Parents! How do you do it?

I have 4 kids, so been through this, and don't mind sharing what I discovered.

Most important thing, no TV. It will help with weight control and give you a lot of spare time.

Kids tend to drag every ounce of energy you have, what makes it worse especially for stay at home (Did it for a year) is, you lack sleep. Once the kids are in bed, you finally get some time to yourself, you enjoy it and go to bed late. 

You can't do that. Go to bed early, get up early. Your quality time by yourself will be training. Otherwise you'll find a thousand excuses why you're to tired to work out. Obviously this will only be possible when the baby sleeps through the night.

Plan your entire week ahead,  schedule quality time for your wife, quality time for your kids, and quality time for wife and kids together. Then sit down with your wife and see if the schedule you came up with keeps her happy. A happy wife is one less excuses you'll use to skip trainings.

Once you get back in shape, and the baby is old enough, you can use a special stroller to bring the kids on your running work outs, this has the benefit of allowing you to work out while the wife is at work. Increasing the time you can spend with wife, increasing the happiness of wife and making your life more pleasant :-)

Good luck, training with a new baby is one heck of a challenge.

I had 4 kids in 3.5 years and now they are 6, 5, 5, and 3, so I understand the challenges of training with young kids.  Thankfully I am a stay at home mom so that helps a lot.  Unfortunately, my husband travels all week so that is not so great.  I ride my trainer a lot more than I would like but that is a necessity.  I go to the gym for swimming and some of my running.  I let some things go.  The house doesn't always look perfect, there is always laundry to do, the bathrooms could use a scrubbing right now.  I figure if the kids see me making my health and happiness one of my priorities, that will become part of their normal and take that into adulthood.  As far as nutrition, I do all the grocery shopping and cooking so I just don't buy crap.  If it isn't here, it's not like I can go buy a milkshake if a craving hits at 9pm (although we do have a new influx of GS cookies right now).  You are your children's greatest teacher!  Now you have to decide what you want to teach them.  We eat tons of fruits and vegetables.  Afterschool snacks are things like apples, carrots and hummus, bananas, etc. 

My local YMCA has a "play center" for children that members can take their children to while working out. Its great. I pay 37 dollars a month, and addition to everything else, I get a free baby sitter while I work out. 

Other than that, I concur that you have skip TV etc. etc.  It also helps that I have an amazing spouse who really support my tri endevours. She is really awesome about letting me work out quite a bit.

In return, I cook every night which is a great trade because then I get to control the diet.

I do most of my working out in the morning before everyone wakes up. And then in the evenings wife and I will go to the Y and we can both work out.  

Same here.

As far as how I do it, my husband and I try to trade off gym nights.  We both work, but we'll trade off who does daycare pickup and the person who doesn't do pickup goes to the gym.  Even if you're a SAHD, you need a break, too!  Try to work out a schedule with your wife.

For food, we (well I) do a lot of planning ahead.  Knowing what is going to be for each meal for the week means that we eat a lot healthier.  If you can make meals ahead and freeze, that's even better.  

I'm a slacker--only 1 kid--but when I first got into triathlons my wife and I both spent 3 hours commuting every day, so there was never really time before or right after work to exercise. My wife and I made a deal: if I could plan my training around our daily life, I was free to train my off!

So I did 90% of my training at night after our son went to bed, which is probably only possible in a few places (like southern California, where I live). But that killed two birds with one stone: it gave me plenty of time for training and it kept me away from the TV and the accompanying snacks.

I agree with what outlandluc said...I did many bike rides with a good trailer (pack it with snacks/toys/books/gadgets to keep the kids occupied).  Made me a faster rider because sometimes it feels as though you are pulling a parachute behind you, but you are increasing your power.  I also did the same thing on runs....my trailer can easily be changed into a jogging stroller. 

Sleep is key, diet is key, and just keep moving....

Cheers and good luck to you.

4 kids from two marriages (ages 14, 13, 3 and 1) so very busy with wide range of "things" plus my career in sales where I travel a ton.  For me, it's 1) planning (i.e. what will the week look like, when will I work out, etc., meals) 2) we belong to the local Y - love the child care, they are great and 3) my older kids like to work out at the Y with me, or we go for a family hike, something active. 

Sounds like you are getting your mind around it and I know for me, it's 75% mental, 25% physical.

Yeah 6months is WAY too young for the trailer, I wouldn't even do it at 1 personally. 

Time is a precious commodity with kids that close together (mine are 20 months apart).  I typically run or swim for an hour during my lunch break at the YMCA near my office, and will typically get in a longer workout either early in the morning or at night after the kids go to bed. It's a constant struggle to get the time in though. 

OP -- we have three little kids (6, 3 and 1).  Both my wife and I are training which further complicates matters.

Best thing that we did was to invest in a "pain cave".   We bought a high-quality treadmill and trainer, along with Apple TV and a baby monitor, and set it up in the basement.  Now our favorite time to exercise is in the evenings, after the kids are in bed.

We evaluated the tradeoff between home exercise equipment vs. gym / YMCA -- the issue for us was primarily time.   Getting to a gym involves getting a bunch of kids dressed, packing them in the car, driving to the gym, getting them settled in the day care, THEN putting on workout gear and doing whatever... then re-do the entire process to get home.   A half-hour workout all of a sudden takes two hours.  And you can only do it when the kids are awake.

In terms of outdoor exercise with jogging strollers etc. -- we do some of that, but very hard to do during winter.  Plus you still have the limitations of when are the kids awake.  And what works for one kid may not work for 2 or 3.

The right choice is going to be different for everyone of course.  For us the at-home gym has been a great way to go - but you need to weigh a bunch of factors:

• Distance -- we live a bit out in the country, so it's a good 15 minutes to the nearest gym (each way) which is a big disincentive.  If you live next door to a gym, different story.
• Age and number of kids -- I think with bigger kids, you have more flexibility and they may enjoy some gym time themselves.   Smaller kids -- harder to pass them over to someone else.  And any option whose cost varies with the # of kids will quickly start to lose its appeal as the family grows.
• Breadth of options -- With the gym at home, you're very limited in what you can do -- fine for basic running and biking (and maybe weights) but that's it.  I'm OK with that;  some folks aren't.
• Maintenance:  If a gym treadmill is broken, you just hop on the one beside!   There's a lot of low-quality home treadmills out there (that we've bought before -- big mistake)
• Weather -- we live in a cold climate with few daylight hours in the winter -- so outdoor biking is not an option for half the year -- and outdoor running is only for the hardy!
• Budget -- At-home gym is a big upfront cost;  that said, a regular gym has a big monthly component (especially when you factor in child care, gas, etc.)
• Space -- we have a big house that is reasonably soundproof -- so the kids aren't going to woken up by daddy's exercise-induced cursing.  Small house with thin walls -- the kids might learn a few new words 

1. Look at my log and weight... not so well.

2. 4am wakeup calls.

3. Managing work is harder than managing the kids.

For me, I have 2 kids...my deal is I either get up before work or go during lunch break...when I come home I am home with my kids.  If I can't get it done at those two times then I don't do it.  On the weekends I get and get either my run or bike done before they are really getting out of bed.

There are some days where I am the one who stays home with them instead of my wife.  Those are the day swhen my energy really gets zapped.  During their nap time in the afternoon is when I squeeze a bike in on the trainer.  It takes all the energy I have but I know that is going to be the only time I could do it.  It also helps with going to bed eary though because I am so wiped out.

I have a good friend who is a single parent of twins, twin's dad ended up being a douche!  They are 1.5yrs old, she gets up at the but crack of dawn to get her workouts in.  You just have to make the decision to do it.  It will suck the first few weeks but your body will adapt and you will begin to have more energy...

Wow,

I can relate!   My kids are 5, 3 and 1.  They all come with their own challenges.  My biggest problems/ barriers to training are 1) guilt about being away.  I work full time, so the few hours in the evening that I get to see them is like gold.  I hate losing even an hour of that time.  I get around it by trying to get my workout in either mid day ( I have showers at work) or after they go to bed.  That leads me to barrier 2) Sleep…. You know how it is.  The toddler will not sleep, so they wake the baby, the baby wakes the third kid and now you start all over again.  Early morning workouts were a joke at my house.  I had to work out an “every other day” agreement with my wife.  That way, I know I can go to bed early, and not have to get up to deal with the kids that night.  The following day is an AM training day. Finally 3) sharing time.  Weekends are no longer devoted to long rides, or double sessions.  The house is a mess.  My wife is a runner, so some evenings. Nice days get passed off to her.  The reality is, I can still be healthy, and fit, and a triathlete… but maybe this year, Im content to just finish, or not lose too much time on my ultra competitive years.  

YEAH RIGHT! #3 leads to a new one... #4- Im too competitive to be content with finishing.  SO I ll train harder when I can, which leads to exhaustion… which leads to being grumpy in the am when baby is up before the sun…which leads to guilt, which leads to ….see…. It’s a vicious cycle.  

The point is, get out and do the best you can.  Adjust, be flexible  with workouts, and time, and don’t be too hard on yourself.  I also find smartphone apps help me to be a better eater, and get more quality out of my training… logging the training helps too ( I fail there).