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

[Kewcumber]

I can say that coconut oil is good on toast and ryvita though its still fat so I do need to get a grip!

Look forward to trying to cook with it. Its got a very nice silky texture - I bought the refined as DS not keen on coconut and it really doesn;t taste/smell much of coconut.

I guess all in all I am saying a gym membership is fantastic but there are other ways to keep fit so don't let not having one put you off. To be fair the vitality people did make very clear that their programe could accomodate any increase in exercise and get some benefit - 50% of one pair of running shoes a year for the runners/walkers, link a fitbug to your account and you get credits to move up to higher benefit levels depending on how many steps you take, the exercises we were given all had home and gym versions. It really was very much about healthy living rather than the gym - but we're testing the benefits and one of them is the cheap gym membership (and its a bit of a novelty to me!).

Just in case you think any of us are normally so obsessed with the gym!

[Kewcumber]

"I would say that much of what's on it is also in our freezer/store-cupboard......." though to be fair its putting them in your mouth that makes the difference!

[Kewcumber]

authoritynutrition.com/top-10-evidence-based-health-benefits-of-coconut-oil/

Apparently making porridge with water then adding a spoon of coconut oil is nice and cuts down on your dairy.

I really need to look up calcium in non-dairy foods if I want to stand any chance of cutting my dairy.

[Willemdefoeismine]

I've just gone to do my £50 healthy eating shop - readers it didn't go far and that was with buying Basics range for some key foodstuffs too! But as DS pointed out, £6 on a small jar of coconut oil didn't help the cause. I was quite shocked really at the cost.

I think that bulk buying nuts, grains, seeds etc..is the way to go...possibly from some of the Asian/Indian shops around. DSis eats like this all of the time but she is an affluent woman without DCs so has the time, money and inclination to do so....

It is my intention to mix the coconut flakes, chopped nuts, sesame and hemp seeds together as a 'topping' for having on porridge, yoghurt (0% of course) with fruit and possibly even in a fruit crumble!

The coconut oil looks divine....DH a bit about spreading it on bread etc...... I love the wholegrain/pumpkin Ryvita so they will be yummy as a sandwich substitute although used to having them spread with butter. Will I use coconut oil instead or one of the elusive nut butters (that I couldn't even source in the 'free from' row...)???

I'm a bit of a purist with porridge...best way to have it is made with water and a wee bit of salt.....I may try it with the coconut oil stirred in but think I'm going to be really strict on how quickly that's consumed at that cost!

The one thing I categorically refuse to give up even embracing this healthier living is coffee (black). I've given up alcohol for January (and possibly some of February too) and all this virtuous living is a bit too much for my system to adapt to at once. I did have a phase of about two years when I used to drink nothing but herbal teas and ginger infused in boiled water.... It was fine but....

Oh and a tip with using the preloaded points on the newly provided Nectar Card - I had a bit of a hassle today because although I'd preregistered it, it didn't have my usual store registered as my 'home' store (it hadn't asked me for any such info when I'd done the initial registration process last weekend) so I had to faff around with one of the staff whilst they rang thro' to the Nectar cardline and go thro' all sorts of additional security checks. As I summised to one of the helpful staff members in-store, this inconvenience could have been avoided had I used the card mid-week when just doing a small not overly healthy top-up shop and presented it instead of my usual Nectar-card for adding the points to my account. She agreed that had I used it previously when shopping (but not redeeming the points) I would have avoided today's palaver. Does that make sense? The extra faff added at least ten minutes onto the check-out process which we could well have done without!

[Willemdefoeismine]

Chia:

www.amazon.co.uk/Naturya-Chia-Seeds-300-g/dp/B006HZ116O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1390744007&sr=8-1&keywords=chia%20seeds&tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21

and a recipe (it seems a bit like sago or tapioca when 'expanded' with milk....www.foodstolove.co.uk/recipe/chia-pudding/

[Willemdefoeismine]

And food for thought about coconut oil too....www.hundredforhundred.com/2010/05/13/coconut-oil-and-pure-ghee-good-or-bad/

[SaltySeaBird]

Non Participants - gyms and you - discuss!

It was a long time before I plucked up courage to go for a gym. They were for sporty, fit people who enjoyed getting a sweat on. Then I finally decided I wanted to do something about my fitness and weight and went. I noticed I was getting fitter. I started doing some of the classes and I loved it. After about a year I suddenly realised I was addicted to exercise and had gone from a size 16 to 10. I did lots of classes, swam before work and joined a local running club too.

Then I had DD. I went from a size 10 to 16 (shamefully I'm two stone heavier now, the last stone went on AFTER she was born). I need to get back into fitness but I simply can't afford the gym fees now I work part time. I also find that I have no time for myself as when I get home from work I go into the dinner, bed, bath routine which runs the same period as the exercise classes do.

My local gym is a Bannantynes and is £58 a month (it may have increased). I would love to still do the classes but as I can only make one or two of them at the most a week it is simply too expensive. There is another gym but that is still £38 a month and you have to pay for parking there too.

I feel very depressed writing this post.

[Kewcumber]

WIllem - I think they dd recommend using it at a previous shop on the induction day.

I really liked the coconut oil on ryvita I could certainly get used to it instead of butter (and I love butter cannot have it in the house), in fact having used coconut oil I think I would find butter a bit greasy.

Going to read that article in coconut oil in a minute.

I have a vegan friends - basically it seems chia is vegan frogspawn

I'm going to treat myself to the healthy stuff I can't normally afford - organic chicken, fresh fish etc

[Kewcumber]

Saltyseabird - have you thought of running using something like the couch to 5k app or Zombie run? If I can run anyone can

[Kewcumber]

you might also find some classes like zumba etc running at local church halls though Im not sure how that would fit in with work/school etc

[smallinthesmoke]

Really interesting to hear how everyone is getting on. I especially like the padlock story Kew.
I made it to aqua this morning. A very good class to start off with- no one can tell what you are doing under the water or how uncoordinated you are! Plus it is very silly, all to disco, not too serious.
I haven't embarked on the healthy eating yet as due to building works we have no kitchen. We are eating microwave meals on the floor in the baby's bedroom, totally ridiculous. I can see why people without access to decent cooking facilities don't eat healthily. The kids are just getting beans on toast on loop.
What I would say is that I think going to the gym is helping with this stressful time, at the very least I am getting hot showers which is more than is possible at home!
I will definitely enjoy the healthy foods from Sainsburys but maybe I will wait a bit before doing the full experience. I am interested at the moment in healthy snacks like seeds and nuts so will start with those.

[Stripytop]

I have finally spent my Sweatshop voucher! got myself some very lovely running tights and a two layer long sleeve top with thumb-holes! I have always wanted a top with thumb-holes. Both were in the sale (40% off). Celebrated by putting them on straight away and doing a 5k power-walk.
Made some v healthy wholemeal banana and walnut muffins today, which are divine. The only problem is that the no one else likes them so I'm going to have to eat them all myself! Replaced the sugar with agave syrup and was wondering if I could have replaced the butter with coconut oil? Has anyone else used it in cooking like this yet?

Small I feel for you. Last time we had a new kitchen I put on half a stone from all the takeaways!

[Kewcumber]

Having eaten it raw I would assume replacing it with butter should be fine.

[Kewcumber]

www.livestrong.com/article/510635-how-to-replace-butter-for-coconut-oil-equivalents-in-baking/

[Stripytop]

Cheers Kew I'll definitely try that.

[CointreauVersial]

Checking in after a hugely busy weekend. Football, swimming and an athletics competition.....but none of it involving me; just my sporty DCs.

I finally made it to a branch of Sweatshop yesterday, battling though hailstorms and TWO diversions due to trees down in the road, arriving about 30 minutes before closing time. I managed to get three garments for my £50, and I'm absolutely chuffed to bits: a short sleeved pink top for the gym, a double-layer pink and black top with thumb holes for running (hmm.....sounds familiar, Stripytop? ), and a grey marl zip up hoody (because I wanted a warm outer top that was easy to take off mid-run if necessary), all in the sale.

Have any of you testers done any videos yet??

[Kewcumber]

what the bleedin' 'ell are "thumb holes"?

Don;t remind me about video - will do one this week I think.

[CointreauVersial]

They make you go faster, Kew, dontcha know....

[zipzap]

Non participant:
My January resolution was to get fitter and actually do something but so far I haven't been very good. I like swimming but there are very few decent public pools nearby and the gyms with pools are ridiculously expensive - particularly as I only want to use the pool and nobody locally does a swimming only membership as I've had previously.

I've been trying to cut down on eating and a stomach bug last week inadvertently helped that plus I'm doing the wholegrain challenge too so trying to use that as a kick into healthier food.

Now I feel better I really need to try to get out - going to try to alternate couch 2 5k with the shred dvd, although if this rain keeps up it might be more shred than running! I've bought some trainers as my old ones were pre-baby days and they no longer fit as my feet got bigger and never shrunk back. Oh and getting a better night's sleep was also part of the resolution - but as you can see I'm not doing very well on that at the moment!

[Chopstheduck]

I do like the sound of coconut oil on toast, shall have to try that!

I don't have any tops with thumb holes :( They would be pretty useless on me though, at 5'11 I also have very long arms!


I can't give up coffee neither. Don't have sugar or sweetener, but I do need the caffeine! I have been making smoothies in the mornings though, which stops me reaching for the 3rd or 4th cup

[Willemdefoeismine]

That's where I've always gone wrong then....no thumbholes....

Well the recipe for chia pudding reminded me rather of sago/tapioca - having eaten Asian puddings which seemed to contain one of the forementioned I will give it a go......

Just had porridge made with 1/3 almond milk, 2/3 water and a sprinkling of coconut flakes and sesame seeds...yummy!

DH had fried potatoes (leftovers that needed using up) cooked in the coconut oil...he said that they did have a taste of coconut so won't be making that mistake again - obviously fine if cooking from a pan-Asian repertoire but not traditional British food...

I'm going to make some mackerel pate using 0% Total yoghurt instead of mayo today....to spread on my Ryvita.....

Obviously not paying attention properly regarding the Nectar Card or just plain forgot - unlike me and it's not as if I don't spend half my life doing top-up shops in there.....was in there at least twice last week and it didn't even cross my mind. Obviously compartmentalised it totally! .

Well done with the muffins Stripytop - I think this is how I've put on weight though since having a family. No-one in my family has a sweet tooth so although the DCs love making cakes etc...they're not keen on eating them....I end up eating stuff up because I hate wasting it....

[Chopstheduck]

Willemdefoeismine, get your dc to make savoury muffins instead! Cheese, chilli and sweetcorn muffins are a big favourite in our house and are great for breakfasts :)

[Kewcumber]

If you don't want the coconut taste get the refined one - but get a good brand which doesn't bleach the oil. I assume this doesn't as its organic...

www.amazon.co.uk/Organic-Refined-Coconut-Solid-Oil/dp/B007QRIX5E?tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21

[Willemdefoeismine]

Thanks Kew... I do love the appearance and feel of the coconut oil - very sensual.....

Finally made it to the gym. I loved it although it's taken more than an hour's extra chunk out of my day....Was pleasantly surprised that I'm nowhere near as unfit as I might have anticipated....However, I might be eating my words tomorrow am when I can hardly move for stiffness :-)

Obviously all this walking has paid major dividends for me and my 'gluts' are pretty solid - shame about the rest of the body...All that will change though...

Happy days...

[AnnMumsnet]

Big congrats to museumworker who is the first winner of the £50 Nectar card. I will PM you for your details.

The second week is all about healthy food choices. 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?
~ 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 (prize draw Monday 3rd Feb at 9am)