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

Excercise Your Right to Be Healthy

Joanie T

So we’re a few days into the New Year and people have made the usual resolutions. The most common one is losing weight and exercising.

Now understand, I’m a typical American woman. I have “yo-yo” dieted all my life. Lost 40 pounds, but determined lady that I am, found them again...back and forth several times over the years. When I was at my lowest weight I looked great in clothes and felt confident. Confident enough to tell myself eating that hot fudge sundae just “this once” wouldn’t make a difference. Muffin tops don’t look THAT bad.

I was wrong.

I’m not going to go into diet regimes because eating is only one aspect of being healthy. As the title to my entry states “Exercise Your Right to be Healthy.”

Now before you turn off the blog let me tell you right now, this is not going to be a dissertation on all the benefits of exercise, numerous as they are; ok here are a few. (What can I say? It’s the nurse in me :-)

Exercise can:

* Improve your mood. Brain chemicals that are released during exercise reduces stress, relaxes you and can make you feel happier.

* Fights chronic disease. Exercise combats high blood pressure, increases GOOD cholesterol, prevents or limits the effects of Type 2 diabetes, controls osteoporosis and has been shown to be beneficial in preventing some cancers such as colon and breast.

* Controls weight. Did you know that for every extra 10 pounds that you carry, you exert 30-60 pounds of pressure on your knees? Ouch!

* Improves sleep. Being able to sleep better and longer will increase your concentration and mood.

So, do I practice what I preach?

I try.

You’d think as a nurse that I would be svelte and toned just from running like a mad woman up and down the hospital halls day in and day out (and day in and day out) but nope. Not enough sustained momentum (plus swinging by the lounge to nibble on cookies because dangit, I’m tired and deserve it does not help).

I’ve tried multiple things over the years; jazzercise, aerobics class, a home exercise routine and multiple gym memberships. The classes were ok but if you come into them in the middle with more experienced participants you stand out like a sore thumb. My last attempt at a step class ended with me rolling around on my mat LMAO (if only we COULD laugh our a** off)because I looked and felt ridiculous. My instructor raced back to see if I was having a heart attack.

The home exercise thing waxes and wanes. For a period of time I had one of those exercise balls. That got thrown into the Goodwill the day my brother was over and I had lain on my back over it and…couldn’t get up. Did he help? Nope HE laughed HIS a** off as I struggled like a beached whale to get up.

YMCA, my work fitness club and even a membership to the infamous Gold’s gym followed. The thing with gym memberships is that you come for one orientation on ALL the different equipment then when there is no one there to refresh your memory, you fall into “the same ‘ole routine”…which gets boring fast.

I will say that gym memberships can be amusing. Especially the body builder guys. I have NEVER seen a woman preen like these guys do and the NOISE they make while lifting weights! They talk about supplements, and diets and blah blah. At one point I had a young personal trainer guy who had sampled one of their “special” protein shakes prior to my arrival. He was sweating, flushed and his pupils were dilated. He said “Everything looks so much brighter” and then mumbled something about his libido being enhanced.

What the...?

I quickly informed him that if he went down I wanted the CPR I would have to perform on him to count as my exercise!

But I’ve stuck to some form of this over the years for one reason. To be healthier. It works. I know it does. My joints don’t ache, I move better, I can let the stress of life take a back seat and yes, I look nicer in my clothes and feel better about myself.

You don’t have to officially join a gym. Increasing physical activity in any form (climbing stairs, walking around the neighborhood, chasing smart-alecky brothers with exercise balls) all count as activity. Yep, even Jeanne’s favorite, cleaning house counts on the Weight Watcher plan as activity.

So be good to yourselves Banditas and BB’s. Take a walk. Skip the elevator one time. Park farther away from the mall. Clean my house. As the song says, “You got to move it, move it.”

What is your favorite form of exercise? *Ahem, we know the ONE type is a given. What can you do to increase it in 2009?

PS The picture below shows a tai chi move... I kid you not...called the Golden Rooster! I propose that all Banditas and BB’s use it as a secret signal at conferences.