Prize: The winner will receive a featured blog post and premiere Sidebar button ad space for one month from each of the participating blogs!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Each blogger has donated a giveaway and we will be giving away nearly $1000 in prizes!!!!!!!!! The giveaways will began on August 28th, which happens to me the day that Mr. Yankee Texan Mom turns 40 and will conclude on Cyndy’s 40th birthday, October 7th. A giveaway a day for 40 days!!

Prizes include Amazon Gift Cards, Restaurant. com Giftcards, jewelry, Paypal Cash, Coupons, beauty products, books, health and wellness items, a booster seat, a camera and more! My contribution is a great Slim-in-6 workout DVD.

There is something for everyone in these 40 days! You will have a ton of opportunities to enter and this is a Rafflecopter giveaway, so it will be easy! There will be one Mandatory Entry with the remainder being optional. In order to win the prize from a particular blog, you must complete the entries for that blog. So, if you’d like to be entered to win all of the items, you will need to complete all of the entries. As a bonus, each entry throughout the month enters you to win the grand prize from Yankee Texan Mom.

Winners will be announced throughout the month, so make sure that you are checking your email! Winners will be verified, so no funny business! You may enter below, from any of the blogs participating (see below) or from Yankee Texan Mom’s Facebook page. Good luck!

To see all the participating blogs, you can click their names in this Linky Below!

“Fitness, lifestyle, how you feel – your well-being is all these things and more. A better sense of well-being is something most people aspire to without realizing that it is so easily within reach. A few little choices every day is all it takes… MeYou Health makes it fun and simple.”

Each day, MeYouHealth sent me mini-challenges focused on health and wellness. They were always easy to do and often kind of fun too. Before I knew it, the week was over and I really enjoyed making small changes to improve my overall well being.

There is a book by Jeff Olson called The Slight Edge. It’s one of my recent favorites. The lesson of this book is essentially the same as how MeYouHealth helps users. Making smart choices are often small and easy, the problem is that so many people make the bad choices, which are also small, and often perceived as easier in the short run. The problem is, the folks who make the small positive choices each day have that “slight edge” that propels them onward and upward. Folks making bad or negative choices are moving in the opposite direction, often without even realizing it until they have dug a hole that feels too deep to get out of. I like that MeYouHealth provides “challenges” that are very simple and help give you that “slight edge” toward a healthier lifestyle each and every day.

OK, I’ve put the cart before the horse a little. Let’s start at the beginning to describe the overall MeYouHealth.com experience. Here are the steps I followed to get started:

1. Signed up with my Twitter account

2. Completed a wellness assessment called the Twitter Well Being Tracker. This is a great tool to establish your baseline of wellness and compare you to others in the MeYouHealth system. There are 6 components of the Well Being Tracker:

• Basics
• Live Evaluation
• Emotional Health
• Physical Health
• Healthy Behavior
• Work Environment

This is another plus for MeYouHealth as compared to what I’ve seen provided by other “wellness” sites. After all, we are so much more than just our diet and fitness. The Well Being Tracker takes much more into consideration and makes you think about different areas where you might need improvement in your overall wellness.

3. After signing up, you can invite friends to join you so that you can support one another through daily challenges. Even if you don’t want to invite your own friends, there are plenty of new people to connect with to support and receive kudos from as well. As you complete your profile and take part in daily challenges, you earn points and badges (sort of like being in Scouts). The points add up to tokens that you can use to “unlock” other types of challenge “tracks.” I am one point away from being able to choose a new track. I’m thinking either Healthy Eating or Stress Relief.

Throughout the week, I was given one small challenge to complete each day. These included:

• Smile at 3 people during the day
• Write the serving size on the front of a favorite snack (see photo)
• Take 3 breaths the next time I needed to wait in a long line
• Pick 3 things you are grateful for from yesterday
• Get things ready to have a full glass of water waiting for you in the morning

The Daily Challenge is even just the tip of the iceberg at MeYouHealth.com. There are many other tools to help you work toward a healthier life. A new app I just installed yesterday is called EveryDRINK. It helps you track the amount of water you drink each day. I’ve been slacking on my hydration so it was a perfect tool for me to choose right now. There are some other cool apps for iPhone and iPads too. Too bad I have an Android phone. I’ll give them that feedback.

Overall, I really enjoyed my week of daily challenges and I plan to keep using them. Today’s challenge is one of the most unique, it is:

Toss a small ball, book, or pillow into the air and clap before you catch it, and repeat 4 times.

So, initially, I’m thinking, How is this going to help my well-being? MeYouHealth thinks of that too. Under each challenge there is a “Why it Matters” link. Here is the answer in this case:

“This exercise helps to develop your fine and gross motor skills, by forcing you to coordinate your large and small muscle groups to successfully throw, catch, and clap. Good coordination helps your body work more efficiently during everyday tasks, and can also help prevent injury.”

Cool! I’m up for some ball or pillow tossing. You? Want to give MeYouHealth.com a try? It’s totally free and lots of fun. Connect with me there too and we can help support one another. You can also follow @meyouhealth on Twitter and Fan them on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/meyouhealth.

Hope to “meet” up with you on MeYouHealth.com too!

This DVD is fun and super effective. It contains instructions, a warm-up, a short 12-minute workout, and a longer 40-minute workout. As a Kettlebell novice, I loved the introduction and demonstration segments. Lauren reviews the moves methodically so you can follow along and learn proper form. She also reviews recommended starting weights depending on your level of strength.

After practicing my form and reviewing all of the instructions, I decided to give the 40-minute workout a try. I rotated between a 10 pound or 15 pound bell depending on how challenging the exercise was for my personal strength. It was an excellent workout. In between high-intensity segments there are 60 second rest periods. You can use this time to either relax and get some water or do some light cardio like jumping jacks or running in place. By the middle of the workout, you’ll appreciate the rests!

In reviews I have read, some have complained about Lauren’s personality. She’s very matter-of-fact, but I prefer this approach versus some of those instructors who sound like “woo-hoo” cheerleaders.

I am thrilled to now have some Kettlebell experience and plan on making these workouts a part of my weekly routine. Thanks to Lauren for a great introduction to this fun and interesting strength/cardio combination.

GIVEAWAY

Now for the extra fun part is that you can win a copy of this DVD. Here’s what you need to do to enter. Do one or more of the following and leave a comment that you have done so. Leave one comment per action so you have an extra chance to win. If you already follow me on Twitter or Facebook, please do a new action to help spread the word. Thanks!

- Sign up for my free fitness coaching

- Blog about this giveaway and link back here

- Tweet about this giveaway and link back here

- Become a blog follower

- Follow me on Twitter

- Join the Facebook Fan Page

This contest will end on 7/31.

Have a fit, happy and healthy day ahead!

For more info on the Mamavation Campaing, and the two year Twitter Party. Go to Mamavation.com

One lucky person will win a trip to Los Angeles and a training session at the gym with Harley, a renowned fitness and nutrition expert and best-selling author responsible for getting many of Hollywood’s most recognized celebrities into the best shape of their lives. Resolutions help us make changes. Nearly half of U.S. adults make resolutions to change in the New Year and getting fit ranks as the number-one New Year’s resolution. But nearly three out of five people who make that resolution break it before the end of January.

As bathing-suit season looms, resolutions are suddenly on everyone’s mind again. It’s a race to summer weather and being bathing-suit-ready. Harley Pasternak knows that getting fit for summer requires exercise and good nutrition, and one way he makes sure to help get his recommended amount of daily vitamins is by taking Centrum multivitamins. Starting today, by “liking” the new Centrum Facebook page at www.facebook.com/Centrum , consumers can receive exclusive content on how to keep their summer resolutions.

To enter the contest, all users have to do is text the word “CENTRUM” along with an image of a Centrum multivitamin bottle to 89800 for a chance to win a trip to Los Angeles to receive a personal training session with Harley himself, trainer to Jennifer Hudson and Lady Gaga to name a few. Contest ends TOMORROW – June 14, 2011, so hurry!

This is a sponsored post. I was not paid anything for this post, but was entered for a chance to win a gift card.