When your significant other exercises, youre more likely to do the same, BBC News reported Monday morning. This helps couples who struggle with weight loss, since both gain motivation from each other.
But should you try to change who your partner is?
I wrote earlier this month that people tend lose weight when their partner accepts them for who they are. Partners who embrace their significant others weight, size or eating choices will inspire their lover to lose weight. This is based on a study from Personal Relationships, which found those whose partners accepted their size lost more weight than those who criticized it.
These partners lost weight because they felt encouraged to please their partner, but not because of the partner's words directly, according to the study. They wanted to change for themselves, showing that the strength comes from within.
This applies to all facets of life, too. Andy Stanley of Relevant magazine wrote Monday that we shouldnt always try to change the person were with. Motivation, he wrote, has to come from within.
I believe that people change. But I dont believe that people change people, Stanley wrote. And I dont believe that people change for people. People change themselves. People change themselves when they get sick and tired of themselves; when the pain of staying the same is too great to bear or theres a goal so enticing that it draws them away from what and who they used to be.
Stanley wrote that people may be inspired to change to impress an old girlfriend or make due on promises to old friends. But, in the end, they have to act on their own desire to change. Words of encouragement can only go so far.
That's why it's important for people to remember it's not always possible to change other people. According to Maria Rodale, an author who writes for The Huffington Post, people should realize that they can only change themselves and how they see a relationship.
"All you can do is change your own reaction, response, and behavior," Rodale wrote. "If you truly, genuinely express your heart and someone doesn't respond the way you'd like him or her to, and you try something different and it still doesn't work, you have to face the honest truth that the only thing you can change is yourself. Sometimes that means staying in the relationship in a different way. Other times, it means leaving it."
But should you try to change who your partner is?
I wrote earlier this month that people tend lose weight when their partner accepts them for who they are. Partners who embrace their significant others weight, size or eating choices will inspire their lover to lose weight. This is based on a study from Personal Relationships, which found those whose partners accepted their size lost more weight than those who criticized it.
These partners lost weight because they felt encouraged to please their partner, but not because of the partner's words directly, according to the study. They wanted to change for themselves, showing that the strength comes from within.
This applies to all facets of life, too. Andy Stanley of Relevant magazine wrote Monday that we shouldnt always try to change the person were with. Motivation, he wrote, has to come from within.
I believe that people change. But I dont believe that people change people, Stanley wrote. And I dont believe that people change for people. People change themselves. People change themselves when they get sick and tired of themselves; when the pain of staying the same is too great to bear or theres a goal so enticing that it draws them away from what and who they used to be.
Stanley wrote that people may be inspired to change to impress an old girlfriend or make due on promises to old friends. But, in the end, they have to act on their own desire to change. Words of encouragement can only go so far.
That's why it's important for people to remember it's not always possible to change other people. According to Maria Rodale, an author who writes for The Huffington Post, people should realize that they can only change themselves and how they see a relationship.
"All you can do is change your own reaction, response, and behavior," Rodale wrote. "If you truly, genuinely express your heart and someone doesn't respond the way you'd like him or her to, and you try something different and it still doesn't work, you have to face the honest truth that the only thing you can change is yourself. Sometimes that means staying in the relationship in a different way. Other times, it means leaving it."
