Interview with Tim of "Everyday Living" blog

I'm happily enjoying my visit with my son and daughter in law. Fall has arrived with our first freeze last night. Life couldn't be better so I thought it would be a great time to share with you one of my favorite, uplifting blogs and also feature the first male blogger.

I first discovered the blog, "Everyday Living" when I joined Entrecard almost a year ago and I quickly became a fan. Tim's blog is varied and covers many topics from his personal weight loss journey, to humor, to "everyday" life. Throughout it all, Tim maintains a sense of perspective and shares his gentle and amusing style with his readers. Spending time reading Tim's blog reminds me of visiting a favorite brother who is always welcoming and lots of fun. So sit back and enjoy getting acquainted with one special guy.

1. Tim, why did you start blogging?

I guess the main reason I started blogging, is to try and maintain some semblance of sanity. I have to admit, that before I ever started doing this, I had no idea what a blog or blogging was. Once I discovered what it actually was, I thought it sounded like something fun to do. After spending every day teaching and never going anywhere, I needed something to take my mind off of my everyday life. So, I did some searching and ended-up on Blogger. I got myself a book on html and css and taught myself just enough coding to get myself into trouble.

As to what to blog about, well I started to write about my experiences as a stay at home dad, but after about a month, I ran out of ideas, so I though it might be fun to post jokes and funny pictures. That lasted about another month before I got tired of posting other people’s work and not doing any writing. Besides, I started blogging to write, right? Now, although the main theme of my site is about my journey with losing weight, I usually just write about whatever is on my mind.

2. One of my favorite features is your Friday Fotos. Where do you find all those wonderful signs?

I’m glad you enjoy them. Finding them is growing more and more difficult. There are a great many pictures out there, but very few that are appropriate for my site. You see, I like to post humorous pictures that most everyone of all ages can enjoy. As to where I find them: I use Stumbleupon and there are about four or five sites that I visit each week. Also, if I come upon a photo in my travelings around the web, I’ll bookmark that page for future use.

3. One of your recent posts "Shopping the Manly Way" was actually a Paid Post but the way in which you wrote it was so entertaining, it kept the reader captivated. What is your advice for those who want to try some paid for posts?

If you are at all interested in page rank, I would suggest not doing them. Google frowns upon Pay Per Post and labels them as duplicate content. Once a site is labeled, they will go in and strip your rank and, if they are feeling really frisky, remove your site from its registry. Firstly, I really do not like doing them, but when I do, I always post one of my regular articles within five minutes (to try and bury the PPP). With that said, I’ll explain why I write those posts the way I do. Anyway, once I found out that Google considers PPP duplicate content, I decided to make sure that they could not say that about my articles. So, when the companies ask for 250 words, I give them 500-700 words. One of the main reasons I write my blog is to entertain and try and help people so, I like to try and either give information on a product or service or, if I just can’t think of anything, at least make it entertaining for the reader.

So, my advice if you want to do PPP is to try not to make your posts look the other several hundred thousand out there that say the exact same thing in the exact same way. Make your posts different from all the others. Teach your readers about the product or else keep them entertained while they read about it. Try not to make your posts sound like a PPP. Yes, people will be able to tell that it’s a PPP, but you don’t have to make it easy for them.

4. On a more serious note, you are choosing to share your weight loss journey with your readers. You've done such an amazing job and you are such an inspiration. Is there any advice you can share with those of us who are struggling?

Thank you for those kind words. I decided to share my journey as a way of documenting my progress and also to help others who may be going through some of the same problems I have gone through. I would start by saying that although diets have their uses, this should also be a journey of changing your lifestyle. You will need to change what and how much you eat; otherwise, you will end-up right back where you started. This doesn’t mean that you can no longer have any of your favorite foods; it just means that you have to control your portion size.

Now, to answer your question, I would say that the best thing to concentrate on is not how much you have to lose, but how much you have already lost. Even if this is your first week and have only lost one pound; it’s still ONE pound that you are no longer carrying around. Something else to keep in mind is that there will be days when you will just want to chuck it all and quit. I have had many days like this and the only thing that I can advise you to do, is just keep plugging away. Even if it doesn’t look like you are losing weight, chances are good that you are, but it just isn’t measurable by the scale. Dieting is very difficult, if it was easy, everyone would do it.

If you are first starting out, I would highly recommend that you take some baseline measurements of your legs, arms, waist, and hips. When your body begins to lose fat, it will begin at your extremities, not at your stomach, as we would like. There have been several times throughout my diet that it would appear that I was not losing any weight, but when I took my measurements, I could see improvement. I would also suggest that you do not weight yourself more than once a week.

Once again, try not to dwell on how much you may have yet to lose, but try and concentrate on how far you’ve come. I say this in many of my articles on weight loss: if you have any questions or would just like to talk, feel free to stop by and leave a comment and I will do my best to help. Good luck and remember: you are not in this alone.

5. Could you please share one of your favorite pictures with us and tell us why it is special to you.

This is a photo taken on the day before the new owners took possession of my grandmother and uncle’s house (that’s my sister on the front porch). Whenever I look at this picture, it reminds me of all the wonderful memories we had there while I was growing up. We would go there on Thanksgivings and Christmas Eve and I would be able to see my cousins. I recall being able to spend the night there and my uncle would take us out to dinner. I just love the place! We lost my grandmother in 1981 and my uncle, who had been living in the house, died last year. Because of this, after over 50 years in our family, the house was sold and now belongs to someone else. Although I will never be able to go back there, I will always have this picture and my memories.