A Novel Approach (To Me)

I feel more and more like I’m in a relationship with my novel lately…and that my novel is a cranky, jealous spouse. It would be easy to lose focus and stop writing it. Most people do.  They start, and when it gets hard they walk away.

My conversations with my novel go something like this:

“You aren’t spending enough time with me lately,” says my novel.

“But we’re together almost every day? I don’t understand what you mean?” I say. I look at the floor sheepishly.

“But you aren’t spending enough QUALITY time with me?” my novel whines. “You come home, you’re tired, you hardly spend more than an hour with me? Where’s the romance in that?”

“That’s not fair. I work long hours, I’m busy, I need to spend time with my kids too you know.”

“You seem to be able to make time for the short stories. Yes, you’ve had plenty of time for them lately,” my novel says.

Ouch. That one stings. “Don’t be jealous.  They’re just friends.  You’re the one I love,” I say

“You don’t act like it,” my novel says.

Hmmm…fair point. It’s time to push through the distractions and get this project done.  I’ve been writing it part-time for just under a year.  Sure, the “fun” of writing it has worn off and it’s become work.  But it’s good, hard, rewarding work and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I’m pretty excited that Kobo finally took my advice and are releasing a ‘touch’ version of the e-reading device.  (Ok, so my email a month ago to Kobo asking for a faster processor, a touch screen and the ability to highlight passages and save them PROBABLY isn’t the inspiration for this device…they were PROBABLY already developing it, but I’m going to take the credit anyway ’cause that’s just the kind of girl I am.)

It arrives mid-June and my husband has already placed “dibs” on my current Kobo…so I guess I won’t be getting that $50 for it on eBay after all…

I’ve been away  from the blog for a while.  The course is finished and I’ve been busy writing.  I haven’t been as focused on the novel as I should have been lately because I’ve been working on some short stories.  I’m going back into the novel again this week and will put a hard push on to finish the first draft. I’ve also been reading a lot and have a few book reviews to do.  The 50 books push is well underway.  The 50lb weight loss goal is a struggle and I’m not doing as well.  On a positive note, I’m eating healthier and getting my exercise and portion control in line. More later…

I’ve found some very helpful sites online that are making a difference for me right out of the gate.  I’ve already mentioned Livestrong which has a great calorie tracker and some really wonderful information on building a healthy lifestyle.

I’m also using the Real Age website.  I found the book “YOU on a Diet” by Dr. Oz very helpful.  It felt like it should have been called “getting healthy for Dummies”.  It gave me some great information on why my body reacts to food the way it does, and how to change how I look at food and how I live my life.  Similar to Livestrong, there is a ton of great (free!) information on the website.  I’ve been using the exercise videos because they are something I can do in a hotel room when I’m traveling. The Real Age website is a spin off of the many “YOU” books that have been written.

One last neat web find.  The Canada Food guide website now has a tool where you can build your own personalized food guide for healthy eating.  You can input your information and then print a personalized food guide.  It’s not fancy, but it’s something you can put on your fridge to keep you on track with how many servings you need each day of fruit/veggies, protien, carbs and dairy.

I’m about half way through reading Annabel and I’m really enjoying it.  Kudos to Kathleen Winter for such a lovely and interesting novel.

Ahhh, Tim Hortons.  Oh how I love you!  You are one of my favorite places to go (other than the bookstore, of course).  I thought I was safe when I ordered breakfast this morning at the drive through: a large double double and a 12 grain bagel with cream cheese.  Sounds healthy, doesn’t it? I was so proud that I turned down the sugar soaked fruit explosion muffin and took the 12 grain “healthy” alternative. What could be the harm in that? It’s not like I’m at McDonald’s buying a greasy, calorie-laden sausage mcmuffin with hashbrown.

No. I made the healthy choice.  A wholesome bagel. A coffee.  Really, we can’t be talking about many calories here…right?

Oh the betrayal I felt when I looked up the cost of that fateful breakfast.  It totaled 610 calories…over half my daily intake for the day. Accck!  It will be a while before I make the next swing through for my double double.

Now to get back to doing jumping jacks in my hotel room to bring my net calories for the day back in line (wipes sweat from brow).

The first two days of the challenge are down and all went reasonably well. I’ve found some excellent resources on the web and will post links on the weekend.  The one I’m using most is livestrong. It’s created by the Lance Armstrong Foundation and has some of the best free content I’ve ever seen.  On a diet? Want to quit smoking? Want to create a fitness plan? Have cancer? Have diabetes?  There’s something here for all of you.

I’ve found the food tracker to be very helpful in seeing the reality of how many calories I’m taking in vs. spending in exercise.  I’ve hit my calorie goal both days and tracking what is going into my mouth has been…well, enlightening.  Portion control is clearly going to have to be a focus for me.

As for reading, I’m about half way into Annabel by Kathleen Winter.  I bought a Kobo recently and am reading this novel in e-book form. At first I felt guilty because I truly prefer the printed book and don’t want to contribute to the demise of the publishing industry (insert dramatic gasp), but owning a Kobo has opened my eyes.  It’s a very legitimate format.  What I find particularly interesting is the fight that is happening right now to ensure that authors get paid more for e-book sales (as they should).  It’s crazy that publishers are resistant to negotiate a higher royalty for something that, after the initial set up, has no additional costs attached to it…unlike printed books.

As for the novel itself, it’s a lovely story and an engaging read so far. In fact, it’s time to go read some more…

I’m probably a bit behind the normal trend when it comes to setting New Years resolutions. It’s the end of February and I’m only now getting around to setting goals.  It’s all part of my personal “happiness project”. It sounds hokey, I know–but it works for me.  It seems to be a common thing among women my age (and probably men as well) that we start to loose our ability to balance our lives when we reach middle age. We get so busy with our children and our careers that we forget to take the time to do things that we enjoy.  It’s not to say that we don’t enjoy our children or our careers, but human beings are complex.  We have our own individual interests and things that make us happy that are outside of our marriage, family and work.

Part of my happiness project has been to put focus on writing.  The reality is that I have to write to be happy and I’m glad that I focused on making time for it in 2010. I’ll continue the writing, but I’m setting another challenge for myself.  I’ve decided to focus on health and relaxation in my attempt to find balance.

I need to loose 50 pounds to be healthy.  The truth is that I suck at losing weight. Is there a diet that I haven’t tried? Nope.  I think I’ve tried everything that exists.  I’ve starved myself, I’ve eaten nothing but cabbage soup and bananas, I’ve counted points, I’ve taken injections and mysterious pills, I’ve eaten exclusively low fat, I’ve removed carbs from my diet…the list goes on.  Part of the issue has been trying to do diets that are too restrictive, part of the issue has been lack of exercise.  If I’m honest, part of the issue has been lack of willpower.

I’ve created a plan that I believe will work and be sustainable:

• portion size-focus on eating healthy
• exercise-at least 20 minutes of cardio or strength every day
• vitamins-take a multivitamin and an omega supplement to support a healthy lifestyle
• water-at least 8 glasses of water a day

It’s not rocket science but weight loss (at least according to my family doctor) really isn’t complicated.  In his words it’s a simple equation: more calories burned than eaten equals weight loss. Sounds simple but it isn’t.  The reality is that it takes motivation…which I have. I’m heavier than I’ve ever been in my life.  Yes, I’m fat. I’m embarrased when I see pictures of myself and I can’t believe I’ve gotten here.  The good news is that it’s fixable. I’ve bought the food and the gym membership.  I also have exercises I can do when I’m travelling and don’t have access to the gym–which has been one of the reasons I’ve fallen down in the past.  Lack of a plan. Today is day one of my new food lifestyle and tomorrow is day one at the gym.

Another area of my life that needs focus is reading.  Sounds odd, doesn’t it?  But it’s true.  To have a hope of being a good writer, I need to fill my tank with good writing.  You can’t be a writer if you aren’t already a reader.  But there’s also another reason I need to focus on reading  I have a very high stress career.  Stress makes it harder to loose weight.  Reading helps reduce my stress.  I’m going to try to set a goal to read 50 books (one for each pound) over the next 50 weeks.  I’m hoping to do a book review for one out of every five books that I read in that time frame.

It’s an aggressive goal but achievable.  Wish me luck…

I’m having a lovely, relaxing day with my family today (and digesting my turkey).

Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian friends!

We had a good frost last night that finally killed our potato plant. What you see here is our harvest. Nothing like they said that a potato tower could produce, but a pretty good result from only nine pieces of potato (3 whole potatoes if I recall correctly).

I think potato salad might be on the menu tonight.

We had lots of rain today and lots more is on the way for this week. I wanted to get out for a walk today but it didn’t happen.  I don’t know why not, except that I don’t much like walking in this weather. Two of my children decided to race around the house after school to see who could run faster in the rain.  Lots of giggles and sopping hair later, they tumbled back into the house.  If they can run in rain, surely I can walk in it, right?

It’s been a busy day.  I really should be catching up on emails.  By tomorrow morning I’ll hit 1500 emails that need to be dealt with.  All have been read, I just haven’t actioned or filed them all yet.  Acck. I just don’t feel like it tonight.  My book (Atticus) and a hot bath are calling me…