I’ve been truly inspired by bestselling author and ‘home cook’ Sally Bee. A few recipes from the mama of three’s new book, The Recipe for Life: Healthy Eating For Real People, have already become favourites (great, fresh ingredients, not too many steps, scrummy results).

Chatting to Sally mid-book launch, it’s her very ‘real’ positivity and infectious enthusiasm that has made me super-motivated to rethink my eating habits. She certainly makes it easy: the ingredients she draws on are neither too expensive or hard to get hold of and herbs and spices are used in abundance.

But what makes Sally’s mission so inspirational is the extraordinary story behind it. In her first book, The Secret Ingredient, she wrote movingly and frankly of the multiple heart attacks she suffered, out of the blue, at aged 36. Against all odds, Sally survived, hour by hour, day by day, and sought out the healthy eating and living strategies that led to her remarkable recovery.

Writing from the perspective of a wife and mother, both books make for humbling, instantly grounding reads (Sally recalls, for example, taking all day to get washed and dressed so she could be driven to the school gate, step out of the car at the very last minute and greet her five year old son with a hug).

With The Recipe for Life, she looks to the future, giving yet more of her realistic, characteristically ‘can do’ advice for making healthy eating and exercise a part of everyday life. There are heaps of recipes to suit all seasons and tastes (along with some crowd-pleasing puds!).

Here, for nonstopmama, Sally shares some of her guidlines for eating healthily and staying fit and well. ’These simple tips can help you make healthier choices and will be your insurance policy for the future,’ she explains. ‘The most important factors are eating the right kind of food and the right amount and being as active as possible. That doesn’t mean you have to spend every evening at the gym wearing purple lycra, but it does mean that you should walk instead of ride, take the stairs instead of the lift and just move as quickly as you can as often as you can!’.

Sally Bee’s tips for being a healthy nonstopmama! Read more.

Call them the Charlie’s Angels of the mama beauty market. Three girlfriends and mamas on a mission to give post-baby bodies the pampering they deserve, with specialist, high-tech formulas that tackle, um, common concerns head-on.

Not that Sian Sutherland, Tanya Kazeminy Mackay, Kathy Miller – founders, with fourth, US-based partner, Jill Dunk, of the Mama Mio skincare range – are the types to blush easily. Theirs, after all, is the award-winning line-up featuring products such as Bootcamp for Boobs (and Butts, come to that), Tummy Toner Skin Tightener, Goodbye Stretch Marks and a Shrink To Fit Cellulite Cream. Talk about creating products designed to ‘do what it says on the tube’. The paraben-free formulas look gorgeous, too, smell lovely and are easy to use, which helps a mama to stay motivated about slathering them on, morning and night. Read more.

A new week, another countdown to the next Strictly (can you tell we’re big fans of the giant glitterball?). We were thrilled that Tess Daly – who nonstopmama last interviewed just after we launched a year ago – agreed to take a few moments to catch up with us.

Besides co-hosting Strictly Come Dancing, nonstopmama of two Tess and her husband, Vernon Kay, are patrons of Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital (GOSH). Tess writes frankly about their personal experiences of parenthood and her pregnancies with daughters Phoebe and Amber in her book, The Baby Diaries.

Meanwhile, her glamorously-packaged, signature beauty range for Marks and Spencer – Tess Daly Beauty – has just been expanded to include skincare. Now in stores, the Tess Daly Skincare collection includes everyday essentials plus clever ‘cheats’ such as the Daly Light (£9.50) skin-illuminating fluid. Also new this season, we love the Daly Body Sheen (£15), a swipe-it-anywhere glow-getter which comes in a gorgeous, giant compact, pictured below (it would make a fab Christmas pressie).

When you get home from filming Strictly, how keen are you to get the heels and make-up off?!

I’m usually home at around midnight, after a 14 hour day. So, yes, it’s make-up off and bed!

Now that temperatures are dropping, will you makes changes to your skincare routine?

The colder weather does dry out the skin, so I use lashings of moisturiser. And, on top of that, I use my Daly Light illuminiser, which puts the glow back intro dehydrated or tired-looking skin. It gives you that lovely, radiant, summer-looking skin. I apply it over my moisturiser and before make-up.

And for the body?

I do exfoliate daily in the shower, to remove dry skin. And I love the Daly Body Sheen – it illuminates the skin, giving it a gorgeous, all-over glow. I’ve given all the dancers on Strictly the Daly Legs cream, and Alesha and the lady celebs have had goodie bags including the Body Sheen!

OK, school run beauty – make an effort or wash and go?

Like every woman I know, I’m always short on time. I have been lucky enough to work with some of the world’s top make-up professionals and have picked up a lot of invaluable tips and advice along the way. So, the essentials I don’t leave home without are tinted moisturiser, cream blush, a little illuminiser around the eyes – this is one of the fab make-up tricks I’ve picked up from make-up artists I’ve worked with – and a little mascara.

Tess Daly Beauty products are available exclusively at Marks & Spencer stores nationwide, or online at marksandspencer.com.

After running our review of the first Spanx ‘Slimming Swimsuit’, we were contacted by the online boutique Beau Dame Lingerie, which specialises in expertly, um, constructed ‘shapewear’. We’d already heard about Beau Dame from a Dutch mama, who raved about the fact that it stocks plus sizes, too, and has a wide range of pretty and modern styles. After reconstructive breast surgery, she’d treated herself to a few confidence re-building buys from the boutique.

There’s a good choice of one pieces, ranging from the simple (like this one by Panache, right – currently on sale at £11.95) to a frilly, polka-dot ‘Miraclesuit’ (pricier, at £90). Like the Spanx Slimming Swimsuit, the latter takes some getting into, but once you’re in, it feels like it’s supporting you more than a normal suit (helping you walk a little taller). And, while we are definitely of the view that beauty comes in all shapes and sizes – with real life lumps, bumps and all – a cossie that makes a girl feel a bit more supported when she exits the changing room is worth knowing about, no? Check out the full range (including maternity pieces) at beaudamelingerie.co.uk.

We love a multi-tasking beauty product at nonstopmama – anything to help a girl feel more pulled together (‘polished’ may be pushing it) in as little time as possible – and here’s one of our latest discoveries. It’s not new, it’s just (we think) fab: Aveda’s Energizing Composition (£18). A bit of a treat (although you could make one bottle last for ages), it’s billed as a body oil but can also be added to a bath (or foot soak) or applied to the scalp. We have even used it, super-sparingly, to add shine and a bit of control to unruly (grown-up) curls. But, the clincher for us, is the smell. Gorgeous. Uplifting. Yet calming, too. It makes you take a deep breath and feel ready to face the world (outside the bathroom, where you’re hiding for a few moments) again. Mmmm …