It's but a month into 2016 and the shiny newness of it all is already starting to wear off. Your fitness regime and healthy eating plan bring only anguish and four letter words to mind. Even your partner is beginning to get on your nerves again. Before you abandon your relationship goals (and your fitness ones too), here's an idea: try some couples' workouts!
Don't throw your salted crisps at the screen! It's not what you think!
It definitely does NOT involve matching gym outfits, mandatory selfies so that others may hate you follow your progress on Instagram, or spinning classes where the instructor yells out relationship advice in between screaming that you "feel the burn!"
All it is, is a slight shift in perspective. Let's throw out the guilt of failed New Year's resolutions, stop picking on our partners (which is only displaced guilt about ourselves anyway), and strike forth into the exciting territory of Shared Fit-/Life-Goals. Here are some tips:
· Download a fitness and nutrition tracking app like MyFitnessPal. It does take a small-time investment to document everything that passes your lips each day plus any activities or workouts, but it is so worth it. You’ll learn a whole lot about the food you're consuming and how effective your workouts are. Sharing your findings with your partner helps to spur both of you on to exploring healthier eating habits and adding activities to your day that will up your exercise profile.
· Do those activities as a team. Whether you take the dogs for a jog every evening, take up swimming during your lunch breaks, or join the local crossfit box, doing so together helps you to be accountable to someone and thus better motivated to move that body and resist the pull to lie down and scroll through Facebook while stuffing your face with those, yes delicious, Twinkies.
· Add some high intensity interval training (HIIT) to your life - a minimal time investment which promises great results. The benefit for couples? Since it's time based - 20 seconds on, 10 seconds rest, and repeat, it means that even if you and your partner are at different fitness levels, you can still do the same workout, just each at your own optimisation.
· Pledge to become one another's dedicated gym partner. If done right, this promises not only to keep you committed to those shared gym sessions, but to give you (free!) feedback on your form, and ensure you don't leave out the essentials that protect you from injury (like stretches and rest intervals) - because we tend to be a whole lot less blasé about our partner’s safety (and, worst case, bodies!) than we are about our own.
With lifestyle changes such as these, your 2016 is bound to be glorious - the year that you slay your fitness woes and supercharge your relationship at the same time!
Date Published: 05 February 2016
