Weight Watchers and Marathon Training: Week 6

Starting weight: 234.8 pounds

Current weight: 222.2 pounds

Change: -12.6 pounds to date

I wasn’t sure what I was thinking when I began incorporating Weight Watchers into my marathon training program, but in week 6, I’ve come to a realization.

The program works. It works for me, and the results are plain as day in the figures above.

In the six weeks since I started Weight Watchers, I’ve lost almost 13 pounds without dramatically altering my lifestyle. As mentioned in a previous post, I’ve made a couple of dietary tweaks — for instance, I order a chicken salad with fajita veggies and extra pinto beans with no cheese or rice now at Chipotle and skip the chips and guac — but overall, the program hasn’t completely taken over my life the way that I thought it would.

Almost as noteworthy to me as the weight loss is the fact that I’m running faster and feeling stronger. As a distance runner, your overall goal is to post negative splits, wherein your later miles are faster than your initial ones. As you can see in the pace chart above, I did that on Monday, with my fifth mile a full minute faster than my first.

The best part about all of this is I’m not feeling deprived on my workouts. Opting for a banana instead of a Clif bar before a workout class or a midweek run of anywhere between 4–8 miles hasn’t hurt my body or my performance. I’m not lacking for energy at the end of a run, nor am I starving, which is a pleasant surprise, plus I still get to drink my beloved chocolate milk at the end of a run and stay within my points for the day.

All of this is to say that with five weeks to go until the Chicago Marathon and eight weeks to go until the New York City Marathon, I’m incredibly pleased with the impact that the Weight Watchers program has had on my marathon training and my life in general, and I’m looking forward to seeing the end results on race day(s).

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.