Currently, I am training hard for Cape Town Marathon in October. My weekly mileage is about 45 – 50 km and most mornings I am out on the road or track running in the dark and cold. I am enjoying all the beautiful moonscapes and sunrises, but cannot wait for brighter mornings and warmer days.

In both my books I ended the Acknowledgement chapter with a message to my husband. This was the section in “My First Marathon Training”:

To Derik, my wonderfully supportive husband, I reckon I am the luckiest woman in the whole wide world to have you by my side. You sacrificed the most. Thank you, thank you, thank you! Thank you for giving me the space to grow, be me, become the best version of me and do the two things I love most: running and writing.

Seeing as I don’t know the day my newsletters will conclude, I thought it well to start my first newsletter with a message about support: Practical tips for supporting your partner’s new lifestyle.

Starting a new diet, or I prefer talking about a lifestyle, is daunting – not only for the one dieting but also for their significant other. I hope you can share these tips with your partner to make it easier for them as well. They often don’t know what to do or how to help.

1. Embrace the change. Don’t complain about the new food.
2. Take an interest in their new lifestyle: Ask questions, find out how it works and see what obstacles you can clear out of the way to make the change as easy as possible for them.
3. Learn to cook some of their new dishes so you can spoil them with a “legal” meal they don’t have to cook every now and then.
4. If you notice that eating something he/she is not supposed to eat in their company bothers them, avoid doing that.
5. Join them when exercising.
6. Join them for weigh-ins.
7. Help them celebrate all milestones, no matter how small.
8. Trust the process and don’t make them doubt it by sharing your doubts.
9. Boost their confidence by telling him/her regularly how well they are doing. Be their biggest cheerleader.
10. Tell them and others that you are proud of them.

Do you have any tips that you’d like to add to these?

Until next time,

Mart-Mari Breedt

Author of “Eighty Kilos of Shame”, “Tagtig Kilos se Skuldlas”, “My First Marathon Training”, “Die Kopskuif”-online course and keynote speaker