Weighty Wednesday -- Lifestyle Change or Behavior Modification?

I'll start off this post letting you know exactly which corner I stand in.

I HATE the Dr. Phil coined go-to term of lifestyle change. I abhor, deplore, dislike, and overall loathe that pretentious little phrase. Dr. Phil might not have been the instigator of it, but he's the one I remember first saying it years ago. Personally, I blame him.

Why?

Because in my mind a lifestyle change has a feeling of immediacy behind it--the birth of a new baby, being in a car wreck and losing a body part, or finding out you have cancer or some other life-threatening disease. These events are truly life changing.

Let's face it, when we are on the weight-loss journey, there's nothing immediate about it! It's a freaking slow process! Let's take a quick gander into my own recent experiences.

1. I gained 7 pounds of weight on a two-week vacation in late July-early August. Admittedly, I was literally licking my plate clean in some restaurants. Yes, the food was THAT good.
2. It took me 9 weeks to lose that excess baggage and return to my pre-vacation weight.

What I had gained in two weeks took nine weeks to lose. There was nothing immediate about that! And when you start this journey, if you expect to drop your excess weight is as simple as downloading a new song from Itunes, you will be sadly disappointed.
 
Granted, I wasn't killing myself to lose my vacation weight, but I had to slowly change my behavior and my mindset into thinking about how I ate again. And this segues very nicely into my preferred, though outdated, terminology of behavior modification.

When you start your weight loss journey you need to be in the right place mentally. It all starts with small changes, which is why I truly love the new Weight Watcher program. If you are seriously obese, they don't force you to survive on only 26 points (the lowest amount of daily points) a day. NO. They start you up on the high end of the point system and adjust the point values as you lose weight, which allows you to modify your eating habits.

With the amount of weight I had to lose, my point values remained constant at 26, but I know of others who when they reached a certain weight, they had to lose a point or two. By this time, they were usually ready for the next step in the process and it wasn't as painful as going cold turkey.

When you start to change your habits, you have to make choices. Sometimes you have to forgo eating at your favorite restaurant for a month or three to get into the correct frame of mind to make good choices at those restaurants.

After I found out I was pregnant, I had to stop eating at three restaurants because I ALWAYS ordered an alcoholic beverage (wine, beer, or margarita). I had to modify my choice of restaurants to allow myself to be successful so I wouldn't imbibe at those places.

All that boring stuff involving weighing and measuring of your food will eventually pay off when you eat out. You will learn what a real portion size is and modify your eating no more than one real serving.

You aren't going to run a 5 K when you decide to lose weight. Why do you think there are conditioning programs called, "Couch Potato to 5K in X weeks"? Because you can't just start exercising if you haven't done anything in years. It's a slow process to modify your ability to exercise. You have to slowly build up flexibility and strength.

I didn't start power walking my first time out. I walked around the block for 20 minutes. That was all I could do at the time. When that got boring, I extended my walking time. And then when that didn't seem to give me what I needed, I increased my pace. I learned to tighten my muscles (especially abs!)with each walking step. When my pace was fact, but it felt like I wasn't getting the exercise I needed, I increased my stride length.

It was a slow process. Now I have been known to walk and pass joggers (I walk between 4.0-4.3 mph). For such a small person (I'm only 5'1"--with a big hair day!), I have a huge stride and can keep up with my 6'2" hubby.

Again, this didn't happen overnight. It took time to modify all my behaviors to get to my weight goal.

From the beginning of my weight loss journey to end of this transition, I can truly say I have made a lifestyle change, but it was through behavior modification.

Later, peeps!

Writing 101--Setting Yearly Goals

Yearly goals are the big picture items. Before you sit down and pen a list, review my comments from my Getting Started blog. These are your goals. Don’t write down a goal that depends upon another person. If you work 40-60 hours a week, then you will have less time to spend on your goals than someone who writes full time. Be realistic.

-- I will confess that I spent more time writing when I still worked, than I seem to do now that I’m retired! It’s a matter of prioritizing.

Yearly goals tend to be the toughest for me to write, so I’ll start with the easiest one.

·      Read 50 books--keep log

If you call yourself a writer, but you aren’t a reader, the question then becomes how good of a writer are you. Writers read . . . a LOT. Maybe not 50 books worth, maybe more, but you should be reading something. Start with a doable number. A book a month? Could you fit that in your schedule? Probably. When I started jotting down yearly goals, my goal was to read 35 books. BUT 10% of those books MUST BE CRAFT-RELATED BOOKS. I think I’ve read virtually every craft book out there. I have a list of my favorites, but I will say there are a few out there that aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on.

Read within your genre AND outside your genre.

You should also be reading current material. It’s fine and dandy to read the classics, but you need to be aware of the current market, considering that is your audience.

When I finish a book, I’ll type the name of the book, the genre, the author and the date finished. If I really didn’t like the book, I’ll comment on it, too. You don’t have to go into this much detail, but it works for me.

Why keep a log of the books you’ve read? 

 --Because it forces you to revisit your yearly goals on a regular basis.

·        Return to healthy lifestyle by portion control, more fruit and veg, and exercising

I’m basically cutting and pasting this one back into my goals. In 2011, I joined Weight Watchers and lost 35 pounds. This is the reminder to keep balance in your life. If you are a writer, you sit for a living. If you sit long enough you will eat (especially if your ‘office’ is in your kitchen--mine is). And what happens if you sit and eat? You will eventually get a wide load butt.

If you are stuck on a story, go for a walk. If you get the munchies, go for a walk. If you can’t go outside, drink a HUGE glass of water and then walk around the house. Have easy-to-eat snack foods around. My favorites are grapes and blueberries. Simply being aware of what you toss into your mouth is half the battle.

·        Judge at least 3 contests (name, # category, date rec’d, finished, returned)

I enjoy judging contests. As long as coordinators need judges, I’ll judge, BUT I will only judge the categories that I read, or write (historical and paranormal romance and young adult).

Why?

--Because I don’t know the accepted criteria for any other genre. True, I could probably judge romantic suspense, but so many of them have become too graphic for me. Yes, a good book is a good book, but I doubt if I could honestly judge a category romance simply because I don’t read them

A long time ago, I learned that the best way to find flaws in your own work is to judge other people’s stories. The key here is not to agree to judge a contest and then wig out on the coordinator. This is NOT professional. When I agree to sign up, I usually jot a note down on my MONTHLY GOAL CALENDER when to expect the entry packet to show up and when they are due.

TRUE STORY--I judged a contest entry once and about four years later, I receive a contest entry in a packet that sounded familiar. I look it up (yes, I still have all my records) and IT WAS THE SAME ENTRY--literally. I returned it to the coordinator because I would give the exact same advice that the writer ignored the first time.  

·        Crit when needed

I have to admit that I don’t really enjoy critiquing. There are a couple of reasons for this.

1) I tend to crit the big picture stuff, story/character arcs, characterization, pacing, while many people want their grammar fixed. Sorry, that’s not in my job description, besides I’m NOT a grammar maven. Find someone who is.

2) I don’t want to see the writer’s work again. Once is usually enough, which is the beauty of contest judging. If you have judged an entry before, they want you to return it to give the entrant a chance to have another person’s opinion.

3) I’ll be ticked off if the writer doesn’t take my AWESOME-BLOSSOM advice. Sorry, I’m human. If I think the pacing starts too slow and the scenes are repetitive, and I pointed out those particular errors with page numbers and the writer ignores my comments . . . well, it doesn’t make me happy.

Notice it’s all about me? When you ask for a crit, you need to find the right person to give you the crit you need. Odds are I’m NOT that person.

Oh, and if you thought judging a contest is the same at critting, you would be wrong. Contests provide strict guidelines that the judge must follow to come to their conclusions. The rules are in the contest committee’s hands, not mine.

And now for the hard part:

·        Write XX  book(s)

In general, one book equals 85-90,000 words, give or take. Category, westerns, young adult and middle grade run between 40-70,000 words. If that goal seems overwhelming, then make a goal of, “Write 100 (insert amount) words a day, X days a week.”  Or “Write one short story.” Or “Write five poems.” Technically, don’t count your blog posts. Yes, I know that’s writing, but none of your brain dumps count toward this goal. If you want, you could add,

 ·        Blog three days a week.

To your yearly goals.

If you have a publishing contract, then this is where you would declare your obligations, INCLUDING a deadline.

With all my writerly advice as to how to set yearly goals, it’s your turn. It’s okay, I’ll wait. I’m not going anywhere, people.

*hums Jeopardy! Theme music*

Done?

I’ll show you mine if you’ll show me yours. . .

2012 Writing goals

·        Edit TROLL  --  polished, format, pay for cover and self-pub

·        Write GA #4 (Book 4 in The Goblin’s Apprentice series), DRAGON? -- edit, self-pub by December

·        Write short story w/Kyte Webber and dragon-dog

·        Plot Mystical Elements series (FIRE, EARTH, WATER, AIR)

·        Write FIRE

·        Continue healthy lifestyle by portion control, more fruit and veg, and exercising

·        Judge at least 3 contests (name, # in category, date rec’d)

o   SARA Merritt--@ 2-20-12

                  o   No. Texas Winter Rose--@2-10-12

(I just signed up for these)

·        Crit when needed (document)

·        Blog at least three days a week

·        Read 50 books--keep log

Books read in 2012

Title, author, book type (MG, Novella, romance, UF, craft), date finished

1.       

And that, my friends, is that. Goals are set for next year. Save your list to the first page of your documents file where you are forced to look at the title 2012 Writing Goals every time you open up a document

Next time, I’ll be covering Monthly Goals--and yes, I use a free Microsoft calendar for this one.

Setting up Blogger as a Website

A few weeks ago, my friend Amy Atwell asked if I would write an easy how-to article for her new Author E.M.S.  The topic was setting up a blog and turning it into a website. She said that she liked the clean lines and look of my blog. *how sweet* Okay, she was probably blowing smoke up my butt, but it worked!

I said yes, before I realized what it would entail. I thought, sure, easy-peasy. But that was before I remembered that I originally set up this site in 2008. Let's just say that was about four years ago. A lot has happened in four years.

I started writing the article and about page five of an outline, I was on the ledge ready to jump. I called Amy to see if she could talk me down.

Of course, she was eating a late lunch with her hubby and wasn't home.

So I walked away to finish laundry and ironing. By the time she called back, I was in control and knew where I had gone wrong. Talking to her for about five minutes help solidify my thought process and I started fresh the next day. I finished my rough draft and let it percolate over the weekend.

There were a LOT of words on those pages. I knew it was a lot of words. I needed something to break up the monotony. So I learned how to paste a screen dump into a document.

I was so proud of myself! So when hubster comes home, I'm bragging about it, and he comes over to my computer and says, "Everyone knows all you have to do is press Alt C Prt scrn."

Uh, no they don't. Only techno geeks know that stuff! Totally took the wind out of my sails, let me tell you. *grumble, grumble* I'm still ticked at him for this!

I finished the project. Tweaked the key words in the tutorial with color appropriate bold.  Verified that the screen dump is in a location that makes sense--of course, it's MY blog screens so I get a little free promo there. And sent it on it's way.

If asked, I would probably do it again. After all, everyone could use a little free promo.

If you want to know how to do it, just ask me or better yet. Click on Author E. M. S. and check it out . . . when it's live, of course.

Later, Peeps!

To Follow or Not To Follow

I will NOT lay claim that I know everything about blogging.  I don't.  In fact, it wasn't until October that I discovered I can find my blog statistics on my Blogger dashboard.  See, I'm slow on the uptake.

I'll be the first to admit that I love looking at my STATS.  I find it interesting that I get more hits on the day AFTER I post my blog, plus people seem to look at it on their morning breaks or lunch hour. :-)  I've had people from South Korea, Turkey, South Africa, Ukraine, Brazil and of course, the US looking at my blog.  Do I know who these people are?  No, but I suspect some of them might be my Facebook Farmville friends.  *waves* Hey, Farmers!

Anyhoo, on my last blog I promised to tell you about FOLLOWING.  I follow numerous blogs.  It's easy to set up.  There's nothing worse than sorting through the blog list on your favorites bar only to discover the blog hasn't posted anything new in days/weeks/months.  When you set up FOLLOWING, it updates the bloglist with the newest blogs that have posted.  It's easy-peasy to scroll down the list and click on the topics that interest you, and ignore the rest.

I should also point out that it posts the first three lines of those posts, roughly 35 words.  Make your first 35 words worthy to snag the potential blog reader.  Something to think about. 

I will qualify my comments to reflect my experience with Blogger.  I don't know about Wordpress or the other blogs systems.  I also don't know if you can FOLLOW if you do not have a blog. 

See, told you I don't know much.

Following a blog is easy if the blog has a FOLLOWERS set up on their blog page.  To set it up, simply pick the 'gadget' and add it to your design.  Blogger automatically has it set up for the reader to follow with one click. 

IF you want to follow a blog that doesn't have FOLLOWERS listed on their page then you have to follow them from your dashboard, under Blogs I'm following. Click the blue ADD button to copy and paste the URL link to the list. 

IF you want to DELETE  a blog, click the blue MANAGE button. A new screen pops up with all the blogs you follow. Click the 'settings' button next to the blog you want to delete.  To the right on the pop-up screen, there is a highlighted DO YOU WANT TO STOP FOLLOWING? Click it, and it removes the blog.

That's it. 

I like FOLLOWING.  It frees up my time to do other things, like virtual farming or writing.  And I have to admit that I'm more conscientious about the first few words on my blog.

Since it's the time of year to make goals and start writing.  One more round of edits for FAERIE and I'll continue querying it, while I edit TROLL.  Then I need to come up with a story for book 4, tentatively called TROLL 2, since it's a continuation of TROLL (my hero escapes, but not without losses).

Oh, Lissa wanted a candy recipe so I'm trolling through my goodies and will post a recipe on Monday lovingly called POLAR BEAR POOP.

Later, Peeps.

Busy Making Candy

Over the last two days, I've been busy making candy fillings . . . and I'm not even close to finishing. 

For the most part, I enjoy this task that I set myself every year.  I make my own truffle fillings for my filled candies.  I also make caramels, fudges, turtles, peanut brittle and toffee.  And I'm not like some people who keep their recipes a closely guarded secret.  If you want my recipe, I'll give it to you. 

BUT I make my candy fillings visually.  In other words, I eyeball everything--no measuring, which makes it difficult for me to 'write' down a recipe and duplicate it exactly.  I basically follow the same technique for most of my fillings.

I invented a Strawberry Margarita filling yesterday. Here's my rendition:

Take handful of frozen strawberry slices (roughly 1/2 cup) and place in glass cup measure, add roughly 1/4c tequila (Cuervo Gold has more flavor than the clear stuff) and add the juice of one large lime.  After the strawberries melt, blend together with hand blender (should be about 1 cup--add tequila to top off).  Pour into heavy saucepan and add enough sugar to sweeten (See?  Told you, I don't measure stuff), anywhere from 1/4-2/3 cup (don't over sweeten because you will be adding white chocolate to the mixture).  Boil down (alcohol cooks out, but the flavor stays), stirring regularly until it resembles the thickness of cold pancake syrup. Taste, adjust flavors (add sugar, tequila, or lime if needed).  Turn off burner and add white chocolate, stirring constantly until desired texture and thickness (again, no clue as to how much I use, probably 1/2 lb-ish). I store my fillings in a quart-sized Ziploc freezer bag.

Now that I have my ten fillings ready and chilled, I need to make a plan to fill my candy molds.  I have about 35 people (husband's coworkers and employees, both of our families).  So I want to make at least five extra of each flavor in case of accidents.  Accidents could be from too thin chocolate coating, or the filling bursts through the bottom, or the bottom slides off, or someone steals a 'sample'.  All have happened.   Candy molds are plastic and can mold anywhere between 8-12 candies per mold.  I prefer the hard plastic over the rubbery silicone. I've found working three to four molds at a time seems to be the most efficient, but for beginners don't try to do more than two until you get comfortable. 

I also use pre-tempered chocolate (Merkens).  This chocolate is very smooth and flavorful, giving me one less thing to worry about.  Get two work areas ready, laying down waxed paper:  one to fill the candy, and the other area for the finished products.  I usually use a sharpie to write on the paper, so I remember the flavors.  Before starting, pull the fillings out of the refrigerator to warm up.  The fillings should be thick, but malleable. If too thin, keep refrigerated until needed.  If too thick, you can pop them into the microwave for a few seconds.

I melt about 2-3 lbs of chocolate in the microwave.  Start at about 3 minutes, then take out and stir, continue nuking for 30 seconds at a time until melted.  Using a plastic spoon (trust me--the chocolate hardens on the spoon and you will want to nuke it) fill each mold to the rim.  Tap mold against counter to remove air bubbles.  Do this with each mold.  Return to the first mold, flip over and dump excess chocolate on the waxed paper (let harden and remelt as needed), roll the mold around tocoat the walls of the shell thoroughly.  Use flat scraper to wipe away excess chocolate and level the rims of the candy.  Pop mold into freezer.  Repeat with other molds. 

I used different mold shapes for different flavors.  I have a heart-shaped mold for Amaretto, a rose for my Chambord, etc.  I also wrote on a piece of painter's tape and put it on the mold so I can keep track of the mold and the flavor. 

Remove first mold.  Snip a bottom corner of the bag, squeeze filling into frozen shell until it is about 1/4 below the rim. If the filling is stiff, then gently press down to fill the air spaces.  If the filling is thin, pop into the freezer to firm up.  Repeat with other molds. 

When you 'top' off the candy, make sure your chocolate is warm.  If it has thickened and cooled too much, then pop it in the microwave to warm it up.  Using the plastic spoon take a half scoop of chocolate and spread over the filling, sealing the edges around the candy. Try not to make a mess as it will mean less work later. If the filling is too liquid and thin, the heavy chocolate will sink, causing all sorts of problems.  Thicker filling is better in the long run.   Seal all the candies in the mold and pop it into the freezer.  Repeat with remaining molds.  By the time you finish the last mold, it should be time to release candies. 

Take your filled candy mold from the freezer, flip over onto second area of waxed paper.  If the candies are ready, they will drop out of the mold.  If some candies fall out, but not all of them, take your hand and rub it over the outside of the mold.  The warmth of your hand will release the candy.  When you flip the candy out, try to do it as close to the waxed paper as possible.  If your chocolate shell was too thin, then the drop from the mold can crush the candy. Been there, done that.

Repeat a gazillion times.  Then you have to trim the excess chocolate from the bottoms of the candy (a sharp paring knife works well) and place in cute little candy cups.  I have a pair of cotton gloves that I use to handle the finished chocolates.  I don't want to melt fingerprints into the candy.  I store the candy in airtight containers.  I can usually fit two flavors in each 7 in. X 11 in. container.  Keep in a cool room until all candy is made.  Filling gift boxes is quick and easy as I make a circuit around my table.  Repeat until all boxes are filled.

Merry Christmas!