Marriage Advice for Busy Couples

Before the New Year arrives I make a list of things that I aspire to accomplish within the coming year. Instead of “New Year’s resolutions,” I think about it more like an organization coming up with a year-end report; it’s a time for me to reflect on what I’ve accomplished in the current year, determine where I need to grow, and think about the vision for our family in the year to come.

In looking over my list from last year, I achieved most of the things I planned, I launched this website, I continued to grow my freelance writing business, I got a new full time job, but one little nagging thing that was on my list last year and the year before that and the year before that still hangs on untouched.

“Lose 15 pounds”

Lo and behold at the end of 2011 I weigh no less than I did at the end of 2010.  In light of the most recent stats I found about weight loss failure, I guess it’s no surprise. So this year I’m taking it off my list. I’m at a healthy weight for my height and I plan to focus on my health, eating right and exercising more, and accepting that a size 4 is probably a permanent part of my past and not in my future.

Instead I’m focusing on whipping something into shape that has a higher rate of success: my marriage. Interestingly enough, the same areas that fitness experts stress that we work on in order to maintain physical fitness apply to keeping our marriages fit:

Strength How strong is your connection? Are your marriage muscles fit enough to do the lifting when  life gets heavy? Are you both strong enough so that you can lean on each other for support?

Endurance This is your marriage cardio. How prepared are you to go the distance? Can you push through the times in your marriage when you feel like giving up to make it to the finish line?

Flexibility It so often gets left out of fitness programs but failing to increase flexibility can set you up for injury quick. Are you able to stretch to meet your partner’s needs? Are you flexible enough to move one way when you thought you were going another? Can you roll with the punches? Can you bend over backward for your marriage if need be?

Diet All of the working out in the world won’t do much if you aren’t eating right. What are you feeding your marriage? What and who are you listening to? What are you reading? What images and words is your marriage living off of?

Take some time today to think about these things and then consider joining us for the 30-day marriage fitness challenge starting January 2. Each day, we’ll be posting an exercise to work on the four areas of fitness to get your marriage in shape in 30 days. Oh yeah, and unlike a gym membership, participation is free, just make sure you join our subscriber list or follow us on Facebook or Twitter so you don’t miss anything.

Will you join us for the fitness challenge? Let us know in the comments!