No, it isn't anyone famous-at least outside of my small family. Nope, its my super supportive husband dressed in running shorts, an ancient (and I mean OLD) t-shirt, white cotton long socks, ASIC sneakers and a set of over sized earphones with his eyes on the family treadmill. Before I could ask, our 7 year old beat me to the punch-"Daddy-what are you doing?!"- with equally measures of alarm and curiosity in her voice. My husband, probably tired from the harassment from our child (and the odd concerned comment from myself-I'll admit) has decided to get healthy, hence, the treadmill action.
Now I can't put my finger on the hair that broke the camel's back that has set him off to "get healthy," but I'm glad something has pushed him in this direction. For the past 4 years his weight has steadily increased and his former half-marathon ready self had no motivation to run or do hardly anything active (excluding the odd round of golf). Recently, one Friday night, he declared his intentions, and then some, to get healthy. He would start monitoring his calories, run every day on the treadmill while catching up on his Breaking Bad episodes, and when he felt his fitness was up to his personal standard, he would venture outside to run. I watched for the first week to see how this would go or if it would simply be a lofty goal said and quickly forgotten. But, day after day, he dutifully tracked his calories (which he would announce his deficit each evening) and ran on the treadmill (much to the protest of our 7 year old-she's had to resign herself to the upstairs tv and give up her monopoly on Netflix).
Some evening during the second week we talked about his calories and I urged him to track his calories for eating and exercise separately so he would get a more accurate picture of his caloric intake. I had just read an article on the epic failure of these calorie tracking apps, which assume a calorie eaten is equal to a calorie burned, surprise, surprise they aren't equal. I could see that with my own adventures in calorie tracking. If all calories were created equal I'd weigh 80lbs by now with all the running I do, instead I've still got that "Mommy pouch" to work off. He didn't like that (I could sense by his silence when I burst the calorie bubble) but in the end he's started to track them separately.
So, it's now been 3 weeks of our child having two running parents again. I certainly need to get used to taking my runs in the early morning or ensuring I leave early enough for work so I can fit in a run before making supper since the post-supper run time is now dedicated to hubby. I get yelled by my 7 year old in the evenings when I come home from work sweaty from my run and my husband now gets to torture our child by chasing her around the house, sweaty after his treadmill runs. Life is good.
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