NOLA, Here I come! (Or Smelling the Blasted Roses)

I’m traveling this week, so I just wanted to put up a quick note thanking everyone for your nice comments about my resolutions post. To that end, I’m going to list a few great sites I’ve discovered to help me along that path. So if you struggle with any of the same issues I do, feel free to look around!

Healthy Writer Blog
I just discovered this site, and it’s great…other writers struggling to stay healthy in our sometimes stressful, often sedentary profession. Stop by, you’ll enjoy it!

Success stories always keep me motivated, so here are a couple of sites with real people’s weight loss success stories:
Top 50 Incredibly Inspiring Weight Loss Blogs
The Weigh We Were
WW 100 Board

And in my quest to cut down on processed foods, I’ve read a couple of really good books this past month that I recommend.
YOU on a Diet
The French Don't Diet Plan
Both books do a wonderful job explaining why processed food is so bad for us and gives pointers on why and how to remove it from your life.

To that end, here’s a nice cookbook to help with that.
Cooking the Real Age Way
Anything by Rachael Ray or Mark Bittman tends to use healthy, natural ingredients that taste great, too.

I also purchased all of the supplies I needed this week to start making my family’s bread and crackers at home. (Before you think I’m crazy, check out the two books I referenced above. Really opened my eyes to the dangers of processed foods, diet foods, high fructose corn syrup, etc. I was amazed to see several unhealthy ingredients/chemicals in my favorite commercially produced breads and crackers once I knew what to look for).

My friend and fellow writer, Laura P, posted a great recipe for homemade whole wheat crackers over at her blog.
The Land of Moo (easy whole wheat cracker recipe)
I’ll keep you posted how that goes!

If you’re looking for some wonderful ideas of how to cut back on TV time for your kids (or yourself), here’s a great resource:
Instead of TV

And last, but not least…smelling the blasted roses. I have decided that I am leaving my laptop at home this week as I travel to New Orleans for a fun few days with my husband and a few of our friends (sans kiddos…woohoo!) It was actually a tough decision—which shows you how mental we writers are! I am not going to feel guilty about not writing, I am taking a few books (Dream Man by my friend Nancy J. Parra is already loaded onto my I-Phone), and I’m going to live it up in the Big Easy.

(I won’t tell them how hard I rooted for Favre)

Next week, we’ll work on the “Writing Every Day” Resolution. I’m getting there…