Five Photos, Five Stories Challenge (Day 1): Marathon Dad

06/04/2015 R.C. Liley 2 Comments

So this guy, a divorced dad with a beautiful daughter and a Russian KGB hamster named Hammy, nominated me to take part in the Five Photos, Five Stories Challenge and I have accepted. Okay, he’s actually my good blogger friend, Gary Mathews, and he’s full of witty sarcasm and lots of love for his precious girl. Check out his blog if you get the chance, he always has a great story to share about his day.

The Five Photos, Five Stories Challenge require you to post a photo each day for five consecutive days and attach a story to the photo (It can be fiction or non-fiction, a poem or simply a short paragraph) and then nominate another blogger to carry on this challenge. Accepting the challenge is entirely up to the person nominated, it is not a command. I have no clue on the origin of this thing, but hopefully you’ll enjoy what I have to share.

For my first photo, I’m going back to April 28, 2013. I just finished running the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon but you couldn’t tell from the excited look on my face. I think the reason is pretty obvious, my wife, Kelley/Going Mom, was in the early stages of pregnancy with Avery!

I had been running the OKC marathon since 2005 and it will always be near and dear to me since it’s been part of our lives for so long. The picture, which you’ll soon see below (or you could just scroll down now), shows me pointing to Kelley’s belly and grinning with excitement. It’s always a good feeling to finish something like a marathon, but this was my first (and last) marathon to run as a DAD!

True, I just wrote about how I want to gain weight/strength, but I have a feeling I’ll run a few more marathons in my life. Not for time, but just to enjoy the fact that I’m healthy and able to do so.

Thinking about how I was basically a dad and we were about to become a family of three made it easy to block out the mental part of running 26.2 miles, but seeing my mom (G-Ma) and Kelley cheering me on meant so much more than I could ever explain in words.

My first nominee for this photo challenge is Carl Wilke and he’s a Big Cheese Dad. Well, he grew up in Wisconsin at least, but now lives in Washington State where he’s a fellow at-home dad. Unlike the one kid I am at home with, this guy has six from ages 1 to 19! Yikes! Despite the obvious handful to keep him busy, he turns out some great content worth checking out. He’s even ahead of the game since he knew I was going to nominate him and already started the challenge. The first one is a beautiful pic of his 5 and 2 year old girls sleeping. Thanks for participating, Carl!!

Challenge, Life, Parenting

Photo Challenge Accepted and Birthday Plans

06/03/2015 R.C. Liley 4 Comments

Remember how I wrote about my divorced dad blogger friend, Gary Mathews? He provides daily entertainment in the form of stories about his life happenings over at Skipah’s Realm and recently nominated me for the Five Photos, Five Stories Challenge.

He and I both usually detest such challenges as they take away from what we’d usually blog about and just from our time in general. Time is precious, who wants to spend it dealing with blog challenges? Well, turns out we both do….kinda.

When other friends nominate you, it’s hard to refuse. That’s what made Gary accept, and that’s why I’m accepting now. Plus, I have enough pictures I’m more than happy to share and write about that picking 5 should be easy.Gary followed through with 5 consecutive posts as per the challenge guidelines and he wrote a separate blog post each day on top of that.

For me, I’m taking this as an opportunity to have 5 blog posts essentially created for me over the next 5 days. Beginning tomorrow, June 4th, and ending Monday, June 8th my posts will revolve around one photo and a quick description of its importance to me. The theme will focus on Going Mom and me entering our first days as parents. Hopefully you’ll enjoy each post and it will allow you to look back at your first days of parenthood.

The last post on Monday is not a coincidence, it’s my 31st birthday, so I figured having a post schedules will be best since who knows what crazy plans my wife and/or mom have for me. Okay, I know, there are no crazy plans. Both my mom and Kelley have to work, so I’ll just hang with my daughter which is perfectly fine with me!

Don’t worry, we still have plans, they’re just going to be 2 days early and we’ll celebrate on Saturday. Another good reason to accept and start this challenge. Going Mom and I are going trail hiking around a nearby lake for about 2 hours and then heading over to a local brewery to relax over a few hard-earned brews.

While Avery is no stranger to visiting breweries……

Visiting a local brewery for my 30th. Avery slept most of the time.

…she’s going to sit this one out at home and hang with G-Ma for the day. I think she’ll have more fun with G-Ma than being with Mom and Dad after a few drinks anyway. Just a hunch.

So there you have it, I have 5 photos to find and 5 stories to write, so I’m off for now. I’m part of an exciting campaign with Life of Dad where dads from the North, South, East, and West regions of the US are uniting to help raise awareness and donations for The Great American Milk Drive which benefits Feeding America. Be on the look out for my post with all of the specifics and how you can help our team of dads from the South raise the most money for this very worthy cause.

Have a wonderful rest of the week and weekend, I’ll see you soon to share pictures of the new Ferrari I got for my birthday! Hint: It probably comes surrounded in plastic and blue cardboard if I actually get one. 🙂

Have you heard of the 5 Photos, 5 Stories Challenge?

Do you like or dislike these types of challenges?

What’s your ideal birthday celebration?

Going Healthy, Going Strong, Life, Parenting

Commitment Issue and What I’m Doing About It

06/02/2015 R.C. Liley 8 Comments

Don’t we all have at least one commitment issue? Whether they’re something big like getting married, or small like using the exact same bowl for dinner each day, I’m sure you’ve got’em.

Luckily, marriage was never an issue for me, and I have no doubt about my sacred bond to be with my wife till death do us part. But, using the same bowl and spoon is one thing I actually struggle with. I’m just so partial to the dimensions and don’t know how to eat with anything else.

But that’s not the issue I’m writing about today. No, this is something I’ve been annoying Going Mom with for years. It’s my goal to gain strength/weight.

The goal sounds simple enough, but is actually quite complex in my mind. All the into part of my high school life, I was a heavy boy and hated how I looked. I was never obese or anything, but if I continued on the path I was on, that’s how I’d end up. Over the years I educated myself on what’s healthy and got into running. Eventually, I was a full blown long distance runner who could easily go out and run 12 miles without giving it a second thought.

Running was cool, and took a lot of dedication in training and nutrition, but after several years of marathons and running for distance, my strength was lacking. I’ve told this story many times before, so I’ll keep it short…..er.

I want to be a strong dad for Avery and for my own well-being. There will always be a place in my heart for long distance running, but for now I have to try and focus on building mass, which means lay off the running! Not completely, I’ll still run a little to get my “fix”, but mostly sprints and maybe one longer run on the weekends.

Getting stronger means lifting heavy and eating more to provide fuel for muscles to grow. Without a surplus of nutrient-dense calories, your body has nothing to work with to grow. I’ve been lifting for a few years now and know the moves, but not eating enough is what keeps me from attaining my said goal; gain strength/weight.

I could go on forever getting more and more in depth on the subject, but the bottom line is find a strength training program, stick with it, and eat. That doesn’t mean scarfing down pizza and burgers, I’ll still make my own meals, just means I need to eat a lot more of it. Nutrient dense foods like peanut butter, or even better, NuttZo, will be a big help here. And then, for my purposes, I need to ease up on how active I am each day. Something most of the world actually needs to do more of, I should do a little less.

If you want to talk with me more on this topic, please comment below or e-mail me at RCrown2@aol.com and we’ll talk. For now, I am putting it out there that one of my goals, starting this June, is to gain weight in the form of mostly muscle over the next year and reassess from there. I’m currently 5’10 and 160 lbs; my goal is to get to 175 lbs, so we’ll see how well I do.

Why June? Well, I don’t think anyone should wait for the New Year to start any of their goals, for one, but it’s because I am turning 31 on the 8th and I want to be a stronger, happier husband/father by 32. Sorry to my wife, who’s heard me say this since before I was even 30, but hopefully by writing it out on my blog, I’ll have something else to hold me accountable.

I never had a problem with discipline or motivation to work out, but when it comes to eating more than I’m used to, and when it’s mostly whole foods, it’s not easy. I fear just gaining pure fat, I’ll admit it, even though I know the basic science behind how our bodies work, and that wouldn’t happen as long as I train smart.

By the end of June, I hope to share my weekly training schedule with the thought that it will keep me from being sidetracked. I’m lucky to have such a wonderful daughter who is usually happy to train with me in the garage, so I should have no excuses.

Stay tuned for what else is happening this month and why you should care. Hint: it’s for a good cause and I’m going to ask for generous donations! 🙂

Do you struggle with certain commitments?

Do you have a current training plan to gain or lose weight? Despite my own issues, I am actually full of advice I’m happy to share if you ask.