Amy Robach loves to eat. As a teenager, the podcaster and former broadcast journalist had a voracious appetite, earning her the nickname “bottomless pit.” And like most adolescents, she wasn’t exactly counting her macros. Plus, in Robach’s large family, affordability and efficiency were paramount, so many meals consisted of processed, ready-to-eat foods.
Fast-forward to 2013, when Robach was diagnosed with breast cancer after an on-air mammogram. The real fear set in after treatment: What if she had a recurrence? Robach was — and remains — determined to do everything in her power to keep the cancer from coming back. A diet free from all the highly processed foods of her youth is a central piece of her strategy.
In recent years, it’s become increasingly clear that what we eat — especially the amount of ultra-processed foods in our diets — has a significant impact on our health, well-being and longevity. Maintaining healthy eating habits is also much easier when you and your romantic partner are doing it together. Luckily for Robach, her fiancé, T.J. Holmes, was already eating a diet similar to hers when the two got together, but neither has always been so health-conscious. Here’s how they came to their table — and who’s in charge of the kitchen.
Foodie foundations
Amy Robach: My dad’s mantra was “Eat it and shut up.” My mom was the chef of the family, and I was raised to be a “finish the plate” kind of girl. When I was an older child, we even had a timer in the kitchen and we had to finish our plates before it went off. We didn’t order in because we just didn’t have the finances for it. We ate a lot of Vienna sausages, Spam and processed Chef Boyardee stuff.
My friends used to call our home “the Willy Wonka factory” because my mom kept a lot of sweets in the house. It’s funny to think of how I live now, because I grew up drinking a lot of soda and eating a lot of candy. There wasn’t really a focus on healthy, fresh food. I don’t think we could afford it.
T.J. Holmes: I grew up in West Memphis to parents who grew up in country towns along the Mississippi Delta — one of the poorest regions in the country. There was a lot of traditional Southern cooking and, I guess you could say, “bad-for-you food” in my house. I grew up eating greens, macaroni and cheese, fried pork chops, fried chicken — I don’t think I knew chicken could be grilled until I was like 27!
My grandad had a barbecue restaurant. That was probably the healthiest I ate as a kid, having grilled meat every once in a while. Other than that, everything was cooked in a pot or a pan with some boiling-hot grease. There was no going out to eat, except for Sundays. We would go out to eat after church. Or when my dad was out of town coaching an away game on Friday nights, my mom would let us get Chinese or pizza.
I don’t do potatoes, fries, pastas, breads — they just aren’t my thing.
Athletic appetites
TJH: When I left home for college, my diet changed. I was in the athletic program for a couple of years at the University of Arkansas. The trainers worked us out and told us what our diets were and how to eat every week, so that changed my routine.
The only carbs I ate were the ones the trainers wanted us to have. After practice, they would say, “Go back there and get you a thing of carbs.” There was this refrigerator in the training room with these bottles of dark red liquid — almost like Valentino red — and we would suck them down. We were always scared to ask what exactly was in that carb liquid. It could’ve been leopard blood, for all I know. It wasn’t delicious, but it was so satisfying because your body craved those carbs.
Ever since then, my whole adult life, I’ve been a meat and vegetables guy for the most part. I don’t do potatoes, fries, pastas, breads — they just aren’t my thing. Before Amy and I were together, I’d taken it just a little more seriously and hardcore by going keto for a while. You can’t deny the results of being keto. So switching back to fully keto when we moved in together was pretty easy for me.
AR: I was a competitive gymnast as a young kid, and when I dropped out of that, I was a cheerleader, and then I ended up becoming a runner. I was always really active, and I was always really hungry. My nickname in high school was “bottomless pit.” I was a carbaholic. Before my cancer diagnosis, I used to tell people, “Don’t judge me, but I eat like a truck driver.” I ate anything I wanted, and as much as I wanted, because I figured, as long as I’m working out, I’m good.
I ate terribly, and I’m not proud of it. I’ve wondered how much that may have contributed to what ended up happening with my health [and cancer diagnosis].
My nickname in high school was ‘bottomless pit.’
Healthier food for the whole family — whether they like it or not
AR: When my kids were growing up, I tried to limit all sugars. I kept all sodas and juices out of the house. But it was still a big swing for them when I started doing keto two or three years after my cancer diagnosis. Once I got over the emotional roller coaster of chemo and treatment, I decided I needed to do something to prevent a recurrence, beyond taking tamoxifen, which my doctors put me on. A friend sent me research on how a low-carb, low-sugar keto diet might help fight cancer cells because they feed off of glucose. I got really emotional hearing that and immediately got on board with the keto diet. (Editor’s note: Research on keto diets and cancer varies. Some studies have indeed suggested that ketogenic diets may slow breast tumor growth, but following the diet long-term also comes with risks. Other studies in mice have also linked keto to cancer growth.)
My family was not very happy about it. I think my children are still traumatized by it, though Ava, my older daughter, now eats keto too. But my parents actually decided to go keto with me, in solidarity, even though they’re both trim people. They both got back to their high school weights and were feeling so energized. My mom even set up a whole website called “My Keto Home,” and we sent recipes back and forth.
TJH: My daughter, Sabine, has picked up a lot of my habits. I don’t eat chips and soda, so they’re not in the house for her to have. I loved candy, so she ate that too. I’ve never kept her away from anything or had any rules; she just eats what I eat. She started eating sushi when she was very, very young. To this day, it’s a very expensive habit to have, but it’s fairly healthy, so I don’t mind so much.
AR: Sabine is a very healthy eater. She will order a salad when we go out to eat. I’m very impressed with her discipline. Meanwhile, my youngest daughter, Annalise, is a chicken-fingers-and-french-fries kind of girl. Anything that’s terrible for you, she’ll have some. But she’ll find her way.
Food as a love language
AR: I do the grocery shopping in our household, but I do it online. We kind of know our go-to dishes now, so we typically just reorder from Fresh Direct. The list usually includes shrimp, chicken, pork tenderloin, steak (though we limit our red meat consumption and make sure it’s grass-fed and doesn’t have a ton of preservatives), arugula and some veggies — and just figure out what we’ll make from there! Avocados, which are high in healthy fats and fiber, are a big part of the keto diet, but T.J. hates avocados.
We mostly snack on nuts, but one of our splurges is popcorn. It’s a little carby but not that bad. And if I eat something that gets me out of ketosis, I’ll just do an intermittent fast and get right back into a state where my body is burning fat instead of carbs.
I like to bake keto-friendly cookies and cheesecake, made with almond flour and stevia, since you’re not supposed to eat sugar on a keto diet. Otherwise, T.J. cooks and prepares most of our meals. And I feel a little guilty about it because, in my prior life, I was that person. So I know the responsibility of meal planning and executing a dish. It’s a lot to take on. Every now and then I’ll jump in, but he does the lion’s share.
TJH: It’s an event, every single time I cook. I never use a microwave; everything is cut fresh, and nothing is processed. And it’s fun for me!
I grew up in a family where everybody could cook. All the men in my family are country dudes. They can all throw down in the kitchen or at the grill. And I love it. A lot of people might say that’s an outsized responsibility — and one that generally falls to the woman in a heterosexual relationship. But I never feel like, “Oh God, I have to cook again?” Amy has never asked me to cook. I’m in the kitchen preparing something before a meal has even crossed her mind.
AR: I am so supremely grateful that he cooks, and I do feel guilty about it because I wore that same hat (the chef’s) before we were together, but I didn’t enjoy cooking the way that T.J. does. It was a burden that I sometimes felt resentful about.
It’s also obvious that he’s just a better cook than me, and I’m just amazed. And he’s the only person in my life who’s ever cooked for me, other than my mom.
