Gina Heart Lifestyle

Relationships & Weight Gain: 5 Tips

• By Gina Heart
• June 17, 2013
• 2 Comments

You’re in a great relationship with your man, but there’s one problem. Where did the muffin tops come from?

For some, it’s the dinner dates, movies & popcorn, and attending every food fair and festival in town. For others, it’s lounging on the couch, cuddling in bed for hours, and having ice cream on a hot afternoon instead of working out.

Understandable, especially when all those things help keep a relationship fun and exciting. So what should you do to stay healthy and in shape while keeping a relationship strong and exciting?

1. Work out together: Blah blah blah, every article says to do this and who really ACTUALLY did it? Well, I did! And you know what? It was amazing. Try waking up on Saturday mornings and do something as simple as Insanity and P90X in the living room. You can encourage each other, laugh about silly moves (who knows the wacky jacks?) and get incredibly sweaty together. Its  an entirely different kind of date that is new, exciting and challenging. And you two get to decide how you want to get wash up before you start your day, if you know what I mean.

2. Care enough to Criticize: I reached for another piece of chocolate and he gave me that look. I retracted my hand, felt embarrassed, then felt happy to have such a caring boyfriend. A relationship must have enough trust and value for both of you to start intervening on each others’ habits and lifestyle choices. Once you feel you’ve reached that stage, learn to care enough about the other person to say no to dessert after dinner and instead take a night stroll skipping, holding hands, singing, whatever you like to do.

3. Cook!: Here’s another tip that you hear a lot, but have you ever made pizza together? What about sushi or pumpkin ravioli?

My boyfriend and I made all of these and they were some of our most memorable dates yet. We tossed our pizza dough until it got too tough, squished all our sushi when cutting them, and never made two raviolis that were identical. Cooking together can be a big project, but you two get to control the ingredients, how much fun you want to have, and how much tomato sauce you want to put on his nose.

4. Get Competitive: Some say men are naturally more athletic than women, but how will you know unless you try? Race him in laps in the pool, engage in a ping pong tournament, heck – find out who’s better at air hockey! Be more than active, be competitive. Its a reflection of how you two can support each other in achieving goals or praising someone even when they do better than you.

5. Change your Perspective: I used to think that our relationship would get boring if we stopped going out to dinner dates and eating everything in site. But my favorite quote reminds me of what it means to be in a relationship: “Love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction” – Antoine de Saint Exupery. More like gazing at the chocolate lava cake together…but in all seriousness, if you really care about your partner and want your relationship to be long lasting, then you’ll also care about their health, how strong they can be, and of course how fit they are. After all, fitness is a measurement of your health, and I don’t know about you, but I want to live for as long as I can, with someone strong and healthy by my side.