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Running in Circles
How to Find Time to Exercise and Still Be a Great Dad
By I.J. Schecter
During this period the healthiest thing you can do for yourself, your partner and your baby is to get as much rest as possible. Plan to freeze that gym membership for the first few months, since you'll need all your energy to function properly during the day. In fact, if you find you do have enough vigor to be hitting the gym three times a week, you might consider whether you're helping out enough at home.
It's about the priorities in your life shifting. You used to be focused on you -- the emotional you, the psychological you, and the physical you. Now you and your soul mate have created something that seems vastly more important to you than you ever seemed to yourself. These new priorities may lessen the appeal of the gym, since all you really want to do is get home and hug the bejeezus out of your child.
This doesn't mean you have to abandon exercise -- it only means you need to find ways to adapt your routine to maximize the time at home. And that, as I've said above, is not just possible, it's wonderfully rewarding, because it means you get to enjoy that many more smiles, that many more laughs, and that many more hugs that illuminate your soul.
Yes, the arrival of a baby spins your day-to-day life in ways you couldn't have foreseen. No, this doesn't mean you're consigned to a potbelly. Think of it instead as another way to adapt your lifestyle to the incomparably rich gift you've received. You aren't losing anything in this deal. You're winning. Huge.
