We’ve all heard the saying, “couples who train together stay together”. Whilst I believe this to a certain degree, when you have young children and busy family lives, it’s not possible or practical to train together every day. What I do believe is that a shared positive attitude towards a healthy lifestyle in a relationship, has huge benefits.
Here are some of them:
1. Quality time. Let’s face it when you have children and busy jobs quality time together as a couple can be hard to find. Even if you can manage to get one fitness session in a week together, it’s more quality time than you had before. Yes it’s not exactly a date night and you may be sweating, but you’re sweating together!
2. Help achieve your fitness goals. Motivating and encouraging each other will make you feel more positive about your session and ultimately each other. Even if your fitness levels are completely different, the understanding of reaching a common goal will spur you on to achieve it.
3. Improves your sex life. Exercise gives your endorphins, which make you happy and can also increase your sex drive. A shared passion for a healthy lifestyle will improve your self-confidence. There’s nothing more attractive than somebody who looks after themselves and values their life and body. You don’t have to be obsessive about it, just make sure there is a healthy balance.
4. Accountability. If you are accountable for your fitness session and have a constant supply of support from your partner, you are more likely to do it. If you only have yourself to answer to, you’re more likely to skip a workout when you’re having a bad day. Remember, it’s much harder to get into a routine than out of it!
5. Shared goal. We all grow and change over time which can bring challenging times to any relationship but one way to keep it healthy is to have a shared goal. Sharing your love for a healthy lifestyle with your partner can bring life into the relationship. Whether you train together or not, you both still have the same goal of prioritising your health and fitness.
Nick and Deb
Nick and Deb Johnson both work full time and have 2 children, age 13 and 11. Their evenings and weekends are filled with supporting their children at various sporting activities. They juggle this with also trying to fit in quality family time together. After falling into a rut they approached me 9 months ago to help improve their lifestyle. I have blogged on both Nick and Deb’s incredible weight loss, but this time I want to focus on how their dedication to a lifestyle change has improved the dynamics of their relationship.
Nick and Deb share the same goal; they want to get fit, lose weight and feel better about themselves. By embarking on a lifestyle change together, they motivate each other to train and even challenge each other’s food choices. There has been the odd occasion where they have grassed each other up to me about cheating on food choices, which can be amusing! They work their training sessions around family commitments and make the effort to run or cycle together at least twice a week. Whilst Nick and Deb already have a very strong bond, undertaking this lifestyle change together has brought them even closer. They are more motivated, connected and communicate much more effectively. Positive energy, with improved health & Fitness is literally contagious!
In Deb’s words:
“Chris has completed changed our mindset towards a healthy lifestyle. We now both share the same goal to stay fit and healthy and training has become part of our daily routine. Having someone to encourage you when you really can’t be bothered is such a motivator and gets you out, no matter what the weather. We pick each other up if one of us has had a bad day and even guilt trip the other if they cheat on food. We even trained every morning on holiday, a first for us both. It was one of the best holidays we have ever had because we felt so good!”
Sharing your love for health and fitness with your partner can bring life into the relationship, as you both have a common goal to chat about. Healthy competition will give you increased energy levels and cheat days are far more fun together!
Make the Change
Chris
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