Health

5 Comments Posted on fatherhood, Health, Jack-Man, marriage, parenting, People, Storytelling, Uncategorized, vegan

Stay-at-Home Dad 101: I Am Now Officially an Overweight Vegan (176 pounds, 5’ 9”, Age 36, Medium Frame)

I am fundamentally opposed to New Year’s Resolutions. I have always said that if a person is truly ready to make a change in their life, then why wait for some arbitrary date on a calendar?

So for me, the first day of the rest of my life was not January 1st, but instead, it happens to be January 8th.

Last night after I took my shower and put on my size large t-shirt, I couldn’t help but notice how tight it felt. So I did something I rarely do: I weighed myself on the scale.

It took me a moment to accept my reality: I now weigh around 176 pounds. The most I’ve ever weighed was 178 pounds, and that was when I was in my late 20s and still eating meat, eggs, and dairy.

The lowest I’ve ever weighed since high school was 153 pounds; easily fitting into size 31 pants. Check out this video I made just 2 and a half years ago in May 2015, to see me in the ideal weight range for my height:

But there was a subtle change that began just a couple of months later, once my wife got pregnant with our now 20 month-old daughter back in July 2015. As my wife began eating more during the pregnancy, so did I… and I never stopped!

For over two years now, I have been slowly and steadily gaining weight; yet remaining faithful to my diet consisting of only vegetables, fruit, grains, beans, nuts, and seeds. That means no meat, no eggs, no dairy.

In two months from now, it will be 5 whole years that I’ve been a vegan.

This isn’t the first time I’ve mentioned this “vegan weight gain”. I first brought it up in September, a month before I became a stay-at-home dad, in my first Dad Bod post.

What’s interesting, as my wife recently pointed out, is I’m actually eating one less meal a day now that I work from home and take care of our kids. Back when I worked at the office, I always had a huge bowl of oatmeal; full of protein and saturated fat, thanks to the nuts and unsweetened cocoa I put in it.

But now that I’m constantly caring for a 20 month-old daughter all day long, plus a 7 year-old son before and after school, plus writing and shooting videos whenever I get a chance, I just don’t have much time to eat… until we all eat dinner as family each night; which is apparently when I make up for any lack of calories.

I am convinced that my strategy to get back to my ideal weight is to aggressively eliminate empty or unnecessary calories; especially during dinner, which is my biggest meal. It’s important to me that I don’t go hungry, but instead, that I stop eating once I get enough food. I need to do a better job of telling the two apart.

Just imagine the irony of an overweight vegan. Imagine all those well-meaning, yet concerned people telling me over the years, “Well, just make sure you get enough protein…”

Uh, yeah, that’s clearly not a problem for me.

And in case anyone is skeptical that I am indeed overweight, perhaps because I don’t “look” overweight, just check out the height and weight chart. For my height of 5’ 9” and having a medium frame, I officially became overweight once I crossed 170 pounds. That was about 6 pounds ago.

What’s my motivation to get back into that ideal weight range where I was back in May 2015? It’s not about self-esteem. My confidence is not effected by my weight gain.

Instead, it’s important to my identity that I have control over my own body. In the same way I refuse to let other people control my emotions, I now must refuse to let my overeating habits effect my weight.

No kidding: As I was putting this blog post together, my daughter who was sitting on my lap, looked up at the picture below of my belly, and in all sincerity asked, “Baby?”

I am an overweight vegan. We do exist, yes. But I do plan to change that.

Leave a comment Posted on Health, reviews, Storytelling, Uncategorized

SEO Spotlight Guest Blog Post: Review of Baltic Amber Necklaces for Teething Babies, by Baltic Wonder

DISCLOSURE LANGUAGE

Baltic Wonder sponsored and wrote this article; I received compensation for my time and platform. They did not tell me what to purchase or what to say about any product mentioned in these posts. Baltic Wonder believes that consumers and bloggers are free to form their own opinions and share them in their own words. Baltic Wonder’s policies align with WOMMA Ethics Code, FTC guidelines and social media engagement recommendations.

Since I really can’t do an honest review of an amber necklace unless I actually use it, I decided to go through with it. I researched Baltic Amber and how to get an authentic one, and then bought one.

When it arrived, I was still skeptical but excited to see if what the natural mamas have been raving about was true. As luck would have it, my baby was just getting a bit fussy again after her last round of teeth cutting. It was the perfect time.

I put the necklace around Julie’s neck. I watched her to see what she did and really she didn’t notice there was anything on there. She went on her way to play with her push rocket.

It wasn’t too long after that she started to fuss. I knew it had to be the teething because her face was getting red and her temp was 99.5.

I immediately thought that the necklace wasn’t working and I should just take it off. I stopped myself though. I figured it wasn’t doing any harm and well, I should give it a good amount of time, so I can give it a chance.

As the day went on, Julie was o.k. She had the mild temperature and some fussiness, but it wasn’t anything as bad as it was the last round. At the end of the day before bedtime, I took the necklace off.

In the morning, I put the necklace back on her. Her temperature was gone, and she slept through the night. That was nice, but since I took the necklace off, I didn’t attribute her good night to it. It was just a coincidence…. Or was it?

Julie wore her Baltic amber necklace all day and again, didn’t even notice it was on her. She was calm all day and ate pretty well. When I woke up the next morning, after another nice night, I looked in her mouth. There was another tooth coming through!

Before jumping to conclusions, I had to try the amber necklace again through a teething phase. Instead of waiting for when she started a mild fever again, I just kept putting the necklace on every morning. It’s been a year since I first put the necklace on her, and we’ve never had a problem with teething. She almost has a mouth full now, and I honestly believe that our easy time through teething is because of the amber necklace.

SEO Spotlight: Review of Baltic Amber Necklaces for Teething Babies from Real Baltic Wonder

How Baltic Amber Necklaces Work

It may be too good to believe, but you might as well try it for yourself to see if it works. It won’t harm baby, and you never know, it may actually work.

Baltic amber teething necklaces are made out of fossilized tree resin. This resin has Succinic Acid, which is an oil that has been used to treat many illnesses and boost immunity. Colds, fevers, inflammation, headaches, and pain have all been relieved with amber for centuries in Europe and the Middle East.

When a baby wears the necklace around her neck, the body warms the beads, and this releases the oil onto the skin. It then seeps through the skin and goes right into the bloodstream to do its magic.

What’s important is that you purchase an authentic amber necklace. The amber beads need to be high quality, or it won’t have enough of the treatment oil to help. The best beads come from the Baltic areas of the world, such as Lithuania. It’s where the beads for my necklace were sourced, and it worked for me, so I would recommend that as a reliable location for authentic amber beads.

If you’ve used amber necklaces, comment below to let me know how you like them. If you haven’t and end up trying it because of this review, come back and let me know if it worked for you. It’s always great to see mamas come together and help one another with all of the baby stages that can be a real struggle sometimes.

* We are giving away 10 Baltic Amber Teething Necklaces to 10 random users. To be a part of the giveaway you must:

· Follow us on Instagram @realbalticwonder

· Make a comment on the posted blog.

· Make a comment on the following picture of our Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BdMEStrgzNF/

5 Comments Posted on Health, reviews, Uncategorized

I Used Rosemary Essential Oil for Hair Loss for 12 Months and This is What Happened…

I am a YouTuber who accidentally stumbled into the underground world of men’s hair loss. I realized it was a niche for me and ran with it.

By listening to my subscribers, I learned there was a demand for a normal guy like me to publicly experiment with rosemary oil, in an attempt to see if it would slow down, stop, or even reverse my hair loss.

My level of hair loss is fairly minimal. I am considered on the Norwood scale as a Norwood 2.5 Vertex, meaning I’m between Adam Levine and Heath Ledger, with some minor thinning.

I was the perfect candidate to test out the rosemary oil on my public forum. I wanted my subscribers to see the progress, if any, happen in real time over the course of a year. So that’s exactly what I did.

Here’s me on Christmas Day, 2016:

And now here’s me exactly one year later, on Christmas Day 2017:

I wasn’t interested in making the judgement call myself. I left it up to my nearly 2700 subscribers to determine whether the rosemary oil had any kind of effect on my hair.

The slight majority of my viewers determined the rosemary oil was indeed effective in at least preventing further hair loss:

turtleslayer turtleman 2 days ago
I definitely think your hair is thicker!
Hardy Jean 2 days ago
Your hair’s looking thicker than before sir… Looking great 👌
Andrew Kelly 1 day ago (edited)
I so believe it is aiding you in maintaining your hairline, in conjunction with your diet.
Robert 1 day ago
The most interesting twist here is that you’ll continue using the rosemary, given your “baldness advocating,” skepticism of hair loss treatments, not wanting to be a “slave” to any product, often-expressed desire to go bald, etc. It’s helped you retain the hair you have and slowed down the balding process, imo. How long will it remain effective? Only time will tell.

The irony of this experiment, as pointed out in the comment above, is that one of the main themes of my channel is that I constantly remind my viewers that my hair does not define my identity or my confidence level. So if indeed the rosemary oil experiment was successful, it serves as a bit of a paradox for a guy who ultimately doesn’t care if he goes bald.

Hey, I’m 36. I’m amazed I still even have hair. I always assumed I’d be bald by 35.

So after 12 months of applying rosemary oil, was it effective? You be the judge.

And in case you’re interested in trying out some shampoo that contains some of the oils I use everyday, here’s a link to Amazon.

Christmas 2016

Christmas 2017

3 Comments Posted on Health, Uncategorized, vegan

Why Do Jews and Muslims Not Eat Pork or Shellfish? Preventative Health Reasons.

Before switching over to a kosher diet 9 years ago on Thanksgiving Day 2008, I always assumed that the reason Jewish and Muslim people didn’t eat pork or shellfish was more arbitrary; something to the effect of simply showing obedience to God by disciplining their eating habits.

But after eliminating all pork (ham, bacon, sausage) and shellfish (shrimp, scallops, clams), and seeing for myself how it was causing my eczema (dyshidrosis) to finally start clearing up after nearly a decade, even though it’s “medically incurable”, I realized that this whole kosher thing actually had a scientific purpose.

In the same way we all know now that beef is worse for our health than chicken, certain “bottom-feeder” animals are naturally less healthy than others for us to eat.

It easily makes sense that a pig, which will eat nearly anything and has no sweat glands, is naturally going to be less nutritious to the human body, as compared to a cow; though beef is red meat, cows eat only plants.

So indeed there is a scale of uncleanness in the animal kingdom, that helps us to understand which are most likely to increase our chances of getting cancer and disease.

I believe we all know by know what the black strip is along the back of a shrimp, right? When it comes to seafood, shellfish are the bottom-feeders who eat all the rotting remnants and feces. Even catfish fall into this category.

The more I learned about this, and realized that by eating only plants, I didn’t even have to worry about the “scale of uncleanness” anymore, it was a natural transition for me to switch to the Mediterranean diet, then vegetarian, and finally vegan.

So nine years ago I became kosher, and for the most recent half of those years I’ve been vegan.

The eczema has been gone for many years now. And the sinus infections. And the pet allergies.

Coincidence? I submit it is not.

1 Comment Posted on fatherhood, food reviews, Health, parenting, People, Recipes, Uncategorized, vegan

Stay-at-Home Dad 101: What I Eat During the Day, As a Vegan

The thought seemed intimidating when I was first immediately launched into my new career as stay-at-home dad:

“But what will I eat?”

Turns out, the answer was simple. I eat the same stuff I ate every day back when I commuted nearly an hour away to an office; only minus the oatmeal with trail mix and a banana.

I eat a little less because I am a little less hungry, and I suppose that might have something to do with the fact I’m not getting outside to exercise as much. When I worked at the office, I took my breaks walking or biking or running outside; as for now, I have an 18 month-old daughter and cold or hot weather to consider.

My calorie consumption begins each morning with a cup of instant organic iced coffee. (Honestly, it’s only 2 calories; but I’m not counting!) The entire container only costs about $5, the same amount of just one Starbucks latte.

While I could opt for the unsweetened vanilla almond milk in the fridge to add some flavor and creaminess, somehow along the way I discovered I genuinely like the taste of cold, black coffee.

But I do bring out the unsweetened vanilla almond milk about an hour later for my official breakfast, which is the manly vegan smoothie I invented. My recipe is high in protein and total fat, but contains very little saturated fat and zero cholesterol.

The ingredients, in addition to the almond milk: A whole banana, a cup of frozen blueberries, a half cup of plain oatmeal, a teaspoon of chia seeds, a tablespoon of unsweetened cocoa or carob powder, and a tablespoon of peanut butter. Then I put that all together in the blender for about 20 seconds.

My lunch is quite predictable for me as well. There’s a brand of organic ramen noodle available at Whole Foods and Sprouts, called Koyo. They are around a dollar a package, and I cook 2 of them for my lunch. They are also high in protein, like my smoothie. I typically go with the “low sodium” version, but if it’s not available, I don’t let it bother my conscience: I usually consume under my daily allowance of sodium, since I don’t eat meat.

Throughout the rest of the afternoon, I may go for another cup of coffee, but I’m typically not really hungry after having consumed so much protein and good fats earlier in the day.

Depending on what’s for dinner, I may start prepping for when my wife and son get home. What’s really great is when my wife has already put together a crock pot meal the day before and placed it in the fridge. I can have that heating up during the afternoon so it will be ready for dinner. Plus, I can throw together a festive salad.

If I do stray from my ramen noodles routine for lunch, it’s only to finish off any leftovers from the night before, like my wife’s homemade vegan pizza; and maybe a bowl of cereal as well.

And consider, this meal plan is coming from a guy who said most of his life, “I got to have meat! I need more meat! I’m still hungry. I could never be a vegetarian. I couldn’t do it. Especially not a vegan!”

Obviously, there was dynamic character growth in the person narrating this story.

But I have embraced my identity as a manly vegan; and here more recently, as a stay-at-home dad as well.