I am fortunate enough to be working part time right now, and I have been part time for nearly 4 years previous to that. The reason for this is not laziness but to twice have the opportunity to be a dad to my daughters.
Having that time with them both and the chance to observe their behaviour and daily schedules reminds me of the lessons I as a trainer share with my clients and hope they act on.
Here's a couple;
Sleep
Man, I dislike Friday mornings. The thought of getting up early, getting the girls up, dressed, fed and out the door is the thing I dislike most about my week. Jeez they are grumpy, cranky and mega irritable by the time Friday comes around. To be fair by Friday, my short fuse is even shorter which certainly does help.
At Christmas my wife and I attended my daughters school Nativity. All the parents were sat down and the kids all came out 1 class at a time and I was shocked.. Every-and I mean every kid that stood in front of us had big dark bags under there eyes, holy hell these kids are aged just 4-11! They looked like they had come off a run of night shifts, what the fuck!
I imagine these kids are getting plenty of sleep, I know my 2 get a minimum 10hrs each night yet wake up tired. How much sleep do you get? Are you getting the recommended 8Hours, and what quality is that? How can you expect to function anywhere near your optimal if your not getting this most basic and fundamental acts of our subconscious functions.
Eating
My kids can eat, it is at the same time both impressive yet horrifying how much they can put away at a single sitting. Provide them the opportunity to graze between meals and they can keep that going up to meal time.
Interestingly it is the foods they pick. My kids love fruit to the point at which we have to stop them eating too much, otherwise nasty nappies-parents you know what I'm talking about right?
A study was done(which I'm afraid I cannot reference as I just don't know), in this study a table was set with an array of foods, all the major food groups with good and bad foods. Kids were left in the room and helped themselves to whatever they wanted. By the end of the day the kids had eaten a balanced diet of sufficient calories with no outside encouragement. Where did we as grown adults lose this ability, or, did we have it and gain the ability of greed?
Running
Watching kids run is an interesting one. Have you noticed kids don't jog or pace themselves, they are either walking or running, and when running they go full pelt nothing else. My personal belief and practice is to do sprints as a form of fat loss over endurance running or jogging and watching kids reinforces that for me.
Squatting
As a trainer the movement of Squatting is a great tool to use as an exercise for people wanting to lose fat/gain muscle/be stronger. Often I see people struggling to do this most fundamental of movements. It is an ability we have always had as a species, envisage cavemen huddled squatted down round a fire.
Watch kids squat to pick things up, textbook form each and every time, straight spine, head forward, feet flat and they don't groan on the way back up!
These are simple fundamental things that we encourage/allow our kids to do, why would we stop those things? Where did we lose them and what can we do to get them back?
Please I implore you to ensure your kids keep these behaviours into their adulthood otherwise our kids health and Well being is being diminished from an early age.
Be healthy, set the example and take a nap.
