Top tips for staying healthy this Christmas

                                   

Hi guys,

Deck the halls with boughs of holly: 'Tis the season to over-indulge! Yes, Christmas is here and with it comes not only the desire to dress up in sequins and party dresses but also the temptation to eat every chocolate that passes you by, and double portions of pudding after every meal. Admit it, I know it's not just me!!

But I have some baby weight to shift, so my overindulgence needs to be reined in this Christmas. Which is why I thought it was a brilliant idea when I saw that Bupa had released the Bupa advent calendar: a daily advent calendar for the month of December. But instead of tiny little chocolates inside, you'll find daily health tips on how to stay active, healthy, and stress-free, as part of the Bupa find healthy campaign.


Here are some of my favourites:
1. Have skimmed milk in your winter warming drink. This is a good one for me because the hubby makes the best hot chocolate I've ever tasted: and when he isn't at work over Christmas, I drink a mug a day! Using semi skimmed milk will cut the calories without affecting the taste.
2. Pick your puddings sensibly: choose just one dessert not several. This tip could have been written with me in mind: puddings are my weakness, and when I'm struggling to choose between trifle or a mince pie, I quite often will just decide to have both! This one will take some will power, but I'm prepared to give it a go!

There are loads more great tips included in the calendar which provide perfect motivation, so it's well worth checking out if, like me, you’re trying to rein in your greedy instincts this Christmas!

Do you try to find healthy at Christmas? Or do you forget all about diet and exercise and just overindulge to your heart’s content? And do you have any healthy tips to share for festive restraint? I'd love to hear your thoughts and tips!


Love Tor x

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Fabfrocks loves: My new ECCO boots

Hi guys,
For the past 6 months, my life has been largely a heels-free zone. Heels and pregnancy aren't exactly best buds: I've been wearing pumps, slipper shoes and my glitziest flipflops instead! And all the winter boots I've been busy stocking up on are flat as pancakes. When it comes to giving my feet the comfort they crave, flats are always my very first option. But then these gorgeous boots from ECCO arrived, and they are so so damn comfortable, that for the first time in months, I left the house wearing heels!

My new boot is a revelation. It's called the Sculptured 65 from ECCO, and it is the perfect mix of sexy shoe (with its 6.5cm heel) and I-can-wear-this-all-day comfort, thanks to its inbuilt comfort technology: Each boot comes with a textile lining, a leather inlay sole covered with the ECCO Comfort FibreSystem, and a moisture-absorbent circulation system. Which is a fancy way of saying they're really padded inside, meaning it feels like you're walking on a cushion! I'm not sure how even the biggest heel hater could fail to feel comfortable in these!

I've worn these beauties three times since they arrived last week, and they're so versatile they go with almost everything! So how did I style my new boots? Well up until now I've teamed them with a slinky black dress for a dinner date with my husband, and leggings and an oversized paisley shirt for a trip to the shops. And today, I'm wearing them with a simple blouse and rolled up jeans: my favourite look so far!!  The patent finish of the shoes immediately makes my favourite jeans look and feel so much smarter! Because I love matching, all I need now is a black patent leather bag and I'll be able to wear these boots everywhere!

What do you think of the ECCO shoe? There's loads more in the range (different styles, same level of comfort) that I heartily recommend checking out on the website? Do you look for comfort when you're shopping for heels? And how would you have styled my new boots? As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Love Tor xxx

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One for the bloggers: On sponsored posts

Hi guys,

I often get asked whether blogging is my full time job, and how I make money from it. Well the answer is that blogging isn't my full time job, and although I'd love to make my living from it, I don't (well not yet, but a girl can dream!) But I do make some money from it (a little bit!) and I do that in a couple of ways: the first is the advertising you see all around the site, the second is occasional sponsored links, and the third is in sponsored posts (yup, like this one!)

I was reluctant to get involved in writing sponsored posts for ages: they have a really bad reputation! I had concerns about legitimacy, relevance, and transparency: even though there aren't as strict rules about blog advertising in the UK as there are in the States I didn't want anyone to feel tricked, or not realise what they were reading was sponsored And frankly, I didn't want you to get bored of reading about stuff that isn't relevant to my usual fashion-y goodness and go away! So when I did decide to go down the sponsored post route (initially as an experiment) I decided to do it with ebuzzing. Ebuzzing have a really strict code of ethics, and always require full disclosure, which was exactly the kind of company I was looking for. You can also say exactly what you want, and unlike other companies they never give you the text you have to post. You can choose which campaigns you want to get involved in (so I only choose fashion or lifestyle ones) and they work with some great brands. My dream brands to work with would be ASOS or Topshop: I write about them so often that those are the kinds of sponsored posts that write themselves- more a girl can dream moments!

A good rule of thumb if you're thinking of writing sponsored posts is to have your own code of ethics:if you know what you are and aren't prepared to do then it makes it much easier to decide whether to accept or decline a campaign. Here are mine:

- I only write about brands I would genuinely endorse.
- I always tell the truth, even if there are negative aspects to the review.
- I am always fair. If I don't have anything positive to say about the brand at all then I don't except their money for the sponsored post.
- I always disclose that the post is sponsored, even if the advertiser doesn't ask me to.
- I write what I want to. It's my blog, and I wouldn't accept a sponsored post where I was told what to say.

Ebuzzing is a brand that works with my code of ethics, because it is very similar to their own! Find out more on ebuzzing.co.uk or register to start using the site.

Do you accept sponsored posts on your blog, and if not, why not? Do you have any rules for sponsorship, and what are they? I'd love to hear your guys thoughts on this!

Love, Tor xx

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