Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Introduction to My Crazy August

I am about to embark on something crazy. I have a fitness challenge for myself in the month of August, so of course I'm going to blog about it.

My challenge: to do one Pinterest workout every day for the whole month PLUS a modified version of this May Plank Challenge PLUS my regular running.

Want to join in my crazy August? I'll link the workouts at the end of this post. If I've already blogged about the workout, you'll be directed to my blog, but if I haven't yet reached that day, I'll share the link to the pin, so you can follow along.

THE RULES:
  1. Do the assigned workout every day.
  2. Blog about the assigned workout every day.
  3. If your body starts complaining, listen to it! You can always modify an exercise or take it easy. You can't buy a new body (yet).
  4. If you don't know what it is or how to do it, look if up.
Day 15  | Day 16 | Day 17 | Day 18 | Day 19 | Day 20 | Day 21 | Day 22 | Day 23  | Day 24 | Day 25 | 

Questions? Comments? Want to cheer me on? Want to join me? Let me know in the comments below!

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

I Rarely Run in the Rain

You know how sometimes you just KNOW that you won't get in the workout you planned? Well, that was my day today. I planned on getting my run on this afternoon, but I as soon as I looked out the window, I could tell it was one of those days where it was going to be gross and rainy all day.

Gross, rainy days do not inspire any sort of energetic need to cavort in the wilderness. Not for me.

Instead, I did a short workout in my basement with the promise of running if the weather cleared. Well, it's later, and my energy is firmly sapped, and the weather is still gross. I am not 100% sure that I'm skipping the run just because of the rain, but I am glad that I worked out today. Plus, my run tomorrow will be even better.

Friday, July 26, 2013

AKA The Finicky Runner

I am what you might call a "finicky" runner. Until I get in the zone, I am absolutely useless if one thing breaks me out of my stride—an undone shoelace, a bug in my face, a headphone falling from my ear. It drives me absolutely nuts, but it was worse when I first started running.

In fact, those little annoyances could actually ruin a run for me when I first started. I would get into my warm-up, ready to kick a run's booty...and then everything seemed to want to annoy me. An ear piece would fall from my ear, so I would fix it. In the process, I pulled its mate from the other ear and had to fix that, but I couldn't get it comfortable. Pandora wouldn't play the songs I was in the mood to listen to. Since I hadn't yet learned to double knot my shoes, they would come undone. The new knot brushed at my shins, making me feel like something was crawling on my ankles.

Add to that, before my body got used to sweating (I used to brag that I didn't sweat!), I would get this painful prickling sensation along my skin. I am not 100% certain that sweating was the cause, but it would not happen unless I was getting to the point of working up a sweat. Thankfully, I don't experience it anymore.

I would get so worked up in the first few minutes of my run that some days I just quit. I turned around in the middle of the street or sidewalk or grassy knoll and marched home in a huff because my body felt out of whack from little tiny things that I had no control over.

That changed one day last summer. It was hot and muggy, even though it had just stopped raining, and I wasn't in the mood to run anyway. Even in my warm-up, I was annoyed. But I had already tied up my laces, slipped into my running shorts, and gotten out the door, so I might as well do this thing they call exercise.

I got less than thirty seconds into my run before my foot caught on a sidewalk that I had run countless times before and would run countless times after. I went sprawling, one hand out to catch me, the other pulled tight to my chest to protect my case-less iPhone. My glasses flew from my face. A car passed by, silent, but I could just imagine the driver, face pulled into a laughing grimace.

Humiliated, I pulled myself from the ground and picked up my glasses. I check my phone. Not a scratch. I looked at my hands, the right with a minor scrape down the side, the left fine and dandy. I looked down at my knees. The left had taken the brunt of the impact and blood had started to well up in the scrape left there. The right was scraped but not nearly as badly. Both were covered in gravel.

I was done. I had so had it with the day.

I turned around and glowered on the way back to my apartment.

From where I had fallen to my apartment was a straight shot, and, as I walked, I calmed. My footsteps became lighter—less like a toddler stomping to get her way—and, suddenly, with no thought to it, I turned down a side street and began to run.

I know that I must have looked like some sort of crazy running fanatic, face focused and blood dripping down from the wound on my knee.

I felt awesome. I was awesome.

Yes, my headphones still annoy me. Yes, the feeling of a shoelace brushing against my ankle sends me into a momentary bug-fighting frenzy. Yes, I have to brush the hair out of my face 400 times before I'm sweaty enough that it just sticks where it lands.

But I don't give up on a run anymore. When I run, I'm reminded that I can do anything that I want regardless of my unathletic past or my neurotic present.

When I run, I run for my future, and that's a lot more important than any slight annoyance.

Questions? Comments? Let me know in the comments below!

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Frolicking through the Future of Publishing

This month, July, an event takes place that is lovingly referred to as Camp NaNoWriMo. It's a fun, summertime version of the regular NaNoWriMo. I use this time to start writing snippets of what will eventually become longer books, but quite a few people tackle the challenge. Props to them.

A brave few of those authors will send out inquiry letters to agents or publishers. Most of them will be rejected several times. Have no fear, though, because self-publishing has arrived with a way for authors to bring their works to the public quickly, inexpensively, and without going through the inquire-and-reject process.

In this post, I would like to discuss the future of publishing and self publishing. These are my own personal predictions and only time will truly tell where publishing will go in the future.

My predictions:
  • Yes, more authors will begin to self publish.
  • Yes, this will become a norm.
  • The future of publishing will come in three waves:
    • The Rejected: The future starts with those brave few who have tried and tried to get published the "traditional" route. Many of these books are fantasy, erotica and homo-erotica, fanfiction, spiritual, and religious. While many of these books are digital copies only, a few brave souls will offer both print and digital copies. Most of these books will...need work. I believe that we are at the beginning of this phase right now.
    • The Hype: A small number of books digitally published will take off in popularity causing thousands of people who had never once before considered writing a book to write, publish, and try to sell their words all online. Most of these books will...need work. Although we are starting to find popularity in self publishing with the success of books like 50 Shades of Grey, I think we will see a few more years before the true hype begins.
    • The New Norm: The Hype is over, and consumers are demanding good quality content. Pioneers in the publishing world are rethinking the relationship between print and digital media. What's left is a new normal, where authors and publishers work on building more content online and breaking the mold of conventional publishing. Agents book both physical book signings and simultaneous webcasts of the author answering questions. And I will leave social media for another day entirely.
  • Publishers and agents will have to adjust to this influx of digital content and should prepare to focus on selling e-books first, print copies second.
  • Physical books will never disappear, but they will get more and more expensive.
  • New books published will come out as digital copies long before they are ever introduced in print.
  • Technology is going to play a huge role in bringing readers closer to their books and inspiring people to read instead of staring at Facebook 23 hours a day. Think Pottermore but with the release of the book rather than after it.
Not convinced? You can read more about trends in self publishing with Trisha from The Book Case who touches on a possible future precedents of authors selling installments of books using Hugh Howey's Wool as an example. You can also check out this post about Penguin Books by Graeme McMillan, and how its acquisition of Author Solutions could set it up to identify talent in this digital age.

Yes, publishing is changing. For publishers, agents, and writers it's an exciting, terrifying time. I am more than excited to see publishing evolve and maybe publish a book or two myself.

Agree? Disagree? Comments? Questions? Leave me a comment, and I will do my best to figure out an answer!

Monday, July 22, 2013

Adventures in St. Louis

So, I recently made the move to St. Louis. It's been quite an emotional journey, and I am still not entirely sure that I want to stay in the city for very long. Instead of dwelling on that, though, I am finally making the most of my time in a city that is absolutely full of places to run.

The first place I ran was just up and down my (very hilly) neighborhood. We have some beautiful houses, and my parents' little dogs loved the exercise (for the first five minutes, then they were done). It honestly was not very inspiring, and my running, which I had already slowed on, became almost non-existent for a few weeks.

Yes, weeks. Weeks that aided in the emotional hurricane that was my move to StL.

I finally found my step when I started volunteering at Stray Rescue of St. Louis. Not only did it get me out of the house, but I was able to work with dogs in a way that helped them and got me active. Let me tell you, walking dogs that have been cooped up in cages for hours takes both upper- and lower-body strength. It's also awesome. These pooches are so excited to play and make friends that you really can't have a negative thought in your mind.

That evening, even after three-and-a-half hours of walking rambunctious, lead-pulling dogs, I hit Grant's Trail and Clydesdale Park. The run was good for my soul, my mind, and my body. I ran some—more than I expected—I walked some, and I sneaked through the trails of the park, trying my hardest to be silent because I could. And my mind ran with me, thinking about stories and nature and running and the reasons that I run.

I was good. It was much needed. It was beautiful.

Saturday, July 20, 2013

Adventures in Looking Back

I had my gallbladder taken out when I was sixteen years old.

I had gallstones. Gallstones are crystal-like deposits that occur in the gallbladder. They can be small—the size of a grain of sand—or large—the size of a golf ball. The longer they stay and the larger they get, the more likely they are to cause inflammation, infection, and pain. Women are two times more likely to get gallstones than men. They are also common in the obese, people have lost a lot of weight in a short amount of time, or people with diabetes, among other causes.

I started feeling pain months before I told anyone. The pain woke me in the middle of the night, and I would spend hours pacing my floor and rubbing my side to try and soothe my angry body. When the pain started to come every night, I finally told my parents.

After the surgery, I spent two nights in the hospital for an outpatient surgery because the gallstones that were meant to leave my body with the organ were so big they actually got caught in the opening that connected my gallbladder to my liver. It took me weeks to recover. Afterward, I was meant to go on a low-fat diet to keep more stones from forming.

My first discovery: soda doesn't have any fat in it.

So, with a promise to a doctor that I would never see again, I resumed my old eating habits and didn't look back until I was much older.

Now, much older, I am a little shocked that I cared so little about my health...but more not shocked. See, I didn't have a family that cared much about what or how much they ate. We lived on Hamburger Helper and Hot Pockets, Pizza and McDonald's. For birthdays, we would get enough cake to feed three times the amount of people at the celebration, and I could eat that (and only that) for lunch for days. Our family of four had to make two boxes of Hamburger Helper plus extra noodles to feed us all.

My eating habits have never been ideal, and I never had anyone in my life who cared about their own health to set an example from which I could learn. It wasn't that my parents didn't love me, didn't care for me, didn't want the best for me—it was that they did. They wanted me to have everything I could ever want, to have the things they didn't or couldn't have. So they didn't put limitations on what I ate because they thought it made me happy to eat what I wanted.

And it did, in those moments of pure gluttony found in my Japanese classroom as I consumed enough chocolate-mousse-filled chocolate cake for three people as my lunch.

But I do regret not having been shown better eating habits at a young age, so I have made a pledge to myself that my children will never know what it is to have an unhealthy diet. (Sorry, future spouse, you have no choice!) They will also not be picky, but that's another story.

I've had in interesting time learning to eat better and how to take care of myself better, most of which I learned after I left the nest. I am always thrilled to discuss and learn more about eating healthy. Everyone's got an opinion, though most people agree that diets high in processed sugar and fat can have major consequences down the road.

Resources:
WebMD
WikiAnswers