Fit Dad Nation

A lot of guys tend to over complicate things when it comes to getting back in shape. It’s an overly confusing world in online fitness and there are far too many “experts” peddling bullsh*t, so it’s understandable.   But in all reality, it’s a simple thing to get into killer shape. Here’s the process I use when I’m coming back from a layoff, epically long junk food binges, or time away spent self-loathing… 1. I stop eating like an a**hole. No more McDonald’s, late night cheese and crackers, or gallons of soda. I focus 80-90% of my diet on lean meats, eggs, fruits and veggies. 2. I make strength training my priority. 3-4x per week. Progressively more challenging. This is not optional. 3. I move as much as I can. I bike, walk, hike, and generally make it my goal to be overly active. I also sit far less. 4. I commit to something bigger than just me. I tell my friends and family. I post about it in my groups. I join challenges. I put my a** on the line. It’s too easy to crawl back into hiding w

So today I share the struggles I've been going through for the past two months and how I finally got out of my head and into action. I've come to realize that there will be times in everyone's lives when we get taken down and it's all about how we choose to respond. Whether it's financial stress, a toxic relationship, failing health, loss of a loved one, or a divorce, there will come a time when the stress of somethig big will make us want to withdraw, shut down, or quit. And we've got to expect these things to happen and then we need to recognize that it's part of life. Once we recognize that, we will understand that just because we sh*t the bed from time to time and let our diets and lifestyle fall apart, doesn't mean we're weak or failures. It's about getting through the hard times and knowing that you'll come away stronger. I've personally been through so many ups and downs, weight fluctuations, health scares, injuries, emotional breakdowns, and more that I realize now that's these things are inevitable.

If you've been struggling with your weight for what seems like forever and you can't seem to make any real progress, listen up. Today I share 10 reasons that are keeping you fat and if you want to change it, I highly recommend you impliment some or all of the strategies I talk about. You’re eating too many calories and you don’t know it. Not building/maintaining lean muscle. Strength training is a priority for everyone regardless of goals. You’re not prepared and making poor choices. Your environment is killing you. Workplace, surroundings, home life, relationships, etc. No plan and just hoping things work out. Guessing at calorie needs, doing random workouts you see on Youtube. Emotional eating is hurting your progress. You're misinformed. Following different diets, yo-yo dieting, and using whatever is trending on social. Get consistent with the basics, that’s all you really need. Chasing short term wins. Your lifestyle is broken. Poor sleep, living on sugar and caffeine, high stress, too much sitti

Going into 2022 I had high expectations. High for my business, high for my personal goals and fitness, high for my budding career in pickleball, and high for my family. Unfortunately it hasn't turned out quite as I planned so far. It started with both of my daughters testing positive for COVID, which is scary as hell. Shortly after that I ruptured the plantar ligament in my left foot, putting me in a boot and on crutches for the foreseeable future and severely restricting my movement. FML. My new years challenge didn't generate the excitement and interest I had hoped (and planned) for and I subsequently fell into a dark funk; a funk I'm still trying to work my way out of. I realize you likely don't care about my personal struggles because you're too wrapped up in your own. And this is exactly why I decided to share this with you today. I want you to realize and understand that guys like me, who may seem to have it all put together on social media and live and breathe fitness, are just as susceptible to strugg

OK brothers, it's time to reclaim your body and ultimately, your life. You've waited long enough, maybe even years, and it ends now. For some of you, it's been laziness. For others, it's procrastination. For others, it's not having the support and accountability. There are a million reasons you have been putting your health off and it's never going to get easier. The stars will never magically align and all your ducks will never be in a row. It's time to put your bullsh*t aside and get to work. Whatever you do, I'm with you as long as it's working towards being better. If you need a push, someone to call you out on your excuses, or a swift kick in the a**, I invite you to join our upcoming Project 45 Transformation Challenge. We begin on 1/1 and this is ONLY for those who can commit to all 45 days of clean eating, daily training, and being accountable to the band of brothers beside you. Learn more or join us at fitdadnation.com/project45  

I'm not a big fan of new years resolutions in all honesty.  Mainly because I don't see the point in waiting for a specific date to get started. Life is short and we're making it shorter by eating crap foods, sitting on our butts for too long and it has to change. So I want you to start today with something, anything, that will get you moving in the right direction. And I want you to start 2022 off on a winning streak, not from ground zero. So today's show is for those who want to get stronger, have more energy, look better naked, and live a hell of a lot better and longer AND are ready to work for it. So I'm sharing a few things that you should focus on and I'm keeping it simple. 1. Stop procrastinating, it's affecting more than just your health. 2. Change your environment. 3. Train something daily. 4. Find an activity you actually enjoy and let that help you get fit. 5. Get your significant other on board. 6. Stop eating like an a**hole. Follow these 6 things starting today and you will be way ahead of the c

We're dads. We have extremely busy lives. We usually have many more things to do than we have time. And it's kicking our a**es. We are losing the war on obesity and crappy health and it's because we allow life and all its stresses to take us down. I lived that way for years and know all too well the damage it can cause. So many of us fall into bad habits when life gets hectic, and it always gets hectic at some point. We stop at McDonald's because we run out of time. We binge watch Netflix because we're trying to forget about our soul sucking jobs for a few hours. We make excuses and convince ourselves that we're too busy to go to the gym. And it goes on and on... But it's not working. It's never worked and it's getting worse. I see middle-aged dads every day that are grossly overweight, don't take care of themselves, and are struggling to walk up a flight of stairs. The only way this will change is if you stop using your busy life as an excuse to be mediocre. Some of the busiest people in the world make time

As harsh as it sounds, this is not a judgement. The #1 struggle most men face isn’t exercise or training. It’s not finding time for fitness. It's food. We want delicious foods and we want to eat as much as we want. And were willing to suffer the consequences, which on the exterior is being fat. On a deeper level, it’s being unhealthy and risking a premature death. Training is the easy part. It's controlling the quality AND quantity of what we put into our mouths that presents the most problems. Even with all we know about food as it relates to our health, we still choose to eat fried, fast, junk, and sh*t foods in copious amounts. There are many reasons, some of them deeply emotional, as to why we choose to eat crap when we know for a fact that it's hurting our health and killing our progress. Some of us feel powerless to control it, some of us ride the short-term high of sugar and salt, and some of us use food as stress reliever. Regardless, if we want to change our body composition, have more energy, and fe

In my opinion, if you're not taking care of your health, you're doing yourself and your family a huge disservice. There is just no way possible you can be the best father and husband you're capable of being if you're fat, tired, weak, and exhausted all the time. I know because I was there for many years and it sucks. Here's the deal; your life will become infinitely better when you put your physical and mental health as your #1 priority. You'll operate at much higher levels in every area of your life and here's how I do it: Create an action plan and execute daily Put your a** on the line Block time for it like any other appointment Find you "why". Like why is this SO important? Stay consistent. Life will get in the way, stay the course when it does Do exercise you actually enjoy Use time efficient training because you're a busy dad Reward yourself for wins, but be careful how you do it Make the decision never to quit Remember that you are the single greatest investment you have I spent many years neglecting

So we recently ended our 45 day transformation challenge, called Project 45 and it was an awesome experience. We had 11 men who took part in this and I did it myself as well. I actually needed it badly as I had let myself spiral down into a bunch of sh*tty habits. The premise was simple; do 4 daily tasks and stick to them for all 45 days. Sounds easy right? Well, sticking to anything for 45 days is pretty damn hard and this wasn't any different. The 4 tasks were: Follow a healthy diet with no cheats Follow a strength and conditioning program and train daily Drink half your weight in ounces of water daily Do a short mobility session daily I kept it simple for a reason; simple works. The men who joined had some very powerful reasons for wanting to change and I share them in the episode today. I too was doing this for a specific reason and it kept me consistent throughout. I ended up losing 12 pounds over the 45 days and noticed a huge difference in my strength, stamina, and physical appearance. Plus, I came a

Excuses. We've all got them. Coaching dads full-time for the last 7 years, I've heard it all. I get it, we're busy. We have more sh*t to do than we have time and there seems to always be a reason not to take care of ourselves. The problem, and what I have been teaching since day one, is that if we don't take of ourselves first, we can't take care of our families the best way possible. I believe that 100% because I've lived on both sides. It's obvious that we all want to be fit, lean, strong, and healthy. Who doesn't? But we aren't those things. Instead, we're overweight, slow, exhausted, and weak. And it's because we've let excuses creep into our vocabularies and we're settling for mediocrity. It has to stop. Here are 10 things I've seen over the years that seem to be the biggest culprits for killing our gains: I have no time I have no energy I don't know what to do I'm not seeing results fast enough and quit I have no motivation I can't cut carbs I can't give up alcohol I can't stick to a routine I don't kn

When you're trying to get fit (or stay there), it can be easy to give up when life starts getting in the way. I know because I've been there many times. There are so many promises of short-term results with all the fad diets and random programs out there, but there's a problem with that; fitness is a long-term game. Today I share how to overcome the short-term game and focus on what's really important; staying fit and healthy for the rest of your life. My philosophy has always been the same; make healthy choices and your body will reward you. It's that simple. The problem lies in the fact that it's too easy to make poor choices with our food, too easy to be lazy, and too easy to slack on healthy lifestyle decisions. Eating fast food and watching Netflix is far more fun than eating chicken and broccoli and hitting the gym. That's just the way it is. It's not an accident that Oreo's taste amazing or that TV shows are so captivating that we feel like we have to binge watch them. But fall victim to those things a

As you know, the fitness industry is chock full of fitness trends, most of them being absolute bullsh*t. Everyone wants to jump on what's "hot", whether it's a new fad diet, a workout program, or some fancy fitness gizmo. Some are useless while others may actually hinder your progress and today I want to share 10 of them that you should avoid. Making your diet all about specific macros (i.e. IIFYM) The Whole 30 Diet Butter in your coffee The Keto Diet and related products Calorie burn calculators Intermittent fasting Meal prepping Counting calories Detoxes 99% of supplements including fat burners, greens powders, and anything claiming to boost your metabolism I will add a caveat here and say that not all of these things are "bad". Some are actually very helpful in certain situations and with certain people, but for the majority of us, just focusing on the basics of good health and wellness is more than enough to stay fit and healthy for the rest of your life.

Just a short show for you today and I want to share my thoughts on why some men feel like they're not making progress when in reality, they are. First off, we have to start with setting your expectations correctly. You have to understand that you didn't gain that 40 pounds of fat in a month or two; it took years of neglect. For you to lose that fat (not just weight), it's going to take hard work, commitment, and time. There is no other way. Too many people are caught up in the "new and shiny" syndrome, which has us jumping from diet to diet or program to program, looking for the next best thing. The issue is that we don't stick with anything long enough to know if it's actually working. And while hitting a plateau is a very real thing and can cause frustrations, most people simply give up too soon because they feel like they aren't making any progress. Often times, the scale is used as the indicator of progress and personally, I think that's a mistake. Too many factors can influence the scale on any given day

There is something to be said for showing up to the gym when you don't want to. There is something to be said for checking off the "I did something healthy" boxes each day too. And once in a while that's fine. But it doesn't work long-term and here's why. Doing the bare minimum in the gym (or anywhere else) is never going to give you great results. If you're fine with that, then OK. If you want amazing results, you have to work hard and work with a purpose. I've seen so many men over the year struggle to make any real progress despite working out, eating sensibly, and taking care of their health. And many times it's nothing more than a lack of real effort in the gym. Sure, food is always going to be #1 when it comes to changing your body, but half-a**ing it in the gym isn't going to build much strength or muscle. It's easy to wander around the gym looking for open machines or to try a random YouTube workout, but it's not going to do much for you. It's also easy to continue to do the same exercises over and ov

If getting fit and healthy was easy, we'd all be there right now. But we're bombarded by marketing, advertising, fast food joints on every corner, and new diet books 24/7 and it's almost impossible to figure out what the right things to do are. But with all these mixed messages coming our way, I still find fitness to be very simple. I'm a big believer in the basics of good health and wellness and try not to get caught up in the "new and shiny" object syndrome that's so prevalent in this industry. Our group has recently kicked off a 45-day transformation challenge and the prior few months we're pretty rough for me. I was dealing with a great deal of emotional stress and turned to eating comfort foods and sitting on my a** as my way of coping. Not good I know. And we've all been there at one point and I committed to changing it when we started our challenge. And I recommitted to getting back to the basics and if you're just starting out or getting restarted, these few things will help you as well. First, I stop

I hear " I need to start eating right" a lot and today I want to talk about why there is no such thing. First, I'll say that are plenty of general guidelines for eating a healthy diet. Things like avoiding fast food, soda, and refined sugars and instead eating whole foods like eggs, lean meats, fruits, and veggies. Pretty basic stuff. But following a diet is a very individual thing and success and adherence can depend on many things from social situations, resources, and personal preferences. In my opinion, no diet is right for everyone and low carb works as well as high carb which works as well as no carb. It's all about these 3 things: 1. Is it healthy? 2. Does it give you the results you want? 3. Can you sustain it? Regardless of what approach to eating you choose, if it possesses these 3 things, it will work if you stick with it. While I don't believe there is a "right or wrong" way to eat, there are a few things you should consider when looking at nutrition. These are some rules that I live and teach by

On August 9, we're kicking off our annual Project 45 Transformation Challenge and if you're struggling with consistency, want help with your diet, or need a hard kick in the a**, this is for you. The rules are simple and as you know, I firmly believe in simplicity. Your goal is to train every day, follow a healthy diet with zero cheats, drink half your weight in ounces of water, and do a short mobility session daily. Basic, yes. But it works. When was the last time you stuck with a really healthy habit for 45 days straight? Chances are, it's been a very long time. We've done this challenge twice in the past with some killer results and it's not uncommon to see guys dropping 15-20 pounds, losing 3-4 inches from their waist, or feeling better than they have in decades. You'll have all the tools you need to succeed and this will be accountability based. And of course, you'll have me in your face every day helping you stick with things when you feel like quitting. If you know you need a change and what you're doi

For some of you, it's been a very long time since you were consistent with eating well and working out. For others, it's brand new.   The good news is that it's never too late to start and today I'm going to walk you through the basics that will set you up for long-term success.   It's easy to get overwhelmed with all the information and misinformation out there and in all honesty, getting fit and healthy isn't complicated. It's actually really simple, but there is a lot more money in trying to confuse you and make you believe that you "need" a certain diet or program.   All you really need is to follow a few basic principles and do them long enough to see results. Make these a part of your day to day life and you'll succeed. Consistency is the key.   1. Make sure you have a reason or WHY to start. That will keep you in the game, especially early on when its not a habit and you feel like quitting 2. Make yourself accountable. The more people that care about you who know, the better. Make an announcement on F

It's been two months since I've published a show and in all honesty, I was very close to shutting it down. There are a number of reasons for this, a few of which I share today, but there is just too much I have to share in this world filled with fitness bullsh*t. I'm publishing this episode two days before my 50th birthday and I'm sharing my "secrets" to staying lean and fit despite my age. I've seen far too many men in their forties and beyond that are in miserable shape and I'm here to tell you that it doesn't have to happen that way. Here are the things that have contributed largely to my fitness level remaining solid and my body staying lean and muscular over the years: Consistency. This is the #1 thing! Support. My significant other has been huge as well as the Inner Circle. Daily movement and mobility work. Focusing on strength training. Keeping my workouts simple and effective. Eating a solid diet based on the 80/20 rule. Having a strong "why" for inspiration. I hope this resonates with you and you'r