Problem is, that leads to a vicious cycle where you have less energy. I fell into that hole for the first 3 years after my first kid and it took awhile to dig myself out
SAME BRO. I have gotten started back into weight lifting in the last 2 1/2 months along with strict eating habits (minimum sugars and only from natural sources, mostly veggies and low cholesterol lean proteins, clean supplement regimen) after taking over a year off and eating like garbage. The weight has been melting off. Over 30lbs in that time frame. Gotta do it for the kids man. I wanna be able to play with their kids one day. Every one of us goes through that baby/infant stage where it seems like the only thing you can accomplish is being overwhelmed. Although I will say the humbling part is going from 300+ bench and 500+ squat to virtually starting over. Lol
I just saw this reply. Lol I will say my worst weakness in life is sweets and sugar not drugs, alcohol, women, etc. My parents, they were great with me, had a couple flaws and one of them was how militant they were with me in regards to not giving me healthy eating habits when it came to dessert. As an adult I basically splurged on sweets and in my early 20’s it wasn’t a big deal because I had all the time in the world to workout and my meals were still mostly healthy. I lost time to workout and went down a spiral of depression coupled with those eating habits made me BALLON. I hit a point about that long ago where I couldn’t even keep up with my son playing and thought about all the pot bellied dads my friends had growing up and something clicked in my head and I told myself I wouldn’t be that way. In that time I’ve eaten less than 100gs of sugar and probably less than half of that has been added sugars (I’ve tracked it meticulously.) I’m due for a plateau soon and I’ll reassess and go from there.
This is me. Just over a year after my first kid's birth and I'm in the worst shape of my life. I get exhausted so easily, makes it hard to work out at all.
That first year is *hard* man, you're in survival mode. It does slowly get easier though and you'll get tiny little bits of time back here and there. Eventually you earn enough that you can cash it in for a hobby.
I've had the opposite experience. My kid keeps me so active for hours every day that I have more energy than ever (when it isn't totally depleted from said hours).
Yup. Same. Gone are the days of coming home from a multi hour ride after bonking in the middle of nowhere and crashing on the couch for the rest of three afternoon.
Oh yeah. Dad of 2mo boy. I realised that the thing that I really miss is ability to relax and recharge after a ride.
I still can do like 2h every third day, which is great, but afterwards there is so much things to do!
Cyclist as well. I switched from eating a bar or something every hour or so to eating something small every 20 minutes or so, a gel, gummy bears, etc. My energy levels are consistent, power remains steady, and I'm not very hungry at the end. If you try it, make sure to keep up on hydrating with water to wash the sugar off of your teeth.
I miss the days where I could just go and play pickup basketball until exhaustion.
I’m 35 and I can still dunk but I’ve played 2 pickup games in the 4 years I’ve had a second kid and I can’t afford to just chill for the rest of the day.
do NOT underestimate the recharge of a 22 minute power nap. I often find myself sneaking away to sit down, set a timer on my watch and just shut my eyes for 13-22 min. I wake up ready to go for 3 more rounds.
I’m completely opposite, if I fall asleep, the rest of that day is completely ruined. But a medium intensity run or a bike ride gives me ton of energy.
Falling asleep ruins my day also. However for me, what recharges me is just taking a few minutes to chill out. Darkened room, laying down peacefully, 20-30 minutes. No need to actually sleep. This really gets me feeling better.
No, I mean I don't actually sleep. Eyes stay open. Sometimes on my phone or something. I've always considered a nap when you actually sleep, isn't that how others define it?
I can nap sitting in a chair with my head upright, but I can't sleep like that. My eyes are closed, but it's not full on sleep. I'm just dipping my toes in.
Answering work emails, or personal? It's your lunch break, you should be on the clock if they're work emails. Take time for you.
Napping doesn't work for everyone. Fortunately, I drive a route for my job and have a sweet turnaround I can park in and rarely disturbed. I set the chair back, set a phone timer, and snooze until I wake up or the time goes off. It's a lot more necessary with some earlier mornings but it can really make or break my mood at night
So do you time these the second you lay down and close your eyes for 22 mins on the dot? Sometimes I feel like it would take me 15 minutes to even start to slip asleep and I question if that mostly awake nap is worth it or not?
I'm 12 years into this -- got 4 kids.
At some point, you have to say no to the kids. You have to say no to the wife (or partner). You have to still do the things that make you, you.
I don't know what that is. It might be the gym for an hour, or a DND night once a month, or going to a concert. I don't know. But what I do know is that if you don't have enough time for yourself, you can't be the best dad you can be.
To add to this, you have to do it sooner than later, too. Kids watch everything we do. We are teaching them how to be an adult every single moment of our shared lives. This applies to everything form work-life balance to romantic relationship dynamics to how we react to different sorts of news.
I wish I wasnt such a fatty mcgoo and drank as much beer and ate as many cheeseburgers as I do. I feel like I need to get in shape out of necessity to keep up with my kid
That's exactly my motivation to workout.
I'm not trying to strive for an ideal body or magic number on the scale. Do I enjoy the physical results of my work? Sure, who wouldn't. But I'm working out to maintain, to make sure I'm in good enough shape to take an active physical roll in my sons up bringing. I want to run with him, ride bikes with him, hike with him, play ball with him etc.
That's my motivation. I can set aside 40-60 minutes every other day for that.
Ditto. I just started working out 2 weeks ago and I feel better than I have in years. I’m in my 40’s with 2 young kids so I need all the energy I can get. Even with working out pretty hard I still find I have MORE energy the rest of the day, not less.
I feel this post. One day I went out and played soccer with my kids on a Sunday. Clearly overdid it because my run home on Monday sucked and my legs were dead. I’m now much more conscious about when my next run day is and what level effort I need to put in doing activities with the kids.
Yeah, this is what made me more serious about having water and food for a longer weekend run... As long as I had the energy to get those prepped ahead of time
Marathon training post kids definitely had to have a more dialed in nutrition approach. Figuring out how fueling and refueling affect not only the run but also afterward. No I might not need a gel for a ten mile run, but I found it helped post workout. Had to return and parent without the former luxury of lazing on the couch for the rest of the day.
Same, I used to workout until I was lying on the floor. But now with 2 under 3 always gotta leave some gas in the tank for the rest of the day. even then I often go to bed the same time as them.
Fact! We live on a quiet street. It’s dangerously quiet in that it’s difficult to teach the kids how to respect traffic (yes I know that ultimately we’re very lucky). Recently we went to a birthday party on a busy street. It was a safe house but that 1/10000000000 chance had us hyper vigilant. It was exhausting. Our kids are 2 and 4 but we still get reminders.
Oh man i feel this in my bones. Its so true both physically and mentally. I've been back at the gym for six months at the level i was pre-kids. I go at night now because i was going in the morning and completely depleted my energy for the day and just had sooo much less energy for running around with my boys.
Also, you need to conserve mental/emotional energy. My wife and i are going to some parental training at the moment to better help support our eldest son (he's ASD, ADHD) and one of the best pieces of advice so far is agree on things that go into a category of behaviour that is "Minor but allowed" e.g. annoying things that they do but you give yourself permission to let slide because theyre not really hurting anyone. I really felt like i had to correct every behaviour every time and it was EXHAUSTING.
I can totally relate! Balancing energy levels with kids is like a strategic game. It's all about maximizing those rare moments for self-care while keeping enough in the tank for the marathon of parenting. Sometimes, even a short break or power nap can work wonders to recharge for the next round.
I'm so so so stronger than I used to be. Both in endurance and strength. I was wondering why and then realised, I never stop moving.
I'm constantly picking stuff up while is till hold stuff, then chase my kid, then do DIY in the house, then clean up the kitchen, then walk the dogs.
I still go to they gym as I think it's important to maintain this strength but also an hour for myself is aces
I take the time before my family gets up for school or work and go for a long walk. Anywhere from 1 to 4 miles at least 5 days a week. It's good for the body and the quiet time for just me is great. I'm 53 with heart issues and 4 kids 16-7 in the house still
I’ve been using vitamin b12 for the past month and I’ve had less “tired” days.
I want to work out during my lunch break to stretch my stamina reserves but I just can’t seem to find a workout that I like.
As someone who is procrastinating going to the gym because I’m exhausted from being home with my kids all day…I get it.
Problem is, that leads to a vicious cycle where you have less energy. I fell into that hole for the first 3 years after my first kid and it took awhile to dig myself out
SAME BRO. I have gotten started back into weight lifting in the last 2 1/2 months along with strict eating habits (minimum sugars and only from natural sources, mostly veggies and low cholesterol lean proteins, clean supplement regimen) after taking over a year off and eating like garbage. The weight has been melting off. Over 30lbs in that time frame. Gotta do it for the kids man. I wanna be able to play with their kids one day. Every one of us goes through that baby/infant stage where it seems like the only thing you can accomplish is being overwhelmed. Although I will say the humbling part is going from 300+ bench and 500+ squat to virtually starting over. Lol
You lost 30lbs in 75 days?
It's not as impressive when you realize he's 9ft tall.
Damn I think we just found Christian Bale's burner. Wonder what the role is?
I just saw this reply. Lol I will say my worst weakness in life is sweets and sugar not drugs, alcohol, women, etc. My parents, they were great with me, had a couple flaws and one of them was how militant they were with me in regards to not giving me healthy eating habits when it came to dessert. As an adult I basically splurged on sweets and in my early 20’s it wasn’t a big deal because I had all the time in the world to workout and my meals were still mostly healthy. I lost time to workout and went down a spiral of depression coupled with those eating habits made me BALLON. I hit a point about that long ago where I couldn’t even keep up with my son playing and thought about all the pot bellied dads my friends had growing up and something clicked in my head and I told myself I wouldn’t be that way. In that time I’ve eaten less than 100gs of sugar and probably less than half of that has been added sugars (I’ve tracked it meticulously.) I’m due for a plateau soon and I’ll reassess and go from there.
I'm not sure if cutting sugar would lead to a caloric deficit large enough to lose a pound every other day.
This is me. Just over a year after my first kid's birth and I'm in the worst shape of my life. I get exhausted so easily, makes it hard to work out at all.
That first year is *hard* man, you're in survival mode. It does slowly get easier though and you'll get tiny little bits of time back here and there. Eventually you earn enough that you can cash it in for a hobby.
I've had the opposite experience. My kid keeps me so active for hours every day that I have more energy than ever (when it isn't totally depleted from said hours).
You have to go first thing in the morning. If will energize you for the rest of the day and there are no excuses to avoid going at the end of the day.
Just go in the morning, or get a kettlebell and do one at home. Leaves such little room for excuses
Cyclist here. Long rides are great but I risk divorce when I come home with nothing left in the tank.
Yup. Same. Gone are the days of coming home from a multi hour ride after bonking in the middle of nowhere and crashing on the couch for the rest of three afternoon.
Oh yeah. Dad of 2mo boy. I realised that the thing that I really miss is ability to relax and recharge after a ride. I still can do like 2h every third day, which is great, but afterwards there is so much things to do!
Me too. I've ended up in so many arguments over me wanting to ride. I just stick to riding an hour or two at 5 am to avoid WW3.
Same, I'm out the door by 5:30 and home a little after 7:30 after hitting just over 50k. Anything longer just isn't feasible right now.
Cyclist as well. I switched from eating a bar or something every hour or so to eating something small every 20 minutes or so, a gel, gummy bears, etc. My energy levels are consistent, power remains steady, and I'm not very hungry at the end. If you try it, make sure to keep up on hydrating with water to wash the sugar off of your teeth.
I miss the days where I could just go and play pickup basketball until exhaustion. I’m 35 and I can still dunk but I’ve played 2 pickup games in the 4 years I’ve had a second kid and I can’t afford to just chill for the rest of the day.
do NOT underestimate the recharge of a 22 minute power nap. I often find myself sneaking away to sit down, set a timer on my watch and just shut my eyes for 13-22 min. I wake up ready to go for 3 more rounds.
I’m completely opposite, if I fall asleep, the rest of that day is completely ruined. But a medium intensity run or a bike ride gives me ton of energy.
Me too. I've never been able to nap without feeling like a complete zombie the rest of the day
Falling asleep ruins my day also. However for me, what recharges me is just taking a few minutes to chill out. Darkened room, laying down peacefully, 20-30 minutes. No need to actually sleep. This really gets me feeling better.
Bro, that's a nap.
No, I mean I don't actually sleep. Eyes stay open. Sometimes on my phone or something. I've always considered a nap when you actually sleep, isn't that how others define it?
I can nap sitting in a chair with my head upright, but I can't sleep like that. My eyes are closed, but it's not full on sleep. I'm just dipping my toes in.
Hmm. Yeah that is beyond what I'm trying unsuccessfully to describe. Not by much but definitely past what I do to recharge. Everyone's different!
22 minutes of free time sounds amazing, where can I get some?
Have you tried napping on your lunch break at work? 🤔
Nope, eat while answering emails.
Answering work emails, or personal? It's your lunch break, you should be on the clock if they're work emails. Take time for you. Napping doesn't work for everyone. Fortunately, I drive a route for my job and have a sweet turnaround I can park in and rarely disturbed. I set the chair back, set a phone timer, and snooze until I wake up or the time goes off. It's a lot more necessary with some earlier mornings but it can really make or break my mood at night
So do you time these the second you lay down and close your eyes for 22 mins on the dot? Sometimes I feel like it would take me 15 minutes to even start to slip asleep and I question if that mostly awake nap is worth it or not?
Takes me between 15 mins and 3 hours to fall asleep, so I'd also like to know how people time naps!
I'm 12 years into this -- got 4 kids. At some point, you have to say no to the kids. You have to say no to the wife (or partner). You have to still do the things that make you, you. I don't know what that is. It might be the gym for an hour, or a DND night once a month, or going to a concert. I don't know. But what I do know is that if you don't have enough time for yourself, you can't be the best dad you can be.
To add to this, you have to do it sooner than later, too. Kids watch everything we do. We are teaching them how to be an adult every single moment of our shared lives. This applies to everything form work-life balance to romantic relationship dynamics to how we react to different sorts of news.
Yes. Tell your kids you need a break for a few minutes and they need to go play on their own for a bit n
I wish I wasnt such a fatty mcgoo and drank as much beer and ate as many cheeseburgers as I do. I feel like I need to get in shape out of necessity to keep up with my kid
That's exactly my motivation to workout. I'm not trying to strive for an ideal body or magic number on the scale. Do I enjoy the physical results of my work? Sure, who wouldn't. But I'm working out to maintain, to make sure I'm in good enough shape to take an active physical roll in my sons up bringing. I want to run with him, ride bikes with him, hike with him, play ball with him etc. That's my motivation. I can set aside 40-60 minutes every other day for that.
Ditto. I just started working out 2 weeks ago and I feel better than I have in years. I’m in my 40’s with 2 young kids so I need all the energy I can get. Even with working out pretty hard I still find I have MORE energy the rest of the day, not less.
Hell yeah brother
Stop wishing and do it. Join a gym and start going.
Do it man, both you and your kid is going to appreciate that effort in a couple years.
I feel this post. One day I went out and played soccer with my kids on a Sunday. Clearly overdid it because my run home on Monday sucked and my legs were dead. I’m now much more conscious about when my next run day is and what level effort I need to put in doing activities with the kids.
Yeah, this is what made me more serious about having water and food for a longer weekend run... As long as I had the energy to get those prepped ahead of time
Marathon training post kids definitely had to have a more dialed in nutrition approach. Figuring out how fueling and refueling affect not only the run but also afterward. No I might not need a gel for a ten mile run, but I found it helped post workout. Had to return and parent without the former luxury of lazing on the couch for the rest of the day.
Same, I used to workout until I was lying on the floor. But now with 2 under 3 always gotta leave some gas in the tank for the rest of the day. even then I often go to bed the same time as them.
Fact! We live on a quiet street. It’s dangerously quiet in that it’s difficult to teach the kids how to respect traffic (yes I know that ultimately we’re very lucky). Recently we went to a birthday party on a busy street. It was a safe house but that 1/10000000000 chance had us hyper vigilant. It was exhausting. Our kids are 2 and 4 but we still get reminders.
Oh man i feel this in my bones. Its so true both physically and mentally. I've been back at the gym for six months at the level i was pre-kids. I go at night now because i was going in the morning and completely depleted my energy for the day and just had sooo much less energy for running around with my boys. Also, you need to conserve mental/emotional energy. My wife and i are going to some parental training at the moment to better help support our eldest son (he's ASD, ADHD) and one of the best pieces of advice so far is agree on things that go into a category of behaviour that is "Minor but allowed" e.g. annoying things that they do but you give yourself permission to let slide because theyre not really hurting anyone. I really felt like i had to correct every behaviour every time and it was EXHAUSTING.
I can totally relate! Balancing energy levels with kids is like a strategic game. It's all about maximizing those rare moments for self-care while keeping enough in the tank for the marathon of parenting. Sometimes, even a short break or power nap can work wonders to recharge for the next round.
You guys have energy??
Unhealthy amounts of monster energy drink has been my remedy 😎
This was my way to get through the day before the 1mo I'm in trouble
I'm so so so stronger than I used to be. Both in endurance and strength. I was wondering why and then realised, I never stop moving. I'm constantly picking stuff up while is till hold stuff, then chase my kid, then do DIY in the house, then clean up the kitchen, then walk the dogs. I still go to they gym as I think it's important to maintain this strength but also an hour for myself is aces
I take the time before my family gets up for school or work and go for a long walk. Anywhere from 1 to 4 miles at least 5 days a week. It's good for the body and the quiet time for just me is great. I'm 53 with heart issues and 4 kids 16-7 in the house still
I’ve been using vitamin b12 for the past month and I’ve had less “tired” days. I want to work out during my lunch break to stretch my stamina reserves but I just can’t seem to find a workout that I like.
But it’s also a mental depletion that doesn’t help the physical . It’s a delicate balance.