Storytelling

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

Stay-at-Home Dad 101: I Lost 11 Pounds in the Past 2 Months, From Overweight to Optimal (A Testimonial about Vegan Weight Loss)

Exactly two months ago on January 8th, 2018, I was very vocal and public about the fact I had become overweight, as a vegan. I was getting too much protein, and fat, and sugar.

I wanted to make sure it was common knowledge, and beyond anyone’s doubt, that with a BMI of 26. At 5’9″, I was officially 6 pounds overweight, at 176 pounds.

So I decided to cut out empty calories, and even extra protein, like the chia seeds in my morning smoothie and the mixed nuts in my oatmeal. I started eating whole apples and oranges. I switched back to just balsamic vinegar instead of oil-based salad dressing. I began drinking tea at night, lest I be tempted by anything more alluring.

A month later, which was a month ago in February, I had lost 7.5 pounds (at that point 168.5 pounds) and lowered my BMI to 24.5; which meant I was no longer overweight.

So what progress have I made since then? I lost another 3.5 pounds (now 165 pounds); which means my BMI is now 24, and I’ve lost a total of 11 pounds!

Here’s something that some fitness freaks won’t like hearing:

I haven’t been working out at a gym.

The weight I have lost has been exclusively because of the empty calories, and well as the extra calories, I’ve been cutting out of my diet.

I still haven’t reached my goal, though. For me, it’s about comfortably fitting into every pair of size 31 pants I own; as I was able to a few years ago.

That means I’m aiming to get down to 156 pounds; which would be a total of 20 pounds lost since January 8th of this year. That’s another 9 pounds to go.

And then once I reach my goal, it’s a matter of maintaining that weight.

I feel, though, since my formula is clearly working, I should be able to maintain the weight loss as long as I remain faithful.

This is my personal story about vegan weight loss.

Leave a comment Posted on fatherhood, funny, parenting, People, Storytelling, Uncategorized

Dear Jack: Your Sister is Horrible at Doing Mazes

7 years, 3 months.

Dear Jack,

Last weekend we spend the morning with some friends for breakfast at First Watch. Fortunately, it was early enough in the day that you nor your sister had any kind of behavioral issues. Instead, the two of you were quite occupied, largely in part due to the kids’s activity sheet and the pack of crayons our waitress gave you.

During most of the wait for our food to arrive, I didn’t hear a word out of you. That’s because you were completely focused on completing all the activities in front of you.

After you completed the whole thing, you then turned to your sister to help show here what to do. She grabbed a crayon and immediately got to work on the corn maze; in which the goal is to draw a line from one end of the maze to the other.

Your sister was so happy to be at work, the way her older brother had been. A few minutes passed and then sort of turned to you for your approval.

What she received from you was this sincere statement:

“Holly, that’s horrible. You didn’t come anywhere close to getting through the maze!”

Being not even 2 years-old yet, she appeared to be completely unfazed by your overly direct criticism.

I laughed out loud.

She was just happy and oblivious that there was some sort of bigger concept, beyond just dragging a red crayon across some lines, as well as a picture of a mutant cob of corn and completely conscious fried egg.

Ultimately, the activity sheets perfectly served their purpose. You and your sister were able to behave in a restaurant, while being intellectually challenged at your own individual levels.

Give it a few years though, and I think your sister will be able to improve your maze skills.

Love,

Daddy

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I Guess We Need to Talk About the Fact I Shaved My Head, Right? 3 Reasons I Chose the Bald Look.

For nearly two years of my life, for continuity purposes, it was important that I maintained the same look as my doppelganger on the soup package, for my journey on The Lifetime Network’s This Time Next Year; which just aired last week. But now that the episode has aired, I was ready to move on; yet it’s impossible for a guy who is known for having hair to abruptly shave it all off with a zero guard and not be met with this response:

“Wait, what?! What did you do? You can still grow hair right? Why did you shave it all off?”

Therefore, I figured I owed it to the entire world to explain my specific reasons why I would choose the life of a bald man; for now, at least.

1) I was ready to experience a dynamic character transition, like Thor in the new Ragnarok movie.

I’ve never been the kind of guy who could keep the same hairstyle. Ever since college, I’ve had this habit of buzzing off my hair, then having it sort of short for a while, then shaggy for about 2 weeks, then my wife would make me get it cut… to which I would return to the buzzing it all off again.

So perhaps it’s understandable that psychologically, I have been more than ready for quite a while to return to my “bald by choice” status. After modeling my look after another person for nearly 2 years, I was ready to look like “myself” instead.

2) I wanted to prove to myself that having hair was not a confidence crutch.

A secret that many men keep, but most don’t admit, is that they fear, at any age, they will go bald; and therefore, will believe the misconception they are less valuable as men. This is so much of an epidemic, that in my most popular YouTube channel, I serve as a mentor in reminding younger men (who are showing signs of balding) that they are judged by society for other reasons (like being confident, being skilled, being helpful, etc.) but that hair is simply a distraction from their true identity.

I have preached that message so much that I felt it was important that I myself proved that my hair was not a source of my confidence. So I did. And I was right. I don’t need hair to be confident.

3) I knew it would be a smart move in making more revenue as a YouTuber.

My YouTube channel for this blog (Family Friendly Daddy Blog) did not get the newly required 1,000 subscribers before February 20th that it needed to continue to be monetized. Therefore, I needed a way to make up the money I’m losing now. So I figured I could make up the difference on other channel (Nick Shell), the one dedicated to mentoring younger, balding men.

Fortunately, my gamble paid off. My subscribership to that channel is now soaring, now that I’m bald by choice, which hopefully will lead to more revenue maid from that channel.

But really, my decision to shave off my hair was this simple: I wanted to. I felt like it.

So I did.

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What It Was Like Meeting My Doppelganger on “Dudes From Different Latitudes” of Lifetime’s “This Time Next Year”

I am completely satisfied and proud of the way my episode turned out. That was my 7 minutes of fame, and I’m grateful for every minute of it.

However, so much of the footage was cut. For example, the main thing you didn’t get to see was when I actually met my doppelganger Steve for the first time.

He and I were both driven separately to this Mexican café somewhere right outside of Hollywood. When we met, we immediately hugged, then my first words to him were, “Man, you’re a good looking guy!

Naturally, he instantly returned the same compliment.

We exchanged gifts soon after: I brought him a Nashville t-shirt and he brought me a Canadian t-shirt; as he lives north of Seattle, in Canada.

Then with Steve’s phone, we took some selfies, including one of us making the “Campbell’s Soup” face.

Steve and I were able to spend the whole day together from that point forward, including just waiting around the dressing room, as other guests on the show would stop by and ask us, “What was your guys’ goal?”

Our simple and strange response: “To find each other.”

To which they would ask, “Oh, you two are brothers?”

Then another simple and strange response from us: “No, he was on a package of soup.”

I liked Steve so much that it really is a shame he and I truly are “dudes from different latitudes.” I am convinced he would be a friend I would hang out with a lot.

And this is funny too: In the weeks leading up to the show airing, he was “liking” my Facebook posts about the show, though no one realized who he was at that point.

One of the famous questions people have asked me about him was whether I thought we actually looked alike.

He says I look more like his brother than his own brother looks like him. Meanwhile, I say that I look more like his picture on the package of soup than he does.

For what it’s worth, one of my cousins took a picture of Steve on the TV screen when the show aired and posted to Facebook. Turns out, Facebook’s facial recognition software immediately detected that Steve was me.

So apparently, we can at least fool a computer.

I thought it was cool how on the first part of my segment, I told Cat Deeley, “He may even be 6′ 3”.

My prophecy came true: Steve is 6 foot 3 inches tall, in noticeable contrast to me being 5 foot 9, as we walked through those This Time Next Year doors on stage.

Steve really is an awesome guy. I told him if he’s ever in Nashville, he’s got a place to stay. To which he immediately made the same offer if I’m ever in British Columbia.

All because of a package of soup.

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How My Song “Dudes From Different Latitudes” Surprisingly Ended Up Being on Lifetime’s “This Time Next Year” (Lyrics Included)

Even though I was just one of 6 guests featured on the Episode 6 of “This Lifetime Next Year”, the episode was actually named after the song I wrote for my 7 minute segment of the show. Here’s what’s interesting though: That song was more of an accident, an afterthought, and a shot-in-the-dark attempt to introduce the world to my jingle-writing abilities.

Since I found my doppelganger earlier on in the year, yet I was still expected to keep submitting weekly video diary entries for my journey, I decided to have a little fun. I figured, “Hey, if I’m going to be on national TV, then I might as well make everyone aware I have a special talent of writing theme songs and jingles. This is my big chance…”

So I wrote a theme song for my portion of the episode and submitted it to my producer that week.

Then about a week of wondering if anyone had even seen it, the producer was asked me to bring my guitar to perform the song on stage in front of the audience, for the final recording of the episode.

For the next couple of months, I practiced that song until it became muscle memory. It was important to me that I sang perfectly on key, on rhythm, and didn’t need a 2nd take when it was recorded for the show.

Fortunately, my obsessive practice paid off and I was very pleased with the performance.

And here’s what’s funny to me about all this:

The whole episode was about me meeting my doppelganger, yet the majority of the feedback and the hype I’ve been receiving online from people who have seen my episode has been more about the song that I wrote and performed about actually meeting my doppelganger.

And apparently, the producer of the show recognized that the song was important, because not only was the episode named after the song, but the thumbnail they chose to promote the episode on their website is of me playing the song.

I am happy that the world now knows about talent for writing theme songs. This is not my first go at this.

Back a few years ago, I wrote and performed the theme songs for both of my children’s series on YouTube:

Jack-Man

Uncle Nick’s Enchanted Forest 

My inspiration for the title of the song, by the way, was Jimmy Buffett’s 1977 song, “Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes”. Because after all, British Columbia in Canada is undeniably a different latitude than Tennessee.

So yes, the song was the result of me deciding to make things a little extra exciting for my 7 minutes of fame. It was a plan that came together and turned out even better than I had hoped.

I guess “Dudes From Different Latitudes” became an unexpected hit!

Here are the lyrics:

Perfect strangers, doppelgangers, it was just their fate

A soup package, a text message, a Facebook friend request

Dudes from different latitudes, Canada and America

Same face from another place, identical twins but they’re no kin

Dudes from different latitudes