Having a supportive partner can change everything when choosing to live a healthy lifestyle.  Particularly with kids in the mix.  To become a runner you do change your entire life.  If you don’t change your eating habits, your mindset and commit yourself to your routine you ultimately won’t be in it for the long haul.  If you have a partner that doesn’t either participate or support that it makes it a lot harder for many reasons.  I’ve had a few who weren’t a supportive partner and one who is.  The results were quite different, but it’s also pretty definitive of which were healthy relationships and which weren’t.

Let’s Get It Started

I’ve mentioned before that I started back on this running/health journey about 3 years ago.  It was just before I found out I was pregnant with my third son.  The timing created for quite the challenge.  It required me and my husband to be fully committed to the goals we had set.   We both had given up alcohol that year. I had given up coffee, and we both were making healthier choices with food.  I wanted to start running again.  As someone who had never been athletic he wanted to lose some weight and see what healthy felt like.

I had never been in a position where I was working on these kind of goals where someone was with me, struggling and trying to get there as well.  No, we weren’t on the same fitness level and we had different ambitions, but we both wanted to do better for ourselves.

Results

The result is someone who doesn’t get mad when I go on my runs, workouts, or when I fill our refrigerator with healthy snacks instead of treats (though I still do that sometimes).  He happily takes care of our little dragon when I do my things, and I do when he does.  There’s no guilt for taking the necessary time for myself and making these efforts.  There’s no verbal insults, or questioning my antics.  He fully supports and encourages me.  He rubs my back and legs when they hurt and he never tries to railroad me.  We build each other up.

And yes, this is just exercise, but it’s a little more indicative of a relationship where you work as a team, helping when the other is struggling and cheering on their successes.  It’s being each other’s biggest fans and supporters.  3 years into working on this together and we both have new goals and more hopes for our future, but I’m going to run my first marathon in 7 years and he’s running his first 5k this month.

Happy Relationship = Happy Running Girl

I’ve done this married, as a girlfriend, and as a single mom and it’s never been better than it is now.  My running feels the most free and best it has in my entire life.  That mirrors how I feel  about the rest of my life.  I love that I see some couples share running together, so they understand each other, but we do too.  This is how relationships should feel, this is how running with a healthy mind and life feels.  This is how making better choices about everything in life feels.  It is what having a supportive partner feels like.  And we’re just getting started.