PruHealth Vitality Experience - month 1 feedback thread with WEEKLY prizes for non participants.....

[AnnMumsnet]

You may recall we have recruited 10 willing volunteers to take part in the Mumsnet PruHealth Vitality Experience - this is running until mid March. This is the feedback thread for the participants to share their feedback with you all.

As PruHealth are so very keen for as many MNers as possible to experience the benefits offered by their Vitality programme each week there will be an incentive (see below for chance to win a £50 Nectar card) offered to non participants to read how the volunteers are getting on and to share your own tips, experiences and opinions. Bookmark this thread and keep an eye out for updates across the next few weeks....

PruHealth say "We believe the more you look after yourself, the healthier you feel. That's why we offer our customers Vitality when they buy our health insurance. Vitality is the world's largest incentive-based wellness programme and can make getting and staying healthy both easier and cheaper, but also reward you for all of your hard work!"

The Vitality Experience kicked off in style at PruHealth HQ in London on Friday 17th January. Here participants were given everything they need for the experience - including a Vitality Healthcheck, advice on healthy eating from a qualified nutritionist and an exercise plan designed by a personal trainer.

Each week participants will be presented with a new Vitality benefit - from earning additional Nectar points when you buy healthy foods at Sainsbury's, taking advantage of discounts at Virgin Active or treating the family to a trip to the cinema! Vitality aims to make healthy living fun, easy and rewarding.

Here's the full schedule of the Vitality Experience:

Week 1 - Get Gyming - Kick start your January resolutions with a free 2-month pass to a Virgin Active gym and £50 to spend on new gym gear at Sweatshop.
Week 2 - 5-a-Day - Get £50 worth of Nectar points to spend on healthy food choices at Sainsbury's.
Week 3 - Step It Up - Get motivated to increase your daily step count with your new FitBug pedometer.
Week 4 - Family Treat - Take the family out on a trip to the cinema with £40 worth of vouchers to either Cineworld or Vue cinemas.
Week 5 - Half-Term & Half-Time - Check in with your personal trainer for a free 1hr session to boost your gym routine.
Week 6 - Discounts Dispensed - Get £25 worth of vouchers to test drive our up to 50% cashback at Lloyds Pharmacy benefit.
Week 7 - Choose Your Reward - Take your pick between discounts to Merlin attractions, National Trust parks or travel with Eurostar, Mark Warner or Mr & Mrs Smith getaways.
Week 8 - Wrap Up - Finish the Vitality Experience with a day of pampering at Champney's spa.

Week 1 - Get Gyming
Vitality Experience Participants: please share on this thread:
How you found the welcome day - what did you enjoy, what worried you, how did you find meeting other MNers? Why did you want to take part? Pick three words to sum up the day.

Please share how you're getting on with the gym: have you been before? What did your family think / say? What did you buy with your Sweatshop voucher? How did you feel the next day? Do you think it's given you the push to start going regularly? How do you fit it into your schedule?

Non Participants - gyms and you - discuss!
Now that we're in the middle of January, how are your resolutions for a fitter 2014? Share your stories and thoughts about gyming and you and you'll be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £50 pre-loaded Nectar card (prize draw Monday 27th at 9am) NOW CLOSED

Week 2: - is all about healthy food choices (w/c 27-1). PruHealth with Vitality members can earn five times the amount of Nectar points they normally would by buying certain foods. As well they earn 1 Vitality point for each £2 is spent on healthy foods once they have linked their nectar card to their account.

Vitality Experience Participants - please share on this thread: At the welcome day you had a presentation from Sally Nash, the nutritionist with EnergiseYou -

~ What would you say was the key message you took away from her presentation and what did you learn?
~ What healthy foods have found their way into your trolley since then and what are you planning to buy this week with your Nectar card?
~ How's the rest of the programme going - we'd love to hear what you've done!

Non Participants - what's your best tip for including your 5-a-day in family meals? NOW CLOSED
~ Share your best tips for getting the 5-a-day into family meals or share a fruit or veg packed recipe on this thread and you'll be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £50 pre-loaded Nectar card NOW CLOSED

Week 3
The third week is about increasing the number of steps you take every day and finding ways to fit 'steps' around your lifestyle. PruHealth with Vitality members can earn points for the number of steps they take each day. Start earning once you've taken over 7,000 a day - the more steps, the more points.

Vitality Experience Participants: please share on this thread:

~ How are you getting on with your new FitBug pedometer?
~ How many steps are you taking each day? Does this surprise you? Disappoint you?
~ What tips can you share for increasing your steps per day.

Non Participants - what's your best tip for increasing the steps you take each day? Add your comment below to be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £50 pre-loaded Nectar card! Share your top tips for making it easy to get more steps into your daily life on this thread and you'll be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £50 pre-loaded Nectar card (prize draw Monday 10th Feb at 9am). NOW CLOSED

Week 4
Family Treat Week
PruHealth say "The very heart of Vitality is focussed on wellness and making healthy choices cheaper, easier and well-rewarding for our members. The weekly cinema ticket incentive is one of our most popular as it gives members the opportunity to treat themselves to a night at the cinema as a reward for their efforts to lead a healthier lifestyle. Small changes, big rewards."

Participants please share what film you are seeing or have seen with your Cineworld/ Vue voucher and what treats you like to enjoy generally with your family. How do you think the treat and reward element of the PruHealth with Vitality plan works?

Non participants...with half term coming up what treats do you have in store for your family? What are your families fav films?
~ Add your comment and you will be entered into a prize draw where one person will win a £50 preloaded Nectar card. Prize draw Monday 17 Feb at 9am. NOW CLOSED

Thanks and good luck
MNHQ

I love having the fitbug but haven't been able to get it to upload anything yet. Got to try and sort it out because I ll lose some of my days soon! I've been surprised how many more steps I get on the days when I walk somewhere which is gratifying but hasn't actually changed anything I do. As you say, time is precious. I have worked out though that spending the last hour before school pick up walking somewhere is a really easy and enjoyable way to increase my exercise and is something I can do long term.

Non participant here, I used to drive into work car park and aim to park as close to the door as I could. Now I park closer to the exit so I don't get stuck in traffic waiting to get out and as soon as I park up I feel closer to home time!

Non-participant.

It's a cliche but at work we have the option of using the lift or taking the stairs up and down three floors and I always take the stairs to fit in a few more steps.I go up and down them several times a day so I'm sure it makes a difference!

I love my fit bug. Ic heck it throughout the day, and if I don't look like I'm on target, I'll add some steps in. It's easier to do than I thought, just taking the long way, or zipping out for a yomp once the dc's are in bed. It's so much easier than the gym cos I don't need to get changed or anything.

Haven't had any problems uploading, but not sure i would always bother anyway once this challenge is over. Though it was useful to see how many aerobic steps I had taken and set a challenge of upping those.

I'm reaching 10,000 at least most days, but have yet to reach 15,000. I also find I do considerable less on the days I go to the gym. The gym is so time consuming I then can't make up in actual steps, I haven't added extra exercise in yet, but will do so next time I upload.

I manage about 13,000 on a usual school day but it can vary considerably depending upon whether I go walkabout (rather than doing the school run and nothing else) during the day or not.... What I am finding though is that I get worn out by my 2 hours (plus) of walking during the week and it seems as if at the weekends (particularly at this time of the year), my step count can plummet if we don't go out.... That is what I need to work on....

Monday is my very active day and that's an 18,000 at least - today I went out during the day too so I might hit 20,000...I'm already on 15,000 and still have another hour of walking to do later on...

I can already tell that because I do two hours of walking per day, fitting in the gym on top of that is possibly untenable on a long-term basis. I did it three times last week but if I'm out and about doing other stuff during the hours of daylight (when the children are at school), I can't really justify the extra time spent to fit in a gym visit too...

I think it's swings and roundabouts....surely as long as you're averaging 10,000 - 12,000 a day it doesn't really matter how you achieve it????

I'm getting on fine with the Fitbug although it nearly fell down the loo yesterday evening and has almost been put in the washing machine twice too! It's a bit like a cat with nine lives methinks.

Seemed to have a bit of a blip uploading the data initially but it all worked out fine after about 10 minutes trying to decipher the extraordinarily small writing in the 'trouble-shooting' section of the instructions booklet...Even my DCs couldn't easily read that size of print!

My tip would be to not take short-cuts when you're walking (unless you really cannot spare five minutes). Those extra five minutes of walking do add up... and to make an effort to walk if you can rather than taking the car.... I think the older the DCs get the less opportunity one gets to 'pound the streets' ...and also to invest in decent footwear for comfortable walking... You cannot comfortably walk 10,000+ per day in shoes that rub your feet etc..... I find that in the summer my feet really suffer with all the walking I do if I wear flat, fashion sandals....

Non Participants - what's your best tip for increasing the steps you take each day?

I try and walk to the post box and local shop instead of taking the car.

Non participant.

I increase the number of steps I do by going for a walk at lunchtime every day (well most days!). That gets me away from my desk and I feel so much better for having a break.
Other things are spending a few minutes chasing my son around in the evenings, he loves being chased, and walking to the park or library at the weekend. I try not to use the car if I can avoid it.

I've uploaded todays steps - it is wrong today again but this time it has added another 10%.

I thought I'd take a look at tomorrow and see what it suggests I aim for. It not only has a goal for me but says I have already done 19.5k steps...tomorrow. What a useless piece of kit. I think this is my last day using it.

So, as a PruHealth Vitality member, how do I actually record activity? I can't prove I have been to the gym, or for a run, or walked so how do I do it?

Non-tester here, I do alot of walking. It's easy when you have a dog. I also walk where possible and avoid the car, bus etc. I have a toddler and we are spending alot of time when the weather is dry, outside. Getting wrapped up and wellies on and wandering around to the playpark or to find puddles adds up lots of steps. I stand all day when I am work too, this means it's less effort to move around than it would be if I was sitting down.

Non tester
I have a a 3 year old son who needs a lot of exercise so I'm always trying to make an activity out of little errands in order to tire him out!
I always try to walk rather than take the car, good to get fresh air and good for exercise.
If we have to run an errand like go to the post box which is in the next street we use the opportunity to walk around the block to get a walk too. When I take my children to the park we walk around the far edge first before going to the play park, my son enjoys looking at the trees and squirrels and then if he doesn't do much running around in the park and just sits in the sandpit at least we've had some exercise.
We always try to hand deliver letters rather than post, saves money and more steps!
When I'm without the pushchair I take the stairs rather than the lift but when I'm with the pushchair we take a slightly longer route to walk a little further, taking in a more scenic route and getting more exercise.

Non Participant

Get a pedometer - you'll start to keep an eye on your activity levels. Have been known to walk in rain just to reach the magic 10K steps!
Buy a house which is 20 mins walk from tube/school/shops ;)
If you have baby with colic, put them in sling and walk for hours aimlessly.

Non tester
I work on the second floor so each time I need the loo or a drink I use it as an excuse to walk down to ground floor and back. Not much but it does add up over a day and gets me away from my desk

Non tester-
I try to use the stairs where possible. I'm naturally lazy and when I'm with ds I rely on lifts so much so when I'm not with him I make a point of using the stairs.
If I park at a motorway services or any big car park I avoid parking as close as possible, so I have a little walk to stretch my legs.
When I had ds I found being in the house very hard so every day I would make a point in going out for a walk either with pram or sling. Even just around the estate it was a little walk but just fresh air for both of us.

Non-participant.

Park the car outside of town and walk to the shops - saves on parking fees and great exercise!

Was 700 footsteps shy of 20,000 yesterday - it was dark and very cold otherwise I would have been tempted to walk around the block one more time just to hit the magic number..... I do feel stiff today though from all that exercise!

However, despite living by praise of keeping fit by walking, can I say that I wear thro' shoes at an amazingly fast rate - and as soon as I get my sensible shoe quota back up I notice another pair has bitten the dust.....

I would love to know what % of the population actually reaches their footsteps target - I imagine it's nowhere near as high as we might think...

When I went to the gym for my induction the instructor remarked that DD does lots of walking for such a youngster - I guess she does as did DS before he went to secondary school (he now only has a 10 minute walk to the bus-stop and a 2 minute walk to school from bus-stop at the other end)......

If you don't particularly like walking I would suggest breaking down the 'journey' into bite-sized chunks so that psychologically you are not daunted/put-off .....

It sounds as if your Fitbug has got gremlins...Walkingtheplank....Oh dear.....As far as I know mine has been pretty accurate - based on my memories of steps done when I previously had a pedometer....

I'm afraid though that I haven't been inputting data about calories consumed on the Fitbug website - not really enough hours in the day with a family to be recording such things...

Willemdefoeismine - your walking impresses me! How do you find the time? I am lucky if I manage 6000 steps a day. I've been using the Fitbug but am struggling to get the number up. I have been using it but sometimes forget to attach it to myself in the morning rush (what with getting the kids out of bed, packed lunches, breakfast etc). I am hoping to get my number up this weekend when I am planning to have a long walk with DD and DS, but it also depends upon this terrible weather. Having an office job coupled with too any things to do means I really struggle to find the time.

On a positive note I finally managed to use my Nectar card this weekend and managed to load in plenty of fruit, veg and fish into my shopping trolley. Still had the usual faff at the till but as it was very early on a Saturday morning I didn't have any disgruntled customers behind and it was sorted out pretty quickly at the customer service desk. Made some delicious steamed salmon with a chilli sauce with plenty of veg to go with it. The whole family loved it.

Was hoping to go to the gym yesterday but after spending 2 hours at the dentist and having extensive root treatment, leaving with my purse considerably lighter and a blinding headache, I decided to give it a miss. Hoping to back on track soon :)

Non-participant.
Week 3: Steps
I try to walk as much as possible - always take the stairs rather than the lift etc, but I don't walk nearly as much now as I used to. Pre-DC I walked everywhere. I'd think nothing of briskly walking for an hour to get into town, but now I just have so much extra stuff to carry (plus usually at least one DC), it's so much easier and quicker to take the car.
Tips like get off the bus one stop early etc just don't work for me.
My tip that would work for someone who's retired is to subscribe to a newspaper like the i where you get vouchers then walk to the newsagent each day to collect your paper (it's what my dad does now that he has the time in order to stay active).
Also, get a small backpack so you can walk to the supermarket when you only need a few things.

Non-participant (Week 3): Steps - I don't use a pedometer to count steps, but I try to walk an hour every day (or at least I did, before the weather went horrible!). To keep myself interested I play music in the same way that I do at the gym.

Also when I go to the out-of-town shopping complex I fight against my natural instincts and walk between shops, rather than driving, even when carrying stuff. It isn't laziness that would normally stop me, but the site is very high and exposed, so freezing! In our town centre I use a car park that isn't the closest one to the centre, because it's cheaper, there's always a space and there's more of a walk to the centre. Must admit I woudn't have done it when the children were small. The above reasons are why I find it better to go on a Deliberate Walk than try to fit little bits of extra walking into my day, iyswim.

Hi Audreyblue

Easy for us - we don't have a car! One of those hippyish families here . And more importantly I do most of my required footsteps just dooing the school run - seriously!

And I object to spending money on bus fares unless absolutely necessary so tend to walk everywhere unless it's quite beyond me (i.e. more than an hour each way!)....

I do just about fit it in but this is what I mean about going to the gym too...that's an hour (or so) extra time that I don't really have to give over to exercise when I already use two hours (at least) a day exercising by walking...

Well done for tackling the Nectar Card issue...salmon is scrummy and I did home pan-fried basa fillets t'other day which went down very nicely! Also had lovely kale sprayed with oil/soy sauce combo and baked in the oven on a low temp for 10 minutes - absolutely delish and with that 'kick' that to my mind was a lot scrummier than sugary stuff....

I seem to have slipped slightly with good eating habits. I did a roast chicken and I'm afraid given how cold it was couldn't foresake the yorkshire puds and some mashed potato [oops].

I keep reading everywhere about the merits of coconut - oil and otherwise :-).

Haven't had a more successful attempt with the chia again but intend to do so although I've now run out of almond milk..... Don't the Chinese make some delicious cold puddings with sago/tapioca and if so what are they? (I know I've eaten such a thing in a Chinese restaurant with an Anglo-Asian family we know).

Non Participants - what's your best tip for increasing the steps you take each day?

Walk everywhere - obvious, innit? With the cost of buses, I don't find it hard to walk instead. Walking to and from work i also good thinking time, I find.

Also, weekends, get the children out - walk along the canal, to the park, into town, anywhere.

I think it will be easier as the summer comes, but, on the other hand, walking is a way of keeping warm too.

Non tester - how to get more steps into your day?

Well walk instead of the car. Don't take lifts at work, and offer to make the coffees (just dont offset this with nibbling in the ubiquitous cakes in the kitchen!), print to a printer a little but further away.

But my best tip is to maintain a level of sleep deprivation approximating torture in most nations in order to necessitate a large number of repeated trips upstairs to get the thing you forgot you were going upstairs for in the first place.

Non-participant - walk up one floor or down 2 instead of taking the stairs. Every step counts!