If you live in the US, Canada, or the UK, then you know that today is Father’s Day, so Happy Father’s Day!! Like most things worth doing in life, being a great father takes time and effort but juggling a career and a family is never easy.

Unnoticed Weight Gain

About the time my son was born, I also had to renew my drivers license. I had to go to the DMV Office and get a new picture taken as well. I’ll spare you the “I had to stand in line forever” story but at the end of the process a clerk handed me my new license. The first thing that I noticed was that I looked heavier than ever.

On the one hand, life was good. This was during the dot-com era so the economy was growing. Business was good and I was busy with work. I ate out a lot but did not make enough time to exercise. Looking back I should not have been surprised by the additional weight, but at the time, I was. For the first time in my life, I thought man, I am getting fat.

Fortunately, I was still young enough that by making a few course corrections like cleaning up my diet, lowering my caloric intake, and exercising, I was able to quickly drop the excess weight.

Don’t Forget to Make Time for Yourself and Your Kids

I am telling you this because if you are a father you know that you are also extremely busy on the home front. Between school, homework, church, and athletic practices and games, summer camps, etc. you are always doing something to help your children grow into amazing young adults. While raising children, it can be easy to forget to take care of yourself.

So today make time to exercise with the kids. Introduce them to running or go for bike ride. Take them for a hike or play US football or… football… you know… the game the rest of the world plays and we all know the US can use a better football development program 😉 but that is a different story.

Your Children Will Remember the Good Times you Shared

My amazing father introduced me to running by teaching me the run-walk-run method back in the day to get me started with running. At the time we lived in a place with a big hill out back, so we would begin our run going up hill right out of the gate. That really gets your heart rate up quickly. My father would also take us hiking often as well, usually up a mountain trail with a backpack so again good for your heart.

Don’t Force It

But sometimes the kids are just not feeling it. I have been there too. Once when my children were younger, I wanted to take both of them for a bike ride to a small pond at the other end of our neighborhood. We did this ride with some regularity so they knew what to expect. I thought it would be a great experience. However, my daughter was protesting against going along but I pulled a parental power-trip and forced her to go with us anyway. When we got to the pond she fell off her bike going over a small wooden bridge and tore-up her elbow pretty bad. The experience left a physical scar and I imagine an emotional scar as well.

Nowadays, we tell this story from time-to-time and laugh about it together but the lesson here is that sometimes you probably do need to listen to your children when they really don’t want to do something.

Go Enjoy Father’s Day with Your Children

Exercising with your children and teaching them good eating habits is good for you and good for them as well. Get outside and enjoy your day with your kids and have some fun. Fuel that fun with good nutritional choices and teach your children how do do the same in the process. Happy Father’s Day!!

Update and Shameless Plug

My beautiful wife and children just got me the beats pill+ for Father’s Day. Thank you guys!! Amazon has them on sale for $129.99 right now.