I just love finding new gadgets that you really don’t need but sure would like.

Here’s my latest find - the Yamaha Bodibeat

It’s an amazing music player that will synchronize your tunes to your heart beat.

Strap it to your arm and then get stuck in to your exercise routine. As you get moving and warming up, the Bodibeat will start shuffling the play list according to your heart rate.

During warm up, it will play some mellow and quiet music. But soon, as you hit your stride, so too will the Bodibeat, matching your playlist’s beats per minute to your heart rate.

It’s loaded with a couple thousand tunes - predominantly ‘90 techno - but if that doesn’t suit, you can upload your own workout music.

Sounds cool. I want one. Guess I’d better add it to the ever growing Christmas list.

I really hate shopping for pillows. There just seems to be so many of them, in so many different sizes, shapes, and weights. Not to mention different materials - feather, foam, and synthetic materials. And if that’s not complicated enough,  you can also get aromatherapy pillows full of scents that are ‘guaranteed’ to make you relax.

So when I was contacted by a PR person and asked if I wanted to review a couple of Tempur-pedic pillows, I was all for it. But I figured that they wouldn’t want to send them all the way out to New Zealand.  Surprisingly they did.

The first thing I noticed when opening the large box that contained the two pillows - a comfort pillow and a  neck pillow - was a strong chemical odor. Not unusual apparently, but probably more pronounced due the distance travelled. A little sticker on both pillows indicated that the smell would go away after a couple of days. The reality was, at least for me, that the odor lingered for a couple of weeks during which time the pillows spent a great deal of time outside airing.

Once the smell dissipated, the testing began. First up, the neck pillow (price range $79 - $159). This oddly shaped pillow ‘that’s ergonomically contoured to support your head, neck, and spine in perfect alignment’ lasted all of five minutes before I threw it off the bed. I tried a couple of more times over the weekend but simply could not get comfortable with it. Yes, I know it’s meant to provide support for the neck but all it seemed to do was give me a neck ache.

But then not all pillows are going to suit all people.

By Monday, I decided that the only way to get a true test of this neck pillow would be to get someone else to trial it. And I knew the perfect person - a colleague at work who had suffered from a neck injury a few years ago. So I packed it back up and took it to work. A week later, a very happy colleague pronounced that, for her, the neck pillow was just the thing. While it took a few nights to get used to it, she found that  the ‘neck pillow was excellent, soft enough for comfort but firm enough for support. Since using the pillow, there was less tingling in the left arm/hand and less neck pain.’ 

Meanwhile, I started testing the more traditionally shaped comfort pillow (price range $79 - $159) and found it more to my liking. It did take a week or so to get used to the heaviness of the pillow (made from viscoelastic material, they are not light and should never be used in a pillow fight ). But once I did, I found that the comfort pillow lived up to it’s name in comfort and sleep. It is, I’ve decided, a keeper.

Which brings me to an important question? How do you choose a pillow to buy? After all, it’s not something that is all that easy to return it doesn’t suit. Not a real issue when buying cheap pillows. But Tempur-pedic pillows are not cheap. So my suggestion would be to do your research and figure out what type of pillow you are looking for.  And then go shopping a few pillows and take them over to a display bed, lie down, and rest your head on a pillow or two. It might just help.

Tempur-pedic pillows, which come in a variety of shapes and sizes, all come with removable, washable allergen and mite resistant covers.

Head on over to the Tempur-pedic website to find out more about their pillows. They also sell beds, and office and travel products.

I’m not sure whether this contraption is bizarre, silly, or cute.

Developed by a father to be who was feeling a little left out of the pregnancy because he was missing the baby’s movements in the womb. Here’s what he says…

“As an expectant father, I am once-removed from the physical knowledge my wife has of our baby and its development. With the Kickbee, I wanted to create a device that would give me a chance to be aware of our baby’s movements.”

So he created a way for all movements to be monitor via, believe it or not, twitter and the cellphone.

I’m not making this up. Everytime that the baby kicks, the vibrations travel wirelessly to twitter which then sends an SMS message to his cell phone…

The message -’I kicked mommy at…”

Great news. AbbyLentz  of Heavyweight Yoga has donated not one, not two, but three of these fabulous DVDs.

This made the random number selector go a little haywire as it had to choose more than one winner. But it came through.

So the three winners of the ”HeavyWeight Yoga: Yoga For the Body You Have Today” DVD are…

Rbee

Patti S

bdaiss

Congratulations to you all. You’ll be receiving an email soon with instructions on how to claim your prize.

Well, it’s finally happened. A Nintendo Wii and it’s companions, Wii Sports and Wii Fit, arrived at the house today. And they’ve been the center of everyone’s attention ever since

After the initial set up, all Wii Sports and many of the Wii Fit exercises have been tried out by one and all.

And I can’t see it stopping any time soon.

So far, I’ve discovered that my Wii Fit age is way older that my real age, that my balance is non-existant, and that I’ve got a lot of work to do. But I’m not complaining - Wii Fit and Wii Sports make it look like improving my fitness is going to be nothing but fun.

Well, got to go.

I’m booked to play tennis in 10 minutes.

Want to know who won the Sansa Don’t Quit! Fitness MP3 player that comes loaded with 2 hours of workout oriented music?

Well, you don’t have to wait any more. The lucky winner is…

Betsy

Congratulations Betsy. You’ll be receiving an email shortly with instructions on how to claim your prize.

Having somewhere safe to carry your keys, wallet, cell phone etc while walking, running, and exercising is a real problem. We all have different ways of dealing with it, but I think Gracie’s Gear  has the answer - a top with plenty of compartments to place things.

Two lucky Healthbolt readers will soon find out how useful this is.

Congratulations to

Amanda

who has won a Gracie’s Short Top

and to

Tisa

 who has won a Gracie’s A-line Tank

*

You’ll both be receiving an email with instructions on how to claim your prize.

Wow. Looks like everyone wants one of these amazing toothbrushs, including me. The Oral B Pulsonic puts my supermarket bought battery operated Colgate toothbrush to shame.

But, unfortunately, there is only one Oral B Pulsonic to give away.

And the lucky Healthbolt reader is…

Reva Skie

Congratulations Reva Skie. You’ll be getting an email shortly with instructions on how to claim your prize.

As for the rest of us - well, I don’t know about you but I’m seriously thinking of upgrading my toothbrush. If nothing else, it will sure make my dentist happy.

Time to shake off all those calories from the holiday season and what better way than a dance exercise DVD.

Luckily for…

Michelle Smith

…she will have ‘Back 2 Bollywood’, the latest in the Masala Bhangra series of DVD workouts, to help her shake off those calories.

The rest of us will have to settle for just plain simple exercise.

Congratulations Michelle. You’ll be receiving an email shortly with instructions on how to claim your prize.

Everyone else, check out this link to find out how much fun Back 2 Bollywood actually is…

Want to know exactly how many calories that handful of nuts or second latte is going to add to you diet?

Now you can simply and easily with the Coheso’s CaloriesSmart Mini CSNL-100.

No more guessing or search - CaloriesSmart offers ‘facts at your fingertips.’

It might look similar to a blackberry but this nutrition calculator does something that the blackberry can’t - it lets you manage your diet on the go.

Want one?

Then you might be in luck. Healthbolt has one to giveaway. All you have to do is leave a comment by 5th Jan telling us why you think this CaloriesSmart nutrition calculator should be yours.

And who knows, it just might be.

This giveaway is open worldwide.

The winner will be announced on 6th Jan and sent an email with the subject heading ‘Healthbolt Giveaway Winner’ with instructions on how to claim their prize.

Happy New Year!