Exercises with Diversity
Creating a range of exercises for different workouts, not only provides different movements for different muscles in your body, but also helps you burn calories faster.
Why? The reason behind this is that if you keep doing the same exercises at every workout, say three times per week, your body will become conditioned to this particular exercise and you will only be focusing on the muscles in your body which work for this particular exercise, therefore it will not challenge your body or assist with changing your body in any way than it has become accustomed to.
Creating a range of exercises for different workouts helps work different muscles in your body, it challenges the muscles in your body to work because they aren't working in the same way every time in every workout, therefore you are helping your body to change and tone in different areas.
Building muscle tone in your body help burn calories faster, you need to have the muscles to burn the fat.
Therefore, exercise during the week, but have a variety in your workouts, ie. maybe cardio and weights in one workout, cardio in another workout, and just weights in another (focusing on different muscles groups to when you did weights and cardio earlier) and maybe challenge your body by trying a new workout ie. boxing is a great workout, it's fun and really challenges you, giving you an overall cardio and conditioning workout.
Always try to challenge yourself, whether it's by trying a new workout activity, working out longer, faster, or harder.
Labels: building muscle tone, burn calories, burn the fat, cardio, exercise, muscle tone, range of exercises, weights, workout
Mother's Day Gift Ideas
Sunday May 13 is Mother's Day... The day we all try our best to make our Mum's feel important, to make them understand we do appreciate everything they have done for us in our lifetime. What's one day of pampering them each year when they've pampered us every day of our lives?
Our Mum's have been there to pick us up when we're down, pull funny faces to make us laugh, help us through our first heartbreak, fed us when we're hungry, transported us here there and everywhere, changed dirty nappies, been there to fix up cuts and bruises, how often do we thank them for these things.
Gift Baskets
World Famous Gift Baskets offers a wide array of unique gift baskets for any occasion and event, ranging from corporate events to new born baby gifts. We provide quality fresh foods at spectacular prices!
This year will be my first year as a mother, although I'm sure my daughter will not understand the meaning of it being only 7 months, but now for me being a mother for the first time, understand what Mum's are here for, I love being a Mum, although I don't need any reward as I love being a Mum so much, it is nice to feel appreciated, even if you just get a big hug and kiss from your child.
Happy Mother's Day to all those Mum's out there!!!
Labels: gift ideas, gifts, mother's day, mum's day
FIRST AID COURSE FOR PARENTS
Completing a first aid course has been something that I had wanted to do for a long time. When I fell pregnant I thought that once I slowed down with work I’d get the first aid course completed, but then I didn’t finish work until late in the pregnancy and then I felt too BIG to do a first aid course.
I have just completed a Child Care First Aid Course, and this is something I highly encourage people who are planning to have children to do. Please put this at the top of your priorities BEFORE you fall pregnant.
The instructor at the Child Care First Aid Course that I went to, was a paramedic in his earlier days, he actually told us some horror stories of situations parents found their infants in, it actually brought tears to my eyes.
The cost of the course is insignificant in comparison with the skills and knowledge it will provide you with in order to be able to help or save your infant’s life.
I think that these courses should be compulsory for parents-to-be. In Australia, we are given a baby bonus for each child that we have, I would gladly have the course of the first aid course deducted from this bonus in order to complete the course, as a suggestion they may be able to incorporate the course into a pre-natal course so that it is more convenient for the parents.
I’m glad I have finally got around to completing it, you never know when you may need to use first aid, but hopefully none of us will be in those situations where we will need to use the first aid on our infants. Again, I can’t encourage people enough to do a first aid course, it’s better to do it now than regret it. Look up your nearest first aid course instructors and book a course now!
Labels: child care first aid, first aid, first aid course for parents
BabyWise Book Review
Another great book that I have at home and read religiously is the Baby Wise book, I have the first book which is basically a guide for parents in getting themselves and their baby into a routine, and the second book for ‘Parenting Your Pretoddler’ which is for infants from five to fifteen months.
Whilst the ‘What to Expect’ books provide you with knowledge of what to expect while your pregnant with regard to emotional and physical changes of yourself and your baby, the Baby Wise series offer guidance for parenting.
For a new parent, everything small can seem so significant when you haven’t been a parent before. I remember getting a few different books which claim how to get your baby into a routine. A couple of them we quickly glanced and then laid to rest on the bookshelf as they were too strict and rigid for what we were wanting.
We chose the Baby Wise series as these books were there to provide a routine, but in a more flexible way, less rigid than the other books we were given by well meaning friends.
The first book
On Becoming Baby Wise 
focuses on the new baby, and how to develop good sleeping and feeding habits. I remember getting home from hospital and just thinking, ‘is she hungry? Surely she can’t be hungry again’, it seemed like a never ending cycle, but after reading Baby Wise it helped me to understand and develop a routine so that I wasn’t always questioning myself, and my husband who was quick to just shrug his shoulders and offer his ‘I don’t know’ opinion, it wasn’t him that had to endlessly breastfeed! The routine worked well for me as it took a while for my milk to come in at the hospital, and the routine helped increase my supply. The book also goes through details of crying and problem solving.
As we were so impressed with the first book, we decided to get the second book
On Becoming Baby Wise: Book II (Parenting Your Pretoddler Five to Fifteen Months)
, and again, we were more than impressed with Book Two. This book focuses on feeding solids to you pretoddler, it provides a guide to good highchair manners, which have really worked for us. My daughter keeps her hands on her lap when we feed her so thankfully her hands don’t end up with food on them, and she doesn’t end up with food in her hair and everywhere else. It also has a section at the back of the book in training your infant in sign language, I have read a bit about sign language in my parenting magazines, and it seems like a good idea, I read one article where a woman was taking her 7 month old for sign language lessons and he’d learned a few of the signs. We will soon be teaching our daughter some of them to see how we go with it.
These books are good value for money, I’m surprised the prices aren’t higher than they are, definitely worth a read, if you’re after a flexible routine.
The Baby Wise authors also offer books
On Becoming Childwise: Parenting Your Child from 3-7 Years (On Becoming. . .)
,
On Becoming Preteen Wise: Parenting Your Child from 8-12 Years (On Becoming. . .)
,
On Becoming Teen Wise: Building a Relationship That Lasts a Lifetime (On Becoming. . .)
, which I’m sure will also be a great guide for parents with children in those age groups.
Labels: baby routine, Baby Wise, highchair manners
Cradle Cap – Papaw Remedy
Here’s a tip for getting rid of cradle cap.
My daughter had cradle cap when she was about 6 weeks, it was that yellow crusty thick stuff and it was all over her forehead and near her eyebrows, at the same time she had the baby pimples, unfortunately she was not a pretty sight at that point of time and the camera was kept out of reach for a couple of weeks.
We spoke to a few people and searched the internet for remedies for the cradle cap, and we were told to rub olive oil into the cradle cap and then peel off the cradle cap once it had dried. We found that the cradle cap just stuck to her head when the olive oil dried, and we couldn’t peel it off easily. We took her down to our local clinic nurse who suggested we try some Papaw Ointment on the area.
The Papaw Ointment worked a treat, we rubbed it into the area and left it there, the papaw ointment softened the cradle cap and the cradle cap just lifted away bit by bit itself, without us worrying if we were going to pull away some skin with it.
Labels: cradle cap, papaw ointment, papaw remedy
What to Expect Books
When pregnant, and even with my first child here, I have found the 'What to Expect...' books by H. Murkoff invaluable.
During my pregnancy the
'What to Expect When You're Expecting', Third Edition
Book helped me understand what physical and emotional changes I, and my baby, would be going through. It gave me a month by month summary, although I did often skip ahead to see what would be happening in a few months time as I became so engrossed in it.
Now that my daughter is here, I use the
'What to Expect the First Year', Second Ed
to give me some insight into development and growth. I've never been a mother before so it's really handy having something to refer to when you have questions that need to be answered and reassuring when you find out it is all quite normal.
My daughter is 7 months at the moment, so before she passes that first year, I'll be looking at getting the
'What to Expect the Toddler Years'
book to again, give me some indication of what to expect, like everyone else, it's a whole new learning curve for me still, and I learn more and more every day.
I'm sure I'll be pulling these books out again when I fall pregnant with my second child to re-read them, and pass them down.
For those guys out there, here is a good book for you to understand your wife's changes throughout pregnancy
'What To Expect When Your Wife Is Expanding'
, this is by Thomas Hill, I haven't actually read a copy of it myself though.
The books are written in plain English, anything technical is explained well, you don't need a degree to understand these books.
They have given me a lot of assistance and reassurance, and I always keep my current book close at hand.
Labels: baby, h murkoff, pregnancy, what to expect, what to expect in the first year, what to expect in the toddler years, what to expect when expecting
MAYBE BABY/MAYBE MOM
Trying to conceive? The Maybe Baby/Maybe Mom is here to help you.
MaybeMOM Ovulation Tester with Mini Microscope
will help you determine when you are ovulating. The ‘average’ woman ovulates 14 days into her cycle. That is, 14 days after her last menstrual period began. But really, who is average? Research shows that only 30% of women actually ovulate in the middle of their menstrual cycle.
Finding the fertilization time for you will be different to the woman you see behind the counter of the shop, different to the lady living across the road, different to your beautician, it is an independent.
Determining YOUR independent fertilization time is crucial for you to be able to conceive as you will only be fertile for 24 to 36 hours in each cycle, therefore leaving a small window to conceive, and if you don’t know when your fertile time is in your cycle then you are given a difficult task to conceive.
It is more difficult for women who don’t have regular 28 day cycles to determine when their fertile period is. Most women are fertile between days 10 to 17 of their menstrual cycle.
MaybeMOM Ovulation Tester with Mini Microscope takes away the anguish of when you will be fertile. All you need to do is simply place a sample of saliva on the microscopic lens, leave it for a few minutes, and then look through the lens. It is amazing, I have used this product myself and fell pregnant with my first child within months, after realizing that my fertile period was at day 10 of my menstrual cycle (and not the average 14 days into the cycle), once day 10 hit there were fern leaves showing up on the microscopic lens to indicate that I was fertile, a picture I truly appreciated.
MaybeMOM Ovulation Tester with Mini Microscopeis by far the most effective and reliable method to determine a woman’s fertile period, and thus making it easier for a couple to conceive without having the added pressure that some couples have to endure for the most memorable time of their lives.
Labels: baby, conceive, conception, fertile, fertilization, maybe baby, maybe mom, menstrual cycle, ovulate, ovulation
