At 70, Al Roker Maintains Weight Loss With This Simple Trick
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Al Roker shared a weight loss maintenance tip that he practices at the dinner table.
It’s a simple trick that helps him and his family eat mindfully.
“I guess what I’ve come to [realize with] my relationship with food, which has happened over a period of time, is that I’ve learned about portions,” he said.
Weight loss has been a decades-long journey for Al Roker, and those years have given him plenty of maintenance tips and tricks. He recently shared one that he and his wife turn to regularly. It takes place at the dinner table, but has little to do with food.
While promoting his new cookbook, Al Roker’s Recipes to Live By, the 70-year-old told The Daily Mail that he and his wife, Deborah Roberts, have a strict no phones at the dinner table rule. “They get left in a basket and that’s that,” he said. The parameter has multiple perks—it pushes personal connection and conversation, and, Roker said it keeps him eating mindfully, which means he’s more aware of his portions and satiety.
Roker said he thinks social media makes it “more difficult” for people to have a healthy relationship with food because “when it comes to food, it’s very hard to multitask,” he explained. “So, you could finish a plate of food reading and not realize that you ate.”
The same goes for aimlessly snacking and scrolling on the couch or in bed. “Everybody’s on their phones and doom scrolling and eating or having snacks and so I think the trick is to try to be more present,” he added.
In 2002, Roker underwent gastric bypass surgery and has since slowly changed his lifestyle. “I guess what I’ve come to [realize with] my relationship with food, which has happened over a period of time, is that I’ve learned about portions,” he explained. “The problem had been for a long time, for me, it’d be one thing if you stopped at a scoop of Häagen-Dazs, but no, we finished the pint! That’s where you get in trouble!”
Roker also shared his thoughts on weight loss drugs like Ozempic. As someone who lost weight with the help of medical intervention, he encourages people to follow their own path as long as it’s a safe one. “I’m not gonna judge anybody,” he said. “If this is what works for them, I mean, who are we to say, ‘Oh, don’t do that.’ As long as it’s safe and effective, good for you. I think everybody’s journey is their journey.”
And Roker’s personal one has been a rollercoaster. But, because of his persistence, at 70, he feels “better than [he has] in years.”
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