By Daddy Clay November 3rd, 2011

I’m thinking of quitting Netflix. And not because they have raised prices or offer a poor service. I’m considering canceling my subscription because Netflix’s streaming service has turned my otherwise semi-normal American sons into obnoxious British automotive journalists.
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Tags: cable, cars, children, consumption, dads, gear, HD, kids, materialism, media, television, Top, TopGear, tv, UK
Posted in Fatherhood

By Daddy Clay November 1st, 2011

The foundation of my house is creaking under the weight of all the candy my kids hauled in last night. Literally thousands of calories are hunkered in grocery bags in the cabinet above the fridge. In years past, this candy has called to me, and I inevitably binged on mini-chocolate bars until finally the shame of pilfering my kids goodies caught up with me.

Not so, this year. I haven’t been tempted nearly as much. My secret weapon — a small stash of dark chocolate. After reading a study that showed a number of health benefits arising from eating dark chocolate (including one in which mice showed increased athletic performance when all juiced on the dark stuff), I bought a bar –a nice 72% cocoa — not the extreme and painfully dark stuff — and found that I love the stuff.

A little goes a long way — more than a small square and the benefits diminish the studies show — and besides, you don’t want a whole ton of the dark stuff. Alas, milk chocolate also won’t do the trick (sorry). In my experience, I have found that a small square right when I wake up really takes an edge off my hunger. That’s all I eat in the mornings pre-run or workout. And it also satisfies my sweet tooth. No cravings driving me to trick or treat.

Does it help my “athletic performance?” Not in any way that I can tell. But it does serve as a nice little reward for getting out of bed for an early morning run. And it’s kept my hand out of the plastic pumpkin.

Do you have any tricks for avoiding the Halloween treats?

Tags: benefits, candy, chocolate, dark, diet, halloween, Health, holiday, nutrition, tricks, weightloss
Posted in Eating, Health

By Daddy Clay October 27th, 2011

Do not laugh.

We admit that that Dads here at DadLabs have not always set a sterling example when it comes to health and fitness. All you have to do is look back in the DadLabs catalog to find countless episodes featuring ursine hosts lumbering around the set, pausing only to chug a beer or tuck into barbecue. We were fat. And worse than that, we used our kids as an excuse for being huge.

No time to run with little kids in the house, right?

No more excuses.

Thanks to a series of weight loss challenges here on DadLabs, we’ve shed a few pounds, committed to healthier eating habits, and found exercise routines that have been rewarding and fun. And our kids have noticed. Setting a good example for them is a great motivator.

Now we’re so motivated, in fact, that we’re going for the big one.

The Austin Marathon.

But we’re depending on you to help us accomplish our marathon goals. We want to finish the 26.2 without knee demolition or un manly tears, sure. But we also want to raise funds and awareness for two great non-profit organizations: Colin’s Hope and Hand to Hold. Starting today, we’ll be pestering you regularly (so you might as well get it over with and pledge) to make a donation to Team DadLabs. Our goal is to raise $5000 to be split evenly between the two worthy charities.

No gift is too small. Anything gets us closer to our goal. And it’s easy, just visit this page to make your tax deductible donation.

(In case you aren’t familiar with them: Hand to Hold supports parents of preemies and Colin’s Hope works for drowning prevention and water safety. Please check out their respective websites. And the great videos we’ve made in partnership with these organizations.)

We are very grateful that to the dads that have joined us for past challenges. And the training that Team DadLabs is now doing works hand in glove with our current fitness Challenge — The Marathon to Fatherhood Fitness. If you want support reaching your fitness and weight loss goals — whatever they are — please join up.

So we’re headed out on the road, with Brad, Danny and I all commencing official training this week — rigged out quite nicely by our good friends at New Balance. We’ll be updating our progress here from time to time, and more regularly on the fitness challenge forum.

Tags: Colin's Hope, fitness, fundraising, Hand to Hold, Health, marathon, running, Team DadLabs, training
Posted in Health, Sports

By Daddy Clay October 26th, 2011

In today’s episode of “Good News, Dad News” the dads suggest some fun, spooky, home movies that you should make with your kids in their Halloween costumes…and some you really shouldn’t. Comic genius Owen Egerton drops by as a Fright consultant. Nothing is more scary than Teacher Conferences, though. We then launch Team DadLabs, our marathon team, with the help of distance athletics legend and Colin’s Hope Executive Director Alissa Magrum. She helps the dads unbox goodies from New Balance and offers training tips for busy parents. The Preggers discuss a growing issue in their personal life. And the Dads take a look at the latest study of kids and media.

As always we will be screening new and classic episodes of DadLabs and giving away a lot of stuff. This week, we’ve got $250 with of Kmart gift cards to dole out. As always, all you have to do to be eligible is to watch the show, tweet about it or log in to the chat — you will automatically be entered to win.

Posted in Fatherhood