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[bc_video video_id="6250497719001" account_id="2226196965001" player_id="rkljM4WDEg"] Here's something to think about next time you check your email: chances are, at least some of your messages are being tracked. This technology is being used by businesses and acquaintances to quietly watch your email habits. This sounds terrifying but there are some things you can do to protect yourself. What is email tracking? There are some 269 billion emails sent and received daily. That’s roughly 35 emails for every person on the planet, every day. Over 40 percent of those emails are tracked. Email tracking is a basic but effective tool of surveillance that has taken over most inboxes. It typically employs a tiny pixel image attached to your email that is invisible to you, but once you open the email, the image is loaded from a server and the server records that data for the tracking agency.  These trackers vary in precision. Some are similar to read receipts that inform you when and how often an email is read, while others track clicks and downloads or let a sender know when, where and on what device an email was opened. Why do people use trackers? Email trackers are widely used by marketers, newsletter writers and sales organizations. The big tech companies, however, are the biggest offenders these days. They want to understand their audience and what they're most interested in. More obviously, they want to know the sort of return they can get from advertising dollars. How do we find out what's being tracked? You might not be able to do much about the use of these tracking pixels, but you can take steps to stop them from functioning.  For Google based email accounts (Gmail accounts) use "Ugly Email" and "Pixel Block". This software will detect email trackers automatically and block them. For Outlook accounts use "Thunderbird".  If you're still not feeling safe, here are some additional steps that you can take:

• Add another layer of protection by changing the settings within your email server, and on your android/apple devices. Disable the autoloading of images in emails, which would include any invisible tracking pixels.
• Regularly clean up your promo emails. If you're not interested in them, unsubscribe. If you sign up for a newsletter, even from a trusted source, there’s a one in three chance that the email that newsletter service sends you will be loaded with a tracking image hosted on an outside server. THis means your email address can then be shared with a “large network of third parties.”
• Change your social media privacy settings. When Facebook sends you an email notifying you about new activity on your account and you open it, Facebook knows where you are, the device you’re using and the last picture you’ve taken. Go into your account settings and change your privacy ( sometimes called "permission" instead). Change your tracking settings on your device itself to block tracking apps.
• Minimize hackers by not opening anything that seems odd, like emails from names you don't know, or emails with suspicious subject lines.
• Do an antivirus sweep once a month with a software like Avast or Malwarebytes.

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[bc_video video_id="6250497349001" account_id="2226196965001" player_id="rkljM4WDEg"] Blow drying, straightening, curling – we love it all! But the heat damage that can result from it? Not so much. While hot tools can definitely leave your hair looking more stylish and put together, over time, heat damage can lead to dry, brittle strands. If you've damaged your hair with excessive heat, here are some ways to return your tresses to their former glory. Why use heat at all? Many of us have had the opportunity to take a bit of a break over the last year from blow-drying and ironing our hair every day. A lot of people are saying they’re noticing that their hair is much healthier without the excessive styling, but heat styling is still pretty essential to achieving a polished look. It’s the heat from a blow dryer or iron that makes hair appear shinier and smooth, and it’s also heat that can help to achieve the stylized looks people want for their hair.  What does heat damage look like? When we overuse heated tools, we run the risk of our hair being damaged from too much exposure to heat. This happens on a microscopic level! When hair is damaged with excessive heat, you begin to rough up the cuticle, making it get blown out. Visually, this looks like:

• Split ends or ends that easily break off
• Loss of your natural curl pattern
• White nodules at the end of your hair shaft
• Overly dry hair
• Rough or stringy hair texture
• Hair that tangles and knots easily

What ends up happening is that day to day we keep trying to make the hair look its best. This becomes a cycle of adding more heat, and therefore causing more damage. When hair gets just too damaged, the only option is to cut the ends off because it’s just too far gone to repair.  What can we do to save heat-damaged hair?  The first thing we need to start with is determining whether our hair needs a moisturizing or reparative protein approach to our dry damaged hair. To determine this, take a strand of hair when it’s wet and tug at it. If it snaps right away and feels almost mushy, then you need to focus on protein. That’s because we need to try to repair that hair with protein and ceramides. Look for words like "repair" or "restorative" on shampoo and treatments. If your hair doesn’t snap and just appears dry when styled, then you want to focus more on moisture. Products will say "moisture" on them or “for dry hair”.  You can also use a detangling leave-in conditioner when combing out your hair. This helps you avoid breaking your hair when combing it out, since wet hair is weaker than dry hair.  Always use a blow-dry cream when styling your hair, whether curly or smooth. They often add heat protection to your hair. You definitely don’t want to apply heat to your hair without some form of protection and a blowout cream or curl cream is essential for this.  Lastly, once in a while, you should always focus on doing a treatment to help either rebuild or lock in moisture. Once a week is ideal. That will help to rebuild your damaged cuticle and make the hair appear healthier overall.  To prevent heat damage moving forward, here are some things to keep in mind. First, when you’re just out of the shower and towel drying your hair, be gentle. A lot of continued breakage of dry hair happens when people aggressively towel dry their hair. For those with curly hair, try using an old T shirt - it’s gentle, but it also doesn’t disturb your curl pattern. For the real hair nerds out there, you can also try using a microfibre towel because it’s gentler on the hair cuticle.  Secondly, once you’ve applied your heat protecting blowout product, always remember to dry near to 80% of the moisture out first if possible. The reason is because wet hair is actually quite fragile and if you pull at it when it’s wet, it will run the risk of tearing and breaking a lot easier than if it’s dryish. So, try to rough dry as much as you can before going in with a round brush.  Other tips include lowering the heat on your tools. Simple but effective. Keep your blow-dryer from direct contact with your hair. Too often people sandwich their hair with the blow-dryer nozzle and the brush. This just adds overly direct heat against the hair, causing damage.  One last tip is to really just use your straightener minimally. Try to do less passes on your hair and really be gentle when passing a straightener on the hair.

[bc_video video_id="6250494277001" account_id="2226196965001" player_id="rkljM4WDEg"] A lot of people aren’t aware that the foods in your fridge can stay fresher, longer, if you simply put them in the right places for storage. It's an incredibly simple process that most aren't aware of. So how do you sort your fridge properly?  Let's start with some fridge basics:

• Wash out the thoroughly fridge every 3-4 months. Think of this as a seasonal cleaning!
• Air flow is important – don’t overcrowd your fridge or the temperatures can fluctuate. 
• The ideal temperature for a fridge is 40º F (4.4º C) or lower, and freezers should be at  0º F (-17.7º C).

So where does everything go?

• In the fridge doors, you should place stable foods like ketchup, mustard, relish, soy sauce and jam.
• On the top shelf, put your ready-to-eat foods, leftovers and mayo.
• On the middle and lower shelves, put dairy, eggs, meat, fish and poultry. You can also put white wine and champagne here, if you like.
• In your crisper cupboards, put your fruits in one and veggies in the other.

If your fruits and veg don't seem to be staying as long as you'd like, try changing the humidity in the drawer, as lots of moisture can accelerate rot. What doesn’t go in the fridge:

• Onions
• Potatoes
• Tomatoes
• Squash 
• Unripe avocados

Welcome to fresher food! We hope this makes your kitchen a bit tidier and reduces your food waste!