All Health, Beauty & Family

Exercises with Diversity

2007-05-22T01:49:00.000-07:00

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.

Mother's Day Gift Ideas

2007-05-07T18:01:00.000-07:00

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!!!

FIRST AID COURSE FOR PARENTS

2007-05-04T18:50:00.000-07:00

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!

BabyWise Book Review

2007-05-03T19:15:00.000-07:00

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.

Cradle Cap – Papaw Remedy

2007-05-03T19:13:00.000-07:00

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.

What to Expect Books

2007-05-01T21:46:00.000-07:00

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.

MAYBE BABY/MAYBE MOM

2007-05-01T06:18:00.000-07:00

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.

Sleeping Baby

2007-04-28T06:00:00.000-07:00

When my husband and I went to our GP to confirm our pregnancy, one of the first things the GP said to us was to try and develop a sleeping routine BEFORE baby was born.

We did a LOT of research into baby sleep routines. Of course, it's hard to know what to expect when you haven't had a child before, so we gathered as much information as we could.

I think you learn so much from friends with their children of what to do and what not to do, and having some proven theories behind you is also a good idea.

We followed a great sleeping routine, and fortunately our 6 month old daughter sleeps wonderfully. She was sleeping through the night at about 6 weeks, and after developing a good routine she began going down well for her daytime naps. I know some people whose babies are older, and they're waking every 3 hours during the night for feeding! I enjoy my sleep and definitely could not handle that!

Now that she is 6 months, she sleeps 12 hours at night, and she has 3 naps during the day, 2 of those naps are 2 hours each and the third nap is about 40 minutes (one sleep cycle) but it's fantastic as I get a good night sleep and I also get to do my own things during the day while she is napping (in fact, I even get bored sometimes, which is why I get so much time to spend on the computer writing about things that I know about health and family).

We were fortunate enough in getting our daughter to self settle and not having to rely on rocking, pacifiers or any other comforters to get her off to sleep. She is on a 4 hour routine during the day (pretty much on the dot) and whenever she does wake up during a 2 hour nap or is thrown out of a 4 hour routine is when she's going through a growth spurt or teething, which is only for a couple of days and then she's back to herself again.

We have a lot to owe to having established good sleeping habits so early on.

The Ultimate Cellulite Treatment and Extra Benefits

2007-04-26T21:41:00.000-07:00

I first completed a course of cellulite treatments before my first child was even thought of. I was 30, but very uncomfortable with the way my legs looked, I needed to boost my self esteem and found out about this cellulite treatment available.

This ultimate cellulite treatment was great, very natural, I didn’t notice much improvement, if any, in the first month only weight loss and smaller measurements around my hips, buttocks, thighs and knees which I was really happy with anyway.

Then, after the second month, I noticed the cellulite appearance improved, I could start seeing some results.

Amazingly after the third month it had completely disappeared, I mean COMPLETELY DISAPPEARED. I couldn’t believe it. I was happy with a major improvement but completely ecstatic with complete cellulite elimination! I didn’t really think that I would end up with zero cellulite. I felt the most confident I had for years, comfortable in wearing a bikini in front of friends.

Not only was I ecstatic that the cellulite had completely disappeared, but I had noticed extra benefits as well.

My surface veins seemed to fade, my weight was at its lowest since quite some time, my circulation had improved and my feet are now always warm instead of feeling like I have them in a bucket of ice, and I generally had higher energy levels. These are some of the benefits of the cellulite treatment that I don’t think creams can live up to, I haven’t heard of a cream that can make your cellulite completely disappear either, although that would be nice.

I stopped the treatment when I found out I was pregnant with my first child, once I finished breastfeeding I wanted to get back to the cellulite program again, within one month I was even weighing less than I was at my pre-pregnancy weight, and my cellulite has gone once again.

I also think that because I completed this treatment before falling pregnant with my first child, it helped my husband and I to conceive, as it flushes all of the toxins out of your body, leaving your body at the most healthiest and giving you every chance to conceive a healthy baby.

I’m looking forward to baby number 2, but also know that once I finish breastfeeding number 2, I’ll be back on the ultimate cellulite treatment.

Toxins Contributing towards Cellulite

2007-04-23T22:42:00.000-07:00

The main toxins contributing towards cellulite which we consume include alcohol, caffeine, fats, sugars, flavours, colours, preservatives.

The best way to reduce our intake of these toxins is to eat a more natural diet. Times have changed in the way that women are also the bread winners of the family today, meaning that us women are not finding enough time in the day to be able to prepare meals from first principles. It is more convenient to just buy a pre-prepared meal, add a packet mix, or open up a jar to add to some meat.

Cellulite has only existed in the last couple of hundred years, before these toxins were introduced, if you look on the supermarket shelves today, most items are packaged with preservatives, flavours and colours, and I'm sure that wouldn't have been the case last century.

The best foods to be eaten whilst eliminating the toxins from your body are fruit, vegetables, brown rice, potatoes, wholemeal pasta and bread, oats, legumes, pulses, nuts and seeds, these foods contribute towards a healthy balanced diet. On the other hand, processed foods should be avoided as much as possible, labelling of food should be checked when purchasing to make sure that the ingredients are as natural as possible. Tea and coffee should also be avoided, drinks should include plenty of water and herbal teas to assist in flushing out the toxins of our system.

Getting your diet right is not only great for your health and well being but it is also one step towards achieving smooth legs that you can be proud of.

Cellulite Programs to Eliminate The Unsightly Bumps!

2007-04-22T18:12:00.000-07:00

As mentioned in my previous post, there are things that you can do to eliminate cellulite. However, eliminating cellulite is no fad, it is a change in lifestyle, it is something you must be aware of.

There are some programs which give you step by step instructions on how to improve your lifestyle to eliminate cellulite. There is also a woman in Australia who has developed a program similar to the techniques that I discussed in my previous post.

Other factors contributing to cellulite include genetics and stress factors in our lives, but thankfully there are ways around these factors where we can eliminate these unsightly bumps on our thighs, so you can look like a bondi beach babe.

Obsessed with Cellulite?

2007-04-21T05:26:00.000-07:00

OBSESSED WITH CELLULITE? Tried the “best” cellulite creams and products on the market but they haven’t improved the appearance of cellulite as promised? You're not alone.

Most people believe that it is overweight people that get cellulite – this is UNTRUE. Slim people can get cellulite too – haven’t you seen some of the unbrushed photos of celebs?

Cellulite is the build up of toxins in our system. These toxins can take form in the way of alcohol, cigarettes, sugars, fats, flavours, colours, preservatives… All these things contribute towards the build up of toxins in our bodies.

If we can eliminate these toxins from our bodies we can enjoy having smooth legs and feel comfortable on the beach in our bikinis.

The best way that I have found to help eliminate these nasty toxins is by a combination of the following methods:

Detox, lymphatic drainage massage, body brushing, drink plenty of water and herbal teas, exercises including squats and leg raises.