It’s January, 2010 and many men and women have already braved the barbells at the gym (hopefully more than once). With New Year’s comes New Year’s resolutions, one of the most common being exercise more and eat less. (In my case it’s exercise the same and drink more—water, not caffeine.) But as so many resolution makers know, it’s can be slow going turning the desire to get fit into a permanent lifestyle. After a couple weeks it’s easy to slip back into bed and back into old habits.

So how do you stay motivated to get fit when your favorite sitcom (or favorite Barcalounger) is calling your name? You grab a workout towel from Words to Sweat By and, well, break a sweat! Whimsical Walney, a good Twitter friend of mine, recently launched a wonderful line of motivational workout towels “with attitude.” Sayings include: “No jiggle in the wiggle;” “’C’ is for crunches not cookies;” and “Strength. Compassion. Peace.”  Yes, Words to Sweat By might be just what the personal trainer ordered!

Whimsical Walney sent me the “Healthy. Strong. Happy.” workout towel to review on the Daily Dish. It arrived in a cute organza bag complete with “Cherish” charm attached. The charm lasted two seconds on the bag before it was permanently attached to my purse and then moved to my cell phone so I could see it all the time. I was motivated already and hadn’t even opened the towel! The 100% cotton towel was a good gym size at 16”x24” and had a simple yet perfect applique on the front. I wanted to make sure the towel was washer and dryer friendly so I immediately threw it in the wash with some other towels to test its durability. It came out crisp and clean, no bleeding, no fraying.

We have a treadmill at home which I use when I don’t hit the gym so I hung the towel over one of the arm rails with the mantra facing me so I could glance at it while doing a 10% incline at 4.2 MPH. That incline really sucks when it’s your third time doing it in a 30-minute time frame. And believe me, I also used that towel to mop up plenty of sweat (Words to Sweat By is completely accurate). I’d have taken a picture to prove it but I think my husband used my favorite workout towel to blow his nose at some point; trust me, you wouldn’t want me to take a picture of the towel in its current state! The only thing I wish is for the towels to be a bit thicker and softer since I tend to sweat A LOT.

Along with her Words to Sweat By workout towels on Etsy, Whimsical Walney has a Words to Sweat By blog with health and fitness tips and tricks to keep you wiggling that jiggling away. Though it’s too late to stuff these great little motivational towels in stockings for the holidays, they do make a fun gift for friends and family who have set that New Year’s resolution to get and stay fit in 2010. Just remember, “Practice makes practice!”

*** Whimsical Walney is helping you pay it—or rather motivate it—forward by giving two (2) Words to Sweat By towels to each of two (2) winners! Those winners will get to keep one towel and pass along the second towel to a friend or family member. Here’s how to enter. You can do as many of these as you’d like. Each one is worth one entry into our giveaway; please leave a separate comment for each one you do:

•   Leave a comment telling us your least favorite exercise.
•   Visit the Words to Sweat By Etsy shop and leave a comment telling us your favorite workout towel.
•   Become a fan of Whimsical Walney on Facebook and leave a comment telling us you’re her newest fan.
•   Follow Whimsical Walney on Twitter and leave a comment telling is you’re her newest follower.
•   Tweet about this giveaway and leave a comment with the URL of your tweet.
•   Blog about this giveaway and leave a comment with the URL to your blog post.

Include a valid email address for our drawing. We’ll draw the winners from the comments and contact them via email. Deadline: January 14, 2009 (midnight). The winner will have 24 hours to claim her prize or a new winner will be chosen.

• Congratulations to Melissa and Cassie M., the winners of the Words to Sweat By giveaway! Thank you to everyone who took the time to read the review and add a comment. Keep reading the Daily Dish for your chance to participate in more giveaways!

tags exercise, fitness, Goals, Health, Motivation, New Year's resolutions, Towels, workout

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 7th, 2010 at 1:00 am and is filed under Daily Dish. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.