Healthy Writer

A New and Improved Healthy Writer Blog is at www.HealthyWriter.com

2010-06-27T16:43:00.003-05:00

As we've discussed before, holidays, anniversaries and birthdays are wonderful times to pause, evaluate where we are, celebrate what we've accomplished, and make plans for needed improvements. This kind of self-reflection inspired Trish Milburn to start this blog in anticipation of the big 4-0, and we all continue to embrace that same spirit with everything we do. With the approach of the Healthy Writer blog's one-year anniversary at the end of July 2010, we saw a wonderful opportunity to push even further with what we can achieve individually and as a group.

The celebration begins with a new, improved, redesigned Healthy Writer at www.HealthyWriter.com!

Come visit us there!

Keep Moving Forward!

2010-06-25T05:19:00.000-05:00

Among the many changes you'll see in the next few weeks at Healthy Writer blog we've discontinued Inspiration Sundays. However, I hope you’ll agree that this simple quote still deserves a post:

Keep Moving Forward

I’m always inspired by Walt Disney and his words. A man who started with only a creative vision and a talent for drawing began an empire. Growing up near Walt Disney World, it was easy to see the awe inspiring buildings, theme parks, and man-made lakes, but sometimes hard to remember that it all on the same shaky ground as my own writing career.

You probably didn’t know it, but Walt struggled in his early years. He did any work he could including a series of Army education films that would be considered very politically incorrect these days. Like many writers and artists he suffered setbacks: the first studio he founded went bankrupt, he lost the rights to one of his creations (Oswald the Lucky Rabbit), and he couldn’t find a distributor for either of the first two Mickey Mouse films.

Through it all, Walt kept moving forward. He tried new things and refused to look backwards for too long. His philosophy is as useful to writers as it is to people who strive to be healthy. If you’ve missed a work out, eaten an unhealthy meal, skipped a deadline, or failed horribly on a pitch, don’t dwell on it, move forward, and do better next time. As we work hard to reach our goals it’s easy to get sidetracked by the things we should have done instead planning the things we’ll do next. Don’t. Instead, give yourself a little time to look backward, then get back to work. Who knows, maybe someday you’ll be a household name just like Walt.

(This is the first in a series of posts that focus on Walt Disney World, the location of the next Romance Writers of America Conference. I’m not just a rabid Disney fan, I’m also a former employee. I’ve had the honor and the thrill of working in the Disney Reservation Center where we booked all restaurant and hotel reservations. If you have any Disney questions, please post them in the comments.)

In Sickness and in Health

2010-06-24T00:16:00.003-05:00

I've got a question - how do you push yourself to exercise when you're sick? Or do you? Should you?

I've heard arguments for both sides. I've read that your body needs a break when it's sick so it can focus on healing. And I've heard the arguments for staying in the groove and not letting yourself get out of the habit. I guess it depends on how sick is sick, right? A headache means keep on running. The flu, OMG please stay in bed. But what about things like miserable allergies or a cold, or something that isn't totally debilitating but still feels miserable? Do you exercise then? The Mayo Clinic says it depends on the symptoms. If they are located above the neck, then go workout. If they are below the neck, then take a break. Prevention agrees - a stuffy nose and itchy eyes or sniffles aren't enough to cancel the workout. But a chest cold or body aches? Skip it. I like their reminder for people who exercise at gyms, too! If you're contagious, don't do it.

This begs the question - who wants to exercise when they are sick? Its been my experience that when I'm sick, I feel crappy and don't want to do anything except whine and moan and be miserable *g*. But the reality is, exercise taps into those feel-good endorphins and can kick that whining and moaning to the curb, giving a burst of energy, too.

And what about eating? For me, at least, comfort food is necessary for the healing process -and comfort food never seems to be found on my healthy menu, ya know? Now, granted, the last thing I ever want to do when I'm sick is cook. But I'm more than willing to hand someone a recipe and look pathetic, hoping they'll make it for me *g* A quick google search found a bunch of healthy recipe makeovers, so I'm thinking eating healthy while sick is definitely doable. The trick is non-recipe comfort foods - and I can't think of any *g* How about you?

Do you exercise when you're sick? Or skip it? And what about comfort food? What's your favorite comfort food and how healthy is it?

Tawny Weber writes hot, spicy stories for Harlequin Blaze. In January 2010, her novella, YOU HAVE TO KISS A LOT OF FROGS, was out in the Blazing Bedtime Story anthology and her next full length Blaze,, RIDING THE WAVES, will be out in September 2010. Come by and visit her on the web at www.tawnyweber.com

Wednesday Workout

2010-06-23T01:00:00.005-05:00

Are you ready for another Wednesday Workout?

But, first how are you doing this week? Are you taking work breaks?

This week, my workouts fell by the wayside. Between a bout with viral bronchitis, graduation parties, Father’s Day, and the end of the school year stuff, any uninterrupted minute was spent vegged out in front of the television. Not my best week. But, I'm ready to jump back into my routine today.. :)

However, in between my soap opera viewing (Anyone an All My Children fan?), I did stumble across, attempt, and enjoy this arm workout below… Check it out.

Don’t forget to stretch when you’re finished.

So, what did you think?? Did you try it out?

Happy Wednesday!

*Disclaimer – The author is not responsible for any loss or damages suffered from participating in any of the above-mentioned physical activity or links as she is not qualified at this time to suggest or recommend exercise programs. The author is merely informing readers of what she does. No one should ever begin an exercise program without consulting a doctor first.

The Pros and Cons of Wii Fit

2010-06-22T00:01:00.000-05:00

Today I'm happy to host a regular reader of Healthy Writer, Sally Kilpatrick. Sally has guested with us before, and we're thrilled to have her back. Today's she's talking about the pros and cons of the Wii Fit. Welcome, Sally!

First and foremost, let me say thanks to the Healthy Writers for letting me blog today. I’m inspired by everyone’s journey and the great tales they tell, and I’m learning some great strategies as well.

I’m writing today because I finally succumbed to the hype and bought a Wii and then, in short order, the Wii Fit. I can’t tell you that I’m now fit enough to model for Victoria’s Secret, but I would also have to confess that I let my fitness goals slide in the spring as I finished up my Masters. I sometimes wonder if I wouldn’t be in worse shape without having had the Wii Fit to chastise me when I started getting too far out of line. Let me share with you what I’ve learned about it so far and then please chime in with questions and comments.

First the Cons:
• While some of the yoga and strength training activities are challenging, I can’t see getting a really, really good strength training session from the Wii Fit. Similarly, some of the cardio activities will cause you to break a sweat, but it’s nothing like a treadmill run or a stair climber binge.
• You have to turn the blessed thing on. Before I bought mine, I asked my best friend if she liked hers and/or found it effective. Her response? I suppose it would work if I used it. As in all things, discipline will be required.
• The electronic voices and trainers sometimes make me want to throw things at them. I suppose I’m better at suppressing the urge if it’s an actual human being who’s asking me to identify the reasons I’ve gained weight or who’s telling me I’m “a little shaky.”
• The suggested weights for women seem to be about right—the Wii Fit thinks a woman of my age (30-mumble, mumble) and my height (5’4”) should weigh 129, but the recommended weight for men seems to be skewed—163 for my husband who is 6’2” and has a large bone structure. Trust me when I tell you he would be way too skinny at that weight, and it’s not quite 30 pounds more than my recommended weight even though I’m much shorter than he is.

And the Pros:
• The Wii keeps up with your progress and throws electronic confetti when you reach a goal. Yay, positive reinforcement!
• As someone who had never done yoga before, I love the yoga program and now feel more confident about taking a class with the real people. The Wii Fit Plus “My Routine” is especially good for putting together a yoga program. You can also combine yoga and strength training.
• The aerobic activities as well as the Wii Sports package that generally comes with the Wii are a fun way to burn extra calories. (I love rhythm boxing, advanced step, and tennis.)
• Using the Wii Fit is a great way to supplement your regular routine and/or get a workout on a rainy day. When our treadmill died, my husband and I combined sets of stairs with Wii Fit activities, and it helped us break our respective plateaus.
• Some of the strength training exercises—particularly core ones like the traditional “plank” are quite grueling. And helpful. But mainly grueling.
• The Wii does help you with your form in yoga and strength training exercises as well as emphasizing posture and flexibility.

My conclusion?
I think Wii Fit works really well in tandem with an exercise routine that involves more vigorous cardio and strength training routines. I generally go to the gym proper on Monday and Wednesday and use the Wii Fit on Tuesdays and Thursdays—as long as that routine is going well, I see great results. I’ve also noticed recently that I do much better with smaller goals and more frequent “celebrations,” and the Wii Fit starts with two-week goals.
The Wii Fit might also be an excellent purchase for someone who is new to fitness and needs to work up to more strenuous exercises or for someone who either can’t pay a gym membership or who doesn’t live near a gym. Like anything else, some aspects would get boring, but the Wii Fit does offer a lot of variety.
Most importantly, the kids like to play balance games and do some of the aerobic activities so exercise becomes a family affair. We also like to play some of the Wii Sports games like tennis as a way to blow off steam or to burn a few extra calories if we splurge on dessert. Our newest obsession is the “Just Dance” game for Wii; trust me when I tell you MC Hammer will have you panting at the end of that dance routine. Of course, the kids have seen us fuss at our weight so much that my eight-year-old will say, “The Wii Fit is evil.” I don’t have the heart to tell him that it’s not the Wii’s fault that his mother has a chocolate addiction.

And now it’s your turn…
I’m looking forward to trying some of the Biggest Loser programs or the Jillian Michaels one. Does anyone want to share an experience with those programs or the Wii in general? Has anyone thrown something at the television because they stepped on the balance board and the voice said, “Oo” in that electronic mock-horror way only the Wii Fit can do? I’d love to hear your Wii Fit stories, and I’ll answer any of your questions that I can. Thanks again to all these lovely ladies, the Healthy Writers.

Why Do I Keep Going?

2010-06-21T00:01:00.002-05:00

I recently acknowledged that I have accomplished almost nothing in terms of weight loss this year. On November 17, 2009, I first hit 28.8 pounds down. This past Thursday (6/17/10) I weighed in at 29.2 pounds down. .4 of a pound is not a lot to show for more than 6 months of effort.

Yes, I did gain some weight in December and entered 2010 on January 5 at 26 pounds down. On March 30, 2010, I reached 33.2 pounds down and felt like 35 was just a week or two away. In actuality, it was a start of a couple of months stalled in a two-pound range between 31 and 33 pounds down that was broken by a two-week trip to California where I gained 5.2 pounds. On May 25, 2010, I was just 27.4 pounds down.

I need to figure out what I can do to continue to lose weight, but that is not actually the point of this post. I'm more interested in what keeps me going. Why am I still putting in all this effort when I can make a valid argument that I've barely lost any weight since last summer when I first hit 20 pounds down on June 23?

The brilliant group leader of my typical Weight Watchers meeting always says we need another reason besides losing weight to keep attending meetings and keep putting in all this effort. He often mentions that a lot of people actually lost weight at the last meeting they attended with the implication that success was not enough to motivate them to keep trying. Why do I keep going?

Promises and Planning: In my post Plan and Prepare for Success, I mentioned that I ask myself every so often: What kind of support systems and habits can I build into my life that will help me lose weight and ultimately maintain a healthy lifestyle? These support systems, habits and commitments I've made have saved me from the temptation of considering quitting or losing hope.

The diet and fitness promises I made to myself in the beginning of 2009 and renewed in January of 2010 to attend 45-50 Weight Watcher meetings and work out at least 100 times a year ensure that I can't ever give up for long stretches of time. In August of last year, I started to blog at least weekly at the Healthy Writer blog, and that forces me to confront the emotions that may be holding me back on a regular basis. I'm also presenting a workshop on being a Healthy Writer with Tawny and Trish at RWA National in Orlando July 29th, and I want to be able to feel like I'm giving it my all and have accomplished a lot when I talk about my journey.

Clothing: I've blogged a lot about the total joy I feel when I can fit into smaller sized clothing and how I have donated all my plus-sized clothing and most of my size 16 and 14 clothing to charity. Whenever I gain some weight or even start longing for some of the outfits I've given away, I can start worrying about what will I wear if I go up a size. There's no way I'm going to buy a whole new wardrobe in a size I've eliminated in my closet. I can't go back. I can just keep moving forward wearing my newer, smaller clothes and perhaps dream about getting even smaller. I love the fact that I am now in regular sizes and can go into any department store and find flattering clothes that fit. I'm not going to lose that, and I'm fairly confident that if I gave up on my journey to becoming a healthy writer I would start gaining the weight back.

Appearance and Positive Body Image: I like how I look and feel better. I'm becoming more comfortable with the fact that my changed appearance can inspire a lot of reactions from people I've know a long time. The majority of the attention is positive, and I am better at handling it all now - even the negative reactions such as jealousy. It's not necessarily right that people are nicer and more interested in me now - particularly men - but that's how the world works, and it has its benefits.

I also like the fact that I am developing the ability to appreciate and even rejoice in my body. I spent a lot of years feeling guilty for being able-bodied, wallowing in the typical, female body image issues that can go over-the-top when you are overweight or worse, or just numbing myself out/being totally unaware of my body and what it was feeling. In the past 6 months to a year, I have gloried in what I've been able to do physically at the gym and have caught myself admiring how I look from the neck down in the mirror. It's very new, and it's nice. It's also something I don't want to lose.

The End of Self-Destruction: I know when and why food became an issue for me. I know why I first developed this coping mechanism that has me overeating to ignore or repress emotions or to comfort myself in a way that in the end does much more harm than good. I want to stop this pattern. It is ultimately so self-destructive, and I don't want to do that to myself anymore. As we've discussed before, self-destruction is not the best reaction to tragedy.

One of the many promises I have made to myself on this journey is to learn to treat myself as well as I treat others. This has meant I am to encourage myself as opposed to judging harshly or criticizing how I'm handling stuff. I may have occasional issues with food and eating for the rest of my life, but I want to make these healthy changes permanent. I need to follow my new healthy lifestyle for all its many rewards. I am fairly confident that I will eventually reach a healthy weight, and I plan to do my best to stay there for the rest of my days.

What keeps you going? Why do you keep trying - in your healthy living efforts and in your writing? Any advice for me?

Michelle Butler has made becoming a healthy writer a priority. She lives, works and writes in the Washington, DC, area. You can follow her on twitter at http://twitter.com/healthywrtr

Prey animals

2010-06-18T05:00:00.003-05:00

My harshest editor weighs only 4.2 pounds. He waits for me each morning, eager to read over my shoulder. Occasionally he stomps the delete key, erasing whole paragraphs and forcing me to rethink a scene. A grumpy old man trapped in the body of a cuddly bunny, he always thinks I could do better, start earlier, and write more. Except for this Monday, when he wasn’t waiting, already annoyed at my lateness. Instead he sat on his litter box, lethargic and unwilling to move. I raced to the call the vet, frantic at what could happen.

For those of you that don’t know a rabbit intimately, here are a few common aliments and their outcomes:

Illness	Outcome
Pink eye	death
Diarrhea	death
Nose cold	death
Stomach upset	death
Torn Toe Nail	death

I’m exaggerating but only a little. Rabbits are prey animals. They make wonderful pets and great writing companions, but veterinary medicine can only do so much to extend their fragile lives.

Is your writing a prey animal? If you hit a stopping point in the middle of a new manuscript does the whole piece die? What if you turn out a clunky, poorly worded sentence, is that a cause for certain death?

Is your health a prey animal? If you find that running isn’t for you, does that mean you give up on all your plans to start exercising? If you can’t find a healthy breakfast do you kill the rest of the day by eating bad-for-you-food?

I can only do so much to keep my furry editor alive. Healthy food in the right amounts, a clean living environment, and lots of love will extend his natural lifetime from one year to ten times that amount. Thankfully, healthy writing doesn’t have short lifespan.

Writing can be made stronger, through classes and workshops, or just plain writing more. You can resurrect works that have lain nearly dead for years by getting a fresh pair of eyes to make suggestions. You may need to amputate bad scenes or even cut away everything but the healthy subplots, but there’s always something you can do.

You can do the same for your health by not letting yourself be stopped by little problems. It’s fun to daydream about how much weight you’ll lose and how fit you’ll look when you join a new gym, but don’t let those dreams go because the membership is too expensive. Don’t stop yourself from seeking out ways to get enough sleep, relax at the end of the day, or eat a healthy meal. Find ways around problems instead of giving into them.

As of Monday afternoon, my editor was waiting for our usual after-work rereading session. The tummy trouble brought on by indulging in sweets cleared up before his vet could work him into the schedule. I don’t know how many more mornings I’ll have with him, but I know I’ll work hard to make as many of them happen as I can, the same way I’ll work hard to keep my writing and my health.

Oh, Really?

2010-06-17T01:07:00.004-05:00

I read an article the other day in which a doctor stated that during menopause, women would (not might, not could - WOULD) gain 10-20 lbs.

Like it was some kind of guarantee.

It blew my mind. Not only because that kind of absolute statement seems incorrect, but because it's both emotionally dispiriting and physically discouraging. And, of course, it's not true. At least, not that I've seen since both my grandmother, my mother and my stepmother have all gone through menopause without gaining weight. Since all three are from different gene pools (my grandmother is my father's mom), I have to say it's pretty solid proof that the weight gain isn't a given.

Call me Pollyanna (okay, don't) but I've always believed that as long as you put your mind to something and worked hard, you'd see results (perhaps not the exact results you were aiming for, but still...) Its so negative to read or hear something like this. To me, its tantamount to saying "you have no choice, go ahead and give up".

Its along the same lines as someone stating that you're eating for two now, and you'll gain 50-60 lbs when you're pregnant. Yes, you'll gain weight. Yes, you need to eat to nourish the baby. But an absolute 'you'll gain this much weight no matter what', again, makes me feel defeated before I even get a fork in my hand.

Now, all that whining aside, I'm not trying to say that I don't believe that hormonal changes bring major body challenges. I totally do believe the studies that show that a percentage of women will have weight challenges during menopause (and during pregnancy). But I also see that as a warning, like bone density, that we need to prepare ourselves for the challenges ahead.

So I guess the bottom line of my blog today is that this article really irritated me (can you tell? I know, I'm usually so subtle).

So here's my question for the day - have you ever heard an 'absolute' and refused to believe or live it? Have you ever heard one and gave in to it?

Tawny Weber writes hot, spicy stories for Harlequin Blaze. In January 2010, her novella, YOU HAVE TO KISS A LOT OF FROGS, was out in the Blazing Bedtime Story anthology and her next full length Blaze,, RIDING THE WAVES, will be out in September 2010. Come by and visit her on the web at www.tawnyweber.com

Wednesday Workout: Should I Work or Workout?

2010-06-16T00:01:00.004-05:00

Should I work or workout? This is a question I struggle with almost everyday. Sometimes I don’t want to give up thirty minutes I could use to finish a manuscript, squeeze in some publicity, or revise a piece I’m working on, to stop and exercise.

How about you? How do you make the decision to take a break and workout? And how can time crunched writers fit in a workout?

A few weeks ago, I came across this study about the health risks of not taking a break from work. Yikes… After I read the article, I literally stopped typing and began working in breaks and/or workout sessions because I realized if I didn’t, I could be halted for a long time with a health crisis.

So, today try to take a ten to thirty minute break and go for a walk or a run. In between or after your walk or run, try this leg workout - walking lunges.

Check out the video and link below for a step-by-step guide.

Here's another lunge step-by-step video with weights - LIVESTRONG's Lunges

What do you think? Do you like lunges?

Happy Wednesday!

Losing It with Jillian

2010-06-15T00:01:00.001-05:00

Losing It with Jillian debuted a couple of weeks ago, but I didn't get around to watching the debut episode until last night. I was curious how Jillian could inspire and instill necessary lessons with these families in just five days when it's a miraculous thing to do it in five months during The Biggest Loser.

In the first episode, she worked with the Mastropiestro family in Wilmington, Mass., one that was only weeks away from the daughter's wedding. They were also similar to many American families -- full of excuses why they couldn't exercise of lose weight. Well, you know Jillian. She doesn't like excuses and pretty much calls BS on them.

Jim, the dad, had gone through gastric bypass surgery, but he was still obese. He, and the rest of his family, pretty much ate until they went to bed at night.

Michelle, the daughter, had undergone the same surgery, and even though she was at a healthy weight, she hadn't dealt with the underlying issues that had made her overweight in the first place. She still felt like the fat girl inside and lived in fear that the previous overweight version of herself was going to return at any time.

Agnes, the mom, had gained and lost more than 100 pounds an amazing seven times! Her body fat percentage was a stunning 56 percent. When she and Jillian went for a walk to talk about why, a very old hurt came to the surface. She and her husband had lost a baby boy after only a month of life 22 years before. Jim had never been able to talk about the loss, and so Agnes had suffered and grieved alone for all those years. Jillian helped the family finally open up and talk about that loss. This part was hard to watch for me. Not only was it incredibly sad, but it hit home. My mother lost a boy, stillborn at 7 months, four years before I was born. I have never heard my dad talk about him, and to my knowledge he has never visited my brother's grave since my grandmother was buried beside him when I was 10. Like the Mastropietros, our family didn't talk about this or many other issues. But the thing is, when you don't talk about things that bother you, they fester like an untended wound. Like Jim said, "If you don't talk about things, it doesn't get easier."

Jillian, in true Jillian fashion, got the family exercising immediately. Within five minutes, Jim and Agnes were ready to quit. That's when Michelle and her brother, Michael, went off and yelled at their parents. When Agnes said she was trying to ride the bike, Jillian shot back that "trying is planning to fail." That's an interesting quote. Maybe I'll put it up somewhere I can see it. Maybe I'll put it next to the one by Yoda from Star Wars: "Do, or do not. There is no try."

Jillian was appropriately disgusted by the family's eating habits. Even though Michelle knew what she was cooking for her family (fried, greasy foods with not a green vegetable in sight) were bad for them, she did it anyway to make them happy. "I'm an enabler," she finally admitted.

If you're wondering if five days with Jillian made enough of a difference in the family's life, the answer is yes. Six weeks later, at Michelle's wedding, the family made an impressive showing. Jim had lost 48 pounds and 10 inches off his waist. Agnes had lost 34 pounds and looked lovely in her mother-of-the-bride dress, something she'd worried about six weeks before. Michael had lost 25 pounds. Michelle, who didn't need to lose weight, looked radiant and seemed happier than she had when she'd broken down in tears in the gym while talking to Jillian about the fat girl inside her that haunted her.

I didn't record the second episode last week, but I plan to watch it online soon and will start regularly recording the new episodes tonight. If anyone wants to watch, it's on at 8 p.m. Eastern/7 p.m. Central.

Has anyone watched the show yet? If so, what did you think?

Acknowledging and Working Out an Emotion: Loneliness

2010-06-14T00:01:00.002-05:00

In last week's post, I wrote about long-term strategies to stop my emotional eating. A key paragraph from that post was:

I try to force these emotions to the forefront so I can figure out what they are, what is causing them, how and why they are affecting me, and how can I work them out. Basically, I have learned that unacknowledged emotions, particularly when they are negative, often drive me to overeat or binge. They’ll hurt me more long term if I ignore them than if I make myself go through the sometimes painful or uncomfortable process of acknowledging them, figuring them out and working them out. It is helpful to not judge myself through this process.

How do I do this? How do I acknowledge an emotion and work it out? It varies. Self-awareness is very important to this process, but serendipity can be as well. It can often start with reading, writing, attending Weight Watcher and even RWA meetings or talking with friends or family. I try to pay attention to what resonates, and often, the greater my reaction the greater the emotion is tripping me up.

I have subscribed to Oprah's O Magazine for years. Reading it gives me a boost of positivity or optimism and plenty of ideas on how to improve my life. Each issue has a theme. Several years ago, I picked up my mail and saw that the theme for that month's issue was loneliness. I thought that was such a strange topic for a magazine. What could anybody write about that? Curiosity more than anything else convinced me to pick that magazine up later that week and start reading it.

A couple of hours later, I closed the covers of that magazine having read it word-for-word, and I was shocked. Every article on loneliness had resonated - even the one about a single guy and his cat. I just sat on my futon for a couple of minutes feeling lost and tried to process it all. This was not good. I had a new filter through which to view the past several years of my life, and I did not like what I could see. Some of the stuff I had even been proud of, such as my ability to go out to a restaurant and eat alone, did not look so healthy when I acknowledged how much I would overeat at those meals because I was probably feeling lonely. What should I do?

Luckily, the Martha Beck article in that issue was all about what one should do when she felt lonely, so the first thing I did was reread that article. She talked about levels of loneliness and what one should do at each level. I pretty much felt like I was at the rock bottom level and used her advice in that section as a starting point as to how to evaluate my current social life and make some positive changes. It was typical stuff - join groups centered on what you are interested in, do volunteer work, start reaching out socially, etc.

Figuring out what to do and implementing these changes did not happen overnight, and it was often uncomfortable. But, as Beck had said in her article, one can reach a point that maintaining the status quo is worse than making the necessary changes. So, I forced myself to think about what was wrong and right with my current social life, what had worked well with my social life in the past, and what I could do to recreate that.

The biggest problem with my DC social life at that point was all my friends were married, and some were even starting to procreate. Our lives were diverging, and these married friends were going to become less and less a part of my life and less like me. I had an active, online social life, but it was nowhere near meeting my social needs. (An interesting editorial on that topic can be found in Saturday's New York Times.) It became obvious that I needed to make some single friends in DC. How could I do this?

The easiest places I'd ever made friends in my adult life were at school or at RWA meetings. Work, my closest equivalent to school, and RWA were full of married people, so I couldn't rely on those two groups to meet my social needs. I did reach out to single people at work and in RWA, but I needed to do more. I had to do what had been almost unthinkable. I needed to go to singles events.

I did research online, again thought about what I had done in the past and remembered that I had gone to alumni groups in the past. I looked up the alumni groups for my undergrad school, my grad school and even my sorority, and started attending some of their events. It turned out there is an organization called Ivy Singles in DC and other major cities. To quote from the DC Web site, it is: "a coalition of Ivy League, Seven Sister and other prestigious schools' regional alumni associations that sponsors social activities. Our events are open to all single alumni of member schools and their guests. Most of our attendees are in their 30's, 40's or 50's, but all ages are welcome." This Web site also had links to other single groups in the DC area, and Single Volunteers looked really interesting.

So, I signed up for my first Ivy Singles event. I'm as much an introvert as the next writer. I hate walking into a room of strangers and having to socialize, but I have to do it for work, and I needed to do it for myself. I dressed up in a suit that I thought was the most flattering one I owned. It was a plus size suit, I weighed more than 200 pounds, I didn't expect to get a date, but I had to do something to improve my social life.

The first few minutes were tough, but it got better. One of the first people I spoke to was a 22-year-old recent graduate of Stanford. He had just talked to another woman whom he thought I should meet, and he introduced me to my new friend May. This reception just got ten times easier and gave me forward momentum to continue these efforts. I did some single volunteer projects and went to the next Ivy Single event and met even more new friends. The majority of the participants at these events did feel like they were in their 40's and 50's, so the late 20 and 30-somethings at this one started a list of "younger" Ivy Singles and started to plan alternative, free events. Eventually, I helped organize some of them. A few of my new "Ivy Single" friends introduced me to some of their other single friends. Slowly, I built a circle of single friends whom I greatly value.

With that base set, I felt comfortable reaching out socially in other places and started to do a high level of volunteer work in my local RWA chapter and built more ties there. Most of my closest adult friends have come from RWA because we seem to get each other. I've even heard an author call her RWA friends her soul sisters or soul mates. I needed more soul sisters in DC.

Through this process of acknowledging and addressing my loneliness, I learned how important my social life is to my happiness and well being. I need to be social. I'm willing to organize social events, and that helps so much. The photos in this blog are from my birthday last week. I organized a dinner with my single friends the night of my birthday (Friday, June 4) and an afternoon tea with my local female friends, married and single, over the weekend. I've done many things for my birthday. I celebrated my 30th by going to Italy with my sister, and I've done nothing but make up stories of how I celebrated with friends to tell my parents and sister so they wouldn't give me a hard time or feel bad for me. I'm much happier if I do something social to acknowledge the occasion.

Acknowledging and working out an emotion does not seem to mean that it will never bother you again. I'm sure that I've occasionally overeaten since I made my group of single friends in DC because of loneliness. Loneliness is a very real thing to many of my single friends, and we'll talk about it. I know what I need to do to ward it off. I even set an annual goal of doing at least 4 social things a month and touch base every so often to make sure my inner hermit has not come out and taken over my life temporarily. I'll occasionally ask myself: Are there other things I should do to maintain or improve my social life? I've dabbled with online dating and may try to do more there. Some of my beloved single friends are starting to pair off, and I may need to do some outreach to make more single friends. I'm slowly realizing that I may even have to go to some more Ivy Singles receptions and Single Volunteer events by myself to make sure I meet new people.

Yes, making sure I'm aware of whether or not I'm feeling lonely and whether or not I need to do more social things take work, but my life (and butt) are better for me making this effort. I do this same kind of work for other emotions. I realize that many of the followers of this blog are married and stories about loneliness may not resonate, but the process of acknowledging and working out an emotion that troubles you may be similar to what I just described.

How do you acknowledge and work out an emotion that may be negatively impacting your life? What works best for you?

Michelle Butler has made becoming a healthy writer a priority. She lives, works and writes in the Washington, DC, area. You can follow her on twitter at: http://twitter.com/healthywrtr

Remember: You're in charge.

2010-06-11T05:33:00.004-05:00

The characters in my latest work in progress are behaving badly. They started out just fine: two tough as nails cops, one from homicide, one from robbery. They loved each other but it turned to hate, and now the death of her partner means they had to work together. They fight a lot, snipping at each other over crime scenes, each feeling a romantic and sexual tension but refusing to acknowledge it. But some how they were holding hands, and she was crying, then he was remembering how it used to be and suddenly, after work, they went to the zoo.

The zoo?

Yes, that’s right, my two tough characters ended up eating ice cream cones and laughing at the elephants. I sat down to read what I’d written the day before and realized things had spiraled desperately out of control. Thankfully, as a writer we're in charge. We can always hit the most important key on the keyboard: delete. I deleted line after line: no more zoo, crying, or holding hands. No more mushy stuff, I edited it back to tough cops and heady tension. That tension will be resolved but not with my characters turning into two zoo going softies. That’s not who they are.

The same thing happened in my own life recently. An opportunity came up that I’d long hoped for. I’d daydreamed about how it would be and here it was, all coming true. Except… Not exactly how I wanted it, more than a few significant details were wrong. Yesterday’s daydream was about to become tomorrow’s nightmare. Unfortunately, there was nothing to do but to delete the opportunity from my life.

In your life, as in your writing, it’s important to remember you’re in charge. You’re the one with the pencil, and more importantly, the one with the eraser. You can ask for an opportunity, but then decide it isn’t for you. You can order the chocolate cake but then throw it away. You can write whole chapters and then decide they don’t work.

It’s hard deleting, tough to remove big chunks that represent hours, especially when they still hold a perfect gem of a phrase or the shining glimmer of possibility. Hard, but not impossible, and it's so important; good writing requires good editing. Healthy living needs it too, you can’t be everyone’s friend, take every job, or do everything all at once. So when you’re adding in a healthy diet or healthy exercise, remember to edit out the things that don’t work. Even if you wanted them once, if you thought they were everything you needed, sometimes the healthiest thing you can do is delete.

Back At It.

2010-06-10T01:56:00.002-05:00

I've had one heckuva month. A major deadline, changes to a book the last week before it was due, the end of school, testing, a trip to Vegas, line edits, writing two short synopses for previous books, and a few dozen other things.

In other words life.

We all have it happen. It's a given that things are going to get crazy from time to time. That we'll have intense stress and demands on our energy.

I don't mind that. What I do mind is that I let it derail my awesome exercise progress. For over 100 days, I'd exercised 6 days a week for at least an hour a day. I'd kicked butt. I was in the groove and even more important, I was in the habit. I didn't even have to think twice about whether I'd workout, I just knew I would.

It was a great feeling.

I miss it.

Because I know darned well that when I get up today (its midnight as I write this, so it'll be later when I get up *g*) I'm not going to be in the habit. I won't recognize the groove. I won't want to exercise and will care less about how great it'll feel after I'm done. I'll look at the big pile of excuses (laundry, time with the kids after 16 nights of no kid time, cleaning the pantry, prepping the yard for the new patio, etc) and try and talk myself out of exercising. I know I will, even though I know I need to get back to it. Because, I swear, it's harder to get started than it is to keep going. It takes a good solid month before its not hard for me to convince myself to exercise.

I hate that. I'll do it anyway, but I know I'll be cussing at myself the entire time because I fell off the wagon and have to start all over.

How about you? Do you have any get-going-again tips? Do you find it harder to get started than to keep going?

Tawny Weber writes hot, spicy stories for Harlequin Blaze. In January 2010, her novella, YOU HAVE TO KISS A LOT OF FROGS, was out in the Blazing Bedtime Story anthology and her next full length Blaze,, RIDING THE WAVES, will be out in September 2010. Come by and visit her on the web at www.tawnyweber.com

Wednesday Workouts

2010-06-09T01:00:00.003-05:00

Welcome to the first edition of Workout Wednesday!

I’m so thrilled to join the amazing gang at Healthy Writers. As a former registered nurse, personal trainer, and health and fitness writer, I can’t wait to dive into the health and fitness world once again.

But, before I get started, I need your help. My goal is to provide you with Wednesday posts that are both inspiring, motivational, and align with your wants and needs.

So, tell me, what would you like? How can I make the most of your Wednesday Workouts?

Here are some suggestions, but please feel free to comment away and tell me exactly what you would like to see.

1. One workout per week

For example, next week I’ll focus on lunges, the following week I’ll talk about bicep curls, etc..

2. Ten-minute workouts you can squeeze into your day

For example, something that would work for working writers with little or no time to fit in workouts.

3. Share my own experiences with working out

Please, don’t be shy and comment away…. Help me to make Workout Wednesdays the best they can be. J

Happy Wednesday and keep writing!

Keri J

A Healthy Writer Weekend

2010-06-08T00:01:00.000-05:00

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to dedicate a lot of time to my writing with some healthy ventures sprinkled in. Three members of my local RWA chapter and I rented a cabin at a state park, intent on getting away from it all so we could focus on making lots of progress on our various writing projects. Gretchen and Lara were working on new projects while Kim and I were working on existing manuscripts. Kim was looking to lengthen her book, while I was doing a complete read-through and editing of a young adult manuscript in preparation for more substantial revisions. We all wanted a couple of days away from the Internet, TV, all the responsibilities and distractions that awaited at home.

We arrived on Friday afternoon, unloaded the cars and talked a little about what we were going to do over the weekend. I'd planned to go for a walk by the lake that afternoon, but it came a

rainstorm that nixed that idea. Instead, we enjoyed a meal together then got to work.

Throughout the weekend, we'd set

the timer on the cabin's stove and we'd all go off to various corners of the cabin to work for the allotted time, then come back and sh

are how much we'd accomplished. This worked well since we concentrated on nothing else during those time slots.

On Saturday morning, I took that walk by the lake. It's a very pretty park, and though it was beginning to get a bit muggy, I enjoyed the scenery and the exercise. Then came breakfast and more revisions for me. It felt good to make steady progress.

During the afternoon, we took a break and drove to another part of the park to see the waterfalls that give the park its name. A kind gentleman took this picture of us with the falls in the background. From left: Gretchen, me, Lara and Kim.

Years ago, my husband and I walked down to the bottom of the falls, and even then, when I was probably in my 20s, it was a strenuous hike back to the top of the trail. So we didn't hike it this time because it was really hot and we didn't have enough time.

We drove to another beautiful spot, this overlook where you can see for miles. It was nice to just listen to the wind in the trees.

That evening, Lara fired up the grill outside the cabin to prepare dinner, and almost immediately a raccoon showed up looking for a handout and

determined to get the burgers. He finally gave up and went back off into the woods. He was only one of the critters we saw during the weekend. While I was sitting out on the deck working, a squirrel came to sit on the deck railing in front of me, the tamest squirrel I've ever seen. While Kim was standing in the one spot in the road where she could get a cell phone signal, a young deer wandered by. It all added to the peaceful, relaxing atmosphere.

We're already looking forward to another of these relaxing yet productive weekends in the future.

Have you ever been on a writing retreat? Was it a positive experience?

Long Term Strategies to Stop My Emotional Eating

2010-06-07T00:01:00.001-05:00

In previous posts I’ve discussed how I started to combat my emotional eating and some of the tactics I’ve developed to stop myself from giving into the urge to overeat or even binge. Another step I try to take whenever I feel like emotional eating is ask myself why do I want to do this. What emotions am I feeling that are encouraging me to overeat as a way to suppress them? Can I address these emotions? What is causing these emotions? Why am I upset? Can I figure out ways to address what is making me upset and work out those emotions? Can I change the situation? Can I change my reaction to the situation? Can I change my thoughts about the situation and eventually change my emotions?

I try to force these emotions to the forefront so I can figure out what they are, what is causing them, how and why they are affecting me, and how can I work them out. Basically, I have learned that unacknowledged emotions, particularly when they are negative, often drive me to overeat or binge. They’ll hurt me more long term if I ignore them than if I make myself go through the sometimes painful or uncomfortable process of acknowledging them, figuring them out and working them out. It is helpful to not judge myself through this process.

I do a lot of this working out of emotions by writing in my diary or writing blog posts for Healthy Writer. Examples of blogs where I tried to work out emotions so that I would not overeat include fear of success, the dark side of the holidays, can you take a break, what’s in a number, oh jealousy, is this for real, why can I still get so upset when I gain weight, and I still struggle at times...and that's ok. I also find it helpful to talk some of this stuff out at a Weight Watchers meeting or with friends or family.

In addition to learning how to acknowledge and work out my feelings, other long-term strategies I follow to stop my urges for emotional eating are guidelines 7 - 10 from my ten healthy guidelines for healthy eating and losing weight. Following these guidelines can literally stop my urge to overeat before it develops.

7) Develop Ways to Comfort Yourself Besides Eating

One of the ways I combat my emotional eating is to find other healthier methods to comfort and soothe myself so that I don't turn to food and overeat. Nature can soothe me. Escaping into a great book has always worked for me. Other ideas include knitting, exercise, meditation, listening to music, dancing around your living room to said music, attending church services, calling a friend on the phone, taking a bubble bath, getting a massage, and doing something social with friends or family.

8) Enjoy the Benefits of Exercise

In his book The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite, David Kessler argues that the only feeling of reward close to the one you get from overeating comes from exercise, and you can literally rewire your brain to want the healthy version and not the unhealthy version. I have been trying to do this since May of 2009 and have had a lot of success with it. I've taken the time to figure out what exercise I enjoy and focus on the benefits I get from exercise as opposed to thinking of it as something I have to do to lose weight. I'm learning to really enjoy and appreciate regular exercise. I miss it, and the benefits it gives me, when I've gone too long between gym visits.

9) Determine Why You Started to Overeat and Address that Wound

I learned this guideline by watching The Biggest Loser. A set of questions that the trainers want the contestants to answer before they leave the ranch is: When did you start overeating and gaining weight? What was happening in your life at that time? How did you feel? It all builds to the question why did you start overeating. The trainers firmly believe that this is the most important lesson of all for the contestants. In order to reach their current state of being morbidly obese, these contestants had to have some serious emotional eating issues. They have to figure out why they started overeating so that they stop and finally conquer this issue. They need to face these emotions and work out some kind of resolution, or they'll just gain the weight back.

Realizing how and why the urge to overeat all started was an important step in learning how to stop or moderate this behavior. Once you know this original wound, you can heal it or at least face it and change your reaction to it. Forcing myself to go through this exercise has made a profound impact on my weight loss and my confidence that I'll be able to keep it off.

10) Develop a Healthy Relationship with Food

The key to figuring out what a healthy relationship to food is may be realizing what it is not and what you can't look to food to provide. It won't fix your problems. It won't fill a void in your life. It won't heal an emotional wound you are trying to ignore. Any comfort, soothing or joy is temporary at best. It won't make you happy. Figuring out what will is a much better long-term strategy than overeating.

Do you have any long-term strategies that help keep you from emotional eating or other forms of overeating?

Falling down

2010-06-04T06:30:00.002-05:00

I’m a runner. I’m not fast, nor graceful. I am not a thing of beauty and strength on two legs. I’m a runner who sometimes falls down. I have plenty of very good excuses why I fall, but that doesn’t stop it from happening.

You would think running is easy: left foot, right foot, repeat as necessary. But thanks to a stroke, my left foot often responds to the call to go forward by saying “Who me? Sure, yeah, I’ll get right on that…” And down I go.

The beauty of falling down often is that you learn it’s not something to be afraid of. It hurts, yes. You end up bloody and bruised, but the first steps up are the hardest. After that you’re mostly just embarrassed and a little ashamed you did something so silly. I learned that falls on concrete take longer to heal than falls on dirt, so I run in the woods.

There’s a tree along my route in the woods, one I used to hate but now I love. The tree stood as a marker. My first goal was running to the tree, then past the tree, and then to the tree, past the tree, and back to the tree. The tree talked trash to me in the beginning, long taunts of “You really think you’re going to make it? You’re already panting. I’ve stood here longer than you’ve been alive little girl. I’ve seen would-be runners come and go, and you’ll go. Trust me.” I cursed that tree for standing just ten feet away from where my breath ran out, just steps from where I had nothing left but acid in my veins and two collapsed lungs.

But after weeks that turned into months, a magical thing happened: I did run to the tree, past the tree, and back to the tree. Suddenly my tree was a symbol of what I had accomplished, a sentry standing firm over the spot where I proved I could do it. After that, the tree only told me good things, and when I fell it told me to get back up and try again.

My tree often repeats a Japanese proverb to me “Fall down seven times, stand up eight.” When it thinks I need it, it quotes Batman Begins “Why do we fall? So we can learn to pick ourselves up.” When the winter ice makes it dangerous to visit my tree, I think about it missing me. As a writer I can be forgiven that flight of fantasy and I’ve often walked out to see that tree in snow and icy conditions when running is a very dumb idea, just to wrap my arms around it and remember how it felt to run to the tree, past the tree, and back.

Maybe you don’t fall down in the woods. Maybe it isn’t a tree that taunts you but a Big Mac. Maybe the voice inside your head belongs to someone who loved you but hurt you a little too. It doesn’t matter, falling down works the same way for everyone: it hurts but you get back up, brush yourself off, and start going again. You’ll probably limp for a few days. People will see your bruises and cringe. None of that matters. Fall down seven times, stand up eight.

In the mood to share? I’m always happy to hear about how someone picked themselves up from a spectacular fall.

There is Only One Way to Fail

2010-06-03T02:17:00.003-05:00

I started this topic four weeks ago when I blogged about the 4 steps toward achieving a goal as outlined in Dr. Wayne Dyer's book, YOU'LL SEE IT WHEN YOU BELIEVE IT.

1. Visualize
2. Tell yourself whatever you visualize is already here
3. Be willing to do whatever it takes
4. and Realize there is no such thing as failure.

Three weeks ago we looked at step 1 - Visualization. the next week week we discussed step 2- Having Faith. And last week looked at step 3, Being willing to do whatever it takes. That brings us to the wrap up - Realizing there's no such thing as failure.

This is a biggie for me, because my biggest personal fear in life is to fail. But after awhile, I've come to realize that as long as we continue working toward a goal, as long as we don't give up -we haven't failed. It's only when we stop trying that we can actually accept the label 'failure'.

Take writing, for instance. When I first began writing, I read tons of author success stories. Unlike many authors, I wasn't one of those that started writing young, or had always written. So I didn't have a natural foundation to build from, other than English and a couple creative writing classes in high school. So I studied the how-to's. I researched. I noted that the average length of time it took many authors to sell their first book was 4 years. 4 was good. I liked that. So I set a goal of selling by December of 2005 (I started writing in Feb of 2002). I wrote this goal on a bright purple index card and tacked it to the bulletin board above my computer monitor. I saw it every day when I sat down to write.

My four years were filled with ups and downs. I got requests, I got rejections. I won contests, I tanked in contests. I hired an agent, I fired that agent. I was thisclose so many times, it reached the point that it was emotionally debilitating to keep picking myself up after yet another... hmm, it sounds like failure would fit here, doesn't it. But no - I'll call it a miss instead *g*

In the fall of 2005, I was really close to wanting to give up. The line I'd been targeting had closed - right before they bought my book (an offer was pending). The agent I had such high hopes for didn't work out and firing her not only made me feel like a loser, the ire from fellow writers at my nerve to fire an agent when so many were trying to find one was horrible. I had my hands full with two kids, homeschool, my own business, and so many other things that demanded my time and energy and I wasn't getting anywhere - I thought -with the writing.

It was like our discussions here about weight loss. We do all the right things. We try, we put so much of ourselves and our hopes into success... and we keep hitting roadblocks. Or backsliding. Or just not seeing progress. That's how I felt.

That December, as I sat down to make my new year's goals, I took down my index card. I'd promised myself I'd give it 4 years. And the 4 years were up.

But... if I gave up, I'd fail. Did I mention how much I hate failure?

So I tacked that index card back on the board, justifying that 4 years wasn't until February 2006, after all, so I still had time. And in March, I justified that I was really close to and just needed to keep on trying. And in May I shifted my picture of Captain Jack Sparrow a little to the left so he covered part of that index card so I didn't have to be reminded of it.

And on May 29, 2006 I sold my first book.

But if I'd given up when things were so dismal and falling apart, that wouldn't have happened.

Our main focus here at Healthy Writer is on the health side -weight loss, exercise, nutrition. But we're writers and that can't be ignored. I've come to realize that just as hard as it was to deal with all those misses and ups and downs as I worked toward my goal of selling my first book, it'll be that hard to stay on track to reach my health goals. I never gave up on the writing. And I won't give up on being a healthy writer.

Because the only way to fail is to quit trying.

So... what do you think? Can you buy into the non-failure mindset? Did Dr. Dyer's 4 steps resonate with you?

Tawny Weber writes hot, spicy stories for Harlequin Blaze. In January 2010, her novella, YOU HAVE TO KISS A LOT OF FROGS, was out in the Blazing Bedtime Story anthology and her next full length Blaze,, RIDING THE WAVES, will be out in September 2010. Come by and visit her on the web at www.tawnyweber.com

Y...M...C...A!

2010-06-02T00:01:00.000-05:00

Now that I've got that Village People song in your heads (mwahaha!), I promised to tell you what I've been up to the past week, a new adventure. Yes, I joined the YMCA. A couple of weeks ago, I toured both a gym and the local YMCA to see what each could offer me in my journey to becoming healthier and more fit. Each had pros and cons.

The gym was pretty cheap as it was an express gym (aka no classes), had a racquetball court and a cardio gym (a bunch of treadmills in a movie theater). I liked some aspects, but I was bummed about them not having classes.

Just down the street was the local Y. Here, the down side was the monthly fee being three times as much as the gym. On the plus side, they have several different classes (Zumba, Pilates, yoga, step, spin, etc.) and a pool where I could take swimming lessons. Since one of my goals for the year is to learn how to swim and I felt that the other classes would really push me past what I'd do on my own, I sucked up the extra cost and went with the YMCA. Hopefully, I'll sell some books soon so I won't feel so guilty about the cost.

I joined the Y last Tuesday, and I jumped right in by going to a Zumba class. Ten minutes in, I thought I was going to die! I started doubting that automatic monthly charge on my credit card I'd just authorized. I was dripping sweat, my face was beat red every time I turned toward the wall of mirrors, and I felt like a goob because it seemed everyone else in the class knew all the steps. Thankfully, I'd parked myself in the far back corner. But I kept pushing myself, wanting to see how much of the one-hour class I could endure before I passed out. Halfway through, I'd already drained the bottle of water I'd brought with me and had formulated plans to bring a much bigger one the next time if I lived to see a next time. I can't tell you how many times I thought about quitting, but I didn't. I kept watching the steps the really-enthusiastic instructor was making and trying to copy them. Somehow, I was able to push myself all the way to the end. As I walked (teetered?) out of the room, a feeling of accomplishment swept over me. I'd just survived an hour of really intense cardio workout. I even followed it up with a few minutes on a treadmill. I read somewhere that a person can burn up to 600 calories an hour doing Zumba. Not sure what I burned, but I at least sweat off a couple of pounds.

The next day when I woke up, my first thought as I tried to get out of bed was, "OMG, what have I done to myself?" My muscles ached liked crazy. I thought I might take a day to recuperate. I'd earned it, right? No! That was the kind of thinking that had propelled me into Overweight Land. So I looked at the daily class schedule and forced myself to a yoga class. Once again, ten minutes in I was having big doubts. I'm not limber by any stretch of the imagination, and I was so tired. My arms and legs just simply wouldn't do what I wanted them to do sometimes. But, again, I gritted my teeth and powered through. The stretching even helped with the sore muscles I'd acquired the day before. The yoga instructor said something about a buildup of lactic acid from the Zumba workout. Part of this new YMCA experience is to try different classes and see what works for me and what doesn't. I don't think yoga class is for me. I may continue doing some of it at home, perhaps looking up yoga workouts online. But I'm not much for the "woowoo", touchy-feely aspect of the class setting. That's just me. I know lots of people love it.

I've made use of the 30-minute workout cafe, which is set up similar to Curves, the treadmills, the elliptical and a bike. Yesterday, I had my first consultation with one of the wellness staffers, who showed me how to use several pieces of weight equipment and created a beginning program for me with specific reps, sets and settings on the machines. I'll be doing the weight training three days a week and cardio five days a week.

After I mark a couple more things off my to-do list, I'll inquire about private adult swim lessons. I may brave contact lenses again for the first time in 20 years so I can actually see while I'm in the pool. And I'll have to face the horror that is bathing suit shopping. But I'm determined to finally conquer this crazy fear of putting my head below water.

Exercise!

2010-06-01T00:01:00.000-05:00

Today, I've got a few exercise-related tidbits for you:

1. Watch tomorrow for a post about my latest exercise adventure. I'll endeavor to be witty as well as inspiring. :)

2. Now that The Biggest Loser has wrapped another season, Wednesdays are getting a new look here at Healthy Writer beginning next week. Our newest blogger, Keri Mikulski, will be bringing us Workout Wednesdays to get us up and moving this summer. I'm excited to read her first post!

3. I've been in culling/cleaning mode lately, whether it be scrubbing the bathrooms or culling old, accumulated e-mails. Michelle has sent me links to many wonderful articles over the last several months, and I've saved them with the intention of reading them when I had some spare time. So yesterday, I took the time to read them. This article from the New York Times has some very interesting information about research into the psychological link to exercise.

4. Remember, tonight is the first episode of Losing It with Jillian. I'm going to check it out to see if it's helpful and/or inspiring for me personally.

5. It's the beginning of a new month. What goals do you have for this month -- writing and health/fitness? I want to complete revisions on a YA novel and get it to my agent. Exercise-wise, I want to work out for two hours a day at least five days a week and at least 30 minutes on the other two days each week. I want to try to drop 5 to 7 pounds this month. Ambitious, yes, but I've been stalled out for so long that I'm going to really try to up my efforts and urge my body into a different gear.

What is a healthy approach to eating during holidays and vacations?

2010-05-31T00:01:00.011-05:00

In mid May I spent two, lovely weeks in California. The first, several days were spent in L.A. for an annual industry conference I attend for work. It's always a fun occasion that I anticipate, and one of its highlights this year was an exclusive party at Universal Studios Park with a free concert by Maroon 5 at the Gibson Theater. After the conference ended, my parents met me for a vacation in central California and L.A. We drove along the coast and stopped in many cute towns, went to Santa Barbara and Solvang, toured three missions and Hearst Castle in San Simeon, visited the Reagan and Nixon presidential libraries and San Luis Obispo's tiny historical museum, and spent a day along the piers and boardwalks of three, tony beach towns north of L.A. We also ate a lot. All my meals were catered or eaten in restaurants, and I did a fair amount of snacking at receptions, coffee shops, bakeries and even in the car.

I never approach a holiday, vacation or conference expecting to lose weight. I want to enjoy my life and all the many opportunities I have to experience new things. Food is part of that. I don't want to spend time worrying about counting points or fearing I will gain weight while on holiday. At the same time, I am very aware of all the hard work and effort I've put into finding ways to control my tendency to overeat and my weakness for emotional eating.

I'm not sure it is healthy that I seemed to ignore most of what I have learned about healthy eating during those two weeks in California. I was aware of what I was eating every day, and there were moments when I had pangs about how bad my portion control, snacking and meal choices were. Some days were better than others, but I did not have one "good" eating day where I stayed within my point/calorie count for the day. I didn't beat myself up about this, but I do wonder if I'd given myself too much latitude to overeat.

I knew when I approached the scale at Weight Watchers on the first Tuesday after I returned from California that it wasn't going to be pretty. I joked with myself that I hoped I hadn't gained more than 5 pounds, so I wasn't surprised to see I had gained 5.2 pounds. I didn't freak. My clothes still fit. It's not time to panic, but I didn't like to see that I'm now down only 27.4 pounds since 1/09, and I'm not particularly fond of how much I weighed that night. I can't change what I ate in California, and honestly, I had a really good time. I'm not going to beat myself up about it, but I do want to figure out if I should develop a different approach to holidays or vacations in the future.

Since January of 2009, I have gained weight during weeks with work conferences, holidays or vacations. I always lost that weight fairly quickly and went on to lose more. In fact, the last time I gained 5 pounds in 2 weeks was during August 2009, and that gain was what finally broke the exercise-induced plateau that had been haunting me for months that summer. It could be that this 5 pound gain is what will finally break this 3 month streak I had going of staying between 31 and 33 pounds down, and I will be able to start a several month long streak of losing weight. Naturally, I would have rather broken this (possible) plateau by losing weight, but I'll take whatever works.

All of this may be way too much optimistic spin, and I still don't know if I should change my approach in the future. While today is a day to honor military personnel who have died for their country, many also consider it the unofficial start of the summer. I have several more holidays and vacations to anticipate the next few months, the rest of the year and even this week. My birthday is this Friday. I plan to enjoy all my special occasions for the rest of my life, but I'm not sure I want to have any more five pound weight gains in two weeks during my journey to becoming and staying a healthy writer.

What do you think is a healthy approach to eating during holidays and vacations? Do you have any tips for me for my next holiday or vacation?

Michelle Butler has made becoming a healthy writer a priority. She lives, works and writes in the Washington, DC, area. You can follow her on twitter at http://twitter.com/healthywrtr

Inspiration Sunday

2010-05-30T02:40:00.000-05:00

Great minds have purposes, others have wishes. ~Washington Irving

I love this quote. It makes me focus my energy on my purposes - on a healthy lifestyle and a writing career. Purpose is action, wishing is inaction. So if I focus on purpose, I'm actively working toward these things instead of just thinking about them

Letting Go

2010-05-28T06:31:00.001-05:00

At our blog we talk about being healthy and often focus on categories like healthy eating and healthy exercise. Today the most important categories for me are physical and mental health. Mentally, I’ve taken a beating this spring. On the one year anniversary of my mother-in-law’s death I buried my best friend from college. A few weeks later my grandmother passed away. Now, as if that stress weren’t enough, I’ve started a new day job and in another month I’ll be moving.

My physical health is better than it has been in some time. Healthy eating is suddenly a habit to me. I remember my vitamins on more days than I forget and I regularly get enough sleep. Thanks to Trish’s challenge I’ve had a streak of running every other day going since late March.

That streak ends tonight. Tonight, I’m choosing mental health over physical health. I made the same choice this morning when I put caffeine in my body. I normally avoid caffeine and high fructose corn syrup. I consider both of them to be about the same as alcohol and cigarettes. Still, today, dealing with all that stress, I know they’re the lesser of the evils in front of me.

There comes a time when you realize some transition, some battle is so hard you can let the other things go. You have a moment when you pray for strength to get through something or ask yourself if you really can do it. At that moment, when the darkness is so deep that you think dawn will never come, I urge you to focus on one promise, to focus yourself, and let the others go.

I’m not telling you that every torn-stocking-missed-the-bus-forgot-your-lunch bad day justifies going off your diet. I’m not giving you license to skip your writing goal for the day because your car broke down. I’m asking you to look at your circumstances and decide if this is a truly stressful time where doing things, even healthy things, will just make the situation worse. I’m giving you permission to take stock of the situation, evaluate your priorities, and say no to some things. Free yourself from guilt, set a date to come back to the habits you set aside, and move forward, focusing on what matters most. Sometimes you have to let go, let yourself drift, so you can come back stronger and better.

How Willing Are You

2010-05-27T03:04:00.000-05:00

Three weeks ago, I talked about the 4 steps toward achieving a goal as outlined in Dr. Wayne Dyer's book, YOU'LL SEE IT WHEN YOU BELIEVE IT.

1. Visualize
2. Tell yourself whatever you visualize is already here
3. Be willing to do whatever it takes
4. and Realize there is no such thing as failure.

Two weeks ago we looked at step 1 - Visualization. Last week we discussed step 2- Having Faith. So this week we're on to step 3, Being willing to do whatever it takes.

To be honest, its this step that always trips me up. I'm the queen of visualization. I'm great with the faith thing. But the what am I willing to do? I always think 'anything!'. But the reality comes down to something more like, 'what am I not willing to do.'

To lose weight, I'm not willing to have surgery. I'm not willing to exercise more than 1 1/2 hours a day. I'm not willing to eat meat. I'm not willing to get up early to exercise.

You see what I mean? Its so easy to make a not willing list. Its more realistic and honest than the willing list. Because while I say I'll do anything, I really won't.

But what if the answer is in one of those things I'm not willing to do? What if the secret to weight loss is exercising at 5am for 2 hours, and eating boneless skinless chicken with each meal?

You know, if I had a guarantee, I'd probably do the first two and find a way around the third. Because if it works, I'd do anything. Right?

I think the hardest part of being willing to do whatever it takes is figuring out what it is that it does take. To try, give it time, allow for failures and eliminate things that don't work. And really, to not give up. Which brings us to next week's step, of course.

What about you? What are you willing to do to lose weight? And what are you not willing to do?

And the Winner is...

2010-05-26T00:01:00.000-05:00

Michael Ventrella! Yes, the biggest contestant ever to step on a Biggest Loser scale ended up winning the latest season of The Biggest Loser. I have to admit, I wondered if Diane was screaming when he weighed in and it was revealed he'd lost more than 50 percent of his weight, making him the big winner.

The thing that struck me about so many of the contestants tonight wasn't so much their weight loss (though that was striking), but their attitudes about themselves. So many went from depressed and lonely and not feeling much self worth to wide smiles and confidence. Can you imagine the Michael of eight months ago trying to pull off a huge, shiny skull bell buckle?

Highlights of the night:

1. Daris has a very pretty girlfriend. This made me smile. And he was announced as the third finalist, based on America's votes.

2. Shay weighed in and revealed she'd lost 52 more pounds, which made her eligible for a check from Subway for $52,000. Only when Jared from Subway came out, the check was blank and he offered her another challenge -- train with him for the next year to run a marathon. Do that and they'd double the check. She accepted.

3. So many of the contestants looked wonderful, but I was particularly struck by Maria, Michael's mom. I still felt that when she left the show, she was in danger of not making the change in her life that she needed. I'm so happy that she's succeeded in her weight loss. She looked beautiful.

4. Cherita's willpower helped her lose 91 -- all on her own!

5. O'Neal practically running down the stairs when he was introduced. He has come such a long way from the man who could barely pull himself up stairs. And I love the enthusiasm his sons have for him and particularly their sister, Sunshine, who was rocking a very appropriate bright yellow dress.

6. Loved Miggy's new, short haircut.

7. Darrell, proclaimed the sickest man on the ranch by Dr. Huizenga at the beginning of the season, dropped an amazing 189 pounds and looks the picture of health. He took away the top percentage of weight loss from Sherry, who'd held it during most of the weigh-ins of the night. He eventually lost out the $100,000 at-home prize to Koli, but I still think Darrell's accomplishment is so much bigger because he had to do more of it at home than Koli did and because he improved his health so much. Not that Koli didn't make a huge change in his own life, but I think Darrell's health situation was more dire.

8. Ashley proved you should never underestimate anyone, especially a pink ninja. :) She came in second place, losing 183 pounds. And there's part of me that wonders if there's something more than friendship between her and Michael. Hmm...

9. I know Melissa wasn't a lot of people's favorite contestant, but I thought she looked smashing in her red dress tonight.

The percentages of weight loss were impressive tonight, lots of them in the 30-45 percent range. Some people still have a ways to go -- Migdalia, Drea, James and John come to mind -- but they're already well on their way. I wish all of the contestants well, whether they're still on their journey to their goal weight or in maintaining it.

What was your favorite moments of the finale? Who impressed you?

Note: Jillian's new show, Losing It with Jillian, debuts in the same time slot as The Biggest Loser next week. I'm going to check out the first episode to see what it's like and decide from there if I'll continue watching. I have a feeling I will. I need all the inspiration I can get.

Freeze!

2010-05-25T00:01:00.000-05:00

Say hello to the newest member of my family...a 7-cubic-foot deep freeze. Now I am no longer dependent on my small refrigerator freezer to store precooked foods and food items that I might get on super sale.

Hubby and I inaugurated the freezer by freezing a giant pot of hubby's homemade vegetable soup. He takes it for lunch on some days, and when we're pressed for time or don't feel like cooking much, we can pull out some soup, toast some bread, and call it dinner. That's way better for us than zipping around the corner to McDonald's.

As you can see, the freezer started out containing only some meat and some prepackaged meals. Even with the addition of the soup, there's still plenty of room. But I've already noted some recipes in my Cooking Light magazines to cook in bulk and freeze. And I've requested a couple of freezer cooking cookbooks from the library. I also thought, what better place to ask about great, healthful dishes that freeze well than right here at Healthy Writer.

So, what are your favorite freezable dishes? Recipes, anyone? And what things have you found that don't freeze well?

I'm making another big health-conscious change this week, but I'll save that story until my post next week.

And don't forget -- the Biggest Loser finale is tonight! Who will win America's vote to be the third contestant in the running for the big prize -- Koli or Daris? Who will be the overall winner -- one of those two guys, Michael or Ashley? Who will win the lose-at-home prize? I'm anxious to find out and to be amazed by everyone's transformations.

What I Do to Stop Myself from Emotional Eating

2010-05-24T00:01:00.008-05:00

One of the first things I had to learn to do to combat my emotional eating issues was develop the ability to ask myself and answer honestly: Am I experiencing physical hunger or emotional hunger?

To do this successfully, you need to learn to recognize the signs of physical hunger, such as a growling stomach, lack of energy, light-headedness, a headache, or grouchiness, and the signs of emotional hunger. Have you eaten enough that day that you should not be hungry yet? Are you eating for reward or because you think you deserve a treat? Do you have an almost uncontrollable urge to eat, but you have no idea what you want to eat and nothing you do eat satisfies you? Are you feeling an emotion that you don't want to acknowledge? Learning to recognize the difference between physical and emotional hunger is a skill you can develop over time. I'm fairly good at it now if I say so myself.

When I am confronted with an urge to eat for emotional reasons and not for physical reasons, to eat for reward, or even to binge eat, I try to stop and recognize why I want to eat. If I think I want to eat for emotional reasons, I will tell myself that I’m not hungry and don’t need to eat. This is not always enough to stop me.

I’ll try to distract myself. Can I start doing something else that will distract me from the siren’s call of emotional eating? This can work.

I’ll try to find some kind of external motivation or “sign” that will stop me from overeating. This journey can be very challenging, and I’m willing to use any tactic that will help me succeed. One of my colleagues at work shared how she was obese for years and lost a lot of weight and successfully kept it off by going to overeaters anonymous. She’s always been slender since I’ve known her, and you’d never know she used to be fat. Sometimes I’ll think of her or walk by her office if I want to overeat at work. That can help me resist the urge. I’ve walked by her office on my way to the vending machine and the sight of her will make me turn around to return to my office instead of buying junk food.

Sometimes the urges are so strong that you give in, or you are already in the midst of a binge when you realize you are doing some emotional eating. I will try to set a stop point or end point for myself if I can’t find a way to stop myself immediately. I’ll try to keep it limited to one meal and promise myself I’ll get back on the wagon immediately afterwards.

If it is the hour after or the day after a big session of overeating, I’ll try to make myself record all that I ate in a food diary. It may not be as bad as I’m feeling it was. I may not have eaten as much as I thought or lost control as much as it seemed. Even if the amount of food is as bad as I thought or worst than I feared, the mere act of writing it all down helps me to regain control. It helps me put a stop to it and go back to practicing healthy eating.

Like anything, the ability to stop yourself from overeating or talk yourself out of it grows and strengthens over time. Here is how I talked myself down from overeating after a tough day at work last September.

I had a miserable day at work and felt like I deserved a treat. Every part of my being seemed to be urging me to overeat. I briefly considered walking by my colleague’s office, but knocked that thought down. I left work planning to stop at Five Guys to buy a bacon cheeseburger and fries and glory in all that fat for dinner. I’d get back on the wagon the next morning. I started walking to Union Station, where I got the subway home, and I saw a familiar guy walking towards me. He said hi, and I recognized him as someone in my Weight Watchers Group.

It was a sign! What did I want? My leader to walk up to me and tell me I did not want to overeat for dinner. I let that sign convince me to rethink my dinner plans as I sat on the subway for my commute home. I started to think of all the healthier take out options at home. As I got on my second train, I convinced myself to get two tacos at Baja Fresh and stay within my calorie count for the day. By the time I got off at my metro stop, I decided to walk home and just eat one of my healthy turkey burgers. In less than an hour, I’d talked myself out of overeating.

I'm very proud that I've developed the ability to stop myself when I feel the urge to do some emotional eating. I'm not perfect, but I'm much better than I was for years and years. While many of the immediate tactics I described above are very helpful, I've also found ways to stop the urge to binge before it even starts. I'll start exploring some of my long-term strategies to combat my emotional eating issues in upcoming blogs.

Do you have tricks for talking yourself out of giving in to the urge to eat for emotional reasons?

Michelle Butler has made becoming a healthy writer a priority. She lives, works and writes in the Washington, DC, area. You can follow her on twitter at http://twitter.com/healthywrtr

Inspiration Sunday

2010-05-23T03:30:00.000-05:00

Reality check: you can never, ever, use weight loss to solve problems that are not related to your weight. At your goal weight or not, you still have to live with yourself and deal with your problems. You will still have the same husband, the same job, the same kids, and the same life. Losing weight is not a cure for life. ~Phillip C. McGraw, The Ultimate Weight Solution: The 7 Keys to Weight Loss Freedom

A Different Kind of Meatloaf

2010-05-22T00:01:00.003-05:00

Part of my journey to becoming a healthy writer is learning how to make healthier choices in terms of my eating habits. That does not mean I can no longer eat the kinds of food I've always loved. I just need to be smarter about it.

I love meatloaf and have a favorite recipe that may not be the healthiest choice to make all the time, so I've made it a mission to find healthier alternatives to add to my cooking repertoire. I used to participate a lot in the cooking conversations on the Weight Watchers online message boards, and one participant posted a different kind of meatloaf recipe. I'm a big fan of it.

Tex Mex Turkey Meatloaf

Mix together:

1 lb ground turkey
1 cup salsa (I use a smaller jar)
1 can black beans
1 small can green chiles
2 cups low fat Mexican cheese
cumin, chili powder, cayenne pepper to taste

Bake at 350 degrees until meat thermometer reads 160 degrees.

This meatloaf seems to lose water while baking and does best baking not in a pan loaf but rather in a pan which allows some room around the sides. (I use an 8 X 8 pan.) When I take it out, there's usually liquid around the sides. Let it sit to reabsorb some of the liquid before serving. It is very yummy!

If you cut into 6 servings, it's 6 points per slice. If you cut into 8 servings, it's 4 points per slice. Enjoy!

Michelle Butler has made becoming a healthy writer a priority. She lives, works and writes in the Washington, DC, area. You can follow her on twitter at http://twitter.com/healthywrtr

Do Emergencies Matter?

2010-05-21T06:47:00.002-05:00

The rain wept down, not hard enough to justify an umbrella, but somehow hard enough that after the brief walk from my car to my door every inch of my clothes held a frosting of wet. Inside I shook off, wiped my face on a towel, and immediately advanced on the kitchen. The smell of spicy-sweet bar-be-queue, one of my favorite foods, came out of the crock-pot, and while the insides needed a stir or two, dinner was well on its way to ready. Deep in consultation with my kitchen scale and a bag of tator tots, I heard something. Unsure, I asked my husband what it was, someone at the door maybe? Not the door, he confirmed, but then it came again, a quiet tapping, hesitating.

We made it to the door at the same time. Neither of us thinking to push aside the heavy coats, umbrellas, and caps that hung over the peephole. We don’t have many visitors and in a building where someone has to be buzzed in the weak tapping raised an alarm. Opening the door we found our neighbor, a frail Asian man, stooped and wrapped in a worn blue bathrobe.

“Need,” he began, but then ran out of breath. “Help,” he exhaled. In his hand, wedged awkwardly between the steel walker and his palm a cordless phone shook. His whole body shook and he repeated his phrase, “Need…. Help.”

Panicked, with visions of dead bodies and EMS, we rushed out of our apartment and into his. We’d never been inside but quickly passed the polished dark wood, the stunning purple orchards, and the clean white carpet. Asian character newspapers scattered on an ottoman were the only thing out of place. After our quick sweep we returned to the man who pointed the phone at the television and repeated his plea for help. Thinking he meant the room behind the TV, I swallowed my fear and checked: no body in the kitchen, no body in the dining room. Back in the living room the nature of the emergency became clear.

“Twenty-four,” the old man insisted, pointing at the TV. He then pressed the buttons on the phone with a violence borne of frustration. My husband, a man with patience I will never muster, calmly reached over and replaced the phone in the man’s hand with the television remote. While my heart rate returned slowly to normal a long debate took place about how to get to channel twenty-four.

An emergency had forced my elderly neighbor into the hallway, to knock on the door of someone he didn’t know. That emergency was not knowing how to change the channel on his TV.
Back home, I wondered about the nature of emergencies. I’m still wondering about it now. By nature, I’m a private person, I wouldn’t knock on one of my neighbors’ doors unless there was a grave injury, blood spilling, or some catastrophe. But the rules that make something an emergency are a little less clear. I miss a call from my agent, clearly that’s an emergency. Skip an evening’s work out, stop making a healthy snack, and get to that call. A friend calls in crisis, maybe not an emergency, certainly not enough to make me delay dinner, but maybe enough to keep me up too late, on the phone talking until I know I won’t get up in time the next morning to meet my writing goals.

Some emergencies send people into a spiral of unhealthy eating, skipping exercise, and isolating themselves. Other emergencies just elevate stress levels, breaking down the body’s natural defenses and leaving it vulnerable to illness and injury. But are they worth it? Are they really emergencies? What makes an emergency in your world? Can you separate the real emergencies from the not so important ones? When you do, can you find a way to diffuse the situation before it causes more problems?

I’ll be preparing for emergencies by putting a ready to go healthy meal in the freezer for nights when I lose my cooking time. I’m going to plan a few quick work outs for when phone calls eat up my exercise time. I think a few low impact, easy to do half-asleep routines will come in handy for the mornings after an emergency. As for writing, editing and organizing means I’m still accomplishing things on days when I’m too wiped out to be creative. I can’t stop emergencies from happening, but I can change how I handle them.

~~~

When she’s not cooking, buying, or dreaming about food Rachel Kleinsorge writes steamy paranormal mystery romances. She is currently waiting for the call from her agent, the amazing Carolyn Grayson, while working on her next novel.

Having Faith

2010-05-20T02:38:00.003-05:00

Two weeks ago, I talked about the 4 steps toward achieving a goal as outlined in Dr. Wayne Dyer's book, YOU'LL SEE IT WHEN YOU BELIEVE IT.

1. Visualize
2. Tell yourself whatever you visualize is already here
3. Be willing to do whatever it takes
4. and Realize there is no such thing as failure.

Last week I talked about step 1 - Visualization. This week I wanted to talk about having the faith to believe that the goal will happen.

One of the toughest things I've discovered is pushing on toward a goal when things don't look encouraging. Writing after rejection. Entering a contest after mean contest judge comments. Reading reviews after one of my books have been trashed. Exercising when the scale won't budge. Eating healthy when it doesn't seem to matter if it's carrot sticks or donut sticks, the weight is still there.

My take on step 2 of Dr. Dyer's outline is to have faith. To truly believe that those things we want -that we put the effort and energy into working for and visualizing, will actually manifest. They will come true. We might not have a solid handle on the when. Or even on the how. But if we visualize - we see a goal and really believe, without restrictions or rules or worries, but believe that it'll happen... then it will.

Its not easy. I get frustrated when I'm 'doing everything right' and not getting any results. In the past, that's usually the signal for me to just quit trying and focus on things I can get results from. But not this time, not now. Instead, I'm having faith that the images I so carefully visualize will become reality. I don't know when, I don't know if what I'm doing now will make it happen of if I'll discover something great tomorrow that makes it all click faster. But I do know that quitting guarantees failure.

How about you? Do you have any special tricks to keeping the faith and staying positive that your visualizations and goals will come true?

Tawny Weber writes hot, spicy stories for Harlequin Blaze. In January 2010, her novella, YOU HAVE TO KISS A LOT OF FROGS, was out in the Blazing Bedtime Story anthology and her next full length Blaze,, RIDING THE WAVES, will be out in September 2010. Come by and visit her on the web at www.tawnyweber.com

A Week of Challenges

2010-05-19T00:01:00.001-05:00

This week's The Biggest Loser, the last episode before next week's live finale, was filled with challenges for the final four contestants. First, they had to go home for 30 days and face real life with all its distractions and temptations. Though they all knew they would have to weigh in again and run a marathon on the ranch at the end of the month, each admitted to struggling.

Koli couldn't focus with all the distractions of friends and family in California, so he left for Las Vegas and some intense training at a mixed martial arts facility. It struck me that he was perhaps way too focused on the game instead of the fitness/health aspect, and Bob pointed this out to him when he came for a visit. Koli even acknowledged this at the weigh-in at the end of the show.

Ashley was disappointed in herself for staying out too late with friends, even though she did make the positive step of saying she didn't want to go drinking like she used to. She and Michael agreed to run/walk the marathon together, to support and encourage each other. They seem to have gotten really close.

Daris is the one who really broke my heart this week. Despite being a running machine, he is still struggling with the emotional side of things. I think that despite having friends, he feels really alone. He seems like a quiet, kindhearted soul who internalizes much of what he's feeling. When he was videoing himself emotional eating in the middle of the night, I wanted to walk into that kitchen and say, "No! Don't do this." I think he's someone people can really relate to because his struggles are so like ours.

The marathon day was wet and cold, but all four contestants were determined to do the best they could and finish the race. Daris was determined to beat the previous record time, and he did so by nearly and hour, finishing in 4 hours, 2 minutes. Koli arrived a couple of hours later with a time of 6 hours, 8 minutes. Mike and Ashley arrived hand-in-hand at 6 hours, 26 minutes. Pretty darned impressive for people who could barely walk 5 months prior.

At the weigh-in, Michael hit another huge turning point, going below the 300-pound mark at 299. He broke down crying, and I admit I teared up too. He lost 23 pounds while at home; Ashley lost 18 (but had the biggest percentage of weight loss at 7.79 percent); and Koli lost 13. Daris actually gained 2 pounds, and I believe that was due to his emotional side wrecking all the working out he was doing. So at the end of the weigh-in, we know that Ashley and Michael are definitely in the running for the title of Biggest Loser, and America's votes will determine if the third person is Koli or Daris. Anyone want to guess who America will vote for? I'm off to vote online now.

And may I just say that I'm thrilled that for the second year in a row, a woman from Tennessee is in the final four. You go, Ashley!

It Doesn't Take Much to Inspire

2010-05-18T00:01:00.000-05:00

Over this past weekend, I attended the Heart of Dixie Readers' Luncheon, where authors get to meet and mingle with a couple hundred romance readers in Huntsville, Alabama. This was my third year at the event, and it's always fun. But as with all travel, especially to events where there is a set menu, it's difficult to stay on target with the fitness and eating properly. During the event, the president of the Heart of Dixie chapter got up on stage to speak, looking very professional and stylish in her white blouse, killer black heels and black pencil skirt. I made the comment to a friend that I couldn't remember when I'd last been able to wear a pencil skirt. My shape just doesn't play nice with straight skirts. But I imagined someday getting to the point where I could fit into one again and not look like I'd stuffed a watermelon in it with me.

After the event was over, the same friend and I headed over to a nearby shopping area for dinner and to see the new Robin Hood movie. We had about an hour between dinner and the movie, so she and I started window shopping and ended up at one of my favorite stores, Coldwater Creek. She found some tops she liked, and while she was trying them on, I perused the store. I liked several things, but not anything enough to make me break out the credit card -- at least not until I got to this one outfit of white top, soft brown leather vest and...you guessed it, a denim pencil skirt. Still with time to kill, I decided to try in on. What the heck, right? I deliberately pulled a size 14 off the rack, hoping I'd feel good if I could get into it. Miracle of miracles, I did. And I had a bit of room left. Feeling a little excited, I asked the salesperson to bring me a size 12, just knowing that there was no way I'd get into it. But I did! I could zip it and didn't feel like my blood circulation was being cut off. I'm not going to say it's overly attractive at the moment, but I bought the size 12. By the RWA National Conference arrives in July, I want it to look a lot better than it does now. But having that skirt to try on occasionally will be enough inspiration to get me through the next two months.

I know that sizing is different depending on who makes a clothing product because I still can't get into my size 12 jeans, but it was still a very nice boost on this sometimes frustrating, yo-yo, occasionally falling off the wagon journey.

Have you had any moments of inspiration that kept you working toward your goal recently? Do you have pieces of clothing that are smaller than can fit you properly now that inspire you to keep at your fitness and health goals so you can wear it in the future?

How I Started to Combat My Emotional Eating

2010-05-17T00:01:00.005-05:00

A few years ago, I walked into my condo after a hard day of work and was completely stressed out, frustrated and upset with how the day had gone, and I wanted to stuff my face. Ironically, I can’t remember what happened that day at work, but I can clearly remember how the rest of the night went. I heated up an individual serving of whatever meal I had cooked for supper that week and sat down to eat it in front of the news.

When I finished eating supper, I wasn’t even close to feeling satisfied. I had no idea what I wanted to eat, but I had an overwhelming urge to keep eating. I knew I was not physically hungry and that this was probably a desire for emotional eating. It got to the point that it was too strong to resist, and I ate a bunch more food.

Lying back on my couch staring at the TV after I stopped eating, I knew I shouldn’t have eaten any more food. I wasn’t hungry. Before I let myself get completely disgusted and mad with myself, I noticed this wonderful feeling. My stomach felt comfortably full, and I could feel this comforting warmth spread from my stomach to the rest of my body. It was very peaceful, soothing and relaxing. It seemed to melt away the stress from work.

I knew enough about eating problems and emotional eating to recognize that this feeling was not necessarily a good or healthy thing. I remembered reading a comment a celebrity with eating problems made in an interview about how she overate because it felt like she was hugging herself whenever she did so. I never understood what that meant until I noticed what I was physically feeling after that eating binge. That was the feeling the celebrity wanted when she overate. It made me understand more what I was trying to achieve whenever I overate.

I had known for years at this point that I probably had a problem with emotional eating. I’d been very overweight or obese for more than 10 years, and I had no underlying medical cause for it. There had to be some emotional causes. I could even recognize at times when I was eating for emotional needs and not for physical ones. I just had no idea how to “fix” this problem and stop my emotional eating, and nothing I tried seemed to work.

Fast forward to the beginning of 2009 when I decided to give my all to my latest attempt to lose weight in the upcoming year. I knew that I’d have to try to figure out how to combat emotional eating at some point over the next year if I wanted to succeed, but I also knew it would not be easy. I had no idea how to start. In some ways, that helped. I gave myself permission to start out concentrating on doing what I could do right away – join Weight Watchers, buy healthy food, fix healthy meals, start keeping a food diary – and just let the question of how I could stop my emotional eating rest at the back of my mind for the immediate future.

I did this for months. Once I started to feel a bit more comfortable with my daily efforts to lose weight and had a little success behind me, I started thinking about what to do with my emotional eating. I listened for any of the tips fellow Weight Watchers members had to share at meetings and made note of the ones I thought would work for me. I did some reading. I observed how I behaved and tried to note when I was eating for physical reasons and when I was eating for emotional ones.

I started to develop tactics for myself to employ to stop my emotional eating, and by the end of the year, I felt like I had a real handle on that problem. I’m not perfect, and I do still eat for emotional reasons occasionally, but not nearly as much as I did in the past. All ten of my healthy guidelines are tactics and strategies I’ve developed to combat my emotional eating, but I can break it down into short-term or immediate tactics and long-term strategies. For the next month or two, I'll write more about how I started to combat successfully my urge to succumb to my desire for emotional eating or eating for reasons that have nothing to do with physical hunger.

Do you have any tips for how to combat emotional eating?

Michelle Butler has made becoming a healthy writer a priority. She lives, works and writes in the Washington, DC, area. You can follow her on twitter at http://twitter.com/healthywrtr

Inspiration Sunday

2010-05-16T04:36:00.000-05:00

'Albert Einstein, who discovered that a tiny amount of mass is equal to a huge amount of energy, which explains why, as Einstein himself so eloquently put it in a famous 1939 speech to the Physics Department at Princeton, "You have to exercise for a week to work off the thigh fat from a single Snickers."' ~Dave Barry

Green beans with garlic

2010-05-15T06:00:00.002-05:00

Spring brings with it an explosion of flavor in fresh produce. Farmers’ markets stock a dizzying array in nearly every color in the rainbow. Suddenly, eating your vegetables doesn’t seem like such a bad idea. One of my favorite veggies is the lovely green bean, or if you’re a little bit Southern you know them as snap beans. Low in calories and packed with vitamins and nutrients, green beans add a satisfying crunch to your salad. But you can only eat so many raw green beans before you crave a bit more flavor.

In my kitchen that flavor comes from oil, and growing up in an Italian household means there’s only one kind of oil on my shelf: extra virgin olive oil. I used it to sauté garlic and onions before turning them into marinara sauce, with a dash of lemon zest to create shrimp scampi, and as a dip for fresh bread. Thankfully, extra virgin olive oil is one of the good guys in the world of fats. This flavorful way to increase your good cholesterol is available in most supermarkets. Because oil standards are not heavily regulated look for the words “extra virgin” or “first cold press” on the label, avoid the words “light” and “mild”.

There are lots of ways to enjoy the heart-healthy benefits of extra virgin olive oil and the vitamin powerhouse green beans. You can dunk the green beans raw in just a little oil. You can combine the oil with a few other staples as a dressing for a lightly steamed green bean salad. One of my favorite ways is the recipe below, which blends the extra virgin olive oil with garlic. While this recipe is for green beans, you can substitute chickpeas, broccoli, or your favorite Spring vegetable.

Green beans tossed with extra virgin olive oil and garlic

2 cups fresh green beans
1 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 cloves (1½ teaspoons) chopped garlic

Wash green beans and prepare for cooking by snapping off the ends. Steam lightly using a steamer or blanch briefly in boiling water. If blanching, use a pot of ice water to stop the cooking process so the green beans remain crisp.

Place the green beans into the bottom of a large serving bowl. Add the next two ingredients, tossing to coat. Serve promptly or encourage diners to re-toss as the garlic and oil will collect on the bottom of the bowl.

(I love the strong flavor of garlic so when there’s no company coming to dinner, I use two tablespoons of garlic. Feel free to adjust the amount based on your own personal tastes.)

What are you finding in your farmers’ market? Got any new twists on the old favorites? Or any new finds that we all have to check out?
~~~

When she’s not cooking, buying, or dreaming about food Rachel Kleinsorge writes steamy paranormal mystery romances. She is currently waiting for the call from her agent, the amazing Carolyn Grayson, while working on her next novel.

The Idiot Box

2010-05-14T05:21:00.000-05:00

Earlier this week I sat at a wide boardroom table making small talk with a woman I didn’t know. She’s going to become a co-worker, and maybe a friend, but in those first getting-to-know-you minutes I didn’t have anything to say. She bravely took up the conversational mantel and asked if I watched Lost. No, I replied, I don’t watch much TV. Silence covered us for a few seconds, until someone else at the table volunteered that they watched Lost. As the conversation moved ahead without me, I stopped to think about my TV habits.

I don’t watch much TV. Really. I think. My husband lived without a television for four years. My own disdain for the idiot box surely keeps my tube time in check. I only watch my two hour long mysteries, a pair of half an hour comedies, my addictive hour of British Science Fiction, and that one reality show I just can’t shake. Oh, and there’s that new thing they labeled Gothic Horror I’ve been catching lately. That couldn’t be all that much…. Except that it adds up to six hours.

Imagine yourself in my place, in the conference room meeting someone new, strained smiles and self-conscious glances all around. When the stranger asks you say, “I work out for six hours a week.” Wow! You’re quite the gym rat. You must really care about your health! If you said, “I pray for six hours a week” shock would fill the room at your devotion to your faith. Volunteer six hours a week and you’ll be praised. Spend six hours a week studying something – a language, math, or science, and you must be smart. But watch six hours a week of television and all you have is six hours less in your week.

If someone offered you an extra six hours a week, in one hour increments what do you think you could accomplish? Would you fill those magical six hours with writing? Research? Exercise? Several well deserved naps? But what if it was more than that, what if someone offered to give you back 153 hours this month? That’s the average amount of time an American watches television at home in a month. Even if you watch half of that average you’ve spent the equivalent of 3 days solid in front of the TV. If you spent that same amount of time on your writing, polishing your manuscripts, contacting agents, writing and rewriting that dread synopsis, how much better off would your career be?

Personally, spending that much time in front of the tube frightens me. I don’t think television improves my writing or my health. I don’t think it adds enough joy to my life to justify the time I give it. Starting now I’ll be cutting my TV time down a lot. I suspect you’ll still be able to find me curled up on the couch watching a movie on Friday or Saturday night, but the mindless “if it’s Monday, it must be Castle” has to stop. (But not with Castle, I like him and he’s a writer.)

How much time have you spent watching TV in the last week? Did it make you happy? Happier than you could have been doing something else with that time? Anyone want to try a TV-free week with me?

Curious about my statistics? They come from the Nielsen foundation, that tracks TV watching and statics. Read the study.

~~~

When she’s not cooking, buying, or dreaming about food Rachel Kleinsorge writes steamy paranormal mystery romances. She is currently waiting for the call from her agent, the amazing Carolyn Grayson, while working on her next novel.

Vizualization

2010-05-12T23:46:00.003-05:00

Last week, I talked about the 4 steps toward achieving a goal as outlined in Dr. Wayne Dyer's book, YOU'LL SEE IT WHEN YOU BELIEVE IT.

1. Visualize
2. Tell yourself whatever you visualize is already here
3. Be willing to do whatever it takes
4. and Realize there is no such thing as failure.

Today I wanted to look at the first of those steps a little closer.

Visualizing – what is it? In its simplest form, it’s the ability to imagine. Hey, we’re writers, we imagine GREAT. So – how do we apply that to getting what we want?

By imagining a scene in which you are the heroine (or hero). In this scene, you have reached your writing goals, your weight goals, your health goals, etc...

Imagine it – It could be sliding into a pair of size 7 jeans, wearing a skimpy little black dress, running up the stairs without getting winded. It could be The Call, or a huge party to celebrate your first sale, or your first appearance on the best-seller list, or you up on stage accepting your RITA.

Like writing, how can you flesh this scene out? Can you add people? Familiar settings, sounds, scents. Can you close your eyes and imagine them? Picture it all– flesh the scene out and make it real.

If you can't close your eyes and see the images in your mind's eye, write them. Just like you're writing a scene in the first person, layer in all the details. Be sure to include how it feels to accomplish your goal!!

Spend at least 5 minutes a day with this scene. Re-read it, tweak it, visualize it.

The truth is, our sub-conscious minds can’t discern between what is real and what is imagined. Science has shown that if you create an image in your sub-conscious mind and you visualize it daily, it becomes real to your sub-conscious and will soon find your conscious self working harder to create that reality.

Have you ever used visualization as a tool for writing or for weight loss? How's that gone? And if not, what do you think about giving this a try?

Tawny Weber writes hot, spicy stories for Harlequin Blaze. In January 2010, her novella, YOU HAVE TO KISS A LOT OF FROGS, was out in the Blazing Bedtime Story anthology and her next full length Blaze,, RIDING THE WAVES, will be out in September 2010. Come by and visit her on the web at www.tawnyweber.com

Final Four

2010-05-12T00:01:00.000-05:00

The finish line for the latest season of The Biggest Loser is growing ever closer with last night's episode revealing the final four contestants. And all through the episode, there was a feeling of pressure, tenseness, nervousness and a bit more competitiveness. Koli, who was pretty laid back in the beginning, was even cocky. I'm all for believing in yourself, but I have to say I wasn't a fan of the cockiness. But again, editing has everything to do with perception in this show.

The contestants got visits from two previous Biggest Loser winners -- Helen from season 7 and Erik from season 3. They gave them advice and listened to their concerns, and Erik talked about how easily one can slip back into old habits and see the wait come back as he did. His advice was to watch how you give yourself passes, things like "Oh, it's only a weight gain of 10 pounds. I'll get to the gym and knock that off in a week or two." That's dangerous thinking, and before you know it you've gained more weight than you realize.

Michael had a very emotional week, still struggling with the fact that he's about to go home still a big guy and still having to shop in big clothing stores. But when the contestants watched retrospective videos of their journeys on the ranch, his was especially moving -- and just what he needed to see to refocus him on what he's accomplished versus how long of a road he still has ahead of him.

The challenge this week involved racing over a series of sand hills carrying the weight they'd all lost during their time on the ranch. At the top of each hill, which represented a week on the ranch, they got to drop however much they lost that week. Ashley and Michael, especially, had a hard time even getting their weights up the hills, and this made them wonder how they ever carried that weight on their bodies. Daris, still upset with himself for dropping out of last week's challenge, was determined to win the challenge and did so. By doing so, he won $10,000, which he ended up trading for a 1-lb. advantage, which he didn't end up needing.

Tony Romo of the Dallas Cowboys went shopping for active wear and then hiking with the contestants, and Dr. Huizenga met with Michael to show him how much his life expectancy had improved because of the weight he's lost. The last time he saw this score, his body was that of a 54-year-old. When the score came down this time, he was down to 38, within sight of his actual age of 31. This score, more than anything else, helped him realize just how much he's accomplished.

This week, there was no yellow line at the weigh in, just a red line. This meant that whoever lost the lowest percentage of weight was automatically eliminated. Still, in week 17, there were some impressive numbers. Michael lost 12 pounds, Koli 13, Daris 10, and Ashley 7. Sunshine only lost 2, which put her below the red line. But she looks great and was one of the smallest people left on the ranch. Prior to the weigh in, I thought it might be Daris who would fall below, but Sunshine was a possibility too just because they're both so much closer to their goal weights than Michael and Ashley, who still have a way to go.

We've only got one more episode before the finale, and I have to say I'm rooting for Ashley and Michael. What about you all? Any favorites to win? What did you take away from this week's episode?

I Don't Know Why

2010-05-11T00:01:00.000-05:00

I've seriously been backsliding the past week, and I really can't pinpoint a reason why. I could blame hormones and cravings. I could point to having a lot on my to-do list. The fact that I'm two weeks away from my 40th birthday and not even halfway to my weight loss goal. Or maybe I'm just lazy when it comes right down to it. Maybe it's a little of all of those things that had me eating sweets, fast food, Cokes and all manner of things I shouldn't have been and not exercising nearly enough.

Whatever the reason, I have to get my act in gear. I firmly believe I can hit the halfway point to my goal by my birthday. That will be a good birthday present to myself, and it's one I'm going to start giving myself today. Sure, I've messed up a lot in the last week or two, but it's done. Those days can't be recovered or the mistakes undone. I can only start with today and go forward. Kicking myself repeatedly for unhealthy behavior will just make me feel bad about myself, which will make me want to drown my sorrows in cookies. Not a good plan. So I won't focus on what I didn't do before but rather what I will do today. I won't think about tomorrow, just today. I need to have that mindset each day. So, today...

I WILL exercise two hours.

I WILL keep my calories to 1,200 total for the day.

I WILL read at least one health/fitness-related article.

I WILL plan my Healthy Writer posts for the rest of the month.

I WILL do everything I can to have a positive attitude and outlook about my health/fitness journey and not focus on the failures.

I WILL watch The Biggest Loser and ride the inspirational high I get from watching that show to plan my "WILL" list for tomorrow.

How about you all? What WILL you do today to move yourself closer to your health/fitness goals?

Plan and Prepare for Success

2010-05-09T16:55:00.000-05:00

When I resolved once again at the beginning of 2009 to try to lose weight, I spent a lot of time thinking about how my past attempts at weight loss had gone, what I had done well, where I had failed, and how I could plan my next attempt in a way that would succeed. It was such a helpful exercise that I try to ask myself these questions on a regular basis: What do I need to do to succeed in my weight loss efforts? What should I do for the short term and for the long term? What challenges can I anticipate? How can I approach these challenges so that they don’t sabotage my efforts? What kind of support systems and habits can I build into my life that will help me lose weight and ultimately maintain a healthy lifestyle?

One of the first steps I took and one that I have to redo regularly is figure out what I will eat in the next week. I like to cook, and I want to do this eating “real” food not frozen diet meals or much processed food. I need to go to the grocery store regularly to ensure that my kitchen is stocked with healthy and appealing foods. I also make sure that my kitchen is not stocked with unhealthy choices and junk food. I never go to the grocery store hungry and make a grocery list before I leave home. I often do a rough meal plan for the week. One of the most helpful tools I’ve developed is my ability to do a mammoth day of cooking every couple months or so and freeze individual meals for later. For more details, see: http://healthywriter.blogspot.com/2009/11/cooking-one-day-for-month.html

If I know of any upcoming larger meals or social/work events with plenty of eating opportunities in the next seven days, I may address how I can balance that with other meals during the week. I may plan to make a vegetarian meal, such as Cuban black beans and rice, or another very low-fat dish for part of that week. I may consider increasing my workouts. If the meal is at a restaurant, I’ll often look at the menu in advance to figure out what I will eat, how many calories the meal will likely have, and how much I’ll have to work to balance it elsewhere. Sometimes, I can order something that will stay in my calorie or point count for the day. Other times, I’ll choose to splurge on a higher calorie meal and balance it in another way. There are lots of strategies you can use to survive eating out.

I know that a potentially challenging time for me can be when I’m coming home from work tired and a little stressed. I often won’t want to cook supper then. If I don’t have something already prepared at home or something I can whip up very easily (cereal, anyone? – or my healthier turkey burgers), I will be very tempted to stop at any of the many fast food and casual dining restaurants at the metro stops near where I work and live. I’ve taken the time to figure out all the lower-calorie yet still appealing options there and will try to turn to those when I must get take out. A real treat for me is two tacos at Baja Fresh. One helpful Web site for finding good restaurant options is: www.dwlz.com.

Working out regularly is a big part of my efforts to become a healthy writer. A lot of thought has gone into how I can make this a habit and how I can work it into my schedule. I already walk a fair amount with my daily commute. I spent time thinking about what other kind of exercise I like enough to do regularly, and I’m a gym class – step aerobics, zumba (Latin dance aerobics), weight lifting, pilates, yoga – kind of person. I joined a gym chain that allows me to go to any of their locations in the D.C. area. There are three locations 5-15 minutes from where I live, and I have the class schedule for each. I have a fairly regular workout pattern now. Getting to the point where you just do it and ask yourself how you can fit it in as opposed to whether you should go is extremely helpful to maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

I also use clothing as a tool to help me plan and prepare for success. As you start to lose enough weight that your clothes sizes change, I think it’s very important that you start to wear clothing that fits correctly. It makes you more aware of your body, and it’s a tangible way to show and measure how you are getting smaller. If the clothes are too loose, it gets too easy to cheat. A loose waist has a way to go before it gets tight. Also, looking at yourself in clothing that is too large may make you think you are still fatter than you really are and mess with your body image. I finally got new pajamas after my 30-pound loss because I found myself thinking I was still a whale whenever I saw myself in my old pajamas. I’ve also discovered that getting rid of the clothing that is now too large for me is a great incentive to keep me going with my efforts. If I went back to my old weight, I’d have to buy new clothes, and my frugal self hates that. See: http://healthywriter.blogspot.com/2009/09/vote-of-confidence-in-myself.html

Wearing flattering clothes also makes you feel better about yourself. The reward of buying and wearing smaller sizes is a powerful motivator for me. I use outfits in a smaller size as a goal to work towards and as a way to measure my progress besides the scale. See: http://healthywriter.blogspot.com/2009/11/what-are-you-working-towards.html

As I’ve said before, I struggle with emotional eating. To help me plan and prepare for success, I think about what upcoming challenges may trigger negative thoughts and emotions that will weaken my ability to resist urges to eat too much. I brainstorm ways I can get through these challenges. I understand that managing my thoughts can help me manage my emotions. Changing my negative thoughts to more positive or optimistic ones can help prevent me from emotional eating or eating for reward. One of the ways I do this is to attend weekly WW meetings. To quote a guest blogger, it adjusts your fattitude. For another take on the value of these meetings, read the following two guest blog posts: http://healthywriter.blogspot.com/2009/09/success-with-weight-watchers.html

or http://healthywriter.blogspot.com/2009/10/its-not-diet-its-lifestyle.html.

Weight Watchers does cost money. I like the program. I’ve found a meeting that I can work easily into my schedule, a leader whom I find inspiring, a group of regular attendees who motivate me and whom I can relate to, and a system that can work for me. It may not work for you or may be too expensive. Two other support groups you might want to consider are Overeaters Anonymous, which is free, or TOPS: Taking Off Pounds Sensibly, which has a nominal yearly fee. They tend to meet at churches and may be a great option for you.

This past summer, I was in the midst of a plateau and needed more motivation to keep trying. The main reason I started blogging at Healthy Writer was it would force me to think about and work out some of my negative thoughts and emotions. It also forces me to plan and prepare for success. I need to post weekly, and I often choose to write about whatever I’ve been struggling with the most lately or anticipate will be a challenge for me in the upcoming week. Furthermore, it extended my commitment to this journey to becoming a healthy writer. I'm amazed by what I've accomplished so far and look forward to seeing how far I can go. I'll continue to ask myself on a regular basis how I can plan and prepare for success.

How do you plan and prepare for success?

Photo Caption: My Weight Watchers buddies and I at a "bon voyage" party Saturday night for a friend who is going to England for a five-month temporary assignment for her job

Top Row left to right: Cheryl, me Bottom Row left to right: Helena, Meghan, Ken

Cheryl just lost her first ten pounds. I've lost 33 pounds so far. Helena has lost more than 100 pounds. Meghan has lost nearly 40 pounds and is almost at her goal weight. Ken has lost 83 pounds and is approaching his goal weight as well. I can't overstate how much support and help and opportunities for more fun in my life I've gotten from joining Weight Watchers this past time.

Michelle Butler has made becoming a healthy writer a priority. She lives, works and writes in the Washington, DC, area. You can follow her on twitter at http://twitter.com/healthywrtr

Inspiration Sunday

2010-05-09T16:33:00.000-05:00

A diet is the penalty we pay for exceeding the feed limit. ~Author Unknown

Fast Food

2010-05-08T07:11:00.003-05:00

One of my biggest challenges is finding something good and healthy to eat that I can whip together in a short time. Also, as the weather gets warmer, even here on the east coast of Canada, I’m looking for something easy that doesn’t keep me in a hot kitchen. I always tell myself I’m going to make that vegetarian lasagna or that homemade soup but more often then not the ingredients I’ve paid dearly for end up thrown out because I never find the time or energy to make it. This chicken salad takes less time than running out to pick up something at the nearest deli. You can lose the pepper flakes if you don’t like them and it’s still delicious.

Thai Chicken Salad

Serves 4
WW Points 5
2 skinless boneless chicken breasts (about 10 oz) cooked and shredded
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 medium carrots, julienned
2 medium cucumbers, seeded and julienned
2 medium celery stalks, julienned
1 medium red bell pepper, seeded and julienned
1/4 cup minced red onion
Pinch crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/4 cup minced fresh cilantro
1/2 ounce dry-roasted shelled peanuts, coarsely chopped

In large bowl, combine carrots, cucumbers, celery, bell pepper. In small jar with tight-fitting lid or small bowl, combine onion, pepper flakes, juice, vinegar and oil; cover and shake well or, with wire whisk, blend until combined. Pour onion mixture over vegetable mixture; toss to coat Shred cooled chicken. Line serving platter with vegetable mixture; top with chicken. Serve sprinkled with cilantro and peanuts.

It won’t kill you.

2010-05-07T05:00:00.000-05:00

My father’s feet turned to clay when I was ten years old. Before then, he stood as a giant who protected me from everything. At 6’3” and 250 pounds, Dad held us up so we could reach the stars. But the year I turned ten Dad was diagnosed with diabetes. My invincible hero turned into a man with cautions attached to his life. The strongest caution accompanied food. I learned early in my Dad’s diagnosis that if he didn’t eat he would die. Being hungry would kill him. I internalized this message a bit too well, and never let myself go more than a few hours without food.

A funny thing happened when I was 29. I spent 24 hours without eating. It wasn’t by choice, there were other things on my mind at the time, not to mention doctors and nurses who ordered me to take only water. Not a single bite or drop of juice for 24 hours and somehow I survived. Since then I’ve disproven the lesson from my childhood over and over again. I’ve actually come to appreciate being a little hungry. It makes me savor my food, helps me look forward to it. Surprisingly, if I push away from the table still slightly hungry, I can go three or four hours before I need to eat again. I will admit to getting “hangry,” a word a friend made up meaning so hungry you’re angry at everyone, but I haven’t died yet.

Another unspoken family rule taught me that exercise wasn’t to be trusted. Exercise hurt. If you did too much, you would have a heart attack and die. If you escaped that fate you were sure to end up with injuries: torn ligaments, pulled muscles, and surely, broken bones. My Aunt who biked regularly had to have knee surgery. She became an example of why it was best to just avoid all of that danger.

I started running in my early twenties. I was (and am) super slow. In addition to surely dying, according to family and friends I risk a number of maladies every time I put on my sneakers: joint degeneration, back pain, knee problems, and (a personal favorite) any minute now my uterus is going to fall out. And yet, like being hungry, running hasn’t killed me. I’ve come to believe it won’t. I even own a t-shirt that says “Running won’t kill you. You’ll pass out first.”

Exercise makes me feel better. It clears up migraines before they really start. It soothes my moods and helps me form strong friendships with other runners. It teaches me that I can pick a goal and stick to it, no matter what. At the end of March Trish challenged us to set a goal and stick with it. I chose running every other day in preparation for a local 5K. In the month since then my grandmother died, I’ve dealt with job issues, and I had to revisit some old fears. Still I ran. Every other day, despite weather, exhaustion, and just plain lack of any desire to, I got out there. My 5K was the day after my grandmother’s burial. I ran. …and it didn’t kill me.

What lessons hold you back? If you took them out and looked at them, would they still be true? Are you willing to give up the security of those lessons to be healthy?

~~~

When she’s not cooking, buying, or dreaming about food, Rachel Kleinsorge writes steamy paranormal mystery romances. She is currently waiting for the call from her agent, the amazing Carolyn Grayson, while working on her next novel.

Seeing Is Believing

2010-05-06T00:22:00.005-05:00

I'm currently re-reading Dr. Wayne Dyer's YOU'LL SEE IT WHEN YOU BELIEVE IT. I'm a huge fan of Dr. Dyers and have pretty much read all his works. Oftentimes, when I'm feeling frustrated and stuck, I stand in front of my bookcase (which bookcase depends on what area of life I'm feeling stuck and frustrated with *g*). I let my eyes cruise the titles, and grab the one that jumps out at me as having whatever info I need to get unstuck.

My current source of frustration is with my weight journey and KNOWING that there is something beyond the simple science (calories in / calories out) that I had to overcome before I'd see the progress I wanted. So the bookcase I stood in front of was my non-fiction collection. And YOU'LL SEE IT WHEN YOU BELIEVE IT was the book I grabbed.

And on my first night of reading, I ran across this - yes, the exact answer to my frustrations...

Dr. Dyer outlines 4 simple steps for achieving a goal.

Visualize
Tell yourself whatever you visualize is already here
Be willing to do whatever it takes
and Realize there is no such thing as failure.

I love these simple, yet complexly intense, steps. I thought they'd be great focuses for the next few week's blogs, both expanding on each step and on how it applies to my weight loss journey. So next week, I'll blog about visualization, etc...

In the meantime - tell me, have you read Dr. Dyer's work, or this book in particular? Is there a self-help guru you turn to on a regular basis for reading comfort?

Don't underestimate the pink ninja

2010-05-05T00:01:00.000-05:00

It was makeover week on The Biggest Loser last night. Woot! I love makeover week, when the contestants get fab makeovers and we get to see them wearing something besides their Biggest Loser T-shirts and copious amounts of sweat. The six remaining contestants had lost an amazing total of 805 pounds. That's four whole grown men!

I got tickled by Sam's reaction, saying he loved clothes and fashion. But Daris' story of buying his pants at the farm and ranch store, right next to the tarps, made me want to cry. And you could feel the hurt Michael felt at having to still shop alone at the big and tall store. It was such a change in attitude from where he's been at the past few weeks, on that high of having lost so much. I hope he's able to rebound next week and refocus on what he's accomplished so far.

As for the makeovers, I thought Sunshine looked absolutely beautiful, living up to her name. Sam is one heck of a hottie now. Daris looks totally different with his curls cropped back. Even the haircut made him look smaller. Michael also looks totally different. I kept thinking that Diane might be watching at home and fanning herself. :) It was so touching and heartbreaking when his sister, who is also overweight, started crying and asked him to help her.

After getting a private concert with Ashanti, the contestants were off to a challenge in which they had to climb that awful Jacob's Ladder suspended 10 feet above a pool. The first one to fall off got a 1-pound disadvantage at the weigh in. The winner got a 1-pound advantage. Ashley fell off 3 minutes in and got the disadvantage. Michael fell off a couple of minutes later. This made sense since they're the two biggest people left on the ranch. The rest of the contestants went for considerably more time. Koli and Daris were the last up there when Daris finally just gave up and jumped in the pool after 2 1/2 hours had elapsed. Later, he was mad at himself for quitting because he felt he could have physically kept going, and Bob put him through a grueling last-chance workout to get him back in the right frame of mind. Bob pointed out his quote on the gym wall: "Stand up and finish what you started."

Good advice for all of us, my backsliding self included.

The popular number at this week's weigh in proved to be 9, with Michael, Daris and Sunshine all losing this amount. Ashley kept herself in the game with 10, and became the record holder for most weight lost by any female contestant in Biggest Loser history with 136 pounds lost. Her accomplishment prompted my favorite quote of the night when she said, "Don't underestimate the pink ninja." Love it!

Koli lost an amazing 15 pounds even though he had the advantage this week. Sam, who was already at his goal weight (the only Biggest Loser contestant ever to reach his goal weight while on the ranch), lost only 2 pounds, putting him and Michael in the bottom two. Even though Michael is clearly the one who needed to stay on the ranch, the vote ended in a tie. Because of the tie, the person with the lowest percentage of weight loss this week went home -- and that was Sam. But don't feel sorry for him. He is one happy dude now, living at his goal weight and enjoying his new life in L.A. with his girlfriend, Stephanie from this season. He's now helping her reach her goal weight. I love these Biggest Loser love connections. :)

Whose makeover impressed you most? Now that we're down to the final five, any guesses on who is going to win?

Dealing with the Unexpected

2010-05-03T23:51:00.003-05:00

We've talked here many times about how much easier it is to stick with our fitness and dietary plans when we're living our normal routine and how hard it is when those routines are interrupted. I want to find ways to learn to be focused and extra dedicated when those routines go out the window. I'll admit that over the past three days, I've not exercised or watched what I've eaten. I could use the excuse that these are extraordinary times as we deal with massive flooding here in Nashville. But there's really no reason why I haven't exercised or eaten what I should other than I just didn't. After all, luckily my home is not one of the hundreds that have been inundated with water. Instead, I've been sitting in front of the TV news coverage of water rescues and the flooding of major Nashville sites such as the Grand Ole Opry House and the Titans football stadium.

On Saturday, while I was stuck along with several other people at a bookstore as it monsooned outside and one tornado warning after another had our eyes glued to the radar, I allowed myself to be tempted by a slice of cheesecake. At the time, a friend and I joked about it. She has lost a tremendous amount of weight on Weight Watchers and looks great, but she said if she was going to be taken out by a tornado, she wanted to be eating pound cake when it happened. Yes, we were probably fighting a bit of nerves by reaching for comfort foods, but I should have drawn the line at Saturday. Instead, I've let it creep into two more days, and the scales is showing the results of that.

So today, I need to go for a walk. I need to put on some up-tempo music and do some dance aerobics. It'll have the added benefit of keeping me away from constantly watching the latest reports of devastation from across the city I call home. Maybe I'll see if I can go volunteer with some of the relief efforts. I saw some people with Hands On Nashville sandbagging to protect a part of town today, and I had the thought, "Hey, that looks like good exercise as well as a good cause."

I Still Struggle at Times...And That's OK

2010-05-02T15:12:00.007-05:00

About a year ago, I noticed how one particular woman only came to the Tuesday night Weight Watchers meetings when she was really struggling. I think she attended another meeting, perhaps at work, regularly, but she found it helpful to attend an additional one on her tough weeks.

She always sat alone in the back row, held herself very stiffly, and generally exuded a sense of despair or even self-hatred. Our group leader would make her talk. What came out was an almost inarticulate stream of how hard it was. Why was food such an issue for her? Why couldn't she just eat whatever she wanted and stay a healthy weight like everyone else could? Why was this still such a struggle? The group leader would ask more questions, and she'd share the stupid food and exercise decisions she was making lately. He'd also ask her to share how much she had lost. She was more than 30 pounds down.

One time, she tried to cut herself off as she didn't think this was helpful to others. The group leader stopped her, said it was very helpful and asked everyone to agree with him. Now, I didn't find it particularly helpful, but I wasn't so self-absorbed that I would say that. I was struggling to begin my weight loss journey. I did not find it comforting to know that a woman could lose 30 pounds and still struggle so much. I also thought she looked fine. What was she so upset about? Perhaps she was a size 12 or 10, but she should just love the way she looked. I considered myself a big girl, and she was not. What did she know about struggle?

Since then, this woman has appeared periodically and done the same thing. About one year after I initially wished she would stop complaining as it wasn't helping my motivation to keep on keeping on, she was more than 50 pounds down and I was more than 30 pounds down. We both looked like different women, but we still could find ourselves struggling on this journey.

You may have noticed that I'm about now where she was a year ago. Since February 23 of this year, I have bounced between 31 and 33 pounds down. This is not a bad place to be, but I have found myself struggling more and more with what I see as a lack of progress. This struggle has included moments of despair that may have bordered on self-hatred and some stupid decisions about food and exercise. At my last meeting, I realized I was becoming like that woman who I thought was a whining drama queen the previous year. Once I got over the shock, I realized how smart the group leader had been to make her talk. I tried to analyze what she had said a year before and what I could learn from it.

I think the biggest lesson I got from thinking about her was that she got through it. She continued working at her journey and managed to pass the fifty pounds down mark. Based on how she acted in the meetings she attended on Tuesday night, it was not always easy. It could be a huge struggle, but it was one she worked through and continued her forward progress to her goal weight.

I've known for a long time that there is not an end to this journey. I also knew that I can't return to my previous eating habits, but I'm not sure I realized how much of a struggle at times this journey would still be emotionally and mentally. I started this year with a goal to be more optimistic about this and was successful at that for awhile. I guess I thought that meant I would struggle less with my thoughts and feelings. It's become very apparent in the last month or so that this is not the case. Yes, the issues may be different, but the struggle is not.

So, one of the lessons I need to accept is that I will continue to struggle at times, and that's ok. What saved me the previous times I really struggled in the past 16 months of this journey was that I promised myself I'd give it my all for a year no matter what. This promise was made in January 2009 and renewed in January 2010, and it's still the best thing I've ever done to help me be successful at this journey.

Now, I still need additional help on some days. I've made some really stupid decisions concerning food and exercise this past week and have been searching for signs that would help me boost my motivation to do what I know I need to do. Forcing myself to think about how much I could learn from the drama queen's struggles and triumphs helped. Friday morning, Sally posted in a comment the suggestion to look at Romans 7:15. I did, and it was such a powerful reminder that this struggle to do the good things I say I want to do is practically a part of the human condition. It was getting easier to think these struggles are ok.

Friday night, I watched Bill Moyers' last episode of his show on PBS as he really is retiring this time. His last guest was some storyteller named Barry Lopez. Bill and Barry had quite the philosophical conversation about the meaning of life. Barry shared a story of how a dying woman gave her daughter a copy of Viktor Frankl's book Man's Search for Meaning as the mother thought her daughter was finally old enough to know that the best reaction to tragedy is not self-destruction. This took my breath away.

I have reached the point that I look at my past obesity and struggles with food as a kind of self-destruction, and it's one I very much want to stop. I want to be as kind, caring and compassionate towards myself as I can be to others. This reminder was the final piece of motivation I needed to kick myself in the butt, stop making stupid food and exercise decisions and keep on keeping on.

I don't expect my Tuesday night weigh in to go very well, but my emotional and mental journey is ultimately more important than my physical one. I'm back in a good place no matter what the scale says Tuesday night. Yes, I will struggle at various points for the rest of my life, but that is ok. I know I can keep on keeping on. Furthermore, I know how to make sure I incorporate stuff into my life that helps me keep on keeping on. My journey continues, and overall, it'll be triumphant.

What helps you when you are struggling? What can you do to make sure your own journey is triumphant?

Michelle Butler has made becoming a healthy writer a priority. She lives, works and writes in the Washington, DC, area. You can follow her on twitter at http://twitter.com/healthywrtr

Ode to Breakfast

2010-05-01T02:01:00.004-05:00

I've learned so much about myself since I started this journey to becoming and staying a healthy writer 17 months ago. One of these lessons was how important a healthy, filling breakfast was to my weight loss attempts.

I have kept most of my trackers or food diaries since the beginning of January 2009. Whenever I've hit a rough patch where I'm struggling a lot to lose weight, I will look at them to see what has worked in the past. Every so often, I'll have a breakfast sandwich with bacon, egg and cheese on a bagel as a treat.

I looked at the days when I did this expecting them to be one of my highest point days, but I often ate less than my daily point/calorie allotment. This really surprised me, and I thought about why that was. While a breakfast sandwich, especially when it's on a bagel, is higher in calories or points than my typical breakfasts, it is very satisfying and filling. When I have this for breakfast, I may only have a late, light lunch.

This discovery made me look at how what I had for breakfast affected my eating the rest of the day and my weight loss for that week. It turns out that my total point or calorie count on days when I have a substantive breakfast tend to be lower than when I have a light breakfast of a piece of fruit or a Fiber One or other breakfast bar I eat on the run. Since I realized this, I have noticed that on the days when I have a small breakfast, it feels like I never catch up with satisfying my hunger. It chases me most of the day. I will often eat lunch earlier and eat more that day to try to reach a feeling of satiation.

If I have a good breakfast, I start off the day feeling satiated and don't have to struggle with hunger or overeating as much. I also tend to lose more weight on the weeks that I have a filling breakfast every morning.

For me, a filling breakfast usually has some protein, a complex carbohydrate and is a good nutrient mix. It can be as simple as whole-wheat toast and peanut butter (about 4 points). It most often is high-fiber cereal or oatmeal with fruit, nuts, skim milk and a little brown sugar and cinnamon with the oatmeal and can range between 6 - 8 points. While I find eggs very filling, unfortunately, they can disagree with my system. This increases if I have more than one or at the most two in any given week, so I have to really limit how many eggs I eat.

I do know that many people's weight loss strategy rests on a very low point or calorie breakfast, and some people even find they do better that way. It's not the case for me. I do recommend experimenting to see what works best for you.

One of my favorite breakfasts is oatmeal. I've been told that I have a unique way of making it, so I'm going to share what I do.

Michelle's Oatmeal

1/2 cup of Old-Fashioned Oats (the bigger kind - never the quick or instant kind)
1 cup skim milk
Chopped fruit (banana, berries, apple, nectarines, whatever is in season)
Optional dried fruit (raisins or craisins - I need to be real careful with this because it can really increase the calories)
1 to 2 Tablespoons of chopped walnuts or almonds (luckily, these are my favorite and are the healthiest nut choice - esp. walnuts)
Brown Sugar or Honey (little bit - but it's worth it - it's just not nearly as satisfying without it.)
Cinnamon if I use an apple - sometimes other "sweet" spices such as nutmeg, all-spice, etc.

Dump oatmeal in a microwavable bowl. Top with fruit (I really vary it and can use just one fruit or up to 4), brown sugar, optional spice and chopped nuts. I mix it and then pour in a cup of skim milk. I cook it in the microwave on half power for 6 minutes. It's very important that you use half power. It will boil over if you use full power and become uneatable (and I've been cheap enough to try to eat the resulting mess.)

I've been told that my use of skim milk instead of water (I really make it a priority to get enough calcium a day - preferably through nonfat dairy products) and cooking my fruit with the oatmeal make my version different from the way most others cook it. I love it this way and suggest you try it.

Another favorite breakfast of mine is baked oatmeal, something I first discovered as a recipe on Susan Elizabeth Phillips's Web site. If I have cold cereal instead of oatmeal, I will sometimes combine three of them (such as cheerios, all-bran and shredded wheat based on Bob Greene's, Oprah's trainer, recommendation on a Web site) for variety or experiment with a new-to-me cereal.

I've also experimented with healthier pancakes. One Weight Watchers recipe (from the 1990s Simple Goodness magazine-style cookbook) for pancakes I really like is for a version that I can make ahead and pop in the toaster in the morning to heat it up to eat. Obviously, microwaving them can work as well, but the toaster method is fewer steps, and I like the crispy edge it gives them.

Oatmeal-Buttermilk Pancakes

1 1/4 cups low-fat or fat-free buttermilk
1/2 cup oatmeal
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
1 large egg
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (I bet you could use some whole-wheat or buckwheat flour)
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
(Note: I often add blueberries or chopped bananas to the batter.)

Combine first 3 ingredients in a small bowl. Let stand 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in oil and egg. Combine flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt in large bowl. Add oat mixture to dry ingredients, stirring until well blended. Spoon about 1/3 cup batter for each pancake onto a hot nonstick griddle or nonstick skillet. Turn pancakes when tops are covered with bubbles and edges look cooked. Yield: 8 pancakes (serving size - 2 pancakes) 6 points per serving.

Are you a breakfast fan? Do you feel like it makes a difference to your day and to your chances of weight loss if you have a good, filling breakfast? Do you have any breakfast suggestions for me?

Michelle Butler has made becoming a healthy writer a priority. She lives, works and writes in the Washington, DC, area. You can follow her on twitter at http://twitter.com/healthywrtr

Sometimes Size Does Matter

2010-04-30T07:00:00.005-05:00

Take a quick look at these two plates. Which plate has around 450 calories?

Surprise! Both plates have exactly the same amount of food. Okay, maybe it’s not a surprise, maybe you’re well aware that plate size influences how much we eat, but did you know that plate sizes are slowly increasing? The two plates above are my ‘good china.’ The plate on the left is a salad plate, something that used to be called a luncheon plate back when people thought you should eat less at lunch. It measures eight inches across, about the same size as my grandmother’s dinner plates. Today’s dinner plates are between eleven and twelve inches. As plate size slowly creeps up, so do portion sizes.

As writers we know the actual size of something doesn’t matter much compared to how it is perceived. An object can loom large or shrink into nothing when our hero fears it or needs to find it respectively. Unfortunately, your dinner plate uses the same magic trick on your feeling of fullness after a meal. Visual cues help us to gauge how full we are; if you eat off a larger plate you’ll eat more before you feel full.

A study published in Obesity Research asked subjects to rate how satisfied they were and estimate how much they had eaten after consuming a bowl of soup. However, some subjects were given ‘bottomless’ soup bowls that refilled via a pump hidden under the table. It turned out that if a subject’s bowl never emptied they ate 73% more soup. More importantly, after eating they didn’t rate themselves as more satisfied nor did they believe they had eaten more than subjects with a normal bowl.

How can a healthy writer cope? First, try eating off of smaller plates and bowls. You’re likely to eat less without even realizing it. I’ve found using bowls and serving dishes marked with the size to be helpful as well. I know I’ve eaten half a cup when half of the one cup container is empty, instead of just guessing. I have cheap Ziploc containers and durable Pyrex, both do a great job.
Second, stop and look at your food. When all the right words are flowing from my finger tips, I often eat with my eyes on the monitor and one hand typing. It’s great for my daily word count but it means I’m not visually processing how much I’m eating. Similarly, take your food out of its bag or package. It’s a lot easier to know you’ve had ten M&Ms if you counted them out and put them in glass dish instead of snatching a handful or two from the bag as you stand over the sink.

How big are your plates? Do you think plate size matters? Do you eat while typing too? Let me know in the comments below.

Curious to read that study? It’s here: Bottomless Bowls: Why Visual Cues of Portion Size May Influence Intake

Want to make the dish you see pictured above? It’s here: Balsamic Glazed Pork Chops with Red Pepper Grits

~~~

When she’s not cooking, buying, or dreaming about food, Rachel Kleinsorge writes steamy paranormal mystery romances. She is currently waiting for the call from her agent, the amazing Carolyn Grayson, while working on her next novel.

But I'm So Busy!

2010-04-29T03:41:00.006-05:00

April was insane for me. By the 30th, I had the partial for my March '11 Blaze due. I had the galley edits for my Sept. '10 Blaze due. And I had revisions and an epilogue for my Dec. '10 Blaze novella due. Just typing both exhausts me and makes me feel a little like I'm bragging, which I definitely don't mean to be! Don't get me wrong, this is a major dream come true. I'm ecstatic to have my contracts and the deadlines!

But when they hit like this, all at the same time, I stress hugely. And while I've got a solid handle on the stress eating (avoid it, ignore it, pretend strawberries are a wonderful substitute for chocolate), I don't have a good handle on the time factor.

And when I stress, I cocoon. Some people get a little manic. They clean, exercise, do tons of stuff. Me? I want to nap. I stare at the computer screen. I write words over and over and over, then delete them and wish I hadn't. I refuse to cut back on commitments to my kids or husband or house, because stress always brings out my inner SuperWoman urges. I write endless to-do lists.

What I don't do? I don't want to exercise. I seem to go into automatic "but I don't have enough time" mode and think of a million and twelve reasons to blow off exercising.

Exercise. You know, that stuff that releases stress. That energizes both the mind and body. That makes all those really cool hormones and endorphins and nifty things that would be soooo good for me. Those things that would, of course, make me stress less and help me achieve all my goals.

Nifty, huh? And my mind keeps trying to talk me into avoiding it. I, of course am doing my best to ignore my mind. So far, I'm doing pretty well. I've managed to keep my workouts to at least 5 days a week, even in high stress (6 is my norm). I'll admit, I'm exercising with a bit less intensity about half those days since I end up running at 9pm instead of 2pm like I'd prefer, but I'm still getting the run in, right? And I haven't given in to take a week off. All good.

So here's my question. When you get overwhelmed, is exercise --or writing-- the first thing to go on your to-do list? How often do you tell yourself you just don't have time? How often do you find yourself making excuses that you know are flimsy, to get out of exercising --or writing?

Tawny Weber writes hot, spicy stories for Harlequin Blaze. In January 2010, her novella, YOU HAVE TO KISS A LOT OF FROGS, was out in the Blazing Bedtime Story anthology and her next full length Blaze,, RIDING THE WAVES, will be out in September 2010. Come by and visit her on the web at www.tawnyweber.com

Everything's Bigger in Texas

2010-04-28T00:01:00.001-05:00

This week, the contestants on The Biggest Loser went on another of their special trips to inspire people just like us. This time, they headed to Texas, famous for everything being bigger than everywhere else. But Texas could benefit from being a bit smaller in one statistic -- five of the 10 fattest cities in the country are in Texas. So the contestants took their stories to radio stations and invited people to come run a 5K with them at the Cotton Bowl. Before the 5K, Alison shared some more startling statistics:

* Soon, 75% of Texans will be overweight or obese.
* Texans pay out $10 billion a year to treat obesity-related health issues. Just think of what good that $10 billion could do elsewhere if everyone was a healthy weight.

One of the things Ashley said while on the radio is a motto I think we should live by and share anytime we can: "You have to start somewhere."

I found the 5K inspiring. There was the 35-year-old gal sharing her family's history of diabetes with O'Neal. Koli talking to the man who'd been inspired by the show to start losing weight on his own. Koli and Sam going back to finish the race with CJ, the woman with the two bad knees -- it took her more than 2 hours to finish, but she was so determined. I think what she said when she finished will resonate with a lot of Americans: "I can't even walk through Walmart. I have to take a cart. And I just walked a 5K!" Michael telling his white team that the high of losing weight is addictive and that "it's the littlest things that make the biggest difference."

During these weeks when they're not at the ranch, the contestants have to find time and unique ways of getting in exercise. Ashley, Daris and Michael -- the three contestants who don't have team members left to push them -- walked many, many flights of stairs in their hotel. It honestly made me wish I had a high-rise hotel next door so I could go see how many flights I could walk. :)

I got a lot of good laughs out of the immunity challenge in which the contestants had to herd calves into their shoots. I was betting on Daris because I think he's from Oklahoma and seemed like maybe he'd been around ranches more than anyone. He came close, but with other teams working together, he came in a little short. Had to crack up at Sam's and Michael's reactions -- such city boys. LOL! With Sam's help, Koli won immunity (which he really needed since he only lost one pound this week).

Abby from last season invited Jillian to speak at a high school, and I worried that the open Q&A forum wasn't going to go over well. After all, this is high school and teens typically don't want to do anything that makes them stand out as different in an uncool way. But one overweight girl was brave enough to stand up in front of her peers and admit she wasn't happy and had always been told she couldn't accomplish things like weight loss and feeling good about herself. My heart broke for her. Jillian took her aside afterward and spoke to her, gave her a bit of inspiration from someone who'd been there. Hard to believe Jillian was ever anything but incredibly fit, but evidently she was. Jillian shared with the students a truly scary fact -- today's teens are the first generation in history to have a lower life expectancy than their parents.

We saw fairly low numbers at the weigh-in this week (1, 4, 5, 5, 6) with the exception of Michael's 15-pound loss. He thanked Daris for making him walk the stairs and said, "I love going on vacation." Not only has Michael lost a lot of weight, uncovering the guy he is physically underneath, but he's finding more and more of his happy, funny guy each week. As the weigh-in came to a close, a lot of tears were shed since both members of the yellow team, O'Neal and Sunshine, fell below the yellow line. As expected, O'Neal asked everyone to vote for him, and as far as we saw everyone respected that wish. I loved the transformation moment for O'Neal. He's lost a total of 139 pounds and is looking great, can do so many things he couldn't before going on The Biggest Loser. He's really a neat guy, and I'm happy for him and his family and all the people he's going to touch with his story.

Next week is makeover week. I love makeover week!

What did you like/not like about this week's episode? And are you a fan of makeover week?

Oh, and I read a spoiler a couple of weeks ago. I know which two of the contestants are dating, but I won't spoil it here.

Health News Roundup

2010-04-27T00:01:00.000-05:00

Every so often, I like to do news searches to see what is being reported in the world of health. Today, I came across an article that stated that more U.S. women may be obese than previously thought. Okay, that's not good news. The discrepancy stems from different obesity standards used by the World Health Organization and the U.S. federal guidelines. Some experts suggest the BMI basis used in the federal guidelines is not right for everyone. See the full article here.

Another article focused on childhood obesity and how the risk for this increases 12 times if a child has two obese parents. It's just another way children learn from and take after their parents. See the full article on the UK study yielding these stats here.

And do you need another reason to make healthier choices? How about eating more veggies and fruits, getting more exercise, quitting smoking and cutting alcohol consumption equaling 12 additional years on your lifespan? That's the result of a recent British study you can read about here. It reminds me of those conversations that Dr. Huizenga has with the Biggest Loser contestants when they arrive at the ranch. Seeing actual years added to our lives is a very powerful motivator.

Have you seen any health or fitness news lately that made you rededicate yourself to your healthy endeavors? And does anyone have that Fit TV channel? I wish I had that on my cable package.

What is a healthy approach to dating?

2010-04-26T00:01:00.002-05:00

The question what is a healthy approach to dating and courtship has been on my mind in the last year and a half more than at any other time except perhaps the first couple years of college. Alas, I'm not sure I have any more wisdom today than I did as a freshman or sophomore at Dartmouth. Who has all the answers that seem to elude me?

As I've mentioned before, I spent most of my 20s and a good start on my 30s obese. I'm sure there are obese people who have very active, romantic, social lives, but I don't know any of them. I did have an active social life, but I feel like I'm coming back to the dating world after a long break. Honestly, I do not know what I'm doing, and it's driving me crazy. I often feel like I'm on an emotional roller coaster, and there is nobody in the seat next to me. I'm doing it to myself.

Is this just normal? I've attacked these questions in the same way I attack all questions - I research. I've read advice articles (and even books) on dating and talked to many friends and my sister about it. There is a lot of conflicting advice out there, but my feelings do seem to fall under the broad umbrella of "normal". I do hate how adversarial or uncertain it all can feel and how the typical advice feels like game playing. What has helped the most is applying some of the same lessons I learned in my attempts to lose weight: be Zen like and have no expectations while still being aware of what I'm doing and how it effects me. I even reread the chapters in The Zen of Eating on "Attachment to Desire Causes Suffering" and "Suffering Ends By Letting Go of Attachment to Desire."

So, it's probably apparent I don't feel like I have much wisdom to share on this topic. Do any of you have good advice? What are your thoughts on dating and courtship today in real life (as opposed to in novels or in comparison to romance novels if that's what you are the most interested in)? What is important to be aware of and to do?

Michelle Butler has made becoming a healthy writer a priority. She lives, works and writes in the Washington, DC, area. You can follow her on twitter at http://twitter.com/healthywrtr

Inspiration Sunday

2010-04-25T12:25:00.002-05:00

There is a quote by Henry Ford that I liked so much I wrote it on a slip of index card and put it on the corkboard above my desk. When I did it, I was thinking of it in terms of my writing. But when I looked up at it recently, I realized it could apply to any journey in life, including weight loss and fitness.

"Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal."

What is your goal for this week, in your writing and in your personal health and fitness journey? Mine are:

1. Finish judging contest entries for an RWA chapter.
2. Start revisions on one of my YA books and return to writing new material on another.
3. At least one hour of exercise every day, more if at all possible.
4. Lose enough weight to get to the 15 pounds lost mark.

Tofu Shirataki Noodles in Beef Lo Mein

2010-04-24T07:27:00.004-05:00

I’m a firm believer in real food. Thanks to a medical condition I can’t have artificial sweeteners, and I tend to avoid other artificial things like flavor or color. That eliminates a lot of dieting staples from my life: no sugar free soda, no sugar free pudding snacks, and almost no diet versions of regular foods. From time to time I’ll find a substitution that works for me, like swapping creamed cauliflower for mashed potatoes, but usually swaps don’t work for me.

Tofu Shirataki noodles are a swap that does work for me in a lot of ways. With only 20 calories per 4 ounce serving (that’s zero Weight Watchers points) these noodles satisfy a craving for pasta without the calories and carbs. Although a staple in Japan, at one point the Atkins diet made them easy find here in the US. They were stocked by Safeway and Costco. Now you’ll have to check with an Asian supermarket to find their guilt free goodness.

Because Tofu Shirataki noodles are made from tofu and yam flour they come packaged in water. The water tends to have a slightly unpleasant smell. To begin cooking, rinse the noodles thoroughly, then microwave in fresh water for two minutes. (If you don’t have a microwave, parboil in boiling water on the stove.) Drain and dry before cooking. They taste best when cooked in a flavorful sauce such as the recipe below.

Beef Lo Mein with Tofu Shirataki noodles

4 ounces per person of very lean Beef (in these photos I used top round beef)
1 bag (8 oz.) Tofu Shirataki, rinsed, parboiled, and dried
1 cup snow peas
1 cup green peas

Marinade for the beef:
3 tablespoons orange juice
3 tablespoons water
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon Mirin (Japanese Rice Wine)
1 tablespoon Japanese Rice Wine vinegar
1 tablespoon Sesame seeds
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon honey
1/2 teaspoon cornstarch

Slice the beef thin, on the bias. Combine the first 9 ingredients for the marinade, altering to your taste. When it’s perfect, add the beef and refrigerate for at least two hours.

In a hot nonstick pan begin to cook the beef, pouring the marinade into a pot for later use. Steam or microwave the vegetables.

Place the marinade over medium heat. When it reaches a boil add the rinsed, microwaved, and dried Shirataki noodles. After five minutes remove the noodles from the sauce and arrange on the plate. Add the cornstarch to the remaining marinade, whisking to combine.

Arrange the beef and vegetables on the plates. When the marinade has thickened pour over the plates and serve immediately.

A complex recipe, but well worth it for the calorie savings. While Shirataki noodles have a bit of a strange mouth-feel, they taste like whatever you cooked them in. I’ll take a slightly rubbery or slippery bite to save roughly 160 calories per serving. What about you? Fake foods or no? Would you rather go without than try a substitute?

~~~

When she’s not cooking, buying, or dreaming about food Rachel Kleinsorge writes steamy paranormal mystery romances. She is currently waiting for the call from her agent, the amazing Carolyn Grayson, while working on her next novel.

The Skinny Girl in the Elevator

2010-04-23T07:25:00.001-05:00

Last year at DragonCon I stepped onto the crowded elevator to a scent worth drooling for: bar-be-queue sauce sweet and tangy followed by a hint of fresh French Fries. My mind filled in the rest of the meal hiding in the Styrofoam container: crumbly, buttery cornbread and cool, creamy coleslaw. Having just come from a not-nearly-as-enticing grilled chicken salad, I sighed and announced how jealous I was. A woman not far from me reminded me to think of the calories. I replied that you couldn’t always count calories. And then she said…

“Skinny girls always say things like that.”

After I picked my jaw up from the elevator floor I told her my weight and thanked her for calling me a skinny girl. She told me I wore it well and walked out of my life. That would be the first, and only, time I’ve ever been the skinny girl.

There are a few lessons here: that we’re all the skinny girl compared to someone else, that it only takes a minute to make someone’s day, and that good bar-be-que is worth a taste or two. But the most important one is this: it’s not about how other people see you, it’s about how you see you.

The girl riding the elevator with me saw skinny. Great! But I can’t take that compliment and use it to ignore the facts: my BMI registers as obese, given my family medical history sugary meals and simple carbs are dangerous, and someone with my health background needs to be better. It’s not about getting compliments, it’s not about fitting into a size 10, it’s about staying alive and being healthy.

I want to be able to live without a daily injection of insulin. I want to be able to enjoy my old age without taking several daily prescriptions. I want to walk along the beach without worrying about how far it is. I want know the only thing stopping me is good sense, not poor health.

It’s hard when you get close to your goals and other people begin to see you as skinny. Friends will say you’re doing so well, skip tonight’s run and come have a beer. Partners will pick up sugary treats, offering them to you as a reward. It’s harder still when it isn’t going well, when nothing seems to work or you just don’t want to think about it anymore. People will tell you you’re being silly, you look great. The world will make excuses for you: you’ve had a bad day, there’s some reason to celebrate, or it’s too cold or hot to be healthy.

But you’re worth the work. Your health is worth fighting this battle. Having a set back or reaching a milestone isn’t a reason to stop. You have to remain vigilant, even when it feels like you’re almost finished or feel you never will be. So bask in the glow of compliments (I still think about being the skinny girl in the elevator) but remember to stay on course. Appreciate the intentions behind the excuses, but ignore their siren’s song. Stay in control and don’t let anyone make your choices for you.

What compliments have you gotten lately? Where have you been derailed? Can you use one to fight the other? Let me know if you think I’m crazy in the comments below.

~~~

When she’s not cooking, buying, or dreaming about food Rachel Kleinsorge writes steamy paranormal mystery romances. She is currently waiting for the call from her agent, the amazing Carolyn Grayson, while working on her next novel.

Why?

2010-04-22T00:01:00.004-05:00

Why do you want to lose weight?

Why do you want to write a book?

I think the answer to those questions are the key to sticking with it when things get rough. When the rejections start rolling in or the scale won't budge. When watching that TV show sounds so much better than working through that plot problem and the chocolate chip cookie smells soooo good your mouth waters.

Just like in crafting a solid character in our writing, we have to have a strong enough motivation to push us to face the things we don't want to face -and one strong enough to keep us on track (or haul us back on track) when we veer off. After all, when faced with the struggles and the roadblocks, knowing your motivation is often the only way through, isn't it?

So what's your motivation? How strong is it?

At one point, my motivation was the yearly National Writer's Conference so I could wear cute clothes when I saw my friends. Somewhere around May, after the workshop schedule was released, the loops would start buzzing about conference fun. Before I'd sold my first book, conference always became this looming deadline. I had to sell by conference. I had find an agent by conference. I had to lose weight by conference. To this day, I have no idea what I thought was going to happen if I didn't achieve those goals -and you know what? I never did achieve them in the way I planned. I never reached that "perfect weight". The first time I'd sent the agent goal, I fired her right before conference. And my first sale? I wasn't even planning on attending conference that year!

No, that particular motivation obviously wasn't compelling enough, was it.

I had to really think about what losing weight, what being healthy, what writing, all meant to me. Why did I want them. Why were they worth the hours of time, the tons of energy, the vast amount of emotional stress they'd require to accomplish? The answers were a lot deeper than I'd though they'd be - although I do admit, being able to wear really cute clothes that show off my fabulous shoe collection did stay on the list!

How about you? Have you ever tried to figure out what your motivation is? Is it big enough, strong enough, to push you through the roadblocks you might encounter along the way?

Tawny Weber writes hot, spicy stories for Harlequin Blaze. In January 2010, her novella, YOU HAVE TO KISS A LOT OF FROGS, was out in the Blazing Bedtime Story anthology and her next full length Blaze,, RIDING THE WAVES, will be out in September 2010. Come by and visit her on the web at www.tawnyweber.com

Ups and Downs on The Biggest Loser

2010-04-21T00:01:00.000-05:00

Things got off to a bang on this week's The Biggest Loser when the contestants found out they would have to endure an all-day temptation in the form of a room filled with food where they would have to eat all their meals. They could choose to try to eat the most calories and thus win the ability to cast the only vote during the elimination, or they could stick with their healthy eating habits and just hope to stay above the yellow line. Most everyone stuck to the healthy eating, a few gave in a little, but Koli purposely ate as much as he could (making himself feel sick in the process) to get that vote for fear Sam would need saving if he fell below the yellow line this week. He did, indeed, "win" the challenge by consuming 4,164 calories. Of course, then he had to work them off, and Sam, being a very appreciative cousin, put him through an extra, sweat-inducing workout.

Dr. Huizenga made a return appearance and talked to the contestants about how they were progressing. Michael has added 12 years back to his life, and Ashley no longer has diabetes. It just shows how huge the advantages can be when we take our eating and fitness firmly in hand.

At the final challenge, the contestants had to use blocks to build a platform up to a tower, which they then had to climb to reach a flag. The winner won a 1-pound advantage at the weigh-in, and the person who came in last would have a 1-pounds disadvantage. Daris won, and because O'Neal took a nasty fall and had to be carted away in the ambulance he automatically got the disadvantage because he couldn't finish the challenge. And as if that wasn't bad enough, after he returned to the ranch, he got a call that his brother had died from cancer. Understandably, he was very distraught because he wasn't there to say goodbye to his big brother. He channeled his anger and pain into his workouts, but he finally broke down and Jillian held him as he cried. I had fat tears in my own eyes at this point.

The contestants got a surprise trip to the beach, where they got to work out with professional volleyball player Gabrielle Reese -- and have a little fun in the surf.

The weigh-in brought smaller numbers this week with only Koli posting a double-digit loss with 10. And in a very nice moment, O'Neal lost 8 pounds. Sunshine and Victoria both lost only 1 pound and fell below the yellow line. I hate how the editing always makes me doubt what I think is going to happen, but in the end what my gut told me came true -- Koli voted out Victoria. I don't think I could go back to that house and face O'Neal, someone Koli admittedly admires a great deal, if he'd voted out Sunshine. I was nervous for Michael and Ashley, who both had much lower than normal numbers this week, but thankfully they were safely above the yellow line.

Victoria got a bit of extra spark after Koli told her that she needed to pick it up. Well, she did. She and her mom, Cherita, who never got to spend a single night on the ranch, re-did the bike marathon that sent them home on Day 1, and this time they finished it together. Cherita has lost 77 pounds, all at home. Victoria has gone from a size 26 jeans to size 12. That boggled my mind a bit because I weigh less than she does and still can't fit into my size 12 pants. Some of the size 14 pants are still snug. I guess my weight loss isn't coming in the hip and lower abdomen areas, something I need to work on.

What did you think of this week's episode?

When pollen derailed the fitness train

2010-04-20T00:01:00.000-05:00

Things have been going really well lately in my fitness endeavors. I was getting at least one hour of exercise every day, some days more, and I was doing well with my calorie counts and seeing results on the scales. Then all that yard work I've been doing came back to haunt me. I've been very careful because I have icky seasonal allergies. When I work in the yard, I wear a mask and when I come back inside afterward I immediately discard the clothes into the laundry and take a shower. Alas, some of the nasty pollen found my respiratory system anyway. The pollen counts are very high right now, and last Wednesday evening I started to cough a little. By Thursday, I was having asthma symptoms -- coughing, constricted breathing, fatigue, the whole shebang. My asthma very rarely presents symptoms, so I tried to go to the doctor on Friday only to find him out of the office. So I toughed it out through the weekend, but I felt so bad that I've gotten no exercise and haven't been counting calories since last Wednesday. But, hey, maybe coughing actually burns off calories because when I stepped on the scales yesterday morning, I'd still lost two pounds since last Monday.

Now, I won't be surprised if I see a temporary tick up on Tuesday or Wednesday (I'm writing this around 11 p.m. Monday night) when all the non-fitness regimen days catch up to me. But I made it to the doctor yesterday, got some meds and am beginning to feel better. And I got back my voice, which had taken a temporary vacation. I plan to ease back into some exercise today, whatever my lungs can handle, and start tracking my calories again. I'm tantalizingly close to hitting the 15 pounds lost mark.

I could feel bad about the temporary setback, but I don't. I'll deal with any weight gain I might see as a result of the five off days, but I did what I had to do to heal -- rest, drink lots of water, and rest some more.

If any of you are allergy or asthma sufferers, take precautions. The pollen is particularly nasty this year. Good health to all!

It Is Better to Be in the Game

2010-04-18T17:42:00.006-05:00

This past weekend, I went to WRW's annual retreat In the Company of Writers. It is one of my favorite events of the whole year and features a raucous game of Romance Jeopardy on Saturday night. The three hostesses Glinda the Good Witch (Karen Smith), the Scarecrow (Cathy Maxwell), and the Cowardly Lion (Kathleen Gilles Seidel) skipped into the ballroom singing We're Off to See the Wizard, and the fun began.

The number one rule of Romance Jeopardy is "This Game Is Not Fair!" But, as we all cry, "We like it that way." The retreat attendees break up into separate teams with at least one first-time retreat attendee, and the competition heats up with each question. I was on the Munchkins team with (back row) Naomie Hackenberg, Danielle Meitiv, Louise Fury, Barbara Vey, Tim Bentler-Jungr, Elaine English, and Elise Hayes (front row - right, I'm on the left). We're pictured with our serious game faces on! We came in second place, but we went down swinging.

Romance Jeopardy is such a good time that many retreat attendees sit and watch the competition. My roommate, critique partner and dear friend Elise asked, "Why would anyone choose to sit and watch rather than play?" We both agreed it was better to be in the game.

This is a lesson that I sometimes have to relearn especially when it comes to my writing. As I've blogged about before, I just finished my first draft last year even though I've been hanging around RWA since 1996. I've learned tons along the way, made many friends (all my best ones!) and spun lots of stories, but I've yet to submit anywhere. I've been content to sit on the sidelines and observe, but I don't want to do that anymore. I want to be in the game. I'm diving in, and this year is all about me finally submitting. I joke it may happen on Dec. 31st, but it will happen.

For the first time ever, I signed up for literary agent appointments and pitched to three Saturday morning. I was ridiculously nervous about that and wanted to cancel all my appointments, but I'm so tired of retiring from the field before the game begins and feeling like a fake. I skipped out on much of the socializing Friday night to return to my room and work on what I wanted to say and ask when I sat across a table from three leading agents. I did go through some worst-case scenarios and decided if all three told me I was the dumbest writer they had ever met and they never wanted to see a thing I'd produced, I would survive.

Naturally, they did not say that. They were very kind and willing to share their deep knowledge and insights on the publishing world and what they would suggest for my writing projects. This does not mean they said I was the smartest writer they had ever met and they wanted to see everything I'd produced, but they did request the fiction project I was pitching. I also pitched to two of them a nonfiction project based on what I'm doing on my journey to become a healthy woman and lose weight. I really wanted their insights on the health, fitness and self-help markets. One agent said that editors would not buy a prescriptive book on weight loss in the voice of someone who had succeeded at it. You needed a different platform such as some kind of medical expertise. That made me sad, but I think I handled it well.

I was able to take that input and use it to help me frame my questions for the last agent I met to find out how I could sell a book on this journey. If I want to get it published, my choices are to write a memoir and tell the whole story or build a platform, which could be a pretty challenging and time-consuming undertaking. It gave me a lot to think about. I will still work on this project and plan to write a narrative memoir. This may be written for an audience of one or two as Elise will read it. I'm not certain I'll ever submit a memoir because there are parts of the story I may not want to share or parts that family members will not want told, but I'll still work on it. Writing about this has helped me tremendously, and I plan to continue to write and think about my journey until I reach that healthy BMI for my weight. I may need to continue thinking and writing about this until I die because it is one of the most effective ways I have to battle my emotional eating.

So, my pitches were not a slam dunk, but I am so happy that I am in the game. While I was nervous, I felt like I could hold my head up higher as I waited with my fellow WRW members for our appointments and through the rest of the retreat. I am getting over the ways I have sabotaged my best efforts in the past and perhaps even my fear of success. I'm going to stop holding myself back so much. I've never sat on the sidelines of Romance Jeopardy, and I need to stop doing that elsewhere. It is better to be in the game.

I left the retreat Sunday on a complete writers' high. As I drove home, I developed revised writing goals and plans for the rest of the year and am feeling empowered to meet them. Just in case I might let any doubts creep in about getting in the game, the world reinforced the lesson for me. I was welcomed home by a voice message from VFRW. My manuscript Honor's Redemption is a finalist in the historical category of The Sheila Contest. What a way to end a weekend devoted to nurturing the writer's soul and giving her the tools to take the next step in her career!

Are you in the game? Are there times when you would rather observe than play? If you went to the WRW Retreat, what were some of your favorite moments?

Michelle Butler has made becoming a healthy writer a priority. She lives, works and writes in the Washington, DC, area. You can follow her on twitter at http://twitter.com/healthywrtr

It's All Greek To Me...

2010-04-17T05:32:00.002-05:00

We have a couple of fabulous Greek Restaurants in our city and it’s fast becoming one of my favorite foods. My vegetarian daughter introduced me to Greek Pizza and I loved it but realized I could have all the goodness of those black olives and feta cheese without the guilt by making a salad instead.

So here’s a really tasty Greek Pasta Salad. And I often use a purchased low fat salad dressing to make it an even quicker meal for those warm evenings when I don’t want to spend too much time in the kitchen.

Greek Pasta Salad

Serves 8

WW Points - 7

Ingredients

• Salad:

• 12 ozs (375 g) bow-tie pasta

• 2 2/4 cups (675 ml) diced tomatoes

• 1 cup (250 ml) diced cucumbers

• 1 cup (250 ml) diced sweet green peppers

• 3/4 cup (175 ml) sliced red onions

• 3 1/2 ozs (90 g) crumbled feta cheese

• 1/3 cup (75 ml) sliced black olives

• 1/2 cup (125 ml) chopped fresh oregano (or 1 tbsp (15 ml) dried)

• Dressing:

• 1/4 cup (50 ml) olive oil

• 3 tbsp (45 ml) lemon juice

• 2 tbsp (25 ml) water

• 2 tbsp (25 ml) balsamic vinegar

• 2 tsp (10 ml) crushed garlic

Directions

1. Cook pasta according to package instructions or until firm to the bite. Rinse in cold water. Drain and place in a serving bowl.

2. Add tomatoes, cucumbers, green peppers, onions, feta cheese, olives and oregano.

3. Make the dressing: In a small bowl, combine oil, lemon juice, water, vinegar and garlic until mixed. Pour over pasta and toss.

What do you really want?

2010-04-16T00:01:00.001-05:00

By Dr. Laura F. Shwaluk

I was sitting in a seminar when the speaker said the following quote:

“Most people fail instead of succeed because they give up what they really want for what they want at the moment.”

-Unknown

That made sense to me. I thought it refers to long-range goals like retirement plans, saving for a house or car, or getting out of debt. However, it also applies to my health as well. It really made me think of my health goals and my commitment to them. Such as exercising 4-5 times per week, cutting back on sugar and maintaining my weight.

Where my commitment most often gets challenged is around family members who do not have the same or similar commitments. For example, my husband often encourages me to have dessert or a glass of wine or port. Sometimes he even suggests that I have two desserts! Or a big bag of salty potato chips. GRRR! Clearly not in line with my commitment of having a lean, muscular, healthy body. He tempts me to have a slice of sweet, delicious Italian Cream Cake or a small glass of port, which I call the “Devil Brew” because it leads me straight to the desserts.

Reminding myself of the above quote strengthens my resolve to stick with my plan. It works, because I am more committed to my health and well-being than to the brief moment of pleasure of eating the dessert or having the port. The long-term pleasure of having a healthy, flexible body I enjoy, way outweighs giving in to a momentary pleasure.

Another way that my commitment is often tested is with exercise. To me, exercise is like housework; it never seems to end, and I don’t always feel like doing it. Unlike housework, however, I can’t hire someone to take care of my body like I can my house. I am still the only one responsible for doing the exercise when I said I would. My sister put the above quote on her desk at work, and she reads it every day. Reading it reminds her of her goals and helps her get to the gym on those days when she is tempted to not go.

This way of thinking of success applies to all goals, including business and relationships. In business, especially in sales, people give up making that last call of the day so they can leave early or have an easier day. In relationships, people settle for what currently have rather than putting forth the effort to make it better.

You might think that the hardest part is having the resolve to continually go after what you want. More often than not the issue is knowing what you really want. In the moment of temptation I must be truthful with myself about what I really want deep inside long term. When that is clear then it is easier for me to stick with my plan to attain my goals.

My question to you is two-fold. One, do you know what you really want? Really? And two, can you use the above quote to help you keep on track? Let me know your thoughts.

Dr. Laura F. Shwaluk has a general chiropractic practice in Plano, specializing in applied kinesiology. She is the author of Take Charge, Steps To Prevent Breast Cancer.

How Hard Are We Working?

2010-04-14T23:38:00.006-05:00

I've spent the last two weeks gaining and losing the same pound. Up a pound one day, two days later, the pound is gone. A few days later, its up. Then, thankfully, down. And so on... I felt like a very angry yo-yo.

My first impulse was to throw the scale through the wall. I mean, it was obviously defective, right?

My second impulse was to throw my hands in the air, say to heck with the exercising (actually my words were a little stronger, but this is a public blog LOL) and go sit in my comfy chair and read for that hour instead of sweating.

My third impulse was to slap my arms over my chest, stick out my lower lip and pout like a pro.

I went with the third impulse. For about an hour. Then I sucked it up and asked myself a few questions.

Have I lost weight in this journey? Yes.

Have I lost more inches than the scale represents? Most definitely.

Have I been sick and could that affect my weight, since I had many days where I hardly ate anything and others that I walked instead of ran? Yep. For sure.

Did I make any bad eating choices in that week? Well, sure, if we want to be really honest. Eating out once a week isn't a bad thing, but eating out twice in one day was probably stupid.

And once I was feeling better, had I been working out at my maximum? Hmmm, this was the real question. This was the one that hit me in the gut, made me cringe a little, hem and haw and try to wiggle out of answering.

Since January 31 of this year, I've kept my 6 day a week, 1 hour a day exercise schedule. I've dutifully logged my calories via my heart rate monitor. I had a range, and I shot to keep my workouts in that range.

And that, I realized, was a major problem. The more I exercise, the more conditioned I become. Yes, I have to work a lot harder to burn 500 calories now than I did in February, because my heart's becoming healthier and my body is working more efficiently. But... I wasn't pushing past that. I wasn't stretching the envelope.

I wasn't working hard enough.

I was proud of myself for exercising. I stuck with the workouts, I kept my schedule. But once it became comfortable, I quit pushing. I quit trying hard enough.

So yesterday I pushed. I didn't watch a TV show while I ran, I listened to music instead. I kept the distractions to a minimum and kept my focus on pushing. And I burned an extra 100 calories in the same amount of exercise time.

How about you? When you workout, are you pushing or just showing up?

Tawny Weber writes hot, spicy stories for Harlequin Blaze. In January 2010, her novella, YOU HAVE TO KISS A LOT OF FROGS, was out in the Blazing Bedtime Story anthology and her next full length Blaze,, RIDING THE WAVES, will be out in September 2010. Come by and visit her on the web at www.tawnyweber.com

The votes, they're getting harder on The Biggest Loser

2010-04-14T00:01:00.000-05:00

When I turned on my TV to watch last night's The Biggest Loser, I discovered that it wasn't recording on my TiVo. After a little investigation, I realized that since Deadliest Catch's new season premiered last night and it's higher in my season pass queue, TBL got bumped until its second showing on Saturday nights. So, I'll be having to watch it live from now until the end of the season. But for this week, I missed the first 50 minutes of the episode. I turned it on right as O'Neal was screaming about winning a car for Sunshine. I'm not sure what he (and I later found out, Drea) did to win cars, but they seemed excited.

Evidently earlier in the show, Victoria had had a bit of a meltdown too because Jillian was suddenly forcing her to do a lot of sprints and confronting her about why she got to the weight she is. That's the question for all of us, isn't it? How and why did we get to the point where we realized we were overweight? I'm still digging for the deepest, truest answer to that.

In probably one of the funniest moments I've ever seen on The Biggest Loser, several of the contestants dumped Bob and Jillian in the mud and got them absolutely filthy. Watching Jillian try to outrun the group was hysterical. They all paid for it during the last chance workout, but I think it was worth it. Plus, is it just me, or does it seem like this group is particularly close with the trainers? Granted, this is only the second season I've seen, so maybe other seasons' contestants have been as well.

And how about Michael with the running on the treadmill? Hard to believe he's the same guy who came to the ranch weighing more than 500 pounds. Now he's running five miles on a treadmill. I can't do that. I can't even run one.

Last night's weigh-in was super emotional, particularly for Sunshine, who had to weigh in first, see a loss of only 3 pounds and then have to wait until the very end to realize she'd squeaked by just above the yellow line. Drea and Sam weren't as lucky, posting 3- and 0-pound losses respectively. Once again, Sam's ability to keep others motivated in their workouts kept him on the ranch and Drea was voted out. I felt so bad for her. Her body seems to work against her, allowing her to lose only small amounts despite very hard workouts. In fact, losses were down across the board this week. No one got in the double digits. Michael was the closest with 9, followed by Daris with 7.

Goodbye to another pound

2010-04-13T00:01:00.000-05:00

I'm happy to report that despite a couple of slips in my willpower last week, the scale is still going the right direction overall. I got down to 162 at one point last week, but then I had a really bad calorie day and two more less-than-stellar ones. The lesson learned -- I can eat out once in a day and manage my calories, but twice makes it near impossible. Yesterday morning, I was sitting at 163.6, but at least that's a pound less than last Monday.

Someone asked last week what I'm eating to stay in my calorie count of 1,200 per day. Here's a sample from last Monday, one of the days when I stayed in the ballpark of 1,200:

Breakfast:
1 English muffin (120 calories)
1 T strawberry jam (50)

Lunch:
1/2 cold cut combo sandwich from Subway (440) -- You can't beat $5 for a foot-long sub that can feed you for two meals.

Snack:
Apple (100)

Dinner:
1/2 cup sloppy joe (200)
1 wheat sandwich thin (100)
1 cup vegetable pasta (189)
1/2 slice American cheese (35)

I drink only water, which has no calories. So the total calorie count for the day was 1,234, and I spent 2 hours working in the yard (mowing, constructing a rock garden around my mailbox, and trimming limbs off trees).

Some of the things I've learned:

1. I don't have to have a full slice of cheese on a sandwich. 1/2 to 3/4 of a slice is plenty, and an easy way to cut a few calories.

2. I love using the sandwich thins. I'm a big fan of sandwiches, and with these I can have the bread for only 100 calories.

3. Risotto is good, but horrible in the calorie department. Same with the oh-so-delicious rolls at Logan's Roadhouse. OMG, they're like 275 calories each.

4. Having a piece of fruit as a snack between lunch and dinner helps to satisfy my cravings for sweets and helps me not get so hungry before dinner, tempting me to overeat.

5. It's awesome that we're going into fresh produce season. Things like tomatoes and cucumbers and green beans have so few calories that they're good things to help fill me up without packing on a lot of calories (or pounds).

6. I've observed that I can have one higher-than-normal calorie day without seeing too much of an uptick in the scale numbers, but it's when that day becomes two or three that things start going the wrong direction.

7. Things I need to steer clear of: white bread, white rice, corn.

8. Sometimes fate seems to be steering me right when I veer off the path. Last week, I caved and went through the DQ drive-through to get a small Blizzard. When I took the first bite, it was filled with nuts even though a Chocolate Extreme Blizzard isn't supposed to contain nuts. In fact, the whole thing was filled with so many nuts that I couldn't eat it. I hate nuts! 600-calorie catastrophe averted.

What lessons have you learned on your fitness/weight loss journey? Has fate ever given you a helping hand?

Why Can I Still Get So Upset When I Gain Weight?

2010-04-12T00:00:00.001-05:00

This past Tuesday night, I had a bad weigh in at Weight Watchers as I gained 2.4 pounds. While I try to approach the scale with zero expectations to prevent some kind of emotional boomerang, I do not always succeed. As I wait in line for my turn to get weighed, I can always come up with arguments as to why I might lose weight that week and why I might gain. I honestly could tell the Weight Watchers group leader that my gaining weight wasn't entirely a surprise, but I could not stop the total funk it sent me into that night.

Sitting through the meeting did not turn around my emotional downward spiral. All the way home, I tried to figure out why I had eaten so much the past week that I gained nearly two and a half pounds. My sister and parents had visited about a week for Easter. Did I just fall back into old, bad habits around them? Did I treat the holiday and visit as an excuse to eat more than I should and a break from my healthy eating lifestyle? I know my portion control was not as good as it could be, and I definitely ate a decent amount of "treat" foods several days in a row. Heck, one day I had the Baskin-Robbins equivalent of a Dairy Queen Heath Bar Blizzard for lunch. That was really going to help me lose weight.

My original plan for the week had been to not keep a food diary on Easter Sunday but to do so all the other days. Ha! I stopped writing down what I was eating the second my parents and sister arrived and did not restart until they left. I was not on my best "healthy writer" behavior.

I asked even tougher questions. Was I stressed out by sharing my one-bedroom apartment with 3 other adults for 6 days and that made me do some stress eating? Was the visit making me feel emotions I was unwilling to face? I know that unacknowledged emotions can make me overeat to try to avoid them. I also know people joke about how they revert back to old roles when they visit their family, and I do sometimes feel like I'm a different person around my parents and sister than I am in other environments. Did I not like the role I played in my family at times? Was I upset by other family dynamics?

Honestly, all of the above questions were possible, and I never really could come up with a definitive answer as to why I overate during their visit. I tried to throw off my gloom enough to enjoy the last night with my parents in town, but I was back in funk mode when I went to bed. Now, I could add feeling bad about not being in the best mood that night. It got to the point that my bad feelings from one area - the weight gain - seemed to bleed into other areas of my life until I was not happy about anything.

Luckily, Wednesday was such a busy day at work I could not waste time nurturing a funk about gaining weight. I made it a priority to go to a Zumba class that night, and it was the best hour of my day. I danced my bad mood away. I also realized that I had not tried to comfort or soothe my funk away with emotional eating and was very proud of that. In previous Weight Watchers attempts, a 2.4 pound gain would have sent me straight to a restaurant to get a burger, fries and soda or some other equally beloved but unhealthy meal and to start thinking about how impossible it was for me to lose weight. Why should I even bother? Soon, I could talk myself into quitting, but that old, bad road to self-sabotage has been pretty much destroyed by the power of promising myself I'd give it my all for a year to lose weight no matter what.

When I returned home from another Zumba class Thursday night, I started to wonder why I could still get so upset when I gain weight. I know better. (Yes, I have been accused of thinking too much several times, and I think analysis paralysis is a brilliant description of a state I know well.) In fact if I eliminated the weigh-in results, I could construct a triumphant narrative of the past week. My original intention for my April 12 blog post was to talk a bit about another bonus of spring - the change over of fall/winter clothes to spring/summer clothes and how that can be another wonderful way to show how much smaller you are getting.

We've had stretches of warm to very warm weather in the DC area in the past month, so I'd already started the clothing changeover. I had a lot of gaps in my wardrobe as most of the new clothes I bought last summer were too big and given away. My sister had informed me in late February when she had to make an unscheduled, last-minute business trip to DC that I had no cute tops. We were going through my clothes trying to find something she could wear to a business appointment the next day. She had not had the time to go back to her apartment to get some clean clothes before she had to hop on the train for DC. I'm finally reaching the size that I can lend her some of my clothes to wear, and that's another tangible sign of progress.

When my sister and I hit the outlet mall the Saturday before Easter, she reminded me I needed cute tops, and I knew I had other clothing items I needed to look for. I spent a couple of hours at the Ann Taylor outlet (yes, I realize I'm almost obsessed with all things Ann Taylor and can even explain why) and was absolutely thrilled to fit into a bunch of very cute medium or size 10 tops, jackets, pants, skirts and dresses. I even got into a couple of size 8 a-line skirts. This was more, very tangible proof that I'm continuing to get smaller, and I happily walked out of that store with several bags. I pretty much have a kick-butt spring/summer wardrobe now.

So, I had a lot of reasons to feel good about myself at Weight Watchers Tuesday night. I always dress up for the meeting, so I know I look good (even if I gain weight), and last week was no exception. I was wearing a wonderful Ann Taylor wrap-around dress that had been too small when I ordered it online last summer but fits beautifully now and a pair of sexy, hot, blue sandals. (I chose "sexy" and "hot" on purpose as those are two words people have started to use in reference to me to my surprise.) I'd gotten several compliments at work that day, and I was feeling darn good about myself until I read in my book how much I had gained. My group leader who had weighed me in had (wisely) not told me exactly how big of a gain it was. I shouldn't have looked to see how much it was until later that week when I was back practicing my healthy eating and exercise habits and more removed from the moment. But, I looked, I knew I had gained 2.4 pounds, and I wallowed.

Now, I have gained 24 times at my 61 Weight Watchers weigh ins since the beginning of 2009. My worst gain on this journey was 3.4 pounds on August 20, 2009, (business trip) followed by a gain of 3.2 pounds on Oct. 15, 2009, (also known as the night all hope was lost) after a visit to my parents. Five times my gain was in the two pound range (2 - 2.6). On six separate occasions, I gained for two weeks in a row. Gaining weight is no stranger to me on my journey to become and stay a healthy writer, and I've worked hard to learn how to take these temporary set backs in stride.

I know that these gains are eventually followed by losses if I just keep at it. The Aug. 20th gain was followed by weekly losses of 1.6, 1.4, 1.4 and 4.6. My Oct. 15th gain of 3.2 pounds was wiped out by a 3.2 pound loss on Oct. 21. I remember staring at the Weight Watchers receptionist as she gushed over the loss and I said that's exactly what I gained last week. The slate was wiped clean, and all that drama and emotional turmoil I went through on the 15th was a tempest in a teapot. It was a waste of energy.

The most important thing is that I've not allowed any of these gains to convince me to quit. Yes, some of them have been very tough to take emotionally (and hormones may have played a role in that at least twice), but I have tried to be patient and persevere. No matter what, I will keep working at it and not give up. I have lost more than 30 pounds that way and know that if I continue to do that, I will eventually reach a healthy weight and stay there.

How do you handle it when you gain weight? Do you have any advice for me for my next (inevitable) weight gain? How do you keep going? What's the secret to being patient and persevering?

Inspiration Sunday

2010-04-11T00:01:00.000-05:00

"Every day do something that will inch you closer to a better tomorrow." -- Doug Firebaugh

Again, this urges us to make small steps toward our ultimate goals, toward making our lives a little bit better each day. This can apply to our weight/fitness goals, our writing goals, our relationships with family and friends, pretty much every aspect of our lives. Change and improvement are much more manageable if tackled a small piece at at a time.

Trish Milburn writes romance for Harlequin American under her own name and young adult for Razorbill under the name Tricia Mills. Her latest release is The Family Man from Harlequin American (March 2010).

Creating My Own Delicious Pasta Sauce

2010-04-10T02:01:00.007-05:00

One of my favorite restaurants in the Washington, DC, area is Filomena Ristorante in Georgetown. I love how it is able to feel like a fancy, family-style Italian restaurant. It always decorates over-the-top for upcoming holidays, but it still feels tasteful and sophisticated. You see a lot of the D.C. social and political scene there. While the food is expensive, it is delicious. I've had many a wonderful dinner there with lots of friends.

I have several favorite dishes there. One is Penne con Salsicce. The description is:

PENNE CON SALSICCE
When U2’s Bono ate this pasta dish here, he wanted seconds!
Penne Pasta tossed with roasted & ground Italian Sweet Sausage, sautéed Mushrooms, Onions, Herbs and Chianti Wine in a Abruzzi Country Style hearty Tomato Sauce with sautéed Link Sausage Pieces. $23.95

After I had this dish a few times, I challenged myself to try to recreate the sauce. While it may not be the same recipe, I have come up with a sauce that I absolutely love and I also think is healthy and doesn't challenge my diet. I will warn you that it's not a simple operation. I've only made it when I'm doing a marathon cooking session and already have committed to making the Cooking Light Marinara Sauce that I use in it. The Marinara Sauce makes 12 cups. 5 of them go into a lasagna recipe, 3 into a Chicken, Chickpea and Pasta Stew recipe, and the remaining 4 (or whatever is left - I never measure it) are added to the delicious sausage and veggie pasta sauce I created.

My Own Fabulous Sausage and Veggie Pasta Sauce

Ingredients

Onions (3-5 - usually yellow)
Garlic (lots)
Combination of bell peppers - as many colors as possible based on what looks good at the grocery store (4-6)
Mushrooms (1-2 containers)
Italian Sausage (2 containers, see note below)
Large Cans of Tomato Puree (2-3)
Spices: Italian spice mix, basil, oregano, parsley, salt and pepper (about a teaspoon each of the first 4, less of the last two. If I want more of a kick, I'll add red pepper flakes.)
Cooking Light Marinara Sauce
Whole Wheat Pasta

I start the sausage and veggie pasta sauce by sauteing vegetables in olive oil (either sprayed on the pan or a little poured in.) First, the chopped onions. Then I add garlic. Followed by a combination of different color bell peppers based on what looks good at the grocery store. I like the color combination it adds and try to have at least three of the following types: green, red, yellow, orange. I then add chopped mushrooms.

If I'm going for a rustic feel for the sauce, I hand chop all the veggies in different sizes. Other times, I use the food processor and chop them so finely that you're almost not aware when you look at the sauce how many different veggies are in it. Both ways are delicious, but the texture and feel can be different.

After sauteing the veggies for a while (at least 5-10 minutes), I then add the sausage and saute it. I use two containers (usually a container has 7 links now - used to be 8) of Italian Sausage - sometimes sweet, sometimes hot, sometimes both, sometimes all turkey, sometimes half turkey and half regular Italian sausage. Again it depends on my mood.

After the sausage is browned, I add 2 - 3 cans of 28 oz. tomato puree (start with 2). I stir it and add my spices. Again this can vary. I'll add an Italian spice mix. Sometimes additional oregano, basil, salt and pepper. If I have fresh herbs (usually basil, parsley and/or rosemary), I add it at this point too. I stir it and then add a cup of red wine - usually an Italian one. I sometimes forget the wine, and the sauce is still good. The wine does add a boldness, depth or robustness to the sauce that I really like. I let the flavors "steep" while it simmers for at least 15 minutes. I Finally, I add whatever is remaining of the Cooking Light Marinara Sauce.

I stir it up and taste it. If it's missing anything (such as a spice or flavor from the wine or even another can of tomato puree), I add more of it. If I want to give it more of a kick, I'll add some red pepper flakes. I'll then simmer it a little longer. I serve the sauce over whole-wheat penne, rigatoni or other pasta. It's a hearty sauce, so I like to use bigger noodles than spaghetti.

Like any sauce, it's better the next day. It also freezes well. I freeze a big container of the sauce and individual servings of the sauce covered by a cup of whole wheat pasta. I've served this sauce to many people and it's always a big hit.

Do you create your own dishes? Do you have any that you'd like to brag about or share the recipe?

Michelle Butler has made becoming a healthy writer a priority. She lives, works and writes in the Washington, DC, area. You can follow her on twitter at http://twitter.com/healthywrtr

Push Back: Walk or Run and Improve Your Writing

2010-04-09T00:01:00.000-05:00

Keri Mikulski

When someone asks me, "What do you do when you’re suffering from a block or stuck?", my answer is and always has been, "Take off for a run." But, what happens when a writer’s method for inspiration goes kaput?

We’ve all been there. A point in our lives where we can decide to either throw in the towel or push back. Two years ago, it happened to me. During the toughest two years personally of my life, every time I went out for a run a feeling of heaviness crept over me like a suffocating shadow, exhausting me until I stopped. And for the first time in my life, I quit running.

Eventually, the storm in my life settled and the athlete inside me spoke up. And after some major physical, emotional, and mental soul searching, the day came when I pushed back. I signed up for my first 5K in over two years, strapped on my sneaks and took off again, vowing not to stop for twenty minutes. I didn’t. And ironically, my first run was one of the strongest I’ve had in a long time, even stronger and better than two years ago.

Now I’m back. And whenever I’m stuck with my writing or feeling ‘blah’, I take off for my run and brainstorm. Something about the warm sun, fresh salt air, taking a life break, the rhythm of my feet hitting the pavement, and the feeling afterward always gets me going.

In fact, running isn’t the only way one can receive the same benefits. A brisk walk can provide the same amazing advantages like decreased body fat, reduced blood pressure, decreased risk of breast cancer, improved circulation, and much, much more.

I cannot control my genetics or what happens, but I can control what I do. And I can control how I keep myself fresh and inspired. So, take off with me. Grab the dog’s leash, find a walking partner, and/or drive to a track near you. And have fun feeling inspired.

Thanks for having me, Healthy Writer!

Before the writing bug bit her, Keri Mikulski coached high school soccer and softball, taught seventh grade, worked as a personal trainer, and a pediatric registered nurse. Today, Keri is the author of HEAD GAMES (Razorbill/Penguin, 2011), teaches writing at Rowan University, and resides at the Jersey Shore with her family.

Journey or Destination

2010-04-07T23:15:00.003-05:00

Years ago, my parents went to listen to a Zig Ziglar motivational workshop and came home all jazzed up and enthused. My step-mom proceeded to give everyone on the office (they own a modeling and talent agency - which is a whole 'nother post on body image issues, btw), as well as my father and I a test generated by the workshop. Among the many questions, there was one in particular that stood out.

Do you see life as a journey? Or a destination?

I answered that I saw life as a book (this was about 15 years before I started writing), with various chapters that all build on each other. My father had a similar answer that was outside the box. We drove her nuts because she couldn't 'grade' us *g*

But this is a question that I've been thinking a lot about lately.

It's so applicable to life. To writing. To a healthy lifestyle.

Do you love the process of writing? The actual sitting down to the keyboard to pour out the words. Or do you love having written? The reading back over the words, the story, you created.

Do you love living a healthy lifestyle? Eating whole, low-fat, calorie aware foods. Exercising at a rate that either maintains or releases weight. Monitoring your thoughts and attitudes to ensure a healthy emotional state of mind. Or do you live a healthy lifestyle to achieve a goal? Eat, exercise and attitude are all focused on a result, either reaching a goal weight, or maintaining an ideal weight?

I'd love your input. Trish, Michelle and I are giving a Healthy Writer workshop at the RWA conference this summer and I'd like to include some stats from writers on this exact question. So... do me a favor - comment here, for sure! But because Blogger doesn't support (or really, I don't know how to do it here) a poll feature, can you pop over to my blog and cast your vote. Thanks!!!

Tawny Weber writes hot, spicy stories for Harlequin Blaze. In January 2010, her novella, YOU HAVE TO KISS A LOT OF FROGS, was out in the Blazing Bedtime Story anthology and her next full length Blaze,, RIDING THE WAVES, will be out in September 2010. Come by and visit her on the web at www.tawnyweber.com

Big Week for the Yellow Team

2010-04-07T00:01:00.000-05:00

This week's The Biggest Loser started off with the revelation that whoever lost 2 percent of their body weight first would get immunity. The catch was that you had to time it right before you hit the big button that sounded the siren that you were going to way in. Do it too early and you might not have hit the goal. Wait too long and someone else might beat you to it. I got a chuckle early on when Daris commented on the noise the siren made. "In Oklahoma, you hear a siren like that, it's time to grab a mattress and jump in the bathtub because a tornado's coming." Okay, so maybe I didn't need to hear that since we're officially in tornado season now.

Dr. Huizenga also paid a visit to the house to tell the contestants to be smart about their weight loss so that they were losing fat and not muscle, bone or water.

Victoria, hoping to ensure herself another week and still a bit gun shy about getting sent home, hit the button too early on Day 2. She'd only lost 3 of the needed 6 pounds.

On Day 3, there was a swimming challenge where the contestants had to swim 100 pounds, 2 pounds at a time, to their bin. When they finished, they were allowed to help other contestants if they wanted. Sam and Sunshine were neck and neck, but it was Sunshine, a good swimmer, who was victorious and won a two-week trip for two to Fitness Ridge. She, then Sam started helping O'Neal, who was sitting in last place. As others finished, they started helping Michael. The only person who didn't get any help was Melissa, who came in last and thus was saddled with the 1-pound penalty at the weigh in. This sent a clear message about how everyone felt about her being back in the game.

Early in Day 4, Sam pushed the button and stepped onto the scale. As the pounds slowly ticked up, everyone held their breath. He needed to have lost 6, but when the scale paused on 5, I got a little worried. But then it ticked up to 6...and kept going! In only three days, he'd lost 10 pounds, winning immunity. This was a big deal considering he was below the yellow line last week.

I really liked the trainer tips they did before commercials this week. Bob's was to eat bigger meals earlier in the day and downsize them as the day goes along. Jillian's was to give your body mixed signals by being strict on your calories two days a week, moderate three days a week and to relax a little on the weekends. This keeps your body from going into that survival, hold onto the fat mode.

Okay, on to the weigh in. The big numbers went to Victoria with 11 pounds (she seems so genuinely happy to be given the opportunity to be there), Michael with 9 (and hamming it up a bit), and O'Neal with 8. It was a big night on the scales for the yellow team (or I guess they're a former team now that we're into individual mode). O'Neal's loss pushed him past the 100 pounds lost mark, and Sunshine's 7-pound loss got her below 200 pounds. She's looking great. Personally, I think she and Sam would make a cute couple. Hey, what can I say? I write romance. :)

Falling below the yellow line this week, despite really hard workouts, were Drea with a 2-pound loss and Melissa with 3. Somehow I missed that Melissa was a lawyer, but it all makes sense now. She's trained to make arguments to get people to come to her way of thinking, and she tried it again tonight. But the rest of the contestants weren't having it, sticking to their "no game play" ideals, and voted her out. Now, honestly, I think game play will have to come into the picture at some point. I think they just didn't like how overt she was about it.

Even so, I think Melissa has benefited greatly from being on The Biggest Loser. She and Lance both say that their marriage has improved, and that's a huge deal. I liked seeing them running the half marathon together in New Orleans during Mardi Gras. It was also nice to hear her say that when she came to the Biggest Loser ranch, she was lost, sad, etc. -- and that she's not that girl anymore. That's so much more important than winning a big money prize. What good is money if you're unhealthy and hating life?

What were your favorite moments of the episode? What messages really hit home for you?

Progress So Far

2010-04-06T00:01:00.000-05:00

Last Thursday, I really renewed my efforts to keep my calorie count in the 1,200 range and to up my exercise. I've discovered that on most days it's not going to be realistic to get in the ambitious four hours of exercise. That doesn't mean I won't shoot for that as often as possible, but I'm not going to berate myself unless I don't exercise at least for an hour every day. I've already lost more than a pound. At one point, I'd lost two but I had one day where the calorie count was closer to the 1,500 range and I wonder if that extra pound of loss was water that I later replenished.

Here's a look at the past few days:

Thursday, April 1:

Weighed in at 165.8
I got in my 4 hours of exercise with 1 hour of walking, 1 hour of house cleaning, 30 minutes of yard work, 30 minutes of stretching/weight lifting, and one hour of mowing.
1,079 calories (should have had around 100 more)

Friday, April 2:

1,242 calories
3 1/2 hours exercise (mowing, raking, house cleaning, biking, walking, using the stretch band, and step aerobics)

Saturday, April 3:

This was my off day with 1,495 calories and only one hour of walking. I did make myself walk though even though all the exercise of the past couple of days had me aching.

Sunday, April 4:

I got my calories back in the right range with 1,153. I could have had a bit more, but I didn't want to eat too late. Only 40 minutes of walking though. The writer part of me took priority since I had some copy edits and an article due. I spent most the day in front of the computer.

Monday, April 5:

Weighed in at 164.6 pounds.

This was another big day in front of the computer. It'll be a challenge the next couple of weeks as I try to meet a deadline, but I'm committed to getting in at least 2 hours of exercise each weekday and one hour each weekend day, if not more.

1,234 calories
2.25 hours yard work (raking, constructing a rock garden and trimming limbs)

How are the rest of you doing on your April goals? Needing some inspiration? Tune in to The Biggest Loser tonight.

Spring Is Here!

2010-04-05T00:01:00.005-05:00

Spring is here! It's a time of renewal, rebirth, and even redemption. It's a great time to determine where you are on your journey to become a healthy writer and decide if you are happy with your progress. Are you doing your best? Can you do more? Do you want to increase your efforts?

I do want to step it up. I have lost a little more than 7 pounds since the beginning of 2010. I'm happy to see a loss and can feel a difference for it, but I don't think I've been doing my best this winter. I know I've been struggling a little with backsliding the past couple of months, and I really don't think I've done enough in the area of exercise.

I've only averaged two trips to the gym per week over the winter months. Now, this is something. I also walk about 30 - 40 minutes a day for my commute, but my winter weekly gym attendance is nothing compared to what I was doing in the summer and fall when I averaged 4-5 visits to the gym a week.

I felt better when I worked out that often. I also find that one of the many benefits of exercise is that it makes the food stuff, making healthy eating choices in terms of what I eat and how much I eat, a lot easier. I'm not sure why that is, but there is a clear connection. When I'm working out a lot, I am doing better in almost all areas of my life.

I also think part of my journey to becoming a healthy writer is learning to love my body and appreciate what it can do. Exercise helps a lot with that. One of the slogans everywhere at my gym is Know Your Own Strength. When I attended the body pump weight lifting class 2-3 times a week, I was learning how to love how strong I could get and what I could do physically. It felt so empowering. Furthermore, nothing made me smaller as quickly as strength training.

Yes, some of this need to learn to love my body is typical female hangups with body image. Another part of it comes from the fact that since my sister had a stroke at the age of 5, she has had physical disabilities. I spent a good part of my life feeling guilty for being able bodied, so learning to love what my body can do has been a very hard lesson that is still in progress.

In many ways, I've missed working out hard at least 4-5 times a week, and I hope to get back into that pattern this spring. It's something I've started working towards already. Daylight Savings Time has really helped. It's so much easier for me to go to the gym when it's still light out, and there are fewer clothes I have to put on to go outside.

This spring fever need to increase your exercise is also influencing my Weight Watchers buddies. Several have signed up for running races. A bunch of them were talking about it after a meeting a couple of weeks ago, and they inspired me to finally purchase some kick butt sports bras. This has been on my list of things to do for awhile. I am well-endowed in the chest area and hover in the D to DD range. I need a super supportive athletic bra. I've asked around for recommendations, and several friends mentioned the bar system that the Title IX Web site has for rating sports bras - the more bars the better the support. Given how expensive these super duper sports bras can run, I wanted to try some on first.

Walking home from the metro one day, I passed a lululemon athletic store. I went in to see what they could do for me, and I walked out with 8 killer sports bras. I can vouch that the ta ta tamer (someone has a sense of humor as that is the real name) is amazing. There's almost no movement at all. It's actually made a difference in my workouts. I no longer hold myself back on certain moves in my classes that previously had been very uncomfortable due to the size of my chest. These bras will also make it easier for me to contemplate the idea of adding running to my exercise repertoire. I plan to go for a run with my friend Elise Hayes at the WRW retreat in a couple of weeks as a kind of experiment. It'll be interesting to see how it goes.

I have done my best to set myself up for a successful spring in terms of exercising more. I went to the gym 3 times this past week, and I'll get back to that 4-5 times a week range soon.

Does the arrival of spring make you evaluate your current efforts to become a healthy writer? Are you doing your best? Can you do more? Do you want to increase your efforts?

Inspiration Sunday

2010-04-04T00:01:00.001-05:00

"Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out." -- Robert Collier

I like this reminder that in order to effect change in our lives, we don't have to do one or two big things. It can be lots of small things, added together, that helps us achieve what at the outset might have seemed an impossible goal.

Trish Milburn writes romance for Harlequin American under her own name and young adult for Razorbill under the name Tricia Mills. Her latest release is The Family Man from Harlequin American (March 2010).

Sock it to me cake

2010-04-03T08:00:00.001-05:00

Not every day can be a good day. Some days you get rejected and it hurts. Someone criticizes your work and it’s like they’re criticizing you. While I don’t condone emotional eating, I’ve never objected to comfort food. My comfort foods are exactly the ones I try to avoid on a day to day basis: baked goods, cakes, and cookies.

This cake is perfect for a night when you want to curl and cry a little. If you’re smarting from a failure, whether it’s writing related or not, rest assured that you don’t suffer alone. We all have stories of times when everything we did felt wrong, when nothing went our way, and then things got really tough. Part of being healthy is dealing with those hard times in ways that don’t hurt you like a favorite movie, a reasonable amount of comfort food, and the laughter of good friends. Keeping the amount of comfort food reasonable is easier when you share it with someone. So make your cake, but then invite a friend or two over to enjoy it, packing up the leftovers for them to take home or let yourself have one slice and then give the rest away to your neighbor.

An old favorite from the 70s, Sock-it-to-me Cake appears in my memories at thousand bake sales. It’s perfect for writers’ group get togethers and goes great with a cup of coffee. To make it just a little bit healthier, I make it with less than usual amount of eggs and omit the usual glaze. Even then it comes out decadent and rich. It’s one of only two things that I make from a box (Kraft Macaroni & Cheese, another great comfort food, is the other).

Sock-it-to-me Cake

(Based on the Duncan Hines recipe)

1 box butter recipe yellow cake mix
3 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1/3 cup oil
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon. brown sugar

Preparation:
Combine the 2 tablespoons of the cake mix with the cinnamon and brown sugar; set aside. (If you’re a chocoholic, or you just want to get rid of that left over chocolate bunny, you can replace the cinnamon filling layer with chocolate shavings.)

In large bowl, blend the remaining cake mix, eggs, sour cream, oil, water, and sugar. Beat on high speed for 2 minutes. Pour 2/3 of batter into greased and floured Bundt or tube pan. Cover the batter with the cinnamon sugar, then pour in the remaining batter, being sure to seal the edges.

Bake at 375° for 45-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Feeling really decadent? Add a glaze. Blend ½ cup powdered sugar and ½ to 1 tablespoon milk.

What comfort foods do you indulge in? How do you stop yourself from going overboard with them? How can you make your comfort foods healthier?

~~~

When she’s not cooking, buying, or dreaming about food Rachel Kleinsorge writes steamy paranormal mystery romances. She is currently waiting for the call from her agent, the amazing Carolyn Grayson, while working on her next novel.

Motivational Triggers

2010-03-31T23:19:00.002-05:00

Last week, I talked about negative triggers that get in the way of our weight loss, good eating habits and exercise goals.

This week I want to talk about the positive side -Motivational triggers. Things that will have the opposite effect and instead help with weight loss, assist you in keeping your good eating habits and encourage exercise.

If you took a few minutes to track or recognize your negative triggers, you can see how the connection is made. Repeated behaviors, things you do over and over, create a trigger, a sub-conscious 'on' button that will elicit a specific behavior. Cool, huh?

So how can you use this? Create pre-meditated triggers.

Ask yourself what you want to trigger. Lets use eating breakfast as an example. Say you know that eating breakfast would be a healthy choice. You know all the smart reasons. But you don't 'like' breakfast. Or you don't have time. Or you just aren't hungry. In other words, you have plenty of excuses.

The first step is to set the excuses aside and plan to do it anyway. Look at them realistically and find answers to them.

Figure out what you like to eat and a way to make it available. It could be making something the night before, or earlier in the week, like an egg bake, that you can have individual servings ready to go (takes care of that time issue, since it's a grab and go). It could be pre-cutting up fruit into sealable packages, or buying (healthy, please) toaster waffles.

Then find the trigger that will work for you. It might take a few until one clicks.

Set the table with a pretty place setting the night before.
Get up an hour earlier, eat breakfast at your laptop while reviewing the previous day's writing.
Move your exercise to morning, eating something light before and a protein-rich meal after your workout.

Can you see the trigger for each new habit? The place setting, reviewing, exercising are all going to create connections that, if repeated, will create a signal to your sub-conscious, tying the behavior (seeing a pretty place setting in the morning) with the automatic reaction (sitting down to eat breakfast at the pretty place setting).

I created a trigger for exercise by doing a short, 15 minute Bosu step workout in the morning as soon as I get up -before I eat. Its not too long a workout to be difficult on an empty stomach, it burns more fat than if I workout after eating and it sets a signal. If I do this morning workout, I always follow up with my afternoon run. Always. I've told my body that I'm going to exercise today and my body knows that this beginning will be followed by the running ending.

It keeps me motivated to exercise, I don't even have to think about it, just get up, brush my teeth, throw on the exercise clothes that are waiting in the bathroom, strap on my heart rate monitor and plug in my headphones. It took me three weeks to create this trigger.

What about you? What is a healthy habit you'd like to create and what kind of triggers can you think of to anchor it? Can you think of at least three possibilities for each habit, just in case the first doesn't work?

Tawny Weber writes hot, spicy stories for Harlequin Blaze. In January 2010, her novella, YOU HAVE TO KISS A LOT OF FROGS, was out in the Blazing Bedtime Story anthology and her next full length Blaze,, RIDING THE WAVES, will be out in September 2010. Come by and visit her on the web at www.tawnyweber.com

The Biggest Loser

2010-03-31T09:28:00.002-05:00

It looks like I'm doing the Biggest Loser summary again. Again, this won't be as good of a job as Trish does. I saw more than half of it, but my sister called, and it was on mute for a good period of time.

The former contestants who had been voted off returned, and two were allowed to stay at the ranch. It was sad to see how large some of the former contestants still are. The Brown team was particularly striking in that area.

To determine the first person who could stay, the contestants still on the ranch voted for who they wanted to remain. In a very touching move, three of them voted for Victoria to stay. You may remember Victoria was the daughter on a mother/daughter team (blue team) who lost the bike marathon race on the first show and was not allowed to stay on the ranch. The blue team competed at home with the yellow team (Sunshine/Oneal), who also were not allowed to stay on the ranch, to see who could lose the most weight at home. The yellow team won that contest. Basically, this is the first time Victoria will be able to stay at the ranch, and it was very sweet and moving to see everyone's reaction to that.

There was a 1,000-step challenge to determine the second contestant who would return to the ranch. It was a contest between 4 people, but red team's Melissa was the fasted to do those 1,000 steps and she beat Miggy, her husband and the pink team's mom to be able to return. She will make everything more dramatic. There were some mixed reactions among the contestants still on the ranch about how they felt about Melissa and Victoria returning.

Koli was trying to convince Ashley (daughter on the pink team - may have it wrong) that her roommate Stephanie threw her weight the week that Ashley's mom was on the chopping block. While I had the show on mute, there was much, much, much boo-hooing as the younger members on the ranch confronted and talked to each other.

Then, the big weigh in started. It seemed like the results were a little smaller than normal this week for The Biggest Loser, but they were still much larger numbers than that 1-2 pound healthy rate of loss that folks can expect at home. (And, I'm much closer to the 1/2 pound a week rate of loss.) The two folks who fell below the yellow line and faced elimination were Sam and Stephanie. They voted off Stephanie. It was still on mute, so I'm not sure of all the reasons why.

The where are they now moment at the end of the show for Stephanie was just beautiful. She went with a bunch of her friends to buy a beautiful dress for her 30th birthday party at the white/black market. She is now in a size 12 and looks very lovely. We saw her triumphant entry to her 30th b-day party, and she got to make a little speech about all the great changes in her life since she went to The Biggest Loser - she lost nearly 100 pounds, she's now a size 12, she fell in love (not sure with whom), lots of personal growth. Anyway, I found it all lovely and moving. I would have loved to shop for a size 12 dress for my 30th b-day. She hopes to be a size 8 by the finale of the show.

This was not the end though. A fan of the Biggest Loser was inspired by the show to try to lose some weight. He was morbidly obese and started at 674 pounds. He weighed in live and came in around 248. Yes, he lost more than 400 pounds. He seemed like a very unassuming, sweet man, and it was very lovely and inspiring to see how much he has accomplished.

Did you watch The Biggest Loser last night? What did I miss? Do you have a favorite contestant for whom you are rooting?

The Great April Experiment

2010-03-30T08:17:00.002-05:00

Only two more days until my experiment with more intense exercise and calorie counting. Beginning this Thursday, I will be devoting four hours per day to exercise. I will be strict with my calorie count, and I'm going to keep track of my measurements. It's like my own mini version of The Biggest Loser. I'll chronicle my progress here each Tuesday, and I'm hoping that it will be productive and inspiring. This comes at a good time because I've been traveling for two weeks now, and though I haven't seen a big weight gain (probably because of the amount I've walked), I can feel the need to get more strict with both exercise and food intake.

Since it's spring now, my activity options have opened up. There's the yard to be mowed and flower beds to be weeded. Walking outside is always more fun than on the treadmill. And that feeling of renewal and happiness that comes with spring and warmer, longer days fuels the desire to better oneself. So that brings me to my question to you all -- what fitness/health goal would you like to set for yourself in April? Share them in the comments, and each Tuesday tell us how you're doing. Stating a goal publicly and reporting in regularly are proven ways to meet those goals, and we want to see all of your meet those goals on the road to being a healthier writer.

Is This For Real?

2010-03-29T00:01:00.001-05:00

I am now heading towards having lost 35 pounds since January 2009 and 45 pounds from my highest weight ever, and that just amazes me. I can’t believe what I have accomplished. It’s astonishing. Is this for real?

The problem with asking is this for real is that there is a little voice in the back of my mind that sometimes answers no. It’s not. You are right to doubt this. Come on, do you really think that you can continue to lose weight and keep it off once you reach your goal weight? Get real. The real, fat Michelle will come back out and make sure you return to your obese state, where you were for more than ten years and where you really belong. Why do you think this time will be different?

I’m not swamped by these doubts and negative emotions, but they are there at times. Given that I am an emotional eater and can let unacknowledged emotions self-sabotage my good intentions and induce me to overeat, I can’t ignore these thoughts and feelings. This disbelief can also grow when I’ve had a stretch of time when I’ve not lost weight or even when I recognize that I’ve been backsliding a little and eating more while moving less. That pretty much describes where I’ve been in the past month or so.

A couple of weeks ago, I walked into Weight Watchers and found out I had gained .2 of a pound. That’s nothing to get upset about, but it was the third week in a row of fairly negligible movement on the scale. I was getting set up for my doubts to grow.

I walked into the meeting, sat in my usual spot and noticed a newcomer in the front row. She was slender and was wearing a pantsuit that I liked and could see myself wearing. She had a similar hairstyle and was probably in her 30s. She screamed professional and in many ways, she reminded me of myself. I thought she might be a big shot from Weight Watchers there to observe the meeting. She was way too thin to be there to lose weight.

It turns out that she is going to be a group leader, and my brilliant group leader is mentoring her for a few weeks. As part of this process, she conducted part of the meeting and shared her weight loss journey. I almost cried.

When she walked into Weight Watchers for the last time several years ago, she was attending one of the best colleges in the country. She had a handsome husband and an active, good life. She was successful by almost every measure of success, but she could not control her weight. She could control everything but the weight. She could accomplish just about every goal she set for herself, but she could not lose the weight. Her rock bottom came when she had to get bigger clothes for a nice vacation because nothing she owned fit anymore. Pretty soon after that vacation, she began her weight loss journey. Now, she is 45 pounds down from her highest weight and lost 35 through Weight Watchers. Do those numbers sound familiar?

Her talk gave me chills, and I could have cried if I let myself. I had a strong, visceral reaction to this. It wasn’t as strong as the one to the Fear of Success talk, but it stands out as the second strongest reaction. I’ve heard much more dramatic weight loss stories, but her story could have been mine.

She could have been talking about me. I don’t have the handsome husband, but I have attended one of the best colleges in the country and succeeded in many other areas. With all that success, I had still been haunted by the fact that I could not lose the weight no matter how much I could succeed in other areas of my life. My most successful attempt ever in terms of weight had started in January 2009, and I had lost about the same amount as she had: 45 pounds from my highest weight and about 35 with Weight Watchers.

And, now, I was staring at a woman who had lost the same amount I had, and it challenged those little doubts I’d been having lately over whether my weight loss journey was for real. It forced me to see just how dramatic a 35-45 pound weight loss could look when I compared her current appearance to her before photos. I couldn’t help but ask was the difference as startling in me. Why wouldn’t it be?

Her story could have been my story, and hers had a happy ending. She has been at her goal weight for three years and has managed to keep it off. If it is real for her, why can’t it be real for me?

Just in case I had missed the lesson I needed to learn that night, it was reinforced again before the conclusion of the meeting. A newer member was complaining that it was hard for her to keep going because she couldn’t really believe this time would be any different from her previous failed attempts to lose weight. The group leader said that this time would be different. He then turned to look at me and asked, “Right, Michelle?” I nodded in agreement.

Yes, this time is different, and it is for real. I’ve added the woman who reminded me of myself to the unofficial list of success stories I keep. Collecting other people’s success stories gives me hope and helps me believe that I really can lose this weight and keep it off. They can inspire me to believe I can do it and think about how I can make my journey to becoming a healthy writer a success. Forcing myself to confront and analyze what happened to me, how did I gain the weight, what behaviors made me gain weight and in turn what behaviors made me lose weight ultimately give me more confidence that this is for real.

What do you do to encourage yourself when you start asking is your weight loss success for real? How do you find ways to encourage yourself when you start doubting the possibility that you can lose weight?

Inspiration Sunday

2010-03-28T03:01:00.002-05:00

Inspiration Sunday is a series at the Healthy Writer blog. Every Sunday, we post a quote, anecdote, fact or other item that will inspire you to keep moving forward on your journey to becoming and staying a healthy writer.

The Serenity Prayer

God, grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change;
The courage to change the things that I can;
And the wisdom to know the difference.

-Reinhold Neibuhr

Let us know what you think of this prayer, this series, and if you have any suggestions for further items to be shared here.

Michelle Butler has made becoming a healthy writer a priority. She lives, works and writes in the Washington, DC, area. You can follow her on twitter at http://twitter.com/healthywrtr

More Comfort Food

2010-03-27T06:33:00.001-05:00

I'm finding the maintenance part of weight loss a challenge. Being able to have a little of something, or a bit of everything, has brought up a whole new struggle. Portion Control. So, I've returned to weighing and measuring my portions so I can keep myself aware of how much I'm eating.

This past couple of weeks I've tried out some healthy recipes for Macaroni and Cheese. The following turned out well. But, I did cut the recipe in half so I wouldn't be tempted to eat all the leftovers.

Macaroni and Cheese
Serves 8
WW Points 6

Ingredients

-12 oz uncooked macaroni
-1/2 cup fat-free sour cream
-12 oz fat-free evaporated milk
-8 oz low-fat shredded cheddar cheese
-1 Tbsp Dijon Mustard
-1/4 tsp each salt and pepper
-1/8 tsp nutmeg
-2 Tbsp bread crumbs
-2 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese

Instructions

-preheat over to 350 F
-cook pasta according to package directions. Drain and pour into large bowl. While pasta is still hot, stir in sour cream. Set aside.

-heat milk in saucepan over med. heat until tiny bubbles appear jsut around the edges. Reduce heat to low, add cheddar cheese, and simmer, stirring constantly until cheese melts, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in mustard and spices.

-add cheese mixture to pasta and mix well. Transfer into a casserole dish

-combine bread crumbs and parmesan and sprinkle mixture over pasta.

-bake about 30 mins.

-a serving is 1 cup, but you should be able to just cut it into 8 pieces.

Anne MacFarlane is an unpublished writer from eastern Canada. You can visit her blog at www.annemacfarlane.blogspot.com. Read about her weight loss journey and see before and after pictures at Soon To Be Skinny Me.

Yoga: The Right Exercise for Me

2010-03-26T00:01:00.000-05:00

By Elaine Fox

I knew yoga was the right exercise for me when one of my early teachers passed on this favorite yogic maxim: “Don’t just do something, sit there!”

Like any woman with normal body obsessions, I’ve done my share of exercise videos and aerobics classes; I have a closet full of free weights and stretchy elastic bands; and I’ve wasted my share of gym memberships. It wasn’t until I discovered yoga that I learned there was something out there for which I did not have to make deals with the devil in order to go. I did not have to motivate myself with the fact that I’d feel better afterward. And I didn’t have to grit my teeth to get through it.

I remember early on lying in an incredibly comfortable reclining half twist, feeling my body melt into the mat as my lower back released and my spine stretched and my brain sank into tranquility, thinking, “This is nice, but am I getting in shape?”

A few short months later I was noticing how much more comfortable my jeans were, how my arms had muscles I could actually see (though not in any gender-bending way), how much more energy I had.

I graduated from the sheer, blissed-out stages of early yoga, where I reveled in the fact that every pose was followed by a rest and every challenge was doable, to get into such things as headstands, backbends and power yoga. I have sweated so much I could feel it dripping from my earrings and landing in rainy-day patterns on my mat. Don’t ever let anyone tell you that yoga is not aerobic!

But the thing is, it doesn’t have to be. To start out, all you have to do is move. Just a little. Just in this way that feels good.

I could go on and on about all the positive changes I’ve seen in myself -- I’ve become quite the yoga zealot -- but here’s what it means for writers: It means sitting in a chair for hours at a time does not leave you doomed to pull a muscle or throw out your back when you suddenly have to do something active. It means those aching neck and shoulder muscles can be unknotted, stretched out, loosened up with just a once-a-week class. It means focus and concentration can be practiced, learned -- achieved! -- and used in your daily work.

But most of all what it means is that all those neuroses, all those head-centric, mind-wearying, running around in plot circles problems, and the is-my-career-doomed-to-failure worries can be soothed by using the body. I always knew you could use the mind to relax the body. I had no idea you could use the body to relax the mind.

What a revelation! You don’t have to think your way out of everything. You can stretch, breathe, lift, breathe, hold, breathe, and finally lie down in corpse pose (really!) and know that your only task is to stop thinking. After a while you realize that this process will bring you back to writing in shape to be more productive than you’ve ever been.

(P.S. I would like to add one last thing. Many people take one yoga class, often at a gym, and end up with a teacher who treats it like a high school football practice with the goal of making the participants suck it up and sweat, stretch beyond their means, and try things their bodies can’t do. This is not yoga. Yoga should feel good and get progressively more challenging when you decide it should. I recommend going to an actual yoga studio for classes, because the teachers there are generally more schooled in yoga philosophy, but some independent teachers are good too. Just don’t decide you hate yoga because you got an instructor who tried to kill you. :)

Be sure to visit USA Today best-selling author Elaine Fox's site here.

All those Triggers

2010-03-25T02:58:00.006-05:00

Have you ever been hypnotized? There is a tool in hypnosis called triggering. This is used in a variety of therapies as well. Basically, it's creating a connection between actions, or between an action and a message.

Negative triggers are ones we often develop over time, and are usually unaware of.

Reaching for sweets when we feel hurt. ("Here, baby, have a cookie while momma puts a bandage on that skinned knee.")

A soda and large popcorn - with butter - at the movie theater. (We've ordered it so many times, we don't even thing twice. And the popcorn is halfway empty by the time the previews are over.)

A donut at the monthly writer's meeting as we chat with friends. ("What? I always have a donut. Its only once a month and everyone else is having one.")

Bailing on exercise when we've had a bad day. (Sure, we know it'll probably make us feel better. But the first day it happened in our exercise commitment, it was easier to collapse on the couch with the excuse that the day sucked and just be done with it. The second sucky day was even easier to justify. By the fourth one, we just head straight to the couch, no justification needed.)

A bad number on the scale, despite dedicated, hard work toward losing weight. Its so hard to do everything right and not see results. This is one of those purely emotional triggers, and this number on the scale often pushes us to throw up our hands, cuss and give it up. After all, we did our best, didn't we?

Usually, we don't even hear ourselves make the decisions for these choices. They are simply habits. Habits triggered by circumstances and whatever emotional tie we've created over time.

How do we break triggers? The first step is awareness. The second is interruption. The third is consistency.

Think of an unhealthy habit and try to figure out the trigger for it. Say the movie theater popcorn, soda (and sometimes redvines, right?). The movie is the trigger for the junk food. This is awareness. Now find an interruption. For me, I knew I didn't want to give up the popcorn, so I pop my own and smuggle it in my purse (shhhhh). For you it might be a smaller soda and popcorn. Or water instead of soda. Or... well, figure out what works. Now -as you start to place your order, interrupt the habit and replace it with the new one. Less junky movie-snacking. The consistency part is pretty much self-explanatory, right? *g*

The most important thing, though, is to be very aware of why you want to change the habit. What's your motivation? Is it strong enough to overcome the trigger urges? If it isn't, you need to find a stronger motivation or avoid the situation until you're able to control the urge.

Next week, I'll talk about motivation triggers and how to create positive triggers that can help you make healthy choices, push you to exercise and inspire you to stick with your program.

So... what are some habits you have, and do you know what triggers the bad choices?

Tawny Weber writes hot, spicy stories for Harlequin Blaze. In January 2010, her novella, YOU HAVE TO KISS A LOT OF FROGS, was out in the Blazing Bedtime Story anthology and her next full length Blaze,, RIDING THE WAVES, will be out in September 2010. Come by and visit her on the web at www.tawnyweber.com

Headed for Home on The Biggest Loser

2010-03-24T00:01:00.001-05:00

The Biggest Loser contestants experienced a week at home during this week's episode. It's always interesting to see how their families and friends react to the changes in the contestants and how the contestants fare weight-wise after a week back in the real world. But what would The Biggest Loser be without a twist? After arriving home, each contestant learned a large wooden crate had been delivered ahead of them. And when they opened them, they found stationary bikes and a video from Alison telling them they would be riding the marathon again, this time in front of the same family and friends in front of whom they'd done their initial weigh in. And the prize was $10,000. To complicate matters, the contestants also had cupcakes they could eat in order to add time to their competitors finish times.

Poor Sam got the most cupcakes against him -- enough that even though he won the race, he ended up in 8th place. Lance was the contestant who ate the most cupcakes at 17. At 100 calories per cupcake, that's an extra 1,700 calories he had to work off. Koli came in second place, and since no one had eaten a cupcake against him, he won the prize.

A heart-warming moment was when the cameras following Daris showed him out on a date with a girl who'd previously been just been a friend. Considering his pre-ranch video in which he said he'd never been on a date and never kissed a girl, I was so happy to see this change in his life.

The weigh-in saw some significant and powerful moments. O'Neal went below 300 pounds. Daris went over 100 pounds in weight loss. Stephanie lost 9 pounds, huge compared to her recent loss numbers, and left the 200s behind by hitting 199 pounds. Michael lost 8 pounds despite having to go home another time when he got the call that his grandmother was possibly nearing the end of her life. He was proud of his weight loss because he feared the stress would cause him to not lose or even gain. His mom, Maria, told him that he had to focus on his health because his grandmother's weight was what had led to her severe health problems.

The night's biggest losses were Sam with 14 (this guy is a machine!), Ashley and Koli with 10, Stephanie with 9, and 8 each for Sunshine, Lance and Michael. The black team, led by Sam and Ashley, finally won a weigh-in by posting a combined loss of 3.86 percent, which bested the blue team's 2.58 percent. Thus, blue had to vote someone out, and it ended up being Lance to go home despite Daris having the lowest loss with 4 pounds lost this week.

What were your favorite moments from this week?

Let's Play Portion Control!

2010-03-23T00:01:00.000-05:00

I'm on the road back from Florida, so I thought I'd post a quick, but fun and informative, post today. We've talked about portion control and its importance quite a bit here at Healthy Writer, but did that information sink in? Can you apply it when it's staring you in the face? Take this quiz to see how you do and report back your results. While you're taking the quiz, be sure to read the little boxes of information that pop up after you've answered each question. For the record, I scored a 48.

Reward Yourself!

2010-03-22T00:01:00.008-05:00

About a year ago, I finally passed the ten-pound loss mark. It was an exciting milestone. Yes, it took me nearly 3 months to lose those 10 pounds, but it was the fastest 10 pounds I'd ever lost, and I know I can be a slow loser. I’ve even accepted that I can’t or won’t lose weight fast. In 2009, I was prepared to give it my all for a whole year to lose weight and accept whatever results came my way. I didn’t let how long it took me to lose those 10 pounds ruin my feelings of happiness at the accomplishment.

I wanted to acknowledge the achievement, celebrate the accomplishment and reward myself. In the past, I’d often used food as a reward. Going out for a nice dinner with friends did not feel like an appropriate way to celebrate losing weight. I also knew I needed to change some of the habits that had helped me gain and maintain my obese status. I needed to come up with another way besides food to reward myself.

I decided to go buy some new make-up. A year ago, I’d almost run out of it. I had a little bit of powder, a brown eyeliner, very old mascara and a couple of lipsticks left. In 2008 and perhaps even 2007, I’d really stopped caring so much about my appearance, and replacing make-up was not a priority. I’d stopped wearing it to work. In fact, it was getting so bad that I wasn’t bothering to put my contacts in half the time I went to my office. Given the fact that I always feel much, much less attractive or even worth acknowledging when I wear my glasses, I was really wallowing in some bad vibes about myself. I’d given up on my appearance in ways that were not healthy or any good for my self-confidence level.

Going to the mall to replace all my old make-up was a great way to celebrate this new effort in caring for myself. As I’ve continued to lose weight, I’ve started to pay more attention to my appearance. This has helped increase my self-confidence, and I’ve kept it from crossing the line into an unhealthy or harsh and judgmental obsession with how I look. Around the 15-pound loss mark, I started to shop for new clothes as a reward.

Over the long haul, I’ve found passing a 5-pound milestone (20, 25, 30 pounds down) or a 10-pound milestone such as getting into the 180s from the 190s was enough of a reward on its own. I then started to reserve the rewards for when I was feeling fat or discouraged about my journey to becoming a healthy writer. I’ve been known to go straight from a Weight Watchers meeting where I found out I had a gained a little to an Ann Taylor Loft to buy a new pair of pants that would not have fit a month prior.

Even just trying new clothes on at my favorite stores and getting into a smaller size could be a reward or a way to encourage myself. I don’t have to buy the clothes to get the thrill. Sometimes when I’m down about my last weigh in or feeling discouraged, I’ll walk over to Ann Taylor at lunch and try on some outfits that catch my eye. Yes, sometimes I buy them, but I often don’t, especially if it’s not a good price. I just admire myself in smaller clothes in the mirror and acknowledge all that I’ve accomplished and what I will continue to accomplish if I keep going.

I’ll also do this at home. I’ll go to my closet and pull out a favorite piece of new clothing or an outfit I’m still working on getting into. I’ll put it on and acknowledge how good it looks on or how much closer I am getting to it fitting. I’ll also hold it up and force myself to acknowledge how small the clothing looks and that I now can fit into it; therefore, I’m small.

It also helps to look at clothing in sizes that used to fit but are now too big. It is thrilling to put on a 12 or 14 that is very roomy. I've given away most of my too big clothing, so I have to go to the stores to find 16s or plus-sized clothing. Saturday I walked into a Lane Bryant, formerly one of my favorite stores, and hunted down a pair of size 20 plus cropped pants. I held it up to myself, and I was about half that size. I could wrap it around my body, and I do think I might have been able to step my entire body into one leg. I wore a pair of size 20 shorts for many years. It was kind of amazing stuff to think about as I looked at those now way too large pants.

These kinds of rewards really help me feel good about myself and keep moving forward.

Do you use rewards to keep you going on your journey to becoming a healthy writer?

Inspiration Sunday

2010-03-21T03:01:00.001-05:00

Inspiration Sunday is a series at the Healthy Writer blog. Every Sunday, we post a quote, anecdote, fact or other item that will inspire you to keep moving forward on your journey to becoming and staying a healthy writer.

"If you don't go after what you want, you'll never have it. If you don't ask, the answer is always no. If you don't step forward, you're always in the same place."

-Nora Roberts

Let us know what you think of this quote, this series, and if you have any suggestions for further items to be shared here.

Michelle Butler has made becoming a healthy writer a priority. She lives, works and writes in the Washington, DC, area. You can follow her on twitter at http://twitter.com/healthywrtr

Expanding My Cooking Repertoire

2010-03-20T02:01:00.008-05:00

I am in the fifteen month of what I now can call a lifestyle change without fear or the urge to choke back the words. To help me succeed on my journey to becoming and staying a healthy writer, I often ask myself how can I keep my efforts satisfying and fun. One of the ways is to play with cooking and change up what I eat. I'm always trying to expand my cooking repertoire while focusing on making healthy yet delicious meals.

I've struggled with weight most of my life and really started to lose that battle around the time I was 20 or 21. When I first started to build up my cookbook collection and form my cooking habits, I was already in Weight Watchers (WW). Most of my cookbooks are from WW or are labeled healthy or low fat. Other helpful sources are the American Heart Association (AHA) or Cooking Light.

While I have a set number of recipes that I know I really like, I like to keep things fresh and experiment with new dishes on a regular basis. Cooking one day for the month lets me increase my meal variety every week too.

Last year, I dabbled a bit more with vegetarian cooking. I found a lot of appealing recipes in my AHA One-Dish Meals cookbook and several WW ones. I enjoy watching cooking shows, and Christina Cooks is getting me to the point where I might attempt some vegan meals. I have no intention of becoming a vegetarian or vegan, but experimenting with both adds a lot of variety and even fun to my diet.

My favorite vegetarian recipe from the AHA One-Dish Meal cookbook is:

Lentils Bourguignon
Serves 5, 1 2/3 cups per serving

2 cups robust red wine (burgundy preferred)
2 medium onions, chopped
5 medium garlic cloves, thinly sliced
3 tablespoons no-salt added tomato paste
6 ounces button mushrooms, thickly sliced
3 medium carrots, thickly sliced
2 medium ribs of celery, thickly sliced
6 cups water, or 3 cups water plus 3 cups fat-free, low sodium chicken broth (I often use all broth because I don't have huge sodium concerns.)
3 medium tomatoes, coarsely chopped (often use can of diced tomatoes)
1 1/2 cups dried lentils, sorted for stones and shriveled lentils and rinsed
1 cup uncooked pearl barley
2 tablespoons chopped fresh sage
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 sprigs of fresh thyme
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt

In a stockpot, cook the wine, onions and garlic over high heat for 12 to 15 minutes, or until the liquid part is reduced to about 1/2 cup.

Add the tomato paste, stirring until dissolved. Stir in the mushrooms, carrots and celery. Reduce the heat to medium. Cook, covered, for 5 minutes.

Stir in the remaining ingredients except the salt, Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, covered for 30 minutes. Uncover and simmer for 15 minutes or until all excess liquid evaporates (no liquid should be pooled, but the bottom of the pot should be wet) and the lentils are tender. Stir in the salt.

Per Serving:
Calories: 435, Total Fat: 1.5 g (Saturated: .5 g; Polyunsaturated .5 g; Monounsaturated 0 g), Cholesterol: 0 mg, Sodium 298 mg, Carbohydrates 84 g, Fiber 24 g, Sugar 13 g, Protein 23 g.

This is such a substantive, filling dish that I often get more than 5 servings from it and adjust my calorie/point count downward accordingly.

Expanding my cooking repertoire includes experimenting with foods I've never eaten. Until I tried to learn new areas of healthy cooking, I never knew how much I like lentils, barley, quinoa, oatmeal, other whole grains, and new-to-me vegetables such as kale or fennel. Honestly, I think I'm becoming a food freak. I read with great interest about cooking with whole foods, sustainable farming/local eating, the evils of processed foods and other ideas advocated by Michael Pollan, Alice Waters and others.

As I've learned more about nutrition and cooking, I've become more comfortable with using cookbooks or watching cooking shows that aren't stamped safe for diets. Julia Child's cooking shows have a lot to teach people who really value healthy cooking. I can identify the recipes that will not increase my calorie intake for the day, and I now know how to make healthier substitutes to keep the dish in the right calorie or point range for me to continue losing weight. Here is a recipe from the classic Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book.

Lentil Stew

1 cup dry lentils
1 cup sliced leeks or chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon cooking oil
4 cups beef broth
1 7.5 oz can tomatoes, cut up (used small can tom. sauce)
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme or oregano, crushed (used both)
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/8 teaspoon ground cumin
1 bay leaf
1/2 cup chopped carrot (increased to one cup)
1/2 cup chopped celery (increased to one cup)
1/2 pound fully cooked smoked sausage links, sliced (used turkey or low-fat kielbasa)

Rinse lentils and set aside. In a large saucepan, cook leeks or onion and garlic in hot oil till tender but not brown. Stir in lentils, beef broth, undrained tomatoes, Worcestershire sauce, thyme or oregano, pepper, cumin and bay leaf. Bring to boiling and reduce heat. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes.

Add carrot and celery. Return to boiling. Reduce heat to simmer for 15 to 20 minutes more or till lentils and vegetables are tender. Stir in sausage and heat through. Discard bay leaf. If desired, garnish each serving with snipped parsley. Makes 4 main-dish servings.

Yes, I really like lentils. I also really enjoy the flavor that meat adds to this dish. I'm learning the value of balance and all things in moderation.

Expanding my cooking repertoire sometimes means taking the time to look at my collection of cookbooks and taking down one that I've barely used. I discovered an old gem that way. The Professional Chef's Techniques of Healthy Cooking from The Culinary Institute of America was published in 1993, and many of the recipes serve 10 or more since it's aimed at restaurant chefs. While I have not made (or maybe even any) of the recipes, I have found this book incredibly useful for its nutrition guidelines, information on how to improve the nutritional content of meals while preserving taste, and step-by-step instructions for healthy cooking techniques. It gives me more skills to create my own meals and recipes, another way I'm expanding my cooking repertoire. In my next healthy cooking post, I'll share one of my first creations - a yummy sausage and veggie pasta sauce.

How do you keep your cooking fresh? Do you have any suggestions for how I can expand my cooking repertoire? Are there any cookbooks or cooking shows that you highly recommend?

Michelle Butler has made becoming a healthy writer a priority. She lives, works and writes in the Washington, DC, area. You can follow her on twitter at http://twitter.com/healthywrtr

Let’s talk about Stress, Baby

2010-03-19T07:30:00.002-05:00

Let’s talk about you and me
Let’s talk about all the good things
and the bad things that may be
Let's talk about it
-- Salt-n-Pepa, “Let’s talk about Sex”, 1991, London Records

On sunshiny spring days when you get enough sleep, you don’t have a deadline to worry about, and nothing disturbs your routine, being healthy is easy. You can exercise with no trouble. You have enough time to prepare a healthy meal. You get a chance to unwind with yoga before going to bed. Those steady bread-and-butter days help you meet your weekly writing goal, keep your calories in check, and let you conquer the world.

But stress happens. Good and bad events tax your body causing a physical reaction to emotional events. Good friends die in car accidents or the taxman tells you to prepare for an audit. You move to a new house or get a new puppy. What do you do then?

I’m going to ask you to do something a little uncomfortable and think about the stressful events that are coming up in your life. The plotters will have it easier than the pantsers, but everyone should be able to see the good and bad things that could happen in their future. Maybe your child will graduate from high school soon; maybe your car is making a noise that means a big repair bill. How will you deal with the stress those events bring?

Say you finally get the Call, the one that means you’re going to be published (or published again). Would you call up friends and immediately celebrate with a bottle or two of wine? When your editor sends back revisions that rip your heart to pieces do you dive for the chocolate? Is a favorable review the reason for a night out with a few clandestine cigarettes and dancing until dawn?

The ways you handle stress can help keep you healthy or they can tear you down. You can celebrate with a day at the spa or a bottle of wine. You can console yourself with a pedicure or an entire galloon of ice cream. Think about it and come up with a healthy stress relief plan. Remember, this isn’t an all or nothing decision. Maybe you’ll handle stress with a glass of wine instead of the whole bottle. When my agent offered to represent me I indulged in a pint of strawberries and a few hours at a nightclub, a good balance of healthy and indulgent.

What are the healthy ways you can handle stress? What do you already do to alleviate stress in your life? What do you need to stop doing when life stresses you out?