‘Today Show’: What Al Roker Eats Each Day Without Fail
The Today Show‘s resident weatherman, Al Roker, has not been shy about his weight struggles and weight loss journey. When he chose to undergo gastric bypass surgery in 2002, at first he wasn’t sure he wanted to disclose this very private part of his life.
He then agreed to, in order to answer many viewers’ questions about his new appearance and to help those who were on the fence about the procedure.
Although Roker has lost over one hundred pounds, this hasn’t meant he can eat anything, in any quantity, whenever he wants. In fact, the 65-year-old weather forecaster has to eat a pretty routine menu of food each day.
His gastric bypass surgery
Roker told Matt Lauer on Today in 2013 about his prior bad habits and what would lead him to binge foods in the past.
“It was one of those things where, to a certain extent, you don’t feel worthy … you’re going to be found out as a fraud, you’re not as good as you think you are, all those different things combined. And, I like food. But beyond having a good piece of steak or something like that, I’d have to have two steaks.”
“I’m thrilled about where I am,” Roker said. “Life is terrific; I wouldn’t trade it for a moment. But you always wonder where you would be if ‘x’ hadn’t happened. I’m thrilled that I’ve finally got to this place at 58 years old. I finally got it figured out. I feel good about it.”
His wife’s well-intentioned comments
Roker is married to ABC journalist, Deborah Roberts, well-known for her work as a correspondent on the news magazine, 20/20. His wife, meaning only to help her husband, would gently make remarks to him about his weight, about what he should or should not be eating, and so on.
Referring to it as a “mixed-weight”marriage, Roker opens up about the difficulty of being married to a fit and physically active person.
He continued in his 2013 conversation on Today, “She thought, ‘Why don’t you care enough about yourself and why don’t you care about me and our relationship enough to change?'” he said. “And I said, ‘Look, it’s not about you. It’s about me.'”
He also made it clear that there’s only one thing a loving mate can do for their heavier half: just don’t say anything at all.
“We know we’re fat. We know we need to lose weight. Your nagging us and pleading with us doesn’t help. In fact, in ways it makes it worse,” he said.
“It’s not that we don’t love you; it’s not that we don’t care. It’s just that right now, we’re not prepared to deal with it for whatever reason, whether it’s emotionally or physically.”
What Al Roker eats each day
While Roker has lost a tremendous amount of weight, after his mother’s illness and death in 2007, he regained about forty pounds, proving that it is possible to gain weight even after a gastric bypass.
Today, he follows a very specific eating plan, which he outlines in his book.
“Every weekday, I wake up around 3:15 a.m. and knock back a cayenne pepper-lemon tea concoction,” he writes, ” . . . to jump-start my metabolism. I also have a bottle of GT’s Gingerade Kombucha.”
After this introductory liquid wake-up to his system, Roker does his morning weather report at 7:30 and then has his first meal.
“I have a protein smoothie for breakfast,” he continues, “and my day is off to the races.”
“For lunch, I tend to have a salad with lean protein, plus good balsamic vinegar and olive oil.”
For his dinner, Roker continues to keep it lean.
“I’ll have a really sensible meal for dinner. . . [I] focus on eating lean meats like chicken, fish, or lamb, again with a salad to ensure that I feel full.”
In between his meals, Roker treats himself to a handful of almonds or a bag of pop chips, making sure to drink plenty of water with each snack.
Along with his new eating habits, he works out regularly and even completed the New York City marathon in 2010.
Not bad for a man who once weighed almost three hundred pounds.
