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There comes a moment in all our lives when we get the wake-up call we need to make a change. Mine came while doing \u2018skin-to-skin\u2019 with baby Thea. Lying on my chest a few minutes before her scheduled feed, she took one look at my less than defined chest \u2013 and puckered her lips ready for her feed.<\/p>\n
It was a beautiful moment \u2013 one confirming it is time for me to lose some weight!<\/p>\n
And I am not the only one. Dad bods are real. According to many sobering studies, the average weight gain for a new dad is over a stone in a year. Alas, I think I am on track to achieve that in a month! <\/p>\n
In a bid to halt the spread, I sat down with Mark Ames, a fellow Sorted columnist and ex-Royal Marine turned personal trainer, to get the tips and tricks I need so I can buck the trend. Here are his key tips:<\/p>\n
If you do put on weight or your fitness levels dip in this season, don\u2019t give yourself a hard time. It is common and there is a good reason for it. You sleep less, you have less time to exercise, and preparing healthy meals every day is hard to do. As a society, we quite often think we must have the perfect body to have any worth. That\u2019s nonsense. Being a present dad who loves their wife and child(ren) is really important. That said, to be an amazing dad (and husband), you need to be as healthy and well as you can be. So, make that your priority.<\/p>\n
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When your new baby arrives, a powerful desire to protect and love them overwhelms you. Embrace it, it\u2019s here to stay. Here\u2019s the thing about protecting your child. You need to be healthy, strong and energised to do so. Your child will also want you to play with them, adventure with them and take on the world with them. Visualise the father you want to be and write it all down. Then every time you get tempted to eat that big bar of chocolate, ask yourself whether it will get you closer to, or further away, from the dad you want to be?<\/p>\n
In the early days, you will have to think again about those two-hour gym sessions, four times every week. But fear not. Instead of condensing your training into one, long session, you can split it into \u2018micro-workouts\u2019 at convenient times throughout the day (e.g. when your baby is sleeping or feeding). They can last for 1-10 minutes. Studies into their effectiveness have found they are effective in improving weight, strength and fitness.<\/p>\n
When you Google \u2018healthy eating\u2019 you\u2019ll see about many different diets that all claim to be the best. Don\u2019t get wrapped up in this nonsense. Losing weight is generally very simple: you need to burn more calories than you eat. As a general rule, aim for around 2,000 calories per day and keep active. And eat healthy foods (as much as possible) and drink two litres of water per day. You can keep track of how you\u2019re doing by downloading a free app like MyFitnessPal. If you do cook, try and batch cook a few meals in one go. It will help you eat healthily on those days your baby takes over.<\/p>\n
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Make sure you snooze when your baby sleeps. In the first year, your usual eight-hour stint may not be possible. That is particularly true in the first weeks of parenthood. So, take every opportunity you can to catch up. Sleep will help your body and mind to recover and help your hormones to balance optimally for weight loss and health.<\/p>\n
There we have it. If you do all of these things consistently you will be that healthy dad you want to be.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a relief, as I want Thea to look at me and see Batman \u2013 not Fatman!<\/p>\n
Chris Kerr is a Sorted<\/em> columnist and a senior executive in the UK legal industry.<\/strong><\/p>\n It seems gaining a few inches of flab is all part of becoming a new father. But help is at hand, providing you follow some simple self-help steps. New dad musings: week two There comes a moment in all our lives when we get the wake-up call we need to make a change. Mine came […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":692,"featured_media":10768,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,1546,1796,1797],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-free-content","category-homepage","category-relationships","category-health"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/runyourownwebsite.uk\/sorted\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2022\/05\/DadDiary-Week2-003.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/runyourownwebsite.uk\/sorted\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/runyourownwebsite.uk\/sorted\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/runyourownwebsite.uk\/sorted\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runyourownwebsite.uk\/sorted\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/692"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runyourownwebsite.uk\/sorted\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10758"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/runyourownwebsite.uk\/sorted\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10758\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10773,"href":"https:\/\/runyourownwebsite.uk\/sorted\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10758\/revisions\/10773"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runyourownwebsite.uk\/sorted\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/runyourownwebsite.uk\/sorted\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runyourownwebsite.uk\/sorted\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runyourownwebsite.uk\/sorted\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Tip of the week<\/h2>\n
Don\u2019t feel like you need to have all the answers. Babies bring unique needs\/problems that we will never have faced before. Connect with experienced fathers, call your midwife team if you have any concerns (no matter how small they seem) \u2013 and read some great books on babies.<\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"