Be:Fit Review

I’ve been a bit of a coward! I wrote the preview to the Be:Fit show here. As you could tell, I was very excited and full of praise. Sadly, this was all very unnecessary.

Since I went to Be:Fit, I didn’t want to be mean a write a bad review, but I’ve come to the conclusion that I must be honest with my readers, even when my opinion isn’t good, how else are you guys meant to trust me?

BeFit

On March 28^th my Mother in Law Andrea, came to pick me up from Southend to go to Sussex, so that we could leave for Be:Fit bright and early on Saturday. Saturday was also my Mike’s home coming date (he’d been in California for work for two months). I was very excited for the weekend ahead!

By 7am Saturday morning, Andrea and I were on our way to my Sister in Law Emma’s house in Henfield. We had a few minutes to play with my nieces; Bethany and Abigail, before my Brother in Law Andrew was on Daddy Duty taking the girls to Ballet class.

We were meeting three of Emma’s close friends; Prue, Laura and Becky and we all headed to Horsham Train station, none of us were daft enough to even contemplating driving through London on a Saturday!

Laura had hired cars to take us to lunch (posh eh?!) at Wagamama’s (not so posh!) we had a glass of wine, some great fresh food and a big catch up, as we only see each other for the kids Birthdays. All of us, apart from me, were Mummy’s so they were relishing in faster eating/walking speeds and the joys of pressing the buttons at traffic lights and in lifts!!

When we got to Old Billingsgate, there were lots of people sat outside, we saw the hussle and bussle as a good sign of things to come.

Oh how disappointed we all were. For the last 4 years Be:Fit was called the Vitality Show and as you’ll have read in my preview, they were great, fun day’s out with lots to do and see and it was held in Earls Court.

Old Billingsgate, although an iconic and exquisite building, is half the size of Earls Court and as we walked in we saw a lot of SOLD OUT signs, not a great start. The stalls were tightly packed together and there was not enough room between them for people to comfortably move past each other. I spend the entire time saying “excuse me please”, “Sorry can I just get passed”, “Hello, Hello, HELLO!!” this was incredibly tiring and frustrating.

The stalls that were not already sold out, were very low on stock and because it was so crowded we didn’t feel we could stop and fully check out what was on show.

We did find a few lovely companies; Yurbud earphones, these are made with exercise in mind, Yurbud come in lots of colours and sizes for a perfect fit.

Little Miracles Tea's were giving out free bottles of their drinks, they've converted my views on Green Tea. For years, everyone has said how green tea helps with dieting, cleansing the body and lighting up the mind. What people never tell you is that green tea is vile! Little Miracles green tea with ginseng, pomegranate, acai and agave are refreshing and delicious!

Last year at the Vitality show I had a facial by the Neal Yard Team, since then I've been an avid fan and they had a stall a Be:Fit. I spent 10 minutes trying on all their gorgeous lotions and creams, they never disappoint but there were no facials available this year - boo!!

Half way through Be:Fit a lady practically jumped out at us holding clear and orange tubs of what looked like frog spawn and it included a spoon?!? We added the pots to our bag with Mike announcing that he would not be trying it at all.

We all know I'm a greedy bugger, up for anything, a real foodie who is always on a diet but I tried the frog spawn and it was so tasty! The company was called The Chia Company and Chia seeds are a flowering plant which is part of the mint family. The pots we were given were chia seeds, coconut milk and banana - simple but very yummy despite it's appearance, would highly recommend these as breakfast pots or dessert instead of calorific rice pudding.

Not frog spawn, yummy chia seed and banana pudding!

After getting around the ground floor in 30 minutes, we decide that we’d have a look upstairs. 

We went to a lift, we were told they had been turned off to stop people crowding them (bad excuse, the press office knew I was coming and that I was in a wheelchair). We stood for 15 minutes waiting for them to be put on. 

We eventually got upstairs, not via the customer lift but the dirty, foul smelling service lift, which we couldn’t even get in until they’d cleared half a dozen black sacks in the doorway.

Upstairs was as dire as the lower floor, too packed, empty stools and very uninspiring.

After 50 minutes we gave up. Deflated, disappointed and annoyed we decided to leave. The only two highlights of the show were when Athlete Denise Lewis walked passed and said Hello and when half way through, my boy Mike arrived with a huge beard, looking very jetlagged and completely out of his depth at a women's exhibition!

Andrea, Emma, Prue, Laura and Becky made my day; laughing, joking and gossiping, especially as I was suffering and in a lot of pain, but sadly, my party and I were not impressed at all by Be:Fit, I will remain on their mailing list for next year, but whether I go next year or not is debatable, it's such a shame they had a great show and have ruined it.

L x

P.S My next blog will be from Australia! Mike has a work commitment there and we had just enough time and money to go to Oz a few days earlier to catch up with family and friends. It's very last minute, we booked it 4 days ago, we leave in 2 days - I cannot wait!