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!
Life, Parenting

How to Discipline a Toddler

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Did I say how to discipline a toddler? I’m sorry, I meant how do you discipline a toddler. Oops!

When they don’t talk (not sure if that’s a good or bad thing), communicating what to do and not do is difficult. Not having the experience of a talking kid yet, I can’t speak to how hard that is. I’m guessing it’s worse since they probably talk back, huh?

Anyway, the biggest issue is with not listening when we say “No” or “Don’t do that.” What? Familiar words in your home too?

Especially when it comes to changing her diaper or throwing food, Avery will not listen! But then she gives you this face….

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…..and how do stay upset? I’ll answer this rhetorical question for you, you don’t!

And then the icing on the cake is when they give you a leg hug…

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We’re fighting an uphill battle here…..

So tell me, how do you discipline or at least begin to discipline your toddler?

Life, Parenting

Thanks, Similac, For Welcoming Dads Into the Sisterhood

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“The Sisterhood of Motherhood”, that is. Yeah, that sounds like it has a giant “Welcome Dads” sign held high right? Wrong; High not five Similac!

Similac, in its latest ad campaign titled “The Sisterhood of Motherhood“, created a video depicting various parent cliques coming face to face on the playground. There were working moms, stay-at-home moms, breastfeeding moms, “crunchy” moms, and even, yes, dads, all lashing out and talking down to one another.

As the lashing out reaches a climax and all of the close-minded groups charge at each other, a baby in a stroller begins to roll down a hill. Suddenly, the imminent brawl amongst clashing parent styles quickly ended as all groups rushed to save the runaway baby. The video ends with a quote saying “No matter what our beliefs, we are parents first.”

Or that’s when it should have ended. Instead, Similac went the extra mile and welcomed us in to the “Sisterhood of Motherhood.” And by us, I mean moms, apparently. Those dads in the video, they weren’t really there, or they were actually very masculine women.

Besides the dad wearing his baby facing out, which I am firmly against (click here to see why), the video was entertaining and you could even catch a smile on my face. Until that damned ending welcoming my clique, dads, into some sisterhood of motherhood. What the crap?!

So why even add a small group of dads in the video at all? Which, by the way, if I wanted to really nitpick, there’s more than just one group of like-minded dads, we have our own cliques too. But whatever, basically the ending would make more sense to read simply “Welcome to Parenthood”.

The large group of Dad Bloggers I am a part of on Facebook have all had their say on the video with most of us obviously not accepting of the closing words. One dad blogger, Chris Routly, who runs the blog Daddy Doctrines, goes into detailed analysis on where the video goes wrong and why it matters. Check out his post here.

As a caring father, I agree with Chris’ thoughts 100%. I get that dads are still the minority when it comes to ad campaigns, but that doesn’t mean we like it one bit.

So, thank you, Similac, for welcoming dads into the sisterhood to #SisterhoodUnite, but I think we’ll pass.

What are your thoughts on this video?

Do you agree the better approach would be to make the campaign gender-neutral by using “Parenthood”  in place of the prefixes “Sister” and “Mother?

NuttZo

I’m a 2015 NuttZo Ambassador!

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That’s right, NuttZo has given me the privilege of joining their team of ambassadors for 2015! You will now see this badge proudly displayed to the right of my blog….

NuttZo, ambassador, nut butter

Go ahead, click on the badge above or to the right to go directly to their site to learn about and purchase your own NuttZo. And, since you’re here reading this, I’d like to say thank you and share a discount code to use on their site. Just click here to visit their product page and enter code liley15 to save 15% off your entire order!

With many healthy certifications under their belt lid and being the most delicious, empowering nut and seed spread every, you will find it hard to resist putting the lid back on. Trust me, Avery and I have been enjoying the Crunchy Power Fuel for a while now, and the choice is clear…

Yep, Avery knows to go for the NuttZo every time! Of course, I still need to work on her not just grabbing and getting it all over her hands…….then cabinets, then floor, then me, then….you get the idea. Also need to work on her jar opening skills, or lack thereof.

nuttzo, babies, parenting, nut butter, healthy

I am forever grateful to NuttZo for accepting me into their team of awesome ambassadors who are mostly top notch athletes. I actually first heard about NuttZo from one of their long-time ambassadors, Kristen Stehly, who blogs over at STUFT mama. As a fitness instructor and personal trainer, mom of twin toddler boys, and avid marathon runner, she never has a dull moment and I’ve enjoyed reading her posts for years.

NuttZo is obviously fueling their high-octane athletes quite well, but now it’s time to see how it keeps an active at-home dad (that’s me) and his toddler daughter (that’s Avery) constantly “going” and growing. I may not be a competing athlete, but I train for strength and endurance every day with Avery usually alongside of me.

I can’t wait to share NuttZo recipes, pictures, and thoughts with you here and on my other pages. If you have any suggestions on what recipe I should try to come up with first, please leave me a comment and I’ll do my best.

Right now, I’m thinking an easy homemade Chocolate NuttZo “Jello” and bread is in our future. A healthy organic nut and seed butter jello? You betcha!

 

By the way, it’s National Peanut Butter Day (isn’t it every day?), so why not go above and beyond with NuttZo’s Nut and Seed butter? Remember, use code liley15 to enjoy 15% off your entire order. Imagine, Dark Chocolate NuttZo and your significant other having a wonderful Valentine’s Day in the comfort of your home and not worrying about some elaborate meal when it should be more about time together.

Have you tried NuttZo before?

If so, which one? I’m going to try their 70% Dark Chocolate One very soon…MMMMM!