The Suburban Dad

10 Minute Trainer: It's All the Time I've Got

I used to be pretty active.  Since being a parent, exercise has fallen off the priority list.  Sure, I go snowboarding a handful of times in the winter and play the occasional game of tennis in the summer; I haven't made the effort to be consistent.

When my wife was still pregnant, I bought a 10 day pass at our local community centre gym.  I've only used 2 out of the 10.  Four months after my son was born, my wife saw this infomercial for Beachbody's 10 Minute Trainer.  It's basically a watered down version of their ever popular P90X series.  I purchased it hoping my wife would use it to help her lose some of the pregnancy weight.

So the DVDs have been sitting idly in our entertainment unit since then.  My wife tried it once and thought it was still too intense for her.  Since the new year, I decided to give it a try but took another 3 weeks to get started.  So far, I've done two consecutive days and my arms and chest are pretty sore.  I think this will work out for me as my effort to have some level of physical fitness built in to my daily life.

I'll let you guys know how it goes. 

Trying to Stay Fit as a Dad

Between 21 and 23 years old, a typical summer for me consists of playing tennis 3-4 times a week with going to the gym 2 to 3 times a week in between.  In the winter, I would average 40+ days of snowboarding on the many mountains around Vancouver.  I miss those days.

I'm 5'8" and was 135lbs (which was really quite thin for my height).  Over the years, the amount of physical activity had gone down gradually and then exponentially. I ended up gaining around 30lbs since then.  Now I'm hovering around 153-155lbs. 

Now that I'm almost 30 and a dad, staying healthy is really important just not for my own sake but for my family as well.  My wife and I have been trying to get more physically active and also eating a lot better.  She's been trying to go to the gym 3 times a week.  I've been trying to sneak in an hour to hour and a half of tennis once a week with my friend this summer.  It's also been great helping ease stress hitting a tennis ball as hard as you can.  Winter's just around the corner, so hopefully we'll hit the slopes at least a couple times a month.

We're really trying to make the time for exercise despite being tired from the daily grind of working full-time and taking care of our son.  On the flip side, I think we're doing pretty good eating a healthier diet (Oh but how I dream of bacon everyday).