All throughout my life I’ve been fit and lean. However, as a new Dad struggling to grow my business during the COVID-19 quarantine, I’ve had little to no time to workout. Partly due to my late rising time. Upon waking up, it’s straight to changing my son’s diapers, reading his favorite “Potty” book like 9 times, then keeping him entertained, and around 9:30 am breakfast time.
Lately, he hasn’t been sleeping much and as such has fallen into an inconsistent wake schedule. Sometimes he’ll wake at 2 am then go back to sleep after getting breast fed or somtimes wake up at 4:30 am then back to sleep, someitmes 6:30 and sometimes 9:30 am like today.
So as you can see, his schedule is quite all over the place. As per me staying fit, well that’s been kind of tossed to the side. Prime example, right now I just got called in from Mom to pick him up from bed as it is now 9:36 am and the Prince is now awake! Daddy reporting for duty! haha
Phew! Ok just picked him up from Mommy and boy was he grumpy waking up. I had to yank him from nibbling on Mommy’s breast. As we made our way to the diaper changing table, he just wasn’t having it, so I took a detour into the bathroom where he loves staring at himself, like Daddy, and then looking at his duckies in the bathtub. Boy does he love his duckies and bathtub.
After he settled down for a bit, I distracted him with a baby wipe to play with and then was able to successfully change his diapers. After somehow being able to distract with him toys in his crib, I am back at the computer now. This by the way is rare so milking this time for all it’s worth.
Anywho, these days, I’ve been sleeping around 1- 2 am with the wife watching 100 Movies To Watch Before You Die, the latest Netflix Shows, The Office, etc. And as a result have been waking up around 9:30, 10:30.
Usually, I’m an early riser, who takes care of the baby in the mornings. However, my wife has been taking care of him early mornings and then I takeover to allow her to catch up on her sleep. You would think, I would have time during his two hour naps, and you would be right. But the only thing is that that time is devoted to my business. And when he wakes up it’s back to taking care of my baby boy as Mommy prepares his lunch.
So what’s my solution for Staying Fit?
It’s something I like to call “the anytime anywhere short 90 rep workout”, formerly known as “mini-workouts“. I essentially, just bust out 30 pushups, 30 dips and 30 ab crunches. Or one of these exercises any chance I get when he’s not crying or needing attention. 5-10 minutes later I bus out another superset of each exercise.
After finishing my last circuit, I then progress to 30 high knees, 30 jumping jacks, 30 leg raises, 30 squats etc for another round of 3 sets, spread out over the next 1 hour or throughout the day when I get a chance.
This sort of mini-workout has worked wonders in allowing me to stay lean and fit. You don’t think of it at first, but the small amounts of work you are putting in add up over time. It may not seem like much, but if you calculated for the day I completed: 90 pushups, 90 dips, and 90 Crunches, 90 high knees, 90 jumping jacks and 90 leg raises, 90 squats. Not to mention, all the walking around the house, bending down to pick up his toys, change his clothes, pick him up and down, playing with him. It’s a full body workout.
My other solution, is to continue my usual early rising schedule of around 5 am – 6 am to get that “me time” back to focus solely on myself in the morning . Doing this will allow me to fill my cup full so that I could pour my love, energy and time into the cups of those whom I love dearly.
Benefits of Waking Up Early
Also, the wee mornings of the day are my “magic time“, the best time of time where I produce my best work as my mind, body and soul are at it’s freshest. This is the time where I’m able to think much more clearly, solve problems, write higher quality material, as well as write twice as much than any other part of the day, and simply create high quality work, sometimes world class work.
Another interesting side benefit of getting back to my early rising schedule, this will allow me to get a full workout in our garage gym when he naps, as I would have completed a decent amount of work that I would have otherwise been working on had I stuck with my usual late night escapades.
This may eliminate the need for mini-workouts. But I don’t think it will completely, as on the days I’m resting, I could use that time as active recovery and incorporate my mini-workouts or on days I just can’t carve out a full hour or hour and a half workout I will be able to implement my min-workouts.
I will keep you all updated.
If you’ve read up until this point, thank you all so very much.
I hope this post gave you a glimpse into the world of a new dad struggling to care for his baby boy, grow his struggling business and try to squeeze in workouts to stay healthy and fit as well.
As you now know, it’s not easy, but it’s all so worth it. Fall in love with the process and just flow.
And as I’ve said in a previous post, “success must not be pursued, it must ensue.”
I wish you all good health, happiness and prosperity.
In whatever you can, stay fit and stay healthy.
We got this!
Best,
Sonam
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