Enjoying the sun and making smart Steps with Walgreens #BalanceRewards

This is a sponsored post.

One thing we are adamant about with our kids is that they grow up in an active family.  We try and go biking, hiking, and exploring whenever possible, but when we’re not able to do that, we simply walk everywhere.  With spring weather slowly arriving in the Pacific Northwest, we’ve been loving all the sun and taking every opportunity to get outside and be active. 

With weather predicted to be in the 70s over Easter weekend, we saw it as the perfect opportunity to head out of the city and explore Chuckanut Drive and Bellingham as a family… and maybe even sneak in a quick hike.  Of course, that means snacks for the trail and for the trip up north so while my daughter was in school, little man and I decided to enjoy some sunshine and walk over to our local Walgreens to do a little shopping for the weekend.

In addition to snacks for the trail/road, I was also interested in learning more about the new Steps campaign at Walgreens through their Balance Rewards program that encourages their members to record their fitness achievement and awards points for each task.  Since hubby and I already wear smart pedometers daily, I was excited to see how we could use the data we’re already collecting and earn points for stuff we’re already buying.  But, in addition to earning points, I saw it as a great way to teach the kiddos about the importance of daily activity and was hoping to get a pedometer for our daughter as well.

We had planned on asking about the Steps program as soon as we got to Walgreens, but we got distracted as soon as we walked in the door and started our shopping instead.  We headed around the store and picked up nuts and seeds, granola bites, bars, dried fruits, beef jerky, and more, and then we headed over to check out their selection of pedometers, activity trackers, heart monitors and fitness gadgets to see if there was something we could use.

I was really surprised by the selection of fitness and wellness gadgets and spent quite a bit of time perusing the shelves.  I was seeing everything from basic fitness tools to electronics you can wear on your wrist, as well as some things I had never seen before that I was curious about, like the LifeStrength ionic bracelet touted as “the vitamin you wear”. 

Curiosity got the best of me and I took one up to the register to check the price while I purchased all our other treats.  Up at the register, a quick chat with the manager gave us everything we were looking for about the Steps program as well as an awesome Walgreens branded pedometer and bag that they had for promotional use that would be perfect for our hike.  And, then in the end, I surprised myself by adding the LifeStrength band to my order as well so we could check it out on our busy weekend ahead and see if we noticed a difference.

When we got home, I packed our bag for our journey, filled up some water bottles to chill in the fridge, and hopped on the computer to start earning Balance Rewards points for all the upcoming activities. It was mere minutes and I had successfully joined the Steps program and then I explored the site a little bit to see all that it offered.  I was really happy when I realized that you can actually sync smart activity trackers like the FitBits that hubby and I both wear right to your Steps account so you don’t have to remember to log each mile manually. 

You can also earn rewards for making fitness goals for yourself, weighing yourself, buying fitness related items at Walgreens, participating in local walk/runs/triathalons and more.  If you haven’t already, I urge you to start a Steps account through the Balance Rewards program.  It’s free to join, simple to sign up for, and it’s a great way to motivate yourself and your family. 

While the jury is still out on whether the LifeStrength I bought makes a noticeable difference in how I feel, getting outside in the sunshine with my favorite people certainly makes a difference in my outlook. Even though I woke up to a rather gloomy Monday, I still feel better knowing how active we were over the weekend and am excited to get out again as a family.

And, although my daughter is young and our focus isn’t on weight loss, I found that giving her the pedometer for the weekend was a great move on our part.  The energy and excitement she had about tracking her steps was contagious and we all pushed ourselves a bit more than we would have otherwise.  And, the best part is that instead of asking to be carried or saying she was tired only part of the way through our day, she was really excited to get as many steps as she could and was running circles around us the whole time.  

The bonus was getting home and logging on to the Steps Balance Rewards site to see that I earned 540 points just having fun with the family.  If you haven’t signed up for Walgreens Balance Rewards program you will need to do that before you can sign up for the Steps program, but both programs are free and completely painless to sign up for.  Why not get rewarded to shop, stay fit, and meet your wellness goals?

Read more about our shopping trip, Steps program signup process and our day hiking as a family in our Google+ album.  You can also see more about Aisle Share FUN page.

Find out more at Walgreens.com and follow Walgreens on Twitter and Facebook.

I
am a member of the Collective Bias®  Social Fabric® Community.  This
shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias®  and Walgreens #cbias #SocialFabric.  As always, all opinions are 100% ours.