Tag Archives: healthy

Easy and Healthy Baked Coconut Salmon Cakes

03/31/2016 R.C. Liley 2 Comments

Do you find yourself stuck in a rut of eating the same thing day in and day out for weeks? If you answered “Yes”, you’re not alone. But I make it a point to change things up when I can. As long as it’s tasty, healthy, and relatively quick to make, it’s fair game! Or should I say fair fish? See what I did there?

Enter these delicious salmon cakes that are both healthy and easy to make. Using canned salmon (tuna or crab would work too) makes these a convenient weeknight main course and are perfect to make extra for the next day.

So, make a double batch of these to have dinner with the family and to take to work (or just have the next day if you stay at home like me) for a healthy and delicious lunch.

Baked Coconut Salmon Cakes

Ingredients

2 (5oz) cans wild salmon in water, drained (canned tuna or crab works too)
1/2 cup Coconut Flour (If you don’t have this, rolled oats also work well)
1 tsp each of cumin, garlic powder, and onion powder
1/2 tsp cayenne
2 T Dijon mustard
2 eggs or 3 egg whites or 3 flax/chia eggs
4 T Of your favorite salsa
1 T each dried basil and dill
Pepper to taste

Directions

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees
Add all ingredients in a bowl and mix well to incorporate. You can also mix everything in a food processor if desired. If mixture seems too runny, add oats or coconut flour 1 tablespoon at a time until thick enough to hold together.
Scoop the mix into a lightly oiled 12 cup muffin pan (I filled 9 of the 12 cups) and bake in pre-heated oven for 25 -30 minutes, depending how toasted you want the top. It should have a crispy golden crust on top.
Remove from oven and let cool in pan for 5 to 10 minutes.
Top each cake with your favorite mustard, salsa, or even a yogurt sauce like Tzatziki; I like them plain too. Serve with steamed veggies and maybe a tasty side of quinoa curry salad.

If you love crab cakes, this is an easy and more affordable alternative to make at home. Unless you use imitation crab, but let’s not go down that road, I’ll save it for another post. 🙂

What’s your favorite seafood?

Would you like it baked into a cake like this?

Going Healthy, Going Strong, Life, Parenting

What Counts as Exercise?

03/19/2016 R.C. Liley 4 Comments

Many parents, at-home and working alike, succumb to the “I don’t have time” mantra when it comes to exercise, but it’s an important part of life and is worth making time to do.

You might think exercise is something that requires special equipment or is only done at a gym, but you might already be “exercising” without even knowing it. Exercise falls under several definitions, and one way it is defined is that it’s a regular or repeated use of a faculty or bodily organ. Knowing this, I’m positive we all have a long list of things we do every day that count as “exercise” and we never thought of it as such.

Carrying your kid around the house or grabbing them before they grab the cat’s tail would definitely count. And teaching them to perform different exercises like push-ups or yoga (maybe a combination?) proves beneficial too.

exercise, fitness, kids, toddler, parenting, workout, yoga

Chores and daily tasks like going for a walk, mowing the lawn, vacuuming, mopping, doing laundry, and engaging in playtime with your kids are all great ways to fit in exercise and accomplish your laundry list (pun intended) of things you need to get done.

In a nutshell, movement of any form is, in and of itself, exercise. An important thing to remember is to be consistent with your movement and make sure it’s something you enjoy. If your stomach churns just thinking of going for a run, don’t do it, you’ll never stick with it. Ride a bike, walk, swim, row, hike, or……clean house. The point I’m trying to make is, keeping active, however you so choose, helps to make a better you.

As parents, we need to be excellent role models and should let our children see us being active and living a healthy lifestyle so they will hopefully follow suit and WANT to be like mommy and daddy. Note I said “healthy lifestyle”; this means exercise and good nutrition! If you are trying to lose weight, you can workout all you want, but without good nutrition, your results will be minimal at best. Sleep is vital too!

Finishing a great workout session is NOT a pass to go pig out on packaged, processed junk or order takeout without thinking of what you’re actually putting in your mouth. Trust me, I’m guilty of this and know firsthand. Read the ingredients or, better yet, choose food that doesn’t even need a label.

No matter your fitness goal; lose weight, gain strength, maintain current level, etc., we will all benefit from moving more and practicing good nutrition for the quality of life it provides. If you are already a conscious eater and get a good dose of daily movement, good for you, keep it up and hopefully you are inspiring others!

I’m on my feet most of the day and rarely sit down until night (I stand at the counter to use my computer) and move around a lot with Avery. She’s usually really good at “working out” with mommy or daddy and has her own equipment to use too.

Upper body day. She’s progressed from a thin wood #barbell to the big PVC pipe! #softstarshoes #strength #healthykid #workout #fitness @softstarshoes

A photo posted by RC Liley (@going_dad) on Mar 14, 2016 at 3:51pm PDT

She is well aware of my upper/lower body split, but she ends up doing full body every day. Then we keep active by playing or doing anything outdoors, weather permitting. Lately, it’s all about her WOOM 1 Balance Bike. We named it Rocket, just like on Little Einsteins.

playing, daddy, kids, parenting, woom 1, balance bike

Whatever you choose to do, try to do it with your family as much as possible. Kids mimic and idolize parents more than we realize, so being a great role model with ensure they grow up to make better decisions on their own.

Do you struggle with motivation or have no issue with exercising or nutrition?

If you have kids, do they join you when exercising?

Going Healthy, Going Reviews, Promo

The Squatty Potty: You’ve Been Pooping Wrong

03/18/2016 R.C. Liley Leave a comment

My thoughtful wife gave me poop better for Christmas 2 years ago. For the first time ever on that glorious Christmas day, I upgraded my poop posture with this cool new ~~toy~~ stool (ha ha, get it?) and, holy crap, I’ve never been so relieved!

squatty potty, poop, health, colon, weight loss — Figured I would spare you from a photo of it in use. 🙂

The Squatty Potty has been providing every day relief since, with the only exception being when I travel. If I didn’t need to carry more items, I’d make it my carry-on item so I never had to go without it. They do, however, have an inflatable Porta-Squatty which I’ll have to look into.

The Squatty Potty is an ergonomic stool that elevates your lower half into a squatting position right over the toilet. Squatting is the natural posture for humans to poop, and it allows you to either stand over the toilet in a full squat or mimic the posture while sitting on the pot.

Why not just find any old stool to do the same thing? You could, and I tried on vacation once, but there was a slight stability issue. The Squatty Potty is designed to allow natural squat posture while remaining sturdy so you don’t slip, and it fits around your toilet for easy storage. A regular stool would get in the way and, if there are any boys in the house, become victim of tinkle sprinkle. Hey, it happens!

When we simply sit on the toilet, our colon becomes kinked. This is why you can sit there for 20 minutes playing on your smartphone and never feel fully relieved.

But, when you pop a squat, literally, the colon is free and open to rid your body of all collected waste. For me, this equals much less of a bloating feeling and a flatter stomach. This just might be the fastest way to safely lose weight!

When I first started using it, I just raised my feet up on the platform and sat on the toilet. This alone proved quite effective at making me poop better. But then I did a little research on their site and found that the intended method to get the full effect is to stand over the pot in a squatting position. Basically, keep your rear in the air.

Sure, there were a few balance issues at first (please note: tight-fitting shorts/pants are not recommended!), but once I figured out the correct positioning, I found even greater poop elimination than when I sat using the stool. If you don’t already, keep a plunger nearby. Just saying.

TMI? Well, it is a post about a handy tool used to squat for a better poop, what do you expect? Plus, being a parenting site, I assume many parents read this; aren’t we all pretty immune to poop talk? I mean, we discuss the day’s “cloggers” during dinner.

Other than getting used to performing the full stand and hover squat, or the awkwardness of having your kid coming in a staring, I can’t find anything to complain about with the Squatty Potty. It’s simple, easy to clean, doesn’t get in the way, and best of all, is the most natural cleansing method I can think of. You’ll even end up using less toilet paper when squatting since things are more…err, open.

With the Squatty Potty, you can get in and out of the bathroom with the feeling of full relief. No need for laxatives or other drugs to help move things along, which apparently is used by many Americans.

Have you heard of or tried the Squatty Potty before?

Does poop talk gross you out? If so, sorry, but it’s a necessary part of everyday life, and now it’s a less time-consuming part!

Click Here to get your own non-laxative, completely natural cleansing product known as The Squatty Potty!

Want something a little more classy to stand on as you poop? They also offer Squatty Potties in Bamboo…

….or Natural Wood. These are classy enough for the White House!

Full Disclosure: All opinions in this post are 100% my own. My wife purchased the Squatty Potty as a gift for me and I have not been compensated in any way. That said, there are affiliate links that, if you click on them, I might earn a few cents. So, please click them, I like cents!