Meal Planning with a Marathoner-in-TrainingEasy Weight Loss

For the first time in a long time, Jeff and I are not coordinated with our food.  Back when I was actively dieting, he was happy to eat whatever I made because he liked eating lighter - and if he was still hungry after dinner, he'd grab some fruit for dessert, along with a couple of Dove dark chocolate Promises.  It made my life easy and I didn't face the challenges that other dieting bloggers did with a husband and/or family who weren't quite on board for making the switch to healthier meals.

But now, we are at different places when it comes to meal planning - mostly dinners, because that's when we eat together most often.  He's already running a lot and as a result, he's hungry.  I get it, I do - I remember that hunger toward the end of my half marathon training.  For perspective, he'll be running a half marathon on Sunday...and his mileage will continue to increase from there.  He's trying to figure out fueling for his long runs and that includes what he's eating in the days leading up to them.   For the last month I've made spaghetti with meat sauce for Thursday night's dinner, and he takes those leftovers to work for Friday's lunch, and then we'll do some sort of meat and potatoes for Friday's dinner (usually a burger and fries but we've also tried steak and baked potatoes which was yummy, too) - and he's felt strong during his Saturday long runs, which is great - that's the goal.

For me, this is a lot of heavier food.  I wanted to get better about having more fruit and vegetables in my diet and over the summer I started making my fruit/kale/yogurt smoothies.  I also ate a lot of salads either at Salata or using those premixed salad kits that have different ingredients - I have no shame in admitting that I'm all about the easy factor when it comes to making a quick, healthy meal.

Couple this with me starting to do my group workouts again, and I was more onboard the healthy eating train than ever because if I'm going to work that hard, I don't want to undermine everything by eating less-than-optimal food too often (Blue Baker on Saturdays excepted).  So at the same time when I'm trying to make good choices, Jeff is foraging for food after dinner - it's not unusual for him to have a bowl of cereal, maybe some yogurt, and an apple, plus the Dove Promises after dinner.  I'm not hungry, but it's hard to be around someone who is continually eating - I want to join in!

To combat this and save me from myself, I bought some bagged popcorn - Boom Chicka Pop in sea salt flavor, which is 35 calories a cup.  I can pour myself a bowl of it, get that wanting to eat sensation out of my system, and I've only had 70 calories.  I'm also drinking a lot of water so I'm overly full because that also will stop me from joining in with Jeff on his marathon eating.

I got some encouragement in that I was still doing OK with this when I had a body scan at BCS Fitness recently - while I haven't weighed myself in years and don't care what I weigh as long as I feel healthy and strong, they recommended doing a scan at the beginning of your workouts and then another about a month later to see if you're making changes where you want.  I keep my eyes closed while doing the scans and let Brad tell me if I've made progress.  After five weeks I had my second scan and while I hadn't gained any muscle (drat, but I was a little less hydrated than my original scan and Brad said that was probably the reason), I had gained strength in my arms and torso, so I was happy about that - my goal is to become a stronger runner through this, so any progress is good, especially considering I was dealing with a calf tear and not doing a whole lot of work with my legs.  And I'd surprisingly lost weight which is not bad for someone my age, my height, and with my sloooow metabolism. 

Meal plan for this week:

Monday - Korean beef bowl with rice and steamed broccoli
Tuesday - Beef stew (it's supposed to be nice and chilly so that sounded good)
Wednesday - Leftovers from Monday or Tuesday
Thursday - Bagged salads with deli turkey, garlic bread (concession to Jeff who needs more food)
Friday - Spaghetti with meat sauce, garlic bread
Saturday - Boboli pizza with ground beef and onions plus more carbs for Jeff
Sunday - Half marathon for Jeff so who knows what he'll want for dinner

I suspect this won't be the only post from now until mid-January regarding the challenges with this.  I'm trying to stay on my course while supporting my hungry marathoner at the same time.  Now more than ever, I need to be deliberate about portion control with these heavier meals.  I can't eat like I'm the one who's training for a marathon!

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