My new motto!

Here is my Xena for those who have never seen her.  She's lean and mean too!

It was reported today that Colorado is approaching a 20% obesity rate.  The stunning thing is that we are the lowest in the nation, but in 1995, 20% was one of the highest rates.  What has happened to our society in sixteen years?

You are healthy until you are not!  That's my new motto!  Who knew I would end up in a life-changing, life-fighting battle with the Big C.  The good news is that my healthy eating and exercise have prepared me for this and I will probably have an easier time with the surgery and treatments than if I weren't in good shape.  Also, overall good health is a huge aid in beating the spread of the disease.

So, one more reason to get out there and move and start eating lots of  foods high in anti-oxidants, like blueberries.  These help eliminate the free radicals; damaged cells that course through our systems turning into cancerous ones.  Obviously, anyone can get sick no matter how hard they work at being healthy.  There are many examples of this, including moi. Genetics play a role that is not well understood.

Stay hydrated with lots of water and keep exercising.  Eat lots of fiber and lose the excess sugar and animal fat from your diet and think lean.  Being overweight is NEVER a good thing, no matter what happens to you, especially when your body is stressed.

Darcy Farthing Adventure Continues

  

Possible Cover - stairs of death, Valparaiso

  The manuscript for Currents of Vengeance is out with the reviewers and I'm working on a cover design.  TELL ME WHICH OF THESE PICTURES YOU LIKE BEST.  It looks like you will be able to check it out on Kindle, nook, or get one made of paper, by the end of August.  It will be better to read the first book, Currents Deep and Deadly first, but not necessary.  Here's a preview of the storyline of Currents of Vengeance.

Darcy is adjusting to her new career as an author and struggling with Mick's mysterious depression and anxiety. She wonders what has happened to the romance they found on their ill-fated South American cruise.  With her "new" daughter Rachael's encouragement, she finds herself struggling against an unexpected attraction to her ex-husband, successful Vegas businessman, Brooks Larkin.

In a surprising turn of events, she and Rachael accompany Mick and the Sea Nymph's ex-chief of security, Tom Smythe, on a second cruise around South America.  This time, Mick and Tom are conducting a GAO/FBI investigation of crime on cruise ships, while trying to find evidence to prosecute Paul Denezza, the ruthless hotel and casino owner, for his crimes on the first cruise.  Instead of a relaxing vacation, Darcy and the others encounter more violence, madness, and mystery as currents from the first cruise rise to the surface and threaten to pull them under.  A cast of quirky psychologically flawed characters bent on revenge against the World of Seas cruise line and our travelers provides non-stop action and surprises.



Possible Cover Picture - Inca ruins











Possible cover picture - Cabo, Mexico



Onward and (hopefully) Upward

So after six years, Synergy Decor has closed its virtual doors at The Barn in Castle Rock.  However, I still have a small spot to sell my books and jewelry, along with some small treasures I bring in from time to time, when I find something special.  I can't just leave The Barn when I have so many friends there.
I'm trying to maintain a writing schedule now with my health and fitness agenda.
Also, I'm revising my Synergy website at  http://www.aallemanjewelry.com/ aka http://www.synergyatthebarn.com/


Today, author Susan Whitfield has posted an interview she did with me on Currents Deep and Deadly.  You can check it out at http://www.susanwhitfield.blogspot.com/.  The other important book news is that the public library in Castle Rock will have a book signing for me on May 14, from noon to 2:00.

Now, with all the energy and time required to make the move at The Barn, what has fallen by the wayside?  Of course, my gym workouts.  This is what happens to most of us when something has to give.  But today I plan to resume my workouts and renew my healthy eating habits.  Along with this, I will begin blogging more regularly with real tips on a healthy lifestyle and staying fit.  Meanwhile, here is a familiar site for some of you.  Yes, it is the tip of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.  I am considering this as the background picture for the cover of Currents of Vengeance, my next novel.  So beautiful!

This is a lovely old church on St. Kitts.  It is described in Chapter 14 of Currents Deep and Deadly, as Darcy tours Basseterre, the 380-year-old capital with her new friends Don and Charlie.  That's Tim in the picture getting ready to check out the interesting old headstones.

I wouldn't go so far as to say the book has fans, yet, but there are more and more folks asking when the sequel will be published.  I'm saying August and hoping I can deliver.

Meanwhile, as I wind down my major effort at The Barn, to free up more time for the writing, I'm concentrating on taking my own advice.  Getting back to basics of healthy eating and exercising at least four days a week.  Time doesn't wait for us to make life-enhancing decisions.  I have so much admiration for my friends who are seeing results from losing weight the "old fashioned" way.  They will probably keep the weight off, because they are internalizing the need to change their life eating patterns.

Another way to think about this whole weight thing--really an obsession now in our culture--is simply that we owe it to the people who love us, and particularly to our children, to live as long as possible and to be the best role models possible.  This means that how much you weigh and how you look are important, but secondary to the health issues related to malnutrution, dehydration, diabetes. osteoporosis, extra inches of fat on the body and around the heart, etc. that accompany unhealthy eating with too much processed sugar and fat.

Yes, of course we all know this, but I've found that thinking long-term about this and picturing the world without me in it goes a long way in helping me stay on track.

Back to Writing

Random travel picture:  We're in the Ice Bar, Stockholm, Sweden. 

 Really, it is completely made of ice. . . and cold!.

OK.  Seriously, on the recent Cape Horn cruise in addition to the book signings and having fun, I got a lot done on the sequel to Currents Deep and Deadly.  The working title of the second novel is Currents of Vengeance.  It finds Darcy, Mick and friends back on the Sea Nymph with a GAO review of crimes on cruise ships.  As with the first book, lots of twists and turns and people and things not quite as they seem.

I'm grateful to the folks who are giving me generous feedback on Currents.  That really inspires me to keep writing.  After talking with passengers on the cruise about their own late-in-life endeavors, I am realizing how important it is to get inspired.  Whether it is the urge to start a business, pursue artistic desires, or just to make important life changes, it is the stuff of fulfillment and nothing is more important in our short lives.

If we have difficulty changing habits that undermine our health and fitness, one way to think and FEEL about it is this, "This is my important number one job in life:  To live long and keep this body--my temple--as viable as possible for as long as possible."  Try saying it out loud, like a prayer or a mantra.  Then, look around for a healthy snack and a simple way to move your body more than you did yesterday.  Maybe run up and down your stairs 10 times.

There aren't many things we can control in this world . . . but this is one of them!!!

This Concisely Says It All

I recently found this write-up by a diet expert that we all should internalize and STOP hurting ourselves with dangerous and ineffective diets.  The bottom line is that a very dangerous effect of super low calorie diets for more than a couple of days, eg. 500 calories per day is that this is NOT enough calories to support brain function, among other things.   

Do Crash Diets Work?: The Yo-Yo Diet Cycle


If you follow a crash diet, you will probably notice that you do lose a significant amount of weight in the first week or so. In fact, many men and women notice that they lose five pounds or even more during the first few days of their crash diet. However, this weight loss isn't true weight loss ' instead, it can be attributed to the loss of water weight that happens during crash diets. This is because low-calorie diets cause the body to burn up excess glycogen, a type of glucose that absorbs excess fluid inside the body.

Additionally, weight loss during crash diets doesn't continue for a very long time. Eventually, you will find yourself hitting a weight loss plateau, during which it will become more and more difficult for you to lose weight. The majority of crash dieters find that this weight loss plateau is followed by a period of weight gain. Many followers of crash diets even end up putting back on all of the weight they lost, along with additional pounds. This is known as the yo-yo diet effect: just like the up and down motion of a yo-yo, crash dieters find that their weight is constantly fluctuating with each diet that they go on.

What Causes The Yo-Yo Effect?

Crash diets are linked to the yo-yo diet effect because of the impact that this type of starvation diet has on your body's metabolism. In order to support all of the functions that your body performs on a daily basis, your body needs to burn a certain amount of calories. The rate at which your body burns calories is known as your metabolism.

During crash diets, your body eventually clues in to the fact that it is receiving a very low number of calories. As a result, your body actually adjusts its metabolism, so that it burns fewer calories in order to perform all of its necessary bodily functions. This means that it takes fewer calories for you to gain weight, making it more and more likely that you will put on weight.

Back From Cape Horn

Hi, all.  Our month-long adventure around S. America is over and the first 3 weeks were unbelievably great.  Then we heard that a broken water pipe flooded part of our house due to the subzero temperature.  A few days later, while at sea for 3 days, we learned that my husband's mother had passed.  Wow, talk about a stressful last week.  We definitely had to take some deep breaths and hit the gym on the ship to work off some of the stress . . . to say nothing of the extra calories we were consuming.

We only took the elevator on the ship a handful of times during the month, so up and down 5 or 6 flights of stairs a number of times everyday helped, along with walks around the deck.  So many people on the cruise were very out of shape and overweight.  We would see them riding the elevator one floor.  There is a mindset about this whole fitness thing that we need to develop.  That is, we don't have to be comfortable all the time or take the easy way.  I think just adding a little movement each day along with a healthy diet can go a long way.

The booksignings for Currents Deep and Deadly went great and I got a lot of very positive feedback from people who bought it and read it on the cruise.  I also got a lot of writing done on the sequel, Currents of Vengeance and hope to publish this summer.

From our trip album:


Penguin Rookery near Cape Horn

                                                              


End of the World Light House near Ushuia, Argentina
600 hundred miles from Antarctica

     


Onboard booksigning - what fun!