You’ve heard it here before, ACTIVE-DAD is a place for the Every day Dad to come for motivation, inspiration, tips and tricks from other Every day Dads, sprinkled in with some advice from experts.
ACTIVE-DAD is here to push Prioritizing Physical Activity; promote family; promote wealth through health.
That being said, you’re not going to find a bunch of dudes with their shirts off or a bunch of workout videos. It’s all about simplicity; how to get you from being a Physical Activity Contemplator to a Physical Activity PRIORITIZER.
So, this is about as NAKED as you will see anyone on here. Allow me to sacrifice my ego for the sake of connecting with you. Boy oh boy, do I feel exposed. Let’s get vulnerable.
The lens you see your adult body was likely shaped at an early age. Like many of you, growing up I tried to hide my trouble spots with loose fitting clothes. Baggie clothes were the style then anyway, so it wasn’t much of an effort on my part.
Some can relate, and some of y’all were just born STUDS! Things have likely changed since your younger years, and time hasn’t been all that gentle to you. Your struggles started later in life. Who cares, we are all in the same boat NOW.
Clothes are great tools to hide what we physically don’t like about ourselves. That area has always been the hips and butt for me. The first place to gain and the last place to lose. I blame it on genetics—that darn Smith gene on my mother’s side! Commonly referred to as the “Pear” shape.
I’d actually classify myself as a hybrid between the endomorph and the mesomorph. But I also use to think I could be a professional Muay Thai Kickboxer, so take my self-perception with a grain of salt.
Styku Bodyscan
I’m not sure just how accurate the body fat percentage calculations are on the Styku Bodyscan (despite what the makers boast them to be), but I’m not looking for exact. My initial and continued hopes are to track any trend toward my goal of decreasing body fat. Despite all my efforts, I did not achieve that goal. With the 1+ month between the two body scans, I ran 25 to 36 miles per week, PLUS at least an hour sesh in the gym, 3 to 4 times a week.
I have never been one to shy away from putting in the work. Often times,the problem is, it’s too much work.
Decreasing my body fat percentage was main goal. I decreased my weight to below 200 lbs., yet my body fat percentage went up from approximately 16.4% to 17.0%.
For the most part, once you account for the potential variation, there was little overall change. What that tells me is that I need to reframe from beating my body down. ESPECIALLY, when the end result is a tired and beat up body.
What I lacked?
I have been depriving myself of sleep since late June. Truth be told, I picked up a part time position working the night shift. That’s in addition to my full-time career. So, the only nights I get to sleep are Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. That’s right. Those 3 nights I work night shift, I don’t sleep until the following night.
Do you think I have failed to Prioritize Physical Activity? Not in the least! I push myself to continue to Prioritize Physical Activity 6 days a week.
Do you think that lack of sleep has an impact on my physical activity performance? In quality—for sure.
Do you think the lack of sleep has an impact on my results? I wish I could say definitively. If I had access to the Styku Bodyscans prior to me taking on an additional job and subsequently depriving myself of sleep, I would have measurements to base my determination on.
Nevertheless, this short-term assessment still leads me to think the lack of sleep has an impact on my results. That should not be a surprise.
I make no excuses. As far as my diet is concerned, I can clean some things up (Check out “”Why “You can’t exercise your way out of a bad diet” is FALSE!””). But I was hoping I could OUT work those shortcomings in my diet.
Since January 2020, I have been pretty good at sticking to intermittent fasting. Check out How Intermittent Fasting Can Help You Ration Food During COVID-19. I have been able to eat the things I crave, as long as I ate them in my eating window. I have been slacking to stick to that window, as of this past month.
What’s Next For Me? What’s Next For YOU?
Like most of you, my year started with some specific physical goals. Again, much like most of you, a lot of those goals were derailed with the ongoing pandemic. Those physical goals could have all ended with that GIGANTIC obstacle.
Hopefully, much like me, your goals did NOT end there. I just adapted my goals to the situation. Hopefully, much like me, your drive and determination did not end there. My drive and determination continued by feeding on the energy of Every day Dads, like YOU!
Let me give you an example. Right around April and early March, I incidentally increased my back-squat strength up to weights I previously lifted prior to turning 30. I’m talking about 405+ lbs. For some of you that’s nothing, for others that may sound like a lot—either way, the weight is not what’s important.
The gyms closed and I was back to running outside, using resistance bands and some light dumbbell work. I was, and still remain, at a point where my Under Armour fitted workout shirts and compression pants are fitting loose!
So, I’m back to the drawing board! I’m not chasing the pre-COVID me, because who knows, things might shutdown again and I’ll be back to being Slim Shady. However, I will stay the course on reducing my body fat percentage. Don’t count me out yet! I have roughly 4 months left in this year to reduce body fat.
But what about you? Will committing to an montly, bi-monthly, Styku Bodyscan keep you on track of your goals? If you have no other goal set for this year, you should AT LEAST set your scope on PRIORITIZING PHYSICAL ACTIVITY one day a week. That’s it!
You don’t have to be so drastic. You can just start with an achievable goal. Start with 60 minutes of Physical Activity ONE day a week. Join the challenge and read How Low Has Complacency Set Your Bar?
If you can’t find time during the weekday, join me and the other Weekend Warriors and get it done on a Saturday or Sunday. I PROMISE YOU, you won’t regret it! Get on board with 3 Reasons Why You Should Join The Weekend Warrior Circle. Let’s do this together!
You have 18 weeks left this year! That’s AT LEAST 18 days you can prioritize Physical Activity. THAT’S ALL! Use that momentum to CATAPULT you into 2021. We are all ready to leave 2020 behind us—WAY behind us.
I NEED YOU!
All dads should be ACTIVE-DADs.