Hey all,

We just got back from a weekend visit to my folks in Melbourne. My mum through a party to FINALLY introduce little Henry to all our friends down there. I ate WAY too much good food....and most of the desserts! Oh well, back on the Healthy Train today....


So I like to read.

A lot.

I used to go through a couple of books a month, though that has slowed a fair bit since we've had Henry. It's not as easy to find the time to just chill with a good book, but I still try and read as much as I can.

So I recently added a little box on the sidebar of this blog called What I'm Reading Right Now. The title is pretty self explanatory, don't you think? ;)

I'll be putting up whatever book I happen to be reading at the time on the sidebar, unless it's a crappy book....no recommendations if they suck! If you'd like to know more about the book just click on the image of the cover.

At the moment I'm reading Father's Who Dare, Win by Ian Grant. I read a couple of fatherhood books when we were expecting Henry, but really wish I had read this one first. Its a REALLY great read for all new or expecting Dads, I highly recommend it.

One of the hardest things any new dad is going to face when it comes to trying to get in shape once the little one arrives is simply finding the time to exercise.

You're going to be tired, sleep deprived, run off your feet looking after your wife and baby, and you'll let your health and fitness slide further and further down your list of priorities.

There simply won't be any time.

Well, not exactly...

Hey everyone, hope you all had a great Easter, and all had as much chocolate as I did!

We had my folks up to visit over the Easter Weekend, lots of spoiling of the only grandson occurred, and I don't think Henry complained once...


The little guy is 9 months old now, and has learned how to crawl, so he's mobile. Gone are the days of putting him down on his play mat for five minutes to get something done, knowing he'll be happy playing with his toys. If I try that now, the next half an hour will be spent searching our flat trying to figure out where the heck the little speed demon has got to!!

So for the last few weeks little Henry has been going for baby swim lessons with his mum. I was told he loves the water and all the splashing. There's a whole other baby bag that has to be taken along on swim lessons, with baby swim trunks, a baby wetsuit, and even special swimming diapers. It seems if you put a baby in a regular diaper into a body of water, they very quickly soak it all up like a sponge!

Apparently, this is an activity that most of the fathers do with their babies, but since I usually work weekends, I've never been able to go. Then this week I FINALLY got a whole weekend off, and got to take my son for his swim lesson. He enjoyed himself thoroughly.....for about 15 minutes, then he realized that I was not his mum and went berserk cos he wanted her in the pool instead of me!! Oh well, by some twist of rostering fate I have NEXT weekend off as well, so we'll try again next week.

Just before the Easter weekend I managed to tweak something in my back pretty badly. I couldn't turn my neck, or move around much for a few days. I think it happened in the gym while trying to lift more weight than I probably should have....I know, stupid me.

So because I don't wanna hurt my back again, I tweaked the workout program I'm doing to involve more bodyweight stuff (which also means I can do it anywhere), and switched to circuit training so I get more bang for my buck in the gym without spending more time in there. I'll post the details soon once I've ironed out a few kinks in the plan.

I've also been getting healthy eating tips from my friend Nikki over at www.chequeredleopard.wordpress.com, check it out. And I REALLY recommend you check out these amazing recipes she just posted......YUM!!

Stay tuned...

~ Ryan

Photo Credit: Me!     Cartoon Credit: Mark Anderson at www.andertoons.com

The little guy has started learning to use his voice. Check out the video's below for some examples...   

If you listen very carefully, you can here Henry say his first word....Dada!!

Ok, he may have been saying it to his Baby Elmo, or the pot plant, but whatever, it still counts...

I managed to capture this on video. Think it's going to come in handy at the little man's 21st birthday party!

I know we probably shouldn't have been laughing, but it was just so adorable!! He wasn't even actually upset about anything, he just decided, for whatever reason, that he needed to have a bit of a scream, and then play with his toys.

His nickname is now Henry the Hulk.

Early on his only noises were his Hulk impressions, but he's also learned to do them on command!

This is his impression of a Harley Davidson....

It's AMAZING how much he's learned in only 8 & a half months, I wonder what he'll be doing next?

Stay tuned

~ Ryan

He's finally done it. You can see the look of accomplishment on the little guys face!

I am a VERY proud dad today!!

Today, in the first ever Dad Skills post (WOOHOO!!) we’re going to discuss the activity that is every new dad’s greatest fear. It’s sticky, icky work, but someone’s got to do it. That's right fellas, as you’ve probably already guessed, I’m talking about changing diapers!
Guys, listen up – pushing all the diaper changing duties on to your wife is NOT an option. With a newborn baby, I guarantee she'll already be doing most of the work anyway. So Man up and learn how to do the dirty deed!

Following along from my last post about New Year's Resolutions and Goal setting, I'd like to tell you about my OTHER goal's list.

The list I've had going for quite a few years now.

The list that has new things added as old goals are achieved.

The list that contains all my BHAG's - my Big Hairy Audacious Goals.

Some people would call this a Bucket List.....but I don't really like that name.

Steve Kamb over at Nerdfitness.com calls it his Epic Quest. His list is where I got the idea to make mine, so if you see some of the same items over on his site, hey, what can I say, he's an inspiration!

I call mine My Awesome List of Awesomeness.......I know, cool, right?

I'm posting the list as it exists right now, but as I said new things get added to this list from time to time, so I'll also be putting it up on it's very own page on this site. I borrowed the idea of "Gameification" from Nerd Fitness for my list as well, which means I gain XP for each item I cross off the list, like an old fashioned RPG. Each item is 20XP, each 100XP mark is a Level Up, WOOHOO!

If anyone has done any of these, I would LOVE to hear about it. If anyone has any tips or can actually help me scratch some of these off the list, PLEASE send me an email or leave a comment.

Enjoy

~ Ryan

Hey guys,

Well, it's been 3 weeks since most people made their New Year's Resolutions, and just like last year, and the year before that, most people won't follow through on them because for the most part New Year's Resolutions SUCK!!

And here's why.

Most people wake up on January 1st, and make out a list of AAAAAAALL the things they're going to do/change/fix for the year. Things like "This year I'm going to get fit", "I'll do better at work and get that promotion", "Dammit, I'm gonna quit smoking this year!"

You plow ahead, making NUMEROUS changes to your life all at the same time, and for a few weeks things are going great. And then LIFE starts to get in the way. You find you aren't making as much progress as you thought you would working out. Work is piling up and taking up all your time. And all that stress, it's making you crazy, surely ONE little cigarette won't hurt....

The problem that most people have when it comes to sticking to their resolutions and goals for the year is that:

1. They try to make TOO MANY changes all at once
2. They are no where near SPECIFIC enough when it comes to setting their goals.

So in today's post I'd like to tell you about a simple strategy I use for setting and more importantly STICKING to goals.

Hey Everyone,

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Ok, that needed to be done, it's out of my system now.

I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas and New Year's and is starting off 2013 right. I just got back from 4 weeks off, having spent my holiday in Sweden with my wife and son, visiting his Sveeedish grandparents. It was the little guy's first ever Christmas, and I'm glad it was in a cold country, cos Christmas in Australia in 38 degree heat just doesn't feel quite right.

I was hoping for snow while we were there…..well, we got snow. Wow, did we get snow. It started snowing on our third day there, and just didn't stop. Now I'm happy to pitch in and shovel paths and driveways and stuff, but even I was getting a little sick of that job by the end of my holiday.

My father-in-law has a pretty cool snow blower machine…..it's funny how the right machine can make even the most boring, back-breaking job fun. I learned an important lesson while using the snow blower - always make sure the spout is pointing AWAY from the neighbour's car before you try clearing the driveway!

Hey guys,

Ok, so I haven't been very active in this blog lately. I have been INSANELY busy with work recently, and also my family and I have been away spending an early Christmas in gorgeous snowy Sweden, early Christmas because I have had to work over proper Christmas (hence the "insanely busy" thing) and have only just got back in front of my laptop.

I just wanted to do a quick post to say that Adventures in Fatherhood will be back to having regular posts very soon....well, regular by my definition anyway!

I have some stories to tell...

 - Surviving a 30 hour plane ride with a 5 month old
 - Baby's first Christmas...and it was a white Christmas at that!
 - The Great Christmas Tree Robbery
 - The first of many Dad Skills posts

So I'll be back soon.

In the mean time, here is a pic of the cutest Santa in the history of Christmas...true story.

Stay tuned

~ Ryan