Blogger Spotlight: Paul Stainthorpe, Father Fitness

Authored by Paul Stainthorpe, Father Fitness covers everything from health, weight loss, nutrition, and exercise tips. Paul first started blogging after the birth of his son in 2009 after years of living unhealthily. Fast-forward seven years later, Paul now has a toned physique and has completed countless charity runs. Recently featured in our top 10 fitness and exercise ranking Paul chats to us about what inspired him to start blogging, the challenges of maintaining a healthy lifestyle with two young children, and what will be big in his blogosphere in the coming months.

Why should people read your blog? What makes it different? I hope people read my blog because it’s real. I have nothing to hide and I don’t take shortcuts. It’s my fitness journey from becoming a first-time father to regaining my fitness. I find if I write about my journey then it motivates me to keep it up. Having two young kids and my own business, it’s difficult to juggle my time. I guess some dad’s can relate to eating their kids leftovers, having less sleep and all of sudden a belly appears and they’re short of breath walking up the stairs. As you get older, it literally comes from nowhere. My aim is to set a good example to my kids and I don’t want to be the dad who can’t run around the playing field with them.

How do you measure the success of your website? I have a stats package on my blog which measures how many visitors I get on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. I used to check it multiple times a day but I hardly get the time now, haha!

What advice would you give to someone who wants to start a blog? Funnily enough, I’m helping a friend start his own called ‘Fighting Bears and Eating Porridge.’ It’s brand new and the blog will be about fatherhood and fitness. Stu (the writer) is an ex-royal marine commando and I’ve been training with him since January. My advice was simple – keep it real and just blog about what we’ve been training. He’s a father of two with one on the way so the content will come naturally.

How do you work with marketers and PRs? I’m on a few databases so I get regular emails. I wish I lived closer to London sometimes as I get a few invites to launches. It does feel great to hear about new releases before my friends, haha!

How do you use social media to promote and share content? What are the challenges? I’m fairly active on Twitter and Instagram. I should be more active on Facebook but I struggle to keep them all up to date, to be honest. I share my blog posts on them and certain images of product reviews and challenges. I have no challenges coming up other then fitting into my swimming trunks at Christmas, haha!

What has been your blogging highlight? I’d have to say doing my running challenges. They were spread out over certain days and it gave me regular things to write about. I noticed a significant rise in my followers, hits on my blog and above all, it was all for a great cause! It’s a time of my life I will never forget, even if the last challenge ended up in a hospital bed!

What will be big in your blogosphere in the coming months? I don’t have any plans to be honest so I’m sorry to disappoint! I’m due a blog post soon about how my recent training has been going. I’ve been working with Slendertone and I’ve promised them an abs shot. I don’t do many as I get really embarrassed! I hope young fathers can relate to my blog and that it at least helps them through some of the more challenging times. I’d also encourage them to try and write their own blog if they can. If anyone does and they’re reading this, please send me a tweet or a message as I’d love to hear from you and support your journey.