Accountability Wednesdays: Week 44

My friends, it is officially snowing out on the Alberta oil sands. Wish me luck surviving the winter.

On the upside of things, I have a couple of good things to report today.

Goal #1: Lose ten pounds and become healthier overall.

As per usual, since I’m out West right now I can’t report on the weight part of the equation. I can tell you, however, that my first day on my new stomach meds has been a success. I imagine it’s still too early to tell for sure, but they do seem to do exactly what they’re meant to do, which is to stop stomach spasms. The nervousness that I feel as a result of dealing with my stomach issues is still there, but the ability to calm myself down and relax in general seems to have greatly increased. I’m not holding my breath just yet, but I’m hoping that by this time next week I’ll be able to report further success, and believe me when I say that successful use of medication will greatly increase my physical and mental health.

Goal #2: Be more active on social media and work hard on my author platform.

I’d like to say that I’ve been more active this past week, but it would definitely be a lie. Mostly I’ve just been to busy with everything else. I can, however, report that I’ve been having moderate success thus far being a part of Self-Publisher’s Showcase, and I seem to be amassing a decent number of new followers on various platforms as of late. So if you’re new and you’re reading right now, thanks for coming! I hope you’ll stick around!

Goal #3: COMPLETE my zombie apocalypse novel, Nowhere to Hide.

Still complete! No one can take this goal away from me! Bwa ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!

Also, last week’s Halloween-Day-Free-Ebook-Offer was a pretty nice success. I didn’t make any money from it, of course, but hopefully a few of the people who jumped on the free download will see fit to review the book and help me out a ton (hint…hint…).

Goal #4: Write 500,000 words.

Unfortunately, as I am wont to do, I forgot to write down my word count for the week before I travelled out West. Also unfortunately, the first two days of NaNoWriMo were a bit of a flop, since they were my last days home and I was a little more interested in spending them with my family. However, I can tell you that I wrote somewhere in the range of 7000 words this past week, and 2000 of those words were yesterday alone. I’m really hoping to be able to keep up that trend in the coming week. If I can write 2000 words a day for six or seven more days I should be able to catch up on the words I lost on the first two days of NaNo.

Which reminds me, I should be writing right now. Ciao!

Accountability Wednesdays: Week 43

My friends, my friends, it has been a busy week. I don’t know how I always do this to myself, but it seems like I spend every two weeks at home doing even more work than I do during my two weeks at work. >.>

So, in honor of the fact that I’ve still got a ton of stuff to do, let’s make this a quick one, okay?

Goal #1: Lose ten pounds and become healthier overall.

Okay, so about the weight-loss thing. Technically, I’ve lost about 6 pounds. But more technically, I gained 10 pounds before I lost those 6. So, in a very real sense, I’m 4 pounds in the hole. On the plus-side of things, I don’t really understand how it works, but I’ve been significantly more confident in my appearance lately. Despite actually weighing more than when I started this goal, I’ve been finding that I look thinner. Hey…whatever works right?

On the health side of things, I’ve been a little frustrated. I mentioned last week that I was going to see my doctor again because my guts have been on a rampage. Well, as it turns out my general practitioner completely agrees with the assessment the gastroenterologist made, which is basically that this is just the way my guts are and I’m going to have to learn to deal with it. He sent me out of his office with an order to start using psyllium fiber daily (basically, Metamucil), to avoid coffee at all costs, and he was “kind” enough to give me a prescription for something that is basically meant to stop stomach spasms, but has to be taken an hour before you expect the spasms to start, and causes drowsiness, so it can’t be taken all the time. Yay. I feel so much better now.

Goal #2: Be more active on social media and work hard on my author platform.

I have to admit that I’ve been slacking on this one lately, but there are a few things to report. For one thing, I’ve joined up with the Self-Publisher’s Showcase, an awesome service to help self-published authors promote themselves. They help to promote self-published books, the authors themselves, and also do fun things like interviews and book reviews and the like. So far we have my author page, but there will be more upcoming in the future, so keep your eyes out!

In addition to that, I’ve been focusing some of my energy on my current BzzAgent campaign, for which there will be a YouTube video posted in the near future. I want to do well on this campaign because BzzAgent is an awesome site that sends you free stuff in return for talking about the product on social media, and who doesn’t love free stuff?

Goal #3: COMPLETE my zombie apocalypse novel, Nowhere to Hide.

I never get sick of letting you guys know that this goal is complete! I’m so happy with myself, you have no idea. lol

Also, for those of you who are kind enough to be reading this post, this is an advanced notice: on Halloween Day, all day, the e-book version of Nowhere to Hide will be FREE. Yeah, you heard it right…FREE! So check it out on Amazon or Kindle…even if you already have the physical book it can’t hurt to grab a FREE e-copy as well! And a reminder too: if you download the book (or if you already have it), please return to Amazon and write a review! It really helps a ton! ❤

Goal #4: Write 500,000 words.

This goal slowed down again this week as I’ve been sewing my daughter’s Halloween costume, preparing for her birthday party, taking her skating/to school/to playgroup/etc, doing random chores and the like, trying to get my house clean, and so on and so on. But I did still manage to work in 1655 words, so that’s something at least. The good news is that come this weekend it will be officially NaNoWriMo time, so I expect to have something much more significant to report next week.

Now, if you don’t mind, I have one more of Raven’s boots to sew up before my daughter can wear her costume to playgroup tomorrow. Ciao!

Accountability Wednesdays: Week 42

Man. Just, yeah….man. By the time you guys read this I hope I will have managed to have a really good night’s sleep, because at the time of writing it I am so exhausted that I literally started falling asleep while I was eating my lunch. Literally. While eating.

Unfortunately I am (once again) writing this post from the Halifax airport, as my flights were amazingly screwed up for the fourth time in the past five months. It wasn’t anyone’s fault (there was a malfunction in one of the engines on the plane I was taking out of Calgary, and the delay caused me to miss my layover to get home), but it doesn’t make the situation any less tiring and frustrating. But I’ll try not to let my fatigue affect this post. Starting now. 😛

Goal #1: Lose ten pounds and become healthier overall.

Last week I told you that I’d been having stomach problems again. This week I’m going to tell you that I’ve probably lost some weight, but not for a good reason. Since my stomach problems started last week I’ve been having an awful hard time getting a decent amount of food into me. It’s like my body has decided it has an aversion to eating. I could be starving half to death, but as soon as I start trying to put food in my mouth it’s like my body flips around and says, “Wooooahh, buddy. What do you think you’re doing there?” Clearly this is not a good thing, even if I did lose a couple of pounds as a result. Luckily I’m going to see my doctor later today, so hopefully something will come of that. I’m pretty much ready to offer him an ultimatum, because going to and from work every day during my shift has become an exercise in surviving cruel and unusual punishment.

Also, I’d like to add, it is definitely some kind of inhuman torture to make people spend two hours a day sitting on a bus that doesn’t have a toilet. People in charge of the buses at work; you know who you are, and you’re evil.

Goal #2: Be more active on social media and work hard on my author platform.

Things slowed down a little this week, mostly because I’ve been tired, and partly because I didn’t want to overdo marketing the book. So there’s not much to report.

Goal #3: COMPLETE my zombie apocalypse novel, Nowhere to Hide.

Still done! I can totally screw up the other three goals, but you can’t take this one away from me! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

Goal #4: Write 500,000 words.

This week was definitely better than the past two, mostly because I’ve been rushing to prepare the blog for NaNoWriMo time. Also, as of the writing of this post I’ve been sitting in the airport for six hours, so I had to pass the time somehow. Anyway, what with the planning and scheduling and so on and so forth, I managed to end up with 8519 words this week. My total for the year still isn’t even half of the total goal, and I’m definitely suspecting that I’m not going to finish this goal again this year, but I do also have high hopes for NaNo, so we shall see.

Until next time!

Accountability Wednesdays: Week 41

Has it been a week already? This is actually quite unusual, but I feel like my shift is going by super-fast, which is awesome because I could really use my own bed and some baby snuggles right now. But I digress: it has, in fact, been a week, so here we are again!

Goal #1: Lose ten pounds and become healthier overall.

I can not attest to any kind of weight loss this week, but I can talk about my health which, let’s just say, hasn’t been the greatest. My stomach problems began acting up quite violently a few days ago, and it was not a fun time. Because of this I have renewed motivation to start taking care of my health much more-so than I have been doing. At the very least, I have to start paying more attention to what I eat, although I’m not 100% convinced that my intake is what causes my stomach problems. I also plan to go see my family doctor as soon as I get home because I’m officially convinced that the meds I’ve been taking are useless and I’d very much like to try something different that might not be quite so useless.

Goal #2: Be more active on social media and work hard on my author platform.

Things have been a little quieter on this front the past week because I’ve actually been pretty busy (see above comment about how the shift is going by super-fast). Mostly I’ve been promoting the book and looking into more reliable ways to promote the book. That said, if you’re a book reviewer and you might be interested in giving my zombie novel a go, please contact me! It’s surprisingly difficult to find reviewers who will do e-books. *raised eyebrow*

Goal #3: COMPLETE my zombie apocalypse novel, Nowhere to Hide.

DONE! 😀

Also, check it out… I added a “Buy My Book!” tab on the top banner. 🙂

Goal #4: Write 500,000 words.

My plan to write a bunch of blog stuff in advance didn’t go too far this week because, again, I was actually pretty busy. I did manage to write about 2000 words, which isn’t much, but is still something. I also came up with a plan for how I’m going to manage to blog through November while doing NaNoWriMo and I think it’s going to work just fine and take a bit of the stress off. So look forward to finding out about that!

For now, I’ve got more important things to concern myself with, such as curling up in bed and dreaming about selling a million books. ^_~

Accountability Wednesdays: Week 40

It’s that time of the week again, and while I don’t have much to report on the other three goals, those of you who saw my post on Monday know that there’s big news on one of them! So let’s just get right down to it…

Goal #1: Lose ten pounds and become healthier overall.

Well, I can tell you that before I flew back out West two days ago I was holding steady at 4 lbs lost, and I’m highly doubtful that I’m going to lose six more in the twelve weeks I have left in this year. But I guess we shall see. I haven’t been eating too poorly of late, but I haven’t been devoting any time to my health either because, to be blunt, I’ve been focusing on other things that are more important to me right now. That’s a good excuse, right? Well, maybe not, but that’s what I’m going with anyway.

Goal #2: Be more active on social media and work hard on my author platform.

There has been a definite bump in my social media activity this week, for reasons that shall be discussed in a moment. Aside from the obvious, though, I also recently received an opportunity from BzzAgent because of my social media activity, which is pretty cool. If you’re curious about it, check out this vid and keep your eyes open for my campaign contributions over the next few days!

Goal #3: COMPLETE my zombie apocalypse novel, Nowhere to Hide.

This is the big news, in case you missed it! This goal is 100% complete! Nowhere to Hide is now published and available for sale on Amazon, Kindle, and the CreateSpace.com e-store!

Check out the physical copy on Amazon.com to get a $1 discount off the cover price of $9.99. If you’d prefer the cheaper e-book version, remember that you don’t need to have a Kindle device to get it! You just need to download the free Kindle app on your iOS or Android device, and then you can order the e-book for $2.99.

If you do decide to pick up the book, please remember to return to Amazon or Kindle afterward and leave a review! Promotion is very important and I’m at the most difficult stage of that right now, so any help is deeply appreciated.

Goal #4: Write 500,000 words.

The past week was another slow one because I was focused on the whole self-publishing thing. I ended the week with approximately 2000 words. But the good news is that now that Nowhere to Hide is done, I can once again focus on writing new stuff. So with NaNoWriMo coming up in less than a month, my plan moving forward is to get as much blogging planned out as possible between now and Halloween, and then totally kill NaNo with my second novel, which will be the first in a fantasy YA series. Wish me luck!

Accountability Wednesdays: Week 39

Oh man…peeps, I am so disorganized this week that I almost forgot to write this post, and then I had to look up which week I’m on. So this is going to be a quick recap of the past week. Starting….now!

Goal #1: Lose ten pounds and become healthier overall.

I have no idea where I am on this one this week. I haven’t weighed myself, I’ve been eating neither better nor worse, and my stomach has been fairly stoic in general. I don’t even really know what to report other than that I’m still alive and kicking, so I’ve got that going for me, which is nice.

Goal #2: Be more active on social media and work hard on my author platform.

The social media world fell apart on me this week as I attempted to squeeze a bunch of important stuff into a short period of time. If you follow me on Twitter you may have seen a few tweets about editing and the like, but that was probably it. I’ve got two new YouTube videos that I’ve yet to format and post, and I’ve been all but invisible on other platforms. Here’s to fixing that in the following week!

Goal #3: COMPLETE my zombie apocalypse novel, Nowhere to Hide.

Finally, some good news to report! After struggling to get through my manuscript as quickly (and yet as thoroughly) as possible during the weekend, I finally managed to totally, 100%, for realsies this time, complete the absolute last copy of the novel file. Thank goodness I did that run-through too, because there were TONS of invisible typos. But that’s neither here nor there. What’s really important is that the file was uploaded to CreateSpace, everything checked out, and I am currently waiting on the edge of my seat for my physical proof copy to show up! As soon as I get that and confirm that everything prints fine, the book will finally be for sale! AHHHHHH!!!!!

Goal #4: Write 500,000 words.

One of these days I’m going to catch up on this one, I swear, but it won’t be today. I can tell you for sure that I wrote about 1000 words last week, but I can’t recall if there was anything aside from those 1000. I’ll catch up on it later…what’s really important right now is the whole completed novel thing. XD

Accountability Wednesdays: Week 38

I’m home! I’m home! Oh man, it is so nice to be home!

Don’t get me wrong; I actually don’t mind my work at all. But man, is it ever nice to have little-missy-snuggles, and a shower with decent water pressure, and a bed that smells right, and reasonably-fast internet, and the company of someone who makes me coffee and makes me laugh all day long.

(I had a long shift…give me this moment to glow.)

ANYway…

Goal #1: Lose ten pounds and become healthier overall.

So I finally did a weigh-in this morning, and I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, I’ve lost five pounds from what was the highest weight I’ve ever reached, so that’s pretty great. On the other hand, that five pounds brings me back down to where I started at the beginning of the year, so for the purposes of this goal I technically haven’t lost anything. But, I’m in a good mood, so I choose to take this as a win. That five pounds is almost entirely attributed to cutting soft drinks out of my diet, too. I haven’t been able to find the time to exercise (especially when I’m out at work doing my 15-hour days), but I have been able to restrict soft drinks to only certain foods (come on…you can’t drink water with pizza), and it’s made a huge difference.

On the “becoming healthier” side of things, my guts have been bothering me again, so that’s no good. But, the medic out on my work site offered me something called a “stomach protector” to test out while I’m on my days off, so we’ll see how that goes. I think the biggest thing is figuring out what my triggers are, but unfortunately that’s been more difficult than it sounds, especially since a food that I have no trouble eating one day will make me sick as a dog the next. My stomach likes to screw with me.

Also, mini-rant: when I went to see a gastroenterologist about these issues, he found nothing of any real concern, and concluded that my only problem was anxiety, which I’m tell you now actually really frustrated me, because here’s the thing… I agree that anxiety is an issue – it’s definitely the one trigger that I’m certain of – but anxiety did not cause my stomach problems. Stomach problems caused my anxiety. I bring this up now because I met a new coworker this past shift who has the exact same kinds of stomach problems and got the exact same explanation from his doctor. So I’d just like to say to the gut-doctor’s of the world: having major stomach problems is a very anxious situation, so please keep that in mind before telling people that their earth-shaking cramps and intestinal distress are effectively all in their minds.

Goal #2: Be more active on social media and work hard on my author platform.

I’m going to make a confession: I’m obsessed with stats. I check my blog stats about a dozen times a day, and probably once a day I check all of my social networks to see if I’ve gained or lost any followers. Doing so actually makes it difficult to really see how well you’re doing, because tend to focus on the little things, like the Twitter user that stopped following you today, or the fact that what you thought was a well-written blog post got no likes or comments. But when you force yourself to look at the big picture things become a little more clear. Since January I’ve gained about a hundred followers on this blog, which is about a 50% increase. In the past several months I’ve doubled my Twitter followers. I’ve dramatically increased my LinkedIn network over the past year and have actually been getting blog hits as a result. I’ve only had my Facebook Fan Page for a few months, but it has over 100 followers. All in all, I have to tell myself that I must be doing okay, because I’m in a much nicer spot today than I was on January 1st.

Goal #3: COMPLETE my zombie apocalypse novel, Nowhere to Hide.

Yes, I’m still in super-excitement mode on this goal! Last week I got some final notes back from my beta-reader, and I’ve made a couple of small changes based on those thoughts. I also reformatted the manuscript to a nicer-looking font, justified everything, and took some online advice for what kinds of margins to utilize. I now have a properly formatted, nice-looking file, and all I have to do is go through it one more time to scour for hidden typos. As soon as I’m finished with that, I’ll submit the file, wait the 24 hours it takes CreateSpace to approve the file (thanks for being so quick, CS!) and officially order my proof copies! And then I’ll twiddle my thumbs for approximately 5 business days, getting ever-more-anxious to see the end result. Wish me luck!

Goal #4: Write 500,000 words.

I haven’t been doing a very good job of reporting on this goal lately, and I’m going to continue that trend today. Rest assured that I have been keeping track, but my word-counts are scribbled on bits of paper that are tucked in a notebook that’s still packed in my carry-on suitcase, and I just don’t feel like going through all that right now. I will tell you that I wrote somewhere in the ballpark of about 3000 words toward blog posts this past week, which should bring me up around 200,000 words total. That’s not even halfway, and we’re almost in October, but as I mentioned before I have every intention of absolutely murdering NaNoWriMo this year, so hopefully that will help.

Now, with all that said, if you don’t mind I’m going to thoroughly enjoy the wondrous world that is my own house. Weeeeee!

Accountability Wednesdays: Week 37

Well, I’m a week into my shift, and believe me when I say that I’m ready to go home. No offense, Alberta, but your bone dry air and ridiculous temperature swings are getting on my nerves, just a little bit. I’m longing for the salty East-coast air and the not-quite-as-unreliable weather patterns. Also, I’m dying for a garlic fingers. Man, am I dying for a garlic fingers.

Anyway, that’s neither here nor there. Let’s get on with it.

Goal #1: Lose ten pounds and become healthier overall.

As per usual I can’t really comment on anything this week because I don’t have a scale. I can tell you that I’ve been pretty good this week for a lot of things. I’m still drinking lots of water (although I caved twice, but I don’t think two cans of pop in a full week is really so bad, do you) and I’ve been eating fairly healthy considering that I have to deal with camp food all day every day. I haven’t been able to get any exercise, because, you know…ridiculously unfit work hours…but I’ve been trying to move and stretch a lot throughout my shift instead of sitting on my backside all day every day. So there’s that, right?

Goal #2: Be more active on social media and work hard on my author platform.

It hasn’t been too bad of a week for this one either. I posted an extra video on YouTube to review the contents of my first Ipsy Glam Bag, and I’ve been trying to make sure that I tweet at least once a day. Facebook has been a little slow, but I’m okay with that because I’ve been noticing a slow-but-steady increase in followers and interactions via the other platforms. Long story short, thumbs up for this week.

Goal #3: COMPLETE my zombie apocalypse novel, Nowhere to Hide.

Guys…guys…guys…I’m getting super excited. My beta-reader recently got back to me and she had only a short list of minor issues that she thought could use addressing. I’m now in the process of compiling those issues and doing a last run-through of the manuscript to make sure there are no hidden typos. By this time next week I will be fixing those last issues/typos in the main manuscript file, resubmitting to CreateSpace, and from there it will be only 24 hours before I am able to order my proof copies. Those will take five business days to come, and assuming that they look okay, I will then be able to flip the switch, so to speak, and make the book available for purchase. You have no idea how pumped I am. In two weeks my first book could be for sale. I may never sell more than a handful of copies, but you have no idea how fulfilled I will be just to have my book actually be a book. AHHHH!!!!

Goal #4: Write 500,000 words.

Unfortunately as I am writing this I realize that I forgot to go through and keep track of what I wrote this week, so I’ll have to do that later, but I can tell you that it’s probably somewhere in the range of 2000. I’ve been taking it a little easy this week partly because I think I deserve it and partly because I know that once Nowhere to Hide is set up for sale I’ll be putting my nose to the grindstone and working hard on my next venture. So with that said, look forward to the future! There are great things on the horizon!

Accountability Wednesdays: Weeks 34, 35, and 36

Can I start out this post by getting a little weepy? Don’t worry, there haven’t been any more deaths in the family or anything like that, but I have another reason to be a bit teary-eyed today. You see, as this post becomes live my daughter – my only child, by the way – is taking part in her first ever class of kindergarten. For the rest of the year, three half-days a week, she’ll be taking part in a “school” program for 4-year-olds, making new friends, learning new things, and getting used to what it means to be in school with teachers instead of home with parents. I know that she’ll do great, and I know that it will be very good for her, and I’m not worried at all about her…but I can’t help being just a little bit sad. My baby girl isn’t a baby anymore. How does that happen? And how can I stop it? *cry*

Okay, okay…I’m okay. Let’s move on to other, less teary things.

The past few weeks have been rough, and you may have noticed that as a result I missed two accountability posts in a row. So this week will be a bit of a conglomerate of the past three weeks.

Goal #1: Lose ten pounds and become healthier overall.

I’m currently back out West again, so I can’t quote any numbers, but I can tell you that I’m currently experiencing a bit of an up-and-down period. Before the weeks that I missed, I’d been cutting out all beverages aside from water and tea, as well as trying to eat less in general, and that was going well. By the time I got home from my last shift I’d lost almost four pounds. But, as you know, the weeks that followed were busy and stressful. I had a couple of nights drinking (and eating, like, a metric ton of food) with family, followed by a shopping trip that involved a lot of poor meal choices, punctuated by a few days of flat-out refusing to do anything at all because I was so tired. As a result of all of that I’m fairly certain that I’ve gained back at least half – if not all – of what I lost. But I’m not letting that drag me down. I’m back on to the water and tea, and I’m determined to get a decent amount of sleep while I’m at work this shift. Wish me luck.

Goal #2: Be more active on social media and work hard on my author platform.

This goal has taken a back seat recently, since I’ve been so busy and stressed out, but it’s not all bad. I’ve had a difficult time keeping up with the blogging community because that involves so much reading, but I’ve been more active on Twitter, and I’ve been continuing to post videos on YouTube (please check them out…my handle is toreshitobinable). I even recorded a new video from my camp room last night, though it’s not been posted yet. All in all, I think I’m managing pretty well considering how busy I’ve been of late. This goal could definitely use more work, but I’m satisfied that I haven’t been screwing up too much. 😛

Goal #3: COMPLETE my zombie apocalypse novel, Nowhere to Hide.

Awesome, awesome, awesome news on this one! I didn’t get to talk about it two weeks ago, but I completed my mini-goal of finishing the final edits on the manuscript by the end of my last shift. I then shipped off the finished manuscript to my beta-reader for a final run-through, for which I am currently awaiting word on. But the best part? While I’ve been waiting for her, I fixed up my book cover, created a rear cover with a summary, and went through almost every step to self-publish on CreateSpace. My files have all been approved and I literally just have to hit “Print!” As soon as I get word from my beta-reader I’m going to go through the manuscript one more time to check for hidden typos and the like, and then it’s off to the printers! I’m so excited! I am seriously, genuinely almost there! AHHHH!!!!!!

Goal #4: Write 500,000 words.

You know what? I don’t even care about this goal right now because I’m so excited about my novel! AHHHH!!!!

Okay, okay, I do still care, but I can’t really report because I haven’t been keeping proper track of everything the past couple of weeks. I know that the first week I missed I had something like 7000 words, then the second week I wrote effectively nothing, and this past week I wrote probably about 3000 worth of subscription box reviews, so let’s just call it about 10,000 over the past three weeks. That puts me in around 200,000 words so far this year. That’s very far behind, but once I get the self-publishing bit out of the way I’ll have nothing left to do but write, and oh boy, have I got some stuff in my head that’s ready to get down onto paper. 😀

And on that cheery note, I’m going to dance off into the metaphorical sunset where my internal editor can live happily ever after. ❤

Accountability Wednesdays: Week 33

**Edit**
I wanted to add this quick message to thank everyone for the outpouring of support over my post this morning. Ryan and I were not close, but he was always a total sweetheart to me and I genuinely believe that the world is a little better for having had him in it. Thanks to everyone who read my post, and extra-special thanks to everyone who clicked on the video I shared at the bottom of it. Please continue to spread Ryan’s video so that others can hear his story even though he’s no longer around to tell it. I think that’s what’s important. LOVE LIFE!
**/Edit**

A little something I want to talk about before we get down to it this week. In case you hadn’t noticed, a little thing called the “ALS Ice Bucket Challenge” has taken the Internet by storm. The challenge involves dumping a bucket of ice water over your head to raise awareness for ALS, in addition to making a donation to the cause. The whole thing caught on in an insane way, with even the biggest of celebrities (and even some big businessmen like Bill Gates) rising to the challenge. In the past couple of days the challenge began to sweep through my own family, so two nights ago I recorded the following video:

My aunt nominated me for the challenge while I’m on shift out West, so I had to get a little creative by swiping a bin from the camp cleaners and doing the challenge in the shower to avoid a huge mess, but I managed it! (Also, still totally made a huge mess…lol) My aunt also nominated my husband, whose water was colder than mine judging by his reaction, and then my daughter decided that she wanted to do it as well…too cute!

For more information on the challenge and ALS, check out this link.

Okay, with that out of the way, here’s my weekly update:

Goal #1: Lose ten pounds and become healthier overall.

As usual, while on shift, I can’t report anything concerning my weight, but I can tell you that I’ve accomplished some good things this week. For one thing, I’ve gone the entire week without drinking anything other than water and tea (with nothing in it). Literally, that’s all I’ve been drinking. The amount of pop alone that I’ve cut out should definitely be worth something. In addition to that, I’ve been so much better with the sweets and junk food, you have no idea. I’ve been letting myself have one sweet a day (a pair of cookies, or a pastry, or whatever) and that’s it. I only broke that one day, when I had two sweets.

Another thing I’ve recently begun doing is not eating supper when we get back to camp at the end of the day. My work days are 12.5-hours long, with an hour-long bus ride either way, so we’re only actually physically in the camp for 9.5 hours a day. That means that if I eat the supper there, I’m having this big heavy mean almost immediately before bed. And I was sleeping terribly. When I finally put two and two together I started to pack up my supper and take it to work the next day, allowing me to stop eating approximately 4 hours before going to bed, and I’ve been sleeping much better. It’s making a big difference.

Lastly, I’ve been very diligent about taking my gut medicine (I only screwed up one part of one day) and it’s definitely been helping. My stomach has been so much better than usual, it’s almost creepy.

Goal #2. Be more active on social media and work hard on my author platform.

Things were a little slow this week because I was busy working on other things, but there was a bit of activity the last couple of days with the ice bucket challenge stuff. Spread the word! Actually, now that I think about it, one reason that I didn’t accomplish much on this goal this week is because I was super-distracted by checking out all the celebrity ice bucket videos. Tom Hiddleston’s was truly stupendous, and Chris Pratt is definitely the funniest one yet. Go see!

Goal #3. COMPLETE my zombie apocalypse novel, Nowhere to Hide.

You guys, I did so well this week. I expected to get a chapter done a day, which would mean that I’d be done by the time this shift is over. Well, I’ve still got six days of this shift left, and guess what? I’ve only got one chapter left! In fact, by the time some of you read this post I’ll probably be done! And then it’s off to the beta-reader and hopefully I’ll be getting to work on the whole publishing bit by next shift. I am PUMPED!

Goal #4. Write 500,000 words.

Remember how I said that this goal would probably dwindle because I was going to be focusing on the editing stuff? Well I couldn’t work on any of the editing during work hours, but I could scribble stuff in a notebook during breaks and lunch, which is how I somehow (I’m still not quite sure myself) managed to write 7136 words. I’m totally stoked. I actually managed to have a successful week on all four goals, and that’s while working 12.5 hour days. How awesome am I? Totally awesome.