Feel Good, Be Good, Do Good - Yogi Tea giveaway

Today's post is a giveaway kindly provided by Discount Supplements, specialists in Online Sports Supplements.  I'm a huge tea fan and would love to drink it all myself but one lucky reader will win the following:

1. Yogi Positive Energy Tea Cranberry Hibiscus: An uplifting and invigorating tea infused with Green Mate, Guarana & Assam Black
2. Yogi Detox Tea with Lemon; a tangy detox tea infused with the flavours of Bitter Dandelion, Sweet Liquorice & Spicy Ginger
3. Yogi Women’s Tea; a balancing tea with a blend of Ginger, Orange Peel, Angelica Root & Ayurvedic Spices
4. Yogi Bedtime Tea; a calming and organic tea infused with Chamomile, Lavender, Nutmeg & Valerian Root 

Each box contains 17 teabags and the winner gets a complete set!

Yogi Tea have been specialising in organic herbal tea since 1960 and are experts in creating flavoured healthy tea. Their story began when Yogi Bhajan, a teacher of holistic living, started teaching yoga in the West. He shared with his students the wisdom and knowledge of healthy living and the beneficial properties of herbs that he had mastered in India, all while serving a comforting and aromatic spiced tea they affectionately named “Yogi Tea.” Included in the recipe were five traditional Ayurvedic spices: cardamom seed, cinnamon bark, clove bud, ginger root and black pepper. When blended and brewed, these delicious and aromatic spices leave you feeling vibrant and alive, while supporting overall well-being. Intrigued by the complex flavor and inherent health benefits of this unique combination of spices, it wasn’t long before several of the yogi’s students were inspired to brew their own “Yogi Tea.” In 1984, this grassroots endeavor blossomed into the Yogi Tea Company. Packages of the dried spices began to appear in natural foods stores throughout Southern California and in Europe. By 1986, Yogi Tea was distributed nationwide in three flavors. As demand increased, the spices were more finely ground, packaged and sealed into individual tea bags.

If you fancy winning some of these delicious teas just leave a comment below with some contact details like and email address or a twitter handle and a winner will be picked at random on Tuesday 22nd September Good luck!

Heart Health - Betavivo cereal review and giveaway

It really is never too early to start thinking about looking after your heart.

New research suggests that making small lifestyle changes in your 30s, which include a healthy diet and keeping physically active, can help improve cholesterol levels and lower the risk of heart disease later on in life.

According to research published in the American Heart Association Journal, every decade an individual has high cholesterol increases their risk of heart disease by almost 40%! Wow, pretty sobering.

Dr. Charlotta Buch from Betavivo, the Swedish cholesterol lowering cereal said: “People in Sweden do start to think about their heart health quite early on, earlier than those in other countries. We maintain an active lifestyle and well balanced food culture; We like to walk, run, go for a cycle ride and eat food that’s traditional and natural, like lots of fresh fish, vegetables, berries and whole grains.”

In the UK heart disease accounts for almost 100,000 deaths every year, with coronary heart disease being the biggest single cause of death! Heart disease has been a huge problem in my family and I've lost some pretty special people for too early in their life so heart health is something that weighs heavy on my mind.

The research also highlights that even slightly high cholesterol levels in adults aged 35 to 55 who are otherwise healthy can have a long-term effect on heart health. What we’re doing in our 20s, 30s and 40s impacts on our blood vessels and is paving the way for disease later in life.

Eating a healthy diet, following the healthy eating guidelines and consuming foods proven to reduce cholesterol, such as avocado, nuts and Betavivo can help you stay heart-healthy. Betavivo is the new crispy oat heart cereal from Sweden.The all-natural cereal contains beta-glucan, a soluble fibre derived from oats, which is known for its heart health benefits and ability to maintain healthy blood sugar and cholesterol. Beta-glucan works by dissolving in the stomach to form a gel that binds bile acids. As the liver produces new bile acid it “draws” cholesterol from the blood and carries these out of the body.

One sachet of Betavivo provides 3g of beta-glucan, the daily amount required for the health benefits. This is three times the amount available in other sources such as a bowl of porridge.

One sachet a day mixed with some fresh fruit and a little yogurt makes a delicious breakfast and is a great start to the day. I've had it with some milk and fruit and sprinkled on top of yogurt and it's a tasty and filling breakfast. I loved seeing just a few ingredients on the back of the packed too, no funny stuff inside. 

If you would like to win a months supply of  Betavivo and see the health benefits for yourself then please leave your contact details in the comments below. A winner will be chosen on 24.3.15. Good luck!

Betavivo is available from Lloyds pharmacies, Holland & Barrett and Independent Pharmacies.

RRP: £14.99 for a box of 15 sachets

For more information visit: www.betavivo.co.uk

WIN - Tefal Infiny Press Juicer

We've got a great giveaway for you today, Tefal are giving you the chance to win one of their  new juicers worth £199!

Do you juice or like to have a juice detox? It’s something I’ve wanted to try for a long time and I'm always envious of those morning juice photos on Instagram when I'm munching on my boring Weetabix. It’s super healthy, and it’s a way of sneaking fruit and veg into your diet (great to encourage kids to have more) and it would save me loads of money from buying shop-bought juice.

The Infiny Press juicer offers a great way of preparing fresh juice at home. The Infinity Press works by slowly rotating a a screw mechanism which presses fruits, vegetables and even herbs very delicately to get the best out of them, to preserve as much flavour and vitamin goodness as possible. This gentle pressing process preserves as much flavour and vitamin goodness as possible by making full use of all the resources the fruit or vegetable has to offer. This helps you to produce fresh juice that is full of nutrients and tastes delicious.

• 35% more juice 

• 30% more vitamin C 

• 75% more antioxidants 

With a choice of two stainless steel filters you can have your juices smooth or with pulp, and with the compact size of the juicer it makes it easy to store. All of the removable parts are dishwasher safe, meaning less washing up too, bonus!

Compared with standard juicers, Infiny Press Revolution’s press technology can obtain up to:

 It's not your standard juicer as the Infiny Press features two removable filters which provide two functions – juice and coulis. So whether you want to make a revitalising breakfast juice or add the finishing touches to a dessert, the Infiny Press will help you achieve your juicing needs.

If you want some inspiration and ideas of what to make with a juicer head to the Tefal page here. The possibilities are endless.

All you need to do to be in with a chance of winning is fill in the widget below. 

Good Luck!

10 uses for coconut oil and Chi giveaway

Coconut oil is being touted as a bit of a wonder product at the moment and it's easy to see why. It's super versatile and you would be surprised by some of its uses. I've been using my big jar for a couple of months now and here are my top 10 ways of using coconut oil:

1. Because coconut oil is solid at room temperature, it makes a great substitute for butter, margarine, or other spreads. Vegans don't eat any animal products so coconut oil a great alternative for them.
2. Just put a tiny amount on your hands and run them through the frizzy areas and your split end will look much better. 
3.  Use it as a make up remover. If you’re into the oil cleansing method, coconut oil is great for cleaning. Rub a bit between your hands until it softens or melts then rub all over your face then wipe away with a hot cloth. 
4. The oil is great or your teeth.  Swish some coconut oil around your mouth for a few minutes in the morning to 'pull' bacteria out of your mouth. Spit and rinse with water.
5. Apply directly after showering for super soft skin. It's especially good on dry patches like elbows and heels.
6. It can be used as a stretch mark preventer, great for pregnant ladies.
7. Rub it on your lips and use as a natural chap stick.
8. You can use it to season cast iron pans and make them last a lot longer.
9. Mix it with salt to make a foot scrub and remove dry skin on feet.
10. It's a great way of saving space when you go on holidays. It can be used for so many reasons and you only need to pack one jar instead of loads of bottles and tubs. 

I'm a coconut oil convert but I had never tried coconut water until recently. Coconut water has been used for re-hydration and as a health and beauty aide in tropical regions around the world for centuries. It’s low in fat and calories, has no cholesterol, and has a natural balance of sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium- making it a truly healthy electrolyte drink or sports drink alternative. Chi's special harvesting and processing procedures allow them to package and pasteurize natural Coconut Waters that are biologically pure, with no need for adding any preservatives. Sounds good right?

Not only do they offer regular coconut water then also offer Pineapple, Tropical and Mango flavours and dairy free and prebiotic Chocolate and Coffee Coconut Milks which are all natural, never from concentrate and always delicious. I had never tried coconut water before tasting Chi and I was surprised by the taste. It doesn't have that artificial coconut taste that some products tend to have, it is sweet and very refreshing. My brother is a bit of a coconut water conniseur and assures me that the fruit flavoured ones are some of the best he has tasted. The coconuts used for Chi products come from a plantation in Thailand, in a region known for having some of the sweetest coconuts in Thailand.

If you would like to try both the oil and coconut water from Chi then make sure you enter the competition below.

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Popchips Healthy Snacking Tips and giveaway

Never fried and never baked, popchips are popped just like popcorn. They have all the flavour but half the fat of fried crisps and less than 100 calories per serving. Sounds good right? Where Are My Knees have one case of 24 mixed flavours to give away. 

The Where Are My Knees team have tried them (our favourites are the barbeque and thai sweet chilli) and they make a super tasty and guilt free snack. The Popchips pledge is: 'no fake colours, no fake flavours, no preservatives, no fluorescent orange fingertips, and no wiping your greasy chip hand on your jeans' so swapping your regular bag of crisps for a bag of popchips would be a smart move.

Consultant Nutritionist & Registered Dietitian, Azmina Govindji RD MBDA has the following snacking advice:

1.  Regular meals and healthy snacks help you to stay energised and avoid binge eating. 
2. A cup of hot soup or diet hot choc works wonders  - great, filling comfort food! 
3. When you’re on the go, make sure you have lower fat treats in the car or in your bag. Planning ahead can reduce those unhealthy impulse buys. Pack some popchips, a packet of nuts and raisins or some dried fruit the night before… 
4. A colourful array of fruits and veggies gives you essential nutrients that help your energy levels and immune system.  
5. Sometimes you’re not hungry but just need something to crunch. Keep a snack attack box in your fridge – e.g. carrot sticks, olives, cucumber sticks, cherry tomatoes, radishes, pickled onions.  
   
   Alternatively, try distracting yourself by doing something completely different like making a phone call or going for a walk – taking your mind off food will help to curb your craving.

Snack Swaps 

Instead of	Choose	Why?
Regular crisps	popchips	Neither baked nor fried! Choosing popchips makes sure you’re getting around half the fat.
Regular hot chocolate with cream	Diet hot choc made with skimmed milk, sprinkle on a little cocoa powder	Skimmed milk is 0% fat yet in a hot drink it still adds creaminess, colour and flavour. Using a diet choc powder helps you cut down on sugar too.
Chocolate bar	Jaffa cakes	Jaffa cakes are lighter than regular chocolate.
Sugar-rich breakfast cereal	Bowl of porridge made with semi skimmed milk and dash of honey	Oats can help reduce your blood cholesterol and a little honey is likely to give you far less sugar than many breakfast cereals.

If you want to win the case of Popchips just leave a comment with your contact details below. For an extra entry you can follow @WhereAreMyKnees on twitter and let us know that you have done this in a comment on this post. The giveaway will end on the 18th of April at 9pm.

The ten week pledge

This coming Monday (15th) marks ten weeks until Christmas Eve.  If you're anything like me, the calendar really fills up around Christmas with various social events - work Christmas parties, Christmas Eve outings with old friends and of course New Year's' Eve.  Personally, this means at least a couple of new outfits and wanting to look your best; especially if you're the sort of person where Christmas brings together your whole friendship group and often means seeing people you might not have seen since last Christmas.

One of the challenges this brings is that Autumn and Winter do not lend themselves to preparing yourself to slip into glitzy outfits.  For me at least, Autumn and Winter lend themselves to mugs of hot chocolate, lolling on the sofa and wearing down the snooze button on your alarm clock when you look out at yet another dark, rainy morning.

But take a second to think of how amazing it would feel to feel confident about putting on your gladrags and getting out there this Christmas.  Imagine how proud of yourself you'd feel if you worked hard until then, and it paid off with some 'You look great' comments from friends, or just looking in the mirror and knowing that you've earned those roast potatoes on Christmas Day.

Here at Where Are My Knees we've come up with a fun idea to get you inspired and motivated over the next 10 weeks.  From Monday we'll all be getting started on a 10 week pledge, and we want you to join in too.  The good news is that not only is there feelings of personal pride and achievement in the pipeline for you, there's also two pairs of the new Zaggora Hotpants (2.0) up for grabs too.

Here are the pledges we've all signed up to that we'll be updating you on over the next 10 weeks.

Rosie - Lose 10lbs before Christmas Eve. (Currently 139lbs - would love to be 129 and fit into a size 10 dress on Christmas Eve! 129 lbs is also bang in the middle of healthy weight for my height.)

Gemma - Lose 10lbs before Christmas Eve. Currently 13 stone 11.5. If I can lose 12lbs and break under that 13 stone barrier that would be great but there are going to be lots of parties and trips away before Christmas so I'm going to be realistic.

Sarah - I would just like to get back on track and actually have time to follow a plan.  I have so much coming up before Christmas that if I stop and think about it my head hurts but I don't want this to get in the way of achieving my weight loss goals.  I would love to lose a stone before Christmas but being realistic I am going to set a target of 7lbs.

Lauren - Lose 15lbs before Christmas Eve. This is a big ask what with parties and all the yummy food that has already started appearing at home and in the office, but I'm hoping this pledge will keep me motivated at the gym and make me think about what - and how much - I'm putting in my mouth. As of this week's weigh-in I am 13st 13lbs - I was 12st 12lbs at my dad's 50th birthday party in April (which you can see here) and it'd be amazing to get back to that in time for Christmas. I definitely think 1.5lbs per week is do-able, even if it is a tall order!

Chris - I'd like to be able to run 5k in less than 25 minutes. This probably doesn't sound like much, but I'm not a very good runner - in fact, my first pledge should probably be to actually go and buy some running shoes! At the moment I'm hitting 4.5k in about 30 mins, so I've got some distance to go.

What would your 10 week pledge be? Remember it doesn't have to be a weight loss, it could be 20 trips to the gym, be able to run 5k by Christmas, giving up chocolate for 10 weeks, walking 10,000 steps a day or  making sure you have healthy breakfasts.  It has to be personal and achievable to you, or it won't work.

Leave us your 10 week pledges in the comments and we'll pick two at random on the 26th October to win the hotpants.  But we really want you all to get stuck into this - you can tweet about it using #wamkpledge, comment and tell us the links if you've blogged about it, and we'll keep you updated on our own progress in the Sunday summaries and other posts.  Remember, your journey to a confident Christmas starts on Monday! We've even made you a little badge you can use to show you're getting involved.

<a href="http://wherearemyknees.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/the-ten-week-pledge.html"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYVUhamtMMUQegRlvzSR0Hfync7_EAIAsALQRMQszlV_89Sp22mfNqzs3gROAfESjjSuSW_U7F6kF_0cDddaqpcClbUZixuZaTIzxyLWxcn4MPY33xfcRivZaPjT0n2ZMv57kTEkeFOByg/s1600/wherepledge+copy.jpg"/></a>

You are of course welcome to get involved in the ten week pledge without entering the giveaway, but if you'd like to enter you can do so below.


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Get Fit - Feel Epic!

As it's my first (proper) post here at Where Are My Knees, I thought I'd arrive with a bang, and also attempt to ingratiate myself with all of our readers - so as such, I come bearing gifts.

Ladies and gents, may I present to you... Get Fit, Feel Epic!

Get Fit, Feel Epic is a kind of collective term for a number of competitions and events I've been wanting to run all over the web in association with my day job, and WAMK feels like a great place to run one - not only have Sarah and the rest of the girls always been amazingly nice to me, but every single commenter and reader I've ever spoken to has also been absolutely awesome.

So, without further ado, let me tell you all about the competition and what you can win!

The Competition
The competition is called Get Fit, Feel Epic, and so it might not surprise you to learn that that's exactly what we want you to tell us about.

We know that keeping fit, losing weight and eating right are important to the community, so all we want you to do is write a quick blog post, telling us all about how getting fitter has changed your life for the better!

We know that losing weight and dieting can be a slog (hell, we've all been there), so sometimes it's nice to stop and think about what you have achieved - and be damn proud of it to!

The Prize
The prize is a pretty good one, especially if you're slightly nerdy like me - it's a Fitbit and a set of Smart Scales!

The Fitbit system is a hi-tech way of tracking your activity levels, weight, BMI, Body Fat and all those other exciting numbers that we care about on an online dashboard- The Zip just requires a quick sync to your computer, and the Aria scales do it all via WiFi - there's even a smartphone app for keeping an eye on your progress while you're out and about.

In Short:

We're able to give away a Fitbit Zip (in a selection of colours) and a set of Aria scales to the person who can write the most interesting, exciting or unusual post about how getting fit has changed (or is changing) their lives. 

All you have to do is:

• Write your post
• Pop a link in it back to http://www.moneysupermarket.com (it makes things LOADS easier for me to track, believe me!)
• Pop a comment below this post with a link to your entry.

The contest will run until Midnight on 31 October, and we'll announce the winner within the following week.

Good Luck!

Chris

Zaggora Viva HotPants Giveaway

We are big fans of the original Zaggora HotPants here at Where Are My Knees? Sarah reviewed them here and Gemma has been trying them out the past two weeks and getting great weight loss and inch loss results.

Zaggora have now launched new Viva HotPants which are longer than the originals and come in a variety of colours.

Specially designed with Celu-Lite technology fabric lining, Hotpants use your natural body temperature to warm you up around the areas you care about (legs, bum, thighs).

Tested at the Chelsea School at Brighton University, HotPants are proven to use your body heat to increase energy expenditure before and after exercise by raising your core body temperature by up to 18%. Since your heating up, your body uses more energy which means its also burning more calories. Actually, calorie burn increases by 26% in the hour after exercise with Hotpants too.  As well all know, as you burn calories, you lose weight.

In the University laboratory tests, in just 30 minutes of exercise, women lost 4x more weight with HotPants than doing the same exercise in normal work out clothes.
For your chance to win one of three pairs of new Zaggora Viva HotPants, simply fill in the form below.

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Good Luck!

Hotpants - A Giveaway! NOW CLOSED



The lovely people at Zaggora have been in touch and offered us a pair of hotpants to giveaway to one lucky Where Are My Knees reader! 

If you're wondering what hotpants are check out our review from last week.  They may sound too good to be true but we got great results from them in our two week trial.



To enter 
Please leave a comment below and let us know what you would do in your hotpants if you won a pair!
Please 'like' hotpants on facebook. You can read reviews from hundreds of users on their wall too.
Please help us publicise our little competition by tweeting the following:

Get yourself over to @wherearemyknees for a chance to win a pair of @gethotpants http://wherearemyknees.blogspot.com/2011/10/hotpants-giveaway.html

The competition is open to UK readers only and closes on Thursday 20th October at 6pm.  The winner will be chosen at random using random.org.  The winner will need to supply their name and address along with their required size.

Good luck!