Spring!

It brings a lot of change :)

I love spring and fall the most. The weather is perfect. Not too hot, not too cold. Some occasional showers to clean things up, and you are equally comfortable in jeans and t-shirts or shorts and a light sweater. In the spring you have the scent of "newness" on the air, and in the fall it is the crisp, clean scent of winter's bite approaching.

But I have to admit, I'm looking forward to wearing shorts and t-shirts and taking walks to the park and enjoying ice cream on a really hot day.

So far the week has started out good. I just wrote my first round of articles for Demand Studios today, and I have plenty of work from them to keep me busy for the rest of the week. Which means I have plenty of afternoon time to work on my next few chapters, which go back to characters we haven't seen since the first part of the book. I've been looking forward to these next few because they are the "main" two characters, although on opposite ends of the spectrum. I can't say too much more without giving it away :) Suffice to say, it's good!

I have a story submitted to the Writers of the Future contest. It's quarterly, so if I don't win I'll be submitting one of my other shorts to the next quarter, provided they don't sell where I have them circulating now. This summer will be my first "full time writing" summer, as last year I was absolutely only getting piecemeal jobs and sort of fumbling my way into the business. Now that I have established ties and clients, and sold some successful work here and there, it's looking like I'm moving into full-time mode pretty easily. This week looks to have me doing 4-5 hours of freelance work per day, and I think I'll be shooting for the 5 hour mark per day on a consecutive basis.

Also, I wrote my first article for Green Diva Mom yesterday. It's in editing atm, and I've got 6 other articles approved to do for their website over the course of the month. I'm sure I'll have more ideas to submit for approval, but my initial batch should keep me busy for the month when included with my Demand Studios work. Nothing yet from my other clients, but they gave me 3 months worth of steady work so I'm fine with it being a bit slow from them atm, since I was able to procure steady work elsewhere.

The most important change is health-wise! I've been fairly keen on staying healthy ever since my transition to Europe and a totally different diet. However, I put on about 5 pounds over the winter and now it's time to shed those. In addition, I want to get down to around 150 lbs. I'm around 165 atm. So, along with my regular exercise routine, I'm doing several things.

One: a fast. Which I started today. It's called the Lemonade Diet. Basically it's 4-5 days of liquid dieting, involving lemon water to detox the body and shrink the stomach. After that you spend 2-3 days easing back into solid food eating only veggies and fruits.

Once I hit that point, I'll be reducing my meat consumption to 2 times a week, and it will be mostly chicken and fish. My goal is to keep my caloric intake down around 1k a day, because I lead a fairly sedentary life, sitting in front of the computer like I do. I work out 6 days a week, in the mornings. Mon, Wed, and Fri are elliptical + chest weights. Tues, Thurs, Sat are arm weights + Pilates. Each workout lasts around 45 minutes and are cardio-intensive. I initially lost 30 lbs when I got here last year, over the course of 6 months, and I kept most of it off. However, I slacked over the holidays and let myself gain those 5 pounds or so and haven't shed it off yet because I've been eating like a horse.

I'm tying in my "green" food and drink articles over at Green Diva Mom with my fitness regime. It's a great way to stay motivated and provide people with first-hand examples of how things work.

Anyway, I have one more article to write and then I'm going to watch a couple of shows before I work on chapter work. Catch you on the flip side.