Christine Amsden's Blog: Christine Amsden Author Blog, page 31

Mindful Eating Revelations: Do I really want to eat this?

I don’t really like waffles. I certainly don’t love them. Oh, they’re okay. I don’t DISlike them. They’re fine. Just… just fine. Really. Fine.

One of the things I’m working on doing as part of my mindful eating approach is to stop eating foods I don’t thoroughly enjoy. Mindful eating isn’t about counting calories (though I am eating fewer calories), it’s about changing the psychology. The mindset. It isn’t about what, when, or how much I eat. It’s about how and why I eat.

When it comes to food choices, I have come to realize that there are choices I make every day that are only meh. Maybe I eat it because it’s easy or convenient. Or out of habit. Or maybe I even think I like it more than I do because it’s just one of those things everyone likes. I mean…who doesn’t like waffles? They’re waffles!

Okay, well, you don’t have to agree with me on that one. It was my own personal revelation this morning as my husband mixed up a batch of buttermilk waffles at the kids’ request. All I could think about was the syrup that would go on top, which is most of the flavor of the waffle. I don’t use syrup on pancakes anymore. I’ve gone to fruit toppings, usually warmed in a skillet with just a bit of brown sugar and lemon juice. (Blueberries, strawberries, and peaches work great for this. You can use fresh or frozen, though if you go with frozen you may want to add a bit of cornstarch to thicken it.) The pancakes soak up the juices and the flavor and are marvelous conveyances for warm, juicy fruit. Waffles, on the other hand, with their many divets, are really made to hold syrup. And that’s not what I want to eat right now.

At the end of a meal, I want to feel like I just ate exactly what I wanted. I want it to have been delicious. Savory. Delectable.

Moreover, I want to look forward to my next meal with eager anticipation. I’m less likely to spend all afternoon snacking if I know I’m going to have meatloaf for dinner. I really like meatloaf! On the other hand, I’ve noticed that on nights when I have skillet chicken breasts on the menu (in any of the thousands of available recipes), I spend the afternoon looking through the pantry for something else to eat. Something better. Something I really want. I guess it’s time for me to admit that I don’t like skillet chicken breasts all that much. It’s just a habit I’ve gotten into because it’s easy and, as others have pointed out “so versatile.”

Of course, meatloaf has more fat and calories than chicken. I know that. But a single serving of meatloaf with a side of mashed potatoes, asparagus, and milk is about 500 calories. At least, if you’re getting any better at figuring out serving size. (I am.)

One of the biggest problems with dieting is the usual emphasis on depriving ourselves of our favorite foods. No wonder it’s hard to stick to! That’s a white-knuckle approach, not a long-term approach. And it’s not a realistic lifelong plan.

Start by taking a hard look at what you eat. Think about why you made that choice. Only eat something because you love it, or at least really like it. If it’s not a 4 or 5-star recipe (out of 5 stars) then never make it again. Don’t make it because you always have, or because you think you should, or because it’s low-fat, or because it’s easy. Make it because you really like it, or not at all. (Note: I do go to 3 stars on veggies because that’s just how I feel about veggies. Some people learn to love them after a time, but even eating fresh, local, etc. I mostly only think they’re okay. Fresh asparagus may be my only 5-star veggie. I do believe in using a bit of fat to improve the taste of veggies, but I’ll get to that in a future blog post.)

***Important note: If you do not enjoy a diverse diet, then mindful eating is not the right approach for you. You cannot eat pizza and cheeseburgers everyday because those are the only foods you like. You really need to enjoy at least some foods in each of the five major food groups. If you don’t, I suggest learning to enjoy more types of food. Diversity is a big key to a healthy diet, and there are so many foods to love! For my part, I am a 35-year-old woman who stopped eating fast food over a dozen years ago. I enjoy most fruits, meats and seafood, nuts, beans, dairy, pasta, potatoes, oatmeal, rice (in some dishes), and enough vegetables to get by. That’s why I can do what I’m suggesting. I was addicted to fast food in college, so I know what it’s like. I also know you can get over the addiction. It’s hard, but you can. And believe it or not, there’s a delicious world over here on the other side.

Book Review: Iced

14-year-old Dani from the Fever series is super-speeding through Dublin, living large and generally trying to be a superhero. But she isn’t the fastest or strongest thing on the streets, and one of those faster/stronger things — Ryodin — forces her to work for him.

Something is icing people and fae alike. Who? Why? And can they stop it?

I lo-o-oved the Fever series. This sequel was good, but I guess I’m just not as into Dani as I was into Mack. It’s not that Dani isn’t a well-drawn 3D character. She definitely is. It’s more that she was so well done that she was an entirely believable and obnoxious 14-year-old.

When I heard there was going to be a sequel starring Dani, I thought (hoped) that it would take place a few years later, after Dani grew up. I was surprised to read about her as a 14-year-old in an entirely adult book. This is NOT YA, or even close. It’s full of sex, violence, language, and adult concepts. In some ways, Dani is forced to grow up too soon. In some ways, she’s an obnoxious teenager.

To go a step further, it was difficult as a reader to try to bridge the mental and psychological gap between a sexually-charged adult novel and a 14-year-old heroine.

Dani really does need a keeper. She’s too dangerous to be let loose and too immature to understand consequences. She’s learning, but for now, I think I just found her a difficult character to fully embrace.

Like I said, I liked it, but I didn’t love it. If you liked the Fever series, I recommend this.

Rating: 3/5

Title: Iced

Author: Karen Marie Moning

ISBN: 0385344406

Published October 30, 2012

Follow Friday: Songs Like Books

Q: Is there a song that reminds you of a book? Or vice versa? What is the song & the book?

 

“Welcome to the Jungle” reminds me of The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. It may be partly because Butcher released a collection of short stories called “Welcome to the Jungle” based on those books. But I’m not fond of short stories as a rule, and only read Butcher’s because I liked Harry Dresden so much.

A few months ago, “Welcome to the Jungle” ended up being used by my local gym in a body pump class. Specifically, for the chest track. So I’m there on the bench, pushing that bar into the air, thinking about a wizard throwing fire around. (Dresden does love setting things on fire.) It was oddly motivating.

Cassie Scot in Living Color

The outfit you see Cassie wearing on the cover is one I suggested to the artist. I found it on Nordstrom’s website, and knew it was the sort of thing Cassie would choose to wear — stylish and colorful. (The artist changed the color to better suit the picture.)

In the book, Cassie says she dresses “in living color.” She avoids black like the plague and thinks the color washes some people out.

At the risk of offending millions of black-clad Americans, I agree with her.

I used to wear black all the time (see my author photo). It’s not even a terrible color on me, although I prefer brighter, bolder, and more vivid colors now. Then a few years ago, just before I started writing about Cassie, I realized I was making a mistake. I was wearing black for all the wrong reasons:

Black is flattering. Black makes you look thinner. Black is classic. Black looks good on everyone…

I was hiding behind it! That’s no reason to embrace a particular style.

Personal style is just that of course — personal. But I don’t think I was choosing a style so much as accepting it as my lot in life.

This new self-discovery got transferred to the character I was working on at the time, hence Cassie and color. She paints her room black. But the reason for that is more a book two revelation.

Daily Indulgences: Why I Won’t Settle for Pale Imitation Dieting

One of the first things that happens when I go on a diet is people start suggesting low-calorie, low-fat, low-carb, or generally pick-your-favorite-low recipes. “You’ve got to try my cherry pie with Splenda! You’ll never notice the difference!” (Yes, I will.) “These black bean brownies are delicious!” (I’m thinking of another word that begins with ‘d’ — rhymes with trusting.)

Cookies without flour. Cakes without fat. Chocolate without sugar. Oh my!

And all the while, I am forced to grit my teeth, put a smile on my face, and pretend that I was eating what I actually wanted. My body knows differently. My subconscious knows differently. Heck, my conscious usually knows differently. It doesn’t shake the craving.

Worse, this is exactly how yo-yo diets happen. I should know. I’m something of an expert in yo-yo dieting. It’s how I bounced up to my current weight in the first place. It’s the reason I am starting yet another diet.

Look, I rarely say it out loud because my thick figure doesn’t exactly exude nutritional credibility. But I do know nutrition. I can tell you roughly how many calories is in everything I eat. I know how to find calcium. Where the extra salt is hiding. I have read about low-fat, low-carb, low-sugar ideologies. I’ve kept journals. I’ve OBSESSED over journals.

But at the end of the day, I’m still significantly overweight. Why? Because half of dieting is psychology.

I cannot lose weight eating foods I hate. I can’t live that way. Oh, I could white-knuckle it for a while. Maybe that would be the way to go if I only had 10 pounds to lose. But I don’t. I have to live with my weight loss plan for a long time.

More than that, I have to live with my weight loss AFTER I reach a cozy weight. (And I’m telling you right now some people will still think I’m fat at the end of this — I don’t want to be skinny. I want to be comfortable and healthy.)

If I’ve just spent the past 6-12 months eating low-X foods when what I really want is the food that got me here in the first place, what do you suppose will happen after I lose the weight?

Times up! Those of you who guessed that I would gain it back and then some, go to the head of the class.

I’ve spent the past 9 months *not* dieting. Strangely enough, I didn’t gain any weight. Hmmm. Interesting. Because in all the years before that, striving to be as skinny as models in magazines, I steadily gained weight every year in an up and down pattern. I wonder if there’s something to that…

Something has clicked for me this time. I’ve got weight to lose and I’m going to do it, but I refuse to eat second-rate food in some vain hope that I’ll fool myself into thinking it’s what I really want. My problem isn’t what I eat. I KNOW what to eat. My problem is that I eat too much of it.

All of it.

I’ve eaten too much salad and soup before. My problem isn’t chocolate. That’s just something I happen to love. And something I mourn when I think I can’t have it to the point of insanity.

Fifty percent psychology, like I said.

I haven’t just been not dieting for the past nine months. I’ve done something else. I’ve taken a hard look at how I eat and when I eat and have realized that I eat too much and too often. I don’t want to be the person who eats all day long. I want to enjoy food, but I want to enjoy the rest of life too. (I refuse to choose between “eat to live” and “live to eat.”) And I want to be able to do this, not for a few months, not until I reach x pounds, but for the rest of my life.

I want to not be afraid of food or of my compulsive reaction to it. I want to not feel compelled to eat when I’m not hungry. Heck, I want to know what hungry really is! Somewhere over the years, I think I forgot how to tell. I’ve spent too much time counting and not enough time listening to my body.

I haven’t been entirely idle these past nine months. I’ve spent them convincing myself that I am allowed to eat. But also that maybe, just maybe, I don’t have to eat all day long.

“I am beautiful. I am strong. I do not need food all day long.” — That is my personal affirmation. I’ve said it daily for nine months.

Now that I’m on a diet again, I intend to eat. I intend to eat the foods that I love. I plan to give in to cravings (although I haven’t had them so far).

But I will not, now or in the future, eat an entire piece of cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory. There are about four servings in that single piece. And amazingly, when I split it with my family of four, I’ve had enough.

Loving food is about indulging it in. Enjoying it. Reveling in it. Eating it slowly and giving yourself over to the pleasure of each and every bite. Some foods even call for closed eyes and a bit of a moan while you let the varied tastes and textures explode over every inch of your tongue. If you can do that, you don’t need more than 1/3 of a piece of cheesecake. Done is done, after all of it or 1/3 of it. But one path is healthy and satisfying, whereas the other leaves you bursting from fullness, disappointed with your own weakness, and caught back in a trap of your own psychological making. If you’re looking to fill a void with that piece of cheesecake, it isn’t going to happen. If you want to enjoy the delicious food, you don’t need much of it.

Besides portion control, one other thing I intend to do is to plan meals around indulgences. Instead of having a cheeseburger and French Fries, I’ll have a cheeseburger and salad, with a piece of fruit for dessert. Or was it the fries that I really wanted? Hmmm…well then, how about a piece of juicy grilled chicken or fish with the fries on the side?

Pair high-calorie desserts with low-calorie dinners. High-calorie entrees with low-calorie sides (and vice versa). Do that, and you can eat whatever you want.

I was asked to come up with some diet-friendly recipes for my next “weight loss challenge” team meeting. I’m thinking it over carefully, because to me, a real diet-friendly recipe can’t be a pale imitation of something else. It must stand out in its own right.

In the meantime, here is my list of daily indulgences — things you can have almost every day and still stay true to a diet plan:

1 Lindt Truffle (about 75 calories) — Don’t forget to eat it slowly, and enjoy the varied sweetness and texture of the outer shell and the inner creme.

1 small piece of chocolate (usually about 50 calories each)

1 candy cane (about 50 calories) — takes a long time to finish, too! Great holiday treat. Plus, if you’re sucking on a candy cane for half an hour, you can’t eat as many cookies.

1 small piece of candy (calories vary depending upon type, but probably about 50)

1/2 cup ice cream (about 130-150 calories, depending upon variety) — This is the good stuff, mind you. It’s not light or low fat. (You save 20-50 calories and give up so much!) This is a good treat when you’ve just had chicken or fish. A bit over the top if you just had pizza.

1/2 cup sherbert (110 calories) — I love sherbert in its own right, and not as an imitation of ice cream. It does make the grocery list more often because it has fewer calories, but if I’m just looking for cold and sweet, this hits the spot! (If I’m looking for cold, sweet, and creamy, I do have to go with ice cream.)

1 homemade cookie (about 100 calories) — These do vary widely. Make sure you bake them at a reasonable size. But if you don’t make monster cookies, and you don’t have a dozen of them, most homemade cookies are about 100 calories each, butter and all! And they go great with a glass of milk. (Note: I don’t do store bought cookies. Lost my taste for them years ago. I also don’t think they’re as good for dieters due to artificial flavors and preservatives. These things can increase appetite. Diet cookies are some of the absolute worst.)

1 mug of hot cocoa (140 for the Land O Lakes I prefer, and it’s among the highest)

**Note: Thanks to exercise and a gradual approach to dieting, I allow myself 1300-1600 calories per day. Actually, I allow myself more than that if I’m really hungry. Less if I’m not. If you are dedicated to a 1200-calorie diet, any indulgence is going to be difficult. But after years of trying, I do not believe 1200-calorie diets work.

Cassie Scot Video Trailer

It’s becoming more and more popular to make a video trailer for novels these days. I’m not sure how much marketing influence they have, but it came with my Pump Up Your Book tour (beginning next month) so here it is!

I put a lot of work into this in the end. Most video trailers these days are all text and background music — no voice overs. They’re like commercials expecting you to read the TV screen. Silly, and ineffective. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that no one wants to read a commercial. So I asked for voice-overs.

That might have been the end except the voice-overs came back sounding so obviously computer generated that it would never work. Whatever else Cassie is, she’s definitely supposed to come across as real and human!

So I got a good friend, Crystal Futrell, to come over and record the lines. She’s got a friendly voice that seemed to record very well. (What’s the audio version of photogenic?) They sound much better now!

Like most book trailers, this is a series of stock photos put together with background music and the additional voice to tell you my less-than-one-minute hook. In my dream world, I’d have enough money to hire an animator or live actors. In the real world, though, I am pleased with the result.

***If you like the video, please support me by liking it on facebook! The point is to spread the word about the book. Family and friends: You can make a HUGE difference by simply spreading the word through social media.

Rereading Wheel of Time: Winter’s Heart (Book 9)

And now, I fear, I must recant something I’ve been saying in my reviews of the past three books. I called it “the slowing of the plot.” But as I reread this book, the last of my rereads before I move ahead into new territory, I realized something. It’s not that the plot slowed down during those books, it’s that there was no story arc to contain each volume. From beginning to end, things happened, and we moved toward the last battle, but nothing contained the events in the story. The endings came out of the blue, a bit of elevated action in place of a real climax because a real climax has to develop from what came before.

The reason I remembered this book with much more fondness than the previous three is that there was a goal, and arc. Rand is determined to take care of a few people who might stab him in the back and then clean the male have of the source. The book didn’t focus on that — Elayne spent a lot of time trying to claim her throne (finally) and Mat had to work to flee Ebu Dar (meeting the daughter of the nine moons in the process). Perrin’s wife has been captured and he’s going after her. Meanwhile, we have some of those minor points of view. But between and around all of that, I had a direction for the book. Rand had a goal. It made this volume markedly better than the ones which came before, and frankly revitalized the series.

Well, and of course, cleaning the male half of the source was a BIG thing that happened. There’s a feeling of real progress here. Armies are poised on the bring of battle, people scheme for thrones, and the characters have both personal and world-changing problems. But for all that, one big thing happened.

I left off here largely because when I tried to pick up book 10 I couldn’t remember enough of the previous volumes to know what was going on. There are too many minor characters to keep them all in my head, and I had forgotten enough things about the major characters (there are plenty of those as well)! I also stopped, though, because I had lost confidence in the idea that the story would ever end. I admit it. I swore to myself I would pick it up again when every book was written, and not a day sooner. That has happened. It happened under the co-authorship of someone else due to Jordan’s untimely passing, but it’s happened.

And so I recall why, despite my complaints, I was willing to read this all again once that final volume came out. There are parts of the story that bore me and parts thlight penneat excite me, but underneath it all is the richest world I have ever read, multi-faceted and brilliantly constructed. I consider it a must read for anyone who truly enjoys fantasy.

I look forward to reporting on the last five books of the series as I read them for the first time. The stakes are high, and so is my excitement.

Rating 5/5

Title: Winter’s Heart

Author: Robert Jordan

ISBN: 081257558X

Published January 2002

Rereading Wheel of Time: The Path of Daggers (Book 8)

My opinion of this particular book has improved upon reread. Maybe it helps that sense of impatience that I don’t have to wait several years for the sequel to come out, because for certain things are still edging forward slowly, but there was something compelling about the hard lessons Rand had to learn over the course of this book: That he is not invincible and that madness awaits all the men under him who channel.

Much of this book is spent following Rand in his dealings with the Seanchan — the invaders from across the ocean who collar women who can channel. Egweyne learned the horror of that firsthand. Meanwhile, Egweyne (no longer collared, obviously), is maneuvering to attack the white tower and gain control. Elayne, Nynaeve, Aviendha, and over a hundred women who can channel flee from the Seanchan early in the book, and then proceed to march to Caimlyn where Elayne must take the Lion Throne. Perrin has some chapters as well, after arguing publicly with Rand (not entirely sure why that was necessary). He goes after the prophet of the Lord Dragon, who is doing horrible things in Rand’s name. Mat is noticeably absent, after he got caught in an explosion at the end of book 7.

Book 9 will be my final reread. After that, it’s new material for me, but having read book 9, rereading book 8 felt different. It sets up the events in the ninth book fairly well, and for that I share a bit more enthusiasm than I did for the last two books.

Rating: 4.5/5

Title: The Path of Daggers

Author: Robert Jordan

ISBN: 0812550293

Published December 1999

Rereading Wheel of Time: A Crown of Swords (Book 7)

And the slowing continues…

This book only covers about two weeks, shorter than any span of time in the other books. Ebu Dar is a big focus, where Elayne and Nynaeve are trying to find the bowl of the winds. Mostly though, it was a nudge here and there, ending with a big push that was long in coming, but somehow out of the blue at the exact same time. Strange, that.

A few key things did happen here, but overall I feel like this is the least good (I don’t want to say worst because it implies this is bad, which it isn’t) of the series. I finish this book feeling impatience more strongly than any other emotion.

And I’m only halfway through!

Rating 4/5

Title: A Crown of Swords

Author: Robert Jordan

ISBN: 0812550285

Published November 1997

Wait? Did I see Cassie on Amazon/B&N already?C

Why yes! Yes you did!

One of the things I do to promote my work is to enter it into contests. This worked exceptionally well for The Immortality Virus, which won two awards and was a finalist in a third.

Last week, as I was compiling the list of contests I wanted to enter, I realized the Global Ebook Awards ends their year on April 30. That didn’t mean I couldn’t enter Cassie — only that I’d have to wait a whole year to do it. In the meantime, she’d be competing against her own sequels.

The ebook has more or less been ready for weeks, so I asked my publisher if we could release it a few weeks early, just so I could enter this contest. She got back to me quickly and enthusiastically.

The result, as you see, is that Cassie Scot is available right now to purchase through Amazon.com and B&N.com.

I’m not starting my promo efforts until May 15, when the physical book will be available. I’m still calling that the official release date. I think there’s even a good chance the ebook will go on sale then. But if you can’t wait to read it, you can get the ebook now. Right now. This very minute.