Being a dad can be quite demanding. You would have to keep an eye on the little ones even if their mom is at home too.
If you are the dad with lots of responsibilities, you might sometimes overlook your health issues with the hope that they would all go away on their own. Your kids look up to you to stay fit and healthy, so here are some tips to push you to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
Maintain a Proper Diet
Everyone has to be cautious about what they eat after attaining adulthood. Eating a balanced diet and staying away from carbs, tin foods, fried foods, red meat, and sometimes salt helps develop your chances of staying healthy.
Unhealthy eating can cause severe health conditions like heart disease, high blood pressure, and among others.
If you want to be a dad for a long time and maybe a granddad, you should maintain a proper diet at all times to stay alive.
Have Regular Health Checkups
As a working dad, you are exposed to various activities that make you exhausted each day, from working at the office to taking the kids to school, mowing the loan, and so on.
You should have regular health checkups; this helps the doctor identify silent killing illnesses like hypertension, cancer, and diabetes growing in your body before it develops to a state that cannot be controlled.
If these life-threatening conditions can be identified at their growing stage, they can easily be cured without affecting the quality of your life. Visit your doctor for a suitable routine health checkup timetable to remain healthy.
Get Enough Rest
The effect sleep has on the general advancement of the body cannot be overemphasized. Getting the required amount of sleep as a dad allows you to become more active, accomplishing tasks effectively. Experts advise a minimum of 7 and a maximum of 9 hours of sleep per day to stay active.
Having enough sleep is almost impossible for dads who work two shifts in a day or close work at very late hours. Nevertheless, strive to make sleeping a priority to stay healthy and fit as a working dad.
Besides sleeping, have some quiet time or nap after performing a tedious task that leaves you exhausted. If you are close to home, have a shower and a nap to ease the tension in your body for an hour or two before going back to your activities; this helps to keep you fit as a busy dad.
Keep Stress Away
With tons of work to handle at home and the office, you get worn out before the day begins. When the kids look up to you, you wouldn’t want to let them down; so you hustle to pay the bills, fees and make sure everyone feels comfortable. While doing this, you go the extra mile by stressing yourself.
To overcome the stress, try meditating or performing breathing exercises regularly. If you are stressed at work, take a walk, avoid working while at home; try to spend time with your family, and do things that make you relaxed.
Work Out Always
It might sound cliché, but the importance of working out for busy dads cannot be overemphasized. Going to the gym isn’t necessary—you can be innovative, trying out some home workouts suitable for you and your schedule. What is vital is consistency, continuously challenging your body in various ways to achieve the best results.
Pushups, squats, sit-ups, pulls are some exercises suitable for your home workout plan. Aside from conventional workouts, you can try yoga. Get a good yoga instruction video and join the training; yoga helps to relieve stress while keeping you fit and healthy as a working dad.
Workouts and yoga also assist in maintaining your body mass index, or BMI, for short. Over 30% of the world’s population do not know their BMI. It costs nothing to ask your doctor like—what is my BMI? Visit your doctor frequently to know your BMI—this allows you to track your health progress.
Stay Away From Alcohol, Smoke, or Narcotics
People mistake alcohol use, smoking, or narcotics use as suitable ways to fight stress, exhaustion, and depression. While these methods may boost your ability, the end effects are very harmful to your health.
Most times, you might be pressured by peers to indulge in narcotics consumption. Take steps to stay away from them as much as possible, seek help if you are addicted to it—this would increase your health by over 40%. Smoking and narcotics use can cause stroke, cancer, liver disease, to mention a few.
As for alcohol, it is okay to hang out with friends and have a bottle or two—but moderation is key. Take less to keep healthy and fit. If you are exhausted, take water. If you’re depressed, do what makes you happy or seek expert help.
Protect Yourself from STDs
There are hundreds of sexually transmitted diseases out there, which cause several damages to your health as a working dad. From human papillomavirus to hepatitis B and the conventional Human Immunodeficiency Virus, these can lower your chances of living a healthy lifestyle.
The best way to protect yourself from these STDs is to stay committed to one partner or use a condom.
If your partner is available, always seek intercourse with her and none other. You can also vaccinate your kids against the human papillomavirus.
Conclusion
Being a dad is arguably the best job in the world and perhaps the most demanding one. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle can assist you in becoming a successful dad.
Making healthy choices isn’t that easy. It is also challenging to squeeze out time for workouts from your already hectic schedule. Nonetheless, with dedication and consistency, you should have an improvement in your health. This post outlined detailed steps to give busy dads a healthy lifestyle at the office and home.