How to find the perfect health buddy

The Beatles weren’t the only ones talking about how you can get by with a little help from your friends. Michael Roizen, MD, agrees too. In his new book, This is YOUR Do-Over, Dr. Roizen explains how a supportive buddy is a powerful tool to transform your health. “The buddy system works by helping you make good choices, coaxing you to be smart about your behavior and cheering or jeering you when you do things that have an influence on your body,” explains Roizen.

 

Get started on the right path to improving your health with these tips to develop a successful buddy relationship. 

Your buddy can be a family member, friend, coworker or trainer. What’s important is that this is someone you trust and can be honest with about both your successes and your failures -- since that’s when you’ll need your buddy the most.

Having a buddy for accountability is great, but if you’re the only one doing all the talking (or vice versa) it’s not going to be very effective. Make sure it’s a two-way street when it comes to helping each other out -- especially if your buddy system is a virtual one. Whether you text, email or call each other, be sure you have daily dialogue or you both risk losing commitment to the process. Check out the four qualities of good feedback.

“Great job!” and “Don’t sweat it, just do better tomorrow!” are great examples of verbal support, but there’s so much more you can do to communicate. “I find that buddy relationships are the most beneficial when both parties can also exchange information and ideas, such as healthy recipes, exercise ideas, health news and things along those lines,” says Roizen. So get to sharing, chatting and supporting your buddy to improve your health -- together.