food obsessions

why is it that diet change for the worse is easier than change for the better? i've decided its food chaos theory.

i'm trying to be healthier. of course, i hope this will lead to a loss of pounds as i really don't want to have to buy new clothes, but what i really want is to be healthy.

i've eliminated diet coke from my food choices. soda is bad for you, whether diet (aspartame--very bad chemical, my son will tell you it changes to a toxin when heated above 70 odd degrees) or regular (high fructose corn syrup is clearly from the devil according to every health advocate everywhere). but i like fizzy, so i now drink soda water.

there was an interesting study done recently about women and body image. the basic gist of the results that there was little correlation between how women felt about their body, what they were doing about it, and what was reality. many of the women were unhappy with their body image but unwilling to change their diet or their exercise habits. but the world doesn't work that way. you have to be committed to yourself. i think we try to change too much at once and then when we fail (eat whatever it is that we are trying to eliminate) we decided it's too hard and fall back into the easiness of chaos.

so, why obsession? i've figured out that i am not a moderation kinda girl. i either have it or i don't. i don't do well with the only one a week, because slowly that one a week turns into one a day and then one in the morning and one at night, and then what the hell, all day long....

so i'm trying to change...one food at a time. :)

Lisa

ps. one thing i don't like is that i used to take a break from working by going out to get a diet coke from the local fast food place...i miss that mini-break. i had a purpose but it was a quick jaunt and then i was back to work. somehow pouring a glass of tea from my fridge doesn't have the same feeling. oh, well....

one hundred days

So maybe you are familiar with 100 words for 100 days. This is a writing jump start tool that is supposed to motivate you to write every day...at least one hundred words (which truly is minimal) with the goal that you will begin a more steadfast and productive writing habit. A few years ago my critique group started this and I gamely went along with the idea. One rule: if you miss a day you have to start over.

So...I would enthusiastically jump right in and go gangbusters for...about five days. Then the kids would have a bunch of sports, or the dh and I would have a night out, or we'd have the kids' friends and parents over, or, or, or...and pretty much after the weekend, I'd have to start over. I probably attempted this for a month (maybe longer as I am stubborn) before I stopped writing altogether. The failure to keep at it past four or five days took an incredible toll on my psyche and that was it.

But of course because I am the type of person who REFUSES to give up, I would start the cycle all over again. And because I am also an occasional rule breaker, after failing again and again, I finally made up my own rules. I didn't have to start over. I just acknowledged the day off and kept my own tally of days.



I'm in my third year of going my own way and today I hit day one hundred for 2009.

not your everyday average vampire

I am not a huge vampire fan. Oh, I read Anne Rice and found those books to be riveting, ten, twelve, however many years ago but now for the most part, tormented immortal beings sucking blood, eh.

My daughter loves the Twilight series, loves, loves, loves them. To me, it’s the same old, same old (this is not to say I am not thrilled with Stephanie Meyer’s success...because hey, go Stephanie, it’s always great when a work inspires that many millions of people to read. :) )

But if I’m going to read vampires, I want the story to be extraordinary. Enter J.R. Ward and her Black Dagger Brotherhood series. Just finished Lover Avenged last Saturday, a treat because I’ve been writing like a fiend so I haven’t read anything for weeks.



Ward manages to craft a vampire series that is totally rockin’ by changing up the story. Vampires have their own society, their own governing system. They don’t prey on humans, don’t drink human blood (because...yuck!). The Brotherhood protects vampires and humans from the Lessers. This series is brilliant. Every single vampire has major trauma to overcome and their character arc is intense and fascinating. She manages to layer in multiple subplots, and although the main romance is wrapped up, she always has some unresolved complication for the reader to contemplate building anticipation for the next in the series. So that is me being analytical, now for the gushy reader stuff...the pace is unbelievably fast, the action brutal yet not gratuitous, the sexual tension is incredibly hot, and the story is over in a blink.

If you haven’t read this series, I suggest starting with the first Dark Lover. My favorite was the story of Butch and Marissa in Lover Revealed, but they are all excellent. And you can bet that I will be at the bookstore on the day the next Lover book is on sale....