Off Horsing Around, But About that Giveaway..

By Crabby McSlacker

So, we're on the road in our campervan, heading north towards the Gaspe Penninsula in Quebec (where we hear it's pretty), when all of a sudden it occurs to me:

Crabby, it's Sunday. You often put up a blog post on Mondays, just so The Google doesn't forget you exist, even if mostly some nice guest-writer actually puts all those nouns and verbs together these days.  So you might wanna think about finding some internet and at least formatting a guest post or something and slapping together an introduction?

[OK, it's possible I do not address myself quite that way, but let's just go with it, shall we?]

Anyway, then, being the responsible health blogger I am, I reply to myself:

Screw it, we're camping.

There's probably no internet at the campsite tonight, and the world isn't exactly going to come to an end if nothing appears on Cranky Fitness this week, right? Plus, you've already done a million posts about healthy traveling. Does anyone really want to hear yet again about rest-stop calisthenics and gym day passes and tricks for finding healthy food at crappy chain restaurants? 

Until I remember:

OH SHIT, THE GIVEAWAY!!!

Fat and Fiction; Guests and Giveaways

Intro by Crabby McSlacker; Guest post by Mary W. Walters

So hi there, it's Crabby McSlacker, barging in with another extended guest post introduction. Sorry about that! But we've got a giveaway going this week, and a couple of other things I need to mention before we get to the good stuff: in this case, a real-life tale of inspiration, written by the author of a fictional work I think you will love.

Mary's newest novel, which we will be giving away to two lucky readers (details below) is called Rita Just Wants to Be Thin.  If you are not one of the readers who wins it, then I think you should buy it ASAP, because it looks to be fun and insightful and entertaining and well-written. Or heck, even if you're planning to win it, go ahead and buy another copy anyway and give it to a friend!

So, how come I'm all: the book "looks to be" awesome?'Rather than the less weasley, more definitive, the book "is" awesome?

It's because I am not allowing myself to read the novel any further than the Amazon preview pages will allow. Which is killing me, because it's off to a great start and I would really love to finish it.

But as many of you know, I am currently working on a novel myself, and as it happens, one of the two main characters is a woman trying to lose a great deal of weight.  Reading someone else's take on the same topic would mess with my head and thus my writing process for a number of reasons which are weird and hard to explain but nonetheless very real.

More on the giveaway below, but also, we have some other combo guest post/book giveaway posts coming up, so if you don't win this time, you'll get more chances!  Cranky Fitness likes to support spunky authors by giving them a forum here, and it's only a HUGE COINCIDENCE that every guest post I put up means one less post for me to write!

Two more totally unrelated things:

(1)  Can anyone in Europe tell me if there is now a warning on Cranky Fitness that the blogging platform uses cookies?  It would be awfully expensive for me to fly there and find out myself. Apparently if it doesn't say that I'm in big trouble and have to do something technical. Ick.

(2) Cranky Fitness is a big fan of Jennipher Walters excellent blog Fit Bottomed Girls, which is always sensible and informative without being dull or preachy. Well, it's had a dramatic mobile-friendly makeover so be sure to wander over there if you haven't recently! It also contains a mind-reading "Recommended for You" feature which for some reason thought I might need some tips on mindful eating and dealing with cravings. Um, who, me??  Sigh. How can they see through the computer like that?

OK, anyway, now on to the main attraction...

Becoming the Person I Want to Be

(Instead of the One I Was Afraid I Would Become)

by Mary W. Walters

By my late twenties, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with my life: I wanted to be a writer. Not only did I love to read and write, I also loved the whole idea of being a writer. I imagined myself in the future, living a writer’s life – long days of creating fiction interspersed with occasional public readings from my newest book to audiences who hung on my every word.

I knew it wouldn’t happen overnight, but no matter how long it took, I was determined that I would get there. I would become that woman.

Walking for Weight Loss? Some Possibly Sucky News

image: pixabay

By Crabby McSlacker

First off, let me just make clear that I think walking is a very healthy activity.Walking a lot is an awesome idea.

However, if you are hoping to rely on walking craploads of miles as a primary strategy for weight loss, I may have some bad news for you. I came across some research a few weeks ago that was kinda depressing.

Note: this research is not bad news for everyone, just some of us!

Cross-cultural Stair Climbing

Guest post by Jan Bono

Blog contributor Jan Bono recently snuck off to do some traveling, and what's your guess: did she loll around the whole time in a lounge chair sipping exotic cocktails? Or did she find ways to get exercise even while dealing with a hot climate and a foreign culture?

For those of you new here, Jan is an intrepid weight-loss warrior, who despite the statistical odds, shed an enormous number of pounds and continues to maintain her healthy habits.  You can check out her book “Back from Obesity: My 252-pound Weight-Loss Journey” in print or as an ebook on Jan's smashwords page.

Meanwhile, the purported host of this blog, Crabby McSlacker, has been having a great summer! She has been working hard on her novel, except when she is not working on it at all, and she been traveling a bit herself, and having awesome sessions with her lovely life coaching clients, and enjoying all the wonders of Provincetown, Massachusetts.  Has she been getting lots of exercise? Yes she has! Even though she doesn't seem to be blogging about it much anymore.  She senses she is overdue, especially since she has discovered some fun new toys to play with.

But in the meantime, let's take a vicarious trip to the Far East, shall we? --Crabby McSlacker.

A former colleague of mine has a son and daughter-in-law currently teaching in Seoul, Korea. Using their apartment as a “home base,” (a.k.a. “free place to stay!”) we were able to spend the full month of June in Asia, including a week touring southern Japan and another week in China, split between Beijing and Xi’an.

I’d worried that I wouldn’t be active enough while “on vacation,” and that without spending two hours on my recumbent bike each morning, as per my regular routine, I’d not be burning enough calories to justify all the exotic foods I was eager to taste.

Inner Energy: Harnessing the Blissful Forces of Weird

photo via James Vaughan

By Crabby McSlacker

Being a self-absorbed nutball, I've embarked on boatloads of psychological self-improvement projects throughout the years. And while there's still a ton of stuff left to improve on, I gotta say, it's kinda working: I'm now way less of a worrywart party-pooper than I used to be.

So with all this introspection and reading and listening and practicing, I've come to learn some interesting things that my crazypants brain can do, if I have the patience to give it some room to play. And some of it is proving helpful and/or amusing, even if it's a little hard to explain.

But, you may wonder, is any of this relevant to your fine brain?