Haven’t I made enough major life changes this year? Apparently not… I started this year with plans to leave full-time employment and part-time writing for no outside employment and full-time writing. So far it’s going great! My commute has gone from an hour or more each way, to about fifteen steps across the hall. So I figured I needed to do something productive with all the time I’m saving – basically, I decided to make a healthier me.

Step One: Break the sweet tea addiction – check. If you read my Katie Freeman books, you’ll have noticed that she is a sweet tea aficionado. That’s my weakness, too. I’ve tried many many times to change this with no success – until now. Since I returned from a vacation in Florida, I’ve had three glasses of sweet tea. For anyone who knows me, that is a miracle! I’ve started carrying a water bottle with me everywhere I go so I can stave off the cravings. I now go days in a row without even thinking of sweet tea. Other days…well, let’s just say they’re harder. What about moderation, you say? I’m not a moderation kind of girl. It’s either all or nothing. There is no in between. Probably good that sweet tea is my only addiction! 🙂

Step Two: Join a gym – check. I once had a job that was accompanied by free access to a staff gym. It was fantastic. I went every day at lunch (I’m one of those people who doesn’t sweat – or at least I didn’t until I hit 40, but that’s a story for another time…). I was able to keep my weight under control – which for someone with a genetic predisposition be being overweight was a feat in itself. But then I quit that job – better for my mental health than for my physical health – and gained about 30 lbs. Yowza!!! But as I’ve indicated in an earlier blog, my commute to and from work took three hours sometimes. Add that to a 9 hour day, and the need to get some words on paper so the characters in my head would leave me alone…the gym and working out became less and less of a priority. Now that I work from home, I’ve added back in a regular gym routine. I have to say, it makes me more productive when I sit down at my desk. I’m more focused and ready to rock.

I have many more steps, such as monitoring my diet (I’m cutting back on sugar in general, I don’t eat bread), but I’m not going all out. I still love me some pasta (made homemade lasagna a few nights ago…with garlic bread that I did cave and have a piece of…). But for the most part, I’m just being reasonable and not hopping on some diet bandwagon. Hopefully, at the end of the year I’ll have lost the thirty pounds I gained…a few more would be nice!