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Sunday, August 23, 2009

The Weight Gaining Lifestyle

A little while back I did a Facebook on writing as a weight gaining lifestyle. There's just something about sitting in a chair for hours on end that just seems to attract the pounds. It also stimulates the desire for unhealthy snacks, a lethal combo. (I admit to giving in to temptation.) I've been getting a lot written these past months, and right now I'm deep in editing a book I started earlier this year. Plus I've been doing critiques for various partners and writing story for he Arlington Almanac - I even got a fan letter! Add in the work I do at a local senior center and I have no life beyond sitting at a computer, or with pen and paper. So I'm growing by hips and pounds.

HELP!!

A friend laughingly said this all sounds like a topic for a workshop. I say, sign me up - although I think she was suggesting I give the workshop. So I'm asking, how do you handle the sedentary nature of the writing profession? Have you discovered the secret to jogging while writing? Or found a twenty-fifth hour to use exclusively for exercise? Or do you just no longer care. And, if so, I really do envy you.

Anyway, just for giggles and kicks I've set up a poll. You're all invited to make a selection. And please - I'd say pretty please with sugar on it, but that just defeats the whole purpose, if you want to comment on how you combine work, exercise and writing, please do so. I need all the help and suggestions I can get.

2 comments:

Jane Toombs said...

1.I don't allow myself to read all my email until I get ready for the day. Which includes breakfast, usually oatmeal cooked by the Viking. Then we make the bed, bathe (no, not together, we've gotten too creaky)and dress. Before this I allow myself to check email and read anything important, though not respond yet.
2. I read email and answer important ones. If I want to leave a comment that can wait.
3. Morning exercise comes next. Either a walk outdoors, or in bad weather, a workout on the exercise machine.
4. If there's time left before lunch, pull up the WIP and edit far enough back (never more than one chapter) to pick up the story flow again. Write.
5. Lo cal lunch with fruit.
6. Errands, such as P.O. and groceries. etc.
7.Go back to WIP. If I come to a place where I'm not sure wwhat comes next, do a task. (These include, cleaning bathrooms, Swiftering the floor, making a dessert, the wash, starting something in the crock pot.) Do one or more of these until I know what comes next.
8. At the computer I answer email and leave comments, etc., then back to to WIP. While doing this I may have to let the cat in or out if the weather's nice.
9. Stop enough ahead of Happy Houir to take a stroll outside and water what's necessary, etc. If bad weather, use the Exerciser.
10. Happy Hour lasts from 4-5, with music. The Viking makes the healthy niblets such as string chees, sliced apples , baby carrots and sesame rye krisp, plus one, no more, vodka tonic with lime, mine with a dash of cran-cherry or grape.
11. Lo cal dinner. We save the occasional splurge for the rare times we dine out. Even then, we live in fish country so I almost always order walleye, grilled.
12. If Dr. House is not on TV , I return to my WIP. Quit at nine and read until bedtime at 10. I find if I don't quit writing a while before I go to bed, I stay awake, plotting the next scene. So I need the downtime.
Note: At any time the WIP can get set aside when edits or galleys come in. Promo fits into my answer email time.
This is a schedule I try to stick to. If I need a snack I take my bottle of water from the refrigerator and bring it to the computer where I can sip it off and on. Water is my way of avoiding snack foods. Of course some days all this goes by the board, life getting in my face, but I do try to stay as close to the above as I can.

Stacey Joy Netzel said...

Quite the schedule, Jane!

Barbara, I've definitely noticed some weight gain this summer (when I usually lose it!), so I've just begun to walk every day, about 3miles. Been doing it just over a week, sometimes with the kids on their bikes, sometimes with the neighbor and her dog.

Last year I made it a whole 13 days before I started to sluff off, so my goal is to keep it up with no more than one day 'off' a week. Winter exercise will be hard here in WI, but I'm going to do what I can.

I've also been limiting my tea (use lots of sugar and honey) and sweet treats. I LOVE sugar!