The Thanksgiving Day Parade star’s father had a huge part to play.
For more than 20 years, Today weatherman Al Roker has given fans the lowdown on “what’s happening in your neck of the woods.” He’s won 13 Emmy awards for his work on Today and the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and picked up gigs all over television, including on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, Celebrity Family Feud, and Wheel of Fortune.
Despite being known for his hearty smile on camera, the chipper 64-year-old journalist struggled with his weight behind the scenes early on in his Today career. While he is now enjoying a much-healthier lifestyle and weight, Al Roker will tell you he went through his faire share of ups and downs to get to where he is today.
On his food-filled childhood:
As Al revealed in his 2013 memoir Never Goin’ Back: Winning The Weight Loss Battle for Good, the anchor grew up on a diet filled with carbs. Al says his mom cooked for their growing family (he is one of six children) using his father’s bus driver salary. Some of Al’s favorites included pancakes for dinner, grilled cheese and tomato sandwiches, pot roast with potatoes, macaroni and cheese, and Jamaican black-eyed peas and rice.
“All middle-income families use carbs to stretch meals, across any ethnic group — whether it’s kugel or rice and beans or macaroni and cheese,” Al Roker told Parade. Al explains that both his parents came from families that loved to eat and described himself as a “portly kid from Queens, New York.”
On how his mother’s death affected his weight:
In 2011, Al’s mother was hospitalized, which caused him to slip back into his old habits. He ended up gaining 40 pounds by the time his mother passed away.
“I was out of my routine, commuting [to Long Island] to see her, and feeling guilty — either that I wasn’t spending enough time with the kids and Deborah, or that I wasn’t being there enough with my mom,” Al said to Parade. “I consoled myself with food. I got blindsided and, I think, to a certain extent, I got cocky.”
Looking back on the tough time, Al told Today back in 2016 that he “hated” that he “went back,” adding that he now knows what he has to do “to keep that from happening again.”
On what his routine looks like now:
The weatherman expressed in Never Goin’ Back that maintaining his weight (which is now around 190 pounds) is “a killer,” but notes that he’s found a way to keep himself in check.
(Excerpt) Read More at: GoodHouseKeeping.com