Why The Dad Shift?

It baffles me people don’t take health seriously, and quite frankly, I think it’s selfish for people to not take health seriously. To not take health seriously is be unreliable. You need to be ready to help someone, a friend, a neighbour, your kid, etc. But also, you need to not be a burden. Choosing to be unhealthy means you’ll burden the system more and it also means you’ll burden your family more. When the time comes, you needs to lean on your family constantly for help and support, and that will weigh on everyone. OR, you can take your health (and yourself) seriously, workout consistently, eat fairly well, and hopefully, you’ll be able to be someone a friend or family member can lean on instead of being the one needing something to lean on.

Among the people who need to take health seriously are parents, and seeing as how I am a man and a father, I choose to focus on the men and the fathers of the world. When you have kids, time in a day gets eaten up a lot quicker. This means time to workout is slim. I have fought to find time to workout and stay fit, but I could never consistently workout more than 2-3 times per week. Then it hit me: if you need more time, then you need to make more time, and the only way to make more time is to wake up earlier or go to sleep later.

As a morning person, I decided that a 4 am wake-up was the way. I drew inspiration from other dads performing a similar routine. I thought to myself, “How great would it be if other dads could see how possible and attainable a healthy lifestyle could be?” I spoke to Jamie (The Dad Shift co-founder) and we decided it was time to change the world. No more excuses, no more complaining, time to get to work.

What time, you might ask? 5 am. Before the family wakes up, before the workshift starts, we invite dads to workout once a week every Saturday morning. We grow as a community, we find unity in our struggles, and rejoice in our shared victories. And above all, we’re trying to make a long-lasting difference.