00:00hi everyone i am charlie penn relationships and wellness director here at essence magazine look
00:11you guys know that i love love and as we know it can be hard enough to find love stay in love and
00:18just perfect being in love and then on top of that how about living and loving well together
00:24well i'm so excited to have today's guest on the show i stand for them i love their love but i
00:29also love their lifestyle not only is love a lifestyle for this couple but living and being
00:34well is as well so give it up for my favorites gillian and michael j white
00:44get it together on the internet hi guys welcome thank you so much happy to be here you guys are my
00:51favorites you know i love you we follow each other on instagram it's a whole love affair but i love
00:57your love i love your love story which we featured in essence magazine last year
01:01but also you guys are just like fitness goals and love goals so tell me how you managed to do both
01:08oh boy well it's it's a lifestyle for us um we both i think even before we met each other we
01:14both were athletic and very much working out and taking care of our bodies and so when we came
01:20together it was just like bam both of us well you know it's it's kind of yeah like she says it's a
01:26lifestyle so it'd be weird if we didn't but um i didn't realize i mean we clicked so so well in
01:34the fitness thing as well so you know this is one of our one of our uh many uh habits so was it like
01:42when you guys met and started dating you were like i gotta go to the gym i gotta go to the gym wait you
01:47love the gym too was that part of like your connection as a country like early early on i
01:52mean we we met like about 24 years ago okay wow it's just like we we clicked on all these other
02:00levels just the dating type of thing and oh man man she's cool we enjoyed our each other's company
02:06we didn't get that deep into who each other were at the time uh which is you know i'm i'm you know kind
02:13of upset about that because you know you know you know i was running around and all that kind of
02:18stuff and yeah i i take the uh the blame for that one but look at you now look at you now and then
02:25we kind of came back yeah we lost each other came back and then didn't realize how much we had yeah
02:30that's when we really realized that and and michael you know he's i've always been into basketball
02:35track volleyball i did every sport when i was younger but he got me into martial arts so i've i've
02:42always been up for learning new things so you know i saw how much he was into and i was like i want to
02:46learn that too so now that's something else we can do together and that really keeps me in shape
02:52and you're a black belt right michael oh yeah yeah i've been a black belt since i was uh 12 or 13.
02:58and gillian you you became a martial artist because of him and i did you're on it almost are you a black
03:04belt now too she's on that level see i've taught her since i have i have eight black belts in different
03:10styles right so she's learned like enough to be a black belt in a few of those styles actually so i
03:18mean you know but she's kind of you know she's learning a lot but i got a good teacher i see
03:25help me in trainer bay all together at once luckily so tell me how like take me through right like
03:32couples like my husband and i like we sleep in make like bacon like we're not pulling it together you
03:36talk me through like a day in the life of you guys kind of working out as a couple and like
03:42what's your routine your couple routine is with wellness and love talk me through it gosh it it it
03:49varies sometimes sometimes we get up super early we have a gym in our backyard yeah see you we're
03:53actors and we we're you know our days are never the same and so that's part of the fun of it because
03:59then we can figure out when we're gonna work out or we're gonna do this early or not or whatever
04:04um so you know like i said we got a gym in at the house and we run we go to different gyms we'll you
04:11know pick a different location and just change up we'll we'll take the family out to the to the track
04:18and that's something we all enjoy doing exactly and sometimes there's a park near us and we'll we'll go uh
04:23we do a fat burning jog around that 30 minutes and after that we'll do interval sprinting around the
04:29park so we switch it up a lot you know nothing to you know got to keep it keep it spicy now i love
04:35that you guys have martial arts in common can you give advice to couples on how to find like their
04:41fitness thing you know what i mean because i think that really right like obviously it's something you
04:45can connect doing you know doing it and then you can get healthy together that's that's very important
04:51i would encourage people to not to the the mindset of it to not think of it as a chore or just some
04:57some kind of like you know oh it takes so much discipline yeah it's just it is the right working
05:03out is a right one day we can't do that we're going to be too old to do that stuff and we're young enough
05:08to do it right now take advantage of it absolutely absolutely and the and and get get accompanied
05:14with that that feeling of uh completion you know how good you feel after you've worked out it's it's a
05:19it's a purge it's it's you know to release get get used to that feeling and it'll take care of
05:26itself it's you don't feel like oh i gotta go whatever it's like i want to you know it would
05:31feel weird if we didn't work out and i think the best thing for couples is you know talk to each
05:36other figure out what what is something common that you got like maybe you guys both like to run or jog
05:40or dance or anything that that gets the blood moving gets some cardio in you know just find out
05:47what is you have in common and then kind of close in on that and do it together and believe me
05:51everything it makes everything else in the relationship better yes okay you know you know
05:58this is kind of a you know hold on let's talk about that but you know what i'm saying yeah well
06:04we've talked about endorphins right from working out so i imagine you argue less you talk more like
06:11talk about it how does it it's it's like hey we do martial arts and i always say like with martial arts
06:17it's like uh like throwing a tantrum every day like you're hitting and punching and whatever it's
06:22cathartic right so how are you going to be all stressed out if you just kick and punch and get
06:26all of that stuff yeah people never believe us but i gotta put this out there no one ever believes us
06:32we never argue like we never argue yes we do no we don't no we don't no we don't you know what you
06:39disagree that's what i say we don't argue because it's just very rare because um and it could be you
06:45know we just we get along really well we're best friends we it's really i think we've had four
06:53somewhat five disagreements all the time we've been together and it's like 20 minute type things
06:57and they were over some stupid you know but um it's it's that's unusual i think but that the philosophy
07:04that we we there's no ego here that's the that that's the thing that lends to that because i i love
07:11being wrong because then i learned something you know we we always say you hear the the term like
07:16you got two ears and one mouth you know so use those you know uh yeah no matter who you disagree
07:23with they're going to have some modicum of truth to what they're arguing about if you can listen to
07:29that part and you can empathize you you know it's going to go a long way you you know that you can
07:34prove to that person that you hear them so you know a lot of people miss each other just they mean
07:40well but you know but when you your best when your best friends you don't tend to um kind of judge your
07:47best friend even if they have flaws the same way you do your spouse you know you just kind of give
07:53that forgiveness but you need to give that for your spouse as well you know i love this because if you
07:59think about okay you're getting more time together right and you're working on your endorphins and
08:04your energy levels so you're able to like fight less be less tired less cranky have more meaningful
08:09time together but let's also talk about the longevity you get as partners with you both being your
08:15healthiest you get more time together in love you get to live longer right so just talk about like
08:22the benefits you all have seen with your own bodies and just yourself in terms of just living and
08:27being committed to living well yeah i mean i i'm i'll be 46 next year i don't believe you i need id
08:35yeah i mean but i i think it has a lot to do with the way i take care of myself my you know not just
08:40the fitness but my my diet you know it's important we have kids we want to be there for them we want to
08:45stay healthy we want to be able to take care of them and and do things with them as long as we possibly
08:49can yeah so that's important to both of us and your kids i mean they they're they're more important than
08:54you right so uh kids tend to do what they see not necessarily what you tell them all right so but
09:00it's so our our kids i mean you know we they they they've never had beef i mean they've like uh and
09:10you know we uh i mean it's like it's for them like a protein powders or whatever it's just it's
09:17commonplace and uh they don't like the the bad stuff they don't see it very much but you know
09:24it's just normal it's setting good examples for them you know whether they followed or not they
09:29have that foundation so that's the most important thing absolutely and they're like you said they're
09:33seeing that lifestyle so it's not an adjustment for them it's the way that they live and when they
09:38grow up it's going to be commonplace absolutely yeah and we enjoy our food just as much as anybody else
09:44you know it's it's you know like if you got i love cooking yeah yeah i mean you i'm coming over
09:50for dinner y'all i know that's a great thing about growing up the way we grow up we we you know us
09:57folks had to know how to season stuff so you can season you can use that talent healthy yeah you just
10:05season something healthy and and you're you're in there yeah you know so you don't you don't miss
10:10nothing well you two like i said when i opened the the segment you are an inspiration thank you for
10:16loving each other being beautiful representations of black love but also of the lifestyle that we can
10:21live together with our partners our husbands our wives and the example that we can set for our
10:26children so thank you both for being that stay safe live well and i'll see you on instagram because
10:32thank you so much carl we appreciate you all right take care thank you guys bye
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