It was the week of choices on The Biggest Loser, and Tracey made two choices that I think are going to haunt her the rest of the game. First, she chose to go the week without the trainers for a measly 2-pound advantage at the weigh-in. And she did it without consulting her teammate, Mo. I felt like he was put in a bad position because he didn't agree with the decision but he's a team player and thus supported Tracey. I totally understand Jillian being upset at Tracey's decisions, but I didn't like...
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Monday, September 28, 2009
Inaccuracy in Labeling
Since I've been counting calories, I've paid a lot more attention to the nutritional labels on food products. So I was not happy to see an article today that talked about how testing has shown that nearly 1/4 of the labels are inaccurate to some extent. To me, there is something fundamentally and morally wrong with inaccurately labeling food products when consumers' health depends on the accuracy of such listings. This isn't just true of people counting calories in order to lose weight. My mom has...
Recognize and Celebrate Non-Scale Victories
The scale is not my friend. It’s a necessary part of tracking my progress, but I can’t let it become the “be all” of my journey to becoming and staying a healthy writer. Sure, there are times when I love the number it shows, but it also breaks my heart on a regular basis. I’ve got to come up with other ways to acknowledge what I’ve accomplished and give me motivation to continue. Learning to...
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Weekly Goals
Time to hold myself accountable for the goals I set last week:1. At least one hour of dedicated exercise every day -- something like walking, biking, cardio.Did on some days, not on others. Some days I got more than one hour. The past couple of days, I haven't been able to exercise much because my allergies/sinuses are killing me again and I feel like my head is going to explode. I loathe high pollen counts.2. No eating out.Ate out twice.3. Try two new recipes from my Hungry Girl cookbook.Bought...
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Grilled Turkey-Herb Burgers
I love to cook, and that really helps me on my journey to becoming and staying a healthy writer. I find it a creative outlet and love to experiment when I have the time and energy. I’ve also learned that I need to plan ways to help me stay on a healthy diet for the days cooking seems more like a chore. When I’m dragging my tired self home from a long, tough day at work, I’ve got to have a healthy meal already prepared or a good idea of how I can easily throw together one in minutes or I will give...
Friday, September 25, 2009
The Power of Positivity
Today, we're happy to host Theresa Ragan as one of our special Friday guest bloggers. Theresa and I have been friends since 2003, when we both finaled in the Golden Heart for the first time. To date, Theresa has seven GH finals to her credit, and she's one of the coolest, most positive people I know.By Guest Blogger Theresa RaganOn January 1, 2007, I decided I was going to change my life by training myself to think positively. I was tired of the negative path I was on. At the time, I had never heard...
Thursday, September 24, 2009
10 Ways To Get More Fruits and Veggies
By Tawny WeberBefore, I wrote about using salads as a way to pile up those servings of fruits and vegetables each day and wasn’t surprised to find that it’s a challenge for most of us. The USDA recommends 3-5 servings of vegetables a day, and 2-4 servings of fruit. Most of us sounded like we felt good to get in one or two servings totally.Here are 10 tips to add more vegetables and fruits to your day:1. Add banana, berries or peaches to your cereal, pancakes or oatmeal.2. Have a veggie omelet,...
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
The Biggest Loser – Week Two
So, week 2 is hard. Mentally and physically. The rush is over. Historically, the contestants see a significant drop in their loss from the previous week because their bodies have been shocked and hold on to the weight even though they worked just as hard or even harder. Lots of doubts start flooding in, and they have to start facing their demons in order to keep going and make their journey a success. To give the contestants extra motivation to conquer week two,...
Seriously, Eat Your Breakfast
We've all heard that we should eat our breakfast, that it's the most important meal of the day. That assertion is especially true for anyone wanting to lose or maintain weight, according to researchers at Imperial College London. According to their study, skipping breakfast actually causes us to crave higher-calorie foods later. Of course, these high-calorie foods are more likely to cause us to gain weight. Brain scans showed the "reward centers" of the brain lighting up in people who hadn't eaten...
Monday, September 21, 2009
Finishing That First Draft
I met Trish at an MCRW meeting in 1996. At that time, I’m pretty sure she had one completed manuscript, a historical romance, and had started a second. I might have written ten pages. Since then, we’ve pretty much maintained that ratio though that may be generous to me. To say I took a long time to complete a first draft would be an understatement. I made...
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Weekly Goals
Sundays are a good time to assess how you did with your goals for the past week and to set goals for the upcoming week. With that in mind, we've decided to dedicate Sundays to discussions of goals. I encourage everyone to post your fitness/wellness goals for the week, and since we're all writers, why don't we throw writing goals into the mix too just for fun. :) Also, if you have any tips about how you keep yourself on track as the week progresses, we'd love to hear them, too.So, for this week,...
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Adventures in Cooking
Welcome to our first Cooking Saturday. Since Michelle, who is much more the chef than I, is away on a fun and productive writing retreat this weekend, you're stuck with me. :) A couple of weeks ago, I made it a goal to make two new recipes from my Hungry Girl 200 Under 200 cookbook each week. Well, I haven't quite managed that, but I did recently try out my first recipe from there. It was called Freakishly...
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Guest Annie Solomon talks body shape
I'm happy to officially kick off our Guest Blogger Fridays with a long-time friend and fellow writer Annie Solomon. Annie took time away from penning award-winning, fantastic romantic suspense novels to share her love of a site I'm eager to explore myself. Here's Annie...We all know that diet and exercise play a key role in health—whether or not you’re a writer. But there’s another aspect to health...
Reading This Blog Can Make You Skinny
In early June, I invited my female friends who lived in the D.C. area to a ladies' tea at Teaism to help celebrate my birthday. The invite list included people from all my groups of friends - my single friends, my writing friends, married friends, work friends - and I encouraged each of them to invite any neat woman who might enjoy attending. We did not all know each other at the tea,...
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Biggest Loser Premiere
I've heard Michelle sing the praises of The Biggest Loser for quite some time, but for whatever reason I never watched it. But in honor of this blog and my new, healthier outlook on life, I tuned in to the season premiere tonight. Yes, tears came to my eyes on several occasions. You can't listen to the stories the contestants tell and not get emotional. At least I can't. You have parents realizing...
Going Forward
Michelle and I had a phone conversation over the weekend about the future of this blog -- what we could do differently, how to cover a broad range of topics, what exactly being a "healthy writer" means, etc. So, we've come up with the following schedule. We hope you will look forward to the regular features and swing by to see what we're talking about on the "freebie" days. Starting this week:Mondays -- Michelle MondaysTuesdays -- Open topicWednesdays -- The Biggest Loser recaps and discussion (Michelle...
Monday, September 14, 2009
10 Lessons I Learned From Watching The Biggest Loser
I have been a faithful watcher of The Biggest Loser since the second season, and I can’t wait until tomorrow night’s premiere. I am always motivated at the end of an episode to try harder with my own weight loss efforts. Part of the reason I go to my weekly Weight Watchers meeting on Tuesday night is that I can go home and watch The Biggest Loser after and increase my motivation for the next week. If I’m really bummed about my weigh-in results and the meeting doesn’t manage to...
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Workout Tips
I'm beginning to emerge from the sickness that has knocked me flat this week. It's been more than 24 hours since I had a fever, I'm almost back to breathing normally, and I might just be able to stay up an entire day today without napping. I hate being sick, and let's just say I felt like anything but a healthy writer since the middle of the week.But, I'm back. While I was in bed, I did manage to read an article in Prevention magazine about workouts after age 40. Even though that's the targeted...
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Sometimes It's as Simple as Salad
Sorry about the late post. I managed to come down with the sinus infection, sore throat and aches hubby had earlier in the week, and I went to bed early. Still feel like crud today, so lucky for all of us that it's Tawny's blog day anyway. :)By Tawny WeberIn my house, we’ve never been big fast food eaters, but often when our schedule gets a little crazy we’ll opt for takeout. Usually Mexican or Italian, always delicious and definitely loaded in fatty calories. Even though three out of the four...
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Back to normality
Have you ever noticed that after being away from home and away from your normal routine, that it sometimes takes a few days to get back in the groove? I chose not to take my computer with me when I went to Dragon*Con, so I've been digging out of the loads of e-mail since returning home. I did make myself take a break today and get outside to do some yard work and then back inside for a bit of housework. The step count is going back up, but it wasn't where I wanted it to be today. Hubby is a lot...
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
My Kingdom for a Foot Massage
Those were the words I uttered sometime Sunday afternoon after three days of walking around Dragon*Con. I had an awesome time, but I was on my feet most of it. The conference is spread out over four hotels, though all of the programming I was interested in was in three. That required a lot of walking to and fro. In fact, on each of those three days I walked more than 20,000 steps. According to my...
Sunday, September 6, 2009
A Vote of Confidence in Myself
I’ve struggled with my weight since elementary school, and it became a much bigger issue in college – pun intended. I first joined Weight Watchers (WW) in 1995 and have made many attempts since then to get back to a healthy weight range. My current effort is the most successful ever. Part of that accomplishment is due to the fact that I took the time to figure out what lessons I could learn from...
Inspirational Reading
I'm still at Dragon*Con, so we're having a quickie question of the day today.What books or magazines have you read that you find really inspirational in your efforts to live a healthier life?And if you read these while riding a stationary bike or walking on the treadmill, all the bett...
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Trigger Foods
I've been getting daily e-mail newsletters from Hungry Girl, and earlier this week she talked about trigger foods -- those foods that once you take the first bite, you can't stop. She admitted that hers were chips, pretzels, a variety of salty snacks.Me? Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and brownies. Scarf, scarf, scarf. I haven't had either of these since I started this blog and started counting calories, so it'll be a challenge when I finally do. I want to be down several more pounds before I attempt...
Friday, September 4, 2009
September goals
I'm writing this in the wee hours of Thursday morning when I should be sleeping since I'm headed to Atlanta in the morning, but I wanted to put up a few quick posts to keep the healthy conversation going while I'm gone. Thanks to Marie-Nicole for guesting yesterday. I look forward to reading and responding to all the comments when I get back.So, my goals for September are:1. At least 10,000 steps every single day.2. Lost 5 more pounds.3. No less than 1 hour of dedicated exercise per day.4. Try out...
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Success with Weight Watchers
By Guest Blogger Marie-Nicole RyanAll my life I’ve had a weight problem. Either I was skinny as a rail growing up and wishing I had a few curves, or later I was on the verge of dieting, dieting, or falling off the wagon. On top of everything else, I’m short and small-boned and I don’t carry my weight well. I’m a pear as opposed to the apple. Now healthwise, the pear shape (big butt and thighs) is better than the apple (big belly). But once you cross the obesity boundary, it’s ALL BIG and there’s...
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