#doubt I’ll ever publish it but it’s a comfort writing exercise

[fistfuloflightning]

”Hashirama thinks—“ “I already know what he thinks. I want to know what you think. You were Hashirama’s shadow when you were Senju Tobirama. But you’re an Uchiha now, and that means standing at my side, and not in my shadow. This village is as much your making as it is mine or Hashirama’s.” Tobirama remained silent, red eyes fixed unseeing on her cup. Madara knew the peace haunted her in a way it didn’t the others. Her sole purpose for existence was no longer there and she was learning there was more to life than constant vigilance and a kunai in hand. And she was terrified of it.

[umbreonix]

Fanfic Writer Interview! Thanks for tagging me Emmy <3 (@chromochaotic)

I swear the most stressful part of these is tagging other people XD None of you have to do this but, @dualityoftoad, @jadeile-writes, @knightfire 

How many works do you have on AO3?  7! (+22 on ff.net but I will spend the rest of this exercise/life pretending those don’t exist)

What’s your total AO3 word count? 194,093… huh. Wish I put that effort towards my Master’s thesis in retrospect.

How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

2 fandoms: Zelda BOTW and Hazbin Hotel 😊 Again ff.net does not exist so let’s mention of those

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Given I only have seven so this is almost just a list of my fics... Finding Link (Revalink), Beating about the bush (Revalink), Ace In The Hole (Radiohusk), Waiting for You (Sidlink), Curtain Up (Radiohusk)

Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

Always! But sometimes I’m really slow about it. (There was a short period where if I took too long I just wouldn’t because it felt like I missed that window but I’ve overcome that hang up now) They make me happy and I want people to know that I appreciate them. And interaction is just fun.

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Angst? What’s that? I could never. Angst only exists in short spurts in my fics to make the comfort sweeter and the happy endings happier.

Do you write crossovers? If so, what’s the craziest one you’ve written?

Not really… (again forcefully shoves ff.net under the rug)

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

I guess? Not on ao3 though and the only comment immediately coming to mind was more of stern advice from someone who didn’t actually read the fic but thought I needed to do a better job on the summary, which, fair enough.

Do you write smut? If so what kind?

Haha no… I kinda wanna but I also feel like I could never XD If I ever do it’s gonna be in an unpublished google doc that I’ll share if someone specifically asks… (Only cause I’ve written some funny nsfw  bab scenarios in my head)

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Haha I hope not?

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope. Or… actually I guess technically yes? A lot of people (moreso on the radiohusk side) say in comments that they read my fics entirely over internet translators… wonder how well that actually works… XD

What’s your all time favorite ship?

(Revalink, Revalink, Revalink) It just connects with me somehow. I have so many au and fic ideas all the time (most which will never see the light of day because too many thoughts, too little time) I really like radiohusk but I also have to strain a lot to write them for some reason.

Whats a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

*burns the rug that ff.net and all it’s unfinished fics have been swept under* “Hmm? What? Nahhhh I intend to finish all my fics”

What are your writing strengths?

Hmm…

I think I write in a way that’s pretty easy to digest. Like I’m not really a details person… which can sometimes be nice? I think everything I write kind of feels like a sitcom. There’s not exactly a complex plot and you don’t need to use a lot of mental power reading because everything is kind of ‘punchy’ and ‘quick to the point’.

What are your writing weaknesses?

Everything I said above but in a negative context instead LOL.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I always just write in English italics when someone is speaking a different language  but I’m not sure that’s the best way. I like it when fics do it in the format of “Das ist mir Wurst” (This is sausage to me).

But see…

That would require me to WRITE those sentences in diff languages and no thank you. Do you know how many languages Husk speaks in Hazbin??? (7)

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

….. Ouran Highschool host club MorixOC. NEXT QUESTION PLS.

What’s your favorite fic that you’ve written?

Beating About The Bush without really any doubt at all. (I’m starting to feel pretty good about Ace In the Hole too even though I struggle so much to write it)

OH! And “A Moment’s Repose”! That Revalink oneshot might actually be an example of my best writing. I wrote it for an event a month early and because I am incapable of not tweaking things for as long as they aren’t published, I LITERALLY tweaked and added to it for a month. It’s the only thing I’ve ever written where you can’t see me rushing to the end XD

[so-caffeinated]

Writing ramblings.... 

I find I’m at a bit of a crossroads with my writing and I’m very much torn about how to move forward. The only clear thing is that I am moving forward. The question that remains is how. 

I haven’t written in nearly the past two weeks, mostly due to the first actual family vacation we’ve ever taken but also because I’ve spent a great deal of time reading and brainstorming. While everyone told me I needed a break after years of doing this non-stop, I know myself and I’m a person who thrives entirely on habit. Being without it is unsettling and going back to it is a lot like restarting a diet or exercise routine. It isn’t easy. 

On one hand, I have a tremendous amount left of the FiCoN verse to write. I have story after story already plotted out in my head, decades of their lives sorted out. On the other, I have re-imagined these characters in so many original settings that would be publishable and Arrow-free that it’s nearly too much. 

There’s no question that I need to be writing original work and publishing it. The income is necessary. Enough has happened here in Ohio that we’ve decided we’re not comfortable raising our kids in such a sexist, racist, homophobic environment and we’re moving back with my parents in Portland until we’re able to afford to buy our own place there. Thus... yeah, I need income. Badly.

So, the question becomes one of balance. 

Right now, my hope is to start working on original work Monday-Friday as a full time ‘job’ and keep writing FiCoN verse as a weekend ‘hobby.’ I don’t yet know if I truly can. I’ve never done well at writing more than one story at a time, though I’ve tried in the past, but maybe I’ve learned and grown enough these last few years to manage it. But in addition to that, I’ll have my hands full with packing and readying the house to sell and all the things that go along with moving cross-country for the next few months. Writing time will be scarce for a while. 

What does that mean for you? I’m not sure yet. I’m not even entirely sure what it means for me. Tempest will go on as planned, surely, and the four one-shots following it are already drafted as well. But I have to imagine that regardless of what path I go down here, at some point this summer or maybe in the fall, updates will become less regular. I think they have to. I’m struggling with that because it feels like failing myself, but at the same time that’s somewhat contradictory because working toward publication is in no way a failure. I have never (and will never) consider published works superior to fanfic - fanfic is not a stepping stone; it’s an achievement in its own right - but it’s a different sort of challenge and one I would never attempt without having the experience in fanfic that I do.

So, I guess the TL;DR is updates will slow after Tempest. I do not - at this point - think they will stop entirely. I still have plans... so many plans for Will and Amelia, for Nate and Penny, for Ellie and for Sara and for Eric and for Bethany. But I think I need to stop making promises about when and even if these things will happen. I think they will. I doubt I’ll find satisfaction in telling their stories anew in different settings as original works. But it is possible. And if that happens, I don’t want it to take you guys by surprise. 

Anyhow, this is just me trying to put my thoughts down. Feel free to chime in with yours, either through reply or asks. 

[itsyourturnblog]

In my last post, I wrote about courage. This week, I’d like to take that up a notch by telling you about my hero, Jim Lovell. In this post, we’ll learn about his incredible courage. Next week, we’ll learn about his his ability to overcome failure. And the week after that, we’ll talk about his grace under pressure.

Jim Lovell is best known for being the Commander of the “successful failure” that was Apollo 13 (and for subsequently becoming a member of the “Tom Hanks played me in a movie” club). Apollo 13 was indeed an astounding feat, but ultimately, it wasn’t nearly as important as one of Jim’s earlier missions, Apollo 8. And that’s because up until that time, though nearly two dozen people had been to space, no human had ever left earth’s orbit.

That changed with Apollo 8.

The mission sounded simple enough. Along with fellow crew members Frank Borman and William Anders, Jim’s mission wasn’t to land on the moon, it was only to see if they could get there, circle it 10 times and then come home.

Oh, and also to take one of the most significant photos ever taken — “Earthrise”.

But think about that for a second. When they left, they had no idea if they’d ever set foot on earth again. They didn’t know if the computer guidance system would work as designed, they didn’t know what would happen when they went around the backside of the moon, and they didn’t know if the math was right and that there would be enough fuel for the return journey.

And yet, they went.

It was an astounding act of courage. Perhaps, the greatest single act of courage in human history.

Just how did they do it?

First, the massive Saturn V rocket blasted them into orbit. There, they spent about two and a half hours testing various components of the ship before reigniting their rocket engine for “translunar injection” (yes, that phrase makes me laugh too — we’re tragically immature people, you and I).

And off they went into the unknown and, the history books. There was no hesitation. They just did it.

Now think of your own life.

Most of us manage to get ourselves into orbit. We leave home, train for our chosen career, find love and friendship, maybe have a family and buy a house. At first, there’s a rush of exhilaration. We’ve done it! We’re making it on our own. God only knows what excitement and adventures will come next!

But then, we get comfortable. We learn the patterns of our orbit. We look out the window and nothing surprises us. We know what to expect. And over time, the notion of leaving orbit becomes frightening. The longer we stay put, the more we begin to doubt we can do it. And so, rather than a brief layover on the way to the great, exciting unknown, our orbit becomes our home. We’re just far enough away from earth that we don’t feel like a complete failure, but we never learn what we’re truly capable of. And we never see what lies beyond our immediate understanding.

And that’s a terrible shame.

Ask yourself:

Are you sitting on a great idea?

Do you turn down opportunities that you know you should be taking advantage of?

Are you miserable at work, but afraid to even begin the process of looking for something new?

Are you using alcohol, drugs, shopping, sex, sugar, porn, gambling or something else as an escape from reality?

Do you avoid people, places and situations that might make you uncomfortable?

Do you use perfectionism as a tool to avoid starting/finishing initiatives?

Do you allow toxic people to undermine you and hinder your personal growth?

Do you subscribe to an endless list of “safe problems” — the small nagging kind that never seem to get solved?

We’ve each been given an extraordinary gift; this conscious, self-aware life. You are here to use your particular mix of traits and talents to benefit the world around you.

You weren’t meant to stay in orbit. Here’s how to break free of it.

4 Questions that will Help You Escape Earth’s Orbit

1: What does escape from Earth’s orbit look like (to you)?

It’s different for everybody, your orbit might be my moon shot. But some of us are so used to being in orbit that we can’t even imagine what a life beyond it might look like.

When working with clients, I use the Rocking Chair Exercise to help them visualize their ideal life experience.

Here’s a narrated video to take you through the exercise.

Or, you can contemplate the questions below.

Close your eyes and take three deep breaths. Imagine yourself on your 95th birthday. You are happy and healthy. And, you’re looking back at your life, a life that was ideal for you.

Who are you as a person?

What do other people value about you?

What achievements are you most proud of?

What added meaning to your life?

What gives you a sense of fulfillment?

Who is in your life — what kind of people are they?

What kind of career did you have?

How did you ensure you were healthy?

What did you do for fun?

How did you serve your community?

2: What keeps you from escaping Earth’s orbit? What is the source of that gravity?

What negative patterns of belief and behavior are you clinging too? How are you numbing yourself to the reality of what’s happening in your life?

Examples of negative beliefs:

I don’t have what it takes.

If I’m successful, I’ll end up alone.

I’m unworthy of achieving my dreams because at my core, I’m not a good person.

Examples of negative patterns:

Victim mindset

Self-shaming

Toxic relationships

Outlandish, La La Land expectations

Examples of numbing behaviors/addictions:

Food

Drugs/alcohol

Endless Nagging Little Problems

Video games

Porn

Gambling

3: What will be the rocket fuel that blasts you out of orbit?

How will you take better care of yourself?

How will you cultivate persistence in your life?

What boundaries will you set to protect yourself?

How will you assure consistent action?

What else will be your rocket fuel?

4: What’s your plan for when things go wrong?

This is a big one.

The thing most people don’t know about Jim Lovell, is that during the Apollo 8 mission he made a mistake. A big one. The kind that nearly killed him and his fellow crew members.

We’ll talk about that next week.

Hey there! If you’d like to learn more about getting and staying unstuck, sign-up for my weekly newsletter (green box at top right of your screen on desktop, or under this post on mobile) so you’ll never miss a post. I promise I’m not a spammy nightmare. One per week, and that’s it.

How to Escape Earth’s Orbit was originally published in It's Your Turn on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

by Judy Sims via It's Your Turn - Medium #itsyourturn #altMBA #SethGodin #quotes #inspiration #stories #change #transformation #writers #writing #self #shipping #personaldevelopment #growth #education #marketing #entrepreneurship #leadership #personaldev #wellness #medium #blogging #quoteoftheday #inspirationoftheday

[darcylindbergh]

ok ok ok i’m finally getting caught up on some of my tags! @nottoolateforthegame and i think also @a-candle-for-sherlock tagged me in this one: get to know your fanfic authors!

     1. How many fics have you written?

26. ish. well. ao3 tells me I’ve published 26, but one of those is an ongoing wip. does that count? and i have one short story published in A Murmuring of Bees. 

     2. Where do you share your writing? What is your pseud there?

ao3! my pseud is darcylindbergh. outside of ao3 I’m still Darcy Lindbergh. and on tumblr, of course, in my darcy writes tag.

     3. Where/when do you usually write? 

anywhere! I’m extremely unpicky. I like best to write at work at my desk, or I write at home, alternating between my table and my sofa, or I write at my parents’ in their sunroom, or I write in the car while I’m driving (leaving myself voice messages, not typing!), or in bed sometimes, or sometimes in the shower even (i have a mini pad of waterproof paper). I write on my phone or on my laptop or on legal pads. I write whenever I have time or whenever I have something that I think is worth writing down, really. 

     4. What is your favorite fanfic that you’ve read?

I’ll just direct you to my bookmarks but who honestly could even say. there are sooo many good fics in this fandom, and I’ve read some very very good fics in other fandoms too. 

     5. What is your fave fic that you’ve written?

this has really become such a fraught question for me because so many of my fics do something different for me. between each beat are words unsaid is important because that was the fic that gave me leslie. if nobody speaks of remarkable things is important because it was an exercise in healing an old wound, and carrying up his morning tea is important because it was an exercise in healing a wound I’ve not quite yet sustained. i had the most fun writing the napoleon (hello 80s halloween au), and writing a good old fashioned happy ending and that whole ‘verse was an adrenalin high and every good thing fandom can be. the thunder underneath his ribs and the dead-end case of the kilted kirkyard killer are my two favorite ones to read. 

     6. What inspired you to start writing fanfic?

I had a hurt that wouldn’t go away. It still hasn’t, but it’s manageable now. Sharing makes it manageable. The obvious care that this fandom has had for me in the aftermath of it has made it manageable. 

     7. What is your favorite trope to read?

bedsharing, fake relationship. i’m a huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge slut for sick fic. nervous proposals. miscommunication. soulmates. post-nightmare/bad case comforts.  

     8. What is your fave trope to write?

“heart to heart down the pub with Lestrade.” I think I’ve only done it once in fic but it’s my absolute fav. also this isn’t a trope but it’s one of my most fav things I’ve ever pulled off in a fic so I’m putting it: in all five chapters of carrying up his morning tea, I never called Mary by her name. It’s from Sherlock’s POV and deals a lot with the aftermath of being shot and John having chosen her, so I made it so that Sherlock never ever uses her name, which serves to both cloak her presence out of Sherlock’s life and shows a certain kind of grief and pain that still exists around her betrayal. The only place it appears is in the tags. It’s such a small detail and tbh I don’t think anyone even noticed it but I love it. 

     9. What is the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever read/heard/would like to share?

let yourself write shitty first drafts. I have the hardest time following this advice myself but when I do, I never regret it. also: when in doubt, take a shower. 

     10. What is your favorite feedback you’ve received as an author?

it was an old note in a bookmark on if nobody speaks. it’s not there now, but it said, “for when I don’t have the words.” it is the most important thing anyone has ever said about my writing. the most important. i hope they’ve found their words. 

if you write fic and you wanna talk about it (you know you do!) feel free to answer these questions too!!! talk yourself up. brag. lemme hear it. love you. 

[centerofstupidity]

Fifty Shades of Grey Chapter 1 Snark

If you enjoy the content you are reading, please like and follow the Center of Stupidity blog.

Interested in reading all of the current Fifty Shades of Grey chapter snarks? They can be found here. 

Next E.L. James Book Snark: Fifty Shades Darker (Fifty Shades of Grey # 2). 

Chapter Summary: Just like Bella, Anastasia Steele is a clumsy and cold-hearted bitch who hates blondes. And E.L. James has the subtlety of a seal-clubber.

Our chapter starts with our main character, Anastasia Steele is glaring at herself in the mirror.

You might be thinking “What’s her frustration?”

I scowl with frustration at myself in the mirror. Damn my hair—it just won’t behave, and damn Katherine Kavanagh for being ill and subjecting me to this ordeal.

Having a bad hair day sucks but you shouldn’t be blaming someone for your problem.  

I should be studying for my final exams, which are next week, yet here I am trying to brush my hair into submission.

See what E.L. James did? She used the word “submission” in a book about BDSM.  

Clearly, she is so clever and subtle.  

So Anastasia Swan tells herself not to sleep with wet hair and tries to control her messy hair.  

I roll my eyes in exasperation and gaze at the pale, brown-haired girl with blue eyes too big for her face staring back at me, and give up. My only option is to restrain my wayward hair in a ponytail and hope that I look semi-presentable.

I get it, E.L. James. You are trying to convince me that Ana is a beautiful girl but doesn’t know it.  

This is undermined by the fact that Ana is describing herself in the mirror. 

It makes Ana sound vain. How many people look at themselves in the mirror and describe their hair color and eye color? 

So after breaking “don’t ever describe your character by having them look in a mirror” rule, Ana decides to bitch and moan.  

Kate is my roommate, and she has chosen today of all days to succumb to the flu.

“How dare the bitch get sick without my permission?“

Therefore, she cannot attend the interview she’d arranged to do, with some mega-industrialist tycoon I’ve never heard of, for the student newspaper.

For a guy that she doesn’t know, Anastasia only knows:

The name of his company. 

His time is precious. 

He is a major benefactor for the college. 

He is an exceptional entrepreneur.  

Damn her extracurricular activities.

“It is so annoying that my friend has a social life and likes to do extracurricular activities.“  

Kate apologizes to Ana and explains that it took her nine months to get the interview and it will take six months to reschedule.

Kate also explains that as the school editor, she can’t blow this off.  

How does Ana react to her friend’s plea?  

How does she do it? Even ill she looks gamine and gorgeous, strawberry blond hair in place and green eyes bright, although now red-rimmed and runny. I ignore my pang of unwelcome sympathy.

Her friend is feeling unwell and she’s acting like a catty little bitch.  

Anastasia agrees and tells Kate to go back to bed and asks her if she wants some meds.

Kate gives Ana the questions and the mini-disc recorder. Kate tells Ana how to record and then asks her to take notes.

Anastasia complains to Kate that she knows nothing about him. Then Kate tells her that the questions will help her with the interview.  

Ana agrees to help her out to which Kate calls her a “lifesaver.“  

Gathering my backpack, I smile wryly at her, then head out the door to the car. I cannot believe I have let Kate talk me into this. But then Kate can talk anyone into anything.

It is painfully obvious that we are supposed to see Kate as a manipulative bitch.  

But Anastasia has done nothing but bitching and moaning about helping her friend and how it is a terrible inconvenience.  

So the only bitch I’m seeing starts with an “Ana” and ends with a “stasia”.

She’s articulate, strong, persuasive, argumentative, beautiful—and she’s my dearest, dearest friend.

If you were really her friend, you would be helping her out eagerly and willingly and not be complaining and make snide remarks.  

Anastasia is driving down the road in her friend’s Mercedes.  

And just like Bella, Ana has a quirky old vehicle.

Oh, the Merc is a fun drive, and the miles slip away as I hit the pedal to the metal.

Two things, E.L. James.  

It’s either “floor it” or “put the pedal to the metal”.  

And nobody says “put the pedal to the metal” anymore.  

Anastasia is heading towards Grey’s global enterprise. It is a twenty story office building with glass and steel.  

The building has “Grey House written discreetly in steel over the glass front doors."

Why is it called "Grey House”? The name of his company is Grey Enterprises Holdings, Inc.

And since it is a company, why would the name be written “discreetly”? A business name should be easily visible.  

Anastasia enters the large “glass, steel, and white sandstone” lobby.  

She sees an attractive blonde at the front desk who is sharply dressed.  

Anastasia tells the woman that she is here to see Mr. Grey.  

The blonde woman raises an eyebrow at Ana.  

I’m beginning to wish I’d borrowed one of Kate’s formal blazers rather than worn my navy-blue jacket. I have made an effort and worn my one and only skirt, my sensible brown knee-length boots, and a blue sweater. For me, this is smart.

Translation: She raided Andrea Sachs’s wardrobe.  

Ana tries to pretend that she is not intimidated by the big bad and evil blonde.  

The blonde tells Ana to sign in and where Christian Grey is located.  

She smiles kindly at me, amused no doubt, as I sign in.

I swear to God, Anastasia is more paranoid than Bella Swan.  

The woman gives Ana a security pass with visitor stamped on it.  

I can’t help my smirk. Surely it’s obvious that I’m just visiting. I don’t fit in here at all. Nothing changes. I inwardly sigh.

Just like what I said about Bella, I don’t give a damn a whiny little bitch who complains about everything 24/7.  

Ana walks past two security guards who are “more smartly dressed than I am."

Anastasia gets in the elevator and the door opens to another large lobby that looks identical to the previous one.  

And there is another young blonde woman who greets Anastasia Swan.  

As Ana is waiting, she looks around the room. She is "momentarily paralyzed” by the floor-to-ceiling window with a view of the Seattle skyline.  

If only Ana’s mouth could be stitched shut…  

Well, at least she has stopped complaining.

Anastasia then starts to complain again. She looks for the questions and “ inwardly cursing Kate for not providing me with a brief biography.”

Ana is one of those people who will agree or offer to help you but once you are out of earshot, they start to complain about you and how it is such an inconvenience to assist you.  

I know nothing about this man I’m about to interview. He could be ninety or he could be thirty.

Here’s an idea…  

Why don’t you pull out your cellphone and Google Christian Grey’s name?  

Silly me. Since this is a P2P (pulled to publish) Twilight fanfic, cell phones don’t exist and people have computers with a dial-up modem.  

Ana is fidgeting in her chair.  

I’ve never been comfortable with one-on-one interviews, preferring the anonymity of a group discussion where I can sit inconspicuously at the back of the room.

A Bella Swan knockoff being anti-social? Shocking!  

To be honest, I prefer my own company, reading a classic British novel, curled up in a chair in the campus library.

“Like Bella, I read 18th century English literature which means I’m smart.”

I roll my eyes at myself. Get a grip, Steele. Judging from the building, which is too clinical and modern, I guess Grey is in his forties: fit, tanned, and fair-haired to match the rest of the personnel.

Realistically, Grey would be in his forties.  

But this is bad porn filled with clusterfuckery so Grey is going to be in his twenties and hung like a horse.  

Another well-dressed blonde shows up and Ana Swan makes a bitchy remark.  

What is it with all the immaculate blondes? It’s like Stepford here.

What do Stephenie Meyer, E.L. James, and Laurell K. Hamilton have in common?  

They are all shitty writers and hate blondes.  

And the Stepford comment? That’s rich coming from Ana.  

As soon as Ana starts dating a guy, she becomes brainless and submissive.  

A blonde woman asks if she can take Ana’s jacket.

She also asks if anyone has offered Ana something to drink.

“Um—no.” Oh dear, is Blonde Number One in trouble?

Cut the crap, Ana. It’s obvious that you don’t care about the woman.  

If you did, you wouldn’t be calling her "Blonde Number One”.  

And here is some pointless dialogue.  

“Would you like tea, coffee, water?” she asks, turning her attention back to me.

“A glass of water. Thank you,” I murmur.

“Olivia, please fetch Miss Steele a glass of water.” Her voice is stern. Olivia scoots up and scurries to a door on the other side of the foyer.

“My apologies, Miss Steele, Olivia is our new intern. Please be seated. Mr. Grey will be another five minutes.”

Olivia returns with a glass of iced water.

“Here you go, Miss Steele.”

“Thank you.”

Let’s do a writing exercise, shall we?

Let’s see if we can take this chunk of pointless dialogue and whittle it down.  

I’ll go first.  

One of the blonde receptionists offered me a glass of water. She gave it to me and I thanked her.

The fact that E.L. James is writing boring dialogue and descriptions that read like a shopping list gives me the impression that she heard the writing rule “show don’t tell” and interpreted it literally.  

“Show don’t tell” DOES NOT mean you give everything a blow-by-blow description.  

In fact, good writing strike a balance between showing and telling.  

Perhaps Mr. Grey insists on all his employees being blonde. I’m wondering idly if that’s legal.

It’s violating Equal Employment Opportunity Act.  And Grey should be buried under several anti-discrimination class action lawsuits.  

A Black guy walks in the room so we now know that Christian isn’t a goose-stepping Nazi.  

Ana complains again that she has worn the wrong clothes.  

Ana remarks that one of the blondes is more nervous than her.  

One of the blondes tells Ana that Christian Grey is now ready to see her.  

Ana is all nervous and is told that she can go right into his office.

I push open the door and stumble through, tripping over my own feet and falling headfirst into the office. Double crap—me and my two left feet! I am on my hands and knees in the doorway to Mr. Grey’s office, and gentle hands are around me, helping me to stand.

Isn’t E.L. James a master at subtle foreshadowing?  

Ana is surprised that Christian is an attractive young man and not some old curmudgeon surrounded by a gaggle of blondes.  

He’s tall, dressed in a fine gray suit, white shirt, and black tie with unruly dark copper-colored hair and intense, bright gray eyes that regard me shrewdly.

In other words, he is Edward Cullen minus the sparkling skin and golden eyes.  

This line “black tie with unruly dark copper colored hair and intense, bright gray eyes that regard me shrewdly” could have been better worded.  

Because right now, it sounds like the tie has auburn hair and gray eyes looking at Ana shrewdly.  

As our fingers touch, I feel an odd exhilarating shiver run through me. I withdraw my hand hastily, embarrassed. Must be static.

It’s bad enough that E.L. James will depict a relationship based on abuse and obsession as being signs of tru luv.  

Now she has the two main characters feeling an instant electric connection.  

What’s next? Will fireworks go off? Will cherubs start to sing?

I blink rapidly, my eyelids matching my heart rate.

"It is so sexy blinking like a malfunctioning Furby.”

Ana explains that Kate couldn’t come so she is doing the interview instead.  

Christian asks who she is and "He looks mildly interested, but above all, polite."

Ana introduces herself and thinks that she saw Christian smirk. He asks Ana if she would like to sit down.  

After Ana sits down, she looks around the office. She gives a long description of what the office looks like.  

I’ll spare you the details but she thinks it looks gorgeous. Christian tells Ana who the artist is and she tells him that the office looks lovely.

I am so bored. Get on with the story, E.L. James.  

Apart from the paintings, the rest of the office is cold, clean, and clinical. I wonder if it reflects the personality of the Adonis who sinks gracefully into one of the white leather chairs opposite me.

We get, E.L. James.  

Christian Grey is a hunk and you Anastasia Steele want to bang him.  

After marveling at the beautiful office and the hunky guy, Ana finally retrieves Kate’s questions from her satchel.  

Next, I set up the digital recorder and am all fingers and thumbs, dropping it twice on the coffee table in front of me. Mr. Grey says nothing, waiting patiently—I hope—as I become increasingly embarrassed and flustered.

He’s probably wondering who is the blushing and blithering idiot who is in front of him.  

But Christian finds Ana’s bumblefucking to be amusing.  He tells Ana to take her time and has no problem with her recording his answers.  

It turns out that the interview will appear in the student newspaper and this year Christian Grey will be presenting everyone with their degrees.  

Ana says that he is very young to have a massive empire and asks him what does he attribute to his success.  

Christian is disappointed with the question but replies that he is good at judging people and has a great team that he greatly rewards.  

Christian adds that he makes decisions based on logic and facts.

“Maybe you’re just lucky.” This isn’t on Kate’s list—but he’s so arrogant. His eyes flare momentarily in surprise.

For a demure wallflower, she has no problem with being rude and insulting.  

Christian tells her that he doesn’t believe in luck and he works very hard. He then quotes Harvey Firestone.

“You sound like a control freak.” The words are out of my mouth before I can stop them.

Keep in mind that Anastasia is representing Kate.  

And Kate’s reputation as the school’s newspaper editor is riding on this interview.  

So every time Ana insults Christian, it jeopardizes Kate’s reputation.

“Oh, I exercise control in all things, Miss Steele,” he says without a trace of humor in his smile.

Ana blushes and her heart races.

Why does he have such an unnerving effect on me? His overwhelming good looks maybe? The way his eyes blaze at me?

Because he is Edward Cullen and you are Bella Swan. 

And since this is a P2P Twilight fanfic, we must have insta lust disguised as tru luv.  

Ana is drooling over Christian and everything he does gives her a massive ladyboner.  

Since this is only chapter one, Ana’s ladyboner is not dancing the "merengue with some salsa moves”.  

“Besides, immense power is acquired by assuring yourself in your secret reveries that you were born to control things,” he continues, his voice soft.

I’m sure Adolf Hitler and Francisco Franco felt the same way.

Anastasia Swan asks if Christian feels the immense power.  

He replies that it gives him a certain sense of power because if he suddenly decided to sell his business tomorrow, then thousands of people would be out of a job.

“Don’t you have a board to answer to?” I ask, disgusted.

“I own my company. I don’t have to answer to a board.”  

That is not how a corporation WORKS!

Every public company must have a board of directors.  

Even some private and non-profit companies that have a board of directors.  

Ana asks Christian if he has any hobbies or interests outside of work.  

He says that he has expensive hobbies.  

Of course, Ana won’t stop talking about how Christian Cullen is so sexy.  

We get more boring dialogue and Christian reveals that he is a private person and doesn’t like to give interviews.  

Ana then asks if that’s the case, then why did he agree to do this interview.

Christian says it is because he is a benefactor of the university and Kate kept badgering him. He claims that “I admire that kind of tenacity."

But considering the fact that Christian is a controlling and manipulative douchebag, he is so full of shit.  

I know how tenacious Kate can be. That’s why I’m sitting here squirming uncomfortably under his penetrating gaze when I should be studying for my exams.

“We can’t eat money, Miss Steele, and there are too many people on this planet who don’t have enough to eat.”

I believe E.L. James wrote this so that we think that Christian is a nice guy and marvel at his philanthropic ways.  

But let’s be honest. The only person that he cares about is himself.  

Christian says it is a "shrewd business” while Ana thinks he is disingenuous.  

Ana asks him if he has a philosophy.  

“I don’t have a philosophy as such. Maybe a guiding principle—Carnegie’s: ‘A man who acquires the ability to take full possession of his own mind may take possession of anything else to which he is justly entitled.’ I’m very singular, driven. I like control—of myself and those around me.”

“So you want to possess things?” You are a control freak.

It’s funny how Ana seems surprised that he is a controlling bastard.  

It’s like what my grandmother always told me: When people tell you who they are, believe them.

Again, this is at odds with someone who wants to feed the world, so I can’t help thinking that we’re talking about something else, but I’m mystified as to what it is.

I’ll give you a big hint, Ana. It starts with “S” and ends with “x”.  

Ana asks Christian questions about him being adopted and if he sacrificed having a family for his job. Of course, it pisses him off.

Christian replies that he never wants to have children and be married. 

“Are you gay, Mr. Grey?”

He inhales sharply, and I cringe, mortified.

E.L. James is implying that being gay is something insulting.

As Johnny Galecki wisely put it:

Like a good friend, Ana blames Kate and “her curiosity”.

Since Christian’s masculinity is fragile like porcelain china, he is quick to say that he isn’t gay.

And Christian is pissed because the question challenged his manhood. So Christian is a psychopath AND homophobic.

Ana apologies for the assault on his manliness and frantically explains that she is only reading off Kate’s questions.  

He asks her if she is on the student paper and she says no and Kate is her roommate.

Christian asks if Ana volunteered to do the interview. Ana gets pissy but when she looks into his eyes she is “compelled to answer the truth.”

“I was drafted. She’s not well.” My voice is weak and apologetic.

Fuck you, Ana.

A blonde woman named Andrea enters and tells Christian that he has another meeting in two minutes. Christian tells her to cancel the meeting.

Andrea is checking him out and Ana is glad that she isn’t the only one who thinks that Christian is handsome.

Andrea leaves and Christian wants to know everything about her.

Double crap. Where’s he going with this?

Serial killers get acquainted with their victims, Ana.

Ana is lusting after him. She tells Christian that “there’s not much to know.”

Christian asks what are her plans after she graduates. Ana replies that she hasn’t made any plans and she is focusing on passing her final exams.

She whines that she should be studying right now instead of sitting in his office.

Christian remarks how his company runs an excellent internship program. Ana wonders if he is offering her a job.

She blurts out that she isn’t sure that she would fit in. Christian asks why does she say that and he smirks.

“It’s obvious, isn’t it?” I’m uncoordinated, scruffy, and I’m not blonde.

Christian says "Not to me" because he wants to sleep with Ana.

Ana gets ready to go. Christian offers to show Ana around but she has a long drive ahead of her.

Christian tells Ana to drive carefully because it is raining outside.

His tone is stern, authoritative. Why should he care?

Because he is Edward Cullen.

She thanks Christian for the interview.

“Until we meet again, Miss Steele.” And it sounds like a challenge, or a threat, I’m not sure which.

It sounds more like he is two steps away from tracking her down, kidnapping her and putting her in a pit in his basement.

She wonders when they will meet again. She shakes Christian’s hand again and is "astounded that that odd current between us is still there.”

E.L. James, you have the subtlety of a seal-clubber.

He opens the door for Ana. Christian says he is “Just ensuring you make it through the door, Miss Steele.”

Ana snaps at him and he grins. She storms out and he follows her.

Olivia gets Ana’s coat and Christian takes the coat from her. Christian holds it up and Ana puts it on.

Christian puts his hands on her shoulders and she gasps. The elevator doors open and Ana muses that Christian is ”really is very, very good-looking.”

They both say goodbye.

And mercifully, the doors close.

Unfortunately for the reader, the story doesn’t end.

We have two more books about Ana Swan and a book from Christian Cullen’s point of view.

[scarletjedi]

My wife, gentlepersons

Brig was already aboard the boat when Gimli and Legolas arrived, attending the rigging for the simple sail and making ready to depart.@brydylcai​: All of the writing asks because I worry you don't have enough to do

so. 

all the ones I haven’t answered yet. Behind the cut because long

1. Tell us about your WIP!

Heh, which one? I’ve started writing chapter three of We Are Made Wise because I’m finally getting over my block (I think there was a little burnout). I’ve just updated Old Man Luke, and Pineapple 2 is next. I’m almost finished with my next original short, I’ve figured out where to go next in my novel, and...yeah. :)

2. Where is your favorite place to write?

Where it’s quiet and I can focus. Sometimes that’s the living room. Sometimes it’s my office. Sometimes it’s the Starbucks on the corner. 

4. Do you have any writing habits/rituals?

Depends on where I am. I have to have some sort of ritual to get focused. In my office, I light candles. In the living room, I put on music. At the coffee shop, I have a snack. 

6. Favorite character you’ve written?

My original character, Jamie, from my book is a HOOT. He’s a gay Jewish teen whose convinced that *he* will be the one to capture definitive proof of the Jersey Devil. He’s the non-magical pov in the fic, and his voice is fun. 

7. Favorite/most inspirational book?

Well, on the one hand, I re-wrote the Hobbit, so that’ book is clearly an inspiration. 

8. Do you have any writing buddies or critique partners?

@brydylcai is my in-house sounding board, the same way I am for her. I don’t have a regular beta, but I’ve worked with several depending on the project/story, and they’re all lovely people. 

9. Favorite/least favorite tropes?

I love revelations/coming out stories. I hate deliberate misunderstandings. 

10. Pick an author (or writing friend) to co-write a book with

@brydylcai and I have discussed writing a book together already, so Imma go with her :)

11. What are you planning to work on next?

I have the doc with We Are Made Wise open, so either that or my next short, depending on if I write more tonight or wait until tomorrow. 

12. Which story of yours do you like best? why?

Comes Around Again is the one that earned me what little notoriety I have, and Old Man Luke is doing the same in Star Wars, but I’m most proud of Drowned in Moonlight. That fic was written to excise some grief over Carrie Fisher, and I think I did her proud. 

13. Describe your writing process

I’m tempted to say “Incoherent screaming into the void” but that’s a joke that’s been made before. My process. Hmm. 

I tend to write by the seat of my pants. I like to see what develops and grows naturally. Once I get to a certain point, I’ll stop and make a plot sheet/note page, but I usually have the rough shape figured out before I start to write. 

Once I have a draft, I’ll edit. Sometimes I’ll print and edit on paper. Sometimes I edit online. My original works tend to get more editing than my fanworks. 

14. What does it take for you to be ready to write a book? (i.e. do you research? outline? make a playlist or pinterest board? wing it?)

ha ha ha ha - My original novel has been 15 years in the works, and has gone through many drafts. It’s working now, but I need familiarity. So, I think what I need is research for context and an outline for plot, and a good enough knowledge to feel like I’m winging it. 

15. How do you deal with self-doubt when writing?

I put it down. If I’m not confident on one project, I’ll put it down and turn to another. (This usually means putting down my original work in favor of fanfic, because I’m more confident with that overall, but...). I know what sounds right to my ear, and if I’m not hearing it, there’s usually a reason. Distance/time often lets me see it. 

17. What things (scenes/topics/character types) are you most comfortable writing?

I’m a Jersey Girl, so I tend to set things in Jersey. I love dramatic conversations, so I’m comfortable there. Queer characters. 

18. Tell us about that one book you’ll never let anyone read

That I wrote? Or that I read? Twilight/50 Shades. 

19. How do you cope with writer’s block?

I beat it with a hammer unitl it’s writer’s pebbles. 

20. Any advice for young writers/advice you wish someone would have given you early on?

Write what you love. Write the truths that you know, and research to write the things you don’t know. Don’t be afraid to break your characters; you can put them back together in new and interesting ways. You’ll be given a lot of advice over the years--read enough to recognize what you like. Develop your taste. Take the advice that helps taylor your work to your taste. Reject the advice that changes it away. 

21. What aspect of your writing are you most proud of?

Subtle meanings and implications. 

22. Tell us about the books on your “to write” list

Here are 3:

a) The Lesbian Werewolf Romance Novel. 

b) The Teenage Zombie Novel. 

c) The American-Teenager-Falls-Into-Fantasy-Realm-and-there-are-also-dragons novel

23. Most anticipated upcoming books?

Jer Keene’s next book. I read the first as fic, and then read the novelization, and now I REALLY want to know what comes next. 

The Kingkiller Chronicles book 3

25. What’s your worldbuilding process like?

Seat. Of. My. Pants and flailing. Seriously, I write something because it sounds right, and then figure out how it works after. 

26. What’s the most research you’ve ever put into a book?

I wrote parts of CAA with the hobbit, the lotr, the unfinished tales, and the moves on and open in front of me. 

I became a pagan, and my research for that has influenced my writing of my book. 

27. Every writer's least favorite question - where does your inspiration come from? Do you do certain things to make yourself more inspired? Is it easy for you to come up with story ideas?

I mentioned I was pagan? My patron, Brigid, is among other things, a muse. She pokes, and I start thinking (or I think, and she eggs me on. I’m not sure of the order. could be either or both). But, most of my ideas come from things I read. When I want inspiration, I read. 

Ideas don’t come as easily as I would like, but the fact that I have several projects at once means that it comes easily enough. 

28. How do you stay focused on your own work and how do you deal with comparison?

I have a hard time focusing period, so that’s a challenge. I have put effort into being less jealous because it’s ultimately a useless exercise. 

29. Is writing more of a hobby or do you write with the intention of getting published?

I want to be published like JK Rowling or Stephen King - one thing that gives my financial security, or with enough frequency to do the same. 

30. Do you like to read books similar to your project while you’re drafting or do you stick to non-fiction/un-similar works?

tbh, i read mostly fanfic these days. Most Genre fic makes me angry because there’s something missing from the text. it’s usually women/gay people. 

31. Top five favorite books in your genre?

scifi/fantasy

a) American Gods - Gaiman

b) Foundation/Elijah Bailey mysteries - Assimov

c) The Hobbit

d) Guards!Guards!

e) Years of Rice and Salt

32. On average how much do you write in a day? do you have trouble staying focused/getting the word count in?

Depends. There are days i can’t get a word out. There are days I’ve written about 10k. It depends on if I’m having a good focus day. 

33. What’s your revision/rewriting process like?

long. 

34. Unpopular writing thoughts/opinions?

....like what?

35. Post the last sentence you wrote

““The things I do for the greater good,” Gimli grumbled, his frown softening as Legolas’s laugh rang out to echo through the cavern. “

36. Post a snippet

from Old Man Luke, chapter 11 (probably):

Obi-Wan stood just to the left of the closed door, hand stroking his beard ad the sight of those assembled. It took all of his focus to keep his eyes from growing wide, or let his hands tremble the way they wished to.

Before him, sitting at a conference table, was Asajj Ventress (scowling at the table like a chastised Padawan, though she had submitted to the indignity of the locking cuffs easily enough), and the adult twinned children of Anakin Skywalker.

Luke sat much as he had before, calmly and with no outward signs of concern, reminding Obi-Wan uncomfortably of his own master. Leia sat back from the table, her arms crossed and her expression sardonic. She, too, was apparently unconcerned, if outwardly exasperated, and Obi-Wan knew that if hadn’t already been told, he would be able to see the resemblance between father and daughter in a heartbeat.

Still, Obi-Wan had the distinct and uncomfortable sensation of not quite living up to her expectations.

The bulk of her resentment, however, was aimed directly at the only other occupant of the room—Anakin.

Their father.

Obi-Wan needed a drink.

37. Do you ever write long handed or do you prefer to type everything?

I write long-handed when I’m having focus issues. It’s slow enough to make me focus. 

38. How do you nail voice in your books?

I talk to myself. Out loud. Constantly. 

39. Do you spend a lot of time analyzing and studying the work of authors you admire?

When I read, I’m known to stop and think “that was a perfectly crafted sentence!” or “How did they do that?” 

40. Do you look up to any of your writer buddies?

all of them. They’re all awesome, though in different ways. 

41. Are there any books you feel have shaped you as a writer?

Harry Potter. I’m not sure how, but I’m sure it has. 

42. How many drafts do you usually write before you feel satisfied?

Depends on how fully formed the story was in my head before I started. Fanfic gets 2 - rough and beta. Original fic gets rough, first, second, etc

43. How do you deal with rejection?

Badly at first. Then it evolved into a desire to prove them wrong. 

45. First or third person?

Third. 

46. Past or present tense?

Past. 

47. Single or dual/multi POV?

Depends on the needs of the plot. 

48. Do you prefer to write skimpy drafts and flesh them out later, or write too much and cut it back?

the first is what I do. The second is what I’d like to do. 

49. Favorite fictional world?

A Galaxy Far, Far away. (Then Middle Earth). 

50. Do you share your rough drafts or do you wait until everything is all polished?

depends on the fic. I like to show things to @brydylcai, but only in the fandom’s she’s in. I have been known to invite friends into docs as I’m writing, so...

51. Are you a secretive writer or do you talk with your friends about your books?

I’m more open than I used to be about fanfic. I’m less talkative about my original works. 

52. Who do you write for?

She knows who. 

53. What is the first line of your WIP?

Of this chapter: “Brig was already aboard the boat when Gimli and Legolas arrived, attending the rigging for the simple sail and making ready to depart.”

54. Favorite first line/opening you’ve written?

my book begins with a ghost hunt. that’s fun?

55. How do you manage your time/make time for writing? (do you set aside time to write every day or do you only write when you have a lot of free time?)

I try to set aside time while not working, but i also tend to write in whatever little moments I have. Between classes, standing in line, etc. 

[parkersrevenge]

Anonymous submitted:

The Poe/Mutter Fic Chapter one

The dark haired man with pale skin clutches the hand of his young wife tightly; together they stare at the brightly colored sign denoting the entrance to a doctor’s office, the only practice in Philadelphia they haven’t yet visited. The doctor is new in town and has very few patients, but rumors say he studied with the greats in France, and the man is a Virginian- Edgar is wary, but hopeful that this doctor will be able to help them.

Upon entering the office there are two severely burned women glancing hopefully towards the door the examination room, the doctor is seen escorting yet another burned woman out of the room shortly.

“Just rest now Miss Hunter, I’m sure I’ll be able to help you. Unfortunately, you’re too tense for me to operate safely. I’ll be by in the next few days to massage your scars and loosen your muscles. Please don’t hesitate to let me know if there’s anything else I can do for you.” He smiles gently and has her hold onto his arm until she exits the practice.

The burned women have a hopeful glint in their eyes while Poe struggles to maintain his composure, surely these disfigured beings resemble monsters more than women. Virginia coughs and once again his focus is on his dear wife.

The doctor sweet talks the burnt women, marvelling at the beauty of their umarred patches of skin, “Why Miss Price, Miss Tuner, I’ve no doubt the two of you will be some of the finest belles of the ball once you’ve healed from the surgery. I’ll stop by tomorrow morning to begin preparing you for the surgery.”

The women giggle, and smile as much as their scar tissue will allow, Poe can’t help but think to himself how loose these people are. Why else would a woman fawn over a dandy physician to flatters them with promises of impossible procedures with the obvious intent of sleeping with them, for shame. He nearly steers Virginia out the door, but the two women are blocking the exit with their skirts as they leave, and very soon the doctor is upon them.

Before Poe can fully realize what is happening, Dr. Mütter has already kissed his wife’s knuckles and has held his hand out to shake. “Sir! Madam! What ails you that you’ve come to see me?” Edgar takes the outstretched hand warily.

“My wife is very ill, and every other doctor in Philadelphia insists there is nothing to be done. We would like a last opinion before heading South to the healing springs that Dr. Meigs had suggested.”

Virginia smiled gently as though to say “Edgar wants a second opinion.”

The doctor has to stop himself from scoffing at the mention of the healing springs, but the man spoke so passionately of them that he couldn’t bring himself to crush those hopes.

“What are your names so that I may put you in my ledger books?”

“Edgar and Virginia Poe.” she answers softly, squeezing her husband’s hand gently as a reminder to behave.

Thomas Mütter writes the names down quickly before standing straight and offering a kind smile and arm to Virginia. “Mrs. Poe, would you please follow me to the examination room?”

“I will not have you seducing my wife.” Edgar spat.

“Sir, in order to ascertain what is making the patient ill, she must be examined.” Thomas explained calmly then gave a gentle laugh. “In any regard I am married.”

“If you are married, why did you flirt with those…women? You are loose sir.”

“Mr. Poe, those sweet ladies have been suffering from their burns since they were children and are currently very nearly past marrying age. If I see it fit to try and raise the spirits of my depressed patients by complimenting them on the source of their self hatred, then by God sir, it is no business of yours.”

“Your wife must be a very lucky woman Dr. Mütter, to have married a man who seeks to make others feel well in both their soul and body as you do. Perhaps you could remind my dear Edgar of how singular his eyes are.” She smiles warmly at the doctor, bumping her husband’s hip lightly with her own before coughing again.

“Why, Mr. Poe, you simply have the loveliest violet eyes I’ve ever seen. If I were a woman I would swoon upon being treated to their glance.” Thomas replies jovially with a touch of a flush against his pale cheeks. Virginia laughs brightly, which is the only reason Edgar forgives the embarrassment.

“Mrs. Poe if you will, and Mr. Poe you’re more than welcome to come along and correct my observations if you please.”

The couple follows the doctor through the door, and he sits them in two very comfortable chairs while he himself occupies a rickety wooden stool. “How long have the two of you lived in Philadelphia? I recognize Mr. Poe’s accent as that of my own, a true man of Virginia.”

Poe rolls his eyes. “What does this have to do with healing my wife?”

“Mr. Poe, it is important to me to become acquainted with my patients personally so that the treatment may progress with an element of trust that is not solely reliant on my medical training.”

“You’re an idiot.”

“That may be true, but you were the one who came into my practice seeking help.” He smiles warmly.

“Barely a month.” Virginia answers the question gently. “Not long enough to have formed any real friendships.”

“Ah but a man may make a friend wherever he pleases should he only consider all of mankind a friend! If you’re in need of any Mrs. Poe, my wife is part of a quilting circle and I’m sure they’d love to have you.” Thomas smiles again, and Poe is beginning to question the other man’s sanity.

Virginia beams. “That’s very kind of you Dr. Mütter. I’m sure we’d have had friends by now, but as you’ve noticed, Eddy isn’t exactly the most personable of men.”

“Rest assured Mrs. Poe, if needed the two of you will always find a friend in me. Mrs. Poe what exactly seems to be the matter with your health?”

“I am believed to have phthisis.”

Dr. Mütter looked down at the tidy floor of his room, lips pursed gently into a frown, when he glanced back up his eyes were filled only with grief. “I’m so sorry. But, I’m afraid that all I can do is tell you to eat well, exercise regularly, and rest.” The doctor nearly looked as though he might cry. “We- the medical community, I mean- we have no way of treating it. I wish I could do something. I’m so terribly sorry.”

“Then we’ll have to go south to the springs.” Edgar insisted.

“There’s no healing in those waters Mr. Poe, those who tell you otherwise only want your money, not for your wife to be made well.”

“That’s a load of-” a stern look from Virginia silences him.

“Mr. Poe, if I was only after your money wouldn’t I be trying to sell you a miracle cure knowing that you’re at your last hope? I want you to be able to keep your money to make yourselves as happy as possible. It’s very likely that Mrs. Poe will be able to improve some with cool mountain air and exercise, but that’s not something that I can truly give to you or to anyone for that matter.”

“Going to the mountains is simply not a possibility.” Virginia said sternly, turning to her husband.

“But-”

“No, your work requires you to be in the city, and you have yet to take up that dispute with Mr. Bob at the publisher’s office. I will exercise and see to it that we have friends in the neighborhood, you needn’t concern yourself with me.” “You are my wife.”

“Yes, and I am telling you that in order to keep us financially secure and me happy we simply must stay in the city. That is final Edgar.”

Though Thomas wouldn’t dare say it now, what with Edgar so terribly upset, he was delighted that Mrs. Poe was standing up for herself like that, of course he was also perturbed that she’d sacrifice her health so blithely, but she had a fire in her that was most admirable, and who was he to judge others, he’d been sacrificing his health for the good of others for years.

“You are to tell me, Dr. Mütter, that you will offer those women an impossible surgery to turn their monstrous forms human, but you will not help my wife.”

“Mr. Poe, that surgery is not impossible, I have learned the methodology from the doctors in Paris. I unfortunately, have no way of curing your wife. I’ll continue looking to see if there’s anything that may be tried, and if I find something I will alert you immediately.”

Poe was about to yell that, that wasn’t enough, but Virginia simply smiled, “Thank you for your generosity doctor, but I’m afraid I’ve come to terms with my fate, any false hope will only hurt my husband more in the end.”

Mütter nodded solemnly, he had yet to inform his wife of his terrible illness that had plagued him from childhood. “I’m afraid you and I are quite alike Mrs. Poe.”  

Edgar, simply looked at the solemn look in the doctor’s eyes and was forced to come to terms with the fact that the man was telling the truth. “You care too much to be a doctor,” was all he said before he led his wife away, leaving a few coins on the ledger book out front.

Thomas was forced to agree with the statement, but that was exactly why he was a doctor, he cared too much.

[melforbes]

F, I, M!

F: share a snippet of one of your favorite dialog scenes you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.

this is hard. my dialog is few and far between. actually, i tried writing something that was almost entirely made up of dialog as an exercise and as a fic, and it’s failed. twice. so here goes….

(from on a picnic)

“this cloud,” he says, pointing up, “looks just like a heart.”

shielding her eyes from the sun and staring up, she says, “no, it doesn’t.”

“why not?”

“there’s no aorta,” she says, then goes back to reading.

to his surprise, she’s not joking, so he shakes his head, goes to pick up his own book and read. as she flips her page, he notices that his pen-marks from last night are still on her skin. with his pen, he tapped her forearm while they got into bed.

“these remind me of something,” he said as she settled in.

“my freckles?” she asked. “of what?”

“cassiopeia, the queen,” he explained, uncapping his pen. “do you mind?”

she shook her head, then watched as he traced from one freckle to another.

“here’s ruchbah,” he pointed out as he connected two freckles. “the next one is shadir, then caph.”

she remembered the constellation, watched as he finished it across her skin. though she hadn’t seen in the constellation in a while, the resemblance between the sky and her skin was remarkably close; the angles were the same.

“did you know that this constellation shines 40,000 times brighter than the sun?” he asked.

“really?” she asked, surprised.

“yeah,” he said, lazily kissing her wrist. “just like you.”

it ends up being cheesy, but i really, genuinely enjoyed writing that. i like the intimacy of it, especially given that this was set (in my head, at least…it’s never overtly said to be set during this time) well into their established romantic relationship. i like the concept that, even many years down the line, there are still new things they discover about each other and admire in strange little ways. however, my dialog again is few and far between, so i don’t have much to choose from. whoops.

I: do you have a guilty pleasure in fic (reading or writing)?

for reading, i’m a sucker for hurt/comfort in which one of them gets hurt and the other takes care of the hurt one. i eat that stuff up. the more traumatic the injury - and the more vulnerable it makes both of the characters - the better. i could read that stuff for days. i just started arizona highways, and scully passed out maybe a thousand words in, and mulder tried to take care of her, and in my head i was just flat-out cheering. i’m a total sucker for that stuff.

for writing, i love a good ole mental breakdown. i love so-called “ugly” emotions. anger, unspoken words, you name it. and that’s hilarious given that i run (what used to be, what may possibly still be) a domestic msr blog. anything angsty with a good emotional flow? my head turns to fireworks.

M: got any premises on the backburner that you’d like to share?

well. i’ve mentioned this in this post. but. well. i doubt i will ever publish something i’m working on right now given that i, no matter how i try to edit it or change it, i can’t seem to make it worth reading. and i don’t want to give the premise away because, if i do, the entire plot will be obvious. again, this will probably never see the light of day, so i don’t want to give too much away because i may never follow through, but what i will say is that it’s almost directly inspired by this. and that’s probably infuriatingly vague, but that’s what i’ll give. 

[foursprouthappiness-blog]

How Your Daily Routine Can Turn Into Your Biggest Enemy

New Post has been published on http://foursprout.com/happiness/how-your-daily-routine-can-turn-into-your-biggest-enemy/

How Your Daily Routine Can Turn Into Your Biggest Enemy

Ryan Holiday Instagram

Routine and ritual are everything, including, if you’re not careful, a dangerous weakness.

A few weeks ago, I got a letter—yes, an actual letter—from an NCAA player who will probably go pro. His question was a simple one: Like many basketball players he was big on pregame rituals and routines, but he was worried that these patterns made him vulnerable to being disrupted. What if the team plane was late and he had to rush his usual warmup? What if his headphones were dead or he forgot to pack his gameday socks?

Would his competitive edge—the comfort and confidence he took from these practices—suddenly turn into a liability?

This is a perfectly reasonable concern. Because while rituals can be a source of strength to an athlete or a writer, they can also be a form of fragility. Take Russell Westbrook, who is famous for his pregame routine, which begins three hours before a game. It starts with him warming up exactly three hours before tipoff. Then one hour before the game, Westbrook visits the arena chapel. Then he eats the same peanut butter and jelly sandwich (buttered wheat bread, toasted, strawberry jelly, Skippy peanut butter, cut diagonally). At exactly 6 minutes and 17 seconds before the game starts, he begins the team’s final warm up drill. He has a particular pair of shoes for games, for practice, for road games. Since high school, he’s done the same thing after shooting a free throw, walking backwards past the three point line and then walking back to take the next shot. At the practice facility, he has a specific parking space, and he likes to shoot on Practice Court 3. He calls his parents at the same time every day. And on and on.

The point is, while this process is likely very calming and reassuring in an entirely chaotic and emotional game, it also reads like a recipe for how one might throw someone off their game. A teammate vying for Westbrook’s playing time, a competitor who will stop at nothing, or just Murphy’s Law could all wreak havoc on that system and get inside his head. All it takes is “accidentally” parking in the wrong spot, or the right insult right before a free throw to send the whole thing sideways. And what if the trainer is sick and can’t make the sandwich? Or what if the arena chapel is closed due to a leaky ceiling?

Any routine junkie can tell you what happens when your routine gets messed up: Your thoughts race. You get frustrated. You feel what is almost like withdrawals. I can’t do this. This isn’t right. Something bad is going to happen. You doubt yourself. Then all of a sudden you aren’t getting warmed up or falling into the zone as easily as you usually do.

This problem is compounded the more successful you get or the more you specialize in a certain feild, because you get used to and feel entitled to have things your way. People enable this dependence because they want you to be your best, which makes it all the more frustrating and surprising if the script is suddenly deviated from.

I came face to face with this reality with the birth of my son in 2016. A few months before he was born I was profiled for the New York Times, and as part of the article, the reporter had me walk her through my fairly extensive set of morning and daily routines (what time I got up, how I journaled, where I sat, what my workout was, etc). She remarked that it would be interesting to see how this would all hold up with a newborn. Confidently, I told her nothing would change.

Ugh.

But of course she was right—because kids are, if anything—wrecking balls for the carefully built order of our lives.

The first couple months of his life, I struggled. It actually wasn’t the lack of sleep that was the problem. It was the unpredictability of that lack of sleep. Some mornings I was up at 5am. Some at 10am. Sometimes there was a baby I was supposed to quietly take care of while my wife slept, other times we were all up, other times it was just me while they slept. Was he napping at 2pm or not at all? Did I need to get home early for his dinner and bath or was the whole schedule blown apart by something that happened earlier in the day?

All of a sudden quiet time every morning, not checking email, going for a long run or swim in the afternoon, writing from 8-12am every day—this was not possible. At least not possible to do in the same way in the same order each day.

I experienced something similar years before when my career took off. I was used to working at home and then suddenly I was on the road a lot. Lot of flights. Living out of suitcases. Meetings and events that I had to go to. But early on I could compensate for this by spacing the trips out, setting up camp in each city for a few days and approximating some version of my normal routine there. As the trips increased and I got older, this became less tenable (even more so after accumulating a wife and a kid), and my reliance on my capital-R Routine became a weakness. A couple days on the road would completely set me back. It would also make me frustrated—even though I had chosen to say yes to these opportunities.

In both cases, my cherished routines either crumbled or were blown apart. But I still had to do my job (writing) and if anything, the stakes were higher than before. Which meant I’ve spent a lot of time thinking routine ever since.

What I’ve come up with might not seem that profound but the impact has been enormous for me: It’s not about having a routine. It’s about having routines.

I no longer have a writing routine or a morning routine. I have several. I have a routine when I get up early on the farm (We go for a walk, then I write until breakfast, and then resume writing). I have a routine for when I am on the road (run or exercise early, slot writing/work in as the top priority between whatever the scheduled events for the day are). I don’t have one shirt I wear each time I give a talk, I have a set of 3-4 that I choose from. Depending on what city I am in and what time of year, I have different mornings and plans that I’ll do. When I fly, I either read, answer old emails from starred folder, or sleep. I don’t eat before I perform, but if I do, I eat the same thing. If I get interrupted and can’t journal the way I want for a morning or two, so be it—but I’ll make sure I quickly resume my old habit. And on and on.

Depending on circumstances, I have strategic flexibility. I’m not winging it, but I am not such a creature of habit that I am flustered when disrupted (or can I really even be disrupted since I am indifferent to Plan A, B, C, D, E). Think about musical scales—the notes themselves are fixed but they can be played in a limitless amount of combination. This allows the musician to improvise while still maintaining a base they can return to and derive confidence and comfort in. That’s how you want to be with your routine. Not so rigid that you can’t respond to the moment, not so free that you can do everything in the moment.

There is a line from the Super Bowl-winning coach Bill Walsh about how most individuals are like water, they naturally seek out lower ground. By that he meant that without discipline or order, we are not our best selves. Ultimately, this is what routine is about: creating practices and habits and rules that force us to be better.

Without a routine of any kind, Resistance is given too much room to operate. Doubt, chaos, laziness—if you give them an inch, they’ll take a mile. Routines are essential in that battle.

In creative or athletic or entrepreneurial fields, the uncertainty and stress of the endeavor makes us crave simplicity and dependability. When Russell Westbrook was asked the reasons behind his many specific, very detailed practices, he replied, “No particular reason. I just do it.” Actually there is a reason. The reason is reassurance. As a player, Westbrook is emotional, chaotic, intense. The game he plays is random, difficult and overwhelming. Doing the same things the same way at the same time, creates comfort and order as well as superior performance.

We can get addicted to that. In fact, it may actually take more discipline to be moderate in your discipline than to be insane about it. There is an interesting Michael Lewis article about the NFL kicker Adam Vinatieri who actually works at making sure he doesn’t wear the same socks twice or having too many rituals because of how easily this can descend into superstition and thus psyching oneself off. But without this work, we end up beating on ourselves for falling short.

It’s better to remember Marcus Aurelius’s line…

“When jarred, unavoidably, by circumstance, revert at once to yourself, and don’t lose the rhythm more than you can help. You’ll have a better group of harmony if you keep ongoing back to it.”

In a way, this is what I’ve worked on most with my routines lately. Can I purposely disrupt them? What happens if I change things up? Am I still me? Am I still able to do what I do well? I want to be sure that the tail is not wagging the dog, that I am in control of the routine and not the other way around. Because the last thing you want to do is become ossified and unable to handle change.

Because life is change. Murphy’s Law is real, and you will drive yourself insane thinking you can simply outwill or white knuckle your way through the inevitable tendency for things to go exactly the way you’d rather they not go.

Discipline is a form of freedom, but left unchecked becomes a form of tyranny. So the key is the ability to rotate from routine to routine, discipline to discipline, according to the needs of the day and the moment.

Otherwise you’re not only going to be miserable…you’re an easy opponent to defeat.

Like to Read? I’ve created a list of 15 books you’ve never heard of that will alter your worldview and help you excel at your career. Get the secret book list here!  

[milenasanchezmk]

I Thought Any Weight Issue Could Be Corrected With Chronic Exercise

It’s Friday, everyone! And that means another Primal Blueprint Real Life Story from a Mark’s Daily Apple reader. If you have your own success story and would like to share it with me and the Mark’s Daily Apple community please contact me here. I’ll continue to publish these each Friday as long as they keep coming in. Thank you for reading!

I contemplated writing this Mark’s Daily Apple success story a few times over the last three years and every time I decided it wasn’t a good idea, mainly because I thought “who am I and who would really care anyway”? The other reason is the last thing I wanted people to see plastered on the internet are my before and after pictures, how embarrassing! Being comfortable and confident with my body is never an attribute I have possessed. I actually even used a before photo that was about 10 pounds lighter than when I was my heaviest, but that was because I didn’t even want to look at myself in the mirror at that point, let alone take a picture.

Despite all of this, I think sharing my story (and those pictures) is important because I think it can help people, it can show the powerful changes that can be made in health and body composition by making some very important lifestyle adjustments. I wanted to use the words “simple” or “easy” adjustments in that last sentence, but they are not always simple and easy. Yet, they are important.

I don’t think my exact formula will be right for everyone, but the majority of people can find something that they can apply to their life to make a positive change. And whether or not you find something in my story that inspires you, I have just landed you on one of the most powerful websites to change your health and your life, so for that you’re welcome. I think it is important to take your health into your own hands—research, read, ask questions—because it is obvious conventional wisdom and general health/nutrition information are deeply flawed, and Mark’s Daily Apple can help in your quest for knowledge!

Below I have organized my story in categories- “Before,” “After,” “Resources,” and “Moving Forward.” If you want to jump right into the details of how I went from 220-plus pounds to the 180-185 pounds I consistently stay at now, then scroll down to the “After” portion and start there.

Before

Below is a summary of the different phases of my life until five years ago when I turned thirty-years-old.

Childhood

I was born in the 1980s and grew up in the 90s, which seems to be prime time for the low fat era. At home, school, and in the media we were taught that fat should be avoided in our diet, and we had to make sure we get our 6-11 servings of cereals, grains, and pasta. For me that was not a problem, I could eat carbohydrates all day long!

I loved to play sports growing up and tried to be outside as much as possible playing football, basketball, and baseball. I never really thought about how food affected my performance in sports, or my body composition, I just ate whatever I could as fast as possible so I could get to the next game. My weight fluctuated when I was younger. I was never obese or even too overweight, I would describe myself as “slightly chubby” at times. There were other moments during growth spurts, and highly active moments of a sports season, where I was normal weight and not carrying any extra fat on my body.

High School

Once I got to high school I made the brilliant decision as a five foot ten inch tall, fairly slow kid, to focus on playing basketball. I was consistently carrying 10-15 pounds of extra weight, and not only was I teased a bit for it, but I wasn’t the best player I could be due to the extra weight, and that is what bothered me the most. Of course the comments about how my body looked hurt a bit, but I was a good enough player that most people looked past it and appreciated me for my play on the court.

The food environment in high school wasn’t always great, with getting older came more independence and opportunities to eat outside of my home, which lead me to fast and affordable food choices.

I really had no clue what healthy eating was. In fact healthy for me was heading to a juice place for a sugar filled beverage and a soft pretzel. Thank goodness I played a lot of basketball and was introduced to lifting weights at the same time, otherwise I have no doubt I would have been considered obese.

Even with a few extra pounds on my frame at the end of high school I had become a good enough player that I was able to move on and become a member of the men’s basketball team at a NCAA Division 2 university. Thanks to the support of my family and coaches I was able to live my dream of playing college basketball.

College

Once I got to Sonoma State University (located in Sonoma County-Northern California) it was obvious that physically I was going to have a tough time on the basketball court. It took me a few years to get in good enough shape to consistently make a contribution in games, but eventually I would be an all-conference guard and conference champion my senior year (for more on the many basketball related adjustments I made check out my book “Bench Rules: A Guide to Success On and Off the Bench” on Amazon). In fact, one of the strategies I joked about with my teammates, but it had a little truth to it, is that every time I went to a fast food restaurant I just stopped ordering french fries. Boom! Ten pounds lost very quickly.

The biggest adjustment I made was tracking what I ate. I started to add a lot more real food in my diet and eating less food that came from a box, package, or fast food restaurant. It was far from an optimal diet, but the actual process of writing it down made me think about what I was putting in my body, how it made me feel and perform, and that helped me make better decisions.

Post College

I had a short stint in a European basketball league, which enabled me to live in beautiful Vienna, Austria for a few months and get paid to play a game I love. That experience also helped me realize I had reached my full potential as a player, and I was done putting my body through the stress it took me to perform at that level. I decided it was time to move on to a different stage of my life.

A couple years after I left Vienna I married my college girlfriend Megan, who was a soccer player when we were at SSU, and a couple years later we had our first child. In those four years of not playing basketball, and not really making any adjustments to my Standard American Diet (I was still tracking what I ate on and off), I managed to put on more weight than I ever had.

Now, at this time I was still lifting weights and running, my two preferred forms of exercise, but this was not enough to keep the weight off as it was nothing close to the volume and intensity of exercise I endured as a basketball player.

With the increase in weight came some minor health issues, for instance I was diagnosed with GERD. I would get constant heartburn that felt bad enough to make me think I was having some kind of heart attack. I even got hooked up to an EKG machine at one point because I was so convinced something was wrong. A doctor I saw recommended I take a Prilosec pill everyday and eat a low fat diet, which I followed religiously until I saw I was putting on more weight. It was extremely frustrating to see zero changes in my body composition with an increased focus on my health and diet. There had to be something else I could do!

After Finding A New Way

I was turned on to primal/ancesteral health when I was told about a cbssports.com article on nutrition in the NBA. The story revolved around Dr. Cate Shanahan and her work with the LA Lakers. The whole series of articles led me to a Google search and one of the first websites I found was Mark’s Daily Apple (MDA). The website piqued my interest right away, it was so informative, filled with many wonderful articles and success stories, and ultimately I knew I had to give it a try.

One of the first inforgraphics I saw, and it still sticks out in my head to this day, is the Primal Blueprint Carbohydrate Curve. This is one I still share with people who ask me how I eat now, that and of course the ten primal laws. Mark’s Daily Apple is still my “go-to” source when I have any question on health or nutrition. What I love about MDA is that if I have a question about any topic, I can search for it and I am guaranteed to find an article with Mark’s point of view and links to any necessary studies or additional information. It is also an absolute must to check out the Primal Blueprint 101 section if you are new to the website, everything you could possibly need to know is there!

Below are the major adjustments I made to my life. Growing up in organized sports, and as a victim of conventional wisdom, I thought any weight issue could be solved with exercise. It wasn’t until I bought into the idea that “80 percent of your body composition is determined by what you eat” that I saw real change. It is for that reason that “Diet” is first on this list, and by far the most important. I am now low enough in body fat to somewhat see my abs, this was never the case even in 2-3 hours a day of college basketball practice over a five-year span (I spent one year as a redshirt). I had to make a change to my diet for this to happen, and I exercise less than I ever have.

Diet

Inspired by the Primal Blueprint Carbohydrate Curve I limit daily carbohydrate intake to less than 100 grams per day. Most days I aim to stay under 50 grams, and often I decide to restrict low enough and consistently enough to dip into in to ketosis. Aiming to keep my carbohydrates low has helped me to EAT REAL FOOD and avoid most processed/packaged foods.

I also eliminated sugars and grains from my diet. Obviously these calories had to be replaced so I started eating more healthy fat- olive oil, coconut oil (MCT Oil as well), and butter. However, the majority of my food is animals and plants along with nuts, healthy fats (listed above), and some fruit and dark chocolate. Check out the Primal Blueprint Food Pyramid, I also like Time Noakes’ Real Meal Revolution Food List.

This way of eating becomes very easy very quickly. Like I said above I like to keep carbohydrates fairly low, so once you learn the macronutrient make-up of food you can easily make a selection of what to eat anywhere you go. I suggest tracking what you eat at first, but eventually there is no need once you get used to it. I do not want to demonize carbohydrates, I like what world renowned strength coach Charles Poliquin says about them, his thought is that you must “deserve your carbohydrates. Your levels of muscle mass, volume and intensity of training, percentage of body fat and insulin sensitivity will determine how many grams of carbs you can afford. Some people obviously need to restrict their carbs to 10 licks of a dried prune every six months.”

If you restrict carbohydrates enough your body will be forced to start to use your own body fat for fuel. Transitioning your body to a lower carb eating strategy, essentially turning your body into a fat burning beast, can be tough for a few days up to to a few weeks, especially the first time coming from a Standard American Diet. Give it time, trust the process, it works.

I don’t count calories, or feel they are the whole story in relation to weight loss, I also believe the effect on hormones in the body is very important to normalizing/losing weight. In relation to calories I do think a low carb high fat diet is more satiating, while also not subjecting your body to insulin spikes all day, and ultimately causes many to eat less food. That is the case for me anyway.

I do occasionally eat foods that are higher in carbohydrates, foods that are definitely not “healthy” by anyone’s standards, and I usually feel terrible after eating them. Probably the one thing I found that aggravates my stomach the most, the one that hurt the most to eliminate, was beer. I will still drink a beer on rare occasions, and naturally my digestive system and sleep suffer because of it.

Food quality is not something I worried about at first. Initially I think it is easiest to just worry about limiting carbohydrates and eating as much fat and protein as necessary so you are never hungry. Once I adapted to the diet and got my bearings, I started to worry more about finding properly raised meat and local organic vegetables. While it does cost more, and I realize I am lucky enough to be able to afford these costs, it is important to both my health and the environment.

Fasting

I have experimented with intermittent fasting, both 16-hour fasts and some 24 hour fasting. This past month of July I did a 18/6 fast every day, and while I don’t find it hard to skip breakfast in the morning, I like to eat breakfast. I generally workout first thing in the morning and find I feel better eating post workout. I still may occasionally fast on a non-workout day, simply holding off breakfast until early afternoon.  Now I just let my hunger dictate meal timing, if I am hungry I eat, if I am not I don’t eat. Hunger on a low carbohydrate diet is much different than hunger on a diet filled with carbohydrates, my family still jokes about my “Hanger Issues” from the past that were constant because of the types of food I was eating.

Since beginning this new lifestyle my wife (Megan) has joined on and she has also seen big improvements in her body composition following two pregnancies. She has allowed me to share a before and after picture of us, in the before picture she has the excuse of only being three months out from having a baby, I did not have the same excuse. What is also impressive about my wife’s improvement in body composition is that she has done it with pretty much zero structured exercise, which to me shows the power of changing what you eat to change how you look and feel. Megan was a soccer player at Sonoma State and she is now at the same weight she was when she was practicing/playing soccer six days a week for 2-3 hours, again with zero structured exercise. Our next task moving forward is to navigate the world of raising children, trying to give them the best life we can, and helping them face the food environment they will encounter in school and beyond.

Next up for me is to use the training I received from the Primal Health Coach Program I just finished last month. I have seen such drastic improvements in my life I was inspired to start the program earlier this summer with the hope to use my increased knowledge to help others. I currently work in a high school setting (PE and Athletics), I love what I do and the people and students I work with, and I have no plans to leave there to start a health coaching business. I will at first offer to help my friends and family in any way I can and see where I go from there. I look forward to sharing the amazing resources and knowledge I have gained from the program with anyone willing to listen. Combining that with my past experiences will be a good foundation to help others better their lives in any way possible. Hopefully, I can make an impact.

— Kevin Christensen

Want to make fat loss easier? Try the Definitive Guide for Troubleshooting Weight Loss for free here.

[watsonrodriquezie]

I Thought Any Weight Issue Could Be Corrected With Chronic Exercise

It’s Friday, everyone! And that means another Primal Blueprint Real Life Story from a Mark’s Daily Apple reader. If you have your own success story and would like to share it with me and the Mark’s Daily Apple community please contact me here. I’ll continue to publish these each Friday as long as they keep coming in. Thank you for reading!

I contemplated writing this Mark’s Daily Apple success story a few times over the last three years and every time I decided it wasn’t a good idea, mainly because I thought “who am I and who would really care anyway”? The other reason is the last thing I wanted people to see plastered on the internet are my before and after pictures, how embarrassing! Being comfortable and confident with my body is never an attribute I have possessed. I actually even used a before photo that was about 10 pounds lighter than when I was my heaviest, but that was because I didn’t even want to look at myself in the mirror at that point, let alone take a picture.

Despite all of this, I think sharing my story (and those pictures) is important because I think it can help people, it can show the powerful changes that can be made in health and body composition by making some very important lifestyle adjustments. I wanted to use the words “simple” or “easy” adjustments in that last sentence, but they are not always simple and easy. Yet, they are important.

I don’t think my exact formula will be right for everyone, but the majority of people can find something that they can apply to their life to make a positive change. And whether or not you find something in my story that inspires you, I have just landed you on one of the most powerful websites to change your health and your life, so for that you’re welcome. I think it is important to take your health into your own hands—research, read, ask questions—because it is obvious conventional wisdom and general health/nutrition information are deeply flawed, and Mark’s Daily Apple can help in your quest for knowledge!

Below I have organized my story in categories- “Before,” “After,” “Resources,” and “Moving Forward.” If you want to jump right into the details of how I went from 220-plus pounds to the 180-185 pounds I consistently stay at now, then scroll down to the “After” portion and start there.

Before

Below is a summary of the different phases of my life until five years ago when I turned thirty-years-old.

Childhood

I was born in the 1980s and grew up in the 90s, which seems to be prime time for the low fat era. At home, school, and in the media we were taught that fat should be avoided in our diet, and we had to make sure we get our 6-11 servings of cereals, grains, and pasta. For me that was not a problem, I could eat carbohydrates all day long!

I loved to play sports growing up and tried to be outside as much as possible playing football, basketball, and baseball. I never really thought about how food affected my performance in sports, or my body composition, I just ate whatever I could as fast as possible so I could get to the next game. My weight fluctuated when I was younger. I was never obese or even too overweight, I would describe myself as “slightly chubby” at times. There were other moments during growth spurts, and highly active moments of a sports season, where I was normal weight and not carrying any extra fat on my body.

High School

Once I got to high school I made the brilliant decision as a five foot ten inch tall, fairly slow kid, to focus on playing basketball. I was consistently carrying 10-15 pounds of extra weight, and not only was I teased a bit for it, but I wasn’t the best player I could be due to the extra weight, and that is what bothered me the most. Of course the comments about how my body looked hurt a bit, but I was a good enough player that most people looked past it and appreciated me for my play on the court.

The food environment in high school wasn’t always great, with getting older came more independence and opportunities to eat outside of my home, which lead me to fast and affordable food choices.

I really had no clue what healthy eating was. In fact healthy for me was heading to a juice place for a sugar filled beverage and a soft pretzel. Thank goodness I played a lot of basketball and was introduced to lifting weights at the same time, otherwise I have no doubt I would have been considered obese.

Even with a few extra pounds on my frame at the end of high school I had become a good enough player that I was able to move on and become a member of the men’s basketball team at a NCAA Division 2 university. Thanks to the support of my family and coaches I was able to live my dream of playing college basketball.

College

Once I got to Sonoma State University (located in Sonoma County-Northern California) it was obvious that physically I was going to have a tough time on the basketball court. It took me a few years to get in good enough shape to consistently make a contribution in games, but eventually I would be an all-conference guard and conference champion my senior year (for more on the many basketball related adjustments I made check out my book “Bench Rules: A Guide to Success On and Off the Bench” on Amazon). In fact, one of the strategies I joked about with my teammates, but it had a little truth to it, is that every time I went to a fast food restaurant I just stopped ordering french fries. Boom! Ten pounds lost very quickly.

The biggest adjustment I made was tracking what I ate. I started to add a lot more real food in my diet and eating less food that came from a box, package, or fast food restaurant. It was far from an optimal diet, but the actual process of writing it down made me think about what I was putting in my body, how it made me feel and perform, and that helped me make better decisions.

Post College

I had a short stint in a European basketball league, which enabled me to live in beautiful Vienna, Austria for a few months and get paid to play a game I love. That experience also helped me realize I had reached my full potential as a player, and I was done putting my body through the stress it took me to perform at that level. I decided it was time to move on to a different stage of my life.

A couple years after I left Vienna I married my college girlfriend Megan, who was a soccer player when we were at SSU, and a couple years later we had our first child. In those four years of not playing basketball, and not really making any adjustments to my Standard American Diet (I was still tracking what I ate on and off), I managed to put on more weight than I ever had.

Now, at this time I was still lifting weights and running, my two preferred forms of exercise, but this was not enough to keep the weight off as it was nothing close to the volume and intensity of exercise I endured as a basketball player.

With the increase in weight came some minor health issues, for instance I was diagnosed with GERD. I would get constant heartburn that felt bad enough to make me think I was having some kind of heart attack. I even got hooked up to an EKG machine at one point because I was so convinced something was wrong. A doctor I saw recommended I take a Prilosec pill everyday and eat a low fat diet, which I followed religiously until I saw I was putting on more weight. It was extremely frustrating to see zero changes in my body composition with an increased focus on my health and diet. There had to be something else I could do!

After Finding A New Way

I was turned on to primal/ancesteral health when I was told about a cbssports.com article on nutrition in the NBA. The story revolved around Dr. Cate Shanahan and her work with the LA Lakers. The whole series of articles led me to a Google search and one of the first websites I found was Mark’s Daily Apple (MDA). The website piqued my interest right away, it was so informative, filled with many wonderful articles and success stories, and ultimately I knew I had to give it a try.

One of the first inforgraphics I saw, and it still sticks out in my head to this day, is the Primal Blueprint Carbohydrate Curve. This is one I still share with people who ask me how I eat now, that and of course the ten primal laws. Mark’s Daily Apple is still my “go-to” source when I have any question on health or nutrition. What I love about MDA is that if I have a question about any topic, I can search for it and I am guaranteed to find an article with Mark’s point of view and links to any necessary studies or additional information. It is also an absolute must to check out the Primal Blueprint 101 section if you are new to the website, everything you could possibly need to know is there!

Below are the major adjustments I made to my life. Growing up in organized sports, and as a victim of conventional wisdom, I thought any weight issue could be solved with exercise. It wasn’t until I bought into the idea that “80 percent of your body composition is determined by what you eat” that I saw real change. It is for that reason that “Diet” is first on this list, and by far the most important. I am now low enough in body fat to somewhat see my abs, this was never the case even in 2-3 hours a day of college basketball practice over a five-year span (I spent one year as a redshirt). I had to make a change to my diet for this to happen, and I exercise less than I ever have.

Diet

Inspired by the Primal Blueprint Carbohydrate Curve I limit daily carbohydrate intake to less than 100 grams per day. Most days I aim to stay under 50 grams, and often I decide to restrict low enough and consistently enough to dip into in to ketosis. Aiming to keep my carbohydrates low has helped me to EAT REAL FOOD and avoid most processed/packaged foods.

I also eliminated sugars and grains from my diet. Obviously these calories had to be replaced so I started eating more healthy fat- olive oil, coconut oil (MCT Oil as well), and butter. However, the majority of my food is animals and plants along with nuts, healthy fats (listed above), and some fruit and dark chocolate. Check out the Primal Blueprint Food Pyramid, I also like Time Noakes’ Real Meal Revolution Food List.

This way of eating becomes very easy very quickly. Like I said above I like to keep carbohydrates fairly low, so once you learn the macronutrient make-up of food you can easily make a selection of what to eat anywhere you go. I suggest tracking what you eat at first, but eventually there is no need once you get used to it. I do not want to demonize carbohydrates, I like what world renowned strength coach Charles Poliquin says about them, his thought is that you must “deserve your carbohydrates. Your levels of muscle mass, volume and intensity of training, percentage of body fat and insulin sensitivity will determine how many grams of carbs you can afford. Some people obviously need to restrict their carbs to 10 licks of a dried prune every six months.”

If you restrict carbohydrates enough your body will be forced to start to use your own body fat for fuel. Transitioning your body to a lower carb eating strategy, essentially turning your body into a fat burning beast, can be tough for a few days up to to a few weeks, especially the first time coming from a Standard American Diet. Give it time, trust the process, it works.

I don’t count calories, or feel they are the whole story in relation to weight loss, I also believe the effect on hormones in the body is very important to normalizing/losing weight. In relation to calories I do think a low carb high fat diet is more satiating, while also not subjecting your body to insulin spikes all day, and ultimately causes many to eat less food. That is the case for me anyway.

I do occasionally eat foods that are higher in carbohydrates, foods that are definitely not “healthy” by anyone’s standards, and I usually feel terrible after eating them. Probably the one thing I found that aggravates my stomach the most, the one that hurt the most to eliminate, was beer. I will still drink a beer on rare occasions, and naturally my digestive system and sleep suffer because of it.

Food quality is not something I worried about at first. Initially I think it is easiest to just worry about limiting carbohydrates and eating as much fat and protein as necessary so you are never hungry. Once I adapted to the diet and got my bearings, I started to worry more about finding properly raised meat and local organic vegetables. While it does cost more, and I realize I am lucky enough to be able to afford these costs, it is important to both my health and the environment.

Fasting

I have experimented with intermittent fasting, both 16-hour fasts and some 24 hour fasting. This past month of July I did a 18/6 fast every day, and while I don’t find it hard to skip breakfast in the morning, I like to eat breakfast. I generally workout first thing in the morning and find I feel better eating post workout. I still may occasionally fast on a non-workout day, simply holding off breakfast until early afternoon.  Now I just let my hunger dictate meal timing, if I am hungry I eat, if I am not I don’t eat. Hunger on a low carbohydrate diet is much different than hunger on a diet filled with carbohydrates, my family still jokes about my “Hanger Issues” from the past that were constant because of the types of food I was eating.

Since beginning this new lifestyle my wife (Megan) has joined on and she has also seen big improvements in her body composition following two pregnancies. She has allowed me to share a before and after picture of us, in the before picture she has the excuse of only being three months out from having a baby, I did not have the same excuse. What is also impressive about my wife’s improvement in body composition is that she has done it with pretty much zero structured exercise, which to me shows the power of changing what you eat to change how you look and feel. Megan was a soccer player at Sonoma State and she is now at the same weight she was when she was practicing/playing soccer six days a week for 2-3 hours, again with zero structured exercise. Our next task moving forward is to navigate the world of raising children, trying to give them the best life we can, and helping them face the food environment they will encounter in school and beyond.

Next up for me is to use the training I received from the Primal Health Coach Program I just finished last month. I have seen such drastic improvements in my life I was inspired to start the program earlier this summer with the hope to use my increased knowledge to help others. I currently work in a high school setting (PE and Athletics), I love what I do and the people and students I work with, and I have no plans to leave there to start a health coaching business. I will at first offer to help my friends and family in any way I can and see where I go from there. I look forward to sharing the amazing resources and knowledge I have gained from the program with anyone willing to listen. Combining that with my past experiences will be a good foundation to help others better their lives in any way possible. Hopefully, I can make an impact.

— Kevin Christensen

Want to make fat loss easier? Try the Definitive Guide for Troubleshooting Weight Loss for free here.

[fishermariawo]

I Thought Any Weight Issue Could Be Corrected With Chronic Exercise

It’s Friday, everyone! And that means another Primal Blueprint Real Life Story from a Mark’s Daily Apple reader. If you have your own success story and would like to share it with me and the Mark’s Daily Apple community please contact me here. I’ll continue to publish these each Friday as long as they keep coming in. Thank you for reading!

I contemplated writing this Mark’s Daily Apple success story a few times over the last three years and every time I decided it wasn’t a good idea, mainly because I thought “who am I and who would really care anyway”? The other reason is the last thing I wanted people to see plastered on the internet are my before and after pictures, how embarrassing! Being comfortable and confident with my body is never an attribute I have possessed. I actually even used a before photo that was about 10 pounds lighter than when I was my heaviest, but that was because I didn’t even want to look at myself in the mirror at that point, let alone take a picture.

Despite all of this, I think sharing my story (and those pictures) is important because I think it can help people, it can show the powerful changes that can be made in health and body composition by making some very important lifestyle adjustments. I wanted to use the words “simple” or “easy” adjustments in that last sentence, but they are not always simple and easy. Yet, they are important.

I don’t think my exact formula will be right for everyone, but the majority of people can find something that they can apply to their life to make a positive change. And whether or not you find something in my story that inspires you, I have just landed you on one of the most powerful websites to change your health and your life, so for that you’re welcome. I think it is important to take your health into your own hands—research, read, ask questions—because it is obvious conventional wisdom and general health/nutrition information are deeply flawed, and Mark’s Daily Apple can help in your quest for knowledge!

Below I have organized my story in categories- “Before,” “After,” “Resources,” and “Moving Forward.” If you want to jump right into the details of how I went from 220-plus pounds to the 180-185 pounds I consistently stay at now, then scroll down to the “After” portion and start there.

Before

Below is a summary of the different phases of my life until five years ago when I turned thirty-years-old.

Childhood

I was born in the 1980s and grew up in the 90s, which seems to be prime time for the low fat era. At home, school, and in the media we were taught that fat should be avoided in our diet, and we had to make sure we get our 6-11 servings of cereals, grains, and pasta. For me that was not a problem, I could eat carbohydrates all day long!

I loved to play sports growing up and tried to be outside as much as possible playing football, basketball, and baseball. I never really thought about how food affected my performance in sports, or my body composition, I just ate whatever I could as fast as possible so I could get to the next game. My weight fluctuated when I was younger. I was never obese or even too overweight, I would describe myself as “slightly chubby” at times. There were other moments during growth spurts, and highly active moments of a sports season, where I was normal weight and not carrying any extra fat on my body.

High School

Once I got to high school I made the brilliant decision as a five foot ten inch tall, fairly slow kid, to focus on playing basketball. I was consistently carrying 10-15 pounds of extra weight, and not only was I teased a bit for it, but I wasn’t the best player I could be due to the extra weight, and that is what bothered me the most. Of course the comments about how my body looked hurt a bit, but I was a good enough player that most people looked past it and appreciated me for my play on the court.

The food environment in high school wasn’t always great, with getting older came more independence and opportunities to eat outside of my home, which lead me to fast and affordable food choices.

I really had no clue what healthy eating was. In fact healthy for me was heading to a juice place for a sugar filled beverage and a soft pretzel. Thank goodness I played a lot of basketball and was introduced to lifting weights at the same time, otherwise I have no doubt I would have been considered obese.

Even with a few extra pounds on my frame at the end of high school I had become a good enough player that I was able to move on and become a member of the men’s basketball team at a NCAA Division 2 university. Thanks to the support of my family and coaches I was able to live my dream of playing college basketball.

College

Once I got to Sonoma State University (located in Sonoma County-Northern California) it was obvious that physically I was going to have a tough time on the basketball court. It took me a few years to get in good enough shape to consistently make a contribution in games, but eventually I would be an all-conference guard and conference champion my senior year (for more on the many basketball related adjustments I made check out my book “Bench Rules: A Guide to Success On and Off the Bench” on Amazon). In fact, one of the strategies I joked about with my teammates, but it had a little truth to it, is that every time I went to a fast food restaurant I just stopped ordering french fries. Boom! Ten pounds lost very quickly.

The biggest adjustment I made was tracking what I ate. I started to add a lot more real food in my diet and eating less food that came from a box, package, or fast food restaurant. It was far from an optimal diet, but the actual process of writing it down made me think about what I was putting in my body, how it made me feel and perform, and that helped me make better decisions.

Post College

I had a short stint in a European basketball league, which enabled me to live in beautiful Vienna, Austria for a few months and get paid to play a game I love. That experience also helped me realize I had reached my full potential as a player, and I was done putting my body through the stress it took me to perform at that level. I decided it was time to move on to a different stage of my life.

A couple years after I left Vienna I married my college girlfriend Megan, who was a soccer player when we were at SSU, and a couple years later we had our first child. In those four years of not playing basketball, and not really making any adjustments to my Standard American Diet (I was still tracking what I ate on and off), I managed to put on more weight than I ever had.

Now, at this time I was still lifting weights and running, my two preferred forms of exercise, but this was not enough to keep the weight off as it was nothing close to the volume and intensity of exercise I endured as a basketball player.

With the increase in weight came some minor health issues, for instance I was diagnosed with GERD. I would get constant heartburn that felt bad enough to make me think I was having some kind of heart attack. I even got hooked up to an EKG machine at one point because I was so convinced something was wrong. A doctor I saw recommended I take a Prilosec pill everyday and eat a low fat diet, which I followed religiously until I saw I was putting on more weight. It was extremely frustrating to see zero changes in my body composition with an increased focus on my health and diet. There had to be something else I could do!

After Finding A New Way

I was turned on to primal/ancesteral health when I was told about a cbssports.com article on nutrition in the NBA. The story revolved around Dr. Cate Shanahan and her work with the LA Lakers. The whole series of articles led me to a Google search and one of the first websites I found was Mark’s Daily Apple (MDA). The website piqued my interest right away, it was so informative, filled with many wonderful articles and success stories, and ultimately I knew I had to give it a try.

One of the first inforgraphics I saw, and it still sticks out in my head to this day, is the Primal Blueprint Carbohydrate Curve. This is one I still share with people who ask me how I eat now, that and of course the ten primal laws. Mark’s Daily Apple is still my “go-to” source when I have any question on health or nutrition. What I love about MDA is that if I have a question about any topic, I can search for it and I am guaranteed to find an article with Mark’s point of view and links to any necessary studies or additional information. It is also an absolute must to check out the Primal Blueprint 101 section if you are new to the website, everything you could possibly need to know is there!

Below are the major adjustments I made to my life. Growing up in organized sports, and as a victim of conventional wisdom, I thought any weight issue could be solved with exercise. It wasn’t until I bought into the idea that “80 percent of your body composition is determined by what you eat” that I saw real change. It is for that reason that “Diet” is first on this list, and by far the most important. I am now low enough in body fat to somewhat see my abs, this was never the case even in 2-3 hours a day of college basketball practice over a five-year span (I spent one year as a redshirt). I had to make a change to my diet for this to happen, and I exercise less than I ever have.

Diet

Inspired by the Primal Blueprint Carbohydrate Curve I limit daily carbohydrate intake to less than 100 grams per day. Most days I aim to stay under 50 grams, and often I decide to restrict low enough and consistently enough to dip into in to ketosis. Aiming to keep my carbohydrates low has helped me to EAT REAL FOOD and avoid most processed/packaged foods.

I also eliminated sugars and grains from my diet. Obviously these calories had to be replaced so I started eating more healthy fat- olive oil, coconut oil (MCT Oil as well), and butter. However, the majority of my food is animals and plants along with nuts, healthy fats (listed above), and some fruit and dark chocolate. Check out the Primal Blueprint Food Pyramid, I also like Time Noakes’ Real Meal Revolution Food List.

This way of eating becomes very easy very quickly. Like I said above I like to keep carbohydrates fairly low, so once you learn the macronutrient make-up of food you can easily make a selection of what to eat anywhere you go. I suggest tracking what you eat at first, but eventually there is no need once you get used to it. I do not want to demonize carbohydrates, I like what world renowned strength coach Charles Poliquin says about them, his thought is that you must “deserve your carbohydrates. Your levels of muscle mass, volume and intensity of training, percentage of body fat and insulin sensitivity will determine how many grams of carbs you can afford. Some people obviously need to restrict their carbs to 10 licks of a dried prune every six months.”

If you restrict carbohydrates enough your body will be forced to start to use your own body fat for fuel. Transitioning your body to a lower carb eating strategy, essentially turning your body into a fat burning beast, can be tough for a few days up to to a few weeks, especially the first time coming from a Standard American Diet. Give it time, trust the process, it works.

I don’t count calories, or feel they are the whole story in relation to weight loss, I also believe the effect on hormones in the body is very important to normalizing/losing weight. In relation to calories I do think a low carb high fat diet is more satiating, while also not subjecting your body to insulin spikes all day, and ultimately causes many to eat less food. That is the case for me anyway.

I do occasionally eat foods that are higher in carbohydrates, foods that are definitely not “healthy” by anyone’s standards, and I usually feel terrible after eating them. Probably the one thing I found that aggravates my stomach the most, the one that hurt the most to eliminate, was beer. I will still drink a beer on rare occasions, and naturally my digestive system and sleep suffer because of it.

Food quality is not something I worried about at first. Initially I think it is easiest to just worry about limiting carbohydrates and eating as much fat and protein as necessary so you are never hungry. Once I adapted to the diet and got my bearings, I started to worry more about finding properly raised meat and local organic vegetables. While it does cost more, and I realize I am lucky enough to be able to afford these costs, it is important to both my health and the environment.

Fasting

I have experimented with intermittent fasting, both 16-hour fasts and some 24 hour fasting. This past month of July I did a 18/6 fast every day, and while I don’t find it hard to skip breakfast in the morning, I like to eat breakfast. I generally workout first thing in the morning and find I feel better eating post workout. I still may occasionally fast on a non-workout day, simply holding off breakfast until early afternoon.  Now I just let my hunger dictate meal timing, if I am hungry I eat, if I am not I don’t eat. Hunger on a low carbohydrate diet is much different than hunger on a diet filled with carbohydrates, my family still jokes about my “Hanger Issues” from the past that were constant because of the types of food I was eating.

Since beginning this new lifestyle my wife (Megan) has joined on and she has also seen big improvements in her body composition following two pregnancies. She has allowed me to share a before and after picture of us, in the before picture she has the excuse of only being three months out from having a baby, I did not have the same excuse. What is also impressive about my wife’s improvement in body composition is that she has done it with pretty much zero structured exercise, which to me shows the power of changing what you eat to change how you look and feel. Megan was a soccer player at Sonoma State and she is now at the same weight she was when she was practicing/playing soccer six days a week for 2-3 hours, again with zero structured exercise. Our next task moving forward is to navigate the world of raising children, trying to give them the best life we can, and helping them face the food environment they will encounter in school and beyond.

Next up for me is to use the training I received from the Primal Health Coach Program I just finished last month. I have seen such drastic improvements in my life I was inspired to start the program earlier this summer with the hope to use my increased knowledge to help others. I currently work in a high school setting (PE and Athletics), I love what I do and the people and students I work with, and I have no plans to leave there to start a health coaching business. I will at first offer to help my friends and family in any way I can and see where I go from there. I look forward to sharing the amazing resources and knowledge I have gained from the program with anyone willing to listen. Combining that with my past experiences will be a good foundation to help others better their lives in any way possible. Hopefully, I can make an impact.

— Kevin Christensen

Want to make fat loss easier? Try the Definitive Guide for Troubleshooting Weight Loss for free here.

[cristinajourdanqp]

I Thought Any Weight Issue Could Be Corrected With Chronic Exercise

It’s Friday, everyone! And that means another Primal Blueprint Real Life Story from a Mark’s Daily Apple reader. If you have your own success story and would like to share it with me and the Mark’s Daily Apple community please contact me here. I’ll continue to publish these each Friday as long as they keep coming in. Thank you for reading!

I contemplated writing this Mark’s Daily Apple success story a few times over the last three years and every time I decided it wasn’t a good idea, mainly because I thought “who am I and who would really care anyway”? The other reason is the last thing I wanted people to see plastered on the internet are my before and after pictures, how embarrassing! Being comfortable and confident with my body is never an attribute I have possessed. I actually even used a before photo that was about 10 pounds lighter than when I was my heaviest, but that was because I didn’t even want to look at myself in the mirror at that point, let alone take a picture.

Despite all of this, I think sharing my story (and those pictures) is important because I think it can help people, it can show the powerful changes that can be made in health and body composition by making some very important lifestyle adjustments. I wanted to use the words “simple” or “easy” adjustments in that last sentence, but they are not always simple and easy. Yet, they are important.

I don’t think my exact formula will be right for everyone, but the majority of people can find something that they can apply to their life to make a positive change. And whether or not you find something in my story that inspires you, I have just landed you on one of the most powerful websites to change your health and your life, so for that you’re welcome. I think it is important to take your health into your own hands—research, read, ask questions—because it is obvious conventional wisdom and general health/nutrition information are deeply flawed, and Mark’s Daily Apple can help in your quest for knowledge!

Below I have organized my story in categories- “Before,” “After,” “Resources,” and “Moving Forward.” If you want to jump right into the details of how I went from 220-plus pounds to the 180-185 pounds I consistently stay at now, then scroll down to the “After” portion and start there.

Before

Below is a summary of the different phases of my life until five years ago when I turned thirty-years-old.

Childhood

I was born in the 1980s and grew up in the 90s, which seems to be prime time for the low fat era. At home, school, and in the media we were taught that fat should be avoided in our diet, and we had to make sure we get our 6-11 servings of cereals, grains, and pasta. For me that was not a problem, I could eat carbohydrates all day long!

I loved to play sports growing up and tried to be outside as much as possible playing football, basketball, and baseball. I never really thought about how food affected my performance in sports, or my body composition, I just ate whatever I could as fast as possible so I could get to the next game. My weight fluctuated when I was younger. I was never obese or even too overweight, I would describe myself as “slightly chubby” at times. There were other moments during growth spurts, and highly active moments of a sports season, where I was normal weight and not carrying any extra fat on my body.

High School

Once I got to high school I made the brilliant decision as a five foot ten inch tall, fairly slow kid, to focus on playing basketball. I was consistently carrying 10-15 pounds of extra weight, and not only was I teased a bit for it, but I wasn’t the best player I could be due to the extra weight, and that is what bothered me the most. Of course the comments about how my body looked hurt a bit, but I was a good enough player that most people looked past it and appreciated me for my play on the court.

The food environment in high school wasn’t always great, with getting older came more independence and opportunities to eat outside of my home, which lead me to fast and affordable food choices.

I really had no clue what healthy eating was. In fact healthy for me was heading to a juice place for a sugar filled beverage and a soft pretzel. Thank goodness I played a lot of basketball and was introduced to lifting weights at the same time, otherwise I have no doubt I would have been considered obese.

Even with a few extra pounds on my frame at the end of high school I had become a good enough player that I was able to move on and become a member of the men’s basketball team at a NCAA Division 2 university. Thanks to the support of my family and coaches I was able to live my dream of playing college basketball.

College

Once I got to Sonoma State University (located in Sonoma County-Northern California) it was obvious that physically I was going to have a tough time on the basketball court. It took me a few years to get in good enough shape to consistently make a contribution in games, but eventually I would be an all-conference guard and conference champion my senior year (for more on the many basketball related adjustments I made check out my book “Bench Rules: A Guide to Success On and Off the Bench” on Amazon). In fact, one of the strategies I joked about with my teammates, but it had a little truth to it, is that every time I went to a fast food restaurant I just stopped ordering french fries. Boom! Ten pounds lost very quickly.

The biggest adjustment I made was tracking what I ate. I started to add a lot more real food in my diet and eating less food that came from a box, package, or fast food restaurant. It was far from an optimal diet, but the actual process of writing it down made me think about what I was putting in my body, how it made me feel and perform, and that helped me make better decisions.

Post College

I had a short stint in a European basketball league, which enabled me to live in beautiful Vienna, Austria for a few months and get paid to play a game I love. That experience also helped me realize I had reached my full potential as a player, and I was done putting my body through the stress it took me to perform at that level. I decided it was time to move on to a different stage of my life.

A couple years after I left Vienna I married my college girlfriend Megan, who was a soccer player when we were at SSU, and a couple years later we had our first child. In those four years of not playing basketball, and not really making any adjustments to my Standard American Diet (I was still tracking what I ate on and off), I managed to put on more weight than I ever had.

Now, at this time I was still lifting weights and running, my two preferred forms of exercise, but this was not enough to keep the weight off as it was nothing close to the volume and intensity of exercise I endured as a basketball player.

With the increase in weight came some minor health issues, for instance I was diagnosed with GERD. I would get constant heartburn that felt bad enough to make me think I was having some kind of heart attack. I even got hooked up to an EKG machine at one point because I was so convinced something was wrong. A doctor I saw recommended I take a Prilosec pill everyday and eat a low fat diet, which I followed religiously until I saw I was putting on more weight. It was extremely frustrating to see zero changes in my body composition with an increased focus on my health and diet. There had to be something else I could do!

After Finding A New Way

I was turned on to primal/ancesteral health when I was told about a cbssports.com article on nutrition in the NBA. The story revolved around Dr. Cate Shanahan and her work with the LA Lakers. The whole series of articles led me to a Google search and one of the first websites I found was Mark’s Daily Apple (MDA). The website piqued my interest right away, it was so informative, filled with many wonderful articles and success stories, and ultimately I knew I had to give it a try.

One of the first inforgraphics I saw, and it still sticks out in my head to this day, is the Primal Blueprint Carbohydrate Curve. This is one I still share with people who ask me how I eat now, that and of course the ten primal laws. Mark’s Daily Apple is still my “go-to” source when I have any question on health or nutrition. What I love about MDA is that if I have a question about any topic, I can search for it and I am guaranteed to find an article with Mark’s point of view and links to any necessary studies or additional information. It is also an absolute must to check out the Primal Blueprint 101 section if you are new to the website, everything you could possibly need to know is there!

Below are the major adjustments I made to my life. Growing up in organized sports, and as a victim of conventional wisdom, I thought any weight issue could be solved with exercise. It wasn’t until I bought into the idea that “80 percent of your body composition is determined by what you eat” that I saw real change. It is for that reason that “Diet” is first on this list, and by far the most important. I am now low enough in body fat to somewhat see my abs, this was never the case even in 2-3 hours a day of college basketball practice over a five-year span (I spent one year as a redshirt). I had to make a change to my diet for this to happen, and I exercise less than I ever have.

Diet

Inspired by the Primal Blueprint Carbohydrate Curve I limit daily carbohydrate intake to less than 100 grams per day. Most days I aim to stay under 50 grams, and often I decide to restrict low enough and consistently enough to dip into in to ketosis. Aiming to keep my carbohydrates low has helped me to EAT REAL FOOD and avoid most processed/packaged foods.

I also eliminated sugars and grains from my diet. Obviously these calories had to be replaced so I started eating more healthy fat- olive oil, coconut oil (MCT Oil as well), and butter. However, the majority of my food is animals and plants along with nuts, healthy fats (listed above), and some fruit and dark chocolate. Check out the Primal Blueprint Food Pyramid, I also like Time Noakes’ Real Meal Revolution Food List.

This way of eating becomes very easy very quickly. Like I said above I like to keep carbohydrates fairly low, so once you learn the macronutrient make-up of food you can easily make a selection of what to eat anywhere you go. I suggest tracking what you eat at first, but eventually there is no need once you get used to it. I do not want to demonize carbohydrates, I like what world renowned strength coach Charles Poliquin says about them, his thought is that you must “deserve your carbohydrates. Your levels of muscle mass, volume and intensity of training, percentage of body fat and insulin sensitivity will determine how many grams of carbs you can afford. Some people obviously need to restrict their carbs to 10 licks of a dried prune every six months.”

If you restrict carbohydrates enough your body will be forced to start to use your own body fat for fuel. Transitioning your body to a lower carb eating strategy, essentially turning your body into a fat burning beast, can be tough for a few days up to to a few weeks, especially the first time coming from a Standard American Diet. Give it time, trust the process, it works.

I don’t count calories, or feel they are the whole story in relation to weight loss, I also believe the effect on hormones in the body is very important to normalizing/losing weight. In relation to calories I do think a low carb high fat diet is more satiating, while also not subjecting your body to insulin spikes all day, and ultimately causes many to eat less food. That is the case for me anyway.

I do occasionally eat foods that are higher in carbohydrates, foods that are definitely not “healthy” by anyone’s standards, and I usually feel terrible after eating them. Probably the one thing I found that aggravates my stomach the most, the one that hurt the most to eliminate, was beer. I will still drink a beer on rare occasions, and naturally my digestive system and sleep suffer because of it.

Food quality is not something I worried about at first. Initially I think it is easiest to just worry about limiting carbohydrates and eating as much fat and protein as necessary so you are never hungry. Once I adapted to the diet and got my bearings, I started to worry more about finding properly raised meat and local organic vegetables. While it does cost more, and I realize I am lucky enough to be able to afford these costs, it is important to both my health and the environment.

Fasting

I have experimented with intermittent fasting, both 16-hour fasts and some 24 hour fasting. This past month of July I did a 18/6 fast every day, and while I don’t find it hard to skip breakfast in the morning, I like to eat breakfast. I generally workout first thing in the morning and find I feel better eating post workout. I still may occasionally fast on a non-workout day, simply holding off breakfast until early afternoon.  Now I just let my hunger dictate meal timing, if I am hungry I eat, if I am not I don’t eat. Hunger on a low carbohydrate diet is much different than hunger on a diet filled with carbohydrates, my family still jokes about my “Hanger Issues” from the past that were constant because of the types of food I was eating.

Since beginning this new lifestyle my wife (Megan) has joined on and she has also seen big improvements in her body composition following two pregnancies. She has allowed me to share a before and after picture of us, in the before picture she has the excuse of only being three months out from having a baby, I did not have the same excuse. What is also impressive about my wife’s improvement in body composition is that she has done it with pretty much zero structured exercise, which to me shows the power of changing what you eat to change how you look and feel. Megan was a soccer player at Sonoma State and she is now at the same weight she was when she was practicing/playing soccer six days a week for 2-3 hours, again with zero structured exercise. Our next task moving forward is to navigate the world of raising children, trying to give them the best life we can, and helping them face the food environment they will encounter in school and beyond.

Next up for me is to use the training I received from the Primal Health Coach Program I just finished last month. I have seen such drastic improvements in my life I was inspired to start the program earlier this summer with the hope to use my increased knowledge to help others. I currently work in a high school setting (PE and Athletics), I love what I do and the people and students I work with, and I have no plans to leave there to start a health coaching business. I will at first offer to help my friends and family in any way I can and see where I go from there. I look forward to sharing the amazing resources and knowledge I have gained from the program with anyone willing to listen. Combining that with my past experiences will be a good foundation to help others better their lives in any way possible. Hopefully, I can make an impact.

— Kevin Christensen

Want to make fat loss easier? Try the Definitive Guide for Troubleshooting Weight Loss for free here.

[cynthiamwashington]

I Thought Any Weight Issue Could Be Corrected With Chronic Exercise

It’s Friday, everyone! And that means another Primal Blueprint Real Life Story from a Mark’s Daily Apple reader. If you have your own success story and would like to share it with me and the Mark’s Daily Apple community please contact me here. I’ll continue to publish these each Friday as long as they keep coming in. Thank you for reading!

I contemplated writing this Mark’s Daily Apple success story a few times over the last three years and every time I decided it wasn’t a good idea, mainly because I thought “who am I and who would really care anyway”? The other reason is the last thing I wanted people to see plastered on the internet are my before and after pictures, how embarrassing! Being comfortable and confident with my body is never an attribute I have possessed. I actually even used a before photo that was about 10 pounds lighter than when I was my heaviest, but that was because I didn’t even want to look at myself in the mirror at that point, let alone take a picture.

Despite all of this, I think sharing my story (and those pictures) is important because I think it can help people, it can show the powerful changes that can be made in health and body composition by making some very important lifestyle adjustments. I wanted to use the words “simple” or “easy” adjustments in that last sentence, but they are not always simple and easy. Yet, they are important.

I don’t think my exact formula will be right for everyone, but the majority of people can find something that they can apply to their life to make a positive change. And whether or not you find something in my story that inspires you, I have just landed you on one of the most powerful websites to change your health and your life, so for that you’re welcome. I think it is important to take your health into your own hands—research, read, ask questions—because it is obvious conventional wisdom and general health/nutrition information are deeply flawed, and Mark’s Daily Apple can help in your quest for knowledge!

Below I have organized my story in categories- “Before,” “After,” “Resources,” and “Moving Forward.” If you want to jump right into the details of how I went from 220-plus pounds to the 180-185 pounds I consistently stay at now, then scroll down to the “After” portion and start there.

Before

Below is a summary of the different phases of my life until five years ago when I turned thirty-years-old.

Childhood

I was born in the 1980s and grew up in the 90s, which seems to be prime time for the low fat era. At home, school, and in the media we were taught that fat should be avoided in our diet, and we had to make sure we get our 6-11 servings of cereals, grains, and pasta. For me that was not a problem, I could eat carbohydrates all day long!

I loved to play sports growing up and tried to be outside as much as possible playing football, basketball, and baseball. I never really thought about how food affected my performance in sports, or my body composition, I just ate whatever I could as fast as possible so I could get to the next game. My weight fluctuated when I was younger. I was never obese or even too overweight, I would describe myself as “slightly chubby” at times. There were other moments during growth spurts, and highly active moments of a sports season, where I was normal weight and not carrying any extra fat on my body.

High School

Once I got to high school I made the brilliant decision as a five foot ten inch tall, fairly slow kid, to focus on playing basketball. I was consistently carrying 10-15 pounds of extra weight, and not only was I teased a bit for it, but I wasn’t the best player I could be due to the extra weight, and that is what bothered me the most. Of course the comments about how my body looked hurt a bit, but I was a good enough player that most people looked past it and appreciated me for my play on the court.

The food environment in high school wasn’t always great, with getting older came more independence and opportunities to eat outside of my home, which lead me to fast and affordable food choices.

I really had no clue what healthy eating was. In fact healthy for me was heading to a juice place for a sugar filled beverage and a soft pretzel. Thank goodness I played a lot of basketball and was introduced to lifting weights at the same time, otherwise I have no doubt I would have been considered obese.

Even with a few extra pounds on my frame at the end of high school I had become a good enough player that I was able to move on and become a member of the men’s basketball team at a NCAA Division 2 university. Thanks to the support of my family and coaches I was able to live my dream of playing college basketball.

College

Once I got to Sonoma State University (located in Sonoma County-Northern California) it was obvious that physically I was going to have a tough time on the basketball court. It took me a few years to get in good enough shape to consistently make a contribution in games, but eventually I would be an all-conference guard and conference champion my senior year (for more on the many basketball related adjustments I made check out my book “Bench Rules: A Guide to Success On and Off the Bench” on Amazon). In fact, one of the strategies I joked about with my teammates, but it had a little truth to it, is that every time I went to a fast food restaurant I just stopped ordering french fries. Boom! Ten pounds lost very quickly.

The biggest adjustment I made was tracking what I ate. I started to add a lot more real food in my diet and eating less food that came from a box, package, or fast food restaurant. It was far from an optimal diet, but the actual process of writing it down made me think about what I was putting in my body, how it made me feel and perform, and that helped me make better decisions.

Post College

I had a short stint in a European basketball league, which enabled me to live in beautiful Vienna, Austria for a few months and get paid to play a game I love. That experience also helped me realize I had reached my full potential as a player, and I was done putting my body through the stress it took me to perform at that level. I decided it was time to move on to a different stage of my life.

A couple years after I left Vienna I married my college girlfriend Megan, who was a soccer player when we were at SSU, and a couple years later we had our first child. In those four years of not playing basketball, and not really making any adjustments to my Standard American Diet (I was still tracking what I ate on and off), I managed to put on more weight than I ever had.

Now, at this time I was still lifting weights and running, my two preferred forms of exercise, but this was not enough to keep the weight off as it was nothing close to the volume and intensity of exercise I endured as a basketball player.

With the increase in weight came some minor health issues, for instance I was diagnosed with GERD. I would get constant heartburn that felt bad enough to make me think I was having some kind of heart attack. I even got hooked up to an EKG machine at one point because I was so convinced something was wrong. A doctor I saw recommended I take a Prilosec pill everyday and eat a low fat diet, which I followed religiously until I saw I was putting on more weight. It was extremely frustrating to see zero changes in my body composition with an increased focus on my health and diet. There had to be something else I could do!

After

Finding A New Way

I was turned on to primal/ancesteral health when I was told about a cbssports.com article on nutrition in the NBA. The story revolved around Dr. Cate Shanahan and her work with the LA Lakers. The whole series of articles led me to a Google search and one of the first websites I found was Mark’s Daily Apple (MDA). The website piqued my interest right away, it was so informative, filled with many wonderful articles and success stories, and ultimately I knew I had to give it a try.

One of the first inforgraphics I saw, and it still sticks out in my head to this day, is the Primal Blueprint Carbohydrate Curve. This is one I still share with people who ask me how I eat now, that and of course the ten primal laws. Mark’s Daily Apple is still my “go-to” source when I have any question on health or nutrition. What I love about MDA is that if I have a question about any topic, I can search for it and I am guaranteed to find an article with Mark’s point of view and links to any necessary studies or additional information. It is also an absolute must to check out the Primal Blueprint 101 section if you are new to the website, everything you could possibly need to know is there!

Below are the major adjustments I made to my life. Growing up in organized sports, and as a victim of conventional wisdom, I thought any weight issue could be solved with exercise. It wasn’t until I bought into the idea that “80 percent of your body composition is determined by what you eat” that I saw real change. It is for that reason that “Diet” is first on this list, and by far the most important. I am now low enough in body fat to somewhat see my abs, this was never the case even in 2-3 hours a day of college basketball practice over a five-year span (I spent one year as a redshirt). I had to make a change to my diet for this to happen, and I exercise less than I ever have.

Diet

Inspired by the Primal Blueprint Carbohydrate Curve I limit daily carbohydrate intake to less than 100 grams per day. Most days I aim to stay under 50 grams, and often I decide to restrict low enough and consistently enough to dip into in to ketosis. Aiming to keep my carbohydrates low has helped me to EAT REAL FOOD and avoid most processed/packaged foods.

I also eliminated sugars and grains from my diet. Obviously these calories had to be replaced so I started eating more healthy fat- olive oil, coconut oil (MCT Oil as well), and butter. However, the majority of my food is animals and plants along with nuts, healthy fats (listed above), and some fruit and dark chocolate. Check out the Primal Blueprint Food Pyramid, I also like Time Noakes’ Real Meal Revolution Food List.

This way of eating becomes very easy very quickly. Like I said above I like to keep carbohydrates fairly low, so once you learn the macronutrient make-up of food you can easily make a selection of what to eat anywhere you go. I suggest tracking what you eat at first, but eventually there is no need once you get used to it. I do not want to demonize carbohydrates, I like what world renowned strength coach Charles Poliquin says about them, his thought is that you must “deserve your carbohydrates. Your levels of muscle mass, volume and intensity of training, percentage of body fat and insulin sensitivity will determine how many grams of carbs you can afford. Some people obviously need to restrict their carbs to 10 licks of a dried prune every six months.”

If you restrict carbohydrates enough your body will be forced to start to use your own body fat for fuel. Transitioning your body to a lower carb eating strategy, essentially turning your body into a fat burning beast, can be tough for a few days up to to a few weeks, especially the first time coming from a Standard American Diet. Give it time, trust the process, it works.

I don’t count calories, or feel they are the whole story in relation to weight loss, I also believe the effect on hormones in the body is very important to normalizing/losing weight. In relation to calories I do think a low carb high fat diet is more satiating, while also not subjecting your body to insulin spikes all day, and ultimately causes many to eat less food. That is the case for me anyway.

I do occasionally eat foods that are higher in carbohydrates, foods that are definitely not “healthy” by anyone’s standards, and I usually feel terrible after eating them. Probably the one thing I found that aggravates my stomach the most, the one that hurt the most to eliminate, was beer. I will still drink a beer on rare occasions, and naturally my digestive system and sleep suffer because of it.

Food quality is not something I worried about at first. Initially I think it is easiest to just worry about limiting carbohydrates and eating as much fat and protein as necessary so you are never hungry. Once I adapted to the diet and got my bearings, I started to worry more about finding properly raised meat and local organic vegetables. While it does cost more, and I realize I am lucky enough to be able to afford these costs, it is important to both my health and the environment.

Fasting

I have experimented with intermittent fasting, both 16-hour fasts and some 24 hour fasting. This past month of July I did a 18/6 fast every day, and while I don’t find it hard to skip breakfast in the morning, I like to eat breakfast. I generally workout first thing in the morning and find I feel better eating post workout. I still may occasionally fast on a non-workout day, simply holding off breakfast until early afternoon.  Now I just let my hunger dictate meal timing, if I am hungry I eat, if I am not I don’t eat. Hunger on a low carbohydrate diet is much different than hunger on a diet filled with carbohydrates, my family still jokes about my “Hanger Issues” from the past that were constant because of the types of food I was eating.

Since beginning this new lifestyle my wife (Megan) has joined on and she has also seen big improvements in her body composition following two pregnancies. She has allowed me to share a before and after picture of us, in the before picture she has the excuse of only being three months out from having a baby, I did not have the same excuse. What is also impressive about my wife’s improvement in body composition is that she has done it with pretty much zero structured exercise, which to me shows the power of changing what you eat to change how you look and feel. Megan was a soccer player at Sonoma State and she is now at the same weight she was when she was practicing/playing soccer six days a week for 2-3 hours, again with zero structured exercise. Our next task moving forward is to navigate the world of raising children, trying to give them the best life we can, and helping them face the food environment they will encounter in school and beyond.

Next up for me is to use the training I received from the Primal Health Coach Program I just finished last month. I have seen such drastic improvements in my life I was inspired to start the program earlier this summer with the hope to use my increased knowledge to help others. I currently work in a high school setting (PE and Athletics), I love what I do and the people and students I work with, and I have no plans to leave there to start a health coaching business. I will at first offer to help my friends and family in any way I can and see where I go from there. I look forward to sharing the amazing resources and knowledge I have gained from the program with anyone willing to listen. Combining that with my past experiences will be a good foundation to help others better their lives in any way possible. Hopefully, I can make an impact.

— Kevin Christensen

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Want to make fat loss easier? Try the Definitive Guide for Troubleshooting Weight Loss for free here.

The post I Thought Any Weight Issue Could Be Corrected With Chronic Exercise appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.

Article source here:Marks’s Daily Apple

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How to Boldy Sell Your Own Products

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Selling isn’t hard. You do it every day.

You’ve sold your friends on Stranger Things, that new Mexican restaurant, the shoes you’re wearing that are soooo comfortable, the video game with the amazing graphics.

Selling is not only easy, it’s natural. When we discover something awesome, we automatically want to share the good news. (This is one reason why funny videos go viral.)

But there is one exception. One tripwire that snares the confidence of people with something to share.

Everything changes the moment you try to sell something you built.

If you wrote the book, if you built the course, if you’re the one welding the custom mailbox, a sinister fear creeps in and emasculates your sales copy.

You start making excuses for your pricing.

You focus too much on discounts or deadlines and not enough on the value of the product.

You make ambiguous promises about what the product or service might do.

And here’s what’s tricky…

Many times, you won’t know you’re doing it.

You won’t realize you’ve watered down the value of your product or service, and you’ll unknowingly move forward with flaccid sales copy. Fewer people will be helped by the solution you’re offering. And you’ll miss out on the money a strong pitch would have earned.

But surprisingly, as bad as that sounds, there’s an even more sinister threat. While you’re busy selling your own products short to others, you might even scare away yourself. You could lose faith in your own creation and ultimately quit.

In this post, I’ll reveal a simple mindset shift that will free you up to sell your products with conviction. Then I’ll give you a simple, three-step process to help you power up your sales pitch.

The simple mindset shift that frees you up to sell naturally

A close friend recently sent me some sales copy he was planning to email to his list. His goal was to sell more copies of his book, which I’ve fake renamed The Mega Productivity Supercharger.

My friend is a phenomenal writer. His work has literally been read by millions of people. What tripped him up wasn’t a lack of talent. It was the struggle of selling your own stuff.

Read this copy, and think about whether you’re compelled to buy what it’s selling.

In case you were wondering, I’m not in this for the money.

As a matter of fact, I’ve probably spent more money building my writing career, the website, and the videos than I will make back for a very long time.

But that’s okay, because the message matters more than the money. I’ve tried to drill this in to the small team that helps me here and there with my website. They didn’t get it at first. Now I think they understand.

I wasn’t kidding when I said I’ve published over 600 posts. Sometimes they take me an hour to make. Sometimes they take 10 hours.

Here’s the thing though:

We don’t value things we don’t pay for.

That’s why I’m going to ask you to buy what I consider my most valuable work to date – The Mega Productivity Supercharger.

Buy the book here right now.

If you’re reading this before Wednesday, you will still be able to get it for $4.99.

But I never pull my prices down. After that date, the book will be $7.99 (still a bargain for the amount of work which went into it).

Again, here’s the link to buy the book.

After reading this, can you sense my friend was struggling with the challenge of selling his own book?

What made it obvious?

The first 80% of the email makes excuses for the price, which is insane. (You don’t have to price-justify a $4.99 ebook.)

He gives zero actual reasons to buy the book. He mentions a discount, but discounts aren’t a reason to buy. They’re a reason to buy now. For me to care about the deadline, I need to know how this book will make my life better, and the email shies away from that.

Finally, he explains the book took a lot of work to write — also not a reason to buy.

Since I know my friend is a terrific writer, I wanted to find a way to unleash his talent. I knew the only way to do that was to trick him into selling his product like someone else built it.

So I asked him to write a new email. But this time, instead of his book, I wanted him to pick his favorite nonfiction book and write about that.

See how much better this second email is than the first.

When I finished A Million Miles by Donald Miller, I closed the book, grabbed my keys, and went to the closest jewelry store.

Why did I go to the jewelry store?

I needed to buy an engagement ring.

After reading this book, there was no other option – I had to propose to my girlfriend, Beth. I’d dragged my feet for too long.

Your life is a story. You are writing it every day. A Million Miles will help you realize how you can tell a better story and why it’s imperative you do so.

Would I have proposed to Beth without this book? Who knows? Maybe one day. Or maybe she would have gotten tired of me dragging my feet and moved on.

If you have ever doubted for a second your purpose in life – this book can help you.

If you have ever wondered what it all means – this book can show you.

If you have ever felt like life just happens to you – this book can turn that around.

Right now, you can get this book for only $4.99.

It won’t be that price for long.

On Wednesday, A Million Miles will move to $7.99, and it will very likely never come back down. $7.99 is still a bargain considering the effect it will have on your life, but I want you to get the best deal possible.

Grab the book right now for $4.99 and start living with intention.

(Note: I told him to keep the discount language intact, but that is NOT an actual promotion or price for A Million Miles — just an exercise.)

Look at the powerful promises my friend made for Donald Miller’s book:

A Million Miles will help you realize how you can tell a better story and why it’s imperative you do so.

If you have ever doubted for a second your purpose in life – this book can help you.

If you have ever wondered what it all means – this book can show you.

If you have ever felt like life just happens to you – this book can turn that around.

Grab the book right now for $4.99 andstart living with intention.

Isn’t that crazy?

Right away his writing comes to life, grabs my attention, and gives me compelling reasons to buy the book.

Does he ever make excuses for the price? Not once.

Does he shy away from clear promises? He has a whole list of them!

Does he talk about how hard the book must have been for Donald to write? No, he tells the readers how the book can change their lives.

My friend is happily doing his duty — sharing the good thing he’s found with people he cares about.

All it took was forgetting who actually wrote the book.

That’s the secret — the mindset shift that frees you up to sell naturally…

If you struggle to sell your own products, forget that it’s your stuff.

Easier said than done? You’re darn right. Let’s break the process down.

The three points below are not random tips. This is a process that should be done entirely and in order.

1. Remember why you built what you’re selling in the first place

Maybe your answer would look something like one of these:

I wrote this blog post because learning how to sell has changed my life and I want other people to have similar success.

I create custom coffee mugs because mornings suck and I want women to know something cute and cheerful is waiting for them.

I wrote this novel to explore the theme of forgiveness so I could start thinking about the future again.

Take a minute to write down your own reasons using the examples above as a template.

2. Stop selling the box

90% of the time, insecurity comes from the packaging, not what’s inside.

You know the information in your course can change lives because it changed yours. You just don’t like the way you look on camera.

You know the story in your novel can help readers take a chance on love because you’ve lived this journey. You’re just not as good a writer as Stephen King.

You know your handmade scarves can brighten someone else’s day because they brighten yours. But you’re embarrassed because your prices can’t compete with Walmart, and your online store isn’t as sharp as the Kate Spade website.

Here’s what you must understand.

No one buys the box!

People don’t buy courses to watch someone on camera. They’re paying for the promised transformation.

People don’t read novels simply for prose. They want to know what happens in the story.

People don’t usually buy clothes just because they’re cheap. They discover something they want and find the money to pay for it.

Your job is to show people why they should want what you have for them. Here’s how…

3. Start selling your story

It’s as simple as it is effective.

I used to be THERE. Then I found this EPIPHANY or this PRODUCT. That helped me get HERE — a place where I can do THIS and THIS and THIS. I realized other people wanted to get HERE too. So I…..

….wrote the The Mega Productivity Supercharger to help them learn the EPIPHANY.

….decided to sell my custom Gilmore Girls shirts on etsy so other people could share their love for the show too.

That’s not a sales pitch. It’s just you telling your story. The fact that you wrote the book or made the product doesn’t matter.

You found something that made your life better and now you’re recommending it to other people. That’s powerful salesmanship, my friend.

Your turn

Take a minute to write or rewrite your own sales story, using the template I shared in the previous section. If you would like my feedback, post your short pitch in the comments, and we can work on it together.

After you’ve done that, read this final thought…

We all have days where we feel insecure about what we’re selling. We get nasty feedback from a miserable troll and soon we’re sinking into self-doubt.

For these inevitable moments, it’s good to have a rainy day fund.

When customers tell you how your book or product or service has made their lives better, write it down and stuff it in a jar. When you hit a rough day, dump out your stash of encouragement and remind yourself of what’s true.

You have something good to share.

Selling is how you share it.

So forget who built the thing and start spreading the good news.

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