My ass no longer needs you. Neither does my double chin, or pretty much any other part of my chubby body. Why do you have to be so damn appealing and want me to eat you? We need to break up. I’m sorry it has to be this way, but we do. It isn’t forever, I hope, but maybe one day, when I am thinner, we can be friends again.

Love,
Dominick

As much as I wish dieting were as simple as sending a letter to the food you wish not to eat and telling it to avoid you, in reality, the food ain’t gonna listen. That is because food is an inanimate object that fatties like me love to stuff our faces with then make excuses for why our asses have swelled to massive proportions. Sure, I can make excuses about not being able to work out much due to my disability, but stuffing my face with chicken wings, French fries, and chips and dip isn’t helping me any.

That’s why I have made an active decision to change my life, my eating lifestyle, and hope I find a way to slim down. Being fat does not help a disabled man at all. Watching Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution and realizing the reality about the food we put in our bodies did help and Ash has started reading food labels like a hawk. I’ve been making little changes, one at a time, but now it is almost time to give up my last bad habit, chips and dip, and what has been a relatively smooth transition, has become hard and sad for me.

I have to tell you, my weakness is not junk food in the traditional sense. It is fried food. I also used to be a pop drinker. I love Coke and Mello Yello, especially. When I realized how much high fructose corn syrup was in pop, giving it up was my first step. I have been pop free since April. Ash has also been trying to eliminate all the high fructose corn syrup from our diet. That was hard with ketchup still in our cupboards. In this economy, it’s foolish to waste what you have, but once we finished that ketchup, we officially became a high fructose corn syrup free house (minus the pop others in the house drink, but I don’t), as of June. Food tastes so much better without all the additives and preservatives.

My favorite fried food is chicken wings. I tried to cut them out almost exclusively from my diet. Since April I have had wings only once or twice and I cut them out of my diet completely in June. French fries, another favorite food, have been gone since April and Chicken tenders I have had only twice since April, baked not fried. I have avoided cheese sticks (only once since April), egg rolls (none for a year), fried chicken (none since before April), etc. It’s actually been easier than I thought, though I do miss the convenience of these foods.

We’ve cut down on eating out. A once in a week or more experience has become once every two or three weeks. We also do not go to burger joints if we go out to eat. I’ve cut pizza out almost completely, indulging in it only 2-3 times since April and if we do go out I get a salad or ranchero soft chicken tacos at Taco Bell and I only eat two of them as opposed to my nachos supreme, Chalupa, taco meal I used to get.

Even with salads, I am trying to cut back. I try to go for the oil based dressings as opposed to the creamy ones. I try not to oversaturate my salads with junk like crutons and bacon bits. I try to fill it with more vegetables and cheese (I need calcium). So, little changes are happening. I drink a lot more water these days and I hope my body is pleased with all the progress I feel I am making.

BUT…now it is time to give up my one last vice. Chip Dip. I am clinging to the chip dip like a child does their security blanket. I am a dipper. Giving up all my favorite foods has meant I no longer dip that much. No chicken wings in ranch or bleu cheese. No French fries in ketchup, cheese or both (or gravy – yum). No tenders in BBQ, sweet and sour or honey mustard. I am no longer Dom the Dipper and I think that is okay. However, I am fighting urges to stuff my face with chips and dip, with cravings like nobody’s business. Every day I want dip and every day I have an internal battle to tell myself why I cannot have it. Usually, my logical mind loses the argument and I indulge.

My only hope is to convince Ash not to buy any more of my brand of dip when its gone. I have come so far. I guess not being able to weigh myself does not make it easier. I cannot see any progress I have made to know if all my efforts are working. I should mention I don’t over-indulge in the dip when I do eat it. Still, it is not good for my body, and I am trying to change my eating lifestyle. Hopefully, chip dip and I will break up soon. Until then, I can only struggle to give up my last food vice, every day it sits in my fridge.

Technorati Tags: Chip Dip, Potato Chip, Diet, Fried Food, Lifestyle Change, Eating, Lose Weight

The web has made it so those not in the same place as others can experience what is going on, with them. Last night, I had the chance to experience the events of my hometown, as they unfolded on Facebook. I grew up in the small town of Walbridge, Ohio. Pretty much everyone knew everyone there. I went to Lake High School, which served students from Walbridge, Millbury, Moline and Lake Twp, all surrounding areas for the school. My graduating class had less than 200 people in it. Many of us hung out at the local swimming pool. We knew kids in nearly every grade while attending school. It was just a small town community.

Now that I am in Michigan, I feel at a loss. My community needs me and I can’t rush down to help like I want to. My high school was destroyed. Entire chunks of the school are gone. At least five people have died. One was Bailey Bowman. She was just a little kid when I was a young teen at the local swimming pool, Aqua Terrace. She used to play swim games like pom pom with us older kids. Just 20, Bailey died last night on the way to seek shelter at the local police station. Four year old, Hayden Walters and his mother, Mary, died last night. Mary’s husband, Ryan, and her daughter, Maddie are in the hospital. The Lake High School valedictorian lost her father, last night. Today was supposed to have been graduation for Lake High School, but it was postponed. The community is devastated by these losses.

Houses have been decimated, extending from an eight mile path. The Lake Twp police station had it’s roof ripped off and it’s torn apart. Metcalf Field, across from the High School, has a lot of damage. People have lost their entire houses, yet I am too far away to go help. What can I do? I can do only what I am able to do online and through friends who can travel down to Toledo for me.

I am starting a fundraiser to collect money to help those devastated by the Ohio tornadoes. Every penny will be used to buy supplies that will be delivered to those who have lost their homes in this terrible storm. We’ll be getting things like water, food, clothing, toiletries, gift cards, etc.

Please donate and help my hometown out. You can donate via Credit Card, Check or Paypal using the link below:

Technorati Tags: Lake Twp, Tornadoes, Millbury, Destruction, Lake High School, Storm, Tornado, Disaster, Donate, Help, Raise Money, Tragedy

For starters, I wrote about starting at UM-Flint. I finished my first semester with a 3.7 GPA. The sad part about this is when tallying up the work in the class I received a B+ in, I would have/should have had an A. Due to some attendance snafus caused by Your Ride, the public transport service here, I had my grade dropped, so I lost out on the possibility of a 4.0. Though my GPA was good enough, I didn’t make the Dean’s List because I only took 11 credit hours and you have to have 12. This next semester I’m taking 12 and am determined to make the Dean’s List!

Ashtyn transferred in from APU to UM-Flint. She’ll be finishing up her degree in Psychology and Anthropology and then plans to get an additional Bachelor’s in Forensics. She won’t be able to get that degree at UM-Flint though. She transferred in with a 3.9 GPA. She will be taking most of her classes at UM-Flint online so she can help me during my classes, on campus. I’m really happy for her.

AND…speaking of Ashtyn we celebrated our 7th anniversary on November 27!! Robert turned 15 on November 5. He still looks about 10 though. Braxton, meanwhile is still 5, Kevin turned 40 on November 20th and I just turned 29 yesterday! All in all, the family is doing pretty okay!

Ashtyn, Jerry (a friend from UM-Flint) and I finished casting for our upcoming internet TV show, FACESPACE. It is going to be really funny. We will begin filming in late January/early February and I am very excited to be purchasing my first professional camera with leftover loan money from this semester. I know the money could be spent elsewhere, but this is a serious investment towards my lifelong career pursuits.

In other news, we are actively looking for a new house, still in the Flint, MI area. I still want to eventually live in Connecticut, near New York, but since Ash and I are both in school here for the next few years, it’ll be nice to find a more comfortable living location. We also hope to have a van this year. We’ve had a lot of setbacks trying to get a van, but hopefully this is our chance to finally have one!

My transition is finally starting to move in the right direction and I am EXTREMELY THRILLED about this. My name change is getting finalized. I will officially be Dominick very very soon! I also am getting set up with a therapist at UM Ann Arbor that takes my insurance! Traveling to Ann Arbor with no vehicle of my own is going to be a costly endeavor, but it is going to be well worth it as I get my letter of recommendation to finally start testosterone. This is over seven years in the coming. I am so giddy at the thought of finally being on T!

Anyhow, stay tuned for more postings. I’m planning to do more video blogs, just because I won’t have a lot of time to type up full length posts, but I do plan to make this site more active. It really is a beautiful site!

Technorati Tags: Dominick Evans, FACESPACE, video, blogging, UM-Flint, acting, theater, classes, grades

When you are young, you don’t think about your mortality, as a human. Heck, my dad wasn’t young, proving most people don’t think about it until its upon them. You should, because sometimes the inevitable is preventable.

I got a reality check this week. At my latest doctor’s appointment, my Electrocardiogram showed abnormal activity. I haven’t had an EKG for about a year, and that last time, everything looked good. As someone with a muscle disease who also has a history of heart problems in my family, I’m conscientious enough to make sure I get my heart checked regularly.

I’ve been feeling fine lately. Other than being tired from my frequent physical therapy sessions, I haven’t had much illness. Every PT session I get my Blood Pressure taken and it’s always within a very healthy and normal range. I’ve not had problems with high/bad cholesterol nor have I experienced any chest pain, so I’m somewhat confused about the lack of symptoms when it comes to this abnormality.

My doctor told me not to worry. She would be getting additional tests as a precautionary measure. She didn’t want me worrying until she was worried and at this point, she isn’t. The problem is that my heart wall has thickened. It’s assumed I have something called Left Ventricular Hypertrophy. She has to rule out other things and make sure the Left Ventricular Hypertrophy isn’t serious.

The good news is that if it is a negative form of Left Ventricular Hypertrophy, its in the early stages. Also, a positive form of Left Ventricular Hypertrophy occurs naturally from working out, so I have to wonder if going from nothing to PT, which is really strenuous might be causing the irregularity. Irregardless, I’m trying not to worry, but I am also thinking long and hard about my life. Whether everything is fine or whether I have another bump in my road ahead of me, I have thought about how delicate life really is.

I have realized that I can and should make changes in my life to keep myself healthy. Saying I’ll wait until tomorrow isn’t an option because we never know if there will be a tomorrow. I’m going to take this opportunity to make sure I do have a second chance and I think everyone else reading this should consider how fragile their life is, too.

Are you doing what you want with your life? Are you keeping yourself healthy? Are you happy? Can you honestly answer all of these questions or are you dissatisfied with something in your life, because now is your time to change it.

Now is the time.

Technorati Tags: thoughts, seize the day, health, heart problem, Left Ventricular Hypertrophy, awakening, wake up call

I know that I’ve somewhat neglected this blog, mostly due to illness, but I’m ready to get back in the game. I had to think a little bit about what my goal is with Dominick Evans Online. I’ve been quite random in my postings on here, in the past. First, I wanted to make it clear that I’m not out to inspire people. I hate when people say that about those of us in disabilities. Just by living my every day life I supposedly inspire others. I don’t get why. Sure, I have to do things differently to get up and perform daily tasks, but that’s normalcy for me and I don’t think my getting out of bed, when everyone else in the world does it, should inspire anyone. If I solved the World Hunger crisis, then you could definitely be inspired by me, but c’mon! I don’t do anything necessarily spectacular!

Second, I didn’t want to make my elevator pitch too preachy. I don’t like being preached at, so I didn’t want to preach at anyone else. This is really a place for sharing my thoughts, my passion, and my zest for life and all its intricacies. So, I sat down (haha) and proceeded to write a short tagline pitch and then an expanded version. Here is what I came up with:

The Dominick Evans Online Tagline

Explore the Life and Thoughts of a Transgendered Man in a Wheelchair at Dominick Evans Online

The Dominick Evans Elevator Pitch

Dominick Evans Online is my personal blog, which I use to express my thoughts, share my passions and enlighten those who have no comprehension of what it’s like to be transgendered and in a wheelchair. A bit random from time to time, the primary focus of this blog is to show the world that just because I face different challenges life throws at me doesn’t mean I don’t still think, feel and act like anyone else. Using humor, political thought and zeal I attempt to take readers through a day in the life of Dominick Evans.

So, what do you think about my tagline and my elevator pitch. Does it accurately describe the kind of things I’ve posted on here at Dominick Evans Online? I hope it has!

Let me know what you think. I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Technorati Tags: Dominick Evans, Online, Transgendered, Wheelchair, Disability, Man, Personal Blog, Thoughts

1 Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen (X)
2 The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte (X)
4 Harry Potter series – JK Rowling (X)
5 To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee (X)
6 The Bible (X)
7 Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte (X)
8 Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell (X)
9 His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens (X)
11 Little Women – Louisa M Alcott (X)
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare (X)
15 Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveler’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch – George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell (X)
22 The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald (X)
23 Bleak House – Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky (X)
28 Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame (X)
31 Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis (X)
34 Emma – Jane Austen (X)
35 Persuasion – Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – CS Lewis (X)
37 The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne (X)
41 Animal Farm – George Orwell (X)
42 The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown (X)
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving
45 The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery (X)
47 Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies – William Golding (X)
50 Atonement – Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi – Yann Martel
52 Dune – Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen (X)
55 A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens (X)
58 Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
62 Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History – Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road – Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick – Herman Melville (X)
71 Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens (X)
72 Dracula – Bram Stoker (X)
73 The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett (X)
74 Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses – James Joyce (X)
76 The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal – Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession – AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens (X)
82 Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple – Alice Walker (X)
84 The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web – EB White (X)
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (X)
90 The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery (X)
93 The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
94 Watership Down – Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas (X)
98 Hamlet – William Shakespeare (X)
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl (X)
100 Les Miserables – Victor Hugo (X)
101 Quran

Wow, only 37. I need to get reading!

Technorati Tags: classics, BBC, must read list, book list, classic literature, stories, Dickens, Shakespeare, Of Mice and Men, Lolita, The Bible, read

So, stay tuned, for my return. I’m hoping its sooner, rather than later.

Before I talk about my birthday, I just want to say how absolutely excited I am about the upcoming reviews I’ll be doing here at Dominick Evans Online. The reception about my makeover has been quite good. I’ll be having a chance to work with a variety of clothing and lifestyle companies, including Gillette. Stay tuned for this part of my blog, as I make myself over, in all the right ways!

Back to my birthday. I spent two days offline. It was great! That’s not to say I didn’t miss all the people I’m used to talking with each day on Twitter or through my blog. It was just nice to relax. I received Fable II for Christmas and I spent several hours playing it on my birthday. What a fun game! I’ve really been enjoying it and the graphics totally rock!

I also spent time with Ashtyn and we had the most delicious dinner. As the birthday boy, I had the chance to choose the meal. We had delectable, juicy, absolutely delicious, organic lamb roast. It was roasted with rosemary, lemon juice and other mouthwatering herbs. It was the best lamb I’ve ever tasted. I don’t get why people don’t like lamb. This was so good!

Sylvia (my mother in law) made delicious Greek-style potatoes. Her two best friends were born in Greece. They gave her the recipe. She’s been making them for years now and they are so delicious. They have lemon juice, herbs, and some sort of chicken broth or bouillon that is used. Her friends go back to Greece every year, so this is one of the authentic recipes they eat in Greece. As a potato connoisseur, and a lover of anything Greek, I am in love with these potatoes.

After enjoying this delicious dinner, I watched movies. I really enjoyed Eagle Eye, which is going to be released on DVD soon (I’ll be featuring a review of it on li-reviews.com in the next few days). Overall, it was a really amazing day!

P.S. We’ll be using the leftover lamb for homemade Gyros this weekend!

Technorati Tags: birthday, Dominick Evans, Greek style potatoes, lamb, lamb roast, organic, birthday dinner

I have a few really big thank yous I need to hand out. Without these people, this fundraiser wouldn’t nearly have been a success. I’ll start with the most obvious.

To my Grandfather, Willis (who may never read this), who was the first one to donate. His donation set the tone for this fundraiser, and helped us to buy two really terrific toys for these kids. I love you Willie. You rock! With so much going on, and the death of your beloved wife of 65 years, you still managed to share your heart, by giving to others.

To Chris Brogan, who inspired me to start trying to raise money on Twitter. He also gave MDP United a generous donation, so we could buy even more toys for our kids. Chris, you are one of the most caring, genuine, people I know and I’m very glad I met you this year. It’s certainly been one of the highlights of 2008, for me.

To Keith Burtis, for being one of the best online friends a guy could ask for in this day and age. Offering a wonderful donation, putting up his services, and encouraging others to give, Keith is one of the people who kept me going, even when it didn’t seem like we’d come near our goal.

To Deb Brown, who also spread the word, helped me to get things organized for this fundraiser and who offered her own donation and services if others donated. Deb, you are a very special lady. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for being such a wonderful friend and for helping me out with this fundraiser.

To everyone else who donated. There are many of you, and I’ll be acknowledging all of you in the articles I write. I am so grateful to every one of you and am so happy to have you in my life. You all deserve a loud round of applause for being so magnificent.

You helped purchase:

A Wooden, Pro-Style Art Kit
A Beautiful Makeup Kit
Tinker Bell on DVD
A Suds and Surprise Dora
A My Little Pony Scootaloo On the Go!
Horton Hears a Who on DVD
WALL-E on DVD
A Specially Designed Computer Game for Children w/ Special Needs
MySims for Wii
SimCity Creator for Wii
A 25th Anniversary Cabbage Patch Doll
A Hannah Montana Doll

All of the kids received their top two most requested items. We also had donations through some of the companies I’ve worked with reviewing. I’d like to thank them all, as well.

Finally, to our families and the kids: Nissa, Kody and Rikki, Scarlett, Melanie and Jacob. Without you, we wouldn’t have had a chance to open up our hearts and share Christmas with you.

Stay tuned for pictures and more information on this fundraiser. Again, thank you for supporting this fundraiser and MDP United. I can’t thank you all enough and I mean that from the bottom of my heart.

Love to All this Holiday Season!

Technorati Tags: fundraiser, MDP United, Muscular Dystrophy, families, raise money, help families, thank you

I am asking from the bottom of my heart for you to help me raise $500 ASAP for these kids. I was inspired by Chris Brogan, who raised $500 in 20 minutes. I wish I could do what he did and match it, but I don’t have that kind of money this year. That’s why I’m asking all of you. Please, donate $5, $10, $20 or whatever you can give.

You can see pictures of the kids you’ll be helping by: CLICKING HERE.

Please help these families by donating below:

If you have trouble: donate to Paypal directly:

DONATE $50 and @debworks will give you a free 1/2 hour consult to see how toxic your home is

DONATE $60 and @keithburtis will give you a free hour of social media consulting

DONATE $100 and I (@dominickevans) will offer up to 10, well written, well edited articles for your business. I used to be a full time tech writer and editor. I have worked with many companies as their writer.

I’ll be using all the money raised to buy these children the gifts they want this Christmas.

***UPDATE*** - We’ve raised $380 dollars, but we only have one more hour, to raise our goal of $500 can you help?!

Technorati Tags: Christmas, fundraiser, Muscular Dystrophy, donate, help, raise money, Chris Brogan