Spiritual growth is one of the corner stone’s necessary to shed the dad bod and keep it off. I realize that this can be challenging for some people to accept. Not everyone believes in God and some people hate the thought of embarking on a spiritual journey. Other’s may understand why I have made spiritual growth a corner stone of the DAD BOD DONE. program.
For me personally, I eventually understood that the relationship I have with God is reflected into other aspects of my life. When the spiritual relationship was weak, I was weak. That weakness bled into bad habits such as the food I consumed. When you don’t care about the repercussions of your decisions, you will set yourself up for failure. When you have a strong relationship with God, you will care about other aspects of your life.
I am sure that some of you have heard of Drew Manning, the fit to fat to fit guy. Drew wanted to understand his clients struggles as a personal trainer so he decided that he would trade in his fit body for a fat one. After getting fat, Drew then worked his way back to being fit, learning many things in the process. I mention this, because I understand what it means to be fit. I too at one point was in excellent shape. Now I am the fat to fit to fat dad trying to get back to the fit dad.
All through my teenage years I was the fat kid. After high school I wanted to change my identity and the body that brought the curse of being the fat kid. I worked really hard for several years and went from the mid three hundred down to my lowest of one hundred eighty-one pounds. I had mastered weight loss, strength building and muscle development. I was heavily invested in watching the food that I consumed and found a path forward to creating an amazing physique.
Fast forward a few years later, I got married, had kids and slowly started putting the weight back on. Life got busy, I got lazy, and excuses took control of my life. I grew into the dad bod and never came out of it. Until now. Back when I lost the weight my focus was on working out and eating better. My focus wasn’t on God or having strong mental health. My mental health was as strong as the impression I gave myself in the mirror.
My spiritual journey wasn’t much of a journey. It was there and honestly it was probably the bare minimum that I could do to check a box. The results of doing the bare minimum does not create a foundation or a cornerstone. Throughout my life I continued to do the bare minimum. The excitement and drive for maintaining the new physique that I created eventually faded away. What I was left with was a spiritually empty, mentally drained and fat body.
I hate the term overweight. Let’s just call a dad bod for what it is, a fat accumulation on the body. When you have a dad bod and look in the mirror, you know that you are fat. We are adult enough to know that no matter how we package the neglect of our body, at the end of the day we are just fat. Being fat does not build motivation or create strong mental health. In fact, it does the opposite, it makes us lazy.
We project our mental stamina on our outside. Now I realize that this is a generalization but for the most part it is probably accurate for how you fell about yourself. When I don’t care on the inside, I show everyone else that I don’t care on the outside by eating too much of the wrong food, not exercising and growing a fat body. Being fat is a symptom of something else. The root problem needs to be addressed so that the symptoms go away.
A healthy and active spiritual journey will motivate you to change your lifestyle if you choose to do so. It will give you the tools necessary to take charge of the situation and push you to accomplish your goals. Weight loss like I have experienced in the past is temporary without the right foundation. Having an active spiritual connection with Jesus will help you dial in and focus on getting rid of the dad bod.
If you need help with getting started on this journey, I am more than willing to walk beside you and help get you pointed in the right direction. A spiritual journey is something that you create and the path you choose to direct your life. Getting started on the path doesn’t have to be challenging at all. Maintaining the path and growing in your faith takes work. Sometimes it will drain your mind and require a lot out of you. But until you overcome a lacking relationship with your creator, your journey to weight loss success is going to be limited and a much harder path forward.
Equip yourself with the tools needed to succeed. A spiritual journey will set the foundational stone for everything else in your life to grow from. Trust me. I have tried this road many ways before and have found that this is the missing key component in being done with the dad bod. Not only will you shed your dad bod, but you will also nourish vital relationships in your life, build your self-confidence and increase a positive mental state which will be replicated in all aspects of your life.