The Dad Bod Is Out

This one's for the fellas... 

One part of popular culture I do not understand is the glorification of the Dad Bod, and all it stands for. 

If you’re a middle aged man and you wake up one day to find you’re soft and weak, it’s time to make a change.  And if you won’t do it for yourself, do it for your family and those that love and rely on you.  While humans come in all shapes and sizes, nobody is at their best with a pudgy midsection and no discernible muscle mass. 

Get your ass in the weight room, start eating like an adult, put down the booze, and get more sleep. It’s a simple change that will make you harder to kill and more useful in general to yourself and everyone around you. 

Do today so you can tomorrow

Our everyday lives as Americans are on average completely devoid of any physical challenge.  This is bad news if you’re a human living in a body that is the epitome of a "use it or lose it" organism.  You can go months without lifting anything that weighs more than a few pounds, walking more than a few thousand steps in a day, or getting out of breath. No, that trot up your basement stairs doesn’t count. 

If you’re not using your joints, muscles, connective tissues, lungs, skeleton, and cardiorespiratory system, you lose the ability to do so. Entropy is a bitch and if you’re not actively fighting it, it’s a battle you’re losing every day. 

The bottom line is if you’d like to be generally physically capable, ready for and unafraid of the unknown, and independent late into life, you’re going to have to take action now.  Lift heavy things, work so hard you want to stop (but don’t), and learn the limits of your physical capacity.  

Learn how to use a barbell, kettlebells, or even just the machines at the gym. Run, swim, ruck, bike, fight, chop wood fast and hard. Figure out how to move your body and learn what it can do, where its limits are, and push them just a little bit several times a week.  

You’ll find you get stronger, you look better, and your energy increases along with your confidence, resilience, and libido. How do you think that might affect your relationship with your spouse? Your kids? Your coworkers?

Food matters

The next step is fueling yourself appropriately.  This is not complex, although it can be quite hard to give up the easy way. Eat lots of meat, vegetables, fruit, and healthy fats. Avoid sugar, processed foods, and treats.  When you can see your abs, then you get starchy carbs. Stop eating out and cook your own food. Ignore the vegan propaganda nonsense. 

It’s also time to put down the booze for a bit. Alcohol was fun when we were in our twenties, but now it’s clearly poison for the mind and body. Treat it as such. It will tank your testosterone, destroy your sleep, depress your mood, and tear up your gut.  Go a few months without a drink. Then have a few beers and tell me the next day that I’m wrong. If you’re coping with alcohol that means you’ve got pain and discomfort in your life.  Call it what it is and develop healthy coping mechanisms like breathwork, cold exposure, meditation, and if necessary get your butt into therapy. 

Go the F*ck to Bed

If you’re training hard and eating like an adult, you’ll also want to get more sleep.  Those that say they’ll sleep when they’re dead will be dead much sooner than the rest of us.  Getting 7 hours of solid sleep every night is real a minimum. 

Start by tracking your sleep. More than 90% of the clients I work with aren’t getting nearly the amount of sleep they think they are.  There are plenty of free apps to get started with, but the best data comes from high end wearables.  It’s a couple hundred bucks you absolutely will not regret. 

Great sleep helps you gain muscle and lose fat, keeps you cognitively sharp, and improves your drive.  It also shores up your mood stability so you don’t get whiny, snippy, and depressed.  

Real men set bedtimes, turn off the electronics an hour before lights out, and learn to read, journal, or meditate to wind down.   I hear from clients all the time that spending time in the evenings without screens opens new chapters in their relationship by giving them time to talk, connect, and be a couple.

The Dad Bod and everything it represents is out. We’re out here getting strong, eating well, and resting to fuel the fire again the next day.  Join us. We’d be thrilled to show you a better way. 

Not sure where to start?  Reply to this email with one thing you want to be different. We want to hear from you.