Want To Kickstart Your Wellness Plans? These 10 Top Brands Can Help

A year of pandemic living has taken a toll on our physical and mental health. Many of us are making grand plans to overhaul our wellness regime in the months ahead: fitness challenges, switching to a predominantly plant-based diet, seeking out sustainable alternatives… It feels like we’ve spent months just trying to get by, so the small changes we adopt now will be the ones we’re sticking to in the months ahead.

We’ve rounded up some of the top brands to know if you’re looking to make healthy changes, whether it’s home-testing for food intolerances, a fitness app that provides you with personalised training plans, or sustainable wellbeing alternatives that may help you - without hurting the planet.

The Sustainable Subscription Plan For Your Teeth

From flowers to books, we love a monthly subscription package - and now our daily hygiene routine can benefit from one too. Floe Oral Care delivers two fluoride toothpastes (one designed to help whiten in daytime; the other to strengthen teeth at night), a manual Curaprox toothbrush and a natural, activated charcoal floss with peppermint oil to your door every three months.

With tasty toothpaste flavours - icy mint and lavender mint - and sustainability high on the agenda, Floe wants to automate good hygiene habits, especially for millennials who tend to spend three times the national average on dental care, but mostly for cosmetic rather than essential treatments (they have the poorest oral care routines of any age group, with an estimated 85% suffering from undetected tooth decay, according to data from the Oral Health Foundation).

Floe has partnered with recycling schemes to stop their toothbrushes ending up as landfill; instead, they’re upcycled into new products (just send them back once you’re done with them, using the free returns sticker).

Click here to try your first Floe box. Use code HELLOFLOE to get 50% off your first box
Click here to for the chance to win a five-star trip to the Canary Islands and teeth whitening treatments Worth over £1,500!

The Fitness App Using AI To Create A Bespoke Training Plan For You

Many of us are in a fitness rut as a result of this pandemic, while others are trying to cobble together makeshift fitness schedules without the proper guidance we need.

This is where HumanGo comes in: it’s a fitness app that gives users personalised training plans, detailing their workouts and providing social connection in order for them to interact and train with fellow athletes. The app is designed for fitness coaches as well as fitness buffs, connecting with your sport watch to load data onto the app, which then uses AI to create a bespoke training plan and structured workouts, delivered to your phone and watch.

Training plans are optimised in real time, ensuring that keen athletes don’t overtrain but do work out in a way that complements their fatigue recovery. HumanGo offers busy users plenty of opportunities for social exercising, with group challenges and workouts.

Click here for your own personalised training plan from HumanGo

The Health Apparel Brand That Eliminates The Need For Disposable Hygiene Products

We don’t often talk about our intimate hygiene; topics like period bleeding, sweaty knickers or leaking milk when you’re breastfeeding don’t slot themselves into everyday conversation too easily, do they? Modibodi is committed to breaking down taboos and talking about leaks because they’re a part of life, as well as doing something about the staggering amount of waste produced from intimate hygiene products. Modibodi is on a mission to “liberate us all from endless amounts of landfill” with its selection of pants that eliminate the need for disposable pads and tampons.

The brand is best-known for its stylish period pants in bikini and hi-waist styles in comfy, sustainable fabrics like bamboo viscose and merino wool, which now feature 24-hour maximum absorbency for heavy periods and frequent bladder leaks. The design protects from the front right to the back waistband, so you can wear them for 24 hours’ straight, even while sleeping.

Modibodi’s apparel range includes styles for teens and men, as well as swimwear, activewear, adaptive and maternity ranges.

Click here for 10% off your first purchase at Modibodi. Use code MBBAG4 and get a free large wet bag, valued at £10, with your purchase (excludes packs, sale items and gift cards)

The Skincare Gadgets To Improve Your Complexion

The at-home skincare revolution has arrived. Now, thanks to impressive technological advances, it’s never been easier to improve our complexions in the comfort of our homes.

Opatra is a multi-award-winning British beauty brand known for their versatile range of skincare products and devices, which can be used on any skin type and are favourites of customers and beauty aestheticians across the world.

Opatra’s Synergy is a home use beauty device. Portable and handheld, it uses NASA-inspired technology and combines infra-red light, red and green LED light-emitting diodes to help improve skin’s overall appearance.

Opatra’s Cleanlift device is another hi-tech home beauty tool, and a Beauty Awards London 2020 winner, which provides deep cleaning courtesy of a 24K gold-plated spatula. The ultrasonic tool eliminates dirt and oil, extracts blackheads and whiteheads and deeply exfoliates the skin. Choose from two modes, “Clean” to remove dead skin cells; “Lift” to stimulate circulation and smooth the skin.

Click here for Opatra’s high-tech beauty buys. Use code CHECKLIST10 for 10% off.

The Lip Gel That Helps To Prevent Cold Sores

Unsightly, contagious and painful, cold sores are all-too common - in fact, globally, it’s estimated that two-thirds of the population aged 50 and under are carrying the virus which causes cold sores, according to the WHO. Outbreaks can be caused from a range of factors like sunlight, stress and hormonal imbalances, and when cold sores are visible, they’re a total nuisance, especially because lifestyles need to be modified (no kissing, OK?).

There’s a new lip gel that promises to stop that cold sore outbreak from happening. lipivir® is designed to be applied to the lips twice daily (morning and evening). Made with polyethylene glycols, it creates an internal barrier against the viral signalling which is needed for cold sores to form.

Good news: the transparent gel can be worn underneath makeup like lipstick and lip glosses. lipivir® is also cruelty-free, vegan-friendly and easily slips into any pocket or handbag.

Click here and get 25% off you first order of lipivir®

The Plant-Based Meals That Let You Indulge - Without The Carbs

Restricting too much never works when we’re trying to embrace healthier lifestyle choices, which is where Eat Water* comes in. The brand’s plant-based, zero-carb foods include pasta, chilled meals, sauces and soon-to-be-launched meal kits.

The Slim Pasta, with fewer than 10 calories per 100g, is especially popular: it’s gluten-free, fat-free and sugar-free, keto-diet friendly, and fans insist it “tastes just like the real thing.” Eat Water’s foods contain Juroat, a gluten-free oat fibre, and konjac, an Asian plant known for its high fibre content and taste, which can closely mimic regular pasta for all of the indulgence and none of the guilt.

Optimise the taste of Eat Water’s pasta, rice and noodles by mixing with your favourite sauces and vegetables. These are a popular option for anyone looking to lose weight as part of a balanced diet.

Click here to save 50% off on Eat Water foods

*Eat Water foods contain konjac, which is rich in glucomamman, an ingredient approved by EFSA for weight loss

The Home Office Chair To Help Assuage Your Back Discomfort

Style and comfort should go hand in hand in our workspace chairs, especially those on display in our homes. While chairs you sit in for hours do need to prioritise comfort, they can also look good, too. Back in Action is a brand with over 30 years’ experience in design-led ergonomic furniture for home and office, with high approval ratings amongst customers looking for everything from Balans chairs to those that encourage movement while working.

Not every chair style works for every individual; some people require additional lumbar support, especially if they’re sitting for short periods, while if you’re at a desk for hours, a chair that encourages movement is better for your spine.

Back in Action’s selection combines ergonomics with aesthetic appeal, for a selection of modern, stylish choices to suit any space. Manufactured in European factories, these chairs combine quality with looks, too.

Click here for the full selection of Back in Action’s ergonomic home office chairs

The Insoles To Relieve Your Heel Pain

All too often, physical discomfort holds us back from enjoying everyday activities as well as from pursuing our wellness goals. Which is why if you’ve ever had any discomfort while walking or running, indoors or out, FootActive insoles could be a gamechanger.

Designed by podiatrists to help alleviate heel discomfort and provide respite from plantar fasciitis symptoms - especially common in runners and those constantly on their feet - FootActive makes orthotic insoles that help support your ankles and reduce strain on the plantar fascia ligament.

These supportive insoles can also help alleviate other feet-related issues, like arch discomfort or symptoms caused from ankles rolling inwards. FootActive also has a range of insoles available for adults and kids, to make everything from sports to wearing high heels more comfortable and pleasant.

Click here to shop FootActive’s plantar fasciitis insoles

The Home Fitness Trainer That Allows You To Work Out Whenever You Want

If there’s one thing we’ve learned from lockdown life, it’s that our homes can become workspaces, schools, nurseries, even gyms. You don’t even need masses of space to fit in gym equipment, like a full-body cardio-meets-muscle-toning trainer like the Max Trainer from Bowflex.

The Max trainer comes in a choice of four different models, which all feature the 14-minute Max Interval Workout programme. The programme combines intense intervals with short recovery periods and promises to burn more calories, faster.

The Max Trainer is also a favourite for its compact size, taking up half the space of the average cross-trainer, so it can comfortably fit anywhere you want to put it. You can further enhance your workout with a subscription to the Bowflex JRNY app, which acts as a virtual coach to encourage you to set - and beat - fitness goals and daily milestones. It will also tailor workouts to your ability and skill levels.

Click here to see for more information on the Bowflex Max Trainer - visit any store to try it out for yourself

The Home Testing Kits For Food Sensitivity, Food Intolerance and COVID-19

Empowering people with at home testing kits is one legacy of the pandemic, and very much the way of the future. Check My Body Health provides a range of home-to-lab tests, including food sensitivity tests, food intolerance tests and COVID-19 tests. The results from these tests allow people to make lifestyle changes and swaps for a healthier lifestyle, or to avoid anything that doesn’t agree with them.

We all know the foods we eat can affect everything from our physical health to our moods: these food sensitivity tests determine sensitivities on up to 970 food and non-food items. Check My Body Health’s food intolerance tests, done by finger prick, measure IgG antibody levels against 134 key food and non-food items, testing for intolerances to wheat, gluten, dairy, meat, fish and more.

Results are delivered digitally three to five days after your sample is received, and you can also equip yourself with a selection of Covid-19 tests. Check My Body Health is a UK Government approved provider of COVID-19 testing. They provide PCR Self-Swab, Fit To Travel, Test To Release and Antibody tests that you can do at home and will be tested by an ISO and UKAS accredited laboratory in the UK, which adheres to the highest standards of quality assurance.

Click here to get your testing kits from Check My Body Health, starting at £18

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