Mama Mimi @ Mom Central

Your Shape Fitness: no slacking allowed!

These days, I’m finding the latest video game trend features in-home workouts. Usually led by a celebrity trainer and boasting more exercises than you have days to actually workout, they come designed to get the gamer off the couch and moving.

However, these type of fitness games may not give tips on proper form, customize for male or female gamer, or know when you’re slacking. With Ubisoft’s new Your Shape Fitness for Kinect on the Xbox 360, it utilizes an advanced form of technology that reads over 50,000 points on your body.

Working out with Your Shape Fitness

I recently tried this new game at Club H Fitness in New York City. The Kinect technology comes into play by projecting your body into the game, reading when you do a motion incorrectly and guiding you to the correct form.

It also personalizes your workouts according to your fitness level and adjusting as you progress. The game can also tell when you’ve stopped working out or have moved away from the game all together. Even though it’s motion sensitive, it does ignore certain motions outside of your range such as the dog running by or your child standing nearby.

Your Shape Fitness yoga workout

The workouts I tried and liked best were the classes such as yoga, kickboxing, and hula hooping. The yoga class helped me improve my form, as I sometimes forget to work on this during an actual class unless the instructor comes around to fix positions.

Your Shape Fitness hula hooping

Hula hooping got my inner seven-year-old laughing and gave my not-so-seven-year-old figure quite the workout. The faster and better you can move your hips, the more hula hoops get added on to manage in the game. I was so impressed the Kinect could tell the right motion of my body that it would take for a hula hoop to swing! 

Your Shape provides a great workout for mom and kids alike, with the technology that lets you feel truly in touch with your body.

Allison Parker is an Account Manager at Mom Central.

Kicking up my heels in Ariat boots!

I have this beautiful memory of my grandfather - a.k.a. “Papa” - as a cowboy boot-wearing son-of-a-gun. He was a top executive at a Fortune 500 company and he wore Western-cut suits, cowboy boots and talked on a CB-radio. His handle was “Cotton-pickin' Chicken Plucker.” Papa was a wonderful character and set the tone for me of what a “real man” is. 

Whenever I visited Papa, it was my “job” to help him pull off his cowboy boots at the end of a long day. I don’t know if he actually needed help, but I jumped at the chance and enjoyed the tug-of-war during each boot-removal ceremony. I usually ended up flat on my bottom holding the heel of one of his fancy boots with two hands and laughing my head off. 

Maybe it was Papa’s influence or my Texas heritage, but for me, wearing cowboy boots means you are also wearing your personality. You just can’t wear ‘em without feeling a little swagger in your walk. 

Ariat cowboy boots

When the kind folks at Ariat asked me to check out their cowboy boots I was happy to oblige. Talk about boot-inducing personality! I had a helluva time choosing a pair and ended up with the Heritage Western X Toe in vintage black with turquoise stitching. They are GORGEOUS! I really think the “X” toe is key in making these boots look stylish and versatile for jeans/pants or dresses. I tried a wide toe and I didn't love them as much. Plus, I don’t think they work as well with skirts – and with the beautiful stitching, you will want to show off the detailed work underneath a simple dress or skirt. Just perfect for this urban cowgirl.

I also tried on the Ariat Crossfire Caliente – which are hot, hot, hot! But I wasn’t keen on the wide square toe. But if you like a little color in your life, then these might be your ticket to the rodeo. 

Comfortable style

Ariat was founded on creating advanced performance footwear and apparel for top equestrian athletes.  They use this same technology in their more fashion-forward items as well. The Heritage Western boots are really comfortable. It only took about a week to work them in – just a little rubbing on the backs of my ankles – but any full-grain leather boots will need some time to mold to your feet. The soles of my feet never felt better in boots. The padding is generous, even with a 2.5” heel, I didn’t have any discomfort on the bottom of my feet. 

Recently, Ariat unveiled an improved Ariat.com that features an enhanced shopping experience with powerful navigation, product comparisons, multi-angled product photography and a community section with social media, news, events and athlete blogs. Yee haw!

______________
Disclaimer: Michelle received a pair of Ariat Heritage Western X Toe boots in vintage black to facilitate this review. 

HealthyWomen: cycle of obesity can stop with mom's influence

Growing up in Texas where we ate on platters instead of plates, obesity was prevalent all around. In fact, BOTH my parents had gastric bypass surgery within the last five years – they are thinner now, but it wasn’t without risk and pain. 

I was lucky and learned early about how healthy eating and exercise could keep my weight manageable, but it pains me to see children affected by their parent’s unhealthy habits. 

HealthyWomen’s study on obesity

HealthyWomen, the nation's leading nonprofit health information source for women, recently published a survey that sheds light on how obesity now can affect future generations. The study was conducted to assess women’s understanding of the impact of obesity— particularly in terms of influence between women and their children, other family members and friends.

Although the majority of women surveyed seem to understand there is parental influence on obesity, they do not recognize their role in the “cycle of obesity.”

Key findings of the obesity study

• The majority of women believe a parent’s obesity has an influence on a child’s risk of becoming obese (87%), yet only one-quarter (28%) of women surveyed assign the responsibility to themselves.
• Most women don’t seem to recognize how early a mother’s obesity can impact her child’s risk of becoming obese. Only one in ten (11%) women surveyed recognizes that a mother’s obesity in her first trimester of pregnancy more than doubles her child’s risk of becoming obese.
• More than half of women surveyed were either unsure of the impact of a mother’s obesity in her first trimester (46%) or believed there was no impact (11%) on her child’s risk for obesity.
• Women surveyed understand the role that familial obesity has on their risk for becoming obese, but they underestimate the influence of friends and others. In fact, studies show that a person has a much greater chance (57%) of becoming obese if he or she had a friend who became obese than if he/she had a sibling (40%) or spouse (37%) who became obese.

Making smart decisions about obesity

Best-selling author and chief medical correspondent for Discovery Health TV Pamela Peeke, MD, MPH, FACP, says the survey findings bring new light to prior conceptions and emphasize the importance of personal responsibility.

“Battling obesity is a matter of making smart decisions,” she says. “In understanding the significance that our relationships can have on our lifestyle choices, we see an opportunity for women to play supportive roles in weight loss and best living practices.”

Take heart moms, this is a problem with proven solutions and many resources. HealthyWomen has created an online resource center with tips and tools specific to the WomenTALK survey including BMI and target heart rate calculators, family-friendly recipes and exercise videos at HealthyWomen.org/womenTALK.

In addition to educational content, the site features advice from Dr. Peeke and motivational articles including a personal perspective from boxer Muhammad Ali’s daughter and obesity advocate Khaliah Ali.

Just think, if all moms unite around obesity, our power to change generations to come is unstoppable. 

____________

Disclosure: Michelle received information from HealthyWomen.org to facilitate this post.  Mom Central Consulting and HealthyWomen are strategic partners bringing quality health information to women and moms.

March of Dimes: pregnant women need the flu shot

I’m a big believer in prevention. The flu can strike without warning and can take you down for weeks on end – rattling schedules, work commitments and time with your kids – or worse, it can mess up a vacation or other special events. No thank you. 

Last year, the flu was truly nerve wrecking!  We had to call all around town to find the vaccines, then we waited in long lines – then we had to do it all over again and get a second round of shots. This year only one shot is needed because the seasonal vaccine was designed to protect against three different flu viruses:  an H3N2 virus, an influenza B virus, and the 2009 H1N1 virus.

Protect you and your baby

Our friends at The March of Dimes reminded me recently that pregnant women should be at the front of the line to make sure they get immunized to protect themselves and their babies. I didn’t know this, but the normal changes from pregnancy put pregnant women at increased risk of the harmful effects of flu infection.

Dr. Jennifer L. Howse, president of the March of Dimes says, “Based on expert medical opinion, we urge all pregnant women, and women who expect to become pregnant, to get their influenza immunization because the flu poses a serious risk of illness and death during pregnancy.”

Since my second child is due in January (the height of flu season), getting vaccinated was a no-brainer.  As an added bonus, my little one will be protected at birth.

Here’s a parting thought: Although pregnant women make up only one percent of the US population, they accounted for five percent of the H1N1 deaths in 2009, according to research published in the April 2010 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

So, if you haven’t done so already, I urge you to get the flu vaccine to protect yourself AND your baby. 

____________

Disclosure: Michelle received information from the March of Dimes to facilitate this post.