Ever since Christmas I’ve been on a mission to lose weight. Who am I kidding? I’m always on a mission to lose weight! Anyway, I recently discovered that one of my favourite foods, the scrummy bagel, is available at less than 2% fat. That isn’t a low sugar count, mind you, so you still have to be careful.

The New York Bagel range has five flavours that sit at this low 2% threshold so you can have a tasty cinnamon and raisin bagel for breakfast without feeling utterly guilty. I went and got the wholemeal, the cinnamon and raisin and the plain bagels to see how they tasted and to try out some ideas.

The cinnamon and raisin New York bagels are divine. They are one of my favourites, especially when toasted with low-fat olive spread. That’s it. The wholemeal ones are, obviously, far better for you on a GI diet scale and are very nice when eaten with some cucumber and turkey breast as this will fit into most low GI diet plans easily.

I expected them to be a bit cardboardy if I am honest. Often the wholemeal variants of such tasty foods are a bit dry and tasty processed. I didn’t find this an issue with the New York dudes at all. Very nice. They also taste divine with soup.

The plain bagels are a special treat. They are made with processed flour, white flour, which is always more fattening and higher in sugar content than wholemeal. However, as an occasional treat they are divine, especially if you stick with a low fat topping.

The New York bagel Facebook site has plenty of recipe ideas for you and the cost of a pack of five is £1.35 – that works out to 27p a meal if you only have one. Great price and great taste. Winner.

The Zumba Fitness game for the Xbox 360 is very popular and at one point you couldn’t get a copy for love or money. However, the game didn’t get great reviews if I am honest so it was a lot of hype for something not quite there. Still, paying £19.99 for a game that usually costs £39.99 is a good deal.

• Click here to get Zumba with The Hut eBay Outlet

The Zumba Fitness DVD pairs the red hot international dance steps with sexy Latin music to create a fun and ultra fitness party on your console. You follow along as your Zumba instructor guide you through routines that will have you burning fat while having fun.

The instructors are fan favourites Tanya and Gina with the creator of Zumba, Beto, and they will show you more than 30 different routines as you go. You can learn in nine different dance styles too: Reggaeton, Merengue, Salsa, Cumbia, Hip-Hop, Mambo, Rumba, Flamenco and Calypso.

Thanks to Syzable at HUKD!

It was Boxing Day and I was emerging from a truly nasty bout of the flu, a flu that kept me in bed and completely out of it for about four days. While I was lying on the sofa I noticed that my daughter was scratching her head, a lot. Oh boy, that can only mean one thing. Lice.

Ever since I started using Vosene, I’ve had no problems with lice but we ran out about a week before the end of term and the lice leapt onto her head with glee. Great. Now I had to rush out and buy some lice treatment and get us both deloused as fast as possible.

As I was still feeling really tender, the Hedrin Once Liquid Gel that only takes 15 minutes to kick in seemed like the perfect solution. This extremely thick and oily gel is easy to apply but it doesn’t really work. Sorry.

When we first used it, I left it on for about half an hour and then washed it out as per the instructions. I also combed both our heads with the Nitty Gritty Nit Comb while the Hedrin was still in our hair. A double whammy. A week later we were both still infected. So I had to do a treatment again and redo the entire washing and cleaning of every item in the house.

When you are really manic, having to wash everything you own is more than a little frustrating. I also found that the Hedrin Once left the bath extremely oily and slippery in spite of frequent cleaning with bathroom cleaner. It took several applications to get the slimy sensation off the bath, not great when we stand in it to shower and run the risk of slipping.

For the heavy, heavy price of £17.99 (at Boots), this is not a good choice for the removal of nits. Instead I would recommend their original product that is more labour intensive but really does the trick.

This is a pretty topical deal as everything seems to be about Zumba at the moment. Everywhere I turn there’s a Zumba going on, even a tribe of them roaming the streets last Saturday while I was doing my shopping. This Zumba Home Fitness kit has been marked down from £49.99 to £39.99 in the Reader’s Digest sale.

• Click here to get dancing with Reader’s Digest

The Zumba Home Fitness kit is aimed at everyone from beginners to pros and included are six workouts including: Zumba basics, 20 minute express routine, cardio party, sculpt and tone, flat abs, and Zumba Live.

The entire Zumba Home Fitness pack comes with toning sticks too so you can add some extra weight to your wriggle as you boogie your way through those Latin rhythyms. The advantage of this kind of set, of course, is that you can wave your arms and your bum about without anybody else seeing you.

This is helpful if you are starting out and (like me) tend to be about four moves behind the instructor. The price is quite good for this kit that also has a Total Body Transformation Guide included. And if this doesn't do it for you, take a peek at the other deals they have. I am SO eyeballing that AB Circle Pro...

The Harvester has some ace deals going down this January so if you happen to live nearby one of these tasty spots, then you should really like them. The first is to get two selected meals from the takeaway menu for £10 and that includes a free salad. The second is a free Sundae.

• Click here to get eating with The Harvester

If you fancy a free ice cream sundae the Harvester Sundae Best deal is back. You get a delicious Cornish ice-cream dessert drizzled with raspberry, strawberry, Belgian chocolate, white chocolate or Devonshire toffee sauce for free. You only need to download a voucher, order a meal and you’re sorted.

The two selected meals from the takeaway menu for £10 is for around six different meals and this expires on 07 February, so hurry up and spoil yourself if you want to take advantage of this deal. So, there you have it. Tasty discounts (there are more on their site) for January that the whole family can enjoy.

You are going to hate me, I just know it, but it is less than a month until Valentine’s Day. So before you start throwing roses at me, this is a good time to start planning what you are going to do about it. Unless you don’t believe in it, at which point, “Move on, nothing to see here…”

I went out to find brilliant ideas for you to make this day of hearts and flowers really special, without spending a lot of money and here they are…

Fancy a free pack of Clipper Green Tea? Well then, this freebie should make you rather happy. All you have to do is recommend a friend to Clipper Teas and you get a free pack of green tea.

• Click here to get started on your freebie with Clipper Teas

The rules here are simple. To get your free pack of green tea you need to fill in a friend’s details and your own details and you get your packet. It looks like it is an entire box of 25 bags of pure green tea too, which is a bargain!

We love green tea here; it is so good for you and magical for coughs. I had a really bad cough a while ago and it kept me up for weeks until I discovered that cold green tea soothed the tickle enough for me to fall asleep. It’s brilliant.

The free packet of green tea is easy enough to get, the form very minimal and the whole thing very tasty. Yay!

Thanks to ettienem1001 at HUKD

When did the CD die? The CD format hasn't gone out with a fanfare - it has slithered slowly to a quiet demise silently joining VHS videos and cassette tapes. And the reason I know this? When my Andrew Johnson Hypnotherapy Weight Loss CD (£9.99) arrived I realised I had nothing to play it on apart from the DVD player attached to my TV. It was a shock.

So, while my colleague Tamsin was able to get on with trying this weight loss program out straight away, I had to spend some time finding someone to loan me a portable CD player. And that took a while too as most of my friends were like me. We have a stereo in the lounge complete with an amp and speakers - but this is for the turntable used to play our vinyl collection. Most of the time we use the iPod docking station.

On the plus side, Andrew Johnson's Weight Loss doesn't just come on CD. There's also the option to buy it in MP3 too. And a cheaper option too at £4.99.

Tamsin and I couldn't be more different. She's a fitness fanatic, while I'm a couch potato. She's keen on any sort of health improving gadget or gimmick. I'm keen on popcorn while I watch movies. So we thought we'd both give this one a go, to give it a thorough testing.

Find out how we got on, and see if this could be the right sort of thing to help you get trim for 2012.

Click here to read more...

Oooh, I love this freebie for the upcoming spring months! You can get a free RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch kit just by registering on the site and the pack includes all sorts of fabulous items to get you and the kids outdoors and spotting UK birds.

• Click here to get free birdwatching tips from the RSPB

The RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch starts at the end of January so if you want to take part you will need to register now. The pack includes a free booklet to help you identify the birds in your garden as well as top tips on what to feed the birds and how to make your garden more wildlife friendly.

When you get to the site you can also download a free recording sheet so you can take notes about the birds you have found in your garden (we have already ticked off about 1000 seagulls – or the same seagull visiting very often) and you can join the local community to chat about your finds and get great advice.

Thanks to ettienem1001 at HUKD!

Tesco Magazine is giving away 10,000 free pedometers as of Friday 06 January as a part of their One Heart Health campaign and it is a most excellent freebie to start off the year. What better way to get you out into the world, pounding the pavements and burning calories than with a free pedometer?

• Click here to get your free pedometer with Tesco magazine

There are only 10,000 of these free pedometers to be given away so get in there as fast as possible so you aren’t too late! The pedometer is a great way to get your New Year walking plan kick started so you can start taking more steps towards a healthy life and a healthy heart.

One of the main focuses of the campaign is being more active which is a simple change we can all fit into our busy lives and will make such a difference to our health and energy levels. Do anything from climbing the stairs instead of taking the lift to getting off the bus a stop early. Anything extra will help your body and your health and this free pedometer certainly won’t hurt!

Thanks to stu1e at HUKD!

I recently read an article in the Economist that talked about how recent research has shown that people value things they make far more than they do shop-bought tat. The research was fascinating. They cited the case of instant cake mixes. When these were first launched the sales were dismal. Why? Because people didn’t feel like the cakes gave them any value, that they hadn’t really earned anything by making them.

So, what did the cake mix companies do? They changed the recipe to “add an egg” and the cake mixes flew off the shelves. While the article goes into far more detail on the where’s and why’s of how we value things we do and make ourselves, I have just stolen one simple idea – don’t spend this year, save and make it yourself.

Here are some ideas that I’ve come up with, that I’ve gleaned from other smart and sassy parents, and that I’ve uncovered with judicious research.

This is a stonkingly good milk&more voucher that gets you two weeks of free milk to the value of £10! What more could we possibly want from a freebie, I ask you this? I mean, milk not only tastes scrummy but it is excellent for growing bones and teeth – just what your little ones need this cold winter.

• Click here to use the milk&more voucher online

So, how do you get to claim your free milk? You need to visit the website (just click the link above) and enter in your postcode and meet your milkman. Then you need to register your details and your regular payment method.

Once you’ve done all of that, browse the shop and place your orders. In your basket, enter the voucher code MILKPPC and click GO. Confirm your order and you’re done! It is that simple. Your £10 discount will be deducted from your first invoice. There are the usual terms and conditions, of course, but there is free delivery and you don’t need to book a delivery slot either. Nice.

The offer is only open to new milk&more customers and the closing date is 31 January 2012.

Down from the usual price of £9.99 to only £1.50, you are saving a whopping £8.49 on this Gruffalo 2012 family planning calendar at The Book People. You can also get the item delivered for free using the code below.

• Click here to get planning with the Book People

The Gruffalo 2012 family planner is not for working out when you are having your next baby, although I am sure you can do that too if you like. No, this calendar is structured for the school year, running from September to September so you can stay on top of all school activities and events.

The planner covers a 17 month period until December 2012 and comes with bright stickers that can be used to flag up school fairs, sports days, parents evenings and other similar events. The calendar also comes with the adorable Gruffalo images and extras that we all love from the ace book. There is even a drop-down pocket for popping important paperwork into. The code you need for free delivery is DEC11FREE.

Thanks to Speculator at HUKD!

This is another excellent deal for those of you looking for a way to shed some Christmas pounds and get those svelte pre-Christmas pud bodies back. This particular series of fitness titles for the Xbox Kinect has had excellent reviews and delivers some fab workouts.

• Click here to get exercising with Play.com

Your Shape Fitness Evolved 2012 includes new content and has also been modified to suit the feedback given by users to make it more intuitive and user friendly. I am using the first version and must admit that it can be a little convoluted to use and understand at first.

This game has over 90 hours of content with both improved content from the original and completely new exercises as well. Your instructor will now tell you what you are doing wrong and teach you how to improve your moves as well. This is a vast improvement on the original as you can genuinely work on getting your body into shape the right way.

Thanks to Bkzbiz at HUKD!

There is a new website on the block called Pinktimeline.com and its all about helping people who are trying for a baby. The site gives out free information and advice as well as letting you build your own fundraising page so that people can help you to raise money for expensive fertility treatments, a nursery and more.

• Click here to visit Pinktimeline.com

The site is offering the first 100 couples who build a fundraising page a lovely £50 prize. If you happen to be trying for a baby and need help in paying for expensive treatments, this donation from First Response will certainly be a step in the right direction.

Pinktimeline.com lets friends and family help you to cope with the financial pressures around a baby. It doesn’t just have to be expensive fertility treatments that get fundraising support, it can also be to build a nursery or help get baby clothes and more.

The site is brand new and there are plenty of free features to get people up and running. And if you happen to want support from family and friends as you tackle the world of babies, why not start your page today and get the cool £50 kickstart. Remember it is only for the first 100 couples.

Six years ago I only drank two kinds of tea – rooibos and normal. Then someone pointed me at Green Tea and I loved it and then I started experimenting with all different types of tea. So it was rather exciting to get in a box of Natur Boutique teas to review.

The first box was for Green Tea Blend Diet. This is a blend of green tea, Java tea and liquorice. The blend is designed to stimulate the metabolism, burn fat and help you lose weight. I didn’t actually measure the tea against any personal weight loss when I used it though; I just rated it on taste.

And this Natur Boutique Green Tea blend is delicious. Usually I am not a fan of liquorice but this hints at it as opposed to beating you about the head with it. It is very refreshing and works fabulously as a mid-morning hydrating drink and doesn’t leave you with the same bloated lethargy as yet another cup of coffee.

The next tea up was Artichoke Tea. After reading the info this tea was something I had to take regularly as it oozes health benefits and helps with things like indigestion, digestion and IBS. But artichoke? I loathe them. How could I bring myself to drink the tea?

After about two weeks I forced myself to make a cup. It doesn’t have that overwhelming artichoke taste, has a lovely flavour and is very moreish. I was very surprised by this. I now have one cup every morning and love it.

There are some other flavours on the Natur Boutique site and the tea’s cost around £2.95 for a pack of 20 teabags. You can get three for £7.95. They are expensive compared to Tesco type herbal teas but really delicious and I have noticed a health difference. My husband says my skin glows! These would make a lovely Christmas treat I think.

There I was, innocently collecting the post, when three Weight Watchers Hot chocolate sachets appeared. One was caramel, one was mint and the third one was plain. Seeing as it was cold out and I fancied something sweet, I thought I would start with the caramel.

The Weight Watchers caramel flavoured hot chocolate is alright. Just alright. It doesn’t suffer from a nasty chemical aftertaste, something very common to diet hot chocolate, and tastes nice but it didn’t shiver my timbers or shake my tree. I love caramel but found there wasn’t a very strong caramel flavour to it.

Next up was the Weight Watchers plain hot chocolate. Like the others, it is so easy to make. Add hot water, stir, drink. I add some cold milk to cream it up a bit (fat free of course!). Now this was more like it. In fact, I prefer it to the Options Hot Chocolate that I usually drink.

Years ago I gave up on instant hot chocolate, especially the diet ones, as they tasted foul. This was delicious. The Weight Watchers plain hot chocolate is creamy, chocolately and decadent. I loved it. It will be replacing my usual hot chocolate on my next shopping run.

The last sachet was mint. Now, I am not a fan of mint chocolate unless it is After Eights so I wasn’t sure I was the best person to test this. I gave it to weight watching hubby to drink instead. He is very fussy so I wasn’t holding out much hope for a good review. However, he liked it. He said it wasn’t too sweet and wasn’t too minty but was a nice blend of the two.

It costs around £2 at Tesco at the moment (on sale) and around £2.85 elsewhere. A good price for a scrummy hot chocolate.

This is such a funny, silly and yet clever idea that I couldn’t resist posting it really. Play.com sent me an email today telling me that they are having an 11 hot deals day that will be taking place today, the 11th of the 11th month in 2011. Possibly a lucky day? Who knows!

• Click here to get some deals with Play.com

The deals on offer for the 11% off all gadgets and gifts are only valid until midnight tonight, so it is probably best you pootle on over there if this is of interest to you. The code you need is ELEVENDOTD in order to swipe that 11% off the gifts and gadgets. Wahoo.

You get 11% off bestselling DVDs, blu-rays, box sets, games, albums t-shirts, sportswear and more. I have already eyeballed some items and compared their prices to others of their calibre online and the discount is pulling Play down further than many of the others.

This is a good deal for possibly nabbing yourself a Christmas boxset or DVD filler or three.

Christmas is approaching fast with under two months to go until the big day and, with all the belt tightening going on, there are many ways you can whip your home into festive shape without spending a lot of money. Here are some simple ideas for decorating the home this Christmas. 

When I was given this Arm & Hammer My Way! Spinbrush for my daughter I was extremely sceptical. An electric toothbrush for a five-year old? Really? I was willing to bet that she would cut and run the moment she felt it vibrating against her teeth.

The My Way! Spinbrush isn’t entirely standard fare. It’s very gadgety and has been rather cleverly designed to attract a child’s attention. It can be customised with stickers. And they give you a LOT of stickers in the box. We still have three sheets of them floating about the house.

The stickers for the “girls” toothbrush consist of rainbows and pinks, purples and flowers, unicorns, princesses and castles. The boys get footballs and cars and other such exciting things. You have enough letters to write most names on the brush.

The sticker part was a hit. She spent absolute ages painstakingly sticking them onto her brush and getting them right. Then she spent some time getting used to the switch to turn it on and off by brushing my chair, the lounge suite and the table. Obviously the brush needed cleaning…

She has been a lot more focused when it comes to brushing her teeth since she started using this. I was completely wrong about her hating it. She loves the vibration, loves the way her teeth feel afterwards, and now I don’t need to nag nearly as often. Bonus.

So, those are the pluses. And the negatives? Well, you can’t change the brush. The batteries, yes, but not the brush. So, if you are one of the Good Teeth People you will have to bin it after three months which is bad for the planet. However, it costs only £5.99 at Boots or Tesco which is marginally more expensive than a standard brush, and does clean more efficiently. Overall, I have to admit, this is a surprisingly good product.