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 and handsome little boy, Wes, who joined our family on 11/19/17. Also happily married to my wife, Kelley, as of 8/17/07. Sorry ladies... :) Fitness and nutrition is of the utmost 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!

Want To Make The Most Out Of Your Hobbies?

Those who want to improve their well-being and life will want to make time for themselves and ensure that they have plenty of time for self-care and hobbies.

If you solely work and do not make enough time for yourself, then how do you expect to achieve a healthy work-life balance and ensure that you spend time doing things that you enjoy?

Here are some tips to ensure that you can make the most of your hobbies.

Photo by Pixabay: https://www.pexels.com/photo/background-blank-business-craft-301703/

Invest in the right equipment

To ensure that you can make the most of your hobby and achieve the best results, you will want to invest in the right equipment.

For instance, if you have an interest in bird watching, then you should consider getting the best bird feeder camera will help you achieve high-quality recordings so you can watch the birds up close without disturbing them. Additionally, a sturdy pair of binoculars or a spotting scope can greatly enhance your ability to observe birds from a distance. A reliable field guide or bird identification app will also help you quickly recognize and learn about the various species you encounter.

Similarly, if hunting is your passion, having the proper gear can significantly enhance your experience and success in the field. A high-quality rifle scope or a Red Dot Sight can improve your accuracy and precision, ensuring a more ethical and rewarding hunt.

Having the right equipment will make your life much easier and ensure that you can maximize the results and fun of your hobby. 

Train and enhance your abilities

Although you do not need to be an expert at your hobby to get the best results, it is important that you train and enhance your abilities so that you can enjoy it more.

For instance, if your hobby is playing football or any other kind of sport, then training and enhancing your skills will ensure that you can maximize the experience. Although you might not be looking to achieve the best results and beat the rest of your competitors, you might wish to feel more confident in the sport that you choose to do as a hobby, which can be helped if you train. Alternatively, if your hobby is gaming, get as many hours in with your games of choice as you can. You could even look into ways that you can enhance your gameplay; for example, ABS is the most popular Tarkov cheat that can take you to the next level and help you get the win as much as possible. There are cheats and codes available online for many popular titles online so, if this is something you think you could make use of, it might be worth taking a look.

Find friends with like-minded hobby interests

You might be someone who enjoys pursuing hobbies with someone else instead of doing them alone. This is fine as long as you can find friends with like-minded hobbies and interests.

A popular option for avid readers is joining a book club. You can make new friends with shared interests, be held accountable and explore different authors and genres you may not have previously considered, for example, thrillers written by J.D. Barker
By engaging with diverse literature within a group, we can develop empathy, broaden our horizons, and challenge our own thinking in a fun environment.

To make the most of your hobby, you will want to find a new friend or a current friend who enjoys the same hobbies as you so that you can pursue them together. When you have a friend that has like-minded interests then you can ensure that they will always want to join in with doing the hobby instead of you needing to persuade them. This will make your life easier and much more fun as you can always rely on them when you want to spend your spare time pursuing your hobby.

Gaming in particular is a great hobby to pursue with friends, whether it’s shooting games, simulation, MMORPG or bike games, these can be enjoyed in a group setting, or as a solo player at the same time as your friends. This can introduce some healthy competition and extra fun to your gaming experience.

Maximize your profits

If you are quite skilled in your hobby, then why not turn it around and make it into a passive income?

For instance, if you enjoy baking cakes, then why not create a website or a social media page to sell those cakes so that you can turn your hobby into an income? This will ensure that you spend your time wisely and are paid well for your time and your expertise. If you want to make money from your hobby then ensure to make a social media profile or a website early on to maximize your return.

5 Easy Ways To Look After Your Kids’ Health

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Image Credit: Ddimitrova from Pixabay.

Every parent wants to make sure their child is healthy, but it’s often one of the more difficult things you can do. If you want to look after your kids’ health, you mightn’t even know where you should start. Regular exercise and a healthy diet will be obvious, but you might want to do more than that.

Where do you even start with this? Thankfully, it’s far less complicated than you might’ve thought. It’s simply a matter of being informed and knowing which strategies you should use. Some of these could be better recommended than others, and they’re worth paying some attention to.

Look After Your Kids’ Health: 5 Great Strategies

1. Get Them To Bed

A good night’s sleep matters more to your child’s health than you might’ve thought. It’s when their body looks after itself, and can even play a role in helping them grow. They’ll need to actually get a good night’s sleep for that to happen. Make sure that’s the case.

Spend some time perfecting their night time routine so they’ve the best possible chances of getting to sleep early. They’ll need about eight hours of sleep a night, so make sure they’re getting that. You’ve no excuse not to.

2. Help Them Deal With Stress

Your kids could have more stress in their lives than you might’ve thought. They could be worried about school and similar areas, especially when exams are coming up. While these might be relatively minor, it could have more of an impact on your child than you might’ve thought.

They simply mightn’t be able to deal with the stress, which is something you should help them with. Spend some time talking to them and showing them healthy coping mechanisms. This takes a little time and effort to perfect, but it helps your child more than you’d expect.

That’s especially true when it comes to any stress they’ll deal with in the future.

3. Bring Them To Appointments

You’ll have to bring your kids to countless appointments when you’re raising them. While you could already know this, you mightn’t have actually put the time and effort into all of them. Go beyond just taking them to a doctor every once in a while, though. Instead, focus on every appointment they might need.

Even a kids’ orthodontics professional might be recommended every once in a while. Though this takes a little bit of time and effort, it’ll be more than worth it to make sure your child is as healthy as possible.

4. Teach Them How To Wash Their Hands

Germs can make anyone sick, and that’s especially true when it comes to kids. The easiest way to get around this is to make sure your kids are exposed to as few of them as possible. You don’t need to keep them away from everything to achieve this, however.

Instead, it’s simply a matter of making sure they know how to wash their hands properly. By spending time teaching them how to do this. It might take a little bit of time to achieve this, but it shouldn’t be too much of a problem.

5. Get Them Active

There’s no two ways about it; your kids need a certain amount of exercise every week. It’s a vital part of making sure they’re as healthy as possible. Thankfully, encouraging this doesn’t have to be too difficult. You could just need to take them for a walk every day or two to make this happen.

Alternatively, you could get them involved in a sports team, and they’ll have much more fun than you would’ve thought. They’ll get more active while enjoying themselves, and they’ll even be begging to do it more and more. You shouldn’t have a problem making them more active.

Look After Your Kids’ Health: Top Tips

Each of the above can be great when you want to look after your kids’ health, but you might want to do a little more than this. Thankfully, it’s far from difficult, and there are more than a few other tips and tricks you can add to them. Some of the more notable of these include:

  • Get Them Brushing Their Teeth – Your kids’ teeth make a significant impact on their health, even if you don’t realize it. Taking them to dental appointments is one thing, but you’ll also have to make sure they’re brushing their teeth regularly. Show them how to do this, and you wouldn’t have a problem.
  • Teach Instead Of Ordering – When you’re trying to look after your kids’ health, it’s natural to just tell them what they should do. You could run into pushback because of that, and you wouldn’t want to deal with that. By teaching them why they should do certain things, you’ll make it more straightforward for you and them.
  • Encourage Healthy Eating – Your kids’ diet is one of the more notable areas to focus on, no matter what else you do. It should be the foundation of how you look after their health, so make sure you put the time and effort into it. Get them eating their fruits and vegetables as early as you can, and you wouldn’t have to worry about their diet in the future.

You don’t have to struggle when you want to look after your kids’ health. With the right strategies and tips, it’ll be much easier than you’d think. You’ll end up having more of an impact than you might’ve thought, despite how relatively little effort you might have to put into it.

Look After Your Kids’ Health: Wrapping Up

You’ll naturally want to look after your kids’ health, but you mightn’t know where to start. It shouldn’t be as complicated or tiresome as you might’ve thought. Instead, it’s just a matter of knowing which strategies you should use. Add in a few particular tips, and you wouldn’t have much of a problem.

With how important looking after your kids’ health is, and you’ve no excuse not to put the time and effort into it.

Dealing With Anxiety As a Parent

scrabble tiles spelling ANXIETY, parenting, kids, marriage, aging

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Anxiety is one of the most debilitating conditions that sadly, many parents have to deal with daily. The severity of a person’s anxiety can vary from infrequent, and mild, all the way to continual, and intense. Anxiety can affect you both mentally, and physically, which if you are a parent can make life a lot harder to cope with at times. If you are a parent who is dealing with anxiety, then here are a few considerations that you could implement into your life that may help improve the quality of your days and nights.

Regularly take time for yourself

Being a parent means that you will likely be rushed off your feet most of the time, looking out for, and caring for your children. However, you should ensure that you have some time to yourself, especially if you have anxiety. Taking time for yourself will help you recharge, and ground yourself, instead of letting the overwhelming feelings of anxiety take over. If you have young children then you could think about implementing a nap time for them in the day to give yourself a little free time, or set a regular bedtime leaving you some free time in the evening. These small breaks that you give yourself don’t need to be long, but you should make sure that you are allowing yourself to relax, and not filling the time with other chores. Have a cup of tea, or coffee, listen to an audio book, or go for a small walk instead. If you can take time to yourself regularly then it should help with your anxiety levels.

Make dietary changes

You may not think it, or even realize it, but your diet will have a huge impact on your mood, and energy levels, and therefore also on your anxiety too. As a parent, you may feel like your only option is to get a takeout, oven-cook some fries, or deep fry your family’s dinner. However, for example, if your diet primarily consists of high-fat, sugary, or overly processed foods, then your body (as well as your children) will not be getting the adequate nutrition that it needs to function effectively. This can lead to extreme highs, and lows of energy, instead of having a well-balanced baseline to run on throughout the day. If you can try to include as much fresh fruit, and vegetables as possible into your diet while simultaneously avoiding as much of the fatty and sugary foods as possible, you should notice a big change not only physically, but also mentally too. Some people opt for additional supplements to help give their mental health, and anxiety that extra boost. These can be found in the form of magnesium tablets, various herbal teas, and even CBD gummies for men. Any small positive change to your diet will have an impact on your anxiety levels.

Seek professional help

Although there is a lot you can do for yourself through the changing of your lifestyle, and habits, sometimes it may not be enough to overcome the feelings of anxiety that you may experience. If you feel like your anxiety levels are affecting your ability to care for and provide for your children then it may be wise to look into professional help. These professionals will have trained for many years, and have a lot of experience in dealing with the struggles you may be facing. They will be able to offer you potential solutions to your unique position and will help you work through, and overcome the hardships that you are currently facing. Rather than struggling alone, research local professionals that may be able to help with your anxiety, so that you can get back to being the best parent possible.

Reach out to your friends and family

If you feel as if professional help is a step too far, or that you don’t require that level of help and attention, you could always reach out to, and confide in your friends and family about your struggles with anxiety. Most people are aware of how hard parenthood can be, especially if you have the added weight of anxiety too. Because of this, most people that you reach out to will be more than willing to help you wherever possible. Often simply sharing with others can dramatically improve a person’s mental strength, and may just give you the support, strength, and boost that you need to help overcome many aspects of your anxiety.
If you are a parent who has anxiety, you should do what it takes to keep your health on track, so make sure to consider these tips on how to deal with it more effectively.