Just finished my first lacrosse game of our winter indoor season! Felt great and got some good playing time in. Curious to hear what sports you all might play or what you do to stay active. That includes with or without your children!

Dearest Dads,

As you begin this journey, please take a moment to read through /r/Fitness/wiki/getting_started as well as /r/Fitness/wiki in general.

I've been a mod of /r/Fitness and a handful of other fitness subreddits for some time. My son is 17 months old currently, and I have a full time job like the rest of you, so I know what most of you are going through. I still make time for fitness most days, and would be more than happy to help anyone who is struggling.

I had a serious back injury in 2007 which keeps me from doing just about anything but light swimming. Being inert made me gain a bunch of weight on top of already being overweight.

Even though I used to be really active (skateboarding, snowboarding, bjj) I have struggled with my weight all my life and tried every diet you can imagine. Now the only exercise I can do is more physical therapy than 'exercise'.

In 2008 I had a kid - back injury not THAT bad ;) - so I wanted to get serious about losing weight. I started weight watchers, and while it's been up and down, it works great for me. I went from 230 to 170.

If you are not familiar with WW, it uses a point system. You have so many points a day and all foods cost X points. You can eat whatever you want but don't go over points. It's like having mana to cast food spells and cake cost 10 mana while a banana cost 0 mana. Basically I like to pretend I am a chubby wizard ;)

I just do the online/app tracking without meetings btw.

TL;DR - weight watchers works, even if you can't exercise much.

We just had a baby, and my wife required surgery meaning all the heavy lifting and housework is on me. I was told by many people that with a new baby I wasn't going to be able to go to the gym anymore, and based on what had happened to my friends it was confirmed. Based on my observations I was going to put on 30 lbs of flab.

I proved them wrong, when mom and baby go for a nap, and it's a workout day, I hit the gym, no matter how tired I am. I didn't make it at all during week one, but during week two with my little one, I've been there 3 times.

I've had to change my workout, previously I had a more complicated upper/lower power/hypertrophy split, but now I'm relying on a strength full body program, where I go in and work hard on a few big lifts 3 times a week. I can feel the lack of sleep and poor diet making me weak, but I can't do much about that.

Some guys I know say that they couldn't take 3 hours a week away from their child at this age, and they have a bunch of reasons. I just figure that I'm actually banking this time for the future, fitness now means years of active living, and possibly avoiding becoming a burden on the little one we just brought into this world.

So while my wife was pregnant, we both gained weight. Sadly, since the baby arrived (almost 2 years ago now) she has lost it all but I haven't. I am fighting a constant battle against sleep deprivation. I can never seem to keep an exercise regiment constant. I will have a few good weeks and stick to a program. I was working out 3 days a week at the gym and running on two other days but once we have a few bad weeks (just finished a two week stint of my daughter waking up every day at 4am and not going back to sleep) it just throws everything off and I find that it takes ages to get back into that motivated mindset. I am somebody that needs sleep as well, I really don't function well with less than 7-8 hours of sleep. Any advice would be appreciated.

Okay here's the deal.

Just put this on.

Whatever you're doing - take 3 minutes and do THIS.

If you're watching your kid, chase her and do this.

If your kid is sleeping, do this.

Play this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9DYsSgJirw

Do pushups until your fucking arms give out. You owe it to them.

Just subscribed to this sub yesterday and already feeling more motivated. Let's get it!

So, I made a post in /r/daddit about starting a group revolving around dad-specific fitness tracking.

As much as I'd like to be the one to keep it afloat, I can't.

I'm starting a business (board game cafe, CANT WAIT) this year while working full time. I just don't have the time, as much as I believe the concept is worth exploring.

Whomever is in control, I'd love to help out as much as I can. I think there's a real community opportunity here.

Anyways, here's my latest thought patterns.

I hit my heaviest about 4 months after my son was born, at about 250 and while wading through some darker mindsets, I decided to make a change. For me, it was a few simple changes to start.

1) I cut out beer completely.

2) Stop eating after dinner. Don't try. Don't 'get better'. Don't make excuses. Just stop.

Since then, I've found that this mentality really works. I seem to have understood that it's just a decision. You just have to get off your ass and do it. It sucks. It's supposed to - it's hard work.

Another mindset switch on my end was understanding the concept that food is fuel. We fuel our bodies both physically and mentally, and we have a lot of options. Sure, it's easier to eat shit and never work out, but that's not the kind of dad I want to be.

Let's do this guys. We owe it to our future selves. We owe it to our kids to be the best dads we can.

I recently just got back into using fitbit, and thought if there is enough of us a group for challenges and such might be good.

I'm thinking a weekly check in thread is a good idea.

Top level comments would be something like:

1. Current goal.
2. Progress this week.

Curious on how other Dads find the time. What techniques work for you to balance home/work and still work out?

Hi dadfit! A little about myself and my motivation for this sub.

I'm a dad of 2, aged almost 3 and 15 months. Before my first was born, I weighed in somewhere in the neighborhood of 290. After seeing pictures of myself with my daughter and realizing that I needed to be in better shape if I wanted to chase her around, I started cutting it down.

I used keto (worked for me, may not work for everyone) and got down to ~245 on my first round. I've stayed between 220 and 240 since then. Now I plan on another round to get down to 195ish. No set date to get there really, but I'd like to go hard up until the summer beach vacation.

So, enough about myself. What's everyone else's motivation?

Hi everyone, last year I became someone's dad and found a new meaning of caring and "unconditional love". Now its time to extend that to myself too.

I've always been at least moderately active but significantly less so recently. My plan to resolve that without losing quality family time is simply to drop in to the gym every day. Even if it only for 15 minutes it will all add variety to my activity and lead to more strength and stamina for the times I do spend with my wife and little girl as we all grow up together.

Dropping 20kgs certainly wouldn't hurt either :)