How To Find Time To Workout As A Busy Dad With A Full Time Job
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4 Tips If You Don’t Have Time To Exercise
On today’s episode of Live Lean TV, I’m sharing 4 tips on how to find time to workout as a busy dad with a full time job.
Before I share my best tips on how to find time to workout as a busy dad with a full time job, let me share a quick story about my experience on this important topic.
I first started my Live Lean journey in 2004.
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During this time, I was working in account management for an advertising agency.
If you know anything about the advertising world, if you tried to work the typical 9-5 hours, you would quickly be out of a job.
In other words, the work days were long and the stress levels were high.
My Personal Struggles With Self-Confidence In The Workplace
With that said, even though I was working hard, I still remember a getting passed over for a promotion, by someone who was less experienced then me.
At the time I was really frustrated, but looking back at it now, it is clear why it happened.
I did not exude the level of self-confidence required to be a client facing account executive.
Once I realized this, my journey to improve my self-confidence began.
After digging deep into the world of personal development, the main tip that kept showing up was fitness.
All of my mentors preached the importance of first committing to transforming your physical body, in order to improve your inner self.
That’s the moment when I first started my Live Lean journey.
My Live Lean Journey Begins
For the next 5 years, an amazing thing happened:
- I made my gym workouts a priority
- My self-confidence continued to grow
- I moved up the corporate marketing ladder
Then I did the unthinkable.
I fired my boss in 2011, and started my entrepreneurial journey.
Trust me, I would have never had the confidence to make such a life changing experience, if I didn’t first build my self-confidence, by transforming my fitness.
However, I’m not telling you this story to brag.
I’m telling you this story because I am a proof of concept, that no matter how busy you are, it all comes down this.
You will prioritize what is important to you.
When An Employer Sees A Fit Person, They See Discipline
One of the first attributes that comes to mind when an employer sees a fit person is discipline.
Even though you’re working a busy full time job, it’s time to re-position the concept of working out.
Think of your fitness journey as another form of personal development to climbing the corporate ladder.
What If I Have Kids?
I get it.
Before I had two young kids, I had a lot more time to workout.
However, even as a busy entrepreneur, who works at home with two young kids, I still make my workouts a priority.
Why do you think flight attendant tell you to put your oxygen mask on first, before helping others?
It’s simple.
You can’t help others, if you don’t first take care of yourself.
4 Time Saving Hacks On How To Find Time To Workout As A Busy Dad With A Full Time Job
Once I became a dad, I quickly learned why time is often called one of our most valuable assets.
As a dad, time management, both inside and outside of work, has become a continuous area of improvement.
Here are 4 of my time saving hacks on how to find time to workout as a busy dad with a full time job.
1. Workout First Thing In The Morning
One of the best ways to start your day off right, and ensure you don’t skip your workout, is to workout in the morning.
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This positive habit creates a win first thing in the morning and sets you up to conquer the day.
When you workout later in the day, it opens up the possibility of other things stopping your from working out.
Logically, working out in the morning makes complete sense for busy people.
However, whenever I recommend busy people should workout first thing in the morning, this is often when feelings, overpower logic.
Most people say they don’t like working out in the morning is because they:
- Don’t have the energy
- Don’t have enough time to eat before their workout
Here’s my take.
Working Out Early In The Morning Is Hard…In The Beginning
The first few times you try to workout in the morning before work will suck.
I’m just being real.
I still remember the first week of going to the gym at 5am before going to the office.
Talk about out of my comfort zone.
However, speaking from experience, your body will adapt after a few days.
Plus, I still remember the empowering feeling of not only working on your self while others are sleeping, but also being around other like-minded people at the gym.
Let’s be real, people who go to the gym at 5am are typically doing something good in life.
How To Become A Morning Workout Person
To make it easy on yourself:
- Before going to bed, pick out your workout clothes and set them by your bed.
- Before going to sleep, visualize yourself waking up and jumping up out of bed.
- Once you hear the alarm, don’t think, just jump up out of bed immediately.
- Put your workout clothes on and go get some caffeine.
From a performance and focus standpoint, I love caffeine.
This is why I recommend most people take some form of caffeine before their workouts.
Anything between 175-200mg of caffeine is the money spot for me.
Here’s a quick story.
Motivation Benefits Of Caffeine Before A Workout
The other day I was super busy with work, and playing with the kids, so my workout got pushed later in the day.
Note: this wouldn’t have happened if I worked out first thing in the morning.
I’ll be honest, I felt like skipping the workout and just Netflix, and maybe chill.
But the more I thought about it, I knew I was letting my feelings overpower my commitments.
I knew if I could just find the energy to get to the gym, I would not regret it.
I mean, whoever finishes a workout and regrets it, right?
So I grabbed a pre-workout drink, which quickly focused and dialed me in.
Within minutes the caffeine starts to kick in.
You know that moment when your pre-workout kicks in!
At times, you’re going to be in situations like this, and you’ll feel like skipping your workout.
When these rare occasions occur, I always prefer to take some caffeine, rather than just skipping the workout.
As the saying goes, you never get home from a workout and think, “man I wish I didn’t workout”.
Another win for caffeine.
Caffeine energizes and wakes up your body and brain so you can take your workouts to the next level.
From a weight loss perspective, caffeine has also been shown to help release stored body fat to be burned more effectively during workouts.
That’s called winning.
Should You Eat Before Your Morning Workout?
In addition to caffeine, I also love protein.
Protein helps build muscle and protects your muscles from breaking down during intense workouts.
If your goal is muscle building and prefer not to workout on an empty stomach for fear of burning into muscle, grab a quick protein shake.
If you prefer to drink a coffee in the morning for the caffeine rather than a pre-workout supplement drink, you could also make this quick iced protein coffee recipe.
As a lover of protein and caffeine, this was a match made in heaven, especially before my workout.
Anything over 25 grams of protein per serving is great for me.
I also like that it’s iced since, when you’re in a rush, the coffee is often too hot to drink, even by the time you arrive at the gym.
Let’s move on to tip number two.
2. Time Your Workouts
Even when it comes to my workouts, I’m dialed in from a time perspective.
Not only do I factor in the time spent at the gym, since I live in California, I also have to factor in the time it takes to get to and from the gym.
To avoid the crazy California traffic, I first plan the time of my workouts using the Waze app or the navigation on my Tesla.
Avoiding traffic is another reason to workout in the morning.
Once I’m at the gym, I also have my workout programs ready to go inside our Live Lean TV workout app.
This means there’s no guesswork of what exercises to do, how many reps, or how long to rest between sets.
I simply open up the Live Lean workout app on my phone, then go crush the workout.
Inside the app you can follow any of our gym or home workout programs.
Depending on the workout, you will be in and out within 30-60 minutes.
Trust me, once you finish your workout, I promise, you will feel super productive and accomplished.
3. When Possible, Hire It Out
Full disclosure, I’m still working on this.
As an entrepreneur, I continuously struggle with letting go and hiring a team to manage the day-to-day tasks of my business.
However, when you sit down and figure out what your time is truly worth, it makes it a lot easier to hire out tasks that cost you less, than it would cost you to do yourself.
Even if you’re not an entrepreneur, this applies to tasks around the house as well.
For example, rather than mowing your lawn, you could pay a landscaper to do it, which would then free up an hour of your time to go workout.
Invest In Pre-prepared Healthy Meat Delivered Right To Your Door
You could also pay a meal delivery company for pre-made healthy meals.
This is another area of time management that I’ve been more open too since having kids.
Think of the amount of time you spend:
- Meal planning
- Grocery shopping
- Cooking
- Cleaning the dishes
Sure, this is a very healthy habit, however if time is an issue, there are healthy meal prep companies that will do this for you.
We’ve been using a pre-cooked meat delivery subscription service from a company called Just Meats.
Since we eat meat every single day, this means we save time by getting pre-prepared healthy and delicious meats delivered right to our door.
It’s Convenient
No more recipes or driving to the grocery store.
It’s super convenient, since the meat is already pre-cooked, pre-seasoned, and pre-marinated.
All we need to do is heat it up in the skillet for just 2 minutes, then it’s on your plate and ready to eat.
We also never get bored of eating the same meals, since they offer a variety of 12 different restaurant grade flavorful meats to choose from.
You can store it in your fridge for up to 14 days, or just freeze it for later.
It’s Affordable
Lastly, from a cost perspective, you’ll get premium protein for as low as $2.25 per serving.
Each serving is 30 grams of pre-cooked protein, with no artificial flavors or colors.
Just Meats is currently running a 35% off discount on the first order when you choose the subscription offer.
You’ll also get an additional $10 off your order when you use discount code: LiveLeanTV
If you’re one of the first 500 customers, I’m told they will also throw in a free 1 lbs turkey.
Once again, this reduces the amount of time we have to spend meal planning, grocery shopping, cooking, and then cleaning dishes after dinner.
By outsourcing this, it gives me more free time to workout, and create more valuable content for you.
Just try it, then you will know.
4. Try Intermittent Fasting
If you’re not familiar with intermittent fasting, it’s a nutrition protocol that increases the amount of time you don’t eat, by decreasing your eating window.
One of the most popular forms of intermittent fasting is the 16:8 approach.
This simply gives you a fasting window of 16 hours in the day, when you don’t eat, and a feeding window of 8 hours, where you consume all your daily calories.
I first started intermittent fasting back in 2012.
Besides the health benefits of intermittent fasting, I also love the idea of saving time on cooking less, eating less meals, and let’s be honest, once again having less dishes to clean.
For more details on my experiences with intermittent fasting, here’s a link to My 14 Day Intermittent Fasting Results Experiment.
Bottom Line On Finding Time To Workout
Now that I’ve given you a few hacks to save time, you should have no excuses why you can’t find the time to fit exercise into your busy lifestyle.
Thanks for watching and keep Living Lean.
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Question Of The Day:
- What time of day do you normally workout?
- What are your best tips to find time to workout?
Share your experiences in the comment section below.
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Brad Gouthro is the founder of Live Lean TV, a media company focused on helping men and women “Live Lean” 365 days a year. Brad’s programs and content have helped millions of people all over the world learn how to get in shape, and more importantly, sustain it for life.