JoeBailey.ORG

At least once a week for the past couple of months, I’ll work while listening to one of 2 Randy Pausch lectures found on his home page found here: http://download.srv.cs.cmu.edu/~pausch/. Also, for those of you who have not heard of Randy Pausch, he’s a professor diagnosed with cancer and these speeches are messages to his family and children on how to live life. If you have an hour, it is well worth your time… What would you do if you knew your days were numbered? Would you sit around and watch tv? Guess what, all of our days our numbered.

Anyway, getting back on topic…

One phrase stuck with me I didn’t catch the first time. He mentioned making phone calls while riding his bike for an hour would not take away from his family time. All of a sudden it dawned on me, he was accomplishing two things at once. Ok, it sounds obvious. But, as a father, I try to stay in shape, but in order to do so, I’ve been away from the family while working out, and not accomplishing anything else at the same time. For weeks now, I’ve been trying to figure out a way to spend time with family and work out, AND accomplish something else at the same time. Let’s face it, when working out (I love running) you don’t accomplish anything else.

After time, I figured out a way to do both. My solution was to give the kids a bath and have a circuit training workout while they played in the bath.

Here are some ideas to consider when trying to maximize your workout time:

• Give your kids a bath and workout while they play
• Listen to some educational audio while you lift, run, etc.
• Make phone calls while working out. This may be best on a bike or running since it allows for working out for extended amount of time. If you were lifting weights or doing a circuit workout, it may ruin your workout.
• Run while your kids ride their bike with you.
• Just walk with your family.
• Work in the yard with your family. It’s amazing how much kids love working and helping out. Learning with the attention is a huge accomplishment.
• Let your kids workout with you!

If you have some ideas to share, please do so!