Tag Archives: summer

Going Strong, Life, Parenting, Soft Star Shoes

4th of July Brewery 5k and a Rainy Walk to Remember

07/02/2015 R.C. Liley 2 Comments

Hopefully our 4th of July 5k won’t get rained out like the Mother’s Day race we were going to do this year. I planned on running a half-marathon, but since it was canceled, I ended up rowing the distance in our garage. Yeah, and that’s when the whole staph butt thing happened….

Moving on, I’m hoping for a good, non-rainy run for our 4th of July 5k. A 5k is great, it gets you up and moving for the day, but doesn’t take forever or zap all of your energy to do anything else the rest of the day. Of course, it is at our favorite craft brewery, Martin House, so if anything, it’s the beer that would zap me.

I don’t plan on having more than one drink, and that’s only because it’s good quality beer they are giving for free. Why wouldn’t I enjoy a glass after pounding the pavement for 3.2 miles? I don’t have a set goal, and my best time from way back when being under 18 minutes, so that’s not happening again. I’d like to keep it around 20 minutes if possible though. Last year I pushed Avery in a 5k and made first place with a time in the 19 minute mark, so it’s doable.

This will be the first race in my Soft Star Shoes which has me excited to see how they’ll perform. If it’s anything like my regular runs, they’ll be great! Maybe Avery will wear hers so we can be Soft Star Rock Stars!

Going Mom refuses to let out anything about her goal time for the 5k thinking she’ll jinx herself or something. I get it, but I know she’ll do much better than she gives herself credit for. She’s make good use of our squat rack at least 2 times a week and knocks out heavy sets of dead lift and squats. The leg strength alone will prove useful as she races this weekend.

Thanks to my wonderful Mom, Avery won’t be subjected to sitting a stroller to get pushed in a race. This time, she gets to hang with G-Ma and watch from the sidelines to cheer us on. Judging from how she runs to her with open arms, I think Avery will be happy to have the company.

Look for how we did in a post next week. I hope to share some good race times and to let you know that we had a good time.

Speaking of good times, we had a pretty crazy family walk the other evening. It was a typical hot day even as the sun was going down, and we set off like normal with Avery in the stroller. Side note: I always keep 35lbs of kettlebells in the stroller just to make it extra work for myself because, stubborn and strength.

We were relieved to have a big cloud cover the sun for us which meant not battling the bright light in Avery’s eyes and giving her extremely tan legs (from sitting in the stroller on sunny walks) a much needed break. Then a little wind picked up, and then a few fat rain drops started to fall.

Meanwhile, we kept walking and I was saying how refreshing and nice it was to walk in a little shower. Because, at that point, it really was nice. I love walking a light summer sprinkle of rain! But then it got heavier and heavier until we were sloshing in our sandals (Yeah, go us) with our clothes completely drenched.

Kelley mocked me for saying how I enjoyed walking a nice shower as we continued our walk watching the streets already accumulates mini rivers (commonly known as streams) of water. We were right in the middle of our walk, so turning around would be the same as continuing. And continue we did. We had a few neighbors standing in their garage watching the rain and looking at us like we were crazy. In retrospect, I don’t blame them!

As we turned a corner, we faced the heavy rain head-on as the wind whipped it into our face. This set Avery off and she began to cry in fear and probably pain. Despite having flip-flops on, we knew we needed to run to get back as fast as we could, so run we did. It was at this moment when I cursed myself for having those damn 35lbs of weights in the stroller.

Then we hit what I call “the big hill” part of our walk and I seriously questioned what the point of the weights were. Screw you, fitness, I don’t need this! It didn’t help that I started cracking up while trying to breathe when as I watched my wife practically doing a high knee run through a giant river of deep water. Seriously, the view was priceless.

We made it up the hill, increased our speed as the rain poured on and Avery wailed, and finally made it back to our garage/safe haven.

Of course we took the obligatory crazy family picture afterward. Avery quickly calmed down, as you can see, with the help of a towel thanks to Going Mom. We both kissed her and asked for forgiveness too.

And just to be really annoying, we took turns taking a picture with our drenched little girl. She was not that amused.

Still cute as a button though. A really really really cute button! I pretended to hold her back out under the rain because, dad jokes, and she actually gave a little smile. But just a little pity smile.

After our soaked family photo session was over, we went inside for dinner and laughed about a rainy walk we won’t forget any time soon.

Have you even been caught in the rain?

Do your kids love getting drenched in the rain or despise it? Avery loves the water, just not when it’s stinging rain in her face as she sits defenseless. Can’t blame her!

Going Strong, Life, NuttZo, Parenting

How My Crazy Toddler Might Help My Strength Gaining Goal

07/01/2015 R.C. Liley 2 Comments

A few weeks ago, I wrote about my strength gaining goal and the issues I face with sticking to it. In sum, training is not the problem, it’s my lack of a caloric surplus.

After that post, I had a couple people reach out to me offering their help and support. One of those people is Tony Huynh, a personal trainer and owner of the site Good Guy Health. Tony has been extremely helpful by creating a solid nutrition plan and training routine. I urge you check out his site and reach out to him about your own fitness goals.

I did make changes to his original strength routine, but mainly because I have Avery in the garage with me and felt it might take too long for her patience to hold. That, and it gets hot fast in there, like our own personal sauna. Too bad we can’t control the heat, I literally have my shirt and shorts (even my socks) drenched in sweat after just 30 minutes!

Here’s my current routine:

Saturday and Sunday are rest days, but I always include some conditioning by running, swimming, or rowing. Nothing too extreme, but enough to get my fitness “fix”. I’m currently on the 85% week and will take it down a notch next week before increasing my RM (rep max) and going through the cycle again.

This, along with following the macro breakdown Tony setup for me, is yielding results. Nothing big (yet), but mainly b/c I’m still struggling with eating more than I’m used to and being less active than before.

For eating more, I’ve reduced the over-abundant amount of raw veggies I usually eat with more calorie dense foods like nuts, seeds, and dried fruit. Extra spoonfuls of NuttZo with Greek yogurt and cherries do the trick too, and I’ve been enjoying them daily!

I just have to be sneaky or Avery will go crazy and demand it all to herself!

I know what you have....GIVE IT! — I know what you have….GIVE IT!

Which leads me to why her crazy toddler temperament as of late just might help me with my strength/weight gaining goals. You see, I’m one to constantly keep pushing myself when working out despite what my mind and body is trying to tell me. This results in overdoing it most of the time, and therefore, burning those precious calories my body needs to use to grow.

Since Avery’s early onset of the terrible twos only seems to grow in intensity each day, her mood can change in an instant. And patience? Fogettaboutit!

Long gone are the days of quite little Avery hardly aware of her surroundings….

I love that picture. But her patience level has dropped dramatically in the past 2 weeks which means I need to get my lifts in and be done with it. No more messing around trying to think of some elaborate “finisher” to get that burning pump and sweat pool going on. As much as her fussiness has been driving me up the wall, I find the silver lining is possibly helping me on my journey to strength.

Time will tell, and then I’ll tell you, but hopefully I can look back and thank our crazy little girl for being, um….crazy.

Can you find the silver lining in your kid’s craziness?

Do you get a “free” sauna in your garage during the summer too?

Giveaway, Promo

Zevia Tonic Water Review & Giveaway (Now Non-GMO + Color-Free!)

06/29/2015 R.C. Liley 5 Comments

Disclosure: Zevia provided free product for me to review. I was not compensated in any other way and all opinions are my own.

Zevia is no stranger in our house. I’ve published several posts on this healthy soda explaining why it means so much to me and even held a giveaway before. Oh yeah, and I’ll never forget the first time Avery took her first sips of the Smarter Soda. It take long until she was reaching for more!

Being free of artificial preservatives and sweeteners, naturally sweetened with stevia, and tasting delicious is what made us instant fans years ago. But now Zevia has stepped up their entire line of healthy beverages to be Non-GMO Project Verified and free of any added color. This means no more caramel color in any flavor, so they’ll be clean and clear, just like their list of ingredients.

It takes a lot of work to go through the process of becoming Non-GMO Project Verified, and Zevia did it for us, the health-conscious consumer. Thank you, Zevia!

When I heard of their newest addition, Tonic Water, I had to try it for myself. Lucky for me, they agreed to send some to try and review. Okay, and I’m sure a little cheesy-grinned persuasion from Avery helped too.

Upon its arrival, I was ready for my first taste. After checking out the cool white cans, that is.

Well, then we had to take a picture of her caterpillar next to the can…

Annnnnddd, THEN I opened it up to try. By itself, it tastes slightly bitter with a dry hint of citrus and a clean mouth feeling. Nothing to write home about, but who writes home about soda anyway? Just call to tell them how awesome Zevia is, no time to write!

Since tonic water is not meant to drink alone (it’s a mixer), I used the rest of the open can to make a little mocktail for Avery and myself.

Obviously, Zevia + Zevia = delicious awesomeness, so I made a 50/50 mix of Zevia Strawberry and Tonic Water after a hot walk under the Texas sun. The result did not disappoint, we both loved it and the drink was gone in no time.

After another day in the heat (I think it’ll be like this for a while), I got creative and pureed watermelon and added a little Zevia Tonic Water for a little refreshing fizz.

And we have another winner!

Yes, there were seconds……then thirds. Then I had to change her diaper from all of the liquid intake. Gotta keep’em hydrated in the heat!! But after the diaper change, someone apparently was not done….

Oh yeah, and of course their tonic water is perfect to enjoy our adult beverages without weighing us down from sugary, high calorie mixers. Vodka Tonic, anyone?

These two over ice after getting the kiddo to sleep is a nice way to wind down a crazy day with a toddler, a long day at work, or just to relax.

With plenty of summer left, I plan on finding other fun, refreshing, and most importantly, healthy ways to use Zevia’s Tonic Water as well as all of their now color-free and Non-GMO flavors. Check out the list of recipes for their Tonic Water on Zevia’s site for some creative ideas perfect for both kids and adults.

Oh, and maybe it would help if you were to win a 6 pack of Zevia to get things started, huh? Well, lucky you, I have just the thing; a chance for 3 readers, that’s you, to enter for a chance to win a voucher to pick up a six-pack of any Zevia flavor you want!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Contest ends Saturday, July 4th at midnight. Good luck and be sure to spread the Zevia Love on Twitter by sharing your photos and including the hashtag #TheNewSweet!