New Look

Notice anything different? Take a good look at my face, go ahead, I won’t bite. See it? No? Think: hair, like in “I Miss My Hair,” only I’m not missing it, but adding it. Figured it out? That’s right, I grew a beard. But didn’t I already have a beard, some of you may be asking? Yes, but only a goatee, a little chin whiskers, if you will. This hairy mess covers the entire lower half of my face. Why, you may also be asking yourselves, did I grow a beard? Now that is a good question.

Here’s one answer:


For those of you who did not watch the video, here’s what I said: Winter. More to the point: a few weeks ago, I was so cold and out of it (lazy) that I didn’t feel like scraping a sharp razor over my chilly, tender face, so I decided to grow what I am calling a winter beard. Problem is, the temperatures right now are unseasonable warm (I know, pity me, right?), hovering in the low 70s, and it feels more like spring, the time of year when one shaves off his winter growth. But if anything changes on a whim, it’s the weather, so I will hold off a few days before I do anything drastic (less lazy) beard-wise, unless I am so overwhelmed by reader comments then, maybe, I will be forced to grab that razor and shaving cream.

There is another part of me that is sporting a new look these days, and that’s my video website, livelife365.com. Some of my new visitors may be asking, “What is livelife365?” To find out, check out my new front page, or watch this video:



My goal is, and always has been, to try to make my video site as user-friendly and easy-to-navigate as possible. By adding several more links, like Diet and Nutrition and my popular Walking and Talking with Mike videos, right on the front page, it makes it literally impossible not to be able to find what you’re looking for. I will continue to tweak the front page, adding a Video of the Day, among other things, as the days and weeks progress.

Besides being a labor of love, livelife365.com was developed to help people and share information. If that information is not being distributed in the best way possible, I would like to hear about it. Feedback and comments are invaluable in making this possible. Visit my site and drop me a comment letting me know what you think about the new front page changes, I’d love hear what you have to say.

Why, you may be asking, am I so determined to share my views, via videos and the written word, through two websites with similar names? Because through hard work, determination, proper diet and nutrition, motivation, and perseverance, along with the ability to laugh every day (at myself and the world), I have been able to change my life for the better. Did you know that a few years ago I lost over 40 pounds in less than 6 months? Here’s proof:




For more helpful videos and blog posts on how to not only lose weight but change your life, keep visiting livelife365. Every day. Every way. You never know, together we may just change your life.

Until next time…

peace,

Mike

Next post: More Veg Out With Mike (here’s a preview: Vegan-Friendly Garlic Smashed Potatoes

Good vs. Bad

Life is all about choices. Take the recently completed presidential election. Millions of Americans were offered a ballot filled with multiple choices. From those choices, we analyze, ponder, discuss, weigh the pros and cons, then make our selections. While a national election is a major event that challenges our decision-making prowess, the personal choices we all make every day of our lives are equally, if not more, important.

One of the reoccurring messages I advocate on this blog and my video site, livelife365.com, is taking personal accountability for your actions. Part of being personally accountable is making choices. Often, this is not as easy as it seems (think back to all those propositions or initiatives, along with the multiple candidates on that ballot, calling to you on election day.) As with many of the options confronting us this past Tuesday, many of them are good, while just as many are bad. Same can be said about our own life choices.

Livelife365 is all about choices, hopefully helping to assist you in making the right choices for improving your life by offering entertaining blog posts and videos that show fun ways that can change your life for the better.

While recovering from my recent shoulder surgery, I have not been able to exercise as much as I normally do. I have also cut myself some slack (or maybe it’s just the Vicodin talking) and have indulged in some unhealthy snacking. Choices. Some good and some bad. The end results of those personal choices is that I’ve gained a few unwanted pounds that I do not like, but know that I will eventually drop. How do I know this? Because I will utilize the same healthy eating and fitness practices that helped me lose two pounds a week and keep that weight off for years.

I will make GOOD CHOICES.

Here is a video I created that demonstrates, in a fun and entertaining way, some good and bad choices confronting us in our daily lives.

GOOD MIKE VS. BAD MIKE



Some anticipated questions, along with my answers, about the above video:

Q: Were you really smoking?
A: No, those were fake cigarettes that my wife bought for Halloween.
Q: Were you really drinking?
A: No, just pretending. I’ve not tasted alcohol since 1992.
Q: Were you really eating those Doritos?
A: Yes…and they were good!
Q: What’s with you and that wig?
A: I Miss My Hair
Q: How’s the shoulder?
A: Sill painful, but getting better every day.


Life is all about choices, some good and some bad. We all have the power to make the right choices that can help us live a healthier, happier, longer, and more rewarding life.

Until next time…

peace,

Mike

Friday Video: I Miss My Hair...Still!

While on the mend from my recent shoulder surgery, I received this nice comment from Heidi over at Health Nut Wannabee Mom:

HEALTH NUT WANNABEE MOM said...
awwwwww I am sorry that you are in such pain! I am going to check out your videos. I love them but the I WANT HAIR one is my favorite of all time! Get better soon!
October 23, 2008 10:12 PM

This reminded me how much I like Heidi and her excellent health blog (check it out when you get the chance), and how much I really like my funny music video I Miss My Hair.

It also inspired me to post it one more time to afford those of you who may have missed it the first few times the opportunity to watch and laugh. And for those of you, like Heidi, to watch it again and again and again...

Please enjoy my funny music video about my lament at missing my missing hair:

I Miss My Hair

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

peace,

Mike

Tags, Awards, and Hit Songs

For the past few weeks, I’ve been busy with family matters, cross-country travel, and the excitement and arduous efforts associated with promoting my funny music video, I Miss My Hair…more on that later.

While I was away, I was tagged twice and nominated for a couple of nice blogging awards. One of the many benefits I get from writing this blog is the wonderful interaction from other bloggers—like getting to know Patricia over at Communication Exchange and Lea at Oceans of Perspectives. I have been double tagged by these two fine bloggers. Here is the list of rules from both tags:

1. List these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.

1. Link the person who tagged you.
2. Mention the rules
3. Tell six unspectacular quirks of yours.
4. Tag six bloggers by linking.
5. Leave a comment for each blogger.

Okay, I’ve listed the rules and linked both sites. Now for the hard/fun part—facts about myself. Since I am a playful, funny guy, I will combine the two tags, as well as accurate facts salted with some fun fiction, and let you sort out what’s real or not.

I collect turtles.

I have driven across this great country of ours over a dozen times—from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Many times by myself.

I have not tasted alcohol since Father’s Day, 1992.

I once met Stevie Wonder in a men’s room at LAX.

Through proper nutrition, exercise, a high-fiber diet, and supplements I was able to lower my total cholesterol from 276 down to 183—in eighteen months.

I am a huge Boston Red Sox fan.

Livelife365 originally began as a vlog—a video-driven website with over 200 videos featuring the same Health, Personal Development, and Entertainment topics I talk about in this blog.

I once appeared on the game show Let’s Make A Deal and won the Big Deal of the Day.

I used to suffer so badly from stage fright and a fear of public speaking that while attending college I dropped out of a speech class three times before finally sticking with it and passing it.

I have been married three times.

I once performed the Heimlich Maneuver on my mother, successfully freeing up a chunk of partially masticated beef from her choking throat.

Back in the day, I was one of the best baseball players in my high school.

I have a 26-year-old son.

The only thing deterring me from becoming a full-fledged vegan is the fact that I still consume (in small quantities) some cheeses.

While the combination of the two lists should equal thirteen, I listed fourteen for good luck.

I have tagged the following blogs and I am leaving comments alerting them of their great fortune (being tagged by me) as we speak. These are some of the blogs that I visit regularly and enjoy reading:

Steven Video
EZ Great Life
A Junk Foodaholic’s Journey
The Good Life
Creating Wealth and Health
Grow Your Own Vegetables
Wisdom Hypnosis
Ramblings of a Writer
Creative Cafe
The Matthias Chronicles

That’s an even ten excellent blogs—please give them a visit!

Next up: Another Brillante Weblog Premio Award.

Skye at Ramblings of a Writer nominated me—thanks, Skye! And thanks for your patience! Here are the rules for this wonderful award:

(1) Put the logo on your blog
(2) Add a link to the person who awarded you
(3) Nominate at least 7 other blogs
(4) Add links to those blogs on yours
(5) Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs

Here, in no particular order, are five great blogs that I enjoy reading just about every day:

Healthnut Wannabee Mom
Paul’s Health Blog
Amy Oops
Crotchety Old Man
Orange Derange

Comments coming up!

Lastly, Polly at Random Ramblings has given me The Smile Award.


If you would like me to consider you for this award (I need to pass it on, and I will, but I am linked/blogged-out right now), please leave a comment. Thanks again Polly!

Whew! While I am deeply flattered and most appreciative for being recognized by these highly respected fellow bloggers, I can’t wait to get back to writing some regular content. Over the next several weeks, I will be featuring the content you have come to expect from livelife365—Health and Fitness tips, Nutritional and Diet articles, Inspirational and Motivational posts, all written with a touch of humor and tongue-in-cheek. And fun stuff, like I Miss My Hair.

Just a few last words about my Hair video. I would like to thank all of you who have watched, laughed, and commented on this vid. The feedback has been more than any artist could hope for. In only a few weeks, the video is pushing 1500 hits on YouTube, surpassing all of my other videos except my green tea vid (Drink Green Tea Every Day). That tea video, by the way, averages close to 100 hits a day, and comes up number one out of over 3700 other tea vids on the YouTube search engine. I can’t explain its popularity, just as I am often flummoxed by why some of my other videos do not do better.

If you have not seen this video, please take a look and let me know what you think. If you have already seen it, why not watch it again—heck, I’ve seen it 100’s of times and still enjoy it.



As always, you can enjoy all of my other videos at my video site, livelife365.com.

peace,
Mike

Stay Tuned...

For those of you who are sick of staring at the same post for these past several days—good news! I have returned from an emergency trip across the country and I am armed and ready and willing to write some new stuff. I appreciate all of the wonderful comments on my last post about my very successful humorous music video, I Miss My Hair. And really appreciate your patience with my keeping that post up while I was away. I did manage to sneak in a few hours here and there to try to keep up with Entrecard drops and other social networking chores, but, for the most part, I was busy with family matters.

Hopefully, in future posts, I will be able to elaborate more on why I was called away, but I can say that it was a paradoxical trip Back East to my hometown—part celebration and part dealing with some of the challenges life hands us. I will say this: I enjoyed my time spent with my family and was inspired, thankful, and thrilled to be a part of my brother’s wedding.

While I was away I was tagged twice and nominated for two blogging awards. I have not forgotten these wonderful honors. I will respond to all four in my next post…which will be forthcoming very soon.

Until then, it is good to be back. The photo I chose for this post represents my mood; happy, but still in a bit of a fog.

peace,
Mike

I Miss My Hair

What kind of website it this, anyway?

If I were to say that livelife365 is a Health and Fitness site, most of those who are frequent readers would agree with that statement. I often write about health, diet, and nutrition.

Okay, so livelife365 is a Healthy Lifestyle site, then?

Yes. But I have also written about the importance of setting goals and maintaining balance in our lives.

Umm, so, this is a Self-Improvement blog?

You are correct. But—

There’s always a but with you!

Correct again. Given that I have written travel posts...

Okay…

And humorous slices of life.

I see, but…

And I’m all about inspirational topics.

Wow, I didn’t know.

Of course you didn’t.

Livelife365 is a site dedicated to Health, Personal Development, and Entertainment—it says so right at the top of the web page (at least it does on my video site.


Okay, so what you’re trying to say is…?

That livelife365, both this blog and my video site, is about…

LIFE!

…and life encompasses more than one category or genre. Life cannot be pigeonholed.

Interesting…but what does all this have to do with the title of this post?

I Miss My Hair

Sounds like a personal problem to me.

My point exactly!

While I enjoy sharing my thoughts and programs about health, motivation, personal development and how-to tips, what I really love to do is entertain. Making others laugh is a passion of mine—something I have been able to successfully do all my life. And music…I have always dabbled in songwriting, while fooling around with an assortment of musical instruments—starting way back when I was a kid and wanted to learn how to play the drums, but instead somehow got talked into dragging home a baritone horn to torture my parents with, up to my current passion: guitar.


Combine all those attributes and desires, along with a theatrical background (I majored in theatre while in college, a long, long time ago; back when I had long, flowing hair!), and you have the creative cocktail for my latest music video, I Miss My Hair.

Inspiration is a fickle mistress. If you constantly wait for it to come to you, you may be waiting a long time. But sometimes it happens just like that image, you know the one, with the light bulb over the guy’s head. Snap! Just like that!

This idea came to me while I was working on my political music video, Pick One, in the Electric Canyon studios with my buddy Dale. We somehow got on the topic of hair, or my lack thereof—I chuckled (which I usually do when reminded of my follicle-challenged dome), then sighed, and said, “Man, sometimes I miss my hair.” I paused, looked over at Dale, then added, “That sounds like it could be a song. I’m gonna work on it.” Dale looked at me the way sound guys in the music biz for decades have looked at guys like me—sure, whatever, call me when you’re ready to record.

The rest, as they say, is history. I went home and did that thing we songwriters do, then visited Dale and laid down some tracks. Then Dale did that thing he does so well. Using his magic touch, he sweetened my voice and very-average acoustic guitar playing, and then created the Hungry & Poor Band (all Dale) by adding percussion, bass, and electric guitar.

I then pulled out my trusty video camera and went to work shooting hours of video, that Dale and I (again, mostly Dale), painstakingly edited down to this four minutes and forty-nine second music video:

I MISS MY HAIR

I have created nearly two hundred videos for my website, livelife365.com, and close to fifty blog posts for this blog, but can honestly say that I am most proud of this music video. From concept to finished product, it was one of those projects that not only brought me great personal satisfaction and artistic gratification, but was a pleasure to do.

Big kudos go out to Dale at ProSound for his amazing efforts and precision work (and for putting up with me), as well as his stellar performance in the video—he’s the little guy with the hungry & poor sign playing the drums, among other things. Thanks, Dale!

For those of you who have yet to watch I MISS MY HAIR, please enjoy!

And for those who have already seen this video, why not take another look? You may pick up something that you missed the first time through.

Lastly, please have a good laugh on me! Remember, laughter is a good thing. While it may not help you lose weight or flatten your belly, it is as important to your overall health and well-being as proper diet, adequate sleep, and everyday breathing. Hey, this is, after all, a Health blog, right?

Huh?

Never mind.

Until next time…


peace,
Mike