Healthier Living Tips for You and Grain Free Food for Your Pets

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #BeyondSummer #CollectiveBias 

Living a healthier lifestyle is something that is always on my mind. In fact, my husband and I both have a little device that counts each and every step we take so not only do we know how many steps we take each day so we can try and beat it the next day, but we also compete with each other to take more steps than the other person. It works for us! However, it’s not just us we have to think of…we have our children to think of too. We want to instill good habits and a love for exercise and living a healthy life.

Thankfully, for us, we have an amazing set of nature trails that opens up into our sub. As you can see, our kids absolutely LOVE to run through the trails. Aside from me yelling for them to stay on the path (Zack likes to run off the path and right through poison ivy. So far he hasn’t gotten it…I don’t know how that’s possible!), I enjoy walking the trails too. Earlier this week, my mom and I took the kids on the trails and in 1 hour we walked about 4000 steps!

Don’t have something to count your steps or cool nature trails? No problem! Try a few of the tips listed below to get your family moving and on their way to a much healthier lifestyle:

• Rainy day…that’s OK! Have a Wii Sports competition! I know…it’s a video game, but believe me, you will be working up a sweat in no time!
• Go for a family bike ride around the neighborhood.
• Take things back to the 70’s and 80’s and go to your local roller skating rink! I promise, your kids will have a blast. You may need ear plugs because they will play Uptown Funk about 10 times while you are there!
• Go for a walk every night after dinner. Make it a habit and try to walk a little further each time!
• See who can run up and down the stairs the most times in 1 minute. Best done right before bedtime…
• Visit your local museums for the day. Learn while getting some walking in!

You don’t need a fancy gym membership to get healthy! Just make it a point to eat healthy and choose to keep yourself moving! Eventually you will find yourself moving around more than you are sitting!

Our furry friends need us to make healthier choices for them too. Cats get a bad rap for being lazy, but our cat Roxie is anything but lazy. Anytime I get up and leave the room, she gets up and follows me. Other times she can be found running circles through our first floor. Now you know as well as I do, cats have a mind of their own and most cats (ours included) are indoor cats so you don’t exercise them like you do dogs (though…I would get a laser pointer if you don’t want one. Cats will chase that light ALL. DAY. LONG.). However, I make healthier choices for Roxie by purchasing Purina® Beyond® grain free dry cat food for her from my local Meijer store.

Personally, I prefer to eat a grain free diet. I know how much better it makes me feel so why wouldn’t I try to do the same for our furry friends? For Roxie, I chose the Purina® Beyond® Grain Free Ocean Whitefish & Egg Recipe dry cat food, the Purina® Beyond® Grain Free Wild Salmon wet food, and the Purina® Beyond® Chicken & Sweet Potato Recipe wet food. Wet cat food is a treat for Roxie. I don’t buy it regularly, but every once and awhile she gets it and she goes absolutely nuts for it!! I wish I was able to get a video of her eating it. She was purring really loud as she ate it! For more information on the Purina® Beyond® brand, visit them on Facebook and Twitter.

From now through June 23, 2015 Meijer ‘mPerks’ shoppers can take advantage of some pretty great savings on Purina® Beyond® products:

• Save $1 on any bag of Beyond Dog Treats
• Save $2 on any bag of Beyond Dry  Dog food
• Save $2 on any bag Beyond Dry Cat food
• Buy 2 Beyond Purees, Save $2
• Buy 2 Beyond 13 oz Wet Dog food, Save $2
• Buy 4 Beyond 3 oz Wet Cat food, Save $1

This grain free pet food contains absolutely no corn, no wheat or no soy. Roxie gives it two paws up!

I’ve shared different ways my family and I like to stay active and what I do for our cat Roxie to give her a healthy life, what do you do? Please leave a comment below with your amazing tip!