Have fun this Easter!

Isn’t 2013 flying by quickly? It seems like only moments ago that we were celebrating Christmas and now Easter is just around the corner! The lovely thing about Easter is that it brings together the whole family – whether you are religious or not, it can still be a time for fun and celebration. This year Easter falls on March 31^st so there is still time to plan some fun family activities!

Easter just wouldn’t be Easter without a traditional egg hunt – such a simple pleasure that has timeless appeal. Hide a bunch of chocolate eggs in the garden and your children (or grand-children) will love tracking them down! It’s a great way to enjoy some fresh air and exercise – not to mention a way to bring out a healthy sense of competition! A classic egg and spoon race is another brilliant way to have fun outdoors.

You can have fun creating personalized egg baskets to make your egg hunt extra special. Just get some inexpensive plain baskets and let your children’s creativity run wild by embellishing them with felt shapes, sequins, pompoms or whatever they love!

Forget store-bought Easter cards, it’s so much more fun to make your own! Buy some pastel-colored card and get the children to invite their friends over for a creative crafty session. All you need is some crayons, paper scraps, glitter, washable school glue and whatever odds and ends you can find! Try making flowers with pipe cleaners and tissue paper, or cute chicks with stick-on googly eyes. The result will be something truly unique and special!

Egg painting is another great way to enjoy some Easter craft fun. Use kids paint and paintbrushes to decorate eggs that are hard-boiled or blown – there are lots of video tutorials online with tips and ideas. Get everyone involved and award prizes to the most inventive designs!

Easter is a time of feasting, so be sure to have plenty of indigestion tablets ready for those bloated tummies. Your local stores might be closed over Easter weekend, so make sure you’re all stocked up on things like diapers and baby wipes – things you definitely do not want to run out of over Easter!

After all that chocolate it’s extra important to make sure your teeth don’t suffer – give them a thorough clean with an OralB Pulsar Pro-Health Adult Toothbrush.  Encourage little ones to join in by treating them to a cool Power Puff Girls toothbrush to make brushing extra fun!

Enjoy the Easter sunshine by taking little ones into the garden for a teddy bear’s picnic – throw a blanket on the grass and enjoy some yummy treats from paper plates and plastic food containers. Easter chocolate cornflake nests are simple to make and taste delicious – there are lots of easy recipe ideas online. You could also bake cookies shaped like bunnies and chicks and have fun decorating them with colored icing. Children will love the novelty of eating outdoors with their VIP teddy guests!

LOOSE WEIGHT! It’s on the top of everyone’s list almost every year.  All of the treadmill and ellipticals at the gym are suddenly filled once again, and the television and internet are inundated with segments on diet and exercise.  Well here’s another one for you because heck there’s no such thing as too much information and encouragement.

It is one thing to make a new years resolution… its KEEPING it that’s the hard part.  The most important factor when making a resolution is that the goal be one that you really want and are willing to make changes to get.  If you only “wish” you could attain that goal, then everything in your life will suddenly become an excuse as to why you can’t make it happen.  Small steps can make a huge difference so don’t think you have to jump all the way in the pool at once.

#1 DRINK MORE WATER!!!  If you think you are drinking enough water, you are probably not.  Drink at least 8 glasses a day, that’s 3/4 of a gallon to a gallon of water!  You will be in the bathroom every 20 minutes but its worth it.  For your digestion, for your weight, hydration, hair, skin and nails.  A body without sufficient water is like a wilted plant.

#2 EAT BREAKFAST – I know, I know, you’re not hungry in the morning, you don’t have time, breakfast makes you sick, I hear the excuses loud and clear, and as strange as it might seem to add another meal to your day that you don’t typically eat, a healthy breakfast helps jump start your metabolism and prevents you from eating more throughout the rest of the day.  Start small, make it quick and easy and after a few times it will be painless and something you will come to look forward to every day.  The best breakfast options are: egg whites, oatmeal, green veggies and a piece of fruit.  Make it happen.

#3 EAT 5-6 SMALL MEALS PER DAY.  Eating 5 SMALLER meals throughout the day will prevent you from getting starved, thus overeating at lunch or dinner and will keep your metabolism from slowing down in between meals, which will help you to burn more calories all day long.

#4 HIT THE GYM.  Could it be any more obvious? The more you move the more calories you burn.  So get up and start moving as much as you can.  Coincidentally the more you move, the more energy you will have as well.  So although it might seem like you are just too tired at the end of the day.  Force yourself the first few times and then after that you should find that it gets easier and that you have more energy throughout the day because of it.

STEPS TO MAKING YOUR RESOLUTIONS STICK…

STEP 1: make realistic and measurable goals.  Be specific – don’t just say “I want to loose weight” say “I want to loose 2 lbs each week for the next 10 weeks, and I will accomplish this by making diet and exercise changes such as..”

Setting your goal is a great first step but you’ve got to give yourself a path to get there otherwise it can be a dead end road.

STEP2: make a plan of action.  Your chances of meeting a goal are greatly increased once you start taking action, rather than just thinking about it or speaking about it.  START NOW!

Be sure to check back next week for more great tips!

Need a quick and easy gift? Check out our bundles and packs, TODAY ONLY with discount code 12DAY3 you get an extra 20% off…

After the additional 20% off you will be able to scoop up these bundles for over half off retail prices – Happy Holidays to YOU!!

Do you have a pre-teen to shop for this Holiday Season? The thought alone can be a little scary, as you have the daunting task of making age appropriate purchases that are not too “kiddy” but also suitable for a young adolescent. Children ranging from the ages of 9 – 12, Pre-Teens, are a unique bunch, and their stockings should be filled with the just the right variety of goodies to suit their age group!

Pre-Teens are still children in most respects, but at that awkward age where they long to be considered a young adult. Who doesn’t remember their own Junior High School days? This is when you first start wearing perfumes, colognes, nail polishes and body sprays. We’ve put together a list of our top Pre-Teen stocking stuffers that you can order online right on Stockngo.com!

Stocking Stuffers for the Pre-Teen Girl:

1. Perfumes and Body Sprays  ~ Try Jessica Simpsons “I Fancy You” or Britney Spears “Believe”
2. Nail Polishes ~ Try fun colors like Cosm Nail’s China Glaze Flying Dragon Nail Polish
3. Hair Products ~ Bed Head Brand is perfect for your Pre-Teen!
4. Lip Glosses and Chapsticks ~ Softlips and Chapstick brands are great for the winter months
5. Deodorant ~ Mennen’s Teen Spirit in Pink Crush is the ultimate girl deodorant

Stocking Stuffers for the Pre-Teen Boy:

1. Colognes and Body Sprays ~ All the boys love Axe brand body sprays, or try POWER, by 50 Cent
2. Hair Products ~ Young men love to style their hair! Short Sexy Hair Rough and Ready Styling Gunk is absolutely perfect for creating young looking styles teens love
3. Body Wash ~ Old Spice High Endurance Body Wash Game Day is perfect for the older Pre-Teen
4. Deodorant ~  Axe FRESH Deodorant Stick is great for active teens
5. Gift Cards ~ When all else fails, you can always win with a gift card!

We just had to share this wonderful quote on Christmas gift suggestions…

• To your enemy, forgiveness.
• To an opponent, tolerance.
• To a friend, your heart.
• To a customer, service.
• To all, charity.
• To every child, a good example.
• To yourself, respect.

– Oren Arnold

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Believe it or not there is a way to enjoy a delicious Thanksgiving dinner with out all the guilt and potential weight gain! Traditional Thanksgiving foods such as mashed potatoes, jellied cranberry sauce, bread stuffing, creamed corn, green bean casserole, and pumpkin and apple pie’s are filled with unhealthy carbs and sugars that spike your insulin levels and get stored as FAT!

Simple substitutes like cauliflower or sweet potatoes instead of white potatoes, fresh made cranberry sauce, corn bread stuffing, and roasted or root vegetables and green beans can make a world of difference in your caloric intake, provide additional nutritional benefits and in many cases taste better and serve as a new and exciting dish to put on the table.  Check out the healthy recipes that we found on Pinterest for Thanksgiving appetizers, dinner and dessert!

Refined or processed sugar and foods containing refined sugars such as cookies, candies and some breads and pastas have numerous negative effects on both children. When children regularly consume refined sugars, they are at an increased risk for developing conditions such as tooth decay, obesity and behavioral issues.  Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/495114-negative-effects-of-refined-sugar-in-children/#ixzz29TcQTyeU

With Halloween approaching it will become very difficult to steer children away from consuming sugar, even moderate amounts of sugar.  But when it comes to the holiday of “TRICK or TREAT” – moderation is key! Providing healthy alternatives to the typical candy that is given away when kids come to your door, is a great first step in being part of the solution.  Actions such as this will set a good example for your own children, plus you can offer up any leftover giveaways to your kids as a trade for the sugar filled candy they may get in their own Halloween bag.  Below is a list of great alternatives to the sugar filled Halloween candy…

TRICK GOODIES

• Halloween Themed – stickers, pencils, coloring books, crayons
• Halloween Tattoos
• Play Dough
• Glow Sticks
• Bubbles
• Plastic Jewelry
• Vampire Teeth

TREAT GOODIES

• Granola Bars
• Fruit Chews
• Dried Fruit Packs
• Chocolate Covered Pretzles
• Raisins / Chocolate Covered Raisins
• Fruit Leathers
• Trail Mix
• Popcorn / Cracker Jacks

Shop the Stockn’Go Halloween section for costumes, makeup and more!!

This week we have decided to extend the Labor Day celebration with a Giveaway!  Our weekly “Friday Freebie” will start today and end Friday.  This week you can enter for a chance to win not one but a selection of FOUR Chi Silk Infusion products which will include one of each of the following: Chi Keratin Mist, 12 oz., Chi Silk Infusion, 2 oz., Chi Infra Shampoo, 12 oz., and Chi Infra Treatment, 12 oz..

Click HERE to enter and share with your friends for a chance to win!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!!! Each year on July 4th us Americans celebrate our freedom and independence with barbecues, picnics, family gatherings and of course Fireworks!!  Stockn’Go put together a “4th of July” board on Pinterest with some amazing ideas on how to RED, WHITE and BLUE your 4th of July BBQ, check them out…

ONLY 2 MORE DAYS LEFT TO GET 20% OFF ALL PRODUCTS ON STOCKN’GO.COM!

Follow us at www.pinterest.com/stockngo

If you’re anything like me, you procrastinate when it comes to buying holiday gifts. Then you spend a day frantically running around trying to find something appropriate to give as a gift. Sound familiar?

If you’re looking for gifts for the women in your life, I’ve put together a list of a few things I think are great this year. Order one of these great gifts, and you won’t have to even leave the house. You can kick back, drink some hot cocoa, and forget that run to crowded holiday stores. Just put It’s a Wonderful Life on, and enjoy your holidays.

Queen for Women by Queen Latifah comes packaged with 3.4 ounce Eau De Parfum spray, 3.0 ounce body lotion, and a 3.0 ounce body butter. Queen has a blend of florals mixed with sandalwood, vanilla, musk and incense. It is perfect to use after a shower, throughout the day, and for casual outings. The combination of all three products gives a long-lasting fragrance, and it’s perfect for daytime wear. It’s a good gift for the women in your life from age 17 – 70, in my opinion. A lovely, luscious scent that’s not too overpowering.

Fabulous You Gift Basket

* TIGI Bed Head After Party Smoothing Cream, 3.4 oz
* TIGI Bed Head Ego Boost Leave In Conditioner, 8 oz
* Biosilk,Silk Shampoo 12oz
* Biosilk,Cure Soyeuse 12oz
* Biosilk,Silk Conditioner 12oz
* Paul Mitchell White Small Hairbrush
* Kim Kardashian Eau de Parfum Pink Ribbon Rollerball
* Comes in a Tan Basket with Handle

Pamper Me Gift Basket does exactly what it is designed to do. If you have someone on your list who could use a little pampering, this is the one.

• Kim Kardashian Eau de Parfum Rollerball, 0.33 oz
• Philosophy Body Souffle Crumb Berry Pie, 3.5 oz
• Essie Nail Polish, Color – Hard to Get
• 1 Pink Mesh Sponge
• 1 Pumice Brush
• 1 Pedi Kit
• 2 Nail Files
• 1 Eye Mask
• 1 Massage Roller
• 1 Set of Flower Soap Petals
• 1 Exfoliating Glove
• 1 Bodycology Shower Gel
• 1 Pink Wood Basket

Have you finished your holiday shopping? Or are you like me, and have barely started? Give me some gift ideas on twitter, Facebook, or leave me a comment here on the blog.