The Writer's (fat) Life

by Donna MacMeans

Let's face it. The writer's life is a pretty sedentary one. While my heroine might be dancing away at a ball, or my hero chasing a bad guy down a dark alley, I am seated at a chair, typing away. My fingers get quite a workout, but the rest of me - not so much.

So what's a fat writer to do?

I'm not an expert, but I have managed to shed about 10 pounds in the last month or so. I thought I'd share what I've been doing and I'm hoping you'll share what works for you. Because quite frankly, I can use all the help I can get!

The Food

It's always the culprit. I confess, I like to eat. At one time my daughter decided she wanted to be a pastry chef. I was more than happy to devour her practice desserts, and it shows. Jess never finished her culinary arts program, but she did learn enough to be a highly effective cook. Now, she uses her skills to make healthy dishes for her overweight parents. We're eating lots of fish, beans, chicken - even tofu occasionally. We rid the house of sweet "bad for you" foods, and eat fruit and nuts for snacks.

But even with a healthy diet, you still need...

The Exercise

During the winter, spring and fall, I take an aerobic class three times a week. That class incorporates about 40 minutes of cardio-movement, 8 minutes of crunches, and 12 minutes of weights. It's comfortable. It's doable. But this year we added a new class to the workout - ZUMBA! It's 60 minutes of fast salsa dancing with hip hop and popping moves tossed in. While I'm doing better now, for a while I was gasping for breath after 10 minutes of class. This is a killer - but it's a lot of fun.

The other thing that assists me in the battle of the bulge is my fitbit. Never heard of a fitbit? It's a tiny little lightweight gadget that you clip onto your clothes (I hook mine onto my bra) and it keeps track of steps taken, miles walked, calories burns and sleep cycles. Here's a photo of one in my hand.

Actually, it was the sleep cycle information that inspired my purchase for my husband for Christmas. Then I thought - heck, I'll order one for me too. The fitbit keeps track of all this information and uploads to your personal fitbit site whenever you walk close to the computer. Cool!

You can view the information in the form of graphs and trends on the website, plus you can input what you've eaten for the day. You can only lose weight if you work off more than you consume, and the graphs will tell you if you're accomplishing that. But I haven't been very good about entering all that I eat. I just trust my daughter is only preparing the allowed number of calories for dinner, then it's up to me to make sure I work it off. A click on the fitbit tells me how I'm doing. I can see my calories burned and decide if I need to put in time on the treadmill or if I can cuddle up with a good book.

It also shows a flower that grows according to activity - a little bit of positive reinforcement. Most of the time my fitbit only shows a flower with a couple of leaves, the bane of a sedentary writer - but after Zumba class, that flower is ready to poke right out of the device! Here's a before and after shot. The before to the left is after I'd dashed up and down the steps for something. Looks like there are three leaves on that baby! The flower on the right is after zumba. (eleven leaves!) (The fitbit is on a lightweight band that I can wear on my wrist - which is great for those times when you don't have clothes to clip it onto (grin))

So tell me what you do to fight the battle of the bulge? Checking the prize bin, let's see...how about a book (I'll let you chose one of mine or one from my stack), a fancy bookmark, and a fridge magnet featuring a chocolate dipped strawberry (yum!) to someone posting a comment