Friendships aren’t always good times and fun hangouts. Sometimes, you realize you have been spending intimate moments with a person who exercises on vacation, and it shakes your entire view on who they are and your friendship. Here are a few steps you can take to be friends with someone who exercises on vacation, even though it’s vacation and you’re not supposed to do that.
Remember you still have some things in common.
When you find out that someone you trusted is the kind of person that exercises on vacation, it can feel like there are canyons of differences between you two. In this case, it can help to remember that you, at some point, did have something in common to become friends. Maybe you both shared a hobby or disliked the same person. Hold on to that thread of commonality as hard as you can when you hear about how they’ve been working on their core at 6 a.m. on their Caribbean vacation. You’re going to need it.
Change the subject.
Knowing that your friend exercises on vacation is hard enough; it’s worse to hear about it constantly and be reminded of how you diverge from your friend on a fundamental level. If your friend is constantly mentioning horrid things like “jogging” when more normal people would be horizontal near a pool, feel free to change the subject. Luckily, there are many aspects of vacations that don’t involve exercise you can easily transition to, or you can bring up something upsetting to shut the conversation down entirely. Either way, there’s no reason you should have to hear about someone’s “amazing hike.” You don’t deserve that.
Mute them on Instagram.
Sometimes relationships require a little bit of separation and compartmentalization, especially if the relationship involves a proud masochist who likes to exercise during their PTO. So, feel free to mute them on Instagram! This approach is harmless and allows you peace of mind as you avoid their long Instagram stories about their sets when you know they’re literally in Iceland. There’s no need to subject yourself to that kind of negativity.
Hopefully, some of these strategies will help you set aside your differences and maintain a friendship with someone who does psychotic things like go for a 5 mile run when they are supposed to be relaxing. And if it doesn’t, honestly, it’s not a big loss! Go make better friends with people who order room service at noon.
