With the Goofy Challenge less than 2 months away and several indulgent holidays rapidly approaching, I’ve re-started counting calories via myfitnesspal. My goal between now and race day is to maintain my current weight – or possibly lose a few of the 10lbs gained during last year’s marathon training – and maybe improve my body composition in what ever way is possible in less than 60 days. Obviously I care mostly about being successful on race day but most training plans seem to contain a dietary guideline, whether or not you want to lose weight in the process of training. My experience of gaining while training is apparently not uncommon amongst women, especially in my age group, and calorie counting helps prevent that.
As someone who tortures the general public for hours with talk of marathon training and calorie counting, I was a bit taken aback today. I had mentioned my body fat scale and trying to improve speed through calorie counting when I was asked to stop projecting my poor body image on someone else’s daughters. I don’t actually perceive myself as having poor body image so I was a little flabbergasted. Do I think losing back the 10lbs I gained last year would help my clothes fit better and help me run faster? Absolutely. Do I think I look terrible and obsess over calories to improve my appearance? No. No. And no.
Which leads me to 2 interesting questions: Why do I care about Racing Weight? And does running marathons and worrying about peak training body composition project a bad body image on my daughter?
I’ve written some about my reasons for working on nutrition previously. In summary poor food choices during marathon training led to unnecessary weight gain which is hurting performance. At my body composition, a 10% loss in weight/body fat (not the same thing I know), will likely translate to a performance improvement of 10%. My half marathon PR of 148 minutes becomes a PR of 134 minutes. And since my BMI is at the uppermost limit of healthy, there is a long-term health benefit, too.
So what impact does my training have on my children, particularly my 6 year old daughter? Jessica has already told me she has a chubby tummy. But wasn’t upset by it at all. And I have certainly never said anything like that to her (she heard it at school). I don’t think I run for weight-related reasons so I doubt my children think I do. I go on training runs to prepare for a specific endurance event. I’m not following a diet and exercise regimen to achieve an idealized body image but to try to improve my race performance. My number obsession is over speed intervals and PRs, not so much numbers on a scale or a dress size. We talk about eating healthy to be healthy not to achieve a weight-loss goal. I actually think my running sets a positive example of achievement for my children. The fat body scale is merely another tool to get me across the finish line as quickly as possible based on evidence-based studies showing that body composition matters.
I guess the lesson I’ve learned from this discussion is that I don’t have poor body image and I’m not teaching bad body image to my children. And, perhaps more importantly, I need to choose my audience for discussing my running obsession more carefully…
A Dr. Mom runs to Disney 
I rarely comment on these discussions from you because i know almost nothing at all about running and read them because: a) I am you mother and interested in what you do, and
b) it’s an easy way to learn more about something I have previous known virtually nothing
about.
However, I am a mother and think I can contribute on that issue, so for the first time, I do
wish to comment.
First, I remember from when you were 3 years old and my doctor friend, Diana, mentioned
that you were a very “dense” child…..this, of course did not refer to your brain, but to the
fact that you were always heavier than you looked and heavier than you clothing size would
indicate. Your son Zachary is also, in my opinion, dense in terms of body density, while
Nathaniel is the complete opposite.
I was therefore not surprised to learn that your BMI is higher than you would like and I think
also than your appearance would suggest.
But I was distressed to learn that someone, some where is critical of you for projecting a
“negative body image” to some unknown young female.
Clearly these blogs are about a sporting situation and since you have been an athlete of
one sort or another forever (or so the car-driver mother feels!) I assumed that your audience would also be reading this as a sports-related conversation. It is no secret that almost all
athletes of any level of seriousness takes weight and diet into consideration in preparing
for an athletic competition.
The point is this: in my opinion, you should continue to write your blog as a serious discussion of your aims and objectives in running races, particularly marathons and half-marathons, which
most people would not consider trivial races. While it is true that you do not aspire to become
a world-class runner, this does not preclude the idea that you might wish to improve your
performance. In my mind, a woman as busy as you would not be doing all this agonizing and difficult training if you were not running seriously against your own self-defined objections.
And this is to be admired and it is important that your friends and family support you and
provide positive reinforcement.
It is not your duty, despite your primary job as a physician, to filter your personal feelings
about running (or anything else of a personal nature) through the filter of what someone
else feels you should be doing to be a good role model for her daughter.
To my mind, anyone who is looking for a role model for a daughter should be pointing out
the fact that in your profession, you save lives. In your real life, you are raising three truly
remarkable children. You are there both personally and professionally for your parents, your
siblings and various aunts, uncles, cousins and no doubt friends and neighbors when a
medical opinion is required. You are attractive, intelligent, a star in many areas and well-loved by more people than I even know.
So, continue to be you and let the other mother do her duty as she sees fit. In my opinion, being you would provide the best role model a mother would want and you should be proud of that!
Love,
mom
Just to be clear the comment wasn’t made about my blog post. It was made after a children’s service at synagogue where some delicious baked goods were being served. I declined the baked goods because of my marathon training efforts and explained why I wasn’t partaking. I was then told that I was subjecting her daughters to my bad body image issues…
I feel like when ppl make comments like that it rarely has to do with what you are doing and how you act. I feel like when we make statements, intended or otherwise, that call attention to a healthy lifestyle ppl seem to become very defensive and often attack. I feel like they assume you are judging them for their unhealthy choices. Though I cannot think of one example from my experience where that was the case (im vegan and just took up running as well). Or feeling guilty about projecting bad body image of their own. Im not sure what they think they are going to accomplish, but find myself in this situation more often than i would like. It’s a tricky area to be in because it depends upon how much you like the other person or how often you have to work with them to decide whether or not to even say anything back to them.
Your blog is really inspiring. Having just starting running this past summer with the goal being to run the Princess Half this Feb it’s nice to have the extra motivation to go out and get those runs in. Hope you have a great Thanksgiving!
Thank you so much for your kind words! I hope to meet you at the Princess!!!
HI…I’m doing Goofy also and have a background of being obese all my life, losing 100lbs, and now an “adult athlete” in the sense I do these races but usually a back of the packer.
With that said, I was going to follow along more for tips and after this post just had to comment. I now counsel women transitioning lifestyle and one of the issues that comes up ALL THE TIME is other people judging you when you just aren’t enjoying a treat RIGHT THEN with them.
I’m not going to go into a ton of advice but be proud of what you are doing and, NO, you are not setting a CRAZY example to your daughter. What’s a crazy example? Stuffing your face with junk just because someone offers it. You are showing her you make choices that are right for your body.
As I do with my friends, clients, son, and family, I don’t diet. I eat things that support what I am doing and love. Sometimes that’s a treat but usually I just feel best when I eat my best.
Anywho…here’s a blog I wrote called I Don’t Eat That. Keep writing and see you in Disney girl!
http://www.phit-n-phat.com/i-cant-eat-that/
I love your advice! And what a great outlook. I don’t drink soda anymore and have really cut junk from my diet. Because I feel better and I perform better when I fuel better. Amen.