Reasons Men Let Themselves Go After Marriage (Infographic)

From Stud Muffin To Muffin Top

Once upon a time I was one lean dude with a 6-pack and guns to match. I can’t lie, I looked good and I wasn’t afraid to occasionally show off. I didn’t care if it was 3am in the morning and I had just got done partying the night away, I would go to the gym and get my workout in. Broccoli, chicken, tuna, brown rice & protein shakes were a staple in my kitchen and I couldn’t shut up about fitness. I was also single and didn’t have responsibilities outside of paying my bills on time.

Fast Forward 10 years and I have gone up four pant sizes and never go outside without a shirt. My workout consists of chasing the kids around the house to brush their teeth and my eating regime went from planning meals and eating lean to the see-food diet (see food and eat it). My wife says I still look good, but I just think she is being nice and I appreciate her for it. My kids on the other hand are brutally honest and tell me I need to lose weight.

Kudos to you fit dads if you have it figured out but here is a handful of reasons us fat dads let ourselves go!

Men Don’t Have Anyone to Impress after Marriage

There are two kinds of women we look for in our single lives and those are Mrs. Right and Ms. Right Now (see what I did there?). We bring our A-Game every day because we never know who we are going to meet. Some of us even keep it going into the honeymoon phase and up to the first child.

Just for fun, here is a pre-family and post-family list.

The blunt truth is that married men are not out in the wild and the thrill of the chase is gone so why try as hard as we used too? After all our wives married us for our personalities, not our looks right? Righhhhhht……..

It’s not that us men don’t care about our appearance, we just don’t care as much as we used too and don’t have anyone outside of our wives to impress.

We Keep Making Excuses

Have you ever made a New Year’s Resolution to lose weight and get in shape only to stay at it for the first 2 to 3 weeks and slowly give up?

Yeah, me too….

Sometimes we have legitimate excuses like kids, yard work, bills and responsibilities. Then, there are those times where we need to hang with the guys, we are tired or we will start tomorrow (which really means sometime in the distant future

We Keep Eating Bad

Eating healthy is hard if you were not raised with health conscious parents or don’t have the determination and will power to change you’re eating habits.

I consumed sugar-infused cereal, tacos, Kool-Aid and Pepsi growing up. When I was on the hunt for the perfect mate I changed my eating habits drastically and was as healthy as a horse. They say your level of fitness and physical appearance is 80% diet and 20% working out which I found out to be true. But enough about me…..

Overtime, we gentlemen get comfortable with an extra pound or two and convince ourselves that we will work it off. Speaking form experience, if we are not careful, that extra two pounds turns into twenty to thirty pounds quickly.

More Beer = More Belly

Did you know that a beer has nearly 200 calories on average? If you’re pounding those puppies back, you will run out of holes in your belt and can kiss those slim fit dress shirts goodbye.  

I only drink 2-3 per week when the kids are down and but the combination of bad food and craft brews don’t help.

Nature Takes its Course

We are Going Bald

A staggering two-thirds of men will start losing their hair by age 35. Most unfortunate souls like myself have accepted this reality.

Luckily, the bald head is trending now so if you can pull off the look, you go cue ball!  

Old Age

It’s a known fact that our metabolism slows down when we get older. We also tend to be less active and lose muscle. Luckily there are a few ways we can prevent this.

There really is No Time

Whether you work your 9 to 5 or have a crazy work schedule, trying to get motivated and squeeze in even a 10 minute workout is tough to do.

Our jobs don’t end when we clock out of work, we still have a family to go home too. Our kids become our second or third job and by the time they go to bed, we are….

Just Plain Tired

This is actually a result of our bad eating habits & lack of motivation

• If we don’t fuel our bodies with the right food, we gain weight.
• If we gain weight, we get tired
• If get tired, we lose the motivation to work out
• If we don’t have the motivation, we get comfortable being unhealthy

We honestly don’t have anyone to blame but ourselves. We just have to find and make the time to get it done. There are plenty of dads who manage to stay fit and dammit, we can too.

Priorities Change – It’s all About the Family

Our priorities have flat out changed and that’s part of being a dad. We stop becoming selfish and care more about our children’s appearance than our own.

The time we used to spend mountain biking or running on a treadmill is now used to chase our kids around the house.

Bills multiply! Rent, car insurance, phone & food are all we had to worry about. Now cost of food increases & there are additional costs for child care, diapers, doctor visits, school supplies, sports, etc. It’s always something.

We owe it to Our Family to Be Healthy

At the writing of this article I am the last person you should be taking advice from. I can’t get motivated to work out, I don’t care about eating healthy and I have run out of excuses to get in shape.

However, at the end of the day I think we all want to be around for our kids. We know that at some point we need to make a change before it’s too late and our kids are visiting us in the hospital.

Our kids look up to us so it’s important that we lead by example. I bet they think, “if dad is lazy & eats like crap, I can too!”

Moral Of the Story

I swore that when I finally settled down and had a family that I wouldn’t let myself go. I would be a role model for my kids and show them that no matter how old they are, they can go the distance and stay fit. But it turns out that was just a figment of my imagination. At least for the time being.

Fellow Dads…..

We can do it and we should. If we can’t make time to get off our asses and work out, we should at least make the effort to eat right so we don’t end up with type 2 diabetes before we turn 40.

But what do I know, I am just a guy trying to figure out this health thing.