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    Blog Posts by Jessica Ashley

    • Shine Get It Guide review: most popular fitness DVDs

      Minding your body and your budget at the same time might seem too tricky, especially if your aim is to lose weight or de-jiggle your biceps. With so many fitness DVDs on the market, we wanted to know if any of the top-sellers are the perfect solution to fun, effective exercise without the high costs of a gym membership, personal trainer, or expensive equipment.

      Shine's Get It Guide Gurus tested four of the hottest fitness DVDs out there, carefully measuring how difficult each workout was, how much they enjoyed it, and how much they ached the next day. They also got honest about whether they'd push play on the DVD ever again.

      The gurus rated the Zumba Fitness Total Body Transformation System their favorite of the four diverse workouts. Sure, the sizzling hot instructor helped keep them motivated when their footwork failed, and other DVDs may have made them the feel the burn even more. But Zumba proved to be such a blast, they didn't mind stumbling around their living rooms or sweating a

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    • Shine Get It Guide Review: hottest holiday toys

      The LeapFrog LeapPad Explorer may be flying off of shelves and parents may be willing to shell out big bucks for those that are remaining online.  But when Shine's Get It Guide Gurus put the holiday season's hottest toys to the test, the LeapPad Explorer brought disappointing ratings.

      What beat it out? Surprisingly, it was Air Swimmers, sea creatures that move through your home, and not always gracefully. While Air Swimmers has glitches, the mini-blimps outshone the tablets for tots, winning "favorite toy" by more than 20% of the votes. The least favorite toy was Monster High Dolls, only earning one vote among reviewers.

      The gurus and the children in their lives scrutinized top-selling toys, including Monster High Dolls, Air Swimmers, Lego Ninjago, and the LeapPad Explorer.  Toddlers to teenagers tore into the packages to see how fun each toy is and our gurus analyzed price, how simple they are to put together, which products fell apart, and which ones they'd spend good money to give

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