Ahh the good ole dadbod! The slight muffin top overhanging the trousers. The man boobs closely hugging the t shirt that was once baggy. A bit more ‘cuddly’ than the previous years edition, but just as loveable. Whilst there is nothing wrong with the dadbod, I know a lot of people that would like a more well defined body, a bit more energy to run around after the kids and a set of arms that will fill any slim fit medium t shirt. 

There are a few golden rules that apply to ditching  that dadbod, 5 to be precise, and I want to share them with you today.

Change your Mindset

The first and most important rule is to change your mindset. Instead of joking about how your body has changed over the years, accept that you are ready for change and are willing to make sacrifices for your health and your family.

Being honest with yourself about the reasons why you want to change is important, as this is going to be your motivation during the process. Come to terms with the fact there is some work to be done and you are no longer going to put it off (just like cleaning the shed).

As blokes are usually brutally honest, we are quick to make sarcastic piss taking comments and even faster to bat them off. It’s easy to adopt this same attitude with our own thoughts about our bodies. Instead of just shrugging off and joking about the need to make changes, make a commitment to better your health and body.

Set a Goal

Goals need to be SMART. Specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time specific. For example, instead of saying I want to have slightly less man boob at some point. Why not say, “I want to have a 34 inch chest within the next 16 weeks”.  The more specific you can be with your goal, the more focused you can be at achieving it, and the more you can measure progress against it.

I would highly recommend writing your goal down. Not in the dusty notes section of your phone, but in clear sight with a pen and paper. Stick it on the fridge, your monitor at work or on a post it note beside your bed. Share this goal with friends and family to ensure you are on the same page and they can support you throughout this process.

Make a Plan

Now that you have a goal in mind and a timescale to achieve this goal, now you need a plan. This plan needs to be detailed enough to ensure you will achieve your goal, but flexible enough to adjust to the circus of daily life.

Works backwards from your end date and ensure your plan has plenty of opportunities to measure progress. You don’t want to get to the end of your plan and find out it hasn’t worked. By regularly measuring progress, you can make small adjustments to your plan when necessary.

If you need help with a plan, then seek it from someone you trust in this area. Whether it’s a personal trainer, a friend or a work colleague of knowledge in this particular area. If you don’t have the skills to write a detailed plan, don’t wing it and hope for the best.

Use small increments over time to increase the difficulty of your plan to ensure you are making progress. If you are planning on increasing your 5km time, then over the planned weeks try to increase your distance, pace or total mileage (or a combination of all three).

Get Support

Your friends, family and colleagues are going to need to help you. You are not going to be able to do this on your own, and if you try, you will likely fail. You need support around food choices, meal timings and exercise arrangements. If everyone is in agreement from the start, they are much more likely to support your goals instead of fighting against you.

The idea is to make habit change an easy process. You should aim to reduce the friction caused by changing your routine and potentially your meals. This is where your family can help. Communicate your goal and your plan with everyone in the family and discuss any possible issues or improvements.

If you know someone else that is going through a similar process, this is a great opportunity to use them as an accountability partner. If you have both planned workouts at the same time, or have agreed on a calorie target, you feel a lot more pressure to complete the task if you know someone else is watching.

If you don’t have anyone to lean on within your circle, then it may be a wise idea to speak to a personal trainer. Knowing that someone is helping you with your plan and keeping an eye on you to ensure it is complete, is a powerful tool. Having the support and guidance is priceless!

Accept That it Will go Wrong at Times

This is often where it all falls apart. You start off with motivation through the roof, haven’t had a KFC in at least 3 days, and you are feeling like a top lad. After a few weeks feeling like this you decide to ‘treat yourself’ to a few beers with the boys down the pub. A few beers lead to 8 pints, a kebab and a fight down town. You feel like you have thrown away all your hard work, the scales sky rocket back up to the starting point and you think “why the fuck do I bother?

At this stage you have two options. Option 1 is to moan about how “you can never lose weight!” and give up trying to ever make it happen. Option 2 is to stop feeling sorry for yourself, accept that fuck ups happen and get straight back on track. You are not going to get fat from one night out, just like you aren’t going to lose weight by eating salad for a day.

Hitting the whole plan 80% of time is better than carrying out your plan at 100% for one week only.

I hope you can use these 5 steps to start taking action and make positive changes towards your health and fitness. If you need any help or assistance implementing any of these steps, I will be more than happy to point you in the right direction. You can enquire about online coaching or 1 to 1 personal training by clicking here and filling in the form.