Ten Easy Ways To Lose Weight

October 27, 2015 / legreene515 / Leave a comment

Last week, I told you 10 Pitfalls to weight loss. I had so funny twitter comments. From the Writing Wenches: chocolate, wine, and beer. I agree! We all have our splurge items. But I’m going to tell you, splurge items aren’t that bad if you have them in moderation. And speaking of moderation, did anyone see the news the WHO came out with yesterday about processed meat being carcinogenic. I found a great article about how it’s still okay to eat meat in moderation. People have been saying for years that Americans eat too much meat. I’ve been a vegetarian and a meat-eater, and right now I’m a moderate meat-eater. We have meat at home maybe once or twice a week, and I order it when I go out to eat sometimes. I’m thinking about reducing it further.

But I digress, because I’m not supposed to be writing about the horrors of meat consumption. I’m giving you TEN ways to lose weight.

You might not like the first one, but it works for me:

Weigh Every Day: Studies have been done, and people who weigh every day lose more weight and keep it off. Don’t stress over the number, but if you have a target weight, weighing every day can let you know if you backslid or help you pinpoint what foods you ate that may not be helping you lose weight. Once the weights off, weighing every day can help you stay at the weight you want to be. (Disclaimer: If you have body image issues or an eating disorder this is not the path for you)
Buddy Up: Having someone to take the journey to weight loss with you is great. Accountability when you have a buddy in your journey helps. You can buddy up with someone you know IRL like your husband or your best friend. Or you can join a site like MyFitnessPal and participate in forums of people, just like you, who are trying to lose weight or maintain a healthy lifestyle.
Add Foods to Your Diet: Say what? Ever had an avocado? What about cherries, blueberries, kale? Add healthy foods to your diet. Find out what you like. Adding more fruits and veggies gives your body vitamins and minerals it needs, plus it naturally adds fiber. Fiber helps you to feel more full, is great for your intestinal system, and helps you lose weight.
Make Small Changes: When I decided to do something about my weight four years ago, I was overwhelmed by all the changes I needed to make. Make one small change a week or every two weeks. Wait for it to kick in, and then make the next change. If you’re drinking five sodas a day, drop down to three, then to one, until eventually you’ve knocked sodas out of your diet. Small changes stick and add up to big changes which will help you lead a healthy lifestyle.
Exercise: Can’t afford a gym membership? Walk your dog, 15 minutes a day. Next week up it to 20 minutes. Dance in front of MTV (do they even play music anymore?). Do chores. Run around the back yard kicking a ball with your kids. Do anything except sit on your bottom.
Use Smaller Plates: I said this last week, but using smaller dinnerware helps you to reduce your portion size. Let those big dinner plates in your cabinet collect dust. Pull out your salad plates and cereal bowls, and eat out of them instead of the larger version. When the salad plate looks full, you’ll stop eating once the plate is clean, and you’ve naturally and easily reduced the amount you’re eating!
Drink Water: I can’t say this enough. People are constantly confusing thirst for hunger. If you’re hungry, drink a glass of water, wait ten minutes,
By Derek Jensen (Tysto) (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
and if you’re still hungry dig in!
Plan Ahead: Plan ahead. Decide what meals you’re going to eat on Sunday. Grocery shop, do a meal calendar, and stick to it. If you’re going out to eat, pull up the menu on line, look at the nutritional information and pick a food you like that won’t blow your calories out of the water. Bring high protein or fiber snacks to work (i.e., nuts, fruits, roasted chickpeas).
Go Whole Food Instead of Processed: Stick to the outside aisles of the grocery store to stock up on leafy greens, lean meats, and dairy. Stay away from the middle aisles and the boxed and processed food-like-products stuffed with salt, chemicals, and things your body doesn’t know how to process.
Sleep: Sleep is so important to your body and mind. Get your 6-8 hours a day and you’ll reach for the right foods and make healthier choices the next morning.

The thing I learned most on my continuing weight loss journey, is you’re going for a sustainable lifestyle change. If you think about it that way, then you’ll make necessary changes you need and you’ll be able to keep them. The other thing to remember, is it’s okay to splurge! Eat a piece of chocolate cake every once in awhile. Let yourself have that candy bar. Just don’t do it every day.

What are some changes you’re making to your lifestyle to become healthier? What’s worked for you? What hasn’t?

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Nanowrimo Cometh

October 26, 2015October 26, 2015 / legreene515 / 9 Comments

It’s Monday morning, and I’m dreading going to work because my schedule today is fuller than full. If only every day could be a weekend. I’d get a lot more done (maybe?).

I signed up for Nanowrimo this year. What’s Nanowrimo, you may ask? It’s National Novel writing month. I don’t know what inspired me to do it. Maybe because my wonderful Writing Wenches are doing it, and I like the idea of us teaming up and writing several different novels. The support from the Wenches should be enough to push me through.

But I’m super busy. I’m still taking the MOOC, How Writer’s Write Fiction. I’m trying to edit Little Birdhouses. By next week, I need to write a newsletter for PTA and draft a letter to send out for an event. I’m trying to run more to prep for a 5K I haven’t signed up for yet. Plus, the oldest kid’s birthday is coming up. After that, gymnastics’ meet season will be upon us. Granted, that may free up some time for me in the hotel or at a four hour meet to write a little bit. I plan on bringing my laptop or maybe just plain old pencil and paper. I wonder if life will ever slow down, or if I’ll know what to do with myself if it does.

But back to Nanowrimo. I’m a little worried I’ll fail. I committed to do 365k (writing 1,000 words a day for a year) and I couldn’t stick to it. The thing is: I want writing to be my life. I have to stop making excuses NOT to do it. It’s sort of like running. I love the feeling I get afterwards, but starting out is always HARD. I hem and haw, and I don’t want to go and I make excuses, but in the end I’m so glad I did it.

So for Nanowrimo this year, I’m going to work on a story I wrote for the MOOC. I was inspired me to expand it, and in no time I had about 5,000 words. I did a basic outline of this story too (which is against my normal M.O.). I generally know where the story is going to go, and I’m in love with the characters. I’ll share the opening scene of the story with you later this week too and you can tell me what you think. I had great feedback on the MOOC.

Are you going to participate in Nanowrimo this month? If so, what are you working on?

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The Truth About Writing

September 17, 2015September 17, 2015 / legreene515 / 3 Comments

I’ve been fighting a headache for three days now. Grass and ragweed are trying to kill me now that Fall is almost here. Yesterday, through a blinding afternoon headache I wrote down a few words on scratch paper about writing. I think about writing a lot (obviously, because I’m a writer). But yesterday, I felt overwhelmed. I still hadn’t prepared for the Reddit Author Spotlight on Sunday. In fact, I hadn’t even signed on to Reddit, and I felt overwhelmed by the fact that there was a whole new pond of social media for me to swim through.

So my list about what a writer’s life turned out looking like this:

Work ALL The Time
Marketing with little results
Must stay up on ALL Social Media
Editing and more editing
Constantly required to have new and creative ideas
Earn Next to Nothing

When I looked at this list it made me want to cry. But then I looked at it from a different perspective, and here was my takeaway:

Work ALL The Time because the work is meaningful. Work ALL the time, because without writing down my thoughts I might implode. Work ALL the time, because when I don’t I feel lost and restless.
Market my material, because I want others to share in my creation. (WOW-that sounds like a God complex, right?). But isn’t that what all writers want? Someone to have an emotional reaction to their work. Someone to say, “This book is amazing–when is your next one coming out?” Without marketing, there would be no readers. My goal is to have my readers recommend my book to other readers–that should be your goal too, if you’re a writer!
Stay up on social media so I can continue to market my work. Also to get to know other writers who feel the same struggles as me. Social media helps writers create social networks for when the going gets tough. Like when they’ve received their 100th query rejection and feel like tossing aside the old pen–fellow writers can help their literary companion down from that cliff.
Editing – This one is my hardest, but editing my own work has allowed me to become a better writer. I’m pretty darn good now at picking out the mistakes, rewording, cutting characters, etc. And editing is the best way to make a good piece really shine (or to figure out that your piece is crap and move on to the next much more worthy project). This all leads to readership and a sense of accomplishment for the author.
Creative ideas aren’t a problem for me. I have new ideas for fiction pieces before I’m ready to have new ideas! In fact, I start stories and then see which one carries me all the way to the end. Creative ideas help writers sort through issues or problems in their lives without doing something crazy or destructive (at least this is true for me, as writing is cathartic for me). Writing allows me to organize my thoughts so they don’t drive me batty!
Earning peanuts – not much good to say about this, except I don’t know a single author who got into this business to make money. Most authors started writing because they felt compelled to. Yes, making money would be nice, but it’s not the be all and end all of writing.

The be all and end all for me is the story, the readers, the connection, and what we leave behind when we’re gone.

Sunday, September 20, 2015, I will be doing a Question and Answer session on The Devil Within over on Reddit! Make sure you stop by to ask me a question!

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Thoughts Before Reading Go Set A Watchman

July 29, 2015July 30, 2015 / legreene515 / 1 Comment

Perhaps one of the greatest books of all times in Southern Literature is To Kill A Mockingbird. Thus, I’ve been hesitant to read Go Set A Watchman, especially after having read this New York Time’s review. Growing up in the South, Atticus Finch was one of my childhood heroes. Although, I didn’t grow up in the same time as Scout, Jem and Atticus Finch, racism still ran rampant in Montgomery, Alabama in the 1980’s. Racism is still prevalent today in much of the country–not just the South. Although we have come a long way as a country.

When I attended the Midwest Writer’s Workshop last week, Ashley Ford an amazingly put-together 28 year old woman said, “There are no heroes and villains,” and she’s right. It’s all about perception. As a child, I perceived my parents as super human. They were my heroes. I remember as a teenager having the startling realization of my parents as people in a relationship, and it made me see them differently.

If we are to believe Go Set A Watchman is the first draft to To Kill A Mockingbird, then in the mind of Harper Lee, Atticus Finch started out as a racist and then evolved into something else. As a child, Scout sees her father as an amazing man, ahead of his time, defending a black man at trial. As a grown up, her perception has changed and she sees he is a racist like most of the other white men in Alabama at that time. “That doesn’t make him bad,” my friend Julie said last night at dinner. Atticus Finch is simply a product of his time.

Now, I haven’t read Go Set A Watchman yet. (I’m on page 20). I’m interested to see how my assessment will change as I read through it. I’ll report back afterward!