Friday Fitness: The Buddy System

This is a great topic for today's Friday Fitness and it's inspired by today's WW Connect hashtag for trending topics.

Having an exercise buddy is a great way to stay accountable and stick to your routine. There's many ways to get a buddy too - in both the literal and virtual worlds.

In real life, if you've got a friend to hit the gym with you, or hit the running trails with you - awesome! If you have a plan to meet up with a friend you're less likely to skip your workout. The other person is counting on you and you're counting on them! It's a great way to make sure you're getting your FitPoints for the week. In the past, I've had a running buddy and it was the only time I ever stuck with running as exercise. We had a deal to run three days a week and we stuck to it. Eventually she had to quit because she was pregnant, and I did try to keep with it for a while. But without a buddy, I couldn't do it. I hate running. Hate. It. And so with no buddy it was easier and easier for me to skip workouts until I just altogether stopped.

So what if you don't have a real life buddy? Or what if your preferred mode of exercise is a solo activity? Maybe you use a DVD system you saw on an infomercial one day, or maybe you just like to swim. Maybe you have a treadmill in your basement and want to use that for, you know, exercise and not as a clothes hanger (yes, I had one of those too at one point). How can you find a buddy then?

Virtually of course! There's WW Connect of course, a great place to check in with your workouts. There are also Facebook groups for exercise, particularly if you're a DVD person. There's a group out there for everything! It's a great place to check in for accountability. Twitter, Instagram, a blog, Snapchat - whatever social media platform you prefer, you can use that to help keep you accountable. With the internet you can have millions of virtual "buddies" cheering you on!

Even if you workout alone, you don't have to do it "alone". Support is out there. Go find it! Have a great weekend everyone!