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There are many reasons people work out. Looks, health, strength, etc. For me, it’s about health first, then looks. My original workout strategy was to work out with weights, legs on Monday and Thursday, arms on Tuesday and Friday. Some weeks I did okay, some not. If I had to skip a workout, I would work both arms AND legs the next day. My plan for cardio was to walk on the treadmill at home. Well, there has been no walking on the treadmill. You know how it is…when you’re at home, there are so many other things to do.

So here’s my new plan. I’m going to start doing cardio at the gym. They have state of the art treadmills, better than the ones at the bigger gym where I used to be a member. They actually have COMFORTABLE places to put your hands when you’re walking. The reason I want to focus on cardio for a bit is that my blood pressure has been high and, historically, cardio exercise has brought it back down with no medication. Then I’m going to start adding weight work back. I have a friend who won a month at this gym, so I would have to go in the evenings instead of at lunch if I go with her. Which makes me think…I could do some cardio at lunch and go back for weight work in the evenings. Maybe….

Another thing I’ve started doing is keeping an exercise journal so I’ll know exactly where I’m improving. Longer times and faster speeds on the treadmill. Heavier weights or more sets on weight work. I think this will help me stay on track, too.

So what about you? What are you doing to take care of your health? Do you have health issues that exercise would help with?

I wrote 834 words this week. I wrote one day. I kept having “reasons” not to write.

I worked out one day this week. Is there some kind of one day theme here?

I’m a total slacker. Please don’t try to tell me it’s okay. Don’t try to make me feel better. KICK MY BUTT. Seriously, that’s what I need right now.

There are so many posts going around right now about NaNoWriMo. I can feel the excitement in the air. I remember that excitement from the two times I did NaNo. And I finished both times! But, alas, I no longer have the desire to participate in it. Since I’ve been doing ROW80, I’ve found that it’s the best fit. I know there are many people doing both, and that’s great. Just not me. There’s nothing wrong with DOING it or NOT DOING it. I’ve realized, since reading so many posts, that each person is different in how they approach NaNo and what they want to get out of it. I fully support all my writer friends who are participating in NaNo this year. I’m glad to cheer them on. It looks like it’s causing some people to be more productive. Yay. But I did want to share some reasons I’m not doing it anymore.

1. When my husband heard I was doing ROW80 the first time, he said “Oh, no, is it going to be like when you did NaNo? You were crazy.”

2. I would HAVE to write 50,000 words. Some people are saying they are doing other stuff, but it’s really not WINNING NaNo if you don’t do your 50K. And I’m so anal about this that I would drive myself crazy to get those words in, no matter what else I let go. (See number 1)

3. NaNo is supposed to be where you just throw 50K down, and it doesn’t matter whether it’s good or not. You’re just spouting words. Well, I just can’t write like that anymore. I’ve been doing this writing thing long enough that I usually have a pretty clean manuscript. When it goes through beta readers and gets edited, there is very little to change anymore. I CAN’T make myself write any other way.

4. Writing that many words in a month causes me a LOT of stress that I don’t need. (Again, see number 1)

If I didn’t work a full time job, I would consider it. I could easily write that many words if I had more time. But you guys who are working AND doing NaNo? Oh man, I ADMIRE you. I remember how hard it was! I’m behind all of you NaNoers 100 percent. Go for it, and have fun! And please don’t whisper about what a wimp I am. LOL

Tonight won’t be much of a Halloween for me since it fell on a Wednesday…church night. But I did get to carve a pumpkin with my friend and her son last night. The picture didn’t end up being very good, since you can’t even tell this is a pumpkin. But maybe you can see the outline of a bat in the picture. So here is what I have:

Writing: I finally buckled down yesterday and wrote 1342 words on my WIP. That brings the total count to 2442. I’ve only written on this three days this month. I kept wondering why I’m so far behind since the round started the first of the month. Then I realized I finished edits on Soul of a Vampire, published the ebook, finished formatting on Vampires’ Curse for print, then formatted Soul of a Vampire for print. So I guess I was actually DOING SOMETHING this round. I have to get out of the mind set that ROW80 is JUST about actually writing a book. It’s about doing all the things related to writing. But now that everything else is done, I’m ready to write 5 days a week on my WIP. That’s going to be a real challenge this week since I have something going on every night except Friday.

Health: This went to the back burner last week. I had a lot going on, and the major issue was my cat, Willow. She was REALLY sick. The vet said she had a UTI, but it started with throwing up, which was weird. But she tested positive for the infection. Let me tell you guys, I was SCARED. She was lethargic, and she didn’t eat for days. I actually got so scared that she would get dehydrated and die that I force fed her a couple of tablespoons of water twice. She would go to her water bowl and dip her head down to it, but she wouldn’t drink! I had prepared myself for the worst, even though I was going to take her back to the vet if she didn’t start drinking water. After she was on antibiotics a couple of days, she started drinking water. Then she started eating. Then she started showing interest in stuff again. And today, I saw her playing with a toy. She’ll be back to normal when she’ll play with Oz again. He’s certainly tried to get her to play, but he’s just too rough, and she wasn’t feeling up to it. I bet by tomorrow, she’ll be holding her own against her brother. 😉


I’m not really a selfish person. Most of the time I do things that will help other people rather than myself. I’m not tooting my own horn or anything, that’s just my basic personality. I like to help. It makes me smile. But the following is a completely selfish thing. Here it is:

The Gnome would be a really great read for Halloween. Buy it! Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords.

Whew, that felt weird! But I’m not going to apologize. In fact, I’m giggling a little right now. Um, not evilly like the gnome did…just because this was funny. 🙂

Drum roll, please. LOL. Anyway, the winner of the Soul of a Vampire giveaway is Kristina Haecker! Congrats, Kristina!

So here’s what’s going on for ROW80:

Writing: I’m about 1100 words along on my WIP. I’ve hit a few personal snags that’s kept me from writing as much as I’d like, but I think the rest of the week, and the weekend, will get back to normal.

Print book update: They’ve sent me the proof for Vampires’ Curse, so I’m just waiting on that. I’m also waiting on Anya to finish the print cover for Soul of a Vampire. I asked her to change something, so it’s my fault it’s not finished. LOL.

Health: I haven’t worked out yet this week. Monday I was having a major issue with one of my feet, and yesterday I used my lunch hour to write because I was going out to eat last night with a fellow author who lives here in town. (I think she would wish to remain anonymous, LOL.) I didn’t get in until late. I hope to return to my routine tomorrow.

So, what’s up with the rest of you?

Today’s the deadline to get your comment in the drawing for the necklace and earring set mentioned in my book, Soul of a Vampire! I’ll be announcing the winner sometime tomorrow. Good luck everyone!

Here’s the link to the post: Soul of a Vampire Giveaway

I’m sitting here a little disappointed because the first 50 people who register for the RNConvention get to have a special VIP brunch with Jimmy Thomas and some other hunks. Anya and I were all set to start registering as soon as it opened at 3:00 PM on Saturday. But they changed it to tonight, at the same time church starts. Bleh. Anyway…onward.

Formatting for Print

After fighting so long with page numbers on the print version of Vampires’ Curse, I finally got it to work! So while it was still in my mind how to do it, I went ahead and formatted Soul of a Vampire. So I’ll be publishing both of them on CreateSpace pretty close together. Anya has to work on the print cover of SoaV first. She pretty much has VC done…she was just waiting on me to tell her how many pages it was going to be.

Writing

I finally started on the book I’m co-writing with my husband. Right off the bat, we disagreed on something. He wanted more description about the MC’s feelings before he has an accident. I think I started it right and that it doesn’t need anything else. So I stopped writing if for a little while. Then I picked it back up and didn’t change anything. I can always add more later if hubby still feels like it needs more. I ended up writing 560 words, but I would have liked it to be more.

Health

I’ve been faithful to my workouts, going to the gym 3-4 days a week. But I need to add cardio. I’m going to order some Chaco running/walking shoes because since I’ve been wearing my Chaco sandals, no shoe feels good on my feet anymore, even my Tone-Ups. When I walk on the treadmill at home, I could wear my sandals, I guess. But at the gym, they expect you to wear appropriate shoes. Since I found an extra $112 I didn’t know I had, I can buy those shoes. 🙂

*yawn* Yeah, that’s how I feel every evening. And partly throughout the day. And it’s killing my productivity. By the time I’m ready to start working on my WIP, I’m too sleepy to write anything. And I know this is probably my own fault. You see, I fall asleep on the couch every night watching TV, then I wake up sometime in the middle of the night and go to bed. And I know I’m not getting good sleep while I’m on the couch with the TV on. So why do I do this? Well, I actually enjoy falling asleep while watching TV. I don’t know why; I just do. And there’s something that I don’t like about going to bed IN the bed. I can’t explain it. Part of it is that I just feel so LONELY. My husband works third shift, so I sleep alone five nights out of the week. And I don’t like it. So I fall asleep with the company of the TV, then when I wake back up and go to bed, I’m too sleepy to worry about being lonely. This whole thing is quickly becoming a habit.

I really don’t know how to break this habit. The simple answer is JUST GO TO BED. But I don’t WANT to. I keep wondering if there’s some way to make my bedroom more of a haven, something pleasant and enjoyable. A peaceful place. Should I redecorate? Add some plants?

Does anyone have any ideas?