A couples workout might motivate your spouse to exercise and eat right.
Eating right and exercising are two important components to living a healthy life. If you have recently adopted a healthy lifestyle, it is natural that you would want your spouse to join you. Motivating your partner to follow a heart-healthy diet and physical activity recommendations, however, can be difficult if your partner is not ready to make the change. Leading by example and subtly pointing out the advantages of eating right and being more active may motivate your spouse to leave unhealthy habits behind.
Instructions
1. Eat right and exercise yourself. Your spouse is an adult, not a child who does not necessarily know good habits from less-healthy routines. Leading by example could pay off when your mate sees how healthy you look and feel.
2. Offer the incentive of a better sex life to get into better shape. Studies published in "Psychology Today" show that losing as little as 10 pounds -- often a byproduct of eating right and exercising -- can create more fun in the bedroom. Leading a healthy lifestyle also leads to less fatigue, improved self-image and more stamina. Lower cholesterol levels improve blood flow.
3. Make healthy eating and exercise a fun family affair. Choose a nutritious, tasty meal that you and your partner -- or entire family -- can cook together.
4. Take a romantic walk, just the two of you, to clock some miles and burn a few calories. Your partner might decide the healthier routines are worth it for some togetherness.
5. Talk frankly and in a nonaccusatory tone about your concerns regarding poor diet and lack of exercise -- including the fact that obesity can cut years off of your life, according to the National Institutes of Health.
6. Listen to your spouse's reasons for not wanting to eat right or exercise. A heart-to-heart chat might allow you as a couple to address some of the worries or problems that are perceived as obstacles.
7. Compliment your mate along the way when you see signs of progress. Tell your spouse how slim she looks in new clothing or how you enjoyed the healthy dinner he made. Increased self-esteem can keep a good thing going; criticism on the other hand, could make it disappear completely.
Tags: your partner, your spouse, healthy lifestyle, Leading example, motivate your, motivate your spouse