Bounts - Earn Vouchers for Tracking Fitness *App Review*

What is it?

Bounts is an app that allows you to earn points for exercising and checking in at sports clubs & gyms which can then be turned into vouchers. The vouchers available are pretty good too, with brands like John Lewis, Amazon, Currys PC World, Debenhams, River Island, Nike, Waterstones, Starbucks, Toys R Us and even Pizza Hut! The app is available to download on both Apple and Android products.

How much does it cost?

There are three membership options:

• FREE - You can earn up to 15 points per day, over a maximum of three eligible activities
• Premium (£9.99 per year) - You can earn up to 90 points per day, over a maximum of 9 eligible activities. Access to premium rewards.
• Premium+ (£14.99 per year) - You can earn up to 180 points per day, over a maximum of 9 eligible activities. Access to premium awards.

Upon signing up, you get the option to choose your membership, however once you have linked your first exercise or lifestyle tracker (I linked mapmyfitness) you get upgraded to Premium for a 14 day trial.

How does it work?

It's a brilliant and fairly simple concept that allows you to sync your fitness trackers to their app, you need to be connected to wifi/data for the sync to occur. So far, it's taken a bit of trial and error to work out what the eligible activities are, and their website/app are still in their very early days so quite hard to navigate and aren't particularly reliable. Here's what I've managed to track with the trackers & devices available to me:

You can earn 5 points per check in/activity on the FREE membership, 10 points on PREMIUM and 20 points on PREMIUM+.

• Activity Check In's - This relies on your device (in my case iPhone) being connected to both GPS and Bluetooth. The GPS tracking is extremely hit and miss, and only works about 50% of the time. The Bluetooth connects, as far as I'm aware if your check in location has a Bounts beacon (I've not come across one yet), so in theory is currently not worth turning your Bluetooth on for this feature alone unless you visit larger venues with the beacon in place (I leave Bluetooth on to sync my Fitbit). For your check in to be successful, your gym or sports club must have a pin on the "Bounts Venue Map", the larger more commercial premises may already have an activated pin, for those venues that don't you'll need to type the address into the search bar, click on the pin and fill in the location details. The report then gets raised with the Bounts team (I'm assuming to make sure it's legit) and finally a member who has premium activates the location. The process is actually pretty fast considering it sounds such a faff, and to be honest most of the local gyms/classes I know of are already listed on my local map. There are also some methods of scanning your own bar code at certain venues but I've not used this feature.
• Activity via GPS tracking - You'll need to complete a minimum of 20 minutes at a minimum pace of 4km per hour, and you'll need to have location settings turned on and all permissions granted. For this I tried using mapmyfitness, however after a 5k run, realised that GPS tracking is a bonus feature, so my distance didn't track, and therefore nothing synced with Bounts. I have since bought a Fitbit, but on my last 5k hadn't synced Fitbit to mapmyfitness, so whilst I had a 26 minute 5k run showing on my Fitbit, once again I had no proof syncing to Bounts... My next experiment is to try again but with Fitbit and mapmyfitness tracking my run simultaneously! Sounds too much trouble? Perhaps, but you still add towards your step total (I would have also liked the 10 activity points). Bounts does not currently allow manually entered distance or timed activities or gym based exercises such as classes.
• Steps - You can connect your activity tracker (mine is Fitbit) to Bounts. You can also connect the health app on your phone to Bounts, and allow permissions to share your daily steps. You need 7000 to earn your activity points.
• Refer a Friend - Both you and your friend will receive 100 bonus points once they have signed up and completed their first activity (my referral code is info53267). 
• Rewards Wheel - You also earn credits, along with points for each activity/check in. The credits can be spent by spinning the rewards wheel (wheel of fortune style). You can win a free spin or points, or nothing. You don't lose points and I've won 5 points on several occasions, 10 points once, my partner won 50 points and I've seen 1000 points won via social media!
• There are meant to be other ways to earn points but I haven't found them yet such as activity on social media.

What devices/apps does it work with?

I use Fitbit and iPhone, and hopefully can now track GPS runs on mapmyfitness with the addition of my fitbit Surge (I'll update this review if it works). Bounts is available on Apple and Android. You can also sync the following to Bounts:

• Google Fit
• Fitbit
• Garmin
• Health App
• Jawbone
• Misfit
• Movesapp
• MYZONE
• mywellness
• LF Connect
• mapmyfitness**
• Preva
• runkeeper
• Strava
• SWIMTAG

How many points do you need to buy vouchers?

Here's two example's for you. Vouchers are available from £1+ depending on the store:

• 1 x £25 Amazon Voucher = 6750 points
• 1 x £100 John Lewis Voucher = £25,000 points 

Based on a Premium+ membership (£14.99 per year), you could earn a maximum of 65,700 points per year (not including bonus points from referrals and rewards wheel etc), therefore you could earn over £225 of Amazon vouchers and be well on your way towards your 3rd £100 John Lewis voucher. The free membership could earn you 5475 annual points (not including bonus points), which could buy you a £20 Starbucks voucher (5405 points).

My experience so far

I've nearly finished my two week Premium trial and have managed to accumulate 320 points so far. If I'm being 100% honest I've found the trial very hit and miss. Sometimes check in's don't work, the referral link you send friends doesn't automatically enter your code, the website is NOT mobile friendly, having tried on both Android and Apple, you have to turn your phone onto it's side to view more of the website, but not all. The desktop site is extremely basic, and doesn't promote easy navigation. Their customer support is shocking. I've had issues with missing points and have contacted them via email, Twitter and Facebook (as have many others if you take a look), and they rarely reply. The email I sent received a reply around a week after I sent it saying they were sorry and how can she help?! I haven't had a reply since... Their excuse is that they have a small team and are a new business, but I don't see any excuse for the lack of response and feel that much needed beta testing was skipped, since this would have helped to iron out issues before the launch to the general public!

The view of website from a mobile:

Landscape:

App home screen:

Is it worth it?

I've been thinking about this a lot over my trial, and I've concluded that yes, I believe it is worth it. However, I think anyone paying for membership needs to ask themselves whether their £9.99/£14.99 per year is worth it, considering the app doesn't always track your points (let's say 50% of the time as a worst case scenario), and there is zero customer service to help you if you get stuck. If you can live with this then go ahead (don't forget my referral code to get your bonus points: info53267.

At the end of the day, the app is an incentive to be more active. You get paid for becoming healthier! The only added cost you have is the extra charging of your devices due to running Bluetooth and location settings, or if like me you couldn't resist the temptation of buying a shiny new tracking device!

The app itself is very clean looking and much easier to use than the website, but doesn't work all the time, especially the venue map. 

I'm considering purchasing the premium+ membership for £14.99 per year, as I think the extra points could be worth it. I want to give the Bounts team the benefit of the doubt, in that they're settling in to high demand and a successful project, so I do hope I can update this review in a few months time with successful news rather than a negative story. It's such a fantastic concept, that I can't begin to tell you how much I want it to succeed, but improving their customer service needs to be their first port of call.

If you have any questions about the app, please get in touch and I'll try to help you. If you do decide to join, and discover new features I've not reviewed, please do let me know and I'll investigate further.

Sign up here using my referral code info53267.

**Edit: Since writing this Blog, Bounts have removed the ability to track activities via mapmyfitness due to MMF charging Bounts to connect, which makes perfect business sense. I've now installed Strava but am yet to test it out. MMF have currently lost a user as I was simply only using it to track activities to collect Bounts points.

Lucy Bee Coconut Oil & Recipe Book *Product Review*

This review has been a long time coming, I love Lucy Bee Coconut Oil and use it all the time, for everything!

I've used a few coconut oils over the past couple of years, but have found Lucy Bee to be by far the best. I don't find it gives off much of a coco-nutty flavour like the other brands I've tried. I've only once found the flavour came through too much in the food, which is when I cooked a bolognese, everything else from fried eggs to paleo bakes gives off a slightly sweet flavour. It most definitely smells more of coconut than it tastes, so if you have fussy family members, they'll pick out the smell more than the taste.

Another winning point for me is the texture, the other coconut oils I've used never seems to melt evenly. The only one that I've used that has even come slightly close in both texture and smell is the Groovy Virgin Coconut Oil, but to me does give off a stronger taste.

Why Coconut Oil?

• Coconut oil is more stable than most other oils at high temperatures, so great for frying and roasting
• It can help you burn more fat
• It has natural antibacterial benefits
• It may help prevent cardiovascular disease including high cholesterol
• It can reduce hunger. Being a fat, it'll help to make you feel fuller for longer!
• It may help to improve brain function, and could be used as a part of a high fat diet which may also help reduce the risk of seizures and dementia
• It's a great beauty staple! Use it to moisturise skin, strengthen nails, revive hair and clean teeth!
• It tastes great!

Why Lucy Bee?

• It has a mild flavour and smell
• It's texture is the smoothest I've found 
• It's a fair trade product so you can be assured it's sourced responsibly
• It's organic and the processes used to make it are as gentle as possible
• Lucy Bee is a family venture and the family use the product themselves (a good sign right?)
• They give to charity (via Amazon purchases)
• They give you a free jar for every 12 labels you send to them
• Their jars are THE BEST for storing food in
• Their totally fabulous on social media, very interactive, friendly and provide top notch customer service

When I don't use coconut oil?

The only time I prefer to use olive oil is when I'm not heating the food, such as making a salad dressing or mayonnaise. I use it when frying eggs, steak, fish. I grill with it, bake with it. Some people even spread it (I'm not a fan of this). Coconut oil is so versatile, and with so many health benefits you'd be crazy not to try and add it into your life somewhere!

Using it as a beauty product

I've had terrible skin since I was a teenager, I eat healthy, drink plenty of water, exercise constantly, rarely drink alcohol and have tried pretty much every product on the market! Around four weeks ago I braved washing my face with Lucy Bee, I have to admit it felt pretty awful rubbing oil into my skin, but once I'd rinsed it off it immediately felt smoother. After about two weeks of washing my face this way, once a day, using no other products I noticed that I had no new spots! There's still scarring, and I currently have a huge spot on my chin, but I'm confident the coconut oil is helping so I'll continue.

I've also been using it in my hair, just before washing and leaving on for around 15 minutes, and when my hair is down (I mostly wear it up), everyone is commenting on how long and healthy it looks (I have ombre and highlights too). I rub the excess into my nails, using shellac I find this helps to keep them hydrated and regularly oil pull (swill in mouth for 20 minutes) and have found my teeth to feel cleaner and look whiter.

All in all I get through a lot of the stuff these days!

Their book

I also own the Lucy Bee - Coconut Oil, Nature's Perfect Ingredient book. I wasn't sure what to expect, but my first impressions were what fantastic quality the book is. The hardback feels, very well made and the cover and layout inside are clean but contemporary. If you are new to coconut oil then I certainly recommend this book as it delves into much more details than my review about the benefits of using coconut oil, both for cooking and beauty, and also explains in more depth where it comes from any why it's good for us.

There's some great tips in there too, suggesting handy kitchen essentials, the pictures make my mouth water and the recipes that I've tried so far have been really tasty, I also love the fact they're gluten free and each recipe comes with a symbol to show whether it's Gluten Free, Lactose Free, Wheat Free, Vegetarian, Dairy Free or Vegan - A really helpful tool.

Their jars!

Don't ever throw them away! They are amazing for storage, and don't forget to save your labels. Send them 12 of the same size and they'll send you a free jar of coconut oil!

Even my rabbits give it their seal of approval, here's Stevie with a jar:

Where to buy?

You can buy Lucy Bee Coconut Oil on Amazon, Lakeland and Sainsburys.

Checking in!

It's been a while since my last actual blog post so just wanted to write a quick one to check in with you all!

I'm using Instagram a lot at the moment to help keep me on track, taking lots of pictures of my meals, and it's really helping to motivate me to make the effort each and every day!

In an ideal world I'd post here on a weekly basis, but writing seems to be taking a back seat at the moment, in amongst work, holidays, and general household revamps! I've also decided that I'd like to go back to education this September, so I've applied for an Access to Science HE course at my local college, with the aim to go on to study for a degree in NUTRITION! I love my current job and know 100% that I want to expand my knowledge and qualifications within the industry and although I've thought about a degree in nutrition on and off for around 4/5 years I've always put it off because of the financial implications as well as the worry of being a mature student. Since finding Whole30 though, I've become determined to make a real difference where possible and have already spread the word to many friends, family members and clients.

I've had two big holidays since I was last really active on here, one to celebrate my 30th in the USA, doing a tour of San Francisco, Yosemite, Las Vegas and LA, of which I loved every second of. My eating and drinking habits still remained fairly healthy, only indulging in things I REALLY wanted, but upon my return home really struggled to get back into the Whole30 way of eating. We then had Christmas, and I was really surprised at how well we ate in comparison to the year before, we didn't drink much alcohol  and ate no where near as much crap.

The real turning point for me though came after Christmas when I made a real effort to get back to 90% Whole30 before our snowboarding trip to Whistler. On this holiday I found myself making my own breakfasts instead of reaching for convenience foods, I stuck with almond milk lattes (I haven't drank milk since September last year), and the thought of stodgy pasta just made me feel sick! Instead I chose lots of meat/fish with vegetables and no sauce (the way I prefer it) and options like warm kale salad. We had a few alcoholic beverages but once again, nothing compared to what we would usually drink on holiday! I used to LOVE cheesecake, and I bought some one day as a treat, after it had been sat in the fridge for 24 hours + (what!) I fancied a nibble so cracked it open and just thought "meh"... I decided to chuck it, for me if something doesn't taste worth the knowledge it's full of crap, it's not worth it. Don't get me wrong, if it had tasted amazing I would have eaten the lot and suffered the consequences! In a previous lifetime any cheesecake, good or bad would have been eaten with tremendous gluttony!

Coming back from Canada was far easier than coming back from the USA, I have eased straight back into Whole30 eating with the odd piece of dark chocolate (or glass of wine), but I've been consistently cooking healthy meals for breakfast and dinner and trying my hardest to eat lunch (something I still struggle with).

I feel so much better eating this way, and don't feel as if I'm missing out at all. I have so much more energy and my skin has slowly been getting better, as well as having much less bloating!

I hope to blog more often, but in the meantime would love for you to follow me on Instagram or Twitter where I'm more active (links to the right of this page)! In the very near future I hope I can share more of my creations with you on here, and if any of you have gone back to education as a mature student I'd love to know how you got on!

Sweet Potato Brownies **RECIPE**

This is my first attempt at trying to create a sugar free brownie, and although they're not a typical sweet, chocolatey treat, they do have a wonderful gooey texture with a crunch on top and satisfy those chocolate cravings!

I'll continue to play around with this recipe, maybe adding something to bring slightly more sweetness to it - because it's what we're all used to! I wanted to shy away from the allowed paleo sweeteners such as honey, date syrup and coconut sugar as much as possible. I'd love for you to try these out, customising the ingredients and letting me know how you get on.

These provide a raw, nutty flavour and are a great snacking alternative to the sugar filled real thing!

Ingredients

• 2 Medium Sweet Potatoes
• 15 Medjool Dates
• 100g Coconut Flour 
• 80g Ground Almonds
• Handful of Macadamia Nuts (or other nuts/seeds of your choice)
• 5 Tablespoons Raw Cacao Powder
• 2 Tablespoons of Lucy Bee Coconut Oil
• 50ml Tap Water
• Pinch of Salt
• Almonds to Top
• (Optional Paleo Sweetener)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180c or 160c fan.
2. Peel and chop the sweet potato, place into a microwaveable bowl with 1 teaspoon of Lucy Bee and a sprinkling of water to avoid them drying out (alternatively you can steam the potatoes). Heat for 30 seconds in the microwave then fold the potato into the oil, to ensure each piece is coated. Heat again until cooked, I done another 3 minutes, mashed a little then a further 2 minutes.
3. Pit the dates and chuck them into a food processor, along with the sweet potato (allow to cool first) and blitz. Add the nuts or seeds so they break into slightly smaller pieces. If you are using a compliant sweetener, also add this here.
4. Combine the ground almonds, coconut flour, cacao, salt with the date/potato mixture and start to fold.
5. If coconut oil isn't liquid, melt it by popping in the microwave for 20 seconds. Use a little to grease a 9" square cake tin, and add the rest to the brownie mixture, little bit at a time, folding it in.
6. Start to knead the mixture, until it combines but still feels sticky, add a little water if needed.
7. Press the mixture evenly into the cake tin, and cook for 15-20 minutes until firm but springy.
8. Leave in the tin for 20 minutes before turning out upside down. Whilst the brownies are still warm, sprinkle with flaked almonds, gently press down and leave to cool for 5 minutes before cutting with a pizza cutter! I made 9 initially (in the picture), but found them quite rich, so made 18 out of them. They would also work well as brownie bites, cutting them up even further!

Let me know how you get on and what changes you make, and I'll update this post if I improve it!

Cauliflower Egg Fried "Rice" **Recipe**

I hate cauliflower, BUT when I first made this dish I completely shocked myself. It has a similar texture to rice, with a bit of a bite and a slight cauliflower taste, but it's overpowered by the egg, sesame oil and coconut aminos.

My Ingredients (Serves 2)

1 Small Cauliflower
2 Tsp Sesame Seed Oil
2 Eggs
Pinch of Salt
Pinch of Ginger Powder (optional)
Pinch of White Pepper (optional)
Coconut Aminos (or soy sauce if you don't follow Whole30)
Spring Onions (optional)
Any extras you fancy like king prawns or shredded chicken.

My Method

Here's what I done, you can also freeze the blitzed cauliflower ready to go another day! If you use a large cauliflower instead of small, use 1/2 now and freeze the other half.

First, separate your cauliflower into small florets and pop them into your food processor:

Blitz 10-15 times until it resembles rice or cous cous:

Heat a teaspoon of sesame oil (keeps the authentic taste) in a wok or frying pan: 

Then add the cauliflower and give a quick stir. Break 2 eggs into a bowl, whisk briefly with a dash more of sesame seed oil, a pinch of salt, white pepper and a pinch of ginger powder (or add fresh if you prefer). Make a well in the "rice" and chuck in the egg mixture. Leave to heat for a few seconds and slowly begin to poke at it with a wooden spoon to break it up. When the egg is beginning to cook after a few more seconds, gradually begin to fold in the "rice":

I then add coconut aminos, a Whole30 alternative to soy sauce, however if you're not doing the Whole30, just pop in some light/dark soy sauce to taste. I go with about 2 tablespoons:

At this point you could chuck in any extras like spring onions (I usually would but I didn't have any), peas (not Whole30), or some king prawns:

It's a really simple dish to make, and tastes really authentic too! You could serve it with a simple salad or with a home made curry or as a side with some meat or fish!

I hope you enjoy this version of the takeaway classic... Even using the above recipe with normal rice is much better than ordering the greasy take away, but remember rice is off limits for anyone actively doing their Whole30 duties!

My Whole30 Results and Reintroductions so Far

I finished my Whole30 on Monday (now Sunday), and since then I've been reintroducing foods I've missed having in my diet. I was a little delayed on taking my measurements but am generally happy with the results. I usually sit at around 9st 4lbs when in peak fitness, so was thinking I'd like my results to show this (although I don't generally go by weight). My main concern was losing muscle mass, really I wanted to retain that and lose body fat %.

Here's what happened

Before:

After:

Eurgh, and my before and after pictures which I really didn't want to post (excuse the mess) but wanted to share as personally I can really see the definition of my muscles looking much better. My stomach is also less bloated. My bum is noticeably smaller (though sadly flatter) and my legs look stronger.  

Key Points:

Basically, by completing the Whole30 I lost a total of 5.4lbs, 4lbs of that was fat (a whopping 2.2%) but sadly I also lost 1.8lbs of muscle. My metabolic age also dropped by 2 years, to the minimum the scales will go (15 years less than real age).

I lost 2.25" from my belly button measurements, 0.75" from the narrowest part of my waist, 0.75" from my hips, 0.5" from each leg and my arms stayed the same. Overall though I'm definitely looking much leaner and feeling much stronger.

The best thing for me so far is having more energy, and loving the food I'm making and consuming.

My skin is clearing up but I still get breakouts, my IBS and bloating have reduced and other medical conditions are beginning to improve too. I realise it'll still take time and in an ideal world I would have continued fully W30 for another 30 days but I have too many plans for the next month. So for now, it's W30 99% of the time.

My Reintroductions:

Day 31 - Added gluten free oats, no bad side effects.

Day 32 - Four squares of dark chocolate, only non compliant ingredient was raw cane sugar.

Day 33 - Woke up with a headache and bunged up, although hayfever is feeling bad. Introduced Greek yogurt for breakfast and unfortunately this really upset my stomach. Could have been fighting a bug though as remained bunged up all day, dizzy with headache and tiredness. Also had a hot chocolate with almond milk in the evening, which felt ok and tasted good, making me realise I 100% never need to drink milk ever again!

Day 34 - Had gluten free granola (other than oats the only non compliant ingredient was honey), and tried the Greek yogurt again, this time no upset stomach. Really bad hayfever still though, although this I fear was made worse from "spring" cleaning and neighbours/council out mowing the grass surrounding our house!

Day 35 - Still having gluten free oats for breakfast, either with almond milk or Greek yogurt. Today I made my own hummus as it's one thing I've really been missing. This reintroduced chickpeas and unfortunately sulphites as the chickpeas I had in the cupboard contained them (I've learnt for next time). This tasted amazing and so far so good!

Day 36 - Still eating mostly compliant food although this evening my snack was this (halloumi the new food but I'd already introduced dairy in the form of yogurt):

I'll keep tracking my reintroductions but it's important to remember that what agrees with me, might not agree with you, but enjoy playing around with your reintroductions and try to use it as a good opportunity to make some new recipes instead of buying pre-made (like my hummus), that way you know exactly what's going into your food!

Home Made Cherry Energy Bars **RECIPE**

These are really sweet, you could probably get away with using less cherries. I used cashews this time but fancy making them again with almonds (my favourite) for more of a cherry bakewell taste! Simple to make and last around a week in an airtight container in the fridge. Since Nakd bars are allowed on Whole30, I figured I'd make my own. They're great for on the go energy or before exercise.

INGREDIENTS (makes 12 bars):

• 0.5 Cup of Dried Cherries (no added sugar)
• 10 x Dates (pitted)
• 1.5 Cups of Cashews
• 1 Tablespoon of Lucy Bee Coconut Oil
• 1-2 Tablespoons Water

METHOD:

1. Place all ingredients into a food processor and blitz until combined, adding more water if needed.
2. Scoop mixture into a silicone baking tray, pressing down to compress the mixture and refrigerate
3. Turn out the slab and slice up evenly into 12 bars (pizza cutter)
4. I store mine in an airtight container with baking paper separating the bars (they are sticky). 

Approximately 156 calories per bar.