Basorexia = An overwhelming desire to neck or kiss

Va-Va-Voom!  Very sexy for pretty much a non-sexy sounding word.

My challenge to you is to use this word in a sentence and make it sounds sexy and romantic.  Who’s up for the challenge?

**Special shout-out to my good friend Judythe for the fun idea of ‘word of the day’.  Look for more fun with this on her blog coming soon!

Happy Weekend everyone.

And should you find yourself in a moment of inspiration, where the very touch of a breeze against your skin ripples in awareness, and in that moment, should before you stand a person whose spirit calls out to you like salt on the rim of a margarita glass … give in, succumb, wave the white-flag of your granny-panties and abandon yourself to the insatiable basorexia and all that might follow.  *kiss kiss*

While we’re on the subject of food, did you know that experimenting with food and trying new recipes can boost your creativity? It’s true. Not only do we need to feed our bodies clean, whole foods, but also having some fun with them in the kitchen can give our creative side another playground in which to play — off of the written page.

To me, there is nothing more blah than an uninspired meal. That is not to say we don’t have them in our home. We do. Because we are a busy family of five, I don’t cook every night and I have to cut corners here and there, but I try to plan ways so that we always have fresh food and our meals don’t become routine.

I’ve become known for my soups and salads. I love thinking of new ways to pair different ingredients or throw in something unexpected. Take this recent salad I made.

I used both red and green butter lettuce so the colors would be pretty. I had ½ a seedless cucumber, so I threw that it.  I tossed in ½ a pint of blueberries. Here’s the something ‘different’.  I had about ½ a bag of fresh green beans leftover from a veggie tray (AKA: The Platter of Awesomeness) that I recently brought to a party.  I cut them in half and sautéed them in olive oil and dried minced garlic.  I did this quick on fairly high heat so that the beans would stay crunchy but they’d get sizzled in that garlic. (OMG-Good!).  I tossed my sizzled garlic beans onto my salad, splashed on some vinegar, drizzled more extra virgin olive oil, sprinkled some kosher salt, some cracked black pepper and some more garlic crunchies. It was seriously delicious!

Want to impress at your next potluck? Walk in with The Platter of Awesomeness! Putting it together is literally playing and creating a piece of art with your food. Nestle an olive here, poke in a snap-pea here, … have fun!

Don’t be afraid to let your creative side have room to play with your cooking. The more we let those creative wings spread out and reach to other areas of our life, the stronger that creative muscle becomes.  And you know I’m all about strong muscles!

I get a lot of people who ask me for advice on how to make healthy eating convenient. It can be done, but I won’t lie, it often comes with a little preparation and planning on the front end. I would also like to suggest that traditional convenient foods, like fast food, microwave meals and prepackaged snacks come with some very inconvenient side effects. Heartburn, IBS, gas, high blood pressure, extra weight, achy joints … shall I go on?

So, you owe it to yourself and your body to love on it a little and spend some time planning some quick go-to meals and snacks.  That’s one of the reasons I love soups.  I can make a huge pot of soup, packed with protein and veggies. It’ll feed my family for at least 2 nights, which gives me a night off from cooking. I plan this strategically to coincide with a night I’ll be running around town getting my kids to and from their activities or when I have to be coaching at the gym. Also, soup is a great go-to lunch during the day. It can also be brought to work and heated up and everyone will be jonesin’ for your homemade (with fresh ingredients!) savory Italian meatball and veggie soup while they stare down a microwaved pool of who-knows-what.

Here’s another great recipe that you can change up countless ways to suit your needs and taste buds.  Egg Muffins!

Eggs are a perfect protein and the yolk is packed with healthy fat, so don’t skip it!  So, crack about a dozen eggs into a big bowl. (I like to use one with a pour spout, like a large measuring bowl) Throw is whatever sounds good. Suggestions: onions, chopped fresh spinach, mushrooms, cut up meats, tomatoes, cheese (if you’re doing dairy), broccoli, — seriously, anything that you think would taste good in an omelet or egg-scramble. Add in your seasoning and then pour out into a 12-cup muffin pan. (I spray mine with olive oil spray first!)  Note: I usually sauté my onion and mushrooms in a pan first to brown them up because that’s how I like them.  It’s all about getting what you want. 

Into a 350 degree oven they go for about 20-25 minutes.  When your knife comes out clean, they should be done.  They can be enjoyed immediately with salsa and avocado, maybe some cilantro, or just plain because they are already packed with goodness.  And, they freeze well.  What we did was put the extras into a zip-bag and snacked on them for days.  They are great heated up or cold.  Bam!

Workouts:

How were those 1-legged wall squats on your potty breaks? I bet they were a party of fun, weren’t they?  Did anyone take a fast walk/jog stopping every minute for 10 squats?  If so, how did it go?  Give me some feedback?

This Week’s Workout Challenge:

PottyTime—Every time you go to the bathroom, give me 10 squats and 5 push-ups.  EVERY time!

BONUS workout – For those who are interested, I mentioned last week that I’d offer a bonus workout for this week using some weight (dumbbells).  At least once, but I’d prefer 3 times during the next week, I want you to complete the following workout. Time yourself and see if you can get faster each time.

4 Rounds of:

–10 steps walking weighted lunge holding a dumbbell in each hand, hanging down by your side. Remember, keep front knee behind the opposite toe! Keep your chest up to keep core activated

–10 dumbbell thrusters (see video below)

I think that’s it for this week. I hope you are all feeling great. Maybe you’re a bit stronger and energized. I know you’re hydrated and peeing like crazy. I hope your heart is full of gratitude and your creativity is buzzing.  If any of you have had a positive result from any of the WritersButt challenges that you feel comfortable sharing with me, I’d love to hear it.  Email me at ginger at CrossFitGeorgetown dot com.  I can share your story on a future WritersButt post if you’d like, but at the very least, I’ll cheer you on and celebrate your success. It’s my favorite thing to do!

Have a fantastic week.

In honor of this day of love, sit back and enjoy this video of some of the best romantic movie moments!  Some of my very favorite ones are in here. How about you?  What’s your favorite romantic movie moment of all time? Share the love!  :)

–and how my thighs got trumped by the strength of my spirit.

“Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Tomorrow, February 10^th, is going to be a very special day and I’m honored to be a part of it. Today many writers, including yours truly, are dedicating their blogs to celebrate the Beauty of a Woman. This is the brainchild of the lovely August McLaughlin.  Please click on her name to visit her blog and you will see that she radiates a beauty from within and she wants us all to share in the beauty that is inside each of us. Most importantly, visit her blog tomorrow to participate in the Beauty of a Woman BlogFest. You can tour the links to over 30 blog pieces and you can even WIN PRIZES, including a Kindle Touch, gift cards book and more!

“Our hearts are drunk with a beauty our eyes could never see.”

George W. Russell

The moment I heard about this blog fest, I knew I was in.  But, what should I write about?  How did I define the Beauty of a Woman?  My very first thought, cross my heart, was how I finally accepted my thighs.  Yes, I thought, “Dear thighs, I forgive you.  I no longer hate you.” But could I write an entire blog about my thighs and how many years I resented them, like ever since I was a squishy, squeezable toddler?

Sure I could hash things out with my thighs on a public forum but even though my thighs and I are still not BFFs, I just don’t hate them anymore.  Furthermore, my thighs, or any other part of my body, has very little to do with my concept of true beauty.  This wasn’t always the case.  I spent so many years agonizing over the muscular curves of my legs, the size of my clothes, the number on that blasted, cursed scale.  Well, I liberated myself from that self-deprecating load years ago.  (And threw away the scale to boot!!) Having three children and nursing them from my own body made me appreciate what a miracle a woman’s body is and how within that body blossoms a spirit more beautiful than any perfect body could ever be.  While I do work hard for a fit and healthy body … that is still not how I define the beauty that is a woman.

“Beauty… when you look into a woman’s eyes and see what is in her heart.”  Nate Dircks

True beauty is the spirit and soul of a person. True beauty is shown in how we love ourselves, what we believe we are capable of, who we impact by our kindness towards others.  True beauty embraces love and life and shares its joy.  A spirit that is giving and gracious holds immense value and abundant beauty.

“Taking joy in living is a woman’s best cosmetic.”

Rosalind Russell

I spent the last couple weeks taking note of things that embody the Beauty of a Woman to me.  I’d like to share them with you.

Faith in love – A heart willing to love is the purest form of beauty. Even a broken heart is beautiful for it allowed itself to experience love … and it will love again.

Motherhood – How a woman nurtures life within her.  How she feeds a brand new life from her own body.  How the moment she has a child, her heart will forever live outside of her body.

Animals – True beauty of a spirit is shown through kindness and empathy towards animals.

Whimsy – Someone who is not afraid to be silly and make fun of themselves.

Loyalty – Someone who will drop everything to be there for someone who needs them no matter how busy they are. Someone who will defend and stand strong for the honor of another at all costs.

Joy – A spontaneous burst of laughter, belly giggles, an irrepressible smile.

Strength – Of spirit, of conviction, of body, of mind.

Weakness – Not being afraid to acknowledge your weaknesses and having the courage to strengthen them.

Imperfection — We aren’t meant to be perfect, and nobody is. Our imperfections are the unique parts of our character.

Appreciation of the beauty in others is a reflection of our own and it is then that the true Beauty of a Woman shines bright for the world to see.

My favorite comment of the week came from the sweet and funny Myndi Shafer on Facebook: “Not to whine (liar, of course I’m whining!), but I think I have the slowest-flushing toilets on the planet. Mercy!!”

Did anyone else consider faster-flowing toilets this week?  And while we’re on the subject, there seems to be a predominant toilet theme for WritersButt?  I don’t even like toilets, well at least not cleaning them. How did this happen? Ah well … we’ll soldier on.

Recently, August McLaughlin wrote a fantastic blog about how important movement and regular exercise is for not only your body and mind, but how it positively affects your creative self.  In the blog, she writes, “A sedentary writing lifestyle leads to one thing: creative atrophy.” Wow!  I highly recommend reading her post. It mirrors what WritersButt is all about.

Today I’m going to share a couple of recipes with you.  I eat a grain-free diet.  I know, shocking, right!  But it’s delicious and has a lot of variety.  I’m not saying everyone should follow a grain-free diet but if you’d like some reasons why you might want to try it, read this article showing 10 reason to go Grain-Free.

The diet that I follow (about 90% of the time) is called the Paleo diet, or Caveman diet.  You get the idea here right?  If a caveperson couldn’t eat it, you shouldn’t either. This means NO processed foods. This also means, if you’re being strict, no dairy.  For the record, you can get enough fiber and calcium in your diet from a wide assortment of vegetables and fruits.  (I bet you want to know what the other 10% is that I eat which is not Paleo.  Well, it’s occasional beans, lentils, brown rice in sushi, some thin mints in girl scout cookie season, chips and salsa, and wine. We all have our vices — I have mine too!)

The healthiest diet for most people (note I did not say ALL) consists of lean meats, vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds.  I know this sounds extremely restrictive, but it does not have to be. In fact, cropping up all over the place are websites, blogs and cookbooks about the Paleo Diet.

Someone new to this no-grain sort of eating will initially miss crunchy snacks. I have found a snack, which is a protein-rich, power food that is also very delicious. It’s kale chips.  You know, kale is that garnish this is often showcasing that big tuna sandwich on your plate at your local bistro. It kills me how much kale is probably just thrown away when it’s far healthier than that sourdough rye or ‘whole grain’ bread.

I make kale chips a lot and my kids go nuts for them.  Here’s my recipe and process.  Preheat oven to 350. Wash a bunch of fresh kale and then tear off the leafy part from the thick stem, breaking them up into ‘chip-sized’ pieces.  Spread all your chips on a cookie sheet. (I like to line my sheet with tin foil because I’m totally lazy and don’t want to wash it.) Drizzle extra virgin olive oil on chips. Don’t drench them, but don’t be entirely skimpy either.  (maybe 2-3 tablespoons –I don’t measure anything, probably why I don’t bake, I’d suck at it.) Sprinkle your kale with some kosher salt and freshly ground pepper.  My little extra somethin’-somethin’ is I also sprinkle minced garlic (the dried kind in the spice aisle or bulk food section) all over.  YUM!!!  Then I get my hands dirty by massaging the leaves so that they are all covered with oil and spices. (This is when I usually lick a finger or two because of the garlic and oil—seriously delish!)

It will now look like this … see all those garlic crunchies!

Then into the 350 oven for about 10-15 minutes.  WATCH them!  They will go from not done, to crispy and perfect, to burnt in a moment.  I usually take tongs and fluff them from time to time to check on them.  Once crispy and dry, remove, enjoy, and share only if you feel like it. Here’s the finished kale chips.  The pictures don’t look that different, but trust me, big difference!

One more recipe for you, that you can cook in a crock pot, is called Marvelous Meatballs from my Everyday Paleo cookbook.  Mix this up, make the meatballs, dump in crock pot and go about your day while your house smells divine and your dinner awaits you later, all done and delicious.  I modify this to meet my needs and so can you. It’s a method that can be altered to your tastes.

Ingredients I used:

2 lbs of ground turkey

1 lb of ground chicken sausage

~4 stalks of celery finely chopped

small onion finely chopped

~3 carrots, finely chopped

3 eggs

½ cup almond meal (I skipped this because I didn’t have any on hand, hence wetter meatballs)

spiced to taste: I used minced garlic, kosher salt, ground pepper, cayenne, chili powder, Italian seasoning.

Get your hands dirty and mix all ingredients and then make large meatballs, layering them in your Crockpot.

Mix up the sauce and pour it over the meatballs and cook on low all day (6-8 hours).

16 ounce can of diced tomatoes (I used fire-roasted)

6 ounce can of tomato paste

minced garlic, the fresh kind or one that comes in a jar — ~ 5-6 cloves worth

salt and pepper

And here is where I’m supposed to have a ‘finished product’ picture for you.  Only, and this is the truth, by the time we got to dinner, we were all so hungry and it smelled so good, we dug in and I totally forgot to take another picture.

I served the meatballs over sautéed cabbage. You could also do spaghetti squash if you wanted a spaghetti and meatball dinner.  Or, really, just dish up the meatballs and dig in. They are so good.

What’s in store for you this week?  (Picture Ginger rubbing hands together gleefully!)

***One thing before I get to your weekly challenge. Next week, I’d like to incorporate a more intense workout for those who want to step it up a bit. For this, you will need a set of dumbbells (at least 15 lbs and up to 25 lbs) This is not mandatory. I will still offer no-equipment challenges as well.

This Week:

Stay hydrated (100 ounces daily) and Grateful in your journal.

Potty Breaks: ONE-LEGGED wall squats, so same as last week, while that infernally slow tank refills (we are targeting AT LEAST 30 seconds to a minute here!) squat against the wall, only lift one leg to parallel and then switch about every 10 seconds.  Oh — FEEL THE BURN!!

Water refills: I challenge you to do a walking lunge on your way to refill your water bottle.  I KNOW you’ll be refilling it because you have to get those 100 ounces in. Lunge your way there!

BONUS:

Extra Workout for those who’d like one: At least one time this week (3 would be ideal!!!), schedule a time you can get outside for a brisk walk. Note: if you can, plan for this to be a jog/run.  I’d like for you to continue for 10 minutes. And about every minute, stop and give me 10 squats (just like your potty squats!), then keep going. Put on some music that inspires you, look around you, feel the environment, love the beauty, feel the cold or sun on your face, breath deep.  Feel in the presence of creative energy.  It’s there – feel it, tap into it, use it!!

Have a great week everyone.  Oh, and I’d LOVE LOVE LOVE it if you make a healthy meal this week, post about it in the comments and share your recipe!

Rock on WritersButts!!

image found here.

Hi Beautiful people!  It’s WritersButt Wednesday! Can I have a “Yee Haw!!!”?  (I live in Texas, doing a good ol’ Yee-Haw occasionally is required.)

I caaaan’t heeeaaarr you!  Try it again.

“Yeeee Hhaaaawwww!!!” That’s what I’m talkin’ about.

Alright, gather round. Let’s chat.

How was the past week?  Did you keep up with your water drinking? Are you practicing gratitude? Did you see some areas in your diet that needed change, and if so, were you able to make a change for the better?  What about your sleep? Did you get more shut-eye this week?  How about that mini-workout of lunges and up-downs … did you do it every day? Some days? Even once?

I REALLY want to know.  Share with us your success or struggle so we can all support each other.

So, I told you last week that I was going to talk about the negative effects of certain things in your diet for today but I’m going to hold off because I think you need to hear something else.  I think you need a little dose of Ginger-Talk.

The past two weeks I’ve given you all mini-workouts to do once or twice a day.  I left it up to you to choose when to do them.  Well, I got a lot of feedback that incorporating these little workouts, even though they were only 2-5 minutes long, was harder than say the potty squats that you had to do maybe as many as 10 times a day.  I found this interesting and it got me thinking.  (It’s been known to happen.)

We’re talking less than 5 minutes! It takes about that long to drive through Starbucks and order a venti, quad-shot, extra hot, soy, no-whip, skinny, non-fat, vanilla latte for goodness’ sakes!

Why was it so hard for many of you to stop and take a break and do a mini-workout? I’m sure there are many reasons for this but I believe a predominant one is routine and making the CHOICE to MOVE.  See, with the squats or push-ups every time you went to the bathroom, the choice was already made.  I made it for you when I told you what to do and when to do it. Sure, you could have told me to forget it, and I’m sure some people did, but many of you liked the routine of doing them every time you went to the bathroom.  You were already there, so you might as well just get them done.

But, choosing to stop whatever you were working on to get up and do a workout, well, that required making a conscious choice. We make the decision to do something because there is a reward involved. This is universally true.  So by NOT doing the workout, you have chosen the reward that comes from saying no. I don’t know what that is. Maybe you feel you really need those 5 minutes to get more words on the page.  Maybe you know that those lunges are going to be hard and your butt and quads will burn, and well that doesn’t sound that much fun so the reward is avoiding that work.  Sound familiar?

What I want to do is to help you believe that making the choice to work out, to make different/better nutrition choices, get more sleep, drink more water all come with HUGE rewards.  The number one reward is your health. I’m sorry, but there is NOT a better reward than that. You can’t write the next best seller while you are exhausted, sick, depressed, and dehydrated.  Well, maybe you can but I bet it won’t be the best work you can do and it sure as heck won’t be fun, because being sick is not fun!

Ignoring your health makes you weak on the inside and the outside.  That is the truth. I’m sorry the truth stinks sometimes.

But I have good news! Every single step toward your whole health is made up of small, everyday choices you make.  You are the All Powerful Oz.  (Sorry, just saw Wicked last weekend – SOOOO good!)

I realize making these choices seem hard because they are different than the choices you have been making and hardly anybody likes change.  But come on … give it a try! I promise you, you will like the results!

You will feel energized, rested and happy.  You will feel stronger, healthier and lighter.  You will have creativity at your beck and call, empowerment in your attitude and hopeful conviction in your spirit.

All because you chose to rest and hydrate your body. You chose to make some changes in your diet, taking out toxic, insulin-triggering, processed foods and fill it with wholesome, clean, nutrient-packed fuel for your body and mind. And you made the choice to strengthen and challenge your body in workouts that will promote muscle growth and brainpower!

Don’t believe me?  Prove me wrong! I double-dog-wizard dare you!

This Week:

Staples: 100 oz water daily. 3-5 Gratitudes.

Food: Careful and deliberate choices for your health.  Have a question? Tweet me! { @GingerCalem }

Workout: We’re heading back to the potty. Yep, I want you all to feel this is doable and that you will have ‘opportunities’ to workout, so back to the john we go.  Every time you go to the bathroom, I want you to flush (obviously!) and then for the time it takes the tank to refill, I want you to hold a ‘wall-squat’. Ideally this will be AT LEAST 30 seconds.  I would not be opposed to 1 minute. ~sweet grin~

photo credit: Brown Bird Design

~Thighs parallel to the floor, don’t lean forward, don’t rest hands on legs, keep knees behind toes. Do it.~

If that is not possible for whatever, legitimate reason … you may do 10 – 15 potty squats OR 5-10 Push-Ups. Too many choices?  Get over it and get it done.

Support: Need support doing the week? We are hanging out on Twitter using #writersbutt hashtag and we are on our very own Facebook Page.

Are we all pumped up for an awesome week?  Just say yes so I don’t go all postal and throw broccoli at you.  I know with 100% certainty that this is going to be a kick ass week. (Literally!)

Go WritersButt!!  Go YOU!

So here’s the deal.  Before Christmas, I broke the carafe on our old coffee maker.  Much to my husband’s skepticism, I did not do this on purpose. Yes, I had mentioned a time or two-dozen that I wanted a new coffee maker. I felt it was time to kick it up a notch. For this reason, I felt it prudent, once the carafe accidentally (it really was an accident) broke, that husband and I do some research and put some thought into the purchase of a new machine.  I mean, we’re talking coffee here people. This was serious business unlike buying a flat screen TV bundle pack, which some people think is the most important purchase ever.  But I digress!

I knew what I wanted. I was told it didn’t exist.  I refused to believe this bit of malarkey.  I was on the hunt.

What machine of coffee-magic did I want?  I’ll tell you.  I wanted to be able to push a button and get a cup of exactly what I desired. I do not think this is unreasonable. I wanted to be able to froth up something impressive for a friend, without the need for a stainless steel jug and frother spout, and gazing into a haze of steam that would melt my mascara.  If I had a crowd over for impromptu frivolity, (it could happen some day!), I wanted to be able to brew a POT of coffee so I could mingle in my fashion wedges and not spend the night playing barista.  I didn’t mind using a pod-thingy or a k-cup thing-a-bob, but I did want to be able to use my own ground coffee should the mood strike.

Did I find what I wanted? No.

I know, I’m still in shock and therapy is not out of the question.  But I did find almost what a wanted and learned a few things in the process.

Husband and I sojourned to one of my favorite stores, Sur La Table. I could spend hours in this store.  These kids know all things kitchen.  In the back corner are all the coffee makers.  They’re on display, plugged in and ready to wow you.  I tried  to test one, (the sign said I could) and of course it didn’t work. This did not come as a surprise to me, nor would it to anyone who knows me.  The helpful coffee-expert swooped over to save the day and brewed me a sample. Not sure why it worked for her since it appeared she pushed the same button I did.

It was DIVINE!  No need to look any further, that was the one. I wanted it.  I needed it.

It cost $2,899.00.  Wow.

*Cue inner-debate with self and outer-debate with husband* Coffee maker or car for soon-to-be 16-year old son.  Really swayed towards the coffee-magic-maker, I have to tell you.  It was that good. But even I could concede that nearly three grand was a tad excessive.

I licked the trace of cappuccino-nirvana off my lip and inquired why this machine is so expensive, not that wasn’t not worth it, I assured the sales woman, as I buried my nose into my Dixie cup-sized of hot goodness.

“Oh!”, the expert swooned. Ok, maybe I swooned, but she proceeded to explain what every penny of that $2,899 provided.  Basically, it was like Rosie from the Jetsons.

It did everything for you, before you needed it done and how you needed it done … should you have thought of it first. Should the mere thought of taking your coffee on the road cross your mind, it switched from 4 oz to 12 in an instant. You stifle a yawn, and your coffee would switch from Café au Lait to a triple-shot Americano.

How did it know? No clue! Which is how I decided right then that this was not the coffee maker for me.  Anything that plugged into a wall and had far-greater brainpower and reasoning that I did, was bound to end in a power struggle. And, sadly, I didn’t think I stood a chance.

What happened to scooping coffee into a paper filter? What happened to pulling the pot out mid-brew to pour a cup because you couldn’t wait and being thankful for pause-n-serve brewing?  What happened to instant coffee? Ok, instant coffee is gross, never mind that last bit.

Wait, this was about kicking it up a notch. Focus, Ginger!  I consulted my list of things I wanted in a new coffee maker and … I made a teensy compromise and I think I’m going to get almost exactly what I wanted.

I’ll be ordering this little Breville beauty.  It does everything I want except make a pot.  I’ll just buy a cheap Mr. Coffee to keep under my counter in case I get surprised by a crowd of revelers and I’m all dolled up in my party-girl clothes. It does brew a cup a time but in 5 size choices.  I can use a k-cup thingy OR I can use my own coffee in the included other cup-thingy. I can even have hot water for tea. It was easy to use and it’ll look all pretty on my counter.

How about you? Do you think technology sometimes thinks too much? Are we sharing too much brain-power with our household electronics? Does it even matter as long as we get a great cup of coffee?

Getting enough sleep literally recharges your brain.  Getting enough hours of quality sleep a night allows your brain to pass through all the different phases of sleep, giving you multiple trips through that dreamy (literally) REM state.  Picture our creativity soaring, stories unfolding, you finally getting your Hogwarts letter, packing your trunk, buying your owl … well, you get the idea!

Let’s talk for a moment about the importance of dreaming and how they are connected to your creativity and writing.  In Kelly L. Stone’s great book Thinking Write, she has a whole section on dreams and how they connect to our creativity and of course, our stories.  I loved this book as well as the two others in the series, Time to Write and Living Write, and highly recommend them.  From Thinking Write, Kelly says:

“For the writer, dreams are a powerful source of creativity and a venue to problem solving.  They are often rich in symbolism, metaphor, and creative inspiration. When you learn to utilize the dream mechanism of subconscious communication, you can use them to generate ideas for plots, create new characters, and get guidance when you are stuck.”

How Much Sleep Do You Need?  Well from this article about Sleep and the Brain, it says:

Most adult people seem to need seven to nine hours of sleep a night. This is an average, and it is also subjective. You, for example, probably know how much sleep you need in an average night to feel your best.

The amount of sleep you need decreases with age. A newborn baby might sleep 20 hours a day. By age four, the average is 12 hours a day. By age 10, the average falls to 10 hours a day. Senior citizens can often get by with six or seven hours a day.

If you don’t get enough sleep, the ramifications on a cognitive level are immense.  There is a plethora of articles out there that will, in very scientific terms with much mumbo-jumbo tell what exactly happens to your brain with continual lack of sleep.  Hey, if you can’t fall asleep, just start reading all of those!  Or just trust me, do what you can to get more sleep.

In addition to affecting your brain activity, memory, reasoning and creativity, not getting enough sleep has negative side effects to your physical body as well, in terms of your metabolism, growth hormones and controlling hunger.  A website that I love for nutritional information, among other fantastic things, is Whole9Life and within that website, one of the co-owners, Dallas Harwig, wrote a great article for a wonderful online magazine for athletes, Performance Menu, about the undervalued aspects of getting enough sleep.  Here’s a quote from that article:

From a hunger regulation and weight management perspective, reductions in slow wave sleep (common with chronic sleep loss) cause significant decreases in insulin sensitivity, and tend to increase cortisol levels. In addition, sleep loss causes decreased levels of leptin (a hormone that tells your brain that you’re not hungry) and increased levels of ghrelin (a hormone which stimulates hunger and appetite), and as such, is associated with obesity. Depressed leptin and increased ghrelin contribute to an uptick in appetite, particularly cravings for carbohydrates. Being sleep deprived means that you’re more likely to make poor choices about which foods you eat and how much of them you consume, especially in the hours after dinner when elevated cortisol has you “tired but wired”. Combined with the direct effects of sleep loss on insulin sensitivity, this can be a destructive situation for one’s metabolic state.

Now, the focus of WritersButt is not about weight loss, but it is about health.  I believe we can all agree that part of being healthy is to be physically fit.  Hence, it’s not a stretch to say that if you’re not getting adequate sleep, and that causes you to crave unhealthy foods, which will wreck havoc with your insulin, which brings you a slew of negative side-effects, you will be less healthy and therefore not be in the best position to utilize your cognitive abilities, right?

I mean, this is GOOD NEWS! I’m telling you to sleep more. Yay!  You can nap too. Woo Hoo.  Ginger Rocks!

Alright, let’s settle down. I suspect many of you are shaking your heads and are going to tweet me that you have crazy schedules that are not conducive to more sleep time.  I don’t know each of you, or what demands or responsibilities you have in your life, but I do feel you have a responsibility to your own health. Examine your schedule.  See if you can shift some things around to give you more sleep at night. If you are able to do this, I truly believe you’ll feel the difference if you’ve been living in a state of sleep deprivation.  Most of us are sleep-deprived, myself included.

Here are some tips to improve your sleep:

*Get regular exercise. All you WritersButt warriors are doing this. It helps to tire and relax your body. Note—vigorous exercise can, as I pointed out in a previous WB blog, release endorphins that will give you a high.  For some, vigorous exercise later in the day might make it harder to fall sleep.  Experiment with this.

*Reduce caffeine and other stimulants after mid-afternoon. (3-4 pm)

*Avoid alcohol before bedtime. Alcohol disrupts the brain’s normal patterns during sleep. Drink at breakfast and lunch.  KIDDING!!!  Just making sure you’re still reading.  It’s true that drinking alcohol may get you to sleep faster, but it does wonky things with the sleep phases. Ye be warned. I won’t tell on you if you won’t tell on me, K?  J

*Create and stick to a pattern of regular bedtime and wakeup times, even on the weekends.  There will be exceptions to this but staying on schedule as much as possible will allow your body to follow its own cues and you’ll find yourself getting sleepy when you’re supposed to and waking up automatically at around the same time every morning.

Here’s to all of us getting more ZZZZZ’s this week!

Moving along … last week one of the challenges I presented to you was to do at least 3 days of food journaling?  Did any of you do it? If so, what did you see? Anything surprise you? As I promised, if you did your food-journal and would like a chance for me to personally examine it and give you feedback on how it can be tweaked, tell me in the comments that you did it and from all those (2) people, I’ll randomly pick one (of their) name.  I’ll pick the name tomorrow night at 9pm.

In the meantime, I’d like you to think about the nutritional advice I gave you last week and see if there is something in your food journal, or if you didn’t do one, something you KNOW you need to cut back on.  I want you to make that effort this week.  Are you a soda drinker, say 3 a day.  Try 1 or 2 a day instead, or only 3 per week, you pick when.  Are you a sugar-addict with a sweet tooth that rivals Willy Wonka? Find ways to cut back. It’s time to start detoxing off the items that are wrecking havoc with your body and mind.  If you have any questions about how to go about cutting back, ask me. I know all sorts of tricks!

Next week, I’ll be discussing dairy and/or grains at greater length.

What’s in store for you this week?  Well, you’re going to get a break from push-ups.  Again we all cheer, Ginger Rocks!!  And, you only have to do 1 mini-workout a day this week. Who’s your favorite?  In addition to your 100 oz of water (consider this part of your life forever!) and your gratitude journal, I want you to do the following workout once every day.

5 Rounds of:

10 Walking Lunge Steps

5 Up-Downs (otherwise known in my world as a burpee w/out a push-up—we’ll get to burpees later, be afraid!)

Below is a video on the proper technique on how to do a walking lunge:

And here is a video showing an UP-Down. Now, when you see this, don’t freak out that you have to do it just like that. You can modify it, taking out the ‘jumping’ and just stepping your feet back to the plank and again back up to your ‘frog/squat’ position.  Questions?  Ask me in the comments!

Recap:

100 oz water

3-5 Gratitudes daily

Specifically cut back or eliminate an unhealthy food choice

1 mini-workout every day

Examine schedule and find a way to get over 8 hours of sleep at night.

Love ya!!!

~ginger~

Yeah, that’s what I thought too.  I mean, wouldn’t you just wear pants that didn’t show off your crack?  Or how about seeing thong underwear proudly on display over the waistband of jeans.  A. Your shirt is too short. B. It’s just wrong, WRONG!

Or how about the male equivalent or this look …

Sadly, I can tell you the trend in underwear for teenage boys in our town.  One trip to the middle school or high school and it’s all bagging out the top of their skinny jeans for all to see.

Now before you think I’m an out-of-touch prude, I’m totally down with low-rider jeans.  I have a closet full of them and have dutifully gotten rid of all my 80′s jeans.  But, I’m still not showing off my panties or my hiney and I sure as heck am not going to bedazzle my crack.

What do you think?

I found the image below from a great site called Creative with Kids – check out another take on the gratitude journal and linking it with creativity.

~~  We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. - Aristotle ~~

They say that it takes 21 days to create a habit. 3 weeks. For this reason, I’m going to force encourage you to continue to drink your 100 oz of water daily and still work on your gratitude journal this week. Before you celebrate the fact that I didn’t mention potty squats or push-ups, I’m not DONE yet.  You are going to work out this week. Stop groaning! I’m going to change it up a bit for you and not make you do something every time you go to the bathroom.  No more squatting or doing push-ups at Starbucks!  Woo!  You’ll be doing fewer ‘mini-workouts’ throughout the day, but I’m going to increase the intensity a bit. I’ll explain below, it’s going to be great.

I promised you a nutrition post this week so let’s get to it.

 (Delaney very happy with the contents of our first Greenling Box)

Here’s the deal guys, we all have a body and we demand a lot from that body, physically, emotionally and cerebrally. Our body is our machine, our vehicle, for everything that we do. Our nutrition, everything we consume, is the fuel we are giving our body to run on.  It makes sound sense that we would offer our body the highest quality fuel so that it will perform at its best.

I like to make the analogy of a car. I bet the majority of us own a car. Whether it’s a sports car, a pick-up truck, or a mini-van, it needs gas and oil to run. (For simplicity’s sake, let’s keep electric cars out of picture for a moment.) If you put watered-down gas into the tank (lacking nutrients!), your car will suffer. If you put gas in the car that has been altered significantly to make it cheaper to make and cheaper to purchase (processed junk!), your car will get clogged up with all that crap. If you don’t keep oil in your car and keep it fresh (quality fat), it will struggle and poop-out on you. (I’m not even going to say anything about poop-out – you’re welcome!)

It is the same thing with the food and drinks you consume.  The better quality nutrients you feed your body, the better your body will perform for you. For today, I’m not going to go into a long, detailed explanation on which foods are bad for you and specifically why.  I will save those closer examinations of the biggest culprits for later posts.  But here is what I will tell you … keep your food as close to its original state as possible. What this means is that you should try very hard to stay away from processed foods.

You might immediately think, candy and other sweets, soda, etc. and you’d be right.  But there is a plethora of products out there marketed as being healthy, whole foods and they aren’t! Read the labels.  If the ingredient list is long, like over 5 ingredients, that’s a red flag. If there are ingredients on the list that you can’t pronounce or you aren’t certain what it is … red flag!

If you regularly feed your body crap, you can’t expect it to feel better than crappy.  Sorry!

Keep it simple!

Found this image from NaturaLife – another great article about why this plate is better than the government designed one.

The healthiest diet is one that consists of healthy proteins (lean meats and eggs), complex carbohydrates (veggies and fruit) and good quality fats (raw nuts, olive and coconut oils, avocados, etc.).

What you did not see on that list were grains. And, I’m not going to tell you that you’re now allowed to eat them. (Right now, my good friend Julie O’Connell is thrilled I’m not confiscating her toast.) But I will suggest that a diet without these simple carbs (breads, pasta, cereals, rice, crackers, chips, tortillas, sugars!) is healthier for most people.  Some people can handle some whole grains. Some can’t. It’s a matter of controlling your insulin response and processed grains can set your insulin levels off on a roller coaster ride.  Another week, I will blog in more detail about what processed grains might be doing to your body, such as inflammation & bloating, acerbating allergies, acne, mood swings, anxiety, depression, and fatigue. For now, I’d like you to be aware that they may not be healthy for you and it might be worth it to you to cut back on them.  :-)

Did you know there are some foods that literally are power foods or brain fuel? Cool right? Much research has been done that suggests that certain foods will help keep your brain sharp. I found this great little article on Gaiam Life about the Top 6 Foods that Boost Brain Power. I encourage you to read the whole article but the gist of it is:

“…foods that promote healthy brain function are rich in healthy fats (omega-3 fatty acids), inflammation-reducing B vitamins and disease-fighting antioxidants.”

The article’s list of the top 6 foods for brainpower is a Rock-Star list of food. And, this list is not exhaustive, but it’s a great start. I’m going to list them below but go to the article to read the explanations of each food and why it’s such a powerhouse.

1. Salmon
2. Eggs
3. Almonds
4. Blueberries
5. Dark greens
6. Green tea or coffee (YES!)

So what’s your challenge this week? Thank you for asking Go-Getter! I have a few things I want you all to do this week. I’m going to break them down.

–Ongoing daily: 100 oz of water and 3-5 gratitudes in your journal every night.

–Nutrition: I would like you all to really be hyper-aware of what you are eating. The best way to do this is to keep a food-log. Do I hear complaining? Just stop it! Keeping a food-log will make you very cognizant of each thing you ingest. Even 3 typical days is enough to examine what sort of FUEL you are feeding your body. You will be able to see if it’s quality. Is it boosting your brainpower? Is it making you sluggish? Are you crashing every afternoon — something in your food journal might show why. This is not about seeing how many calories you’re eating or for any purpose of weight loss. (Although if that is an issue for some of you, your food journal will tell me ways you can refine your diet to help in that area too!) This is truly about seeing if you’re putting watered-down, processed-crap gas in your car (body!) and then expecting it to run you around town, take care of your children, do all your chores, be a cheerful and considerate spouse, CREATE STORIES, concentrate and solve world peace.  You’re not a robot with a battery you can change out.  You are a human being who craves quality fuel to function at your best in everything you do!  SO—at least 3 days in a food journal. (Hey, you can use your gratitude journal!!)

–Fitness: Instead of working out each time you go to the bathroom, I’m going to challenge you to take two breaks during the day (this whole week) for a mini-workout. You get to choose the time for your workout.  I suggest after you’ve been sitting/inactive for a long time, or before you plan to sit for a long stretch.  I bet you’ll know when you need this break and a little shot of endorphins.

The workout is:

3 rounds of:

10 squats

10 push-ups

*This means you will squat 10 times (use a low stool, a low chair/bench, no stool if you can keep your form correct) and then 10 push-ups (using whatever modification you need to) and then repeat 2 MORE times.  You will get 30 squats and 30 push-ups when you’re finished.  This will not take a long time.  For kicks, I’m going to stop typing right now and do this and tell you how long it takes me.  Don’t go anywhere!

~~picture Ginger knocking out mini-workout next to desk with Gia the Wonder-Schnauzer watching ~~

Whew, done!  It took me 1 minute and 7 seconds.  Seriously, just over 1 MINUTE!  Not too much to ask, right?  Now, I’ve got one under my belt and I’ll do another one later.

This WILL feel harder than the 10 potty squats or the 5-10 push-ups I’ve asked of you.  But it will take you less than 2 minutes, twice a day. I don’t know a single person who can’t spare 4 MINUTES out of their day for their fitness. Totally Doable!

Recap:

100 oz water a day

3-5 written gratitudes a day

3-day food-journal

2 mini-workouts a day

BONUS:  I really think doing the food journal is important. It’s not fun but it will give you information that is vital.  To encourage you to do this, I’m offering to personally go through someone’s journal.  In the comments next week, tell me that you completed the challenge and I will randomly choose one of you and you can email me your log and I’ll go through it and give you my feedback. Remember, at least 3 ‘typical’ days, not just random days chosen in which you were really ‘good’.  ~grin~ The more honest and complete the journal is, the more it will tell me.

Don’t forget that we can chat on our WritersButt Facebook Page, and on Twitter using the hashtag: #writersbutt.

That’s it peeps!!  Have a GREAT week!!