Tag Archives: nutrition

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?

Life, Parenting

Raising a Tiny Superhuman: Getting the Best Advice from Ben Greenfield

10/14/2014 R.C. Liley 2 Comments

For the past few months, I’ve been enjoying listening to podcasts covering topics on fitness, nutrition, and obviously, being a dad. I have a few favorites on fitness/nutrition that I look forward to each week, but for the dad podcast, I only listen to The Life of Dad Podcast since it’s all you need for Dad-ertainment!

Regarding the fitness and nutrition podcasts I’m subscribed to, the one I listen to the most is from Ben Greenfield Fitness. Ben Greenfield is one of the world’s top personal trainers and wellness consultants who, in 2013, was voted as one of the top 100 most influential people in the health and fitness industry. Plus, Ben and his co-host, Brock, always put on an entertaining and informative show.

Since I’ve discovered his podcast, I’ve been listening along as I go on my daily walks with Avery. Hopefully she’s picking up on the great info too! As a dad to 6 year old twin boys, Ben frequently mentions the fun, creative ways he includes them in many of his exercise routines and has provided tons of advice on how to keep kids active and healthy. Or, as he puts it, raising tiny superhumans.

The world needs more tire flipping families!

Taking his words of wisdom on how to raise tiny superhumans, Going Mom and I have been implementing what we can to ensure Avery maintains her superhuman status all the way into adulthood.

Before she was mobile, Kelley and I would do workout videos together as Avery watched in her jumper or swing. Now that she crawls and is almost walking (so freakin’ close!), we depend on her jumper to keep her content as we workout.

We have a power squat rack with an Olympic barbell set in our garage in which I use to follow an upper/lower strength routine. We now have her jumper setup in the garage, and luckily Avery tends to enjoy this time making her own jumper workout.

I guess every day is “lower” day for her! Actually, with how much she crawls and pulls up on everything all day long, she’s getting a full body workout every day of the week. I’d say she’s on her way, if not already there, to superhuman status!

Ben also gives plenty of nutrition advice for kids (most adults should use it too!) that Kelley and I will surely use as Avery grows. For now, her main source is still breast milk, as all babies should have and deserve, along with steamed veggies and a little egg at dinnertime.

Going Mom and I also make it a point to get on the floor with Avery and simply play.

This does so much for a child’s development, and once she’s older I’ll add in a little rough housing too.

Ben speaks on this in his podcast, “10 Tips for Raising Healthy, Smart, and Successful Kids” where he brings up playing with your kids releases oxytocin in both parents and their children.

Seriously, if you’re a parent, go listen to that podcast now! Ben and his friend, Ari, give all kinds of great advice on ways to exercise with your kids and incorporate healthy food in their diets. Some of my favorite things mentioned are:

– Going to a park or any open field and let your kids practice kicking a soccer ball or throwing a frisbee as you sprint after them to “fetch” and bring them back. Upon returning, he then suggests doing 5 burpees together, or you can whatever you and your kids are capable of.

– Doing pushups and pullups with kids on back.

– If you work out at home, have mini versions of your equipment available so your kids can see and mimic your workouts. You can buy things like mini kettlebells and medicine balls made specifically for kids and I can’t wait to get both for Avery.

– Go on hikes and wear a weight vest to keep you from going too far ahead. Ben also mentions using an elevation training mask to make it even more challenging for you and I already bought mine to have ready once Avery is walking on her own. Then, if/when your kids tire, pick them up and carry them for a bonus challenge.

Elevation training mask + babywearing=not impressed — Elevation training mask + babywearing = not impressed

– Making use of essential oils instead of modern medicine. Use lavender oil on your kids’ pillow to help them relax and sleep peacefully or treat infections with oil of oregano. Even remove warts using lemon oil instead of the dangerous chemicals sold in most stores.

I could go on with a long list of things Ben and his many guests give on how to raise tiny superhumans, but I suggest you go have a listen or read for yourself. As a matter of fact, he has an awesome e-book titled “10 Ways to Grow Tiny Superhumans” you can download now and start incorporating his healthy advice today. And it’s not limited to just your kids, this advice is beneficial for us parents too!

For more informative articles Ben published on the topic of kids, check out this link to his website and have a look around.

I get antsy every time I listen to Ben mention some new activity he did with his twin boys as I can’t wait to do the same with Avery as she grows. That said, I’m not rushing her to grow up anymore….time is going fast enough as is!

Have you heard of or listened to Ben Greenfield?

Do you currently do anything active or healthy with your kids to turn them into tiny superhumans?

Disclosure: I was not compensated in any form for this post and all thoughts/opinions are strictly my own. That’s not to say I didn’t try though!!! 🙂

Parenting, Pinterest Picks

Going Dad’s Top Ten Pinterest Picks (7): Food Matters!

06/06/2014 R.C. Liley 3 Comments

Do you know exactly what went into the last meal you ate? If it wasn’t you making the meal, chances are, you may not.

This way of thinking has had me making my own meals for several years now. There are times when I go out to eat, not by my choice, and I have to pick apart the menu and annoy the crap out of our wait staff. But, I have no shame when it comes to wanting to know exactly what I’m being served and how it was prepared.

I wasn’t always like this, I used to go out all the time and the words macronutrients, calories, trans-fat, high-fructose corn syrup, MSG, etc. were never a consideration. If it looked and sounded good, I ate it. Back then, I was being “healthy” when I requested no cheese on my double-meat hamburger from McD’s.

Yeah, things have changed and now I’m a health food advocate who questions any and all ingredients. If it’s packaged, I have to scrutinize the label several times and maybe even perform a Google search. For the several years I’ve been like this, I get extremely irritated at how food companies advertise their “healthy” products and at the ignorance of the average consumer.

And now, as a parent, I’m disgusted at what some parents feed their children. I might get a lot of negative responses here, but I see no reason any kid should have to eat fast food. There is a wealth of information out there on what is healthy vs. unhealthy and enough buzz on the topic to claim you “didn’t know.”

I know Going Mom and I will instill our healthy values in Avery, but I fear how powerful the influence of her peers will be. I remember what it’s like being in grade school, and how no one wants to be the odd one of the group! All I can do is hope Avery values health and knows what is good and what is not when she’s faced with choices on her own.

Hopefully, these ten food related Pinterest Pins help open your eyes and inform you in a way to be able to make changes for the better. I know right after I changed my eating habits, I felt, looked, performed, and recovered better than ever before. I could easily go way beyond ten, but for these are a great to start with to make changes today!

3. 10 reasons not to eat at most restaurants.

4. Convenience, not price, limits veggie consumption.

5. A 20-ounce soda contains 65 grams of sugar, that is approximately 22 packets of sugar in just one bottle.

10.

Hopefully you found some or all of these thought-provoking and useful to help you start making changes for yourself and loved ones. Or maybe you’re already in the know and these are nothing new to you.

If you already are a health living advocate and you have older children, how have you worked to keep your little ones from eating fast food or other processed junk when at school or a friend’s house?

I would love to hear anyone’s tips/advice as I feel like we are a minority when it comes to caring about what we eat.