In 2016, the Mayo Clinic released a study that found that less than 3 percent of Americans lead a healthy lifestyle. One of the key factors in a healthy lifestyle is working out vigorously for at least 30 minutes a day five times a week or a total of 150 minutes weekly.

In Part 1 of this series, we looked at poor food choices and how those can sabotage your goal of a healthy lifestyle. In this blog, we will look at a failure to exercise and how to start or increase exercising in order to improve your overall health.

Americans sadly live unhealthy lifestyles now more than ever. Over the next few weeks, we will look at four aspects of an unhealthy lifestyle: poor food choices, not exercising, stress and poor sleep habits. We will examine a positive approach to each of these and how you can overcome each one of these lifestyle choices using exercise to help you.

When it’s time to work out, you might prefer to just stay home, enjoy some extra sleep and indulge in an extra cup of coffee. You simply don’t feel motivated to get up and get moving. However, you can boost your excitement about exercising and keep yourself on track with fitness goals by looking for a workout partner. She will encourage you — and vice versa — to make the healthy decisions that you need to stay fit. Here are eight ways that exercising with a partner can keep your motivation level high.