Does Your Partner Help or Harm

sidcorsini

Thoughts on your domestic relationships' effects on your program & success. Do they encourage you or commit 'Culinary Sabotage'?

seltzermint555

Helps and harms. Mostly helps though!

Helps by:

Being an awesome cook & using tons of vegetables & new things that keep it from getting boring.
Making me fresh healthy lunches every single day.
Helping me limit our dining out occasions through each week.
MAJOR motivator in active lifestyle - hiking, biking, jogging, etc.
Hugely emphasizes the importance of health in every way and lives a very healthy lifestyle.
Overall happiness factor greatly increased by having him around.

"Harms" by:

Great enthusiasm over sweets any time, day or night.
Encouraging indulgence when we dine out.
Serving me the exact same portion size as himself (he's male, 37, 6'2" and 200+...I am female, 41, 5'8" and 160s)
Making me feel desirable/attractive at any weight. This should be a good category one and it is good...but I admit that sometimes it is not so motivating when I know that he truly didn't mind my being WAY heavier in the past.

Fitnessmom82

sidcorsini wrote: »

Thoughts on your domestic relationships' effects on your program & success. Do they encourage you or commit 'Culinary Sabotage'?

Totally helps. We have been losing weight together from the get go. We encourage each other, give honest opinions, work out together, complain together when we want to cave and eat all the cookies. Now that we are getting more fit we find ourselves doing more athletic things together. It's really been great! It's actually strengthened our marriage. I don't believe either of us would have done so well without the others support!

REDMANIV

@seltzermint555 ............WOW you have an amazing husband! Congrats! @sidcorsini I have been married to my wife for 20 years now. For most of that time when one of us was on a healthy kick and eating right then the other would go completely off the rails. This cycle happened off and on for many many years. Well do to my health (Type 2 Diabetic) I was forced to make changes to my diet and to become more active despite what my wife was doing with her food choices.

On her own my wife decided to take on her depression and through that decided to go back on weight watchers. Well she is excited and the weight is melting off of her as she is down almost 25 pounds and feeling a lot better.

I am currently down 12 pounds using MFP so it is safe to say that we are both on the same page food and health wise. My wife does not like exercise at all and does not exercise other than the walking she does at work. She does not sabotage my exercise goals though.

So your partner can certainly sabotage your efforts, they can also be someone that motivates and encourages you to do better.

The key for me now anyways is to worry about myself and to not allow my partner to sabotage my health and fitness goals. My wife cannot make me eat anything, she can't keep me from going to get my exercise in so ultimately it is up to me to make the proper choices to meet my own goals.

It is much nicer to have my wife's support and I certainly try to encourage her on her journey as well. We are both taking the weight off we are just taking different ways to get there : ).

Best of luck on your journey and stay the course!

cwolfman13

My wife and I are pretty into nutrition and fitness. I do most of the cooking...she cooks on Tuesday and Thursday...I cook all the rest of the days except Friday which is pizza night.

1BlueAurora

My husband is supportive. When I cook, he eats what I make. When he cooks, he's thoughtful about what I prefer to eat and if he wants something additional, he cooks that, too without pressuring me to eat it. He's not using MFP but doesn't gripe that I sometimes prepare one thing and he prepares another. We go on walks and hikes together. He has NEVER said, "Hey, honey, you shouldn't eat that if you're trying to lose weight." And there's no sabotage. If he brings potato chips into the house, I don't eat them anymore because I view it as his food, and I'm no thief. He doesn't push his treats on me, which I appreciate!