Author: K.V. Fischer

K.V. Fischer’s diverse experiences as an attorney, certified civil mediator, registered dietitian, teacher, speaker, and published author with more than 20 years’ experience in the corporate, government, and private sectors have fueled her desire to assist people live fuller, richer lives. Although she is extensively published in nonfiction, with one book and more than 100 articles (the majority of which were ghost-written), her passion has always been writing suspense thrillers. Search Beyond Lies is the first in the Search & Recovery International Series and her second suspense thriller. With 2 grown children, one a neurosurgeon and the other a radiation health physicist, she is fortunate to have go-to experts for some of her research. She lives in Colorado with her husband and their dog Brady; practices law in Colorado and Florida; and travels nationwide speaking and teaching.

APODS – Analysis: The Three Ps, Part Two by Amanda Cabot

Last month we began our discussion of the three Ps

Personality Type
Present Use of Time
Productive Times

and talked about personality types. This month we’re going to conclude the analysis phase of APODS by looking at time. You’re probably saying, “It’s about time – pun intended,” since one aspect of APODS is time management. But before you can manage time, you need to understand how you’re currently using time and when you’re most productive, which is what we’re going to do this month.

APODS, Amanda Cabot, 3 Ps — Collect Data Using a Calendar

While you may think you know the answer to both questions, I challenge you to spend a week collecting data that will either confirm or refute your opinions. All you need is a simple calendar. You’ll note that this one is divided into half-hour increments and that it covers only the normal working day. You may want to extend this so that it covers all waking time.

Here’s the process:

Set a timer and at the end of each half hour, make a note of what you did for the previous thirty minutes. If you’re tempted to skip this step and simply record your activities at the end of the day, I urge you not to yield to temptation. As someone who used to have to bill her time by half hours, I learned that it’s important – make that essential – to record your time at the end of each half hour. You may think you’ll remember everything you’ve done during the day, but – trust me – you won’t.

If you felt particularly productive during a half hour, highlight it.
At the end of the week, categorize how you spent your time. Suggested categories include but are not limited to writing, work (if you have an outside job), recreation/personal, family, friends, cooking/cleaning/other housework, TV, social media. This becomes key input to our next phase: priorities.

After you’ve characterized your time, note the times that you highlighted as being most productive. Is there a clear pattern?

Do you think you’ll be surprised? You won’t know until you’ve tried it.

And if you’re wondering why we’re doing this, it’s because our goal is to identify the best time to write and ultimately to find a way to write during that time. While it’s easy to say, “I’m a morning person” or “I’m a night person,” the answer is more complex. You need to consider the entire week, since some days may be better for you than others.

We’ve reached the end of the Analysis phase. If we’ve done this well, each of us has a better understanding of who we are, when we’re most likely to do our best writing, and what other activities are keeping us from doing that writing.

Next month we’ll start prioritizing.

Amanda Cabot is no stranger to getting to “The End.” She juggled a sixty-hour a week job with nonnegotiable deadlines and building a house long-distance at the same time that she wrote two books a year. Whether or not she kept her sanity during that time is debatable. Amanda is the best-selling author of over thirty novels, eight novellas, four non-fiction books, and what she describes as enough technical articles to cure insomnia in a medium-sized city.

Her most recent release is A Borrowed Dream, the second in the Cimarron Creek trilogy.

A Borrowed Dream by Amanda Cabot Cimarron Creek Trilogy

You can find Amanda at:

www.amandacabot.com
https://www.facebook.com/amanda.j.cabot
https://twitter.com/AmandaJoyCabot/
http://amandajoycabot.blogspot.com/

APODS – Analysis: The Three Ps by Amanda Cabot

As we continue the analysis phase of APODS, we’re going to discuss what I’ve called the three Ps:

Personality Type
Productive Times
Present Use of Tim

This month we’ll address the first one. If that sounds a bit intimidating, don’t worry. The goal is not to change your personality but to understand it, since understanding is the first step toward becoming more productive.

Personality Types

How many of you have taken the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator assessment? If you haven’t, I highly recommend that you do so. There are online sites that offer free versions, and while they may not be as complete as the real MBTI, they might give you some important insights into why finishing a book is relatively easy for you or why “The End” seems elusive.

The result of the MBTI assessment is a four-letter personality type. Each of those letters relates to one of four elements and describes your preferences for:
– How you energize yourself (Extraversion or Introversion)
– How you learn about the world (Sensing or iNtuition)
– How you make decisions (Thinking or Feeling)
– Whether you prefer closure or options (Judgment or Perception)

While they’re all important for understanding how you communicate and how you view life, the critical one for getting to “The End” is the final one.
Why? Let’s look at the differences in personalities between those whose preference is J (which stands for Judgment, but not Judgmental) and those who are Ps (Perception).

A person who scored high as a J likes control, structure, and organization. A J wants to make decisions and come to closure. On the other hand, a P is spontaneous and wants to understand rather than control. A P prefers flexibility and is open to new options and gathering more information. While Ps will probably never suffer from writer’s block, they will have more trouble getting to “The End” than a J.

Even if you haven’t taken the MBTI assessment, think about yourself and your approach to writing. Do you find yourself excited and sometimes sidetracked by possible new plot points for your book, or, once you’ve started the book, do you feel compelled to finish it? The answer may help you understand whether you’re a J or a P.

If you’re a J, you may still be challenged to finish a book, but chances are you’ll have an easier time than a P. So, if you’re a P, should you give up writing, knowing it could be difficult to reach “The End”? Absolutely not. As I said at the beginning of this post, the important thing is to recognize your personality type and how it impacts your writing. Strong Ps can – and do – write books. The techniques that we’re going to discuss over the next few months are designed to help everyone, but they’re particularly useful for Ps.

See you next month! And in case you were wondering, I’m an ENTJ with both the N and J being very strong.

Her most recent release is A Borrowed Dream, the second in the Cimarron Creek trilogy.

Amanda Cabot, Cimarron Creek, A Stolen Heart — A Borrowed Dream
by Amanda Cabot
Cimarron Creek Trilogy

You can find Amanda at:

www.amandacabot.com
https://www.facebook.com/amanda.j.cabot
https://twitter.com/AmandaJoyCabot/
http://amandajoycabot.blogspot.com/

WRITERS BEWARE OF THE LEGAL PITFALLS — COPYRIGHT BASICS Part 1

In my first post, some off the wall lawsuits reminded us of the importance of avoiding legal pitfalls. This week we will address some copyright basics. As a reminder, this series is provided as a general educational resource ONLY. It is NOT legal advice. If you have any legal questions, please see your attorney.

copyright, Constitution, legal protection — Copyright Basics

Let’s start with the copyright basics.

The U.S. Constitution (Art. 1, Sec. 8, Clause 8) provides the legal framework for Copyright protection which gives Congress the power “to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.” Certain exclusive rights are provided to authors over their works to which they may use to their financial advantage. The purpose is to encourage individuals in their pursuit of intellectual and artistic creations

What is copyright?

Copyright is a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States
(Title 17, U. S. Code) to the authors of “original works of authorship,” including:

literary,
dramatic,
musical,
artistic,
and certain other intellectual works.
This protection is available to both published and unpublished works.

What does it protect?

Copyright protects the author’s exclusive right to reproduce and publish her original work, perform, distribute copies, adapt the work, and authorize others to do the same.

What type of works are copyrightable?

“Original works of authorship” that are “fixed in any tangible medium of expression.” As of January 1, 1978, the protection attaches to original works as they are fixed in a tangible form of expression, such as handwriting as it flows from the pen onto the paper, audiotape, computer, typing, or radio. Because ideas or concepts are not fixed in tangible form, they are not copyrightable, but business processes may be subject to patent protection.

Original does not need to be novel to have copyright protection, it just needs to be “independently created,” — not copied. Two authors who do not know of each other could each create works that are identical, and therefore not novel, but both are considered “original” and entitled to copyright protection.

Another required element is creativity which is different from original. Creativity requires that the author intellectually conceived of the work. Most work contains the fairly low level of creativity required. Quality or merit in a literary work is not required for copyright protection.

When a man tried to copyright his fried chicken sandwich, the First Circuit Court of Appeals pointed out that 8 categories of works are protected by federal copyright law

Literary Work

Dramatic works, including the music that accompanies it
Musical works, including any accompanying words
Pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works, Pantomimes and choreographic works
Motion pictures and other audiovisual works
Architectural works
Sound recording

Food recipes were absent from this list and the court rejected the man’s copyright claim outright stating: “A recipe – or any instructions – listing the combination of chicken, lettuce, tomato, cheese, and mayonnaise on a bun to create a sandwich is quite plainly not a copyrightable work.”

Popeye the Sailor, iron, trace minerals, minerals, blood, hemoglobin, anemia, heme iron, nonheme iron, vegetarians, vegetables, absorption, growth, development, animals, meat, RDA, Vitamin C, bone marrow, interference, oxalic acid, tannins, polyphenols, spinach, phytic acid — Fruits & Vegetables

You may not be able to copyright a recipe, but you might be able to trademark its name. So you can recreate the “dish” but can’t take the name. Although you cannot copyright a food dish, or a basic listing of ingredients, a recipe that contains original text may be protected by copyright

Who can make a copyright claim?

The work belongs to the author from the moment it is created in a fixed form. When there is more than one author in a joint work, the authors are co-owners of the copyright unless they made an agreement otherwise. When it comes to a work created by an employee that was commissioned by the author, the employer is considered the author for the purpose of copyright – the Work for Hire exception.

The next article will delve into the Work for Hire exception, transfers of ownership, and fair use among other topics.

The Editor Diet: Pantry Substitutes for Digestible Writing By Kathryn Ross

Welcome Kathryn Ross with The Editor Diet: Pantry Substitutes for Digestible Writing, a part of her Series—The Write Spice: Writing Tips for Flavorful Words.

A discouraging diagnosis triggered my anxiety meter to spin into the red zone.

“Looks like you’ll need to remove a few things from your diet, Mrs. Ross.” The nutrition counselor spoke with confidence. She found the culprits of my digestive woes and dispensed a prescription with nary a spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down. “No sugar. No dairy. No eggs. No gluten. No soy. No. No. No.”

I went to this woman for help. I hoped for a quick fix. Maybe an encouraging word. But to hear her say “no” repeatedly to the hallowed mainstays of my diet, threw me into confusion.

“But . . . but . . . what can I eat?” Perhaps she would recant when she heard how disappointed I was at her advice.

“Oh, there’s plenty of clever substitutes you can make for these foods that will better agree with your system,” she said. “Once you make a habit of healthier food choices for your metabolism, I promise you’ll feel much better—and lose those pounds around your mid-section, too.”

Fruits & Vegetables

REALLY?

The promised prize shone like gold before me. If only I could accept the new normal of breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Tooling me with a list of foods to avoid and a list of foods to eagerly eat, plus a tips sheet on shopping and meal preparations, I left her office with a sense of both trepidation and hope.

Was I brave enough to make the life changes necessary to feel better, lose weight, and gain back lost energy? Could I be consistent with the new meal plans and food preparation protocols I had to learn? Would completely redesigning my pantry, fridge, and freezer to toss out the old staples and welcome in new and unfamiliar ingredients be within my power?

The red zone of a troublesome health diagnosis can be a blessing or a curse. It’s all in the way you choose to accept it and act upon it—with open arms, or stubborn resistance.

The Editor Diet: Pantry Substitutes for Digestible Writing by Kathryn Ross

It’s the same with my writing. Knowing that what I’ve drafted needs work, I submit it to the review of an editor’s eye. In so doing, I must allow for my words to fall into the red zone of a marking pen diagnosis of where problems may exist, then follow editorial advice for healthy writing.

Thankfully, the English language is tooled with many options when choosing words and applying grammatical rules. Satisfying, healthier word choice substitutes slim down a written work suffering from illness, overweight, and lack of energy. The more those options are exercised, the easier they become to use on a consistent basis.

Here’s a couple writing pantry tips for your journey to healthier compositions:

Substitute vibrant vowels for weak “to be” verbs: In everyday speech, we use the simple verbs is, are, was, were, and the like to communicate. But on the printed page, a diet of such verbs wearies the reader and lessens the impact of the material communicated. Strive to edit out as many of these simple verbs as possible. Use meatier words to empower your story with greater accuracy of action.

Substitute similes and metaphors for bland adjectives and lazy adverbs: Descriptive language can make or break a written work. When it comes to adjectives and adverbs, too much dulls the reader’s senses or repels them entirely—like eating cake with too much sugar in the batter gives one an upset stomach. Vary your descriptive language with the use of similes and metaphors to cement understanding, allowing a reader to better apply and articulate what they read. Whether you’re writing fiction or non-fiction, the use of these powerful figures of speech add sticky sugar and spice to your work beyond the elementary use of simple adjectives and adverbial modifiers.

The Write Spice: Writing Tips for Flavorful Words Kathryn Ross

Inventory your concepts to focus on the topic and curb redundancy: Fill your first draft with all your ideas. Review to determine where your focus is and how you’ll build on it. Sometimes, you may illustrate your point by restating it more than once. Creatively, you’ll need to decide what to delete and what to keep. Take a bold inventory of how you communicate your focused thought and in what order you arrange the details, guiding the reader through to a persuasive ending with impact. Be brutal when you cut—like I had to be when tossing all the flour and eggs and cheese from my kitchen to accommodate my new lifestyle diet. Never easy—but ultimately rewarding.

This is by no means a comprehensive prescription, but a good start towards adapting an editor’s diet for digestible writing. At first, you might think you are losing your writing voice by making such substitutions to your normal writing diet. In fact, you are finding your voice—a healthier voice—that will be fitness to your readers and strength to your continued growth as a writer.

The Write Spice: Writing Tips for Flavorful Words By Kathryn Ross

Writer-speaker, Kathryn Ross, ignites a love of literature and learning through Pageant Wagon Productions and Publishing. She mentors writers as a book shepherd and publishes homeschool enrichment and Christian living books for home, church, and school. Her passion is to equip women and families in developing a Family Literacy Lifestyle, producing readers and thinkers who can engage the world from a biblical worldview. She blogs and podcasts at TheWritersReverie.com and PageantWagonPublishing.com. Connect with Miss Kathy on Facebook.

Search Engine Optimization for Writers – Unique

A few years ago, an SEO firm contacted me to write nutrition, business, and law related articles for its clients. The owner knew I was a Registered Dietitian and an attorney and he needed help. This opened a new door and I realized that one of the most important areas of expertise that SEO firms handle, is not just the behind the scene software pieces, but even more important is the content.

And ladies and gentlemen, as writers, content is what we do best.

It used to be that if you wanted people to find you and your business, you picked names for your business that would place you at the front of the phone book rather than toward the back. The days of the phone book are gone. What matters most is whether your name or business comes up in the first pages of a key word search. Instead of your fingers doing the walking, Google does the hunting.

Google/Yahoo, is like a battery operated toy — it is programed to find certain things, to like certain things, and to reject other things. The more it likes, the higher your ranking which increases the chance that your web presence will appear at the top of people’s search results — the top 10 is best.

Let’s take a look at some of those things:

Unique. If your content is unique, Google likes it. But how does Google define unique? The information itself doesn’t have to be new, but the way it’s expressed does. You can say the same thing many different ways and it can still be considered unique by Google. This is because search engines like Google use mathematical equations (algorithms) that take words literally. The rule of thumb is 3 words. Don’t use more than 3 of the same words in a row from something else that’s been published whether it was your own, or something you have permission to use. One of the SEO’s clients was an orthodontist who had different pages for 15 different locations. Each of the pages expressed the same type of content, who he was, the services he offered, and the outcome his patients could expect. I took his one page that expressed the information he wanted to present to the public and rewrote it 15 different ways. Google saw each page as unique and his ranking rose.

Hits. The number of visitors who visit your site and stay awhile. It’s not just how many visit, because if they visit and immediately bounce off, Google registers that they must not have liked what they saw since they made a quick exit. This decreases your ranking. Next, we’ll look at what draws people to your site and how do you increase those hits in a positive way.

Any suggestions?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for Writers

SEO firms charge big dollars to enhance your web presence through search engine optimization. But what does that mean? How can technically-challenged writers benefit from SEO without breaking the bank? This article is the first in a series. Learn what the SEO firms don’t tell you and enhance your web presence.

SEO

But you may ask, with social media, is a web presence all that important? Everybody is on social media, aren’t they? It’s certainly easier to start a Facebook page than it is to create a web presence, so why bother?
The fact is that actual numbers of social media usage are far less than its publicity. According to comScore’s Unique Visitor Table for Feb 2016, Facebook with 206,480 million unique visitors actually fell behind Google Sites (243,601 million), Yahoo Sites (204,421 million) and Microsoft Sites (194,845 million).

Marketing

Although there is a fluctuation in numbers, always remember that reality and press accounts do not necessarily jive.

Additionally, most people don’t use Facebook to research information that could direct them to you or your book. Forrester Research in their June 2013 study (How Consumers Found Websites in 2012, July 2013, Forrester Research, Inc.) found a majority of the United States adults prefer search engines over social media networks or alternate sources. The technique of choice is still SEO. As a technically challenged writer, if I can create a web presence, anyone can and make SEO work for them

Let me tell you a little about my background. First, I was (thanks to Candee Fick, I no longer am) the definition of what it means to be technically challenged. I’m good with the keyboard — I learned to type on a typewriter, at the time typing 120 wpm without mistakes. I was a senior attorney with a national company responsible for contracts, intellectual property, the document retention program, and was the in-house contact for the anti-trust law suits we were involved with as the repository of documents.

The Author Toolbox

I had a secretary and I dictated my contracts, letters, and other documents. When my husband and I came out to Colorado for a 1 week vacation, I returned to discover my secretary did a major faux pas for the General Counsel and she was fired on the spot. Someone got the brilliant idea that instead of replacing her, they would use her salary to purchase a computer for every lawyer (there were 9 of us) and spread the duties of the remaining secretaries out over all 9 of us.

I was like a deer in the headlights.

I averaged between 110 and 150 contracts/month, 30-50 copyright registrations, not to mention all the fires I had to put out and everything else I was responsible for and I didn’t even know how to turn the “machine” on — yes, it was “the machine.” I couldn’t even imagine how I could function in my job. Needless to say, it was one of the best things that could have ever happened to me. They put me in a Word Perfect class and taught me how to turn on the “machine.” I was good to go.

Then came the World Wide Web, and another dragon reared its ugly head. I was always comfortable using the computer as a glorified typewriter, but … times change.

How comfortable are you with technology?

Lean Bellies and Body Type

There are 2 main body types: the apple shaped or pear. Which are you? Research shows that the apple is the more dangerous of the two because the fat is centered on your middle, where your heart, lungs, and various other organs are situated. Now we can’t control our body type — we’re born with it, but we can control how lean our bellies are.
There are a myriad of studies (check out the CDC) which show the dangers of excess fat around our middle. Here is the bottom line:

Women with lean bellies are:

Women: Lean Bellies

57% less likely to die of heart disease
69% less likely to develop type 2 diabetes
40% less likely to develop arthritis of the hips or knees
12% less likely to have a stroke
40% less likely to die of cancer
21% less likely to experience arousal dysfunction

Men with lean bellies are:

Lean Bellies: Father (82) & Son (52)

32% less likely to die of heart disease
83% less likely to develop type 2 diabetes
63% less likely to develop arthritis
32% less likely to develop sleep apnea
45% less likely to develop cancer
61% less likely to have erectile dysfunction

Measure your waistline. A woman’s waist circumference should be no greater than 35 inches (88 centimeters). Men should have a waist circumference no more than 40 inches (102 centimeters). In the United States, approximately $90 billion dollars annually is attributable to weight-related disease. Tax payers pay half of this cost through Medicaid and Medicare. Don’t be one of the statistics!

(Check out the previous tips: Tip #1 & Tip #2 in week one, Tip #3 & Tip #4 in week 2, and Tip #5 & Tip #6 in week 3).

Lean Bellies

TIP #7: CHEW. Take smaller bites and chew your food longer. According to a study published in the scientific journal Physiology and Behavior, it may help you eat less at meals. If you slow down and enjoy your food, your brain has more time to register the eating process. In short: Don’t take the term “slider” literally.TIP #8: EAT PROTEIN. This nutrient has the ability to raise the level of peptides in your stomach. These little peptides relay messages telling your brain that your stomach is full. Your body also expends more energy trying to digest it.

Do you have a tip to share?

The Key to Successful Weight Loss

With at least 68.5% of Americans overweight, it’s no wonder that the weight loss industry is in the billions of dollars with more diets available than you can count.

Weight Loss – Big Business

You’ve worked all day, you are exhausted and have a family to feed. In a culture of 2 income families, it’s not uncommon to grab a quick bite from a fast food restaurant. Fast food tends to be very high in calories, but you think, I’m only getting one portion for myself and one portion for each of my family members. Surely, that’s okay. This article will take a look at one of the key strategies for successful weight loss and the ability to meet your weight management goals — portion control.

Portion vs. Serving Size

Jerusalem Shuk – Break

The terms “serving size” and “portion” are common terms we are all familiar with. But, is there a difference? What you eat is a portion. What you should eat is a serving size. The vast majority of adult Americans consume up to one third more food than they should eat. Understanding and effectively measuring serving size is part of the solution to the portion problem.

Portion Control: Can you guess the right portion?

Let’s take a fun quiz (cover the answers below before you begin).

Portions – Baseball, Hockey Puck, Light Bulb

1. Your bagel, hamburger bun, and cooked brown rice should be the same portion size. Should each be the size of a baseball, light bulb, or hockey puck?

2. How about corn on the cob? Would you choose a light bulb, computer mouse, or tennis can?
3. Baked potatoes come in all sizes. Which is the right size — light bulb, computer mouse, or tennis ball?

Portions: Tennis Ball, Computer Mouse, Soda Can

4. How can a serving of ground beef be measured? Would you choose a deck of cards, 3/4 the size of a soda can, or base ball?

5. What about popcorn? Would you choose a soda can, tennis canister, or light bulb?

Portions: Dice, Pocker Chip, CD

6. Now for your serving of salad greens, cooked vegetables or fruit. Would you choose a deck of cards, hockey puck or baseball?

7. I confess to loving cheese. What is the serving size? Choose either a CD, 3 stacked dice, or 5 stacked dice?

8. Peanut butter is a favorite of many. Would you select a deck of cards, 3 stacked dice or a golf ball for a serving?

Portions: Deck of Cards, Golf Ball, Small Post-It Notes

9. What would we do without butter or spread? Would you choose 1 dice, 1 poker chip, or a golf ball for a serving?

10. Now about that treat. How large should our brownie be? Would you choose a golf ball, small post-it notes, or a deck of cards?

Answers: (1) hockey puck (2) light bulb (3) computer mouse (4) deck of cards (5) tennis canister (6) baseball (7) 3 stacked dice (8) golf ball (9) poker chip (10) small post-it notes

TIP #5: ADD WATER. Your stomach is like a balloon. Fill it with anything — burgers, apples, rice and you’ll eventually feel full. A smarter way to fill your belly without stuffing it with calories is to take sips of water between bites of food. This will increase the bulk in your stomach, blowing up the balloon, and help you feel full more quickly without a calorie glut.

TIP #6: FILL WITH FIBER. Fiber passes through your body undigested, slowing the absorption of nutrients and making you feel fuller longer, according to a 2008 review study by University of Minnesota researchers. Try adding high-fiber foods like whole wheat pasta, raspberries, beans, and peas to your meals.

How did you do on your quiz? Rather than carrying a bag containing light bulbs, tennis canisters, a computer mouse, dice, post-it notes, a deck of cards, tennis and base balls, what would remind you of the proper portion size?

On the Road to Healthy Living: Foolproof Your Plan!

Health and nutrition are foremost in our minds. With the changes in healthcare, most people avoid seeing the doctor – the high deductibles make the cost prohibitive for the average American. It is proven that obesity is a risk factor in a number of life threatening illnesses. Undernutrition is also a serious problem. You may be at your ideal body weight, but perhaps you don’t eat right. We’ve all heard the adage, “You are what you eat.” We only have one life, let’s take care of it with a healthy living plan!

Take Control

You’ve made the decision to take control of your life. Congratulations! If you have a family, you not only have a responsibility to yourself, but you have a responsibility to your family as well. Studies show that success doesn’t just happen overnight. You need to set your goals and follow a realistic plan.

Set Your Goals

Be realistic in setting your goals. Make sure it’s one you can achieve within a reasonable time period. Realistic, achievable, reasonable goals are more likely to succeed. Get ready to ask yourself the following questions and make a list.

What outcome would you like to achieve? If you are trying to eat healthier, list your reasons why.
What steps are necessary to achieve your goals? Remember, it’s easier to change a few behaviors at a time rather than get overwhelmed with a long “to do/to change” list. Many helpful tips are forthcoming, so stay tuned!
Be committed. It’s critical to success. I suggest making it official with a contract.

List objectives & behavioral goals.
Measure your progress with milestones.
Reward yourself for meeting contract terms.
Sign it in front of witnesses who care (family or friends).
Initially, you may want to reward positive behaviors, but after you start to progress, focus your reward on positive results.

TIP #3: FIND AN ACCOUNTABILITY PARTNER. Find a friend or family member who also want to make healthy changes. Share your goals and plans and check in with each other on a regular basis. Hold each other accountable!

TIP #4: CUT OUT DISTRACTIONS. Eating while preoccupied impairs your brain’s ability to watch your food intake, according to a 2009 review of studies. Turn off the TV, close the laptop, and stop playing games with your smartphone. Your stomach will thank you.

(For Tips #1 & #2 see Start Over/Take Charge!)

What do you see as the biggest challenge?

Now that you’ve made the decision to start and take control, next we’ll take a look at an important weight management strategy. It just may be the most effective tip you can use to reach your goals.

Start Over/Take Charge: Energy Balance & Weight Control

As a society, we are bombarded with information offering weight loss tips, the wonders of supplements, Vitamin C, Vitamin A, B vitamins, Vitamin D, Calcium, phytochemicals, fish oil and exercise. We’ve heard about the problems with gluten, GMO’s, and food allergies. We struggle with shedding pounds that have crept up over the years and figuring out what foods to trust and who to trust. I have been a Registered Dietitian with a master’s degree in Nutrition for more years than I care to admit and teach Human Nutrition at the university level. My goal is to help you discern fact from fiction and leave you with some helpful tips starting with energy & weight control. I’ll also periodically share tried and true healthy recipes.

Let’s get started:
Most people’s New Year’s resolutions have gone by the wayside and spring is approaching with new resolutions to lose those excess pounds. Since the majority of American adults are overweight (68.5%) with more than 1/3 of American adults classified as obese, the first series will start with getting on the road to obtaining your ideal weight. Check out the 5 pound human fat model:

Energy balance and how it relates to weight management:

All living things require energy to live and function. Humans consume energy in the form of calories. Whenever you eat or drink, ENERGY is coming IN. At the same time, your body is constantly working, so ENERGY is going OUT.

Calories are burned during basic life functions like digesting and breathing (basal metabolism rate).
Because children are developing and growing, they need extra calories.
A larger person burns more daily calories than a smaller one.
A certain number of calories are burned through daily activities.
- More calories are burned by people with active lifestyles than those whose lifestyles are not as active.
- The more vigorous the physical activity the more calories are burned. Hence, more calories are burned running than they are walking.

Energy balance means that your ENERGY IN = ENERGY OUT

Don’t think that your energy IN and OUT has to balance every day. It doesn’t. Whether you can maintain a healthy weight is determined by the balance over time. And remember, children need energy to grow properly. Therefore, their energy balance occurs when natural growth is supported without creating excess weight gain.

Think about your goals: Ask yourself if you are happy where you are, or whether you need to lose or gain weight. If you need to gain or lose a significant amount of weight, don’t forget to discuss your goals/plan with your doctor. More on setting your goals in the next blog.

TIP #1: WRITE IT DOWN. Keep a journal of everything you put in your mouth as you consume it. Not only will it give you an accurate record, but if you know you are going to write it down, you may think twice about eating something you shouldn’t.

TIP #2: USE AN APP. There are a wide variety of apps available that count the calories you consume as well as those you expend. You may want to check out www.mypyramidtracker.gov.

For those who have tried a food and activity tracking app, what is your experience? Are there any recommendations worth sharing?

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Let’s start with the copyright basics.

What is copyright?

What does it protect?

What type of works are copyrightable?

Literary Work

Who can make a copyright claim?

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Women with lean bellies are:

Men with lean bellies are:

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Portion vs. Serving Size

Portion Control: Can you guess the right portion?

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Take Control

Set Your Goals

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