It was about this time last year when I found out I was going to be a dad. It has been quite interesting trying to maintain eating right, working out and all that jazz with all that comes with impending parenthood. I have got day duty with our 3 month year old and wonder if there is any advice out there that can help–especially with regards to getting meals in and adequate recovery.
I’ve got two, a 2.5 year old and a 7 month old. Get a sling, you’ll be able to carry your kid around and still use your hands. As far as adequate recovery, pray that your kid starts sleeping though the night, or learn to take naps during the day. Good luck. Just remember, when they get older, they make great weights for ballistic lifts.
There are no tricks. You just have to get by the best you can. If and when you have more than one under the age of 5 or 6, it is even more challenging, especially when they get a stomach virus and are puking/shitting all night. Guess who gets to clean up while they go back to sleep? People without kids have no idea of the rigors of trying to keep up with a job, wife (husband), kids and training. When sacrifices have to be made, it’s the training that gets the short end. Good luck.
DB
Congrats on your new baby!
A trick that helped me was to eat when the baby ate, and sleep when the baby slept basically…although my hubby went on deployment when our little one was just 7wks old so that changed things a bit.It’s easier when you just have one…We also have a son and he was 5 at the time.good times, good times…
DB is right…there aren’t really any tricks …just enjoy that little baby, cause time flies! Do what you can when you can…babyhood doesn’t last forever
[quote]dollarbill44 wrote:
There are no tricks. You just have to get by the best you can. If and when you have more than one under the age of 5 or 6, it is even more challenging, especially when they get a stomach virus and are puking/shitting all night. Guess who gets to clean up while they go back to sleep? People without kids have no idea of the rigors of trying to keep up with a job, wife (husband), kids and training. When sacrifices have to be made, it’s the training that gets the short end. Good luck.
DB[/quote]
Nothing needs to get the short end. You just have to learn to be resourceful and work together with your Wife (or husband) to make things work more efficiently.
For instance…didn’t have time to get to the gym - drop and do 100 pushups for time. Or Do 100 air squats for time - DO something! There were times when I wanted to spend some extra time with my kids and so missed a workout at the gym. Well the kids love to wrestle around and stuff. So I had them get on my back and I did push-ups, get on my shoulders and did squats - they love that stuff and you get a workout too.
Thanks for the responses. Right now I usually can get to the gym if the weather allows (however, 45 minutes of shoveling the driveway and slipping on ice is not that appealing at 4 in the morning.)
There have been some thing I just did not anticipate. Like, how fun it is to hold a baby throughout the day after a tough back & shoulder workout. Or that playing on the floor brings the swelling to my knees faster than squats.
My kid sleeps through the night but not much during the day. Her naps are usually my meals.
[quote]mmllcc wrote:
For instance…didn’t have time to get to the gym - drop and do 100 pushups for time. Or Do 100 air squats for time - DO something! There were times when I wanted to spend some extra time with my kids and so missed a workout at the gym. Well the kids love to wrestle around and stuff. So I had them get on my back and I did push-ups, get on my shoulders and did squats - they love that stuff and you get a workout too.[/quote]
That is kind of fun isn’t it? My 8 year old daughter loves when I incorporate her into training. Although I did train Sunday morning, we went for a walk in the woods and I did a bit of a jog on a snowy trail with her on my back.
Like another poster mentioned, there are no magic secrets. You just go through one day at a time and do what you can. When my younger daughter was an infant, she barely slept at all. I couldn’t understand how women didn’t lose the weight when I never had time to eat. I remember sitting with her in my lap, holding her with one hand and clutching a pork chop in the other just to get something down my neck.
Get a sling or a snuggli to free up your hands. It helps quite a bit.
Enjoy this time now… when they aren’t arguing with everything that comes out of your mouth.
[quote]mmllcc wrote:
dollarbill44 wrote:
There are no tricks. You just have to get by the best you can. If and when you have more than one under the age of 5 or 6, it is even more challenging, especially when they get a stomach virus and are puking/shitting all night. Guess who gets to clean up while they go back to sleep? People without kids have no idea of the rigors of trying to keep up with a job, wife (husband), kids and training. When sacrifices have to be made, it’s the training that gets the short end. Good luck.
DB
Nothing needs to get the short end. You just have to learn to be resourceful and work together with your Wife (or husband) to make things work more efficiently.
For instance…didn’t have time to get to the gym - drop and do 100 pushups for time. Or Do 100 air squats for time - DO something! There were times when I wanted to spend some extra time with my kids and so missed a workout at the gym. Well the kids love to wrestle around and stuff. So I had them get on my back and I did push-ups, get on my shoulders and did squats - they love that stuff and you get a workout too.[/quote]
I hear you, but it’s not always so simple. Here’s a true story example. I caught a red-eye flight from SF to get home on a Saturday morning (it’s roughly a 6 hour flight). Finally get home at 8 am. My wife had planned a weekend away for she and a friend. She leaves at 9 am. I’m wiped out because I don’t sleep on planes, never have.
Btw, I forgot to mention that I didn’t work out for the 3 days before due to work in the office, then travel and non-stop business meetings at the lawyers’ office from 8 am to midnight both days. (When you’re trying to execute a deal closing up against a deadline, it can happen this way). I also didn’t mention that I have 3 kids, who at that age were 1, 3 and 6.
I throw in a video so I could try to get an hour or two quick nap in. About 1 hour in, the 6 year old comes in to tell me he doesn’t feel well and then proceeds to throw up. I get everything cleaned up and get him off to bed. Everything’s fine right? Wrong, 3 year old starts throwing up too. Clean up the puke, throw in some laundry, put her in the tub, then off to bed. Now the 1 year old is up from her nap and ready for lunch. Get her fed. Oldest pukes again, this time in bed. Clean him up, strip the bed, change the laundry.
Put him in a sleeping bag on his floor while his bed airs out. Back to the 1 y.o. I’m pretty much running on adrenaline at this point with 1 hour of sleep in the last 36. The two olders run the tag-team puke until sometime during the night. Sunday rolls around and I’m now completely wiped out. At least the puking has stopped.
It’s now been 5 days since my last workout but do you think I’m thinking about going to the basement gym to lift? So, you see how easy it can be to go nearly a week without lifting? That’s why I said “you do the best you can”.
DB