November 24 – Thanksgiving Update

I’m not missing my update today! I have the day off and I have no excuses.

Goal 1: I will work on my writing every day.

I wrote a little bit yesterday, but not enough, so I am trying to spend more time today writing than playing on Facebook. So far it’s not going well, but I’m trying!

Goal 2: I will participate in NaNoWriMo in November.

I lost my lead yesterday and ended up 220 words below the goal word count. I have today off for Thanksgiving, and I’m taking tomorrow off for vacation, so I have a nice long weekend to focus on my writing and try to regain that lead.

Goal 3: Diet and exercise to lose at least 10 pounds by the end of this round.

The big news on this front is that I had to go to the doctor yesterday. A couple of months ago I tried to give blood at the regular blood drive at work, but they told me I couldn’t because my blood pressure was too high. I was hoping that it was a fluke and didn’t worry too much about it. But yesterday when the blood drive came around again they told me the same thing. As a matter of fact, they said my blood pressure was dangerously high and that I should go to the doctor right away. So I did.

The doctor started me on some blood pressure medication and sent me to the lab, I suppose to see if there is anything wrong that doesn’t show up with a physical examination. So even though I didn’t get to donate blood, I still lost a bit.

So this experience has now made it even more important for me to lose those extra pounds I have been adding  back over the last year. I am really going to have to watch my sodium intake and  focus on what I eat to lose that weight.

After Thanksgiving. How am I supposed to give up turkey on Turkey Day?

If my heart doesn’t explode I’ll post again on Monday. NaNoWriMo is almost over, and I have to get back to my writing if I’m going to finish. Good luck with yours!

November 22 – Bad Habits are Hard to Break

This is getting annoying. I missed my update again. I didn’t even think about it until this morning. I have got to do better from now on. Sorry everybody.

Goal 1: I will work on my writing every day.

Despite the distractions of some Facebook games, I’m still plugging away at my NaNoWriMo book. Nothing really exciting to report, but I keep writing and hope that something somewhere will break loose and the words will start to come a little bit easier.

Goal 2: I will participate in NaNoWriMo in November.

I haven’t managed to regain my day’s worth of word count cushion, but I have managed to continually increase the lead that I have a little bit every day. Each day I have tried to write just a little bit more than the day before, so right now I am at 35,749 words. That’s 749 words ahead of schedule. Not as much as I would like, but better than being behind.

Goal 3: Diet and exercise to lose at least 10 pounds by the end of this round.

I’m going to try to get back to using my SparkPeople app to track my foods. It is available on both my iPod Touch and my new Kindle, so I don’t have any excuses not to use it. I think that if I get back to seeing what I put into my mouth I will be less tempted to overeat. It worked before.

Does anybody want to comment on whether or not they think I will remember to post on Thursday?

September 15 – Writing Makes You FAT!

I have a problem. The first step is admitting it, right? So here goes.

Last year at this time I had just finished a long diet. I joined SparkPeople, a free website for people who want to live a healthy lifestyle. It took me about fifteen months to lose about 150 pounds. When I finished I weighed 175 pounds, the same weight I was in high school, almost 25 years ago. I felt great! And it was due to simple diet and exercise, along with an unwavering focus. I swore that I never going to get that fat again.

Then NaNoWriMo happened, and I started going to Starbucks. Then Culvers. Then I joined my weekly writing critique group and started going to the local restaurant for dinner with my wife every week.

My exercise also dropped off. My bike, which I had been using to commute to work, didn’t get fixed this spring, so I couldn’t ride it at all. I bought a car. I also bought a stationary exercise bike, but to be honest my wife has been using it more than me. I still walk to work sometimes, but it is much less than I should.

So the end result is that I now weigh 235 pounds. Sixty pounds more than I weighed last year. And I mainly blame the writing. The hedonistic lifestyle of a writer is making me fat. My butt spends more time in a chair than on a bike. I am writing when I should be working out. I go to restaurants and make the wrong menu choices, mainly just because it tastes great and I am having too much fun with my friends to care.

Yesterday I went to a blood drive, and I couldn’t give blood. They told me my blood pressure was too high. I honestly think the reason for that was because my pants were too tight. This can’t go on.

So I am making a resolution. I’m going to get back on my diet. I’m going to start losing the weight again. I’m going to try to get back down to at least 200 pounds in the next six months, and this time I really am going to keep it off.

Let this be a lesson to all of you. Your life is determined by your habits. If you make it a habit to write, then you are a writer. If you make it a habit to eat unhealthy foods, then you are a FAT writer.

Wish me luck! I’ve done it before and I know I can do it again. I’ll try to keep you all posted as I work through this.