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 finally got around to uploading my Fitbug data! So now I can truly provide some feedback:

~ How are you getting on with your new FitBug pedometer?
Not bad! I had a few glitches setting it up, but am getting into the hang of fixing it to my waistband every day. I haven't really got into all the other stuff on the website (nutrition, sleep etc), as quite frankly there aren't enough hours in the day to log it all, but I can see it being a very useful tool if needed.

~ How many steps are you taking each day? Does this surprise you? Disappoint you?
Nowhere near WillemDafoe's tally, that's for sure! My best day was 9,500 steps, and my worst was a disgraceful 578 (it was cold and rainy, and I had a sofa day, Your Honour ). On an average "work" day, I come out between 3,000 and 5,000, but if I go to the gym or take a run (at least three times a week) it goes up to 8,000-9,500. Quite low, actually, considering where you need to be to maximise your Vitality points. I seem to do a lot of "rushing about", and I always feel like a hamster on a wheel, but really I'm not doing that much, it seems....

I did add in my Aqua aerobics session yesterday as "additional exercise", which tipped me over the 10,000 steps, and I need to add in other things which were "exercise" (e.g. re-roofing the shed last Sunday, and cleaning the house), but not reflected in the step-count.

If I were earning Vitality points for real I would get into the habit of looking at the step count a few minutes before midnight (I'm an owl, so always still up). Very annoying to get so close to 10,000 and suddenly find I'm back to zero!

~ What tips can you share for increasing your steps per day.
Well, as I said in my earlier post, for me it boils down to fitting in some exercise sessions. I can't walk to school or work, because of where we live, so I either park further away from where I am going, or I ensure that several times a week I get out for some proper exercise.

One interesting side-effect of the FitBug is that people spot it attached to me and start asking questions! I have been "marketing" PruHealth Vitality on more than one occasion as I've explained what I'm doing and why. People are generally intrigued as to how all the points are tallied.

I try to use the stairs at work instead of the lift, it might not sound like much but it is 3 very TALL floors so is quite enough to get me puffing and panting for a while afterwards, especially if done fast!

Just on my way back from the gym & feeling really positive! I can feel that my muscles are stronger (it's not as blimmin sore doing all those squats & lunges!) and I can do things for longer without getting short of breath or wanting to quit. Thank you for starting me back on the path to getting fit. The fitbug does help because as so many of you have said it makes you more aware of how many (or more often for me how few!) steps you are taking.

Happy Birthday Kew - the meals & cake sound good! I have been having the odd 'treat' because I think otherwise I would obsess about it & then binge if I didn't and that is probably worse than having the odd biscuit (or choc ice!) now & then. I really want to make this a sustainable lifestyle change. I don't see almond milk in my future if I'm honest but other good habits are starting to creep in!

Has anyone been blogging to camera? I've neglected that a bit so will try to catch up with that over the weekend - so much to fit in but I am enjoying it!

Cointreau I can picture you now, jogging furiously on the spot at 5 to midnight.

Inigo you name is brilliant! Do you shout "prepare to die!!" Before attacking those stairs?

I have done a couple of videos (no-one is going to be offering me a job in TV any time soon) but haven't got around to sending them in.

NON TESTER I walk everywhere unless I am carrying heavy shopping, I find that If I take my ipod and listen to music I notice less how far I am walking and enjoy it more.

I was in town today and managed to get to a Sweatshop - and what a haul!

I managed to get a special offer of some long running tights, long sleeved top and a long sleeved thermal top for £38, usual price £64 and then to use up my voucher I bought a pair of shorter running tights for warmer weather - if it stops raining this weekend I might try and get out for a run - starting Couch to 5K again I think!

Also a non tester, I try and walk as much as possible, always take the stairs instead of the lift, I often get off the bus a stop early.
If it's nice weather we always walk into town 30 mins away but we are lucky as it's a lovely river walk.

Hello everyone
Happy birthday Kew
I been using the fitbug all week and clocking up an average of 10,000 steps, with more on the tube strike days. Perhaps it's the novelty but it definitely is spurring me on to walk a bit more than usual.
I am feeling a bit slimmer too but it might be my imagination. I have been swimming regularly, tried pilates, aqua, body balance, but haven't properly tackled the healthy eating bit yet. (Still no kitchen, sigh)...
Also, I went to Sweatshop on Thursday and had a great great experience spending my voucher on some new running shoes. I went for the gait analysis, involving having my feet videoed as I ran on a treadmill for a minute or so. The v friendly sales assistant then showed me how my left foot leans in (pronates?) and recommended a few supportive trainers to help with this. Being shallow, I then went for the ones with pink laces.
I have to say that I've previously had bad experiences of running shop staff in another chain being snotty about me not being a serious runner, but not here. He then watched me jog up and down the shop in my favourite pair to see how they fitted. So I am now the very proud and happy owner of a new pair of personally fitted £105 trainers, with the 50 percent Pruhealth discount and then the £50 card, for £2.50 I was so cheerful I literally ran out of the shop in them, and haven't had them off my feet yet. Thank you Mumsnet and Pruhealth!
And my top tip for walking more is v simple- comfy shoes seriously help spur you on. I think a 50 percent discount on running shoes at Sweatshop for Pruhealth vitality members is a socking good deal as most trainers seem to top £100.

Most trainers stocked by Sweatshop that is!

Well done, Small! You'll be unstoppable now.

Haha Cointreau. That makes me think of one of those messages you get on fridge magnets- " I'd be unstoppable... if only I could get started...". Usually accompanied by a picture of a sleeping puppy or similar

Nontester - tip for increasing the number of steps would be to not put things aside or leave them on the stairs to be taken to their proper place later on but to take them individually right away. All those steps will soon add up.

Your gait analysis sounds very interesting (and possibly something we should all do) Smallinthesmoke! How do the new trainers feel?

I feel a short-changed having bought my Sweatshop stuff online - I thought even the Sale stuff was quite expensive and ended up with only two items for my £50 voucher - I would never normally spend so much. So a bit cross with myself for not making it to a branch where I obviously would have picked up better bargains....

I've just uploaded my second lot of Fitbug data and for some reason one day's readings didn't register at all. I have to say my readings are all over the place possibly because DH has been using up leave and has been doing some of the school runs. I think I just about even out at 10,000 a day but all I can say is that it's just as well I sometimes do nigh on 20,000 for the days of inertia....DD and I purposefully went the long way round on our shopping trip today (and nearly got blown away by the wind!) but I still only have managed 5,000 steps today [sigh]. Hey ho...

I admire anyone who is motivated enough to think "I must go out and reach my 10,000 steps" on a cold, rainy, windy weekend day - it's the last thing I want to do - possibly because I am compelled to do so during the week!

Incidentally speaking of walking and PruHealth Vitality: www.nationaltrust.org.uk/article-1356392660408/

I am beginning to see a pattern forming with all these health lifestyle changes - the not so great British weather......As with wanting to eat carbs in the chilly climes we live in, I think outdoor exercise is a lot less appealing than it would be in a naturally warmer climate....

Has anyone received their cinema ticket voucher yet or do you think they may have swapped round the cinema and personal trainer assessment weeks for all of us???

Nearly half-way thro'....

I dragged my out to gym in middle of really busy week and really enjoyed it I even caught myself thinking at one point that I wouldn;t rule out joining at end of free trial (my bank bank manager will be cackling loudly if he reads this).

I am now in sodden sunny Devon on business til Tuesday so no exercise to speak of.

To add insult to injury, my iron is low again so will be booked into hospital for top up shortly - a dull day attached to a drip unable to go anywhere is not going to improve my step count any!

I feel this may be my last message.

I booked in to do a step class today. Somewhere along the line, the timetables got confused, and it was a body conditioning class, with weights, which I decided I may as well do as I was there.

Ow. So much ow. I doubt I'll ever be able to move again ;-)

It was nice to have known you GwenStacy.

(Would the thought of a massage at CHampneys perk you up?)

Hah, if I can move, I'm very much looking forward to it ;-)

Boo about your iron levels. I was threatened with all sorts when I was pregnant and just after I gave birth. So much spatone and dried apricots…

Hope you feel a bit better soon!

I can eat all the spatone and apricots in the world but I dont absorb it (autoimmune problem)! The only way is to mainline iron into a vein in hospital... mind you, I shouldn't get too dramatic as its only once or year on average (unlike B12 which is every three months).

I seem to have ground to a halt. I have plantar fascilitis in both of my feet which has ground me to a halt. I might have to focus on swimming for the next few weeks. The rest of the time I am literally feet up with on a foot stall. I've put on a kilo since last weekend!

Non tester

I have to say that as I get older, I am taking more and more steps daily in the home as I constantly forget what I am looking for, walk back to where I was, then remember again. Only today, I went upstairs and downstairs three times before I remembered I was looking for my reading glasses. I always park in carparks where there are no cars (sick of thoughtless people opening doors into mine) this means further to walk but gives me time to remember the items on the shopping list I left at home.

non tester

taking more steps, take a walk before returning to the car fter theh school run.

walk into town rather than take the car

park at the far end of the car park.

walk around our shared garden after the school run

take the children to the park after school in good weather.

walk up the stairs rather than lift

Good luck Kew - hope you're not going to one of the waterlogged parts of Devon??? Safe journey....

The iron 'drip' doesn't sound at all nice - yuk and poor you. I had really low Hb when pregnant and had to drink liquid iron (I can't take tablets) - that was truly disgusting....

Non- participant

To increase steps throughout the day I try and walk to school instead of just jumping in the car . That twenty minute walk there and back in the fresh air makes me feel better and it's a lot easier than trying to find a parking space