Healthy Writers Club

The Healthy Writers Club

Spend too much time sitting?  Then maybe the Healthy Writer's Club is for you.  Come join us.  The Healthy Writers Club was started by Shallee McArthur as a way for us to support each other's efforts to get out of our chairs and get healthy.  

Setbacks

Some days things go smoothly and other days no matter what you do, how well you train, or how prepared you are there are setbacks.  Whether you are exercising, writing, or just trying to get through the day there are times when you hit a major roadblock. 

Lately, I have been feeling really good with my workouts/skating practices and I was getting stronger.  Things were going great. Then Wednesday night I hit a roadblock.  I was practicing off-ice jumps with Jess and Alyssa.  It all happened so fast...yet in slow motion I felt my ankle pop, then I was writhing on the floor in pain.  

Maybe I should have known better, maybe I should have acted my age, then I wouldn't be sitting here with my ankle swollen to baseball size, propped up on the couch.  But I don't want to shy away from things just because something bad might happen.  That wouldn't be a very interesting life.  I've been lucky to have never had any major injury in 30 years of figure skating, I guess it was bound to happen.  Roadblocks have to be expected and you just have to have a good alternate route.

I'm lucky my alternate route is writing.  As soon as my ankle is healed and strong enough I'm getting right back out on the ice, but in the meantime, I'm devoting my time off to working on polishing Hidden Truth.  It may be just the concentrated time I need to get it to where I want it.  I'd love to have it ready for some beta-readers in the near future.  So even though my exercise has taken a back seat, this might be the perfect detour to really jump start my writing.  

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Exciting Things

There are so many good things going on right now.

Talli Roland's new book the Pollyanna Plan is out and I won a copy!  I can't wait to read it.  Jess is super psyched about receiving her cover and getting one step closer to being a published author.  Christmas is right around the corner and Monday is the Cheers, Cavanaugh Blogfest, celebrating the awesomeness that is Alex Cavanaugh.  It's hosted by  Mark Koopmans, Morgan Shamy, David Powers King, and Stephen Tremp.  It will be a lot of fun to pay homage to a guy who has given so much to all of us.  

And don't forget the Holiday Spirit Blogfest Dec. 12-21, hosted by the Romantic Friday Writers.  They are looking for pieces of fiction or non-fiction which capture the essence of the holiday spirit.  

Have a great weekend!

Kathy :)

Putting Yourself Out There

Regionals

Alyssa stood alone at center ice.  The pounding of her heart was all she heard in the silence before her music started.  Hundreds of eyes looked down on her, watching her every move.  She wondered if she really belonged here competing against all these more experienced girls.

Reminding herself that this was a great experience, she took a deep breathe and pushed the negative thought aside.  Her music started and she glided across the glassy surface.

Two and a half minutes later, she smiled, bowed to the crowd and skated off the ice.  She had just skated her personal best and nothing could make her happier.

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 That's how I would describe our trip to the Regional Skating Championships last weekend.  Alyssa had a great skate and it was a fantastic experience.  She ended up 12th out of 18 girls but she was happy because most of them had quite a bit more experience at that level than she did.  She proved to herself that she did belong there.  

I was proud of her for even having the guts to be out there.  It takes a lot to stand in front of your peers and elders and be openly judged.  But if you don't, you never know where you stand.

Then I thought how similar writing is.  If you never put yourself out there and have other people read your writing you'll never know if you're improving.

So get out there and let others see your writing!  I'm trying to find as many opportunities as possible, that's why I entered WRITE CLuB.  It's been great fun so far.

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Healthy Writer's Club

Started by Shallee McArthur as a way to inspire us to get out of our chairs!  This is what she says about it:

As writers, we hear a lot about the "butt in chair" tactic, which is great for our manuscripts, but not so great for the actual butt in the chair. Every Friday, I'll be posting about how healthy I've been that week and how it connects to writing. If you're game to join the fun, you can run, walk, bike, make a healthy dinner, play tag with your kids, etc. Then, you post about it on Friday (or whenever you want)

This is what I did this week:

Mon: 1 hour skating; practicing for my test (I might be almost ready to take it!)
Wed: 1/2 hour of light aerobic workout
Thur:  I was supposed to run stairs with the girls, but we were all too tired, maybe today!


Check out what everyone else did here.


Have a great weekend, get some exercise and let someone read what you've written!
Oh and don't forget the next Knights of MicroFiction is coming up soon so be ready!

Kathy :)

Stick With What You Love- Healthy Writers Post

Today I want to wish a Happy 40th Birthday to my wonderful husband.  I don't know how I was so lucky to find my perfect soul mate.  Happy Birthday sweetie!

Stick With What You Love

I joined Shallee McArthur's Healthy Writers Club last week as a way to help promote fitness in myself and throughout the blogosphere.

Here's what I'm doing to stay fit:

Even though I'm a figure skating coach by day, I don't get much time myself to skate or work out.  When I'm home I'm sitting in the chair writing or helping the kids with schoolwork.  I decided that had to change.

For awhile my husband and I tried to go to a gym together.  It was actually fun when we made it there.  But our schedules are so crazy that we couldn't make it more than about once a week.  We canceled our membership.

I tried running a couple of times, but I'm sorry, I'm just not going to ever go out running in the rain or snow, so that ended that.

Then I realized, what I really wanted was to skate.  It is the one thing I have always loved and it is great exercise.  But I have to admit, I feel a little silly sometimes as a 40 year old doing the same things as the kids.  (Don't worry, I don't wear the little skating dresses.)  Not because I'm afraid to look stupid by falling, (I'm a pro at looking stupid), but because skating is a showy sport by nature and I don't want my co-workers to think I'm trying to get attention or show them up.

But I've decided life is too short to worry about how other people will take my actions.  I have to do what I love if I want to stay motivated. (I find the same with writing, I have to write what I enjoy and not try to please others, or it becomes flat.)

So I'm setting my sights high and I'm going to work toward passing my remaining tests:
Silver and Gold Moves and
Bronze- Gold Freeskate.  (Moves are what replaced figures and Freeskate is all the fun stuff including jumps and spins)  I had already started working on it in January but I haven't been very good about making time to practice.
 I realize I may not complete this goal.  It's kind of like saying you're going to finish the Boston Marathon.  I surely won't reach it by the end of this year.  It might take until I'm 45, but at least for me, the slippery road is the journey I want to take, I'll leave running on pavement to someone else.            

 Weekly Stats:
Spent an hour on Monday practicing the Silver Moves test
Tuesday, started stretching again
Wednesday- very sore!
Thursday 15 minutes of off ice jumps

Have a great weekend everyone!

Kathy :)
  

Healthy Writer's Club

I found this on Friday over at Shallee McArthur's blog and wanted to share it because I thought it was such a great idea.  She started this to help us get up out of our chairs and get moving.  Here's what she has to say about it:

As writers, we hear a lot about the "butt in chair" tactic, which is great for our manuscripts, but not so great for the actual butt in the chair. Hence the Healthy Writers Club. If you're game to join the fun, you can run, walk, bike, make a healthy dinner, play tag with your kids, etc. Then, post about it on Friday (or whenever you want)


So join the fun and sign up here.  I think it will be a great way to keep each other motivated to get moving and still finish our manuscripts!

Kathy :)