Health and Fitness

Making Motherhood Skincare Simple #MyAquaphor Challenge

December 3, 2018 by Penny Leave a Comment

You may have noticed that things have been a bit quiet on here since I wrote about week 39 of my pregnancy. There’s a very obvious reason for that. There’s a new Little Miss on the block here and Bonn and I are trying to remember how cope with sleepless nights whilst also having a new little human to look after. It’s a bit of a shock to the system after all these years of being able to sleep through the night!

What motherhood third time around is reminding me of is the need to simplify things in life to fit around the new arrival. With other kids in the family already life’s not as simple as being able to spend lazy days curled up with a newborn and just breathing in that gorgeous newborn smell they have whilst watching numerous box sets and eating all the chocolate that wonderful friends have been sending. Instead there are school runs to do, Christmas concerts to attend, packed lunches to make, school uniform that needs washing and numerous other errands that need running on a daily basis. To keep all the balls up in the air I’m having to take some shortcuts in life, and one of those areas that was most likely to take a hit was my skincare routine. That was until Eucerin Aquaphor Soothing Skin Balm came into my life.

The sample of Aquaphor was waiting in the door mat when we returned home from the hospital and whilst it took me a couple of days to get around to opening the packet, once I did it has revolutionised a small part of my day to day life. The beauty of Aquaphor is that you just need the one product, no matter which part of your body you want to use it on. Just the one cream works perfectly for hands, nails, body, face and lips. Imagine that. In a sleep deprived state I don’t have to think about what product I’m picking up from my bedside cabinet or the bathroom shelf before using it. I’ve heard plenty of stories of tired parents picking up the wrong product with hilarious results before!

As a new parent you tend to find yourself washing your hands far more than you might normally do. After nappy changes, when washing bottles, after mopping up various bodily fluids, before feeds. The list goes on. If you’re on the go you might also end up using anti-bacterial hand gel when you can’t get to soap and water. All this hand washing can really dry them out and keeping my tube of Aquaphor handy has been a god-send for trying to stop my hands from reaching that cracked painful stage. The turn towards the colder weather that we’ve just had normally plays havoc with my skin, and that’s before you consider how often I’ve been washing my hands these last few weeks.

My hands aren’t the only part of my body that I’ve been testing out Aquaphor on though. As anyone who has even been pregnant will know, the latter stages of pregnancy mean that you don’t see your feet for several months! Unless you pay someone to give you. pedicure in those last few months (or have a very understanding partner) then chances are that your feet could do with a bit of TLC after you’ve given birth. Aquaphor soothing skin balm is perfect for tackling the dry, cracked heels that seems to have appeared whilst I (literally) wasn’t looking!

Hormones mean that skin on the rest of my body is changing massively at the moment and whilst rushed off my feet I’ve also been trying to look after my skin. I’ve noticed a change in the skin on my face which is a combination of hormones and also the after effects of it drying out during my hospital stay. There’s also what was once a baby bump that is changing daily. I spend much of my pregnancy rubbing various creams and oils into expanding parts of my body in the hope of avoiding stretch marks, and since giving birth I’ve been trying to keep up that regular skincare routine. Again, just having one product to pick up from the bathroom shelf makes doing so so much simpler.

Aquaphor protects skin by creating a breathable protective barrier, allowing oxygen and water vapour to circulate to and from the skin. This allows the skin to “breathe” and strengthens its natural barrier function. Formulated with only seven ingredients it is gentle enough to be used on highly irritated skin as well as on sensitive baby skin.

My experience with Aquaphor so far has been fantastic. Not only does my skin (on my hands, feet and in-between!) feel noticeably softer, but I’ve also loved how it has simplified my skincare routine. It’s so much easier to just grab one tube regardless of what I want to do. I’ve taken to having my Aquaphor on my bedside table through the night so whether I want to moisturise my hands or put balm on my lips during the various night feeds I only have to grab the one tube. Little simplifications like that make such a difference when you’re so sleep deprived that you don’t even know what day of the week it is!

Disclaimer: This post is an entry for the BritMums #MyAquaphor Challenge, sponsored by Eucerin. Discover the benefits of Eucerin https://www.eucerin,co.uk/products/aquaphor/soothing-skin-balm-45ml

Improving underwater confidence with Zoggs

June 19, 2018 by Penny Leave a Comment

I’m a firm believer in children learning to swim. It’s just a life skill that all kids should have. That’s why I’ve always insisted in Little Miss C and Master C attending swimming lessons – even those weeks when it’s cold and seems like more hassle than it’s worth to get there in time. They attend weekly lessons at the local pool and each week put on their coloured hats complete with Zoggs logo on the side.

I’ve written before about how my opinions of Zoggs have been changed over the last year – and I certainly no longer look at them as just a logo on a swim hat. The last year has also seem both kids come on in leaps and bounds in the pool. Master C is already up to ASA Stage 3 and LMC spends her half an hour doing lengths of the 25m pool in Stage 6.

I’m incredibly proud of both of them, but it has made that half hour of “fun swimming” that we all do together around their lesson a bit more challenging for me. Their confidence levels are such that they want to be all over the place and under the water as much as possible. With my changed (and changing weekly) buoyancy status(!) it’s getting a bit harder to keep up with them. Luckily Zoggs have come to the rescue once more.

I’m keen to keep encouraging them in the water – especially when it comes to going underwater. Master C might have bit of a way to go in terms of refining his swimming strokes, but I’m keep to capture the enthusiasm he has right now. I saw another family in the pool using a set of Zoggs Dive Sticks and had one of those lightbulb moments about how perfect they would be for us right now.

Thanks to Zoggs the last few weeks I’ve gone to the pool with a bag full of their dive sticks and dive rings and it has totally changed how the kids use that family swimming time we have together. I always like that precious time in the pool together (away from distractions) and they have made it even better.

We now spend our time with me coming up with various competitions and challenged for the kids to do with the dive toys. It might be something like “find me a ring and a stick of a matching colour” and then I throw everything into the water in different directions. The kids then love going off to see who can complete the challenge first. There’s a great competitive spirit between them, and all the time they’re also improving their underwater swimming.

As for the toys themselves – they’re lovely bright colours, very tactile and the quality that you know and expect from Zoggs. For slightly older kids who need a little bit more stimulation and motivation when swimming for fun they’re perfect. Each toy has holes in specific places so that when in the water they fill with it, and then sink to the bottom of the pool. When you take them out the water then pours back out of the holes again.

If new swimming toys wasn’t enough LMC has also decided that now that she’s in Stage 6 it’s time for a slightly more grown up swimming costume. Zoggs to the rescue once again with their amazing Wonder Woman swimming costume. It has to be one of the coolest costumes I’ve ever seen, as well as being perfectly practical for all the swimming that she’s doing. My only complaint is that they haven’t made one yet in maternity sizes! I’m pretty sure everyone in my aquanatal class would have one if they could.

Disclaimer: We were sent the Zoggs products featured in this post. All opinions remain my own. This post contains affiliate links.

Reducing environmental impact with Zoggs Ecolast

May 18, 2018 by Penny Leave a Comment

It’s about six months now since I first started to look at Zoggs in a totally different way. That day, sat in a hotel conference room near Heathrow airport, was a bit of a lightbulb moment for me in terms of how I saw this global swimwear and swimming accessory manufacturer. When I was then invited along to another event to celebrate their new Ecolast range I was excited to see and hear what they were up to next.

What is Ecolast

What Zoggs are doing now with Ecolast is taking plastic waste from the oceans and turning it into a yarn. This yarn can then be used to make swimwear. This ocean waste would otherwise cause damage to our planet, seas and marine life. Ghost fishing nets, carpets and industrial waste are rescued from the oceans via a variety of initiatives. Once the nets have been cleaned and shredded they are turned back into a raw material which is transformed into Nylon 6 polymers to produce yarn. The Ecolast fabric is formed from 78% of this ENONYL yarn, and 22% LYCRA EXTRA LIFE. The result is a swimwear fabric that has outperformed competitors’ fabrics. It has also been proven to be 15 times more resilient to chlorine than standard swimwear fabrics.

Effect of mankind on our seas and oceans

2018 has very much been the year in which public attention has been drawn to the effect of mankind on our seas and oceans. The BBC’s Blue Planet gave many here in the UK an insight into what was happening. Over on the other side of the world children like DorkyMum’s eight year old son have also been inspired into helping. It’s wonderful to see a huge global company like Zoggs (based where DorkySon is in Australia) doing their bit.

The Ecolast launch is also supported by Susie Rodgers MBE. Susie is Paralympic Gold Medalist, a genuinely lovely woman and also a huge supporter of work to look after our oceans. As she says there is a “beautiful cycle” behind the idea of taking abandoned fishing nets from the ocean and recycling them into swim suits. Swimmers love the water, as much as all the animals living in our oceans do.

Not the only environmental step

Bringing Ecolast swimwear to the market isn’t the only thing that Zoggs are doing though to help the environment. They are also donating 10% of their Ecolast profits to charity. In addition to this is a commitment to create packaging that reduces their environmental impact. From 2019 they will reduce the plastic used in goggle packaging by 57%. By 2020 they are aiming for 100% of their packaging to be sustainable. These are big environmental commitments. Ones that will make a real difference.

We all know how important it is to be environmentally sound in the decisions we make. Gina Argento of Broadway Stages New York makes a big point of this, and it’s something that we can all follow along with if we are keen to make a difference. So this is something that you may want to bear in mind if you are trying to do your bit.

The swimwear itself

Last time I was with Zoggs I was blown away with how good all their swimwear looked. Previously I’d seen Zoggs as being a bit “practical” in their offerings. How wrong I’d been. And this second fashion show proved that once again.

Ecolast swimwear will be introduced in Autumn Winter 2018 and rolled out from January 2019. Around 40% of their Spring Summer 2019 swimwear sold will be made from Ecolast. Just think about the environmental impact reduction from that.

Once again the Zoggs fashion show that I went to blew me away with how much fun their range is. As well as being practical. There are some great colours and designs, and the children’s DC Super Heroes range is brilliant.

My swimwear might be limited to maternity costumes for the six months or so, but I’m thinking that a nice Zoggs Ecolast costume might be something to aim towards for summer 2019.

Disclaimer: I was invited as a guest to the Zoggs Ecolast press event. All opinions remain my own.