Sasha White

Tricks and Tips.

How’s everyone doing?

I was doing great until yesterday. yep. Yesterday and today I’ve been bad. But I’ve been super stressed. Feb 1st deadline for one publisher, March 1st for two proposals, and I thought I’d have a home for another story in April, but it seems business stuff is not working in my favor.

Anyway, stress has made me stop being so careful..and Part of me is mad at myself, and part of me doesn’t care because I have other things to worry about. BUT, I lost 2 pounds last week!! ( I weigh in on Sundays at the gym…so it’s consistent) and I’ve found a few thing’s y’all might like to use.

First up, check my blog sidebar. See the SLIM CAMP button? And next to it is a small meter thingy. Okay, it’s a word meter for tracking how many words toward your goal for writing is…but I’ve substituted pounds for words. :) Just click HERE and it will take you right to the page where you can get you’re own! (I have no idea why my meter is int he middle. It wasn’t when I put it up the first time. It should sort of of be at the start…you know, like a thermometer. LOL

Another thing… Counting Calories. It’s important. I’m workinngon paying more attention, but I’m not as strict as I should be.

Check This one out I’ve not used it, but it’s a free one.

Myself, I like to use an actual paper book. LOl Can;t help it. it’s the only thign that works form e.
However, I do not like to count calories on my own..so I use this one, simply for the math.

And thanks to an email from Amie, here’s a link to 5 Foods to Try, and 5 to avoid.

Hope these links help you stay focussed. And hopefully I’ll see more Goal meters posted around, with slow and steady results.

It’s a new year, and so many people have resolutions to be healthier. I know it’s one of mine..the sad thing is, it’s been one of my resolutions every year for the past many years. So what’s different this year? Well, I’m not ready to share that with you all yet, but I do know it’s time to get my ass out of my office chair and into the gym. Every day.

Yep, I’ve tried desperately to not have to go to the gym every day, but it’s become clear to me that is what’s needed, among other things.

I’m going to keep Slim Camp up, however, I need help from any of you interested in it. Any stories, recipes and such you want to share, please email them to me. If you have any ideas on how to make this a more interactive thing, I’d love to hear them.

Let’s try this together.

This is just a little thing I wrote a long long time ago…but I was remineded of it when I worked out yesterday. Some of you might have read it before, as it’s in SECRET THOUGHTS: EROTIQUE, as well as has been a free read on my site before…but as I am trying to help motivate many with my Slim Camp health journey, I thought I’d post it today for everyone. See what happens when you go to the gym…inspiration can strike!

THE GYM

I’d been watching him for a while.
He is the motivation that keeps me going back to the gym.
Exercising isn’t something I enjoy, but when I can watch him in the mirror as I run on the treadmill, it’s not only the sweat that dampens my body. The sight of his sleek muscles straining as he adds more weight to the barbells and lays back on the bench to do more presses gives me ideas on other ways we could work out together - on that very same bench.
I fantasize that we’re the only people in the gym, and I use his safety straps to restrain his hands on the barbell above him. Then I stand next to the bench, strip off my sweaty workout clothes and reveal myself to him. The tent in his shorts caused by his straining erection encourages me to take total control of his body.
Walking to the end of the bench, I lean over his body, just close enough to brush the hard tips of my breasts against his bare stomach. I let me head fall so that my long hair falls on his firm chest, tickling him as I lightly swing my head back and forth. Shifting my weight, I lower my body closer so my tits hug his cock through his shorts, and he can feel my hot breath on his chest. I open my mouth and my tongue darts out to tease his nipple to erectness. When it’s sticking up like a miniature cock, I take the hard nub into my wet mouth and nibble teasingly with my teeth - then lave it better with firm strokes of my tongue. I shift slightly for better access to the other nipple, the shift of pressure on his cock causes him to lift his hips against me and groan softly. He doesn’t want to speak any more than I want to hear him, his groans and sighs are message enough.
When both nipples are standing proud, wet and shiny from my ministrations, I slide my body back so I am on my knees between his. Leaning back, I quickly divest him of his shorts so that his throbbing cock is bare, and only inches from my hungry lips.
Liking the power I feel with him laid out before me, I tease a little more. I lean forward and nip at his inner thigh with my sharp teeth, knowing that as I do this all he really feels is the inching of my fingers through the nest of curls at the base of his cock. To get his focus where I want it, I push his thighs further apart and place a long wet lick with firm pressure on that soft skin between his puckered asshole and his heavy balls. He tries to lift his hips and increase the pressure, but I deny him that. After sucking his balls into my hot mouth for a brief taste, I’m done teasing.
My own juices are starting to run from my swollen pussylips down my thighs as I pull his cock away from his belly and surround it with my lips. After a minute of adjustment, I start a slow rhythm of bobbing with my mouth giving firm suction. He tastes delicious, salty and sweet.
The sounds coming from his throat as I speed up slightly are causing my quim to quiver in anticipation. One of my hands leaves his thigh to reach between mine and play with myself. As I slip a finger deep inside I realize it isn’t enough, so I add another. This isn’t what I want. I want to be filled, and that’s for him to do.
Abandoning all my ministrations I stand up and quickly straddle him on the bench. I don’t move until him open his eyes and are watching me. With gazes locked, I reach between my spread legs and guide him into my wet hole. I lower myself and we both let out a groan of satisfaction as his hard rigid cock fills me.
I start to roll my hips gently and notice that his grip on the barbell above him has become white-knuckled. I lean forward and place my hands next to his on the barbell and start to pump my hips faster. With feet flat on the floor, I have total control and ease with shifting tempo and pressure on him.
The air is still around us, only disturbed by our panting breath and the occasional grunt and groan from him. I squeeze him tight inside and know that him can’t hold back much longer. I pump a little faster.
The end is near for us both. I tilt my hips to that angle I know will get him deeper and give my throbbing clit the pressure I need to get off. A quick thrust and our hips grind together and I feel myself slip into oblivion. My inner walls clench his throbbing cock and his cum shoots into me, filling me the way I’ve wanted him to for so long.
With no strength left in my body, I release my grip on the barbell, undo the ties that bind his wrists, and cuddle up on the chest I’ve admired for so long as his arms surround me.
He is the inspiration that keeps me going to the gym.

How’s everyone doing?

It’s been a while, but I really hope you all are staying on track. I went way offtrack, but have managed to get back on last week, and I HAVE to stay on track. Serioulsy, my body is getting out of hand. Too much wieght for my short self. *wink*

And, it’s that holiday time of year again. Food Food Food. Yummy Food and drinks everywhere! Do you have any tricks or tips to help get through the holidays without putting on more wieght? Please share!

I’ve been surfing for tips and recipes…check these out.

Grand Marnier Fudge

Journal as: 2 pieces of fudge as 1 portion of sweet dessert Orange with chocolate is a flavor combination made in heaven. For a festive touch, decorate each square with candied orange peel. You can substitute whatever liqueur you like for the Grand Marnier.

1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups milk chocolate chips
1 cup Eagle Brand Fat-Free Sweetened Condensed Skimmed Milk (not evaporated)
1/4 cup Grand Marnier liqueur
Dash salt

Line an 8- or 9-inch square pan with foil; set aside.
Put all ingredients in a medium-sized, microwave-safe glass bowl or 8-cup measure. Microwave on high for about 2 minutes, stirring well after each minute. Microwave one more minute or until chocolate is completely melted. Stir until smooth.
Spread evenly into prepared pan. Chill in refrigerator 2 hours or until firm.
Remove fudge by lifting foil out of pan. Place on cutting board. With large, thick knife, cut off one column of fudge; peel off foil and cut into squares. Repeat with other columns of fudge.
NOTE: Fudge can be covered and stored in the refrigerator or at room temperature.

Yield: 36 pieces

Per serving: 102 calories, 1.5 g protein, 15 g carbohydrate, 4 g fat (2.5 g saturated fat, 1.4 g monounsaturated fat, 0.1 g polyunsaturated fat), 2 mg cholesterol, 0.8 g fiber, 25 mg sodium. Calories from fat: 35%.

Originally published Dec. 16, 2004
Medically updated Dec. 6, 2005.

Some more links I found that might help us all out during the holiday season.

Baking Tips

Healthy Soups to keep warm.

And I found the Egg Nog recipe

Warm Eggnog
Recipe provided by Dara Steiger, MS, RD, director of nutrition at L.A. Weight Loss Centers.

4 cups skim milk
6 eggs, beaten
3/4 cups of Splenda
2-3 tablespoons of brandy, bourbon, or amaretto
1 tablespoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 cup light whipping cream
1/4 teaspoon salt
Beat the eggs, Splenda, and salt in a bowl. Stir in skim milk. Cook and stir over medium heat until the mixture coats a metal spoon. Remove from heat.

Stir in alcohol of choice, vanilla, and ground nutmeg. Before serving, beat light whipping cream with a mixer on medium speed until soft peak forms. To serve, put the eggnog into a punch bowl and fold in whipping cream. Serve immediately. Sprinkle each cupful with additional ground nutmeg.

I’m making the EGG NOG for sure!!

And also, check out Beth’s Thursday Thirteen this week. It’s more Holiday tips..

I’ve been late…and bad…and lazy…BUT, in an effort to get back into things, I’m stealing from BOB GREEN because I think he knows what he’s talking about…Take a look at this…

Losing weight seems easy enough: Eat less, move more. But there are so many ways that you can get off track; things that you think would spur weight loss can actually backfire and thwart your efforts. And misconceptions, such as the idea that healthy foods are too pricey, can also prevent you from peeling off the pounds. If you know which dieting traps are most likely to trip you up, you can avoid them. Check out some of the most common dieting traps I’ve seen people fall into.

They eat next to nothing.
If you think that cutting calories will help speed up your weight-loss efforts, think again. In fact, if you go too low, you’ll probably find just the opposite: Your slim-down efforts will come to a screeching halt. If you don’t eat enough, your metabolism slows down in an effort to conserve calories. Not to mention, you also risk not getting enough nutrients. It’s for these reasons that I don’t recommend going below 1,500 calories a day. Imagine, shedding pounds without having to starve yourself!

They expect to lose a lot of weight in no time.
Diets that promise quick weight loss just don’t work. If you do lose any weight, you’ll likely gain it right back when you start eating normally. That’s because any weight you do lose is likely water weight, not fat! Obviously, you want to be targeting body fat when you’re trying to lose, because it’s fat that primarily determines your size. And as you know, too much body fat can adversely affect your health. Plus, losing water is a bad thing. Your body needs water to keep your metabolism working properly and to burn calories. A more realistic goal is to drop a pound or two a week by eating a healthy, balanced, moderate-calorie diet.

They think they can’t afford healthy food.
Many people are under the impression that it’s a lot more expensive to eat a healthy diet, but this is a myth. Fresh fruits and vegetables may not be cheap, but they are less expensive than some of the high-fat, high-calorie processed foods that are available. And if you look at the fact that you’ll likely have to cut back on the quantity…

SO…sound like things you’ve done???

Thanks to Amie for sending me these….

The Tips are taken from a WebMD Feature from “Health”
By Susan Hall

Supersimple calorie slashers
Top 1 cup of apple slices, instead of 8 crackers, with cheese. Save 100 calories.
Choose a fresh spring roll instead of a fried egg roll. Save 100 calories.
Eat chocolate sorbet instead of chocolate ice cream. Save 140 calories per 1/2 cup.

Skip the crust on apple pie. Save 100 calories.
Swap pepperoni on your pizza for veggies like fresh tomatoes and peppers. Save 100 calories per 2 slices.
Choose steamed shrimp over fried. Save 122 calories per 3 ounces.

Make your sandwich open-faced (use only 1 slice of bread). Save 100 calories.
Leave blue cheese off your salad. Save 110 calories per 3-tablespoon serving.
Substitute 1/2 cup steamed veggies for 1/2 cup noodles in a pasta dish. Save 100 calories.

Use a 6-inch flour tortilla instead of a 10-inch one on your next burrito. Save 120 calories.
Skip the tortilla and put your filling on lettuce. Save 100 calories.
Eat a whole-wheat English muffin at breakfast instead of a bagel. Save 150 calories.

Top pancakes with 1/4 cup apple-sauce sprinkled with cinnamon instead of syrup. Save 180 calories.
Top ice cream with 1/2 cup fresh berries instead of 2 tablespoons strawberry syrup. Save 168 calories.
Leave 10 French fries on your plate. Save 100 calories.
Split a Krispy Kreme doughnut with a friend. Save 100 calories.

No-sweat calorie burners*
*Based on a 150-pound woman

Embrace your inner schoolgirl by jumping rope for 10 minutes. Burn 100 calories.
Tend your garden for 25 minutes. Burn 103 calories.
Schedule a 20-minute walk date with a buddy. Burn 102 calories.

Crank up the tunes and shake your groove thing for 20 minutes. Burn 100 calories.
Give your partner a 22-minute massage. Burn 103 calories.
Do your nails or knit while watching your favorite hour-long TV show. Burn 102 calories.

Spend 60 minutes typing e-mails to your friends. Burn 100 calories.
Write a letter to a friend by hand for 50 minutes. Burn 100 calories.
Push around a grocery cart for 40 minutes. Burn 103 calories.

Shoot pool or play darts for 35 minutes. Burn 100 calories.
Play fetch with your dog for 35 minutes. Burn 100 calories.
Do a little house-cleaning. Burn 107 calories.
Play a 35-minute round of putt-putt golf. Burn 180 calories.

OKay, I’m a day early with this post, but it’s Halloween Day, adn there is candy everywhere. Plus, I’m excited about Karalane’s Post!!

Karalane Gervais is a trained fitness and nutrition consultant with 10 years working in the weight loss industry. She’s consulted with Jenny Craig, Herbal Magic, and now owns and operates the P.A.I.N (Personal Attention to Individual Needs) Center in Calgary using the newest technology from Europe to increase all over body inch loss with the Eurowave(Tm) machine.

It’s All About Mindset
By Karalane Gervais

True success with your dieting and exercise program is found by learning and adhering to three key words:

1. Discipline
2. Self-Control
3. Consistency

Discipline is training yourself to develop a specific character or pattern of behaviour. If you make a goal, accomplish it and make a new one. When just starting out, make an attainable goal and learn to maintain discipline by adhering to it. This goal could be to simply cut out mayonnaise from your nutrition plan or to lose your first 5 pounds. Once you learn to have discipline in small goals, this will grow into larger ones which you will be able to set on your path to a healthier lifestyle. Remember too to celebrate your accomplishments (not with food!) before moving on to your next goal.

Self-control means “how badly do you want it”. Moderation really comes into play here. Proper portion sizes and slowing down at meal times are really important. Learn what a proper portion of chicken is and learn how to taste your foods. Take 20 minutes to finish a meal. When engaged in conversation or even when you are experiencing a stressful or emotional time, it is easy to over eat. This is why taking 20 minutes with each meal is important as it gives you time to ask yourself questions such as , “am I depressed”, “do I feel like over eating”, ” do I need comfort foods”, and “is it worth it to over indulge”. Also, it takes the stomach and brain about 20 minutes to communicate with each other to determine if you are satisfied or full.

Consistency is achieved by utilizing a food journal and or exercise journal to guide you through your journey to a healthier lifestyle. It will tell you whether you had all your starches or proteins for a specific day and help you remember how you felt when you did not get in all the calories your body needs to lose weight efficiently. Be patient too. Your weight did not come on over night and it will not come off over night either.

Change the word diet to lifestyle. The word diet is just “die” with a “t” on the end. “Dieting” will always lead to failure as the action of dieting is taking away something as if to punish a certain behaviour. So, train your mind and body for a lifestyle change. It may sound scary being that it will be a life commitment but try not to think of it that way. Most people think of healthy foods as being steamed broccoli, broiled chicken and flax seeds. Healthy is simply cutting back and cutting out the empty calorie additions one makes to common foods such as mayonnaise and cheese.

Finally, everyone cheats too so don’t beat yourself up. There will be times when you want a dessert or a pizza. In these instances, always get ready for a planned cheat and enjoy it. It also helps if you know what that dessert or slice of pizza counts as when it comes to your nutrition plan. For instance, one slice of pizza may count as 1 starch serving, 1 dairy, 1-2 fats (depending on toppings), ½ vegetable, etc.. Dissect your cheats so that you know what you are having and build it into your daily nutrition plan.

October is almost over, and that means I will be back to blogging regularly next week. But right now, I’m still hermitting away in my writing cave. I’m scared to weigh myself because I’ve even stopped going for walks. My sleep schedule is all messed up, which makes my eating schedule equally messed up. I know I’m not doing my body good because I seem to have a constant headache. Not sure if it’s the over use of pop to keep my muse happy, or the lack of the sleep or the many hours staring at the computer screen.
No matter, things are shaping up good with the sotry and I think I might actually make my deadline. I keep telling myself I will, and God help me I hope I do.

So, that’s how my health plan is going. LOL

Nobody’s sent me any of thier stories for guest blogs, but I have been getting links and such, so I’m going to cheat and just pass them on without trying the recipes first. :)

Please people, just because I’m slacking, don’t let it stop you. I need to hear from you so that I’ll stay motivated to not order pizza every night (As it is so tempting).

Amie says “I found this recipe and made it last night (sans onions but it was great anyway)….even the kids loved it and it’s EASY.”
Mediterranean Pinto Beans (It looks yummy!)

And check out one of my faves. Homemade Pizza

Oh, and did you know you could watch my boyfriend Bob on YouTube?

Look at those buns.

Okay, I’ve totally gone into the writing cave, and it’s stocked with chips and popcorn. Not good. And y’know what’s worse? I don’t care at this point because my deadline in 10 days away and it’s crunch time.

This is my biggest struggle, to try and care about what I eat, and to try to be active when I am so deep into my head that I don’t even know who *I* am…only who my characters are.

How are you doing?

Remember those cravings we talked about??

Break for Tea

New research shows that stopping for a spot of tea every afternoon won’t just make you feel like a British royal, it may also help you manage your weight.
Researcher Eva Kovacs, Ph.D., recently reviewed research results from all recent studies that looked at the topic of tea and weight loss, and found that tea — or green tea to be more exact — does seem to spur baseline metabolism and help reduce the storage of belly, or visceral, fat. Kovacs says more research is needed to understand why, but suspects a compound called catechins may be responsible for this very positive side effect.
On a more practical level, Kovacs points out that tea is also a zero calorie beverage option, and that drinking more of it in place of other beverages helps control your weight by cutting out excess liquid calories. And tea is loaded with good-for-you antioxidants, too. So go ahead, break for a cup of tea. Just be sure to pass on the scones and crumpets.

This tip was courtesy of iVillage.com via Amie Stuart, and just the type of thing you can find at sites like these:

http://www.prevention.com
Women’s Health Magazine
The Biggest Loser Club