Weight Watchers and Marathon Training: Week 1

Starting weight: 234.8 pounds

Current weight: 228.6 pounds

Halfway into training to run my fourth and fifth marathons, I decided I was going to start Weight Watchers.

Why?

Couple of reasons — Training for marathons doesn’t magically make you lose weight. I’ve run three of them so far, and while I’m down three inches off my waist, I haven’t lost a single pound. I’ve completed three marathons at 235 pounds, but if I’m going to run two more, I wanted the whole process to be a lot easier on my knees than the first three were. Lastly, I’ve never, to put it charitably, had a healthy diet, having eaten more than my fair share of pizza and cheeseburgers over the course of my adult life.

So if I was going to do a weight loss program, I needed something that was going to make it easy to track my progress and to find healthy meals. However, I also needed something that wasn’t going to leave me hungry and miserable given the amount of energy I’m expending throughout the week during my training runs.

Weight Watchers has, at least in the early going, fit that bill. Because there are so many zero point foods, I’ve been relying on those to fuel my runs and cross training exercises. Lunch has been a challenge because I work in the heart of downtown Chicago, however you can do a Chipotle burrito bowl (salad base, chicken, pinto beans, fajita veggies, corn, and salsa) for only three points that is equal parts healthy and filling.

The most eye opening experience so far has been how unhealthy certain things that have been a fixture in my diet are. For instance, I’ve relied on Clif bars throughout the past three years to fuel my workouts, however on Weight Watchers those are 10 points, or roughly 1/3 of my daily calories. The Wreck sub that I love so much from Potbelly? Almost a day’s worth of points.

To counter that, I’ve saved my indulgences for the days that I work out harder and longer. For instance, on Saturday when I ran 13 miles, I had a Clif bar before my run and a bacon egg and cheese bagel sandwich immediately after. I completely obliterated my daily points allowance in a single meal, however I also accumulated enough activity points during my run to where I was still in the clear for the day.

Finding the balance between staying within my points, eating enough to fuel my workouts, and following the plan so that I’m able to lose weight while at the same time enjoying my summer has been a struggle. My general approach to this whole process is to stay within my daily points without having to dip into my activity points from Monday-Thursday and indulge without going overboard Friday-Sunday. Cutting out alcohol during the week has made this a bit easier and it’s not something I’ve particularly missed much.

With all that being said, while this has been a challenge over the past seven days, it is a challenge that I’m up for and it’s one that is already paying off in the form of six fewer pounds than I was carrying around a week ago.

I’m running the 2019 Chicago Marathon and New York City Marathon to raise money for the American Heart Association to honor my late mother. To donate, please click here.