Tag: yoga

New Year’s Resolutions

| January 9, 2013

New Year's ResolutionsHappy New Year!

What are your New Year’s resolutions?

Some of my resolutions this year:

  • Discover new and exciting places to visit in London with a toddler
  • Practise yoga at least twice a week
  • Expand my recipe list for super quick and healthy meals
  • Learn French to an intermediate level
  • Start work on our renovation project in Brittany France
  • Develop my love of photography

I’m really excited about this year and everything that’s going to be featured on Only Best For Baby.

There’ll be parenting news and tips, nutritional advice for families, healthy lifestyle features, great recipes, baby and toddler product reviews, holiday and travel updates and I’ll be sharing insights into life with a toddler.

You can stay in touch on Twitter and Facebook.

Here’s to a great 2013!

Healthy Pregnancy Tips

| October 27, 2012

I want to share the things that helped me to enjoy a healthy and happy pregnancy.

These are my top Healthy Pregnancy Tips which I found easy to practice and essential for relaxation and keeping me supple.

Exercise gently everyday

A gentle walk and some Pregnancy Yoga worked wonders for my flexibility and my mood when I was pregnant. I used a Gaiam Premium Yoga Mat. It’s thicker than a standard yoga mat so it gave me extra cushioning which was really needed during the later months of my pregnancy. It has a great non-slip surface so it stayed in place during my yoga workout and stretching.

Gaiam Premium Yoga Mat from John Lewis

Neal’s Yard Organic Mother’s Bath Oil

 
Relax, don’t stress!

I found little treats worked wonders. I loved having a warm bath using Neal’s Yard Organic Mother’s Bath Oil for deep relaxation, listening to my favourite music and reading the books on my reading list while I still had some time to myself.

Eat healthy, organic foods

As a Nutritional Advisor and Mum I always make the following recommendations for pregnant women.

Look after your back

Being pregnant naturally puts strain on your lower back as your tummy blooms.

  • Don’t lift anything heavy.
  • Wear comfortable shoes.
  • I used a maternity support pillow to support my back when I was sleeping or relaxing.

Pelvic floor exercises

These are very important during pregnancy and help to strengthen your pelvic floor so your body can support the weight of your pregnancy. Pelvic floor exercises help to prevent stress incontinence.

If this is your first pregnancy you’re probably wondering what stress incontinence is! I certainly didn’t have a clue until we discussed this in our NCT Antenatal Classes. Stress incontinence occurs when you have weak pelvic floor muscles and can cause leaking urine when you cough, sneeze, laugh or exercise.

Here’s a really useful link from the NCT on how to exercise your pelvic floor during and after pregnancy.

Take a Pregnancy Multivitamin

Despite having a healthy diet, as soon as I knew I was pregnant I started taking Vitabiotics Pregnacare Plus Omega 3 and continued to take these throughout my entire pregnancy. These multivitamins plus Omega 3 ensured my baby and I had all the essential nutrients we needed, including the recommended level of 400mcg folic acid.

Pregnancy Yoga

| December 11, 2011

One of the best things I did when I was pregnant was yoga. I swear by it and encourage every future yummy mummy to do the same.

Yoga tailored for pregnancy kept me flexible, relaxed, in shape and fit. I know baby girl enjoyed it too, with her encouraging flutters spurring me on!

I followed a simple 40 minute pregnancy yoga routine every other day, in the comfort of my own home.

I highly recommend the pregnancy yoga DVD Yoga For Me and My Baby DVDwhich provides the perfect mix of pregnancy yoga and relaxation.

This pregnancy yoga DVD is filmed in Byron Bay in Australia, with many shots taken on the beach in the beautiful sunshine with the noise of gentle waves in the background.

I always feel so revived and refreshed after this workout.

Yoga For Me and My Baby DVDincludes breathing exercises, the 40 minute yoga workout, pelvic floor exercises, third trimester poses and a post-natal yoga workout.

I love this DVD as the yoga poses are gentle, the instructor is heavily pregnant throughout the pre-natal yoga workout (so you have something in common) and in the post-natal workout she demonstrates the yoga poses with her new baby on the beach!

Having the workout on DVD is especially beneficial when you start to get larger and travelling becomes more difficult. 

And at around £5 you can’t go wrong and it’s cheaper than a yoga class!