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The Fit Parent Podcast with Jeff Dalzell

The Fit Parent Podcast with Jeff Dalzell
Author: Jeff Dalzell
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A dad with young kids talks about how to make lasting changes to your health, nutrition and fitness while also dealing with the chaos of parenthood.
The host, Jeff Dalzell is an online & in-person fitness, nutrition, and weight loss coach based in the seacoast area of New Hampshire where he lives with his wife, Megan, older son, Levi, and twin son and daughter, Parker and Charlotte.
Jeff is frequently joined by his client & co-host, Amy Steinberg, a mom & real-estate agent who loves history, as well as other elite coaches and industry experts. Thanks for listening.
The host, Jeff Dalzell is an online & in-person fitness, nutrition, and weight loss coach based in the seacoast area of New Hampshire where he lives with his wife, Megan, older son, Levi, and twin son and daughter, Parker and Charlotte.
Jeff is frequently joined by his client & co-host, Amy Steinberg, a mom & real-estate agent who loves history, as well as other elite coaches and industry experts. Thanks for listening.
112 Episodes
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On this episode of the Fit Parent podcast, Amy and I discuss how small issues can escalate into larger problems if left unchecked. We've all been there. You let a little thing slide: a small disagreement with your spouse, a workout you skipped, an annoying thought you pushed down, and suddenly, you're sitting in the middle of a five-alarm fire.If you’re feeling overwhelmed, drowning in your own emotions, or constantly playing catch-up, this is for you. We share insights on managing emotions, the impact of unchecked feelings, and the significance of acknowledging problems early on. The key? Recognizing the small warning signs before they take over your life.These are the most important takeaways from this episode:Why ignoring small issues may cause a disasterThe importance of recognizing your feelingsWhy self-awareness is your superpower in addressing personal strugglesHow simple communication saves the dayHow small wins can help regain control and motivationDon't wait until the house is burning down to grab a fire extinguisher. Be honest with yourself, manage those feelings instead of burying them, and break the cycle of inaction by chasing those small, achievable wins.To get more content like this, follow me on Instagram, join my free Facebook group or checkout my website for free guides.
In this episode, Amy and I discuss the absolute mental warfare that goes on when life gets messy. We discuss my own total failure to execute a workout I was perfectly set up for and how I let a 7-minute moment of family chaos and emotional avoidance dictate a bad choice. The truth is, trying harder is not a strategy. You have to drop the victim card and finally own your choices.We go deep into a tactical framework to help you own your choices. Every time you fail to execute, the first thing you need to know is if you’re dealing with a systems issue or an identity issue and stop using willpower as your only weapon. This is about being a professional at life and building non-negotiable habits, even when you feel like life is taking you in a different direction.We go into depth on:Why "trying harder" is a terrible strategy and why you need to swap it for strategic choices.How to figure out if your fail is a Systems Issue (the environment/process) or an Identity Issue (the choices you make).The painful reason why you keep breaking promises to yourself, even when you are perfectly set up for success.Why you need to choose action over emotional avoidance to feel less stressed, not more.The non-negotiable step of establishing enough volume (consistency) before you can even think about pivoting your plan.If you're ready to stop letting your feelings derail your goals and finally get enough data to actually know if the plan you have set up is effective, don’t miss this episode. Stop making excuses and learn how to operate as You 2.0.You can apply for the Fit Parent Project on my website or by sending me a message on Instagram.
On this episode of the Fit Parent podcast, I break down my signature coaching program, The Fit Parent Project.This isn't just another episode of the podcast. I break down exactly how I help parents lose weight and get lean so they can be strong, confident, healthy, and free.My program is focused on three core pillars: sustainable nutrition, effective training, and a victorious mindset.Here are the most important takeaways from this episode:The importance of sustainable nutrition that focuses on flexibility and enjoyment of food.Why effective training should be tailored specifically for you.The importance of a victorious mindset to achieve long-term successWhy small, consistent changes are better than big, drastic ones.How coaching and regular check-ins and personalized support can really make a differenceI'm sharing the what, the why, and the how of it all, so you can finally get off the roller coaster and take your last "before" photo ever.You can apply for the Fit Parent Project on my website or by sending me a message on Instagram.
On this episode of the Fit Parent podcast, Amy and I peel back the layers on the whole idea of discipline and show you why it's been weaponized against us. We challenge everything you've ever thought about motivation and show you a new way: one that's built on trust and self-compassion, not on some made-up idea of willpower.We will show you why willpower is not a strategy. It's an emotion, and it’s not something you can rely on to reach your goals.Even more, you can't trust your motivation. Even the most "disciplined" people in the world have days where they don’t feel like doing the work. The secret is to build systems and habits that work for you on those days.We go into depth on:Why willpower is not a strategy for success and how discipline can often be misused as a blanket solution.How setting realistic expectations helps you achieve success.The importance of keeping promises to oneself to build trust and consistency.Why consistency is better than perfection.The importance of recognizing that growth is a gradual journey.The whole point of this is to get you to stop beating yourself up and build trust in yourself so you can commit to a gradual journey of improvement rather than relying solely on willpower and discipline.To get more content like this, follow me on Instagram, join my free Facebook group or checkout my website for free guides.
If you think you're going to achieve all your goals this back-to-school season without a plan, you're setting yourself up for failure. On this episode of the Fit Parent podcast, Amy and I discuss why most of us get it wrong and how to make a lasting change.The start of a new school year is more than just a fresh start for the kids; it's a chance for us to reset our health. So, today, I walk through a simple, actionable blueprint that takes you step-by-step through the process of losing weight for good.We break it down to help you feel in control this fall. Here are the most important things we covered:How procrastination can hinder effective planningThe importance of setting a deadline to motivate actionWhy realistic expectations and consistency are crucial for weight lossWhy you can't out-train stress and poor sleepHow tracking what you eat builds awareness and accountabilityWhy protein, fiber, and lifting weights are your secret weapons for weight lossThis isn't about being perfect. It's about being prepared. So, if you want to stop the madness and actually feel in control this fall, this episode is for you.To get more content like this, follow me on Instagram, join my free Facebook group or checkout my website for free guides.
On this episode, Amy and I are getting personal about the gap between knowing what we want and actually getting there. We've all been in that place where the goal is clear, but the path feels challenging. So, we decided to revisit the essential "hows": the practical, often messy, day-to-day work of turning aspirations into reality.We discuss how to set reasonable, actionable targets and why your daily actions need to be both measurable and specific. We also talk about the power of regular planning, making adjustments without shame, and the non-negotiable role of support and accountability.We go into depth on:How to break down goals into actionable daily steps.Why it’s important to focus on building skills, not just reaching targets.The importance of mindful planning and environment setup to consistency.How willpower and discipline are less important than having a solid plan.Why it’s essential to ask for help to achieve your goals. And now, we invite you to join us for the full conversation. We're getting honest about the real work of change, the kind that happens in the small, consistent actions we take every day. Tune in and get ready to redefine your relationship with your goals.To get more content like this, follow me on Instagram, join my free Facebook group or checkoutmy website for free guides.
On this episode of the Fit Parent Podcast, I'm pulling back the curtain on something deeply personal: the swirling chaos of family life and those overwhelming moments that can truly test our patience as parents. I've been there, feeling the weight of it all, and in this conversation, I want to share what I've learned about truly seeing our stressors for what they are and, crucially, how we can shift from constantly reacting to proactively building a life that stands firm.We go into depth on:Embracing Overwhelm: It's okay to feel it, and sometimes, a good release helps.Proactive Stress Management: How setting a lower stress baseline changes everything.Building True Resilience: Why it's a practice, not a quick fix, especially for parents.Navigating Mental Well-being: The crucial balance between coping, limits, and long-term goals.The Power of Daily Improvement: Each day is a fresh start for growth.Join me as I share about the mechanisms that have been helping me navigate challenging waters, hoping they might offer you a compass for your own family's journey.To get more content like this, follow me on Instagram, join my free Facebook group or checkout my website for free guides.
On today’s episode, I’m joined by fellow coach, Paul Buono, who shares how his journey of going from an elite CrossFit athlete to nearly dying has formed his perspective on health, fitness, and coaching for sustainability and longevity.We go into depth on: The importance of setting goals based on what we actually want in lifeHow doing less better leads to more results for longerHow the fitness industry often oversimplifies complex health issuesWhy working out more and eating less may not actually be beneficialWhy misinformation in the fitness industry is more dangerous than no informationPaul was an elite CrossFit athlete whose whole life changed when he was diagnosed with Lupus. He went through a complete shift of his approach to training and nutrition that has informed how he coaches his clients to sustainable, long-term, health-focused results. Paul shares his own journey with us and how the lessons he’s learned from his own life along with years of experience have brought him to his sustainable approach to fitness.To get more content like this, follow me on Instagram, join my free Facebook group or checkout my website for free guides.
On today’s episode, we dig into how frustration impacts our ability to stick with our fitness and nutrition journeys.We go into depth on: The importance of learning resilienceHow zooming out can help us to be willing to embrace temporary difficulties for long-term gainsHow practicing gratitude can develop our perseveranceWhy creating opportunities for reflection can spur us forwardWhy frustration is actually a good thing and should be pursued rather than avoided.This episode is built off a quote that I heard on a recent podcast about parenting: “entitlement is the lack of ability to deal with frustration.” In my time as a coach, I’ve seen how this plays out for adults on their fitness and nutrition journeys and how training and diet fly directly in the face of entitlement. Taking care of ourselves forces us to be temporarily frustrated for long-term outcomes. It is when we embrace that frustration that we actually start to keep the progress that we make because we’re not looking for the quickest way out.To get more content like this, follow me on Instagram, join my free Facebook group or checkout my website for free guides.
On today’s episode, we dig into the common fallacy that people fall into in waiting for “things to slow down/get easier” when it comes to their fitness, nutrition and weight loss goals.We go into depth on: The importance of preparation for long-term successHow our current circumstances are often a result of our past decisionsHow our current decision-making processes impacts our long-term outcomesWhy an all-or-nothing mentality inevitably leads to failureWhy consistent imperfect action is the key to successAs we start summer, so many people that I talk to are feeling overwhelmed by trying to navigate the chaos of summer and have decided to push their fitness and nutrition plans until the fall. This is a mistake. Even if you can’t do everything you want to do, that doesn’t mean you can’t do anything. And any progress is better than no progress.To get more content like this, follow me on Instagram, join my free Facebook group or checkout my website for free guides.
On today’s episode, I’m joined by professional infant and toddler sleep consultant, Erin Junker, founder of The Happy Sleep Company, to discuss strategies for improving sleep for both children and adults.We go into depth on: The importance of establishing healthy sleep routines & environmentsHow developmental changes can impact sleep patterns & lead to sleep regressionsHow to practically start improving sleep in children at any age quicklyWhy consistency with habits, routines, and sleep coaching yields faster resultsWhy each child and adult has unique sleep needsWe’ve discussed on this podcast the importance of sleep to our overall well being as well as our ability to stay consistent with our fitness and nutrition goals. Many parents, especially with young children, struggle to get consistent quality sleep due to interruptions from their children. So, we brought in an expert to give us an understanding of how to improve that. Erin gives tangible, tactical, and immediate strategies for improving sleep at any age and helps us to determine what they next steps could be for each child.To get more content like this, follow me on Instagram, join my free Facebook group or checkout my website for free guides.You can connect with Erin on her Instagram or her website or listen to her podcast, Sleep Cues (which Jeff was a guest on).
On today’s episode, we continue our review of a very popular episode of “The Mel Robbins Podcast” with Dr. Stacy Sims where she discusses her perspectives on how women should take care of their bodies.In this different format, I listen to a portion of the original, unbroken and unedited, and then give my feedback and perspective on the topics discussed in an attempt to provide clarity and nuance for women on their health and fitness journeys.We go into depth on: The importance of simplicity with fitness and nutritionHow data can be conflated to create a narrativeHow exercise can impact our mental healthWhy we can’t target our fat loss (or gain) to certain areas of our bodyWhy eating on a schedule helps us to stay on track with our nutrition.In this second segment of this review, we clarify a lot of material that ranges from oversimplified to overcomplicated to just plain wrong. We also highlight some important truths that are shared and give actionable steps for how to apply them for women looking to improve their health, fitness, nutrition, and body.To get more content like this, follow me on Instagram, join my free Facebook group or checkout my website for free guides.
On the one hundredth episode of the Fit Parent Podcast, I come back to the root of the podcast and do it solo. I reflect on the journey to one hundred episodes and the lessons I’ve learned along the way as well as the ones I’ve been learning, personally, more recently.One of my life verses from the Bible is Galatians 6:7: “Do not be deceived; God cannot be mocked. Every man reaps what he sows.”In this episode, I explore how this concept applies to fitness, parenting, business, podcasting, community, and family.It’s as vulnerable as I’ve been on the podcast before, but I hope that it resonates.If I were to sum up my perspective on coaching and life, it is this verse. We get out what we put in and we can’t complain about the outcomes we get based on the work we do.This episode is my own personal recommitment to do my best to sow good seeds that I hope will bear good fruit for the next one hundred episodes and beyond.Thanks for listening.JeffTo get more content like this, follow me on Instagram, join my free Facebook group or checkout my website for free guides.
On today’s episode, I do something totally new and different. I review the first portion of a very popular episode of “The Mel Robbins Podcast” with Dr. Stacy Sims where she discusses her perspectives on how women should take care of their bodies.In this different format, I listen to a portion of the original, unbroken and unedited, and then give my feedback and perspective on the topics discussed in an attempt to provide clarity and nuance for women on their health and fitness journeys.We go into depth on: The importance of nuance in discussions about health and fitnessHow managing stress for women directly impacts their ability to improve their health and fitnessHow complicating the solution makes it harder for people to be successful.Why individual problems require individual solutions rather than blanket statementsWhy practicality trumps perfectionI try not to criticize other professionals in the health and fitness space, but when my clients send me things they have come across and need clarity on, I feel the need to provide that clarity for others as well. I was sent this episode and, after listening for a while, felt the need to clarify a lot of the claims made on a very popular podcast for women. This was my first attempt at that.To get more content like this, follow me on Instagram, join my free Facebook group or checkout my website for free guides.
On today’s episode, I’m joined by Bernie Rhinerson who started his fitness journey in his 60s and has pushed to inspire other grandparents to prioritize their physical health.We go into depth on: The importance of active participation as a grandparentHow grandparents hold a different role than parents (and how to prepare for it)How parenting evolves as you become a grandparent, but never stopsWhy mobility and strength are necessary for grandparentsWhy it’s even more important to prioritize your health as you ageBernie spent his whole adulthood focusing on his career and his children at the expense of his physical health. In this episode, he shares his own journey into health and fitness and describes how it has impacted his life as he became a grandfather. On this podcast, we often talk about taking care of ourselves in order to take care of others; Bernie is the example of how that carries beyond just our normal adulthood. He also is the poster child for “it’s never too late.” If you’re a parent in the thick of things, this is a reminder that doing it now makes it easier later. If you’re getting older, this is a reminder to get started. And if you have a loved one who might need to hear this, please share it; it might just change their life. To get more content like this, follow me on Instagram, join my free Facebook group or checkout my website for free guides.You can connect with Bernie on Instagram.
On today’s episode, I share about my experience of solo parenting all three of my kids for the week and how the lessons I learned apply to our fitness journey. We go into depth on: The importance of having reasonable expectations for our circumstancesHow expectations drive perception and perception drives realityHow to set ourselves up for success Why building momentum through small wins impacts larger victoriesWhy our mindset is often the limiting factor in our success.I had some success and some mistakes during my week of solo parenting. I did some things really well and others not as well. The lessons we learn in parenting carry over to our own health and fitness journey. We dig into how we can set ourselves up for success.To get more content like this, follow me on Instagram, join my free Facebook group or checkout my website for free guides.
On today’s episode, I’m joined by mindset coach, entrepreneur and motivational speaker for women, Julie Voris, to discuss the hard truths that women need to hear that stand in their way of success.We go into depth on: The importance of showing up for yourself as a person firstHow to start living your life with intention and purposeHow the beginning of our day sets the tone for our lifeWhy decision fatigue plagues women and keeps them stuckWhy fear of success is more paralyzing than fear of failureJulie expertly interweaves her own experiences as a mom of 3, wife of a football coach, teacher, fitness instructor, and entrepreneur into giving actionable ways for women to get out of their own way and start living the lives they dreamed they would. She shares the hard truths with love (hence her catch phrase of “truth love” as opposed to “tough love”) because she knows and sees how many women stay stuck and lose their identity into busyness, motherhood, and the daily routines of life. And she challenges women to focus on the things that actually move the needle and stop worrying about the things that are “not that deep.”To get more content like this, follow me on Instagram, join my free Facebook group or checkout my website for free guides.You can connect with Julie on her Instagram , her website, or check out her Freemium guide here.
On today’s episode, we discuss my experience of going viral on Instagram and how the lessons can be applied to our fitness journey.We go into depth on: The importance of recognizing the difference between instant gratification and long-term successHow consistency action can lead to perceived “overnight success”How being successful will lead to others trying to dim your accomplishments out of their own insecurities; success creates enemiesWhy perfection isn’t necessary and imperfection action isWhy we have to stay true to our valuesA lot of people in my space would love to go viral. But, just like a lot of people would love a six pack, they often love the idea of it more than the reality. Particularly because they reality requires a lot more than most people are willing to do. Doing the basic things consistently is what leads to the spikes and big wins. But we don’t get those without the boring, everyday effort. Just keep swimming.To get more content like this, follow me on Instagram, join my free Facebook group or checkout my website for free guides.
On today’s episode, we discuss how we can “raise the floor” on our fitness journey. Oftentimes, we focus on how to improve our “best” days, but there’s usually more to gain by improving our “worst” days.We go into depth on: The importance of distinguishing between hurdles and barriers to our successHow small changes can lead to significant improvementsHow creating systems can help us overcome predictable obstacles to our successWhy process-oriented wins can be more satisfying than outcome-oriented winsWhy a higher floor means more successful days, even when life gets busyBarriers are designed to stop you; hurdles are designed to be overcome. The key to lasting success on our fitness, nutrition, and health journey is establishing patterns and systems that help us overcome the predictable obstacles (hurdles) that we inevitably encounter along the way. Once we do that, we will improve our capability on our days when it seems nothing is going right to maintain our progress and increase our overall capacity on the days that actually go according to plan. Because if we’re only on track when things go according to plan, we will constantly find ourselves falling off track and frustrated.To get more content like this, follow me on Instagram, join my free Facebook group or checkout my website for free guides.
On today’s episode, I’m joined by coach & mom, Melissa Vogel, to discuss what she calls “The Bomb Life.”We go into depth on: The importance of understanding the cost of inactionHow shifting your identity sets you up for successHow to embrace the journey rather than just the outcomeWhy self-love and self-belief are crucial for successWhy taking care of yourself as a parent is essentialThrough her own transformation story and postpartum journey, Melissa learned how mental and emotional health impacts physical health, particularly for mothers. We explore the importance of building inner strength, self-love, and community support in achieving your goals. Those directly impact the cyclical relationship between identity and action which helps us become someone who embraces the process of fitness rather than focusing solely on outcomes. Through that process, we recognize that self-care is essential, not selfish, and that parents should model healthy behaviors for their children.To get more content like this, follow me on Instagram, join my free Facebook group or checkout my website for free guides.You can connect with Melissa on her Instagram, her website, or listen to her podcast.