Category Archives: Going Healthy

My Top Healthy Summer Resources for the Family

06/20/2015 R.C. Liley 4 Comments

Father’s Day marks the official first day of summer this year. I don’t know about you, but we’re already feeling the heat in Texas and could go for some of that rain we had a few weeks ago.

With summer, comes heat, and a lot of it! Heat can be dangerous to all of us, but detrimental to our little ones. But that doesn’t mean they need to stay indoors sitting in the A/C all through the season. As long as we keep it smart, everyone can have a wonderful, healthy time under the sun.

I’ve gathered a few sites I find interesting and helpful with tips on how to stay safe and healthy this summer and wanted to share them with you. Most of these are geared towards the family, but I added a few not specifically meant for families that are packed with helpful nutrition and activity tips everyone can use.

First off, make sure you know what you’re rubbing all over your family’s skin. Our skin is highly porous and absorbs a lot of what you put on it, and many sunscreens do more harm than good with the amount of toxic chemicals they contain. This may seem like a minute detail to a full grown adult, but for a tiny baby or toddler, everything is much more concentrated and can post a serious threat. Read my post on sunscreen safety here. P.S. I also apologize to my wife in the post since I used to waive off the dangers of sunscreen myself.

15 Nutrition Tips For A Healthy Summer – Just a nice quick list to refer to for ways to eat smart but not be bored with a chicken and broccoli type meal. Which, by the way, I actually think is pretty good!

Keep Your Kids Happy and Healthy: Summer Tips For Parents – Hey, even the government has useful advice for a change! Make sure to check out the links provided in each tip for even more healthy ideas.

8 Summer Steps For Healthy Living – Some seemingly obvious tips from WebMD, but handy if you’re having a brain fog moment.

The Best Healthy Pantry Foods – This is a great list from Ben Greenfield and we have most of these in our pantry. Great to have year round!

Easy Meals For Busy Athletes – Another Ben Greenfield info bomb. Obviously, you don’t have to be an athlete to enjoy the benefits of these fast and healthy meals.

5 Fun Home Activities To Do With Your Kids – I love this list from The Good Dad Project! Some good ideas for indoor activities to help beat the heat and have fun as a family!

Keep The Kids Active All Summer Long – This list from Macaroni Kid is sure to have at least one or two ideas you haven’t considered for fun and productive activities your kids will learn from.

I like this list from the Macaroni Kid – Family Fitness site providing several simple foundations to keep your family fit and healthy all year. Print it and stick it on the fridge so it’s always fresh on your mind.

Hope you’re able to find some good tips and implement them in your home this summer. Please, just keep safe and well hydrated while having fun in the sun!

Hi there, I'm just keeping hydrated! — Hi there, I’m just keeping hydrated!

Do you have any plans for hanging out with the kids this summer?

Are you getting away and having someone else watch the kids?

Any tips you have for a safe, healthy summer that you’d like to share?

Going Healthy, Going Reviews, Promo

Help Make The Great American Milk Drive Legen-Dairy

06/11/2015 R.C. Liley 2 Comments

As much as I enjoy joking around (hence the title to this post), keeping our family healthy is something I take seriously. Even before I became a stay-at-home dad, I was cooking all of the meals for my wife and I on top of having a full-time job. Yeah, it was hard at times, but to pros far outweigh the cons when it comes to good nutrition.

For this reason, my wife and I knew breast milk was the best source of nutrition for our daughter, Avery, right from the start. And now, at 18 months old, I am extremely proud and supportive of my wife for still nursing our beautiful girl even through so many hardships.

Over the past few months, Kelley has slowly eased up on breastfeeding which meant I needed to find another source of nutrition to fill its place. Luckily, there’s another nutritious beverage to fill the void, and it goes by the name of…..MILK!

Just like the food I bring into our home, I am quite particular on where our milk is sourced and how it’s produced. Avery was a bit hesitant about milk at first….

….but she quickly made peace with her new beverage and, well…..

Yep, she loves her milk and she has it every day with breakfast and as a calming drink before nap time. Having a nutrient-rich beverage packed with 8 grams of high quality protein per 8 ounce serving allows me to rest assured our daughter is getting what she needs for her body to grow strong and healthy and give her the energy to play (or swing kettlebells) with Mommy and Daddy.

Unfortunately, many families are unable to provide their children healthy meals and are missing out on the nutrition milk has to offer. These children are provided breakfast and lunch through the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and the School Breakfast Program (SBP) when in school, but not when school is out.

Here’s the “Legen-Dairy” part…..To raise money and bring milk to families in need this June, Milk Life has created The Great American Milk Drive benefiting Feeding America. Since June is National Dairy Month, what better time than now to help deliver something many of us take for granted; MILK! Did you know…..

Milk is one of the most requested items by food bank clients year-round, and especially during the summer when kids are missing out on nutritious meals provided through school breakfast and lunch programs. But on average, food banks are only able to provide the equivalent of less than one gallon of milk per person per year. That’s because while Americans are generous with canned and dry goods, many don’t think to donate milk because it’s perishable.
More than 22 million children may miss out on milk’s nutrition in the summer months when schools are closed and they lose access to free or reduced-price milk programs.
You can help power the play of children in need in your community all summer long with a small donation by clicking here. A donation of as little as $5 will deliver a gallon of milk to a local family through the Feeding America nationwide network of food banks.

And since we all absorb information better when it’s in cool infographic form, here are the key facts laid out for us all.

As a major advocate of all things health, I know how paramount good nutrition is for kids and adults alike. That’s why I’m honored to join Life of Dad and 24 super awesome dad bloggers to help Milk Life spread the words and raise funds for The Great American Milk Drive. This truly is legen-dairy, and we need YOU to help us keep it that way!

The 25 of us dad bloggers have been divided into 4 teams by region, North, South, East, and West. To make it even more interesting, the team that has received the most donations by 12PM EST on Monday, June 22 will get an additional $500 donation from the awesome guys at Life of Dad. Now I know you want to help my team, The South, win this, so please, hold off on the birthday gifts (it was on the 8th) and Father’s Day presents and please please please donate to this important cause.

Check out my fellow Team South friends and show us all some love by donating today.
Trey Burley – Daddy Mojo

Scotty Schrier – Dads Who Change Diapers

Jack Steiner – The Jack B

Rick Fauquet – Rick on the Rocks

We’re all great fathers wanting the best for kids all over, and this would make the best Father’s Day contribution to all of us.

And be sure to mark your calendars for Tuesday, June 16th at 8PM EST for the #MilkDrive Twitter Party hosted by @LifeofDadShow. Just follow hashtage #MilkDrive and get ready for a chance to win some great prizes and have fun while supporting Milk Life and Feeding America!

Disclosure: I have partnered with Life of Dad and Milk Life for this promotion. I have received compensation for my participation, but my passion and thirst for Milk is my own.

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.