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food and relationships with people

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Your partner may have more of an impact on your life than you realize, particularly if you carry extra weight. Research has found that it’s very common for overweight individuals in a relationship to model their partner’s eating and exercise habits. This copycat syndrome wasn’t found to be prevalent among couples with healthy or average body weights. So if you and your partner have been struggling for years to lose weight, it’s worth exploring whether or not you’re enabling one another. During this pandemic, if you and your partner are both staying at home, then you’re likely having all of your meals together, and your habits influence one another’s more than usual. So it’s especially important to pay attention to how you encourage or discourage, each other’s behaviors.

Should your partner say that he’d like to try to lose weight, you like to think you’d be supportive. And, in your conscious mind, you probably are. But, it can actually be quite difficult for the unconscious mind to witness great change. While you may think, “Of course I’m happy for my partner if he loses weight,” deep down, you may fear that that one change will trigger others. And you may unconsciously sabotage your partner’s diet. But, if you love your partner, you want him to stick around as long as possible, and since a healthy weight is important to overall health, you should try to encourage his progress. Here are ways you may be sabotaging your partner’s diet.

food and relationships with people

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Irritation over having to shop differently

If you live with your partner, then you may find he has special requests for grocery shopping. He now wants sorbet instead of cookie dough ice cream. Or whole wheat tortillas instead of white ones. He asks that you bring home no chips or cookies. If you roll your eyes, and make a fuss, making it seem like shopping in this new way is a huge hassle, your partner may give up on trying.

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