TLDR: Dad Tidings to You

Too Long Dad Recap

Pretty decent week in the books, another week incoming that offers more chances to make improvements. We are up to 7 weeks in a row of fresh videos being released on a schedule. I have another 2 videos in the hopper. The momentum is real across the DadLifting platform, which is great.

I’d love to build this website, my Instagram, Twitter and YouTube into a serious following of other dads out there looking for ideas and inspiration from a guy who is clearly all-in on lifting weights, nutrition and sculpting the best dad bod on the block.

Consistency is going to be my calling card in this over-saturated fitness market. I plan to keep doing my thing and trusting that eventually I will crack the code on reaching a substantial audience. I’m open to any ideas for new videos and posts. Let’s connect and share anything you’d like to see me write about or film.

Here is a link to my recap of my latest video where I ate like Tom Brady and tried to do the NFL Combine events (with limited success). I try these diets and do these things so you don’t have to!

Things I Listened to This Week: Physical Culturist

Back to listening to some podcasts on strength and fitness this week. Not much to highlight on my YouTube watchlist, just the usual content. Beyond that, I’ve been watching the Crown on Netflix, in addition to the usual round of Christmas movies.

• Another good interview from @morninglifter on his Strength and Leadership podcast this week (podcast)
  • He interviewed 44-year old Tony Sanders who went from more than 420lbs down to 220lbs bodyweight.
  • Always good to hear stories of success through fitness that leads to someone being a better father.
  • “Kids want you to be happy and they want your time” was my big takeaway, and that’s what fitness in my garage has helped me achieve with my kids.
• Listened to Iron Culture podcast with a guest who is an expert in the history of fitness, Dr. Conor Heffernan (podcast)
  • I learned in the early 1900s, someone like myself who is interested in fitness would have been referred to as a “Physical Culturist”.
  • I also learned there is a museum of sorts at the University of Texas at Austin focused on the history of strength training and physical culture.
  • This doctor is a Professor of Physical Culture at UT-Austin. I found it incredible there are professors and classes on this subject.

Things I Lifted This Week: De-Load, Re-Freshed

After some very high volume weeks lately, took this week to dial things back a bit for the main movements of the day. Kept the accessory work heavy though. I finished the week refreshed and ready for the next few weeks where the reps step down to 8 for most movements.

I am really pleased with the progress on upper back development lately. Pullups are improving a lot, which I am thrilled about.

7 more days of lunges this week. Up to 157 days in a row of lunging, but this week I had to get creative given the colder weather and busy schedule. I did one day in the garage, one in the basement and one at the squash place. Not ideal, but got the 400 done every day.

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Other highlights were pulldowns where I’ve perfected the setup to have some knee support for going heavier. Another highlight was barbell rows. I posted the video of the rows and someone said I look like Ed Helms from Hangover with the glasses and haircut, which I guess is fine…

Things I Ate This Week: Too Much

Didn’t do so well with nutrition compliance this week. I think I hit my targeted calorie consumption only twice the whole week.  As a result of the lackluster compliance, I was slightly more active than usual. I got well over 15,000 steps a day and got 20,000+ 3 days this week.

Despite the over eating this week, bodyweight stayed relatively constant because of the extra activity, but that’s not sustainable, I’ll need to get back on track this week to maintain.

I did one day this weekend where I ate nothing but cookies, which ended up being a massive amount of calories, even though I made a couple of “anabolic” cookie recipes, including these 9 cookies pictured below that had only 900 calories or so for the whole batch (recipe is here). I also made a Pizookie from Remington James recipe. That one is a staple at this point, and I had some extra pumpkin I needed to finish off so it made sense.

I also did some non-recipe eating, which was helped by this big pile of boiled eggs I made early in the week. Boiled eggs are perfect for eating on the go and can be cooked in bulk very easily.  

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This week, I procured some fat free cream cheese, so will be making a protein cheesecake for my son and I to share, and we’re both pretty excited about it.

Dad Report: Early Christmas

I broke into my Christmas gifts early this year. My haul included a 20lbs weighted vest and a new refrigerator for the gym.

The fridge was a direct response by the wife to me packing the pantry and fridge with my weird foodstuffs. But it looks pretty nice. The only thing I worry about is running that, a heater and a treadmill without tripping the breaker.

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The weighted vest I had to open early for my upcoming train and eat like Santa for a day video, but the ultimate goal is to be able to do a real Murph workout by the time Memorial Day rolls around. I walked around the block with it (when the wife wasn’t watching, because neighbors…).

My kids tried it and had a lot of fun with it. My older son climbed our little climbing wall wearing it, which I thought was creative. Even my wife tried it and she’s liked it so much she decided she wants to use it when she stands up at her desk this week. So, apparently weight vests are fun for the whole family. Who knew?

That’s it for this week. Hope your Holiday season is going well. As the weather gets colder up here, it becomes harder to stay active and easier to gain some fluff. That’s fine, just train heavy weights and build some strength with that extra bulk and at least you’ll feel like some of the gains are muscle.

Have a great week everyone! Keep it on the D.L….