Exercise Buddies - Women's Health Issues: Good Body Buddies for a Healthier Life

Wednesday

02Dec2009

Friendship and Your Health

Wednesday, December 2, 2009 at 9:21AM

Friendship and Women's Health

Shaping Your Waistline?

If your best friend has a very healthy diet, you are five times as likely to have a very healthy diet yourself.
--Vital Friends by Tom Rath

You Are Who You Eat With

In his book Vital Friends, Tom Rath describes the story of Rebecca, a colleague who gained 15 pounds when she was dating a former competitive wrestler. Her eating patterns changed and started to mirror his extreme diet--loading up on carbs and junk food one day then starving himself for two to loose the weight. While he ate nothing for two days, Rebecca ate her normal diet then joined him in a junk loaded day. And while this was happening, Rebecca didn't think much about how her boyfriend's diet was influencing hers.

The happy ending is that once Rebecca started dating someone new who was more health conscious she adjusted and was eating healthy and exercising regularly. She lost 20 pounds.

Your Best Friend's Diet and Exercise

Asking one group of people about their diet and their best friend's diet, those who said their best friend has a very healthy diet were more than five times as likely to have a very healthy diet themselves (compared to people whose best friends have an average diet).

Of all the people asked, among those who had a best friend who was not physically active, not one was very physically active themselves.

Your best friend might literally be shaping you.

Kate W. |

Why have an exercise buddy? (by Sylvia)

Monday, August 10, 2009 at 4:17PM

Exercise With A Friend

This is an awesome thing. If you don’t have one, drop everything right now and get one! I am not kidding you! I feel so blessed to have Kate be my exercise buddy AND my friend. But right now I will just talk about the exercise buddy component.

We have been exercising together for about two years. We exercise in the morning, about 7:15 to 8, mostly Monday to Friday. We hang out with our families on the weekends and holidays. Sometimes we don’t exercise, due to work or other appointments and rarely to illness. Sometimes allergies prevent us from getting together. But mostly, we do this, M - F. We’re within 10 years (less) age of each other and similar fitness goals. We both enjoy the TV workouts we do then we finish up with a walk up and down my steep driveway.

This works because we are committed. We don’t want to disappoint the other, and even if we’re feeling sluggish, lazy, whiny, we do it, because we know there is the other person depending on us, and we can’t let them down. If we don’t make it one day or two , it’s not a big deal, we don’t berate each other, just re-commit for the day we will exercise again AND remind that person to go for a walk later, anyway.

It wouldn’t work if Kate were in her 20s, training for marathons.

We like each other and knew each other from other stuff before. We do other things together now, not just exercise.

So when you are looking for your exercise buddy (and remember, you have now dropped EVERYTHING and are going to do it right now) think of a few things:

First, what are your fitness goals?

Second, what activities do you enjoy doing? Don’t enjoy ANYTHING - what can you tolerate the most?

Third, what groups of people do you currently hang out with that you enjoy?
Do you belong to a quilting group or book club? Do you look forward to getting together with these people? Then someone in that group could be a great candidate for your exercise buddy. Put it out there. Next time you get together with the people that give you warm fuzzies, just say, “Hey, I’m interested in walking every morning during the week. Do you know someone who lives near me who would want to join me?” This not only opens it up to the people you’re talking to, but gets them thinking about all the people they know, who fit into this description. You just opened up a bigger group to select from.

I was fortunate to find Kate, through knowing her from a group. Since we have begun, we now are on Facebook. I could see opening this up on a social networking site, asking for help with this. Why not? Your Facebook friends aren’t strangers, and even if they suggest one, you could meet at a park and just see how it goes. But better still, one of your Facebook friends may become your exercise buddy.

Having that accountability can mean all the difference in the world to moving your body or not. I need to go walk the dogs (my four-legged exercise buddies)......

Sylvia M. |