Skip to main content

Living for my daughter

I'm definitely healthier as a SAHD.
Staying home with Willow has helped me pursue, and so far keep, a healthier lifestyle.
I'm no Lance Armstrong. Far from it, but I am shedding weight a feeling better. I walk frequently, am eating better and am feeling less stress. I'm also reading and writing more and am generally more active.
It's not that I have more time to do these things. Actually, as I've shared with my wife repeatedly, I feel like I have less down time than I used to when I was commuting to my second-shift job.
But the mindset is different. And the change in routine (hours) is definitely different.
Having long commutes and a stressful job seemed to overwhelm any attempts I had at being healthy and fit. And the commutes and the stress made wonderful excuses to just take it easy.
And the hours (and the hard hours at work) wreaked havoc on my diet. I usually ate lunch, supper and a before-bed meal back then. Now I get a normal day's meals.
But it's probably the walking that's made the biggest difference. I enjoy taking long walks with Willow, and she seems to like them too, especially when they're bookended by stops at the playground (see picture).
I've also toyed with jogging recently but my newfound asthma has delayed that. I'm going to give it a go again, though, once my doctor gives the go-ahead.
I log all my walking and running at www.runkeeper.com, which is a social site for people who walk, run, swim or bike. I'm on there by myself right now, but I'd like for you to join me. Join the site (it's like Facebook) then look me up and invite me to join your Street Team. I'll support your activities if you support mine.
And that brings me to my point. Yeah, it was tough for me to get a fit routine going while I had my second-shift job, but just because my life has straightened out a bit isn't why I'm succeeding now.
I think the real reason I'm doing well lies with the bundle of joy that's graced my life.
Willow is supporting me, not directly but indirectly.
I want to be active for her, to set a good example, to get her out and into the world. I also want to be there for her for a very long time.
I want to add years to my life, and to hers.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Willow's morning of play, play, play exhausts poor, old Dad

Willow's playtime universe continues to grow. Rapidly. Witness. In the midsummer heat, I take Willow out to our shaded backyard in the morning to play. And play she does. She climbed into her swing first. After I pushed her for a while, I got her out of the swing and put her in her wagon so she could help me convey bags of sand from the garage to the backyard to fill her sandbox (part of her new swing set) and her water table sandbox. She took rake and shovel and played in the sandbox for a bit. Then she waddled over to the deck and started to climb the steps to get to the water table. She played in the sand a bit, but most of her time was used dipping water up and out of the water part of the water table. Most the water ended up all over her. After that she wanted off the deck to go back to swinging. Instead I retrieved the new tricycle Cherish procured from a Franklin recycle center and cleaned it up. Willow loved the trike, holding on to the handle bars while I pushed her...
Post a Comment
Read more

Willow hones her friend-making skills

Up until now Willow has enjoyed the company of other tots her age only in the sense that where they are is where the fun and the toys are. That is to say she likes the toys and the gyms and the swings and if she has to be around these other toddlers, so be it. That's with kids her own age. She LOVES older kids, but they don't care much for her (other than "she's a baby," and Willow can't keep up with them, though she tries). Her older cousin, Rett, for example, hung the stars and moon in her opinion, so she'll just about do anything he does, including cozying up with him on the chair to watch a movie. And he does like her more than the typical older kid does. But as far as all the toddlers and babies roughly in Willow's age range, she doesn't have much use for them. She's not mean to them. She'll let them take a ball from her hand, for example (as some say, she plays well with others). But I can tell you, most definitely, she just doesn...
Post a Comment
Read more

Willow's tooth-brushing goes from rocky to rocking

Willow has been giving us fits for months now about brushing her teeth before bed. She's usually better brushing her teeth in the morning, meaning it's less like wrestling an alligator for me, but at night before bed, she turns into the Tasmanian Devil. We've tried making the tooth-brushing as fun as possible for her, but I usually end up holding her against her will while I try, mostly in vain, to pry the toothbrush into her clamped-shut mouth. Sometimes we give up. We've tried singing to her. Dancing. Story-telling. Tickling. Nothing has really worked. But Mommy might have hit on the solution. A singing toothbrush. Yesterday Mommy brought home a toothbrush that belts out Queen singing "We Will Rock You." This toothbrush ROCKS! And Willow loves it. We tried it out last night, and on the inaugural brushing, Willow brushed her teeth successfully all by herself. She danced the whole time too. And I stayed bruise free (I also, surprisingly, had more energ...
Post a Comment
Read more