All posts by R.C. Liley

I'm an ex-mutual fund accountant who left the cubicle world to be a stay-at-home dad to my beautiful little girl, Avery, who entered our life on 11/15/13. Also happily married to my wife, Kelley, for 7 years as of 8/17/14. Sorry ladies... :) Fitness and nutrition is of the upmost importance in our family and we strive to reflect this in our daily life. I always prepare our meals at home and only go out if it's a special occasion, and even then I tend to not get much. Food should be fun and a joy to eat, not something quickly consumed from a fast food chain or scarf down before the next meeting. I have come from strictly logging high miles to train for the next marathon to keeping exercise varied and focusing more on strength. I still enjoy going for a run when I can, but nothing crazy, and I prefer hill sprints while pushing my daughter, Avery in the stroller. She loves it and I get a great workout! I want to show the world how to appreciate their body and feed it real, wholesome food while moving more throughout the day. In doing so, everyone would be healthier, happier, and we'd all live in a better place as a result. I blog mainly about my life as a stay-at-home dad and frequently include reviews, participate in campaigns, and share my thoughts on fitness and nutrition. If you ever have any questions or thoughts to share, please reach out as I'm always open to listening or helping others however possible. That is, when I have free time since Avery is and my wife are the number one priorities!

Going Healthy

Going Ideas and A Healthy Chocolate Protein Dip

02/20/2014 R.C. Liley 2 Comments

Something I planned on doing when I started this blog was to vary my posts across several areas of interest. I want to share healthy recipes and advice, speak on exercise, eco-friendly solutions, and even rant about what I think is wrong with this world.

My main focus is and always will be about Avery and watching her learn and grow. But, I can only write so much about feeding her a bottle, waiting for poop, and how fussy or happy she was that day.

Which, by the way, bottle feeding is better, she pooped recently, and she’s happy most of the time but gets fussy at night. How’s that for cliff notes blogging?

So, every now and then I will post about other topics under the following categories:

Going Healthy – mostly healthy recipes or other thoughts on food
Going Green – eco-friendly tips and advice
Going Strong – exercise tips, thoughts, and routines
Going Reviews – from time to time I hope I will be allowed the opportunity to try and review food products and items pertaining to parenting. I don’t expect much at first since I’m just starting out, but hope this will change in the future. It would be really great to start hosting giveaways too!

This is what I’m thinking right now, so it’s subject to change. Please share your thoughts on this as I’d like to know what others think. Is this a good idea? Need to change something?

To start things off, I have a favorite healthy dessert dip recipe I make all the time. Loaded with protein and creamy goodness, it’s good just eating right from a spoon!

Chocolate Protein Dip

Here’s what you need:

-1 can of chickpeas or white beans, drained and rinsed

-2 medium ripe bananas (the more spots the better to me!)*See note below if you don’t have bananas

-2 tsp vanilla extract

-1/8 tsp baking soda

-rounded1/8 tsp salt

-3 packets of stevia or about 2 tsp; it takes a while get the right amount since so many stevia products are different, so just adjust to taste. If you’re not into stevia, you can use 2/3 cup of brown sugar or honey, but this will detract a little of the “healthy” part.

-2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

-1/4 cup rolled oats, ground flax seeds, or chia seeds (you can omit this, it just helps to make it really thick)

*If you don’t have or like bananas, try using 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce, pumpkin puree, or Greek yogurt or even a combination. I have tried all of these and still like the outcome. There’s no wrong way, just what you have on hand.

This is easy, just add everything in a blender or food processor and blend until you have a smooth, creamy consistency. Blending will create heat and the dip will firm up a little more if you let it cool in the fridge for at least 2 hours. Or make a double batch so you can eat one right away like I do!

Please give it a shot and let me know what you think. For the stevia, I buy it from the company Bulk Supplements on Amazon. It’s the purest I’ve found and never get a bitter aftertaste. Plus it’s priced well!

Of course I can’t post without having a picture of Avery, just in case that’s all you came here to see. A nice neighbor of ours let us borrow their Ergo carrier since I’m not too thrilled with our Baby Bjorn Original, and we took it for an hour long walk yesterday.

About 20 minutes into the windy walk and I look down and see this…

Not sure how the wind didn’t bother her, but I think the Ergo passed the test. Now, guess it’s time to search for one of my own.

Do you think it’s a good idea to incorporate these categories into the blog? I feel I have a lot of thoughts on nutrition, fitness, parenting, and people running through my brain and would love to share them with you here.

Life, Parenting

6 Miles and Smiles

02/19/2014 R.C. Liley 6 Comments

We are being graced with great weather here in Texas and making the most of it! This Tuesday was my first day back on the job since Going Mom had to Go (ha ha ha, I’m corny) back to work today.

I was hesitant about today since Avery hasn’t been the best the past couple of days and basically had been refusing the to take a bottle. But, to my surprise she did a complete 180 and it ended up being a great day!

The morning started out a little rough, but she finally finished her bottle and, more importantly, pooped! She later pooped again, and then again tonight. Three times in one day? Guess that makes up for the past two days of nothing. Look at me, blogging about my baby pooping…….I’m cool. But seriously, no shame here, I believe babies pooping relieve parents just as much as the baby.

After crying about mommy going back to work, Avery helped console me, and then I returned the favor and put her down for a nap. She slept great and allowed me to get my squat day workout in as well as a good steamed veggie and egg white breakfast. I even made Kelley’s breakfast ahead of time; score!

You know your baby is sleeping good when YOU have to go and wake them from their nap, and this was the case twice today. For the first nap, I came in with camera in hand to try and capture a smile from this sleeping beauty…

But then I startled her with my voice which led to this….

Next time I won't pop the balloon! — Next time I won’t pop the balloon!

Luckily, she was quick to forgive me and then finished another bottle. Things were going pretty good, so I figured a nice ride in the stroller should be attempted. Avery usually gets fussy at first, and I have to start running with the B.O.B. stroller before she’ll calm down. But, she didn’t make any sounds of protest as I strapped her in and put Abby,our Golden Retriever, on the leash.

I started off at a steady run in the nice weather and settled into a good pace. Mind you, a good pace with a dog and stroller creating drag in the stupid wind is nothing fast, but it’s still a run. I kept checking on her as I ran, but she never let out a peep, and I could see she was asleep. How? I have no clue since there were bumps all along the way, but I didn’t want to stop until she had a good nap.

5 miles later and Abby was panting and dragging pretty bad, so I had to bring her inside for water. I let her in, Avery not budging, so I went back at it for some more running. By the time she finally woke up, we had run 6 miles and walked a little extra. Breaking new ground feels great! Avery even awarded me with a smile as we returned home.

Avery finished another bottle as we watched the Nordic Combined Olympics and then had a little play time. Well, I thought it would be play time….

Hey, she holds herself up pretty well though, so that’s something.

I put her down for her afternoon nap and again, I had to wake her up. Something just felt too good about today. I made sure not to abruptly come in with a booming voice like the first time, and I’d say she was happier about that….

Not sure how, but she finished her fourth bottle of the day right as mom walked in. Man was I happy to report on the good day, and even happier that Avery stayed that way for the night. I love having a happy baby for Kelley to come home to and I strive for this every day.

We enjoyed each other’s company for a while and “talked” with Avery until her bath time and then she was down for the night. I can only hope for another successful day tomorrow. Oh please Avery, please!

Do you ever have what seems to be a completely different baby than what you had the day before? Any good stories?

Parenting

Future’s So Bright….

02/18/2014 R.C. Liley Leave a comment

Too cool for school...or anything. — Too cool for school…or anything.

The song “The Future’s So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades” by Timbuk3 instantly came to mind as we put these shades on Avery today. Yep, here I am already going against my whole taking it easy with the picture taking, oh well!

We had a great Monday with Kelley (a.k.a Going Mom) being off from work. Avery let us sleep another hour extra and she was in her crib from 9pm to a little past 5pm! Score! She even took a 3 hour nap uninterrupted later in the morning too! What’s with this baby?!

Kelley and I were able to get what we wanted to do out of the way; yard work for Kelley and work out for me. Today I have squats on the agenda so I’m really hoping she has another long nap! Squat day is always the biggest challenge physically and mentally for me. Watching a baby monitor is just an extra challenge too since I need focus. Anyway…

Monday was really pleasant. Avery took the bottle from me for a while which was better than the day before, and she also fed from her mom. Best of both worlds. She was hardly fussy and even went on an hour long walk with us while facing out in the Baby Bjorn without a peep!

Avery ended up falling asleep as we neared the end of the walk, but the instant I stopped moving, her eyes fluttered open and that was that. We tried some tummy time, no good, then just had a little play time as she flashed us her heart warming smiles.

We tried once again to capture some priceless shots with the video camera and digital camera, but didn’t get much. The smiles eventually turned into cries so I gave her the rest of the bottle from earlier and then mom provided the rest.

One of the better shots I wanted to share.

Another short nap and she was up with us while I made dinner and played with her a little. It wasn’t a very action-packed Monday, but having Kelley here was really nice and I hate that she has to be at work again. But we have to get paid somehow; thanks dear!

So, not much happened most the day, which is very welcome after Sunday’s Fuss Fest! But then, as night time arrived, we were subjected to mostly this until bed time…..

But she did give us a few more smiles in between. We’ll take it. She also hadn’t pooped in 2 days, and we were treating her like ticking time bomb that even Jack Bauer can’t disarm.

Finally, this Tuesday morning, she graced us with her crap. I figure she was waiting until mommy had to get ready for work so daddy could tend to the cleaning. Fine by me! We had another good night of sleeping in the crib too. I fear the day the streak ends because of teething or her first illness. Ugh, I’ll keep my fingers crossed this lasts a while though!

Now that she finally went I have high hopes she’ll go back to being her nonchalant self with a bright future ahead…

Avery, as the title of the post says, you have a very bright future dear, and I am so happy your mom and I are hear to shine the light! We love you!

Do you like “accessorizing” your children and taking pictures? How do they like it?