At meal time, our table is divided

Elizabeth Templin McCamic

One challenge I face is planning meals. While I really need to watch what I eat, my husband does not. In fact, when I first started talking about running a half marathon this year, I asked if he’d train with me. He declined because he worried he’d lose too much weight – weight he struggled to gain in the first place (a concept that is still hard for me to comprehend since I sometimes joke that I can look at a slice of cake and gain a couple pounds).

It’s not that he’s really skinny now, but he once was. He swam and ran track and cross country in high school. In college, he carried a mere 125 pounds on his 5-foot-9 frame. My problem was the opposite: I always needed to lose some weight.

So now that we are married and share most of our meals, I want to make sure both needs are being met, that we eat healthy, small-portioned meals (for me) that are filling and include good fats (for him).

Then there’s the issue of snacks. For me to be successful there can’t be a lot of tempting snacks in our house.

So far we’ve made some changes that have worked. My husband often eats larger portions than I do and will add an extra snack or glass of milk. I’m lucky he hasn’t minded trading cheese and crackers and chips and salsa for carrots and hummus and raw almonds. We’ve not been eating much in the way of dessert, which is a change we both agree is in our best interest.

A couple of times at the end of a meal, when I still feel hungry and he’s getting up for seconds, it’s been tough. I won’t deny that there have been times I’ve childishly thought how unfair it is that he can eat almost anything and I have to be so disciplined.

But then I remember it’s not always been easy for him either.

One quick update: My first two days of half marathon training have gone well. My run on Tuesday was great, even in the rain. It felt so good be outside and I liked the way the wet air felt as I was running through my neighborhood. It actually reminded me of being at the beach, if you can believe that. Wednesday I came home from work feeling worn out, so it took a lot of energy just to get moving. Once I had run about a mile, I knew I had made the right choice. It felt good to keep with the plan.

I’m looking forward to my long run this weekend. The weather should be perfect. See you out there!