Macdonald - Why kids make you fat : ... and how to get your body back

I dedicate this book to
my three everythings
my wife, Abbi;
our son, Hunter;
and our new baby girl, Hope.

Thank you for being my inspiration,
making me laugh, and showing me
how to live life to the fullest.

Contents

I t was January 2005. My wife, Abbi, was eight months pregnant, and we were super excited to become parents. I was in the best shape of my life, playing tennis five days a week. Abbi and I had unlimited date nights, could go away for the weekend at a drop of a hat, watched the TV shows we enjoyed, and the best part was, we controlled our time. I remember telling Abbi how life would be almost the same when Hunter was born, only better. Of course there would be a few adjustments, but come on, how hard could it be having a kid?

Fast-forward to January 2007... less sleep, less exercise, more unhealthy quick meals, and higher stress. Im a nutrition and fitness expert, and I was struggling big time with finding the balance of how to be a dad, husband, and businessman and still live a healthy life. Man, it wasnt easy. Now, dont get me wrong. Abbi and I love being parents and have found it to be the most amazing experience of our lives. The main problem was that as Hunters weight was naturally increasing, so was mine! I remember it like yesterdayone day I woke up, looked in the mirror, thought I was a bit bloated, stepped on the scale, and bam: 235! What?! Id gained thirty-five pounds in two years.

I had embodied the classic line I heard from my clients: I know what to doIm just not doing it. There was of course some truth to that, but there was more to the story. You see, as my life evolved, my health didnt evolve with it. My tennis time was replaced with changing diapers, my food prep time was replaced with stealing naps, my TV time was replaced with Baby Einstein, and my relaxation time was replaced with constant toy pickup and cleaning. And these were just the lifestyle adjustments I had to makeAbbi had twice the responsibilities I had! My point is, there are only twenty-four hours in a day, and the systems and routines Abbi and I had before Hunter were never coming back. We had a simple choice: continue attempting to squeeze parts of our pre-baby life in (at which we were miserably failing), or create new systems and rhythms that would allow us the time to continue being the parents we wanted to be while also creating quality time for each other and for our health.

This is exactly why Ive written this book. The honest truth is this: if you dont evolve your health as a parent, your kids will make you fat. Before anyone gets upset, let me clarify that the last thing I want to do is offend you. What I do want to do is have a real conversation. Its not a secret that most of us gain weight and get a bit more flabby as we get older, or that one of the biggest spikes in weight and flabbiness coincides with becoming a parent. This is where we choose to evolve our health and progress, or the regression rapidly begins. As parents, we clearly know its not our kids fault we gain unwanted weight and store fat, and its not an excuse either. Its just a reality. Our kids simply make us rethink our priorities, and we begin to give more to them than to ourselves, which is, of course, natural. The challenge with this mind-set shift is that when you forget about yourself and your health, you cant be the parent or person you used to be, want to be, or are meant to be.

On my desk I have a picture that Abbi and Hunter gave me. Its of Hunter and me playing soccer at a castle in Germany, and the frame reads:

Lifes Moments... Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take, but by the number of moments that take your breath away.

In essence, that statement is what this book is all aboutnot about living healthier but about living better, with a greater quality so you can own those special moments and be the person and parent you want to be. Because without your health, the quality of life you want for yourself and your family is just not possible.

This book will walk you through the evolution that Abbi and I and thousands of fellow parents have gone through to create a healthy life, not just for ourselves but also for our families. I get how busy we all are, so in the spirit of time efficiency, Ive written this book as direct and to the point as possible, so its truly a plug-and-play plan designed to take your body and health to the next level. Plug-and-play means the information is presented in a way that makes it easy to understand, quick to implement, and simple to doexactly what we need as parents.

Now I want to share six quick things with you before you dive in:

As you already know, Im a man, husband, and dad, and even though Ive coached thousands of women, I grew up with two sisters, and my mom was an ob-gyn (obstetrician/gynecologist) nurse... I get that Im still a man. For this reason, my wife, Abbi, got involved in the making of this book and was a huge help in adding the touch of a female, wife, and mom and in providing a fun spin on how to make it all work as a busy parent. Abbi and I have been together for over twenty years and truly live this plan as a family.

The engine within this book is the plan. Youll be diving into three phases: Detox, Ignite, and Thrive. Your first eight weeks will be your Detox and Ignite phases and those eight weeks are called making your 8 Week Run. I fully explain this concept in chapter 2, but until then just know your 8 Week Run is not a running program. Your 8 Week Run is a mind-set that keeps you focused, committed, and pushing hard for a period of eight weeks to break through all obstacles and achieve your health goals.

As you can see by the title and my introduction, Ive written this book for parents, future parents, grandparents, and their family and friends. With that being said, the Detox, Ignite, and Thrive phases work incredibly well for anyone wanting to lose weight and burn fat, regardless of whether or not youre a parent. So dive in and rock the plan wherever you currently sit with your life. Its also important to remember that we each have a different definition of fat. Society makes the word fat sound negative, but I dont see it like that. When I talk about fat, I simply mean being at a place with your body that youre not happy withthe number on the scale is too high, you feel flabby, your energy is low, your clothes dont fit the way you want them to fit, and so on. Basically, youre not the healthy, lean, and truly confident person you want to be. In literal terms, you just have more body fat than you want. We are all different and have different goals, so I invite you to define what fat means to you and, instead of looking at it as a negative word, to strip away all the emotions of how that word makes you feel and focus on the literal term. When you do that, its no longer an insulting word. Its just a word that means you have some extra body fat to lose. And the reason you want to lose that extra body fat is to look, feel, and be your very best (which is defined by you).

As I shared, my goal with this book is for it to be a completely plug-and-play program. For this reason, there are some details I wont be discussing, like the types of metabolism, goal setting, in-depth meal plans, the science of exercise, and so on. I covered all of that info in my New York Times bestselling book Body Confidence. Please refer to Body Confidence for more detailed information. Body Confidence is an excellent read after this book, and it will help you continue Thriving with your plan.

The plan presented in this book is designed to help you lose weight, burn fat, increase energy, and permanently reprogram your metabolism. I also know that about 3 percent of the population wants to gain weight. Now, I get thats a foreign concept to most of us, but hey, 3 percent correlates to millions of people and many are parents, so its important to have a solution for them too. If thats you or if your goal is to simply become healthier and not lose weight, the plan will still work incredibly well for you. You may just need to increase your portion sizes based on your goal. I suggest reading this book along with