I'll be reading Growing Up with Tamales for story time at Blue Willow Bookshop, in Houston, on Thursday morning, May 15. Tell everyone you know with kids in the Houston area. How do you find and support local indie book stores like Blue Willow? By going to Booksense.
On Saturday, May 17, I'll be in Dallas, reading and signing at the J. Erik Jonsson Central Library, for the 13th Dallas Children’s Book Fair & Literary Festival.
On June 22, here in Houston, I'm going to do a poetry workshop. It's free and open to the public, y'all, and they're having one every Sunday in June, taught by local poets I love and respect. So come on down.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Oh, here's a good cliched post topic -- New Year's resolutions!1. Write a bunch of stuff.
I have so much stuff to write, I feel guilty sitting here writing this blog entry. I have so much stuff I'm contractually obliged to write this year, I'm probably going to use up all my vacation time and floating holiday writing it. And having so much stuff to write? Is a good thing. Don't think I'm forgetting that.
2. Make a bunch of money. Or, if that's not possible, save a bunch of money.
I'm not going to say anything bitter about the fact that all the money I would have made this year is already allotted to making up for lost child support. I mean, I already made a lot of money for the year, but it wasn't enough. Bad Luck seems to follow me around, watching my mailbox for checks.
Then again -- better to have bad luck when you have the checks than when you don't, right? Right. In the mean time, I am in the midst of a budgetary resolution to never eat out again. As you might imagine, it's making me sad.
O O
___
3. Lose 20 more pounds. (WARNING: Boring weight talk to follow.)
Science has left me upon a plateau. Now that I've lost 35 pounds through the magic of physics, I can no longer lose weight at the same rate (2 lbs per week) unless I subsist on 1100 calories per day. Which is 100 fewer than the recommended allowance for anyone, fat or thin. And about 300 fewer than a hypoglycemic chick who really loves to eat would recommend for herself.
Subsisting on 1100 calories a day would be doable if I ate 1400 per day, then burned off 300 of that with exercise. Burning off 300 would take about an hour and a half. Maybe less if I did it via DDR. ("Difficult" level = hardcore cardio.) And all that would be incredibly plausible if I didn't spend most of my day sitting, either at a desk or in my car. I spend about 11 hours a day sitting down, if you include my long-ass commute. Sad, huh?
I'm trying to eat as few calories as I can stand, and burn as many calories as I can squeeze into my sedentary day. But I might have to resign myself to losing the weight more slowly than 2 lbs per week. My goal is to lose five pounds a month, totalling 20 pounds by May 1. Guess how much weight I've lost so far!
Half a pound. Bleh.
If I do meet this goal, I might give myself two or three months to rest, then lose 20 more. Why not? That would make me only 10 pounds overweight, by Dept of Health standards, and yet thinner than I've been since I was 18 years old. (Current goal would make me thinner than I've been since 19 years old. Freshman Fifty much? :) ) (<-- That emoticon has a double chin.)
4. Try not to equate money or career success with happiness.
Despite resolutions numbers 1 and 2. No, seriously. I mean, I want to write more and make more money, but without letting my happiness depend on those goals. Should be easy! Right? Right??
5. Work on that whole self-promotion... bleh
Promote myself as an author without feeling like a show-off or a sell-out. Yeah. I remember. I'm gonna do that. Okay.
6. Do more art.
That goes with being happy.
And that's it. Okay. Aren't you glad you asked? What? You didn't ask? Oh. Well... Don't read this entry, then.
Doh. Too late! Too bad for you.
:)
Labels: materialism, vanity, writing
12:11 PM #Comments:
I made a list of 12 wishes for the new year. Debbie made a list of intentions. I think I only resolved to start walking. So far it's day 17 of the new year and I only went once. Hey. Once is good.So, congratulations on losing 35 pounds! That's a very important accomplishment.
# posted by
Letty : 5:14 PM
hi gwen!
regarding the weight plateau, consider taking a week off from dieting, maybe even two weeks.
my body can only lose weight for about eight weeks in a row. at that time, i will plateau for several weeks ... unless i take a week or two off. sometimes during the "off" weeks, i actually lose weight even though i'm eating more and exercising less. after the two weeks, i get back on the diet and things are in motion again.
# posted by
: 8:07 PM
I found that when I worked out on an elliptical I burned around 300 calories per 1/2 hour workout, versus like 100-something calories from a 1/2 hour on a treadmill, back when I actually went to the gym.
# posted by
: 2:11 PM
Our lists are identical. Except for me "art" refers to music, theater, dance etc. vs. painting-crafts-writing-etc.
But otherwise the same!
# posted by
: 9:31 AM
Letty: Word. Once is, like, infinity times not at all. So good job. And I hope your wishes come true. Post them online!
Curvy: Okay. But what if I already took 2 months off? :) There is truth in what you say, to be sure. Since I wrote this entry, I've lost 2 lbs total.
Amanda: Good idea.
I just re-read what I wrote and saw that I did my math wrong. It should only take 45 min to burn 300 calories with a low-impact aerobics or light weight-training thing.
Like you, I used to walk but then found it didn't burn enough..
Anon: Then we are resolution sisters and I wish you the best of luck with yours. I wonder what kind of theater/dance/music you do.
# posted by
Gwen : 3:52 PM
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