5 Tips for a More Healthy Lifestyle with Primo Water

Decide to make some simple health goals for yourself and your family with these 5 Tips for a More Healthy Lifestyle with Primo Water!

This post is sponsored by Primo Water. All opinions and text are 100% my own.

I have never been huge on New Year’s Resolutions. I always found that once I fell off the resolution wagon, there was no motivation to get back on. This year I decided to make some simple goals for myself and my family to help us live a more healthy lifestyle. These healthy lifestyle tips have been great to have. They offer me more flexibility and are more forgiving if I fall a little short every once and awhile. This year is already moving at warp speed, but my goals are still alive and well and I have found some great ways to make progress towards accomplishing them.

5 TIPS FOR A MORE HEALTHY LIFESTYLE WITH PRIMO WATER
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Without further adieu, I present my 5 Tips to Help Your Family Live a More Healthy Lifestyle!

#1) Family Exercise

I grew up in a vastly different world than the one my kids are growing up in now. I used to play outside because frankly, that was all there was to do. This generation, however, has way more entertainment options available to them than I ever did – and they are all portable. The challenge I have faced as a parent, and I am sure I am not alone in this, is how to get my kids to want to exercise. The strategy that seems to work best for our family is to lead by example.

Depending on the weather, and how much time we have, I try to initiate some sort of family exercise. My boys are 10 and 13, so sometimes it is hard to pry them away from their devices. When they were younger they were happy running around the backyard with the dogs or having a fun family dance party in the living room.

Now that they are a little bit older, they are more interested in activities that get them out of the house. They enjoy taking a 30-minute walk or jog around the neighborhood or taking a quick drive to the local park to kick around a soccer ball. My oldest son has also become interested in hiking and is even talking about joining some sort of team sport next year. No matter your kids’ ages, you can accomplish this fitness goal by simply moving! This tip also feeds perfectly into my next one!

#2) Reconnect as a Family

My goal is to take at least 30 minutes a day to reconnect and get on the same page as a family unit. For my kids, this means absolutely no screens for the entire time we are spending together. It is just too easy to be physically present and yet mentally completely elsewhere. Our family exercise time sometimes doubles to accomplish both of these tasks simultaneously.

I am painfully aware that most families do not have their days consistently scheduled out. Most families exist in the midst of chaotic work schedules, school schedules, and extracurriculars. My recommendation is to look for these 30-minute blocks of time wherever you can find them; Driving in the car in traffic, sitting down to eat a meal, cleaning up after dinner, or even while folding the laundry. It does not matter what you do, as long as you are all present together.

#3) Stay Hydrated

We used to be that family that went through hundreds of single-use water bottles a month. My husband is notorious for opening a bottle of water and forgetting about it. When it got to the point where I had a dozen half-finished bottles in my fridge and no one drinking them because there was no way of telling whose was whose, I decided I needed to make a change. I discovered Primo Water and it has seriously changed our lives for the better.

Primo water is a bulk water system that allows you to choose between two water options for your home. Option 1) Exchange water which goes through a 9-step purification process including reverse osmosis with minerals added for taste. Option 2) Refill water which is self-service and goes through a 5-step purification process including reverse osmosis with no minerals added. At my home, we frequent the Primo refill machines, or Glacier Water as they are branded here on the West Coast. The machines are easily found in 45k locations Nationwide and in Canada at popular retail locations such as Walmart, Lowe’s, Home Depot, Kroger, and Sam’s Club.

When we transitioned to a bulk water household my main goal was to become more environmentally friendly and set a better example for my kids. What I did not expect to happen was the positive change in my entire family’s overall health. Altogether, we have more energy, better focus, and honestly, my skin has never looked better. Bulk water households actually drink an average of 25% more water each day.

In the beginning, we kept the single-use bottles that we already had on hand and filled them up with Primo water. Then to help get the kids more on board, we transitioned to insulated water bottles and cool stickers to decorate them with. My kids absolutely love them and take the bottles everywhere they go. Who knew that personalized water bottles and an endless supply of convenient Primo water was all it would take to get my kids to finally take hydration seriously?! We’ve even set water drinking goals using this tracking chart to help them see the good they’re doing for their bodies!

#4) Snack Healthy

I do my best to avoid feeding my kids from a drive-thru, but like most parents, sometimes you give in to the convenience of quick food. I have found that having healthy “anytime” snacks on hand has allowed my kids the freedom to manage their hunger until I am able to get dinner on the table. Before, when my kids got “hangry,” I would find myself weighing my options. Which was better? Ordering a pizza and knowing the hormonal hunger-induced rage would soon end, or attempting to throw a quick dinner together amidst the complaints of starvation and glaring eyes. I chose pizza a lot.

I like to keep a lot of apples, bananas, carrots, celery, and string cheese on hand. As the kids got older, I’d to portion out small servings of our leftover dinners, soups, and other freezer-friendly meals they could put in the microwave themselves if dinner is a couple of hours away. This simple philosophy has enabled us to cut down a lot on our take-out nights by allowing me more time to prepare meals that I can feel proud about serving my family, which brings me to my last tip.

#5) Fuel Smarter

When it comes to meal time, I need to have easy dinner recipes on hand that allow me to have dinner on the table in 30 minutes. There are nights when the reason I opt for take-out is solely that I do not have an extra hour of time to cook. Between doing laundry, helping with homework, and running a household, I could use a few extra hours in each day. Since the length of our days is tied pretty securely to science, I have to find ways to improvise.

I have a mental list of recipes my family loves, are ready in about 30 minutes, and that we almost always have the ingredients for – like these Sheet Pan Chicken Fajitas and Garlic Butter Pork Chops. I also love these go-to meals because they save us from ordering out. Typically, in a time pinch, we would order combo meals with soft drinks included. However, when I have easy dinner ideas to fall back on we’re not being tempted with the convenience of sugary drinks. We already have an endless supply of Primo water at home, so there is no temptation to fall victim to adding carbonated soda and sugary lemonades to our meals.

The best way to achieve better overall health is just to have a plan and be aware of some of the simple changes you can make to help you reach your goals. These 5 tips are a great starting off point and can be modified to fit every family’s individual needs.

Ready to take the plunge? Use promo code DRINKPRIMOWATER25 to receive 25% off ALL dispensers!! Bonus: now through April 22nd Primo is giving you one free insulated water bottle with every dispenser purchase AND you’ll get a coupon for your first 5-gallon bottle after purchase. Shipping is free to 48 states, so what are you waiting for? Discover the Primo Effect!