, over the past few years, more people have chosen to drink bottled water. While some environmentalists have expressed concern that these people are replacing tap water with bottled water, beverage sales data show this simply isn’t true. People are replacing sugary packaged beverages – not tap – with bottled water, a much healthier and less carbon-intensive option.

Over the past few years, the increase in bottled water volume has closely mirrored the decline in carbonated soft drinks and sugary fruit drinks. In other words, people are substituting bottled water for other packaged beverages that are less healthy and have a higher environmental impact. Soft drinks and fruit drinks use lots of refrigeration energy, result in agricultural impacts (e.g., energy, pesticides, fertilizers) from growing sugar, corn, and other ingredients, and require manufacturing of flavors, preservatives, and other chemicals. (You’ll recall from the Wall Street Journal article that refrigeration is a major carbon emissions source for beverages that require chilling.) Soft drinks also require extra packaging to hold in the bubbles.

So as people choose bottled water instead of soda or fruit drinks, they not only contribute to the overall greening of the beverage industry, but also do so in a way that is healthier. In fact, the switch to bottled water has eliminated about a trillion calories from the American diet over each of the past couple of years.

Trillions of calories – now that’s a lot of weight. Personally, I think FIJI Water tastes much better than the sugary stuff, so I’ll happily choose that when I’m on the go. And if it helps me cut out a couple hundred empty calories, doesn’t need chilling because it tastes good at room temperature, and avoids the conversion of land to agricultural use and the manufacture of preservatives (who needs those?), so much the better!

Many of you may already have seen the photos of President-elect Barack Obama and family taken behind the scenes on Election Night. And if you haven’t, they’re available on Yahoo! News and President-elect Obama’s Flickr photostream.

Regardless of your political views, there was much to celebrate that night – a peaceful transition of power, the nation’s first African-American president, and more. And the FIJI Water team found something else to celebrate too – the fact that our new president-elect has great taste! Check out the FIJI Water in the Obamas’ suite.