The Fit Hit – Jan. 30th, 2018

Pain versus the expectation of pain. I wonder if that’s how a majority of our lives are measured. For me this last week, that’s been a bit more literal than I’d like. I took a little fall outside a bar (stone sober, I should add) that left me with a sprained back and a pelvis that won’t stop juking and jiving when I lay down. It’s definitely not the worst pain I’ve ever felt, not by a long shot (hello, migraines), but it’s just annoying enough to make sleeping at night feel like a chore. That’s not really due to the discomfort I feel, but the expectation of discomfort, of the pain I immediately know will be there if I do, even if that “knowledge” is fiction my body is presenting itself to avoid the pain.

It’s kind of a metaphor for trying to get healthy, isn’t it? When I haven’t made cardio a regular part of my life since I was eighteen or nineteen thanks to the pain I thought I would feel in my hips, it became easier to just blame it on the expectation of pain than to do work. The expectation of the misery of a proper diet kept me eating junk for nearly a decade and a half, when the reality is that all I needed to do was cut back on excess. That’s not so terrible, but because I was conditioning my mind to think that way, it was.

And that’s not just a metaphor for exercise either, but my whole way of life at this point. I stay at home every Friday night because I think going out will be a hassle or I can’t afford it. The latter would be true if I had to eat our town’s exorbitantly priced food all the time I went out, but I don’t, do I? A simple diet Pepsi (or regular Pepsi, as I’m trying to cut out diet sodas from my diet) is maybe two bucks depending on where I drink it, and a buck less than that if I go to my favorite bar in town. So why don’t I? I have no reason not to. A buck a week to get out and socialize? Of course I can manage that.

It boils down to pain, or in this case, loneliness. The expectation of loneliness can build up just as much as the expectation of pain, to the point where I just want to stay home and hang out with my dogs rather than risk putting myself out there to make new friends or talk to people. That’s not healthy thinking, especially when I’m thirty five and my last relationship ended nearly a decade ago.

I need a life. I need to deal with the pain, not avoid it because it’s easier. I need to do this thing with my heart and body in mind, not just one or the other. It won’t be easy to retrain my mind, but it’s nevertheless something I have to do, or else all of this is going to wind up with me backsliding the next time I have an easy out, just like I did in 2017.

Weigh-in for the week – 289.4

The Fit Hit – Jan. 17th, 2018

Ugh, I can’t catch a break. I start to feel good about lifting weights again, build up my cardio a bit, and get back on a regular fitness schedule only to get sick. Joy.

On the plus side, it’s a real mild cold, so I can’t complain too much. And it does wonders for the appetite – apart from soup, I haven’t felt like eating much. I’m not working out while I’m sick, though. I want to do this the healthy way, get my mind and my body right. So rest and relaxation for me. Well, apart from knocking out some projects.

Speaking of which, I have book things to announce:

(Note – no weigh-in this week. Can’t go to the hospital to get weighed until I get over this crap)

Adamanta: Pharo Season 2, Episode 1 – Out now!

When a member of an elite squad of soldiers is held hostage by a former war hero, it’s up to Mattie and Xander to save him and figure out the mystery of his abduction. Featuring space battles with a nasty bug-like alien race, a fallen hero, and an intriguing examination of one of Adamanta’s side characters, this has a little bit of everything for space opera fans.

This is my first entry in a multi-author collaborative science-fiction/space opera novella series. It was a hell of a lot of fun to write, and you can pick up your copy today for just a buck. While each entry in the series reads like a stand-alone novella, I do recommend picking up the rest of the series, as there are some fantastic, fun reads to be found. Best part is you can read Season 1, Ep. 1 free on Amazon.

The Rankin Flats Box Set – Out now!

For six bucks, you get the first three Rankin Flats novels (The Ghost at His Back, Shifting Furies, and For All the Sins of Man). Each book is full-sized – no dicking around and discovering you’ve just bought a collection of short stories or novellas. It’s also available through Kindle Unlimited, so if you subscribe to that, you get to read three books free of charge. Well, besides the subscription fee, but you get the point.

With The Ghost at His Back at a 4.3 out of 5 rating with 49 reviews, Shifting Furies at a humbling 4.8 with 9 reviews, and For All the Sins of Man at a 5 (albeit with just four reviews), readers seem to enjoy the novels. It’s a great way to dip your toes into my works, as you get three books for the price of two regularly.

Give ’em a shot. And don’t forget Forever and Farewell, my romance novel, is out now as well. I’ll have news soon on Smyle (it’s looking like a late January or early February release date) and Plague of Life, so stay tuned!