The ups & downs of the workout buddy~

I'm a fan of the "workout buddy". The person who keeps you accountable, works out with you faithfully, and completely understands the ups and downs of your weightloss journey. Ohhhh...the WB is an awesome part of a person's fitness plan. I encourage people to team up with another person but I also offer a word of caution as well. Not long into my weightloss journey, I teamed up with someone who had similar weight loss goals. We talked fitness often, swapped recipes & helpful websites, and were a great encouragement to one another thru it all. I'd even go so far as to say that we grew closer outside of the weightloss realm. As luck would have it, we both met our weightloss goals...BUT! my "buddy" began to gain the weight back while I maintained. I noticed a distance that my "buddy" placed between us and eventually there was no communication about fitness or anything else;I was really hurt. I finally confronted my "buddy" and I was told that the embarrassment of having gained back the weight is why the friendship was severed. My attempts of encouragement fell on deaf ears, I was crushed, but I kept going anyay. Now I know this story doesn't exactly make you want to rush out and team up with someone, that is 100% NOT my intention. The bigger picture here is to KEEP GOING no matter what! 
Things happen, and priorities change, so you have to make up your mind to keep YOUR focus even if someone else loses thiers. As the other half of the fantastic fitness duo, it IS your duty to TRY to help your buddy get back in the saddle but there has to be a limit to that or you'll soon find that you begin to backslide yourself. You can lead your buddy to the treadmill and even turn that sucker on...but you cannot make them get on it so keep that in mind. I'm not saying to cut someone off if they miss a workout but geez...if EVERYTIME it's time to workout they're MIA, you might need to consider going solo.
Choose your buddy wisely...working out with someone with similar weightloss goals, and a mirrored tenacity when it comes to diet & exercise should be your goal. Now I know this is going to sound crazy but it's also a great idea to team up with someone who is physically a little farther ahead of you. They will challenge you without even trying! Don't be intimidated by someone who runs and you can barely walk a mile, especially if your goal is to one day be a runner! Guess what, NOBODY who runs, actaully started out running...how bout them apples?? *smile*

By now, you should know that I blog about different perspectives when it comes to all things fitness & weightloss. It's one of those things that is personal to the individual so you want to tailor it to fit your needs as closely as possible. For some folks, the workout buddy has been an amazing and rewarding experience and to those individuals I say...ROCK ON!!!!
But then there are those of us who weren't so lucky with it an that's okay too. Besides...who can be a BETTER WB to you than YOU???

Mizcardio4lyf~