If you want to get healthy, consider enlisting your loved one as an accountability buddy! You might even learn new things about each other.
February 2023. This article is independently written by Shelby Golding. All opinions given are hers. Shelby has been certified as a personal trainer and nutritional specialist since 2007. In 2008, she found her passion for writing about these topics and hasn't looked back.
Embarking on a journey of health with your loved one can be uplifting and improve your chances of success. And if you both want to get healthy, you can support and encourage each other along the way! It's an excellent way to learn new things about each other and grow closer together.
How To Get Healthy Together
Getting healthy can encompass a range of practices, especially if you include your mind and body in your health definition. In addition, finding fun ways to work towards your goals with your loved one might make the process easier, helping you both stick to your plans!
You might find that a shared goal to get healthier brings you closer together, too. For example, when you exercise, your body releases dopamine, and this feel-good chemical can help you learn to enjoy working out. And since dopamine is linked to romantic love, working out together may help you feel more in love!
Dance Class
Dancing can improve your mental health and physical fitness, and it's tons of fun to do with your partner. Check out some styles of dance you can do with a partner – think ballroom, tango, waltz, foxtrot, or rumba – and look for local classes. And if you can't find any, look for online learning options instead.
Pick a dance style that you and your partner would like to learn. Dancing is a fun activity to do on Valentine's Day, but you might want to do it in advance if you'd like to start learning as a V-day celebration.
Each dance class might last anywhere from 60 to 120 minutes. And since you'll burn between 300 and 800 calories an hour, one or two classes a week can be great for weight loss.
Learn To Cook Together
Healthy, homemade meals can help you avoid processed foods and add more fresh produce and whole grains to your diet. A balanced diet offers benefits from brain functioning to disease prevention and more, and who doesn't want that for their partner?
Here are some ways you might go about learning to cook:
- Sign up for local classes
- Find an online cooking course
- Follow a YouTube channel that teaches you how to cook
- Buy a cookbook and work your way through the recipes
You might try one new recipe a week to begin with, but as you learn together, you'll likely find yourselves preparing homemade meals frequently. If you're starting this on Valentine's Day, consider kicking off a date night tradition of cooking something healthy and watching a movie or playing games.
If one of you is already a good cook, don't worry – there's always room for improvement and new recipes to try.
If one of you is already a good cook, don't worry – there's always room for improvement and new recipes to try.
Go For Walks
Daily walks offer health benefits ranging from better moods to joint pain relief, and they're an excellent time to connect with your loved one. This is a fun tradition to kick off on Valentine's Day, especially if you live with each other. Pick a time when you're both typically free and make a habit of going for a stroll around your neighborhood or a local park together.
On warm weekend days, you might expand this tradition to longer hikes that allow you to explore local trails. And on chilly winter evenings, you can bundle up and enjoy a shorter stroll.
If you have pets who enjoy walks, you can get them involved with this new habit, too! Soon, it'll become a regular event that everyone looks forward to. And since walking burns about 100 calories per mile, it can help with weight loss for you and your furry friends.
Keep Each Other Accountable
If you can't work on your physical and mental health together in person, you can keep each other accountable instead. Discuss your goals for things like exercise and diet, then check in with each other every day to see how you're doing.
For example, you might text or call each other every night to report how well you followed your diet or if you made it to the gym that day. Or have a quick chat about your progress before going to bed or heading to work the next day. Then, you can offer encouragement when one of you is struggling and celebrate your victories when you do well!
Since injuries and chronic pain can sometimes get in the way, you can also keep each other thinking about your health goals even when you feel discouraged. And if one of you finds a solution –the Kailo patch, for example – you can share your experience or provide suggestions for your loved one.
Sign Up for Therapy
Health isn't all about working out and eating right – sometimes, you need to focus on your mind and relationship. Couples therapy is an excellent way to improve your mental health together, even if you don't have any "issues" you want to work on.
Going to a relationship counselor is like preventative medicine for your connection with your partner. And it demonstrates a deep commitment to your bond with the other person.
Whether you attend weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly sessions, your therapy days will give you a chance to talk about anything on your mind with an unbiased third party. Therapy can make it easier to bring up complex topics, identify solutions you haven't considered, or catch things before they become problematic.
If you're worried your partner might be offended or concerned about the suggestion of couple's therapy – the social stigma surrounding therapy is still quite prevalent – approach it delicately. For example, you might lead with the statistic that modern couple's counseling significantly decreases divorce risk and has a 98% success rate. Discussing it from a preventative, holistic point of view may also help.
Focus on Pain Relief
Chronic pain isn't fun, and no one wants their partner to go through their days with discomfort. However, focusing on pain relief can help you and your loved one feel more motivated to improve your health in all areas of your life.
The Kailo Pain Patch is an excellent way to start this journey. It's designed to relieve pain in seconds without oral medication – scientists theorize that it works by interfering with the body's electrical system. And a recent clinical study showed that 99% of participants felt pain relief with Kailo within 10 minutes; they also reported a significant increase in quality of life when switching to Kailo from oral medication.
