Get Back in Shape with the New BOB 30 Day Fitness Challenge!

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As part of my Mumbassadorial role with BRITAX - I’m often being sent handy tips and advice on everything parent-related. Although BRITAX and their sister company BOB are primarily concerned with pushchairs and transporting your little one around safely, they also offer of wealth of information on pregnancy and post-natal fitness. I’ve previously shared an article on My Mills Baby about tips to help mums stay fit and active throughout pregnancy, post-birth, and beyond developed with leading personal trainer Laura Williams exclusively for BRITAX, and now she’s joined forces with BOB to launch the 30 Day Fitness Challenge.

Although, for obvious reasons, I’ll be holding off on any weight-loss ambitions for a few months, when Mini Madam arrives I’ll be frantically Googling diet and exercise in a bid to shed the baby weight - I think Craig’s probably had quite enough of struggling to get his arms around my waist! Laura’s 30 Day Fitness Challenge seems like the perfect way to kick-start this so I’ll be joining in! Here’s all the information you need.

get attachment.aspx  Get Back in Shape with the New BOB 30 Day Fitness Challenge!

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Sticking to your weight-loss resolutions with the BOB 30 Day Fitness Challenge!

We all love to begin the New Year with the best of intentions, vowing to ditch bad habits and have a healthier and happier year ahead. But as we all know, will power can dwindle all too quickly. Many people will already have abandoned their resolutions just weeks into the New Year - in fact Friday 24th Jan is ‘Fail Friday’ – the day where resolutions are most likely to be broken!

Resolutions often sound easy but are harder to put into practice – resolutions like spending more quality time with the family, planning regular date nights with our other halves, eating more healthily as a family and exercising more to shift those extra baby pounds. We start with the best intentions to keep to them but they can often fall by the wayside when real life gets in the way.

We believe the key to successful resolution keeping, is to keep it simple, make it enjoyable and ensure it fits in with your everyday life!

That’s why BOB have teamed up with fitness expert, Laura Williams, to create a realistic 30-day fitness challenge for busy parents, designed to help you burn calories and tone up simply by doing everyday tasks around the home. Genius!

This 30-day calendar is packed full of daily hints, tips and motivating advice that will not only make you smile but get your heart beating too - best of all, everything can be done whilst with your little one! All you have to do is print it out and pin it somewhere you can see it.

Check out more information on the exciting BOB range here and you can print your very own plan and get active today by visiting BOB’s Active Parents site. Ooooh and I almost forgot - I’m soon to be road test the BOB Revolution SE so keep an eye out for my review!

index3 Get Back in Shape with the New BOB 30 Day Fitness Challenge!

Disclaimer: I have not been compensated for sharing this information.


What to Expect… The DVDs

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The full extent of my pregnancy fitness was cradling my bump on the bus on the way to work. By the time I got home every night I was utterly exhausted. I’d heard all the hype about swimming, but having dived into a pool several years ago and got my hair caught in a vent, you’d be lucky to get me in a body of water any more substantial tan Dexie’s paddling pool.

But this time around I’ll be considerably more careful. I’m the heaviest I’ve ever been at the moment and put it all down to lack of exercise both before and after Dexter’s birth. As soon I get those 2 pink lines I’ll be donning the maternity lycra and slipping on (every pregnant woman’s secret weapon) What To Expect When You’re Expecting: The Workout, and trying my best to join in.

So my contribution to exercise (and Project Baby 2) this week has been to watch this DVD whilst laying on the floor with Dexter re-learning Silent Night on his Leapfrog xylophone. I haven’t attempted one lunge, pelvic floor or squat, but I’m full of admiration for the tiny people on the telly doing their best to inspire me.

I blame this blog, the heat, lack of appropriate footwear, and a child that refuses to play independently with anything remotely age-appropriate - seriously, I had to pluck keyboard keys from my laptop out of his mouth yesterday morning. I’m not complaining - I’ve just written off bikinis for this upcoming holiday and picked ‘forgiving’ dresses that will minimise the chance of a foreign waiter asking me ‘when I’m due’.

In all seriousness, this is a pretty impressive DVD packed full of easy and safe exercises for the mum-to-be. Keeping fit in pregnancy is actually incredibly important and no laughing matter. There are a whole host of benefits including preparing yourself for the rigours of childbirth, improved sleep and guarding again gestational diabetes. There’s Pilates-based moves and yoga-inspired stretches to help build stamina and rejuvenate aching and tight muscles. Thankfully the soundtrack is also less ’70′s disco’ than other pregnancy workout DVDs too.

But for now, as the heat is crippling, I’m way behind with my blog posts, and there’s chilled wine in the fridge that might not last until Craig gets home, I’ll make myself comfortable and watch the very funny What to Expect When You’re Expecting (the movie) instead.

Centred on the upcoming births of 3 women, the film follows each of them and their hapless other halves to D Day. I thought it was heartwarming and funny, and dealt with some pretty tough issues (miscarriage and adoption) in a sensitive way. Sadly Craigy found it a little patronising. Craig was very hands on throughout my pregnancy and is probably a more natural parent than I, so he gets a little pee’ed off when he sees dumbed-down-dad’s on the tv. If he’d only watch one episode of One Born Every Minute he’d quickly realise what a rare (and sought after) commodity he is and I’d lose him to a considerably yummier mummy from Dexter’s playgroup!

There’s lots to like about this movie, and most mums will see snippets of their own experience of pregnancy in each of the characters. From the desperate-to-be-pregnant Wendy (Elizabeth Banks) with her cringeworthy breastfeeding children’s book and his and hers ovulation alarm, to the mum-to-be (Cameron Diaz) that refuses to slow down, to the mum (Brooklyn Decker) whose fertility knows no bounds and winds up sneezing out her first born twin.

The only thing that’s apt to make you raise your eyebrows is how utterly gorgeous all the mums-to-be look with their incredibly cute baby bumps (I didn’t spot one scene without a large helping of mascara and lipgloss) - I certainly didn’t look like that pushing my trolley around Tescos in my 8th month!

You can find both these DVDs on Amazon, or check out the new website to learn about all things pregnancy, baby and beyond. The WTE UK team can also be found on Facebook and Twitter and are always on hand to answer those questions that just can’t wait - do pop over and show them some love.

DISCLAIMER: The What to Expect team kindly sent me both DVDs for the purpose of this review, but all views and opinions are my own.

 

 


GIVEAWAY: A Women’s Health Bundle from Blossoms Healthcare (CD 16/08/2013)

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I wish I could tell you I’m a healthy mum. I wish I could tell you I have abs like Beyoncé, looked as sexy as Heidi Klum when I was pregnant and have hair as glossy as our Cheryl from the Loreal adverts… but I don’t. Okay this isn’t any kind of barometer for measuring how healthy I am, but whilst I’m still carrying this baby weight I can kiss any hope of a modelling contract goodbye!

Having said this, I am most definitely health conscious. Okay this often strays past the realms of sanity and Craig is always joking that I’m a hypochondriac, but I think you suddenly become more health aware when you become a mother. Every day when you catch your baby doing something new and wonderful, you remember just how important it is to stay fit and healthy.

Private health screenings can offer the ultimate peace of mind for new mums, busy business people, and families. Blossoms Healthcare offers Private GP Consultants, Health Assessments, Occupational Health, Travel Vaccinations and a full range of Business Health Services. Located throughout London, Edinburgh and Birmingham, it’s a fabulous way of ensuring you can access professional healthcare when it suits you. For more information it’s well worth checking out their Facebook page.

Well I’m delighted to have partnered up with Blossoms Healthcare to bring you the chance to win a fabulous Women’s Health bundle. You could win a year’s subscription to Women’s Health Magazine, a copy of Healthy Child Healthy World: Creating a Cleaner, Greener, Safer Home by Christopher Gavigan, and a Complete Pregnancy Fitness DVD featuring Erin O’Brien.

This hugely generous health bundle is great for any woman whether they are pregnant, currently raising a family, or just wanting to maintain a healthy lifestyle. The total prize package is worth almost £40.

To enter, just follow the instructions on the Rafflecopter below. Good luck!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

T&C’s – a.k.a – the boring bit!
  • Only 1 option is mandatory (like Blossoms Healthcare on Facebook) – the rest only improve your chances of winning so just complete as many as you feel like
  • UK entrants only – you must be over 18 too (sorry)
  • The winner will be contacted by email and must respond within 1 week of having been emailed (I’ll try all known avenues to contact them) or a new winner will be drawn
  • When the giveaway is closed, Rafflecopter will select the winner completely at random
  • The winners name will be published on this site

 

ThePrizeFinder - UK Competitions

pixel GIVEAWAY: A Womens Health Bundle from Blossoms Healthcare (CD 16/08/2013)