We don’t often think about or consider how our health could impact our relationship or sex life, or how our sex life can impact our health, but these things go hand in hand and can have a huge impact on our relationship with our spouse.
Can Better Health Really Create Better Sexual Intimacy?
I remember when my wife and I got married, I was 165 pounds (soaking wet) and just assumed I would always stay around that weight, but a few years later (and a couple of kids), I remember looking in the mirror one day and seeing almost a double chin. I sat in the bathroom and looked at myself for a few minutes, and then stepped on the scale and realized I weighed about 30 pounds more than I did when I got married. I was embarrassed at the way I looked, felt and had lost some self confidence, and I knew if I felt this way and didn’t like what I saw, what did my wife think about how I looked now? This made me uncomfortable with myself, and caused me to be less sexually intimate. Not because I wanted to, but because I felt like I was not as attractive to my wife.
I am sure my wife (if asked) would have said that she loved me no matter what, but I didn’t love myself the same and was lacking self confidence, and we all know how important self confidence is. Just ask anyone, someone who is not self confident is not as attractive.
So… I decided that moment I was going to do ANYTHING I had to do to drop the pounds and get back to my “fighting weight”. I started watching what I ate, and started exercising and running several miles every morning. I think the first month I dropped 16 pounds and the second month close to 15 or so. It was AMAZING, and I felt like a new man, and my self confidence in how I looked and felt physically and mentally was life changing for me! I also FELT like my wife looked at me differently and found me very attractive again 🙂 I also felt a lot more comfortable in being naked and intimate with my wife. I am in no way stating how other people feel as this is just my personal experience, but it was so life changing to me, I am confident MANY other people feel this same way.
Bottom line was the benefits for me mentally and physically by being healthier, and in better shape had a significant impact on how I felt (mentally and physically) as well as my sex life. We often don’t realize how much something has an impact on us until we experience some changes and can look back and see the effects, and that was certainly the case in my experience.
Exercise Reduces Stress And MANY Other Health Issues
We all know that the one thing we can’t get away from in life is stress. Our jobs, responsibilities, and all the other millions of things that we face on a daily basis that can cause stress in our lives. Stress is devastating to our health, and causes many of the health issues people have. When someone is stressed, most often they do not even want to enjoy sexual intimacy. When we exercise and are healthy, it reduces stress in our lives and helps with other health issues that could cause stress. Here are some of the other benefits of exercising:
- Control weight
- Reduce risk of heart disease
- Improved mental health and mood
- Reduces stress levels
- Stronger muscles and bones
- Better sleep
- Lower the risk of ED in men, and increase sexual desire in women
Healthy Food For Better Sex
There are a variety of foods that have been proven to help boost libido, increase blood flow, improve your stamina and significantly enhance your sex life. The circulatory system in your body needs to be working properly and is essential for having a healthy sex life in your marriage.
Foods to eat for better sex:
- Fruits
- Vegetables
- Fiber and Whole Grains
- Seafood
- Nuts
- Zinc: Zinc is a mineral that the body needs on a daily basis and helps a man regulate his testosterone levels. Food high in Zinc include oysters, crab, and red meat.
Now lets look at the flip side of how sex can benefit our health:
How Can Sex Benefit Our Health
A good healthy sex life can boost your immune system, lower blood pressure, reduce stress levels, help you sleep better, feel better (physically and mentally), helps with depression, and is a form of exercise that gets the heart rate up, and regular sex is even proven to help you live longer. These are only a few of the benefits of sex, but the benefits can last for days (or even years).
Here are some of the other benefits sex can have on our health from the article:
“Reasons You Should Have Sex Tonight”
from Dating Divas post found HERE
It makes you look smokin’
- The extensive research of Dr. David Weeks, clinical neuropsychologist at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital, revealed that older men and women with an active love life looked five to seven years younger than their actual age. He also found that quality was just as important as quantity, with the anti-aging benefits increasing if the sex was considered “loving.”
- It smoothes out wrinkles. YEP! Thanks to estrogen being released during sex, those fine lines will be plumped in no time.
- Vigorous sex pumps oxygen throughout your body, which increases the flow of blood and nutrients to the skin. What does that mean? Fresh cells are being pushed to the surface, making your skin look healthier.
- Making love keeps you thinner!
- Our bodies produce cortisol when we are stressed, which causes us to have cravings and gain weight in our mid-sections. Not good news. However, cortisol levels are lowered due to lovemaking! PLUS you can burn around 200 calories in a 30 minute session of active sex. That’s no small amount! Bedroom time with spouse?Check! Working out? Check!
So long, stress:
An Arizona State University study on 58 middle-aged women found that physical affection or sexual behavior with a partner significantly lowered negative mood and stress and increased the possibility of higher positive mood the following day. The following day! The endorphins released during sex also help couples to better manage stressful situations.
Ups Your Confidence Game:
- So how fun is it to be desired by someone…sexually? All at once, two things happen: 1) We feel better about ourselves. 2) We become more attracted to them! Crazy how that works! Reminding your partner that you want ’em is a sure-fire way to make them feel younger, smarter, stronger, and closer to you. In fact, a recent survey undertaken from the University of Texas revealed that couples who had sex regularly felt more confident about their bodies! Just like any exercise that raises your heart rate, sex causes your brain to release “feel-good” chemicals which boost your levels of serotonin (“the happy hormone”). This happy hormone is the body’s key antidepressant chemical and one of the major reasons people smile and get in a fabulous mood right after sex…so keep on pulling that trigger! Knowing this, it’s no surprise that when a study by psychologist Gordon Gallup in the American Archives Of Sexual ÂBehavior did a study on nearly 300 women, he found that sexually active women in long-term Ârelationships are also less likely to feel depressed than women who go without sex.
- Confident people usually wake up ready to conquer their day. Scientist Dr. Debby Herbenick found that adults who made love first thing in the morning were not only more upbeat for the rest of the day, but they also had a stronger Âimmune system than those people who went for just the normal breakfast before Âheading out the door. In other words – why wait until tonight? You’ll be happier throughout the WHOLE day, more confident, and less prone to depression.
Headaches Be Gone:
Get headaches a lot? A recent study shows us that making love causes a surge in the feel-good hormones; dopamine, endorphins, and seratonin, which act as a natural tranquilizer and is responsible for reducing or eliminating headaches. Why pop a Tylenol when you can go to the bedroom instead?
Fertility Boost:
Studies have found that the more often you make love, the better quality your sperm will be. Semen health was found to be best when sex had last occurred less than two days before the sperm was tested and was greatly decreased after 10 days of abstinence. So, if you’re trying for a baby, keep sperm fresh and in tip-top shape by having sex at least three times a week, and not just around the time of the woman’s ovulation.
So for better all around health and sexual intimacy in your relationship, start exercising and eating healthier and see what it does in your life.
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