You’ve been having great success with counting macros and your spouse has started to notice. Will getting him on board with you be double trouble or give you both twice the determination? For Sandra and Tom it’s been the latter and we’re lucky enough to highlight their stories for this month’s client spotlight!
Tell us a little bit about the two of you. How long have you been married? What do you both do for a living? Kids? Hobbies?
We are Sandra and Tom Townsend. We have been married for 11 years. I have two boys that are 21 and 19 that we have been raising together. We are very family oriented and always are busy doing something with our boys, our parents or brothers and sisters. Tom loves to hunt, fish or basically do anything involving being outdoors, I love to run, hike, be outdoors also. Our favorite thing to do on vacation is to hike and explore new areas. I am an office manager and Tom is a warehouse supervisor. We both work full time and stay busy with activities with our families as well as extended families.
How long have you both been doing Stay Fit Mom and Dad Bod? Did one of you start and the other join in?
I have been doing stay fit mom for a year. I wanted to become more fit to have better success in my running, I had been trying to eat well and take some weight off to accomplish this and it has gotten harder as I have gotten older. I looked into different nutrition programs and saw SFM and was intrigued. The ideas of macros sounded perfect for what I was trying to accomplish as it specifies to your body, your age, your exercise levels etc, so I decided to give it a try (read more about Sandra’s story HERE). Once Tom saw the progress, I was able to make with the program, he decided he would try it as well. Tom has been on the program for 5 months now and having so much success as well.
What have been the benefits to doing this process together? Challenges?
We have found many benefits of doing this program together. When you are doing it on your own – you are spending so much time (especially in the beginning) preparing your meals, numbers and then weighing your food and being very specific to what you eat. When others around you are not involved in the process you can feel self-conscious in doing all of this all of the time or judged as crazy to be doing all of it. When you do this together , you have someone with you that understands what you are trying to accomplish, understands that the process takes time and that preparation is needed. As everyone knows, macro counting can be tedious and many people don’t understand it, so having a partner that understands and is also weighing his food and preparing a weeks worth of meals is helpful overall.
Once Tom started the process he has seen the effort it takes to stay on track so he has been more helpful in preparing meals and helping to get meals prepped. Tom feels that having someone that has started the process and had learned to manage the day-to-day macros was invaluable. He did not feel that this was a process he would have stuck to on his own. We can celebrate accomplishments together and have “cheat days” together which makes it fun.
The challenges are the same as doing it individually – you must plan. Macros isn’t something you can just put together on the fly and be successful. You have to have a plan for your entire day in order to succeed, this can be tiring or time consuming. When you are macro counting with other people you must also be aware that when you cook a carb heavy dinner or a protein heavy dinner it may affect the others numbers more than yours, since everyone’s numbers are specific to them (can’t be selfish haha).
Tell us about the success you’ve each had with macros. How much weight have you lost, yes, but also, what have been the other Non-scale-victory wins for the two of you?
We both have lost 20 pounds to get to our goal weight!! I have been at my goal weight and maintaining for 6 months! Tom just reached his goal weight and is starting maintenance. With my coach’s help and consistency I have been able to maintain my goal weight and I know Tom will be able to as well. Tom is happy that his clothes fit better and his body and gut feel overall healthier. I feel much better too and have learned that eating correctly and the appropriate macro balance helps me avoid the yo-yo weight loss and gain and has helped with my running progress which was my primary goal.
What kind of advice do you have for other couples that might be hesitant to track macros?
Whether you are doing this by yourself or with your spouse it is important to plan and give your self time to learn the process. We both agree that this is not something you pick up and understand how to manipulate your numbers overnight. It takes practice and time to learn the process. You can lean on each other to help when Macro Tetris is getting the best of you, two heads are always better than one! We have learned that planning meals together or meal prepping together make things easier. It is nice to have someone that is invested and wants to take some of the load.
Any meal prep tips/ tricks you’d offer up for couples doing this together? We know you must be cooking A LOT!
For meal prepping for the week, we have a system. We cook a lot but we have learned what we
like and try to minimize the amount of work we do during the week. We both have our breakfast of choice, green chili egg casserole and pumpkin baked oats, which we prepare on Sundays. We each have a standard lunch that we usually eat (Tom loves the SFM turkey salad)! We do not shy away from eating the same thing daily. We plan what we will cook for the week over the weekend, we never, “wing it.” We generally prepare two stay fit mom meals and alternate them during the week for our dinners. If we know our weeks will be crazy, we will cook the dinners and have them prepared for the week, but we always have the menu and groceries ready to go to make cooking dinner quicker. We also have found that grilling or smoking meat goes a long way. For example, Tom will smoke a pork tenderloin that we may eat
one night, but he will cook enough for leftovers. We can then use the pork for the shredded pork potatoes and pork enchiladas. If he grills chicken, I always have him grill extra and we can always make a meal with the leftovers!
Tell us about your experience working with Coach Chad and Coach Kristi.
Coach Kristi has been great! I had a lot of doubts and questions when I first started and she was patient and explained everything to me. She listened as my training would increase and made adjustments that allowed me to eat more to train harder but not gain/lose weight. She is very responsive and knows her stuff! Coach Chad has been very encouraging as well! He has helped Tom dialed in with his macros so that his weight came off in a nice steady rate. He has been very helpful throughout the process.
We are so thrilled for both Sandra and Tom and their success is undeniable! We’re so happy for them. You can find more tips here: Tracking Macros with you Husband.
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