Tips For Leading a Healthy, Active Lifestyle #WWSummerAtAhold #healthyeating #IC #ad

This post was sponsored by Weight Watchers® International as part of an Influencer Activation for Influence Central and all opinions expressed in my post are my own.

A few years ago my kids were both on medication that caused them to gain a great amount of weight each.  It was horrible – they felt poorly, their self confidence disappeared and their desire to have fun was simply gone.  As soon as I could get the doctor to take them off those meds, I did.  But we needed to help them get back to where they had been physically and mentally.

The first thing we did was work on activity.  We tried to incorporate some sort of activity in all aspects of their lives.

Activity

Get outside – there are two things we do outside.  First we are active with bike riding, hiking, walking, skateboarding, scooters, cliff walking, waterfall “walking”, swimming and more.  It all depends on the weather.  But we also started riding horses and moved on to eventually owning three horses.  Owning horses is not for everyone but all outdoor activities are more fun with dogs.  Dogs also give you a reason to WANT to be outside and be active.  Their joy is contagious.  With horses – you have no choice but to get exercise (unless you pay full board) – there are stalls to clean, grain bins to fill, water troughs to fill, bedding to spread and hay bales to feed.  Not to mention the brushing, cleaning, caring and riding of the horses themselves.  Just tacking up a horse can burn a bunch of calories and when you need to tack up three to eight horses (because of course you ride with friends) – you really work up a sweat.

Snacks

Since we do own horses we are not home much – we are always at the barn.  But the practice holds true no matter what you do in your life.  We keep two coolers and a snack basket in my car at all times.  It is a little more difficult in summer months because I need to keep them also stocked with ice etc but we do it.  Coolers allow us to be active and outside without stopping at convenience stores and fast food restaurants.  What are some things we keep in our cooler?  One cooler is always full of drinks and the second cooler is full of snacks.  The snack basket contains foods that do not need any type of special care.  We keep mandarin oranges and apples in the cooler for easy access to fruit.  We also always have fruit options available at home at all times – things they can easily grab any time we want.  For the “special” treats we often have Weight Watchers® Candies or Weight Watchers® Cheese which we can easily find at our local Stop & Shop.  Weight Watchers provides us with meal and snack options that allow us to make smarter choices while still being able to enjoy that special treat.

Right now you can buy any 3 participating Weight Watchers® products, save $2. Limited quantity of offers.  The coupon is available from 04/23/17 – 05/20/17.  Simply search for coupon by entering Weight Watchers® brand name and download coupons via the grocery retailer’s reward card.  Check out the Stop & Shop savings and Rewards.

Lunches/Meals

So we keep activity up and appropriate snacks available both at home and while we are traveling.  But we still need to deal with meals.  This part is actually quite easy because neither my kids nor my husband and I generally buy lunch.  We most often will bring our own lunch which allows us more flexibility and to control what we have as options.  We tend to not eat basic bread for our sandwiches.  First of all we want much more excitement than that – second we love to be more creative.  One way we achieve that goal is with Flatout® Flatbread endorsed by Weight Watchers®.   We use them for peanut butter in the morning as well as sandwiches for lunch.

We also use the Flatout® Protein Up Core 12 and Flatout® Protein Up Red Pepper Hummus for delicious sandwiches and snacking!  So many awesome Flatout® options to allow the ultimate meal creativity as well as deliciousness.  Thanks to Flatout® Thin Crust Flatbread Pizza Rosemary Olive Oil we can still even have our pizza any time we want!  You don’t need to miss out on anything!

These allow us to make seriously more attractive sandwiches and if our food looks amazing – we are more likely to eat it and enjoy it.

Flatout® Flatbread endorsed by Weight Watchers® have so many different variations available.  Check out this awesome photo chart our local Stop & Shop had available.

Another treat like bread is  Arnold® Sandwich Thins® rolls endorsed by Weight Watchers®.  I love toasting these up (yes they fit in the toaster) and crisp up nicely.  Then I spread some hummus on them, peanut butter or cream cheese.  YUM!

Lastly, we always keep JOLLY TIME® Healthy Pop® Popcorn endorsed by Weight Watchers® at home.  We often will have a movie night and this popcorn is so much better for us than the movie theater popcorn and totally tastes awesome.

Changes like these have made all the difference.  Don’t get me wrong we do occasionally still stop for fast food or some other special treat.  We make it very clear that we are not denying ourselves anything – we just have toned it all down a great deal and everyone in the family feels so much better and is definitely happier.

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