Losing It: A Word from the Husband

Robin's sticking with her workouts—even at summer camp.

You think you have the best spouse in the world? Well, you would be wrong, because I do. After my final pre-hiatus column went up, my husband, a fabulous writer and editor, asked if he could write a guest column about how proud of me he is. I said, “You want to gush about me for all of my hundreds of thousands of adoring fans to read? Well, alrighty then!” So, without further ado, some words on my fabulousness from my darling husband, Eric Raskin:

You know those early days of dating someone, when you’re still inclined to pretend to be interested in the things your boyfriend or girlfriend is interested in that actually don’t interest you at all? It was during that period that I first saw my wife run. She joined me on a jog about two weeks after we started dating. That remained, for the next 8½ years, the only time I saw her run.

The concept of Robin Raskin as a person who now jogs is jarring to me. It’s like Andy Reid committing to the ground attack or Snooki offering insightful commentary on foreign policy. For as long as I knew her, my wife was steadfast in her refusal to run; she made it about three-quarters of a mile with me back in those brand-new-relationship days in the summer of 2003, and that was the full extent of her experience breaking 4 mph on foot for the balance of the decade.

And here she is in 2012, with three 5K races under her belt, not to mention about a dozen pounds lost and countless salads consumed, and I couldn’t be more proud of her. I wouldn’t quite go so far as to call her my “hero,” because that’s a corny thing to say and because there’s a certain segment of the population that flips out when you use that word to describe anyone who didn’t save a life or fight in a war, but I am enormously proud of what Robin has accomplished.

(On a side note, I’m proud of what’s she done as a writer as well. I’ve been a professional writer/editor myself for the last 15 years, and I’m legitimately impressed with how Robin has succeeded in making her voice come through in her blog. I’d love to claim that I taught her everything she knows about writing, but the reality is that the only thing she learned from me is how to look pissed off when you’re staring at a blank screen, trying to concentrate, and your family enters the room and interrupts you.)

As Robin’s friends and regular readers know, she spends her summers working at an overnight camp, where she lives with our kids for seven weeks while I commute back and forth. So she’s been unable to post new blogs to update you on her weight-loss progress and maintenance. I’m not sure whether she’s actually stepped on a scale, but I can attest, without any quantitative evidence, that she’s done a solid job of sticking to the program. She’s been getting up early and jogging or doing morning yoga when possible. (This was more true early in the summer than the last couple of weeks, but still.) She’s eating about as healthily as one can eat when hunkered down for three meals a day in the camp dining hall, where every meal comes with dessert and breakfast essentially is dessert. Based on the eyeball test, I’d say she’s about the same weight now, give or take a couple pounds, as she was when she authored her last blog. In other words, she is still a modern-day Greek goddess.

And she is definitely missed here at home. You know all those new recipes and approaches to cooking that she blogged about? In her absence, my bachelor eating habits have gotten worse than ever. Example: I bought microwaveable falafel balls, and heated them up but only ate half of them. (No side dish—that was my dinner.) I put the remaining falafel back in the fridge. For lunch the next day, I toasted a bagel, spread hummus on it, put the leftover falafel balls through a second microwaving, and smushed them between the bagels. That was my most creative meal of the summer.

Anyway, back to the real focus of this blog: my wife. It’s been a revelation all year to watch her become passionate about fitness, to take healthy living seriously—not just for a few weeks, but consistently, month after month. She’s living proof that there’s an addictive element to working out and improving your eating habits, and once you get over that initial hurdle and get into a groove with it, anyone can do it. It hasn’t been easy for her, getting fit while trying to raise two kids and deal with all of life’s other demands, but she’s pulling it off. Her weight-loss ambitions gave her something to blog about, her blog gave her accountability to meet her weight-loss goals, and she’s done a hell of a job on both fronts.

Robin has come a long way since taking up the Jerry Seinfeld mantra, “I choose not to run.” I won’t call her my hero. But I will say that I’m proud of her and inspired by her. Almost inspired enough to start getting in shape again myself.

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Robin Raskin has blogged about her weight loss journey on Be Well Philly since December. Catch up on the series here, and follow her on Twitter at @RobinRaskin. Join Robin’s Healthy Recipe Swap Facebook group here.