The Diet, Stress and Little Insanity for flavor

Stress is probably one of the biggest diet killers along with that bottle of honey Jack in the cupboard. If anything can throw you off track from bothering to weigh food, watching every fucking calorie that goes done the gullet, and gives the biggest excuse to miss the Zumba class because of emotional exhaustion, it’s STRESS. Yes, stress will take a perfectly good diet and exercise day, and just trash it right into the gutter. It does for me, because I’m a stress eater.

When I’m under stress, nothing that even resembles food, wither I like it or not, will go in my mouth. I’m like a teething two year old. It all goes to one place, in the pie hole, including a piece of pie. And I don’t eat sweets.

Right before I went on vacation with my friends to beautiful Mendocino, I was slammed with over the top family drama. My dad is 90 something years old, (there is a whole story behind why we don’t have an exact age) and seems to think his new job in his golden years is to make his kids crazy. He should get a raise because he does a damn good job of it. It just might be pay back for our teen years. I’m beginning to really believe it.

The problem is more dad’s live in girlfriend, than him. On his own he’s pretty good. His girlfriend, who has been with him for only two years, is a mean nasty thing. Twice we’ve called Adult Protective Services on her. The first time she called her son to come and get her, because of this bodacious insult. The son refused, doesn’t want mom under his roof making him miserable. What my dad saw in her, I don’t know. She’s vicious enough to end up as the villain in a book. Yep, never piss off an author, ya might end up in an Indie book, which stays up on Amazon for fucking ever and ever, one more ever to grind in the point. Actually the whole shebang goes in the will, along with the image of being a really repulsively ugly bad guy, with the very well worded imagery.

What this whole situation has done, is completely throw me off my diet. While in Mendocino, I actually did pretty well, because my friends all eat healthy. It was the wine that was the killer, but it was so beautiful, having a glass of wine on the front porch with ocean view, can ya blame me. We hiked every morning and spent hours exploring the area, so I burned off every calorie that passed my lips. I even managed to lose a couple of pounds while I was there. In between stress and walking, I'm sure that did it. I would never prescribe this as a diet. Stress will kill ya, or your 90 something year old dad.

I had to make a run to dad’s when I got home and confront the girlfriend and her bad behavior and lies. It was ugly and once more, my diet went further south, due to the stress, and because I was eating out. I didn’t want to eat there, I was afraid she’d poison me. APS was there, again, and things were straightened out, again. We're getting to know the social worker well, maybe we'll invite her to Thanksgiving. Oh the girlfriend would love that, maybe so much she'll leave for the day. We just have to get one of the girlfriend's six kids to take her. Damn, maybe I can pay them to take their mother. Buy She Cried Wolf, so I can bribe this woman's kids into taking her away. Please. It's only $1.99. This whole situation has slowed my writing progress way down, to a near stop.

So now I’m fighting to regain my diet footing. I rode my bike like the wind yesterday. Today, nothing, I had a migraine. Tomorrow, I plan on taking a nice long ride. My diet is slowly going back to normal. I’m eating a lot of veggies, juicing and adding more fruit, trying to get more sleep, that’s a challenge, since my dad makes me fucking crazy, (he won’t kick the girlfriend out because he feels sorry for her). I don’t, I’ll do it.

This is turning into the further adventures of Lee and her diet. Stay tuned for more disruptions. The one thing, that is helping with my stress and physical exhaustion, is Kale juice. I drink it everyday. I swear by it. Kale juice helps with detoxing the liver. The liver stores energy. The better functioning it is, the more energy there will be for the body to burn.  This nasty little veggie is one of the healthiest things you can put in your body, especially for women. Try different recipes to get use to it. I swear this dark green veggie is keeping me sane right now.

If you have a juicer it's very easy, 2 bunches of cleaned kale, with two apples. When I drink it, because it is nasty, almost as nasty as the girlfriend, but not quit, I squeeze one lemon in it. It helps to cut the bitterness.

The pictures I took while in Mendocino. It's such a spectacular area. My muse did manage to wake out of a deep slumber a couple of times.  
 

The Writer’s guide to cycling

My favorite baby. I ride like the wind.

I’ve gained back some of the weight I worked so hard to lose before I went to RWA. I also gained it back after giving out so much great advice I usually follow, but decided to fall off the wagon. Now I’m back on the diet wagon and back on my bike.

Cycling is a great form of exercise without putting any stress on the body. And it really burns the calories. When I ride for a 1 ½ I’ll burn up to 1,000 calories. I own two bikes a road bike and mountain bike. I’ve been cycling for a long time. It’s my favorite form of exercise.

Right now I’m nursing a sprained ankle from running sprints on my treadmill. My doctor told me no running for at least 12 weeks and to find something else to do. I had my bikes and I’ve been making up for my over indulgent detour by riding my bikes like a manic all over my small rural community. I’m fortunate to live here, because traffic isn’t too bad. After the kids are in school, that’s when I ride. The Mommies have either gone home or to the gym. Sometimes she’s running with friends in my bike lane which is really annoying. If you’re a runner don’t run in the bike lane, it’s dangerous for you and the cyclist. You can get hit by a stray car or cyclist and the cyclist gets forced into traffic. Bad for both, besides it’s illegal. Yes, illegal. Bike lanes are for cyclist. Sidewalks and treadmills are for runners.

Jalapeno fields in my rural community.

There are a lot of different forms of cycling these days. There is spinning in the gyms. A great form of burning calories without killing yourself, although it might feel like it after your done. There is something that is appearing in big cities like New York, San Francisco and L.A, called Soul Cycling, probably one of the toughest workouts on the planet right now. As you cycle in near darkness the instructor will give out a little advice on karma and soul searching. Hence, the name. If you decide to do this, be ready to sweat like a pig in a hot crowded dark room. See if you can’t get a free hour before buying into it. You want to like what you’re doing.

Here's some advice on buying an bike and cycling:

The Diablo range covered in the marine layer

• If you’re considering cycling and haven’t in a while, borrow a bike. See if you like dodging, dogs, cats, joggers, squirrels and the occasional PMS influenced female driver who hates you for the colors you’re wearing or just because she’s in a hating mood that day.  
• If you decide you want to ride like the wind, don’t go for the Lance Armstrong bike, get something cheaper and ride that baby into the ground. Once you do that and can see you’re riding regularly, then get one like Lance’s. Starting out, honestly you won’t be riding like the wind or Lance. If you haven’t ridden or done aerobic exercise heavily in a while, it’s going to be work. Don’t let those pedals fool you.
• Make sure the bike fits you. Sit on it at the story or shop. Adjust the seat so your leg is extended, and the knee only slightly bent. You should be able to push off on the pedal comfortably on the ball of your foot. Look at the cyclist in all the fancy equipment and cycling shoes, and the position the foot is in. There is a reason for that, comfort and speed.
• Wear a helmet. Always! Even a short fall can result in serious brain injury.
• Bright colors so you can be seen if you’re going on city streets.
• I wear bike gloves because my rings dig into my hands on the handle bars. It helps with blisters.
• Serious cyclists have all kinds of equipment and brightly colored shirts and padded pants. If you’re just starting out, wait to get all that, just wear a bright shirt and get a pad for your seat. All that cool looking stuff that makes you look like the real deal can be very costly. Remember to wear sunscreen, cyclist can buy stock in those companies we go through so much of it. It is our best friend besides the bike pump.  
• Research your vehicle code. You can’t run red lights or stop signs. The vehicle code applies to cyclist too.
• Don’t wear ear buds and listen to your music! You’ve got to be constantly aware of your surroundings, because you’re on city streets or on paths shared with joggers, the mommy exercise group and with people whose dogs hate you. You have to rely on your hearing to know what is coming up behind you, unless you’re blessed with eyes in the back of your head. I know your kids swear you do, but really you don’t. No blasting music in your head while riding!!! And that also goes for runners, for the same reason and you can't hear me coming.
• Get a little tool kit for the bike. You just never know. Shit happens. If you fall in love with cycling and find you have a lot of flats, get Teflon lining for your tires. Tire shops will put them in, because it’s a pain. The initial cost is expensive but over the long run it saves on tires and time.  
• Always be polite to the walkers, runners and dog walkers on shared paths. Call out, "coming from behind." Or "On your left" or whatever it might be. Than thank them for getting out of the way so you don't have to stop. Just be friendly. It helps with the image. 
• Lastly, just be safe. Be careful, and have fun. 

Since I've returned to the bike and have started to count calories, I've lost 2lbs in a one week. I was surprised. I love getting outside and riding, feeling the wind on my face and the occasional bug in my teeth. Fortunately, I live in California and can ride all year around. I just bundle up and go when there is ice on the creeks, as long as there is no ice on the path or streets I'm good. Besides you get to see some awesome scenery. The pictures are from the country roads I ride.

The Writer's Guide to a Stalled Diet

One of the biggest problems most dieters face is the stalled diet. The reason behind this is your body has suddenly become use to your diet and exercise program. It’s settled in, you’ve lost weight, and now it seems like your just maintaining your new weight.

The first part of your diet is the greatest weight loss. Part of it is water, and then the body adjust to no more fatty rich foods, and the weight comes off. Then suddenly stops. You stay the same weight for weeks.

The best thing to do, if you’re not doing this already is eat six small meals a day. Look at your caloric intake, what you’re allowing yourself in calories, and divide into six. Say if you’re eating 1200 calories a day, you have six 200 calorie meals a day, with lots of water in-between. Yes, you’ll be running to restroom often. But you need to flush the system of toxins released by your sudden healthy eating.

If you’re already doing the six meals, try this. Reduce any other fatty items you can in your diet and reduce carbs. That little piece of chocolate might have to go for the time being. Then increase your caloric intake with a healthier item, or replace less carbs with lean protein. Yes, increase, do not decrease calories. Then add, if humanly possible another 15mins of aerobic exercise, such as a longer faster walk or run. The body will kick start again and the weight will start to come off once more.

It’s important to stimulate your metabolism with healthy food. By not eating enough of the right food, the body will hang on to the fat. It’s often called the ‘starvation mode'. For a dieting body to go into starvation mode, it takes a long time of not eating enough, or not eating enough of the right food. The body has a mini rebellion and refuses to let go of fat.

To get the body going, add more healthy foods to your diet, increasing the caloric intake and reduce carbs or anything with added sugars. The body will automatically respond, by working to burn those calories, which in turn burns fat. 

Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way with fatty foods. If you increase your caloric intake of foods that are high in sugars and fat, like a fast food hamburger, all you do is feel sluggish and bloated while the body tries to fight through the garbage to digest it. Once you get done, you feel like crap, and hate yourself for eating it. The moral of the story don’t try to stimulate the metabolism with unhealthy food. The key is feeling sluggish after eating too much of something unhealthy. The body is trying to tell you something, like its fighting to digest it.

How to solve the problem:

• Increase caloric intake with healthy food.
• Reduce carbohydrates and increase lean protein.  
• Increase meals to six a day.  
• Eliminate any remaining fatty food from your diet.  
• Reduce dairy products.
• Increase aerobic exercise.

Another reason for stalled weight loss, is gaining muscle weight. If you are working out in a gym in combination of aerobics, machines and weights, most likely you're gaining muscle. This is a good thing, because muscle is smaller, but heavier then fat. If this is the case, start to measure yourself, and that's were you'll see the changes, not on the scale. Still look at your diet carefully, to continue to decrease size you might need to reduce carbs and add more protein in the form of lean meats and protein shakes. Read the labels on protein shakes carefully, they can be high in calories and sugar for energy.

Next week the detox or cleanse. Do they work? 

The Writer's Guide to adding Exercise to your diet regiment

In the past few months I’ve fallen completely off my exercise routine. I was editing She Cried Wolf, making it my whole focus. When the book was released, then it was blogging, guest blogging, promoting and just dealing with life. I got lazy.  

It is unusual for me to ignore regular exercise, such as riding my bike, running or hiking. I did do some, but not seriously or on a regular routine. When I was recently in Trinidad in Northern California I was surprised how well I kept up my nieces, nephews and grandkids on hikes. But- I know if I don’t get back into it soon, that won’t be the case.

I’ve been on my Caveman or Paleo diet for over a week. I’ve lost another 4lbs on top of the 5lbs I dropped preparing for the diet. I believe the first 5lbs was simply water weight. Something to consider, the first weight you lose will be the easiest and most likely water weight as the body naturally detoxes as you ingest healthier foods. The body will react positively to the lack of the usual fatty and toxic foods.

Now that you’ve started to eat healthier and have hopefully lost a couple pounds, it’s time to step things up with exercise. Since I haven’t run seriously since May, I’m currently walking to build up to running. In one hour of brisk walking you can burn over 300 calories. Running or jogging of course burns more in the same amount of time, up to 600 calories, depending on the length of time and speed. This is why long distant runners are skin and bones.

When starting an exercise routine, take a good look at it, and examine how realistic it is for your conditioning. If you haven’t exercised in years, take it very slow. I suggest starting with walking a couple of times a day, slowly adding light weights and an exercise ball. You want to build up to a 1hr exercise program 5 to 6 days a week, for weight loss.And you've got to SWEAT in order to burn fat.

I’m not big on joining a gym right away. Gyms can be intimidating, noisy, and discouraging. You walk in and the first thing you see is a cute little girl behind the counter who is in perfect shape. Depending on the gym, there is the body builders, big, noisy and hog machines and equipment. All the classes offered are fun, but again, it is awkward, when you’re stumbling around the Zumba class feeling foolish.  

There are smaller gyms geared towards just women. Those can be much less intimidating, but can be just as expensive.

It is easy enough to start a program at home, with CD’s, walking and an inexpensive workout ball. If you have a treadmill, clean off the clothes hung there, and walk it. Once you have gotten into a regular routine, and are losing weight at a steady healthy rate, and feel better about your body, a gym might be the way to go. Make sure it’s something you’re really going to use. They usually require a contract for a year or two.

One thing I don’t advice, is push too hard in the beginning. I’m a regular fan of the Biggest Loser and am in awe of the contestants and how hard they workout. But-they are under constant doctor monitoring, with trainers, with a regular specialized diet. They lose large amounts of weight in a week, like up to 10lbs. In the real world that is unrealistic, those individuals workout up to three or four hours a day. In the real world, we have to work, deal with family, plus write, without the benefit of a luxury ranch where we’re locked away from life, and live and breathe diet and exercise.

Either find a calorie counting book, or use an app for a smart phone. The apps can be free and update regularly for products and restaurants. If you are counting calories, depending on your weight, taking in between 1000-1200 of healthy calories is considered the way to lose about 1-2lbs a week. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but it’s considered the healthiest reasonable weight loss. The faster you lose weight, the faster it will come back on if you fall off the wagon. Think Oprah, when she went on a liquid diet, within months she was bigger than when she started the diet.   

If you are counting calories, and considering calories burned in exercise, my advice is not to consider the burned calories. What can happen is, “Oh, I burned 300 cals on that walk, so I can eat 300 extra cals.”

What happens, you’ll start to just maintain your weight, rather than lose it. Just consider the intact, not the burn.

Take your exercise easy, build up, let your body adjust before hitting it harder and you'll lose weight. Exercise should be part of a healthy lifestyle. All the way around it's good for you in moderation until you can handle more difficulty. 

Next week, what to do when weight loss slows to a stop.

Writing during summer, or the lack of....

Summer is literally just around the corner and my writing time is sucked right up into the hot Northern California sun. From late summer to late spring, I’m in writing heaven. I have time to sit at my computer for several hours a day and write. Once summer hits, it’s gone with the breezes coming of the San Francisco bay.

Don’t get me wrong I love summer. I live in an area known as the eastern most area of the San Francisco bay, which means we dodge the June gloom of the city. The weather is beautifully bright and I want to be out in it. The first thing to take me away from writing is the sunshine and gardening. I love my roses and irises and spend long hours working in the yard.

Then there is biking and hiking. I love to bike in the morning to escape the heat, and hike on weekends through our golden hills at the foot of Mt. Diablo. Another distraction.

Then there is my grandkids, who spend weeks at a time with us during the summer. I try to write when they go to bed, but usually they wear me out, making it difficult to write. I just want to relax. Since I run and bike early in the morning that sucks that time up.

Then there is camping trips with family or just me and hub’s wanting to get away in the mountains to hike and get away from all things electronic. I often bring a notebook and write long hand during those trips. It’s amazing what I get done that way. No distractions other than a squirrel or the occasional bear at night.

The answer to this is to write as many completed manuscripts as humanly possible during the rest of the year, so when summer hits, I have nothing bending. Right now I’m in the middle of completely my next release and it can’t come at a worse time, with summer and all its distraction.    

I’ve changed release dates because of this situation, because it simply isn’t going to get done. I do love my summers, but they are my greatest distraction.

The Dilemma of going to .99cents

Yesterday I decided to lower the price of my book to .99cents from $2.99. The reason? Sales. 

When I released She Cried Wolf a little over a month of ago, my sales were pretty good. Then May hit, and my sales slowed, even with great five star reviews, not even a drive-by one star. I feel it's a number of reasons, Mother's Day and now graduations are in full swing. I'm not great at promoting myself and admit I struggle with it. I make time everyday to get on the Kindle Boards, answer e-mail, and write blogs and guess blog, around the cyber world. 

So what was going on? 

I really don't know.

I went to a local RWA chapter meeting and listened to a panel of speakers who were very successful indie authors. Two had a past history of tradi publishing. Of the two one was still tradi but was just finishing up her contract, and then she’d be done. The reason, she was making more money off her indies. The third author had met the frustration of tradi rejections, and two years ago went indie, and never looked back. All these women have found great success, making over $200K apiece from sales. And I'll add, all three write romance, one paranormal romance. 

Is that the answer? I'm in the wrong genre? I don't think so, mystery suspense always sells. 

I listened to these three ladies talk about their experiences, and what worked and what didn’t. Actually, a lot of what they said came from pure and simple luck, laced with hard work, framed often with frustration, but in the end they found their success. What they all said no one thing works to sell books. The field is very crowded and growing. It’s difficult to stand out in the crowd. None of these ladies have hit the NYT list, but in combination of their book sales were afforded them new and comfortable lifestyles.Their advice to me, lower my book's price to .99cents. They all have books at that price, but new releases were priced higher.

There has been a couple of indies that have hit the NYT list now, Catherine Bybee’s, “A wife by Wednesday” is to name one. When I contacted Ms. Bybee, asked her about her success, she really couldn’t give me a definite answer as to what sold her book or why. She couldn’t give me that magical answer of waving a wand or jumping on foot and spinning three times, and the book hit the sales. It’s all very fickle as I’ve found out and pure luck. A wife by Wednesday has always been .99cents.

As I tried to figure all this out, I went to the Kindle Boards and read those who were like me with sales, but were unhappy with the results. The one answer I found was, lower the price to .99cents. In almost every case of poor or unsatisfactory sales, the prices were set high. Although, $2.99 isn’t considered high, it’s moderate, but higher than .99cents and definitely higher then free.

I discovered I needed to lower my price or go free. The reason, I’m not a known author. I will reach more readers at the .99cent range than at $2.99. The reason, there are readers who seek out .99cent or free reads more than any other price. As much as I didn’t want to lower my price the writing was on the wall, I need to give it a try. This doesn’t mean I’ll go back up to $2.99 in the future. My price will forever remain .99cents on this particular book. Where a higher price will come in, is for my next book, due out this summer.

Time will tell. This much I can say, almost immediately my sales picked up on amazon.