I Have a Chubby Hubby and He Knows It

It's surprising, and sometimes alarming, to see how much people change over the course of a couple of years. My husband and I have always been get-up-and-go type people...we get bored easily! Our active daily lives, as well as having a toddler in the house to run after, always kept us in shape. We were never the couple to diet or hold back from eating what we enjoy. Not until recently that is, when I realized that my husband had gotten quite round. I had to break it to him, he's only getting older and his health was my concern. My biggest concern was the amount of soda he consumed, about 5-7 cans a day. I had to do something, I had to let him know he needed to adjust his diet. So I laid it on him; Hubby, you're getting chubby.

I worried, for about a second, how he would handle me telling him he was looking a bit heavier because the last thing I would want to do is offend anyone. He handled it quite well really, better than I had expected, with a "Yea, I'm fat". I was as gentle as I could be, sneaky actually. I asked him his height and weight and entered it into this neat little BMI (body mass index) calculator I found on the National Heart Lung and Blood website, nhlbi.nih.gov. I told him he was officially overweight and that now is the time to get back in shape.

I didn't feel bad telling my husband he was overweight because we both know we're getting older and our health is on the top of our priority lists. The first thing he did was kick the soda habit, not completely (it's a hard habit to break!) but even by half it made a huge difference. The next thing he did, by far the hardest we have both had to do, was manage overeating. Knowing when to stop is extremely difficult when you have a pantry stocked with sugary lunch snacks and a certain bag of chips that the two of us can polish off in one sitting. Once he changed what he packed in his lunch (being on the road all day makes it easy to over-snack without even noticing it) he got on a program. Sweet snack packs and chips don't hold such a presence in his lunch bag anymore, instead he brings a load of coleslaw, a sandwich and a few items that will hold him over until dinner.

Telling my husband he was gaining weight was one of the best things I decided to do this year. Not only has he lost 8 pounds (go hubby!) but we have both started to change our eating habits. We're not saints when it comes to snacking but we're one step farther away from over-eaters anonymous! Next step; getting hubby to eat some veggies, I'm thinking the Sneaky Chef is in our future!