Danielle Lucia Schaffer — known to millions as City Girl Gone Mom — is one of my favorite people to have ever worked with.
We met when I moved back to San Diego. Her oldest son Jackson and my youngest son were at school together and played on the same soccer team, and Danielle and I became instant friends. Her family and mine have been like family to each other ever since.
Danielle came to me after her fourth baby, convinced — like so many moms — that bouncing back was something that only happened to celebrities. It isn't. She followed Tiny & Full: vegan until lunch, high-volume plant foods that physically fill you up for very few calories, then lean protein and healthy fats so hunger never gets a vote. In 12 weeks the baby weight was gone, and she was back in a swimsuit in her 40s after four kids.
In her own words on her blog: "His latest and greatest, Tiny and Full, has helped me shed the baby weight and ultimately feel ready for bikini season." She wrote the whole story for her readers in How I Lost My Baby Weight in 12 Weeks and Ready for Tiny This Summer — right down to swapping pasta for zucchini noodles and pizza dough for cauliflower crust so her four kids would eat the same dinner she did.
That is exactly the principle that became the heart of my work and now lives inside The More Time Protocol: eat the foods that fill you up first, add protein and healthy fats, and you never white-knuckle a diet again.
What makes Danielle special goes well beyond a number on a scale. City Girl Gone Mom is one of the most trusted parenting and lifestyle platforms in the country — honest motherhood, food, travel, wellness, and her podcast The Mom Confidential, where she had me in the studio to break down intermittent fasting. She built that brand herself, from San Diego, one post at a time.
And then there is Brody. I knew him as an infant — the "dancing baby" in her arms. That little boy became @bossbabybrody, an Instagram and TikTok phenomenon with millions of fans, a Niall Horan music video, a WME signing, and an America's Got Talent audition. Oprah herself called him the next big thing. Watching him grow into a superstar exactly like his mom has been one of the great joys of this friendship.
It was an honor to work with Danielle — and with Brody when he was still in her arms. Watch her tell it in her own words above.