hot spot : little kickers gold coast

i like to take summer to the occassional activity lesson. i don't like to fill her week with activities, there's plenty of time for a social life once she gets a tad older, i'm sure! she currently goes to swimming lessons, and more recently she has joined little kickers.

what's little kickers? play not push - a fun and imaginative introduction to soccer for children aged 2 years to 5 years. devised in the uk in 2002, little kickers has arrived down under to benefit our little aussies.

it's so much more than kicking around a ball. the idea is to use soccer as a fun medium to help the kids learn social skills like listening, sharing, taking turns and teamwork; practice learning skills like colours and numbers; and fine-tuning their basic balance, agility and co-ordination skills.

it's heaps of fun, and although it's not just all about kicking soccer balls and scoring goals, this does happen and let me tell you, there are some champion goal scorers in our group! i have to tell you about one of the little kickers... in one of our first sessions, he was scoring goals and then doing the whole lift his shirt over his head and running off with his arms in the air thing. seeing a 2 year old do this had me in stitches, what a legend!

we sit in circles at the beginning and end of the lessons and say hello and goodbye to each and every player. we pass the ball around the circle, putting all of those above mentioned social skills into play yet again.

and... they even get stickers and stamps to go home with! can't get much better than that!

the coaches are awesome. our coaches at southport are coach amanda and coach dane. coach abbey {in the middle with summer} and hubby coach brad are the ones who have brought little kickers to the gold coast.

sound cool? sound like something you'd like to take your mini me along to and check out? well your first session is a free trial session, so why not! for us gold coasters, there are currently sessions on saturday mornings in southport and pac pines. classes are at 8am, 9am, 10am and 11am in both locations. you will need to contact abbey on 07 5574 9027, 0457 602 219 or goldcoast@littlekickers.com.au to reserve your free trial spot and to find out more information. little kickers gold coast have also recently started up a facebook page, so if you're on facebook pop over and like their page to keep in the loop and up to date with classes and little kickers goss.

check the little kickers website for other locations accross the nations. i noticed there are loads of nsw locations to choose from.

guest post : heidi from miss fit's baby boot camp

last friday i finished my 6 week course with miss fit's baby boot camp. man it was good, i actually enjoyed every session i had. our trainers, heidi and tara, were very informative, helpful and fun. the mum's i met were lovely and so friendly. i never once tried to think up an excuse not to go {i used to do this when i had gym memberships}, maybe it was because it was set at the beach, maybe it was because my head was in the right frame of thinking, maybe it was because summer asked me every day if we were going to exercises today. she loved it too!

i have asked heidi to guest write for me today. i think very highly of heidi and her advice and supervision to me during the course has been vital. thanks heidi xx

Hello my name is Heidi of Wholly Fit Personal Training and as I live and breath health and fitness and have no difficulties with motivating myself to exercise and eat healthy, my purpose it seems is to share my motivation, energy, knowledge and experience with those that struggle.

I have recently moved to beautiful Burleigh Heads to live my dreams and be by the beach. I still run a successful business up in Brisbane but I am also starting my business down on the Gold Coast.

So that you know a little bit about me, I come from a long competitive sporting background with my biggest sporting achievement being an Australian Title in Body Sculpting. I am not telling you this to brag, but to let you know that you are in the hands of one that has tried and tested and studied and sacrificed and therefore know first hand what it takes to have the body of your dreams which is what I can share with you.

In knowing how hard an industry it is here on the Gold Coast I thought the best way to get noticed was to bring the very successful and ever growing Baby Boot Camps down from Brisbane. I have teamed up with my good friend Kate Beeley, owner of Miss Fit PT and Baby Boot Camps in Brisbane.

The Baby Boot Camps are for those Mums that are a minimum of 6 weeks Post Baby and need help in getting their bodies back to where they want them to be. We go over and beyond any other Boot Camp in that not only do we specialize and focus on Mums and Bubs but we make you accountable to us, by keeping a journal of your experience. You are given written dietary advice and guidance from a nutritionist specifically designed for you as a Mum. There are, before and after strength and fitness tests, girth measurements recorded, and you are encouraged to stay focused and healthy through your goals, journals and an accumulative point based reward system. Giving you not only the rewards of your goals but a prize at the end!

The best part of it all is that you don’t have to worry about baby sitters and not having quality time with your little ones. Nor do you have any more excuses to find time to exercise, as you bring your babies with you and exercise with and around them.

We are slowly getting Baby Boot Camps off the ground and are now in our second 6 week intake. This is where I met the lovely Bec Watts of Yummy Mummies and her beautiful little mini me “Summer”.

Bec has invited me to write on her Blog giving you some expert advice when it comes to exercise and nutrition, so stay posted for the next installment “The Good and Bad Exercises 6 weeks post baby” due soon. In the meantime why not log onto http://www.missfitpt.com.au/ and grab a spot for the next up and coming Baby Boot Camp (which starts this Monday).

let's get physical {physical}

do you ever look at your child and think, wow, you used to be in my belly and now look at you! it's been over 2 years since this little moo has been in my tummy and only now have i decided to get into a bit of exercise and start paying some attention to my body. better late than never, right? in my defence, my god that 2 years has gone so quickly! the first 6 six months of summer being born just flew by, gooing and gaaing and filling in the baby book after every new trick she had done, emailing monthly photo's to our family down south. then i brought yummy mummies and the next 18 months of starting a new business mixed with the learning curves of parenting, has also just flashed before my eyes! life is busy, there's no doubt about that.

i started my baby boot camp this morning with missfit pt. it was great. it was a really relaxed atmosphere, there was none of that out of place feeling like you get when you go to the gym. i don't think i'm completely alone when i say that gym's are intimidating! instead, our location was down at my local, the gorgeous burleigh beach. we all done a fitness analysis as our first session, jotted down some measurements, took some before photo's and asked questions. next session will be all systems a go and straight into the serious training. and we thought we were buggered after today's session!

so what is baby boot camp? it is a pram based health and fitness program for new mothers. it is run over 6 weeks and includes 2 or 3 group training sessions a week, depending on what package you decide to go with. they take everything into consideration and in class today we touched base on things like breastfeeding and exercising, the importance of drinking water especially when you are exercising and breastfeeding, and nutritional plans. within 8 weeks of having your baby you can sign up to baby boot camp. you get trained by local female personal trainers who have done it before and are successfully teaching others how to do it. i look at it like a mother's group where you get fit!

today marks the start of the next gold coast course, however if you're really keen to join in from our next session, i'm sure it won't be too late to slot into the group, just give kate an email on kate@missfitpt.com.au. this is only the second 6 week course that has been held on the gold coast, missfit have been successful in brisbane for a while now, and have finally decided to come down and share the love with us gold coast mum's! for any brissie readers, the next course there starts on the 4th of october.

if you think baby boot camp might be fun, yes it is! i've got links all through this post to direct you to the missfit pt website and you can click on the banner above or email or phone kate directly. there is also the missfit facebook page too. grab your mum friends and sign up together. and always remember, it is never selfish to do something for yourself. you will find it easier to meet the challenges of motherhood when you are fit and healthy. when mummy is happy, the whole family benefits!