I get by with a little help from my friends!

If you've noticed what I've been doing lately, it's really pushing my Instagram and Facebook Group.  With that, my request to you all, my friends, and many others who read these posts regularly is that if you can start using certain hashtags when you work out or prep nutritional meals.

The main ones that I've been using are as follows:

#dadbod

#mombod

#destroythedadbod

#destroythemombod

#fightthefluffy

#freethefluffy

#christfitness

I like these because it really exemplifies what I do on a regular basis, and that is to fight the dad bod.  Obviously your videos won't be long, but by using these, we can create a movement to better fight the parenting bods that we've been granted as a consequence of parenting.  We don't need the parenting bods, we need our bods.  Our kids, while I love them, do not define my body as a "dad bod."

I know that sometimes we do it to ourselves, eating chicken nuggets and mac & cheese because it's the easier meal to prepare for the screaming demons we've spawned into the world.  We also finish our kids meals for them so we don't waste food.  Our exercise consists of going up and down the stairs a hundred times because they want water, or a hug, or to be tucked in, or whatever.  Our parenting bods are a testament to our dedication to our kids, but they are not to be enshrined, they are meant for battle.

Friends, please use the hashtags often.  Share your stories so that we may support each other in our quest to destroy the dad bod.  

Charlie Foxtrot

Now that school is back in action, and for this I am referring to my children are beginning their pre-school and I'm back teaching (plus taking a class for my MBA), life is a little bit of a clusterf--k.  The days are long and the nights are too.

What's about to become the rundown of my wife and I's life is going to be simple (on the surface) and complicated otherwise.  I'm usually in at work around 7, with some of the days shuttling back and forth between training & teaching.  She's usually in about 8 and most days done at 5, unless they call a meeting.  I'm done at around 5 or 530 each day.

Sometimes she has the luxury of walking while on her lunch break.  Usually I take advantage of a workout if someone cancels.  When we get home it's straight to cooking dinner, getting the kids a bath, and getting them off to sleep.  Then we usually clean up the house and look forward to all of it the next day.

This time of year also begins fall sports.  This past weekend I had the girls at gymnastics, after a fitness class I taught where we live.  This week begins soccer (which I won't lie, I love due to all of the running).  So we'll have that to look forward to in addition to everything else that goes on in life.

Right now, it's 10pm on Sunday and I'm writing this in preparation for beginning my own class in the morning.  It's online, which grants me some degree of freedom to do the assignments on my own time, but nevertheless it's still brutal.

Our workouts become opportunity.  Now I remember how the dad-bod gets built in the first place, it's not due to the lack of desire, but the lack of opportunity.  There's also the chicken nugget and mac & cheese diet, but more on that later.  

Parenting "Bods"

If you've followed my blogs, my Instagram, or in conversation (some of you), you may have noticed the whole #destroythedadbod or the #fightthefluffy tags that I use sometimes.  And many of you that know me personally know that I have three kids.  This leads me to my next point, the parent "bods."

As a dad, and one who's battled with weight my whole life, I have at times a "dad bod." About 3 months ago, I had a radical change of direction on my training and diet and I'd consider myself to have a "dad-bod light" at this point.  I've been running, lifting, sparring, and actually monitoring what I eat. All of these things have allowed for me to drop, as of last week, 15lbs.  When in the midst of my heaviness, I didn't realize I was as heavy as I was and on top of that I got into the rut of thinking "I'm working out pretty hard, I need the calories."  How wrong was I?

Regarding the "mom bod," this is much harder to fight than the "dad bod."  Generally due to you know, having kids, the mother's body is under far more stress than a father's.  This stress can come from the generally interesting "pregnancy cravings," to the longer lasting effects of the variations in hormone productions due to pregnancy and possible lactation.  With all of this, the diet must be even more fine tuned for a woman than a man, and on top of that the exercise is equally important.

The final thing to consider, for both, is the stress of having a new child or in my & my wife's case, multiple children.  Things that you want to go ahead and try to do, like exercise and eat well, sometimes fall to the wayside so that the kids are properly cared for, or satisfied (chicken nuggets and mac & cheese isn't exactly healthy, but it keeps them fed at times.).  Allowing the time to exercise sometimes get's replaced by doing things around the house, or falling asleep.  There are many more challenges to keeping a reasonable physique with kids in the house than when there are none.

In the next week, I'll have a couple of posts to go into how to better prepare your time with the kids in the house and with a chaotic lifestyle.