Week One of my Well Together Challenge

This blog post marks the beginning of a month-long project I am embarking on with Nancy of FitMamaEats and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care. This project, called the Well Together Challenge, is an effort to start a social media dialogue within the health and wellness community around how to help people stay active, happy and healthy. As part of the challenge, Harvard Pilgrim paired bloggers with different ideas on ways to get (and stay) healthy.

As many of my readers know, I am a big fan of hula hooping for exercise... and Nancy was brave enough to take on this fun exercise as long as I agreed to try some of her Zumba videos.

I was open to trying some Zumba videos at home since I knew it would be a great way to involve all 3 of my girls in an exercise routine. We love to play Just Dance together on the Wii and have dance parties in the kitchen while I prepare dinner... so I knew this would be a hit.

And, so far, so good, I have been able to try the routine a few times with my 4-year-old (as she is the one at home with me the most). You would be surprised the moves a 4-year-old girl can master! (She learns a lot faster than her Momma, let's just say that.)

Zumba is great for a family workout. For me, it burns a TON of calories. For the girls, it helps a lot with coordination. It is just plain fun for all of us. Our local rec club even offer Zumba Youth classes, which fill up quickly and the kids seem to have a blast.

In addition to the Zumba- I will also be trying some of Nancy's recipes. She posts some delicious, healthy recipes on her blog which also look easy to prepare (just what this busy mother of three needs!) Next week I will review her Crunchy Chicken Tenders (seriously, how can you go wrong?) And... if you are really lucky, I might even post a video of me and my outrageous Zumba skills. (I totally would not do that but Nancy was such a sport and posted a video of herself hooping and now I feel obligated... although she looks way cooler hooping than I do trying to get my Latin groove on.)

Check out the Harvard Pilgrim Facebook page to see what other New England bloggers were up to for the Well Together Challenge.

{I just need to throw in a side note here... have you seen some of Harvard Pilgrims new ad campaign? When a company is cool enough to bring back Salt 'n Pepa... they are pretty awesome in my (80's) book.}

I’ve partnered with Harvard Pilgrim on this sponsored post but the thoughts and opinions expressed are my own. You can find more ways to be well at HarvardPilgrim.org/CountUsIn.