Category: Nutrition/food

Writer Wellness and Five Things for Your Writing

Posted on by Joy Held

The Beginning of Writer Wellness

The idea for my book Writer Wellness: A Writer’s Path to Health and Creativity (Headline Books, Inc., 2020) and workshop came to me when some of my critique partners asked how they could be my clones. They wanted to shadow me for a week to see what I did that led to my prolific publishing (over 500 articles and counting,) life as a homeschooling mom, and part-time hatha yoga teacher. Up to that point, I hadn’t done any self-examination of my processes, but when they asked, I stepped back and watched myself for a month while documenting my doings and beings in a journal. This article is a peek into what I learned.

First, please take out a pen and paper (or your phone or computer) and list five things you’ve done in the last thirty days to promote/support your own writing.

Now list five challenges or obstacles that you believe are standing in the way of accomplishing your writing goals.

Next, list five writing wishes or desires you want to come true.

Following the Writer Wellness plan will help you to always have five things on those lists.  It will also allow you to maintain a level of health and creativity that some writers are missing.

Are you happy with your writing in general?

Are you happy with your health?

Do you ever notice a direct relationship between the quality of your writing and the quality of your life?

A physically, mentally, and emotionally healthy individual is by far a more productive, creative, and pleasant person.  This is evidenced by the fact that many corporations have implemented programs to keep employees happy and healthy.  Programs range from daycare centers in the workplace to personal trainers for every ten employees.  A healthy, happy employee is more productive and misses less work, which is good for the bottom line.

As a writer, you are the employer and the employee.  Happiness, productivity, and health have a definite impact on the caliber of writing you produce.  It is in your best interest to do everything you can to stay healthy to support being the best writer you can be.

The premise of Writer Wellness is that creativity and productivity are crucially dependent upon an overall quality of life.  This includes physical, mental, emotional, communal, and spiritual aspects.

The five key concepts of Writer Wellness are:

  1. JOURNALING
  2. EXERCISE
  3. MEDITATION
  4. PROPER NUTRITION
  5. CREATIVE PLAY

How did I decide these aspects were important? As I noted earlier, I took the time to observe my habits and journal about them. I discovered that I did almost all five things daily.

Where did they come from? I was raised in my mother’s dancing school.  Before she retired after 52 years, she created all the choreography, kept the books, wrote the grants, typed the publicity announcements, directed rehearsals, and taught five ballet classes a week. Thanks to her example, the principles of physical fitness and eating right were pounded into me from an early age.

When I was fourteen, I began the Writer Wellness lifestyle, even though I hadn’t labeled it that yet. I got a “job” at the local newspaper writing a weekly column about my junior high school.  I saw my name in print.  I was hooked. From then on, I was a dancer and a writer.

I discovered yoga, meditation, and modern dance in college, and everything fell into place for me.  Thirty years later, I journal almost daily (unless I’m working intensely on a writing project,) exercise five to six times a week, follow an eating plan and take supplements, meditate, and engage in creative noodling with art journaling, crafting, gardening, and scrapbooking. Now I teach other writers the five key concepts and encourage them to tweak the ideas until they find what works for them.

Review the lists of five things you made at the beginning of this article.  If you had trouble coming up with five items, step back for a moment and assess why that may be. If you haven’t taken five actions to support your writing, is writing really that important to you? If you journal some, exercise regularly, relax or meditate a few minutes daily, eat right, and have some fun occasionally, the five key concepts of Writer Wellness easily represent five things to support your writing. The concepts work together to support your desires and keep you healthy enough to overcome the obstacles when they pop up. Five writing wishes are more easily achieved when you practice writer wellness because your perspective improves, and you gain a broader view of life.

The five things I’ve done for my writing in the last 30 days:

  1. Journaled almost every day
  2. Wrote a guest blog for another author
  3. Attended a webinar on copyright law
  4. Posted several new blogs on my website
  5. Wrote and sent a newsletter to my subscribers

Five challenges to my writing are:

  1. COVID-19 has negatively impacted my ability to do book signings
  2. There haven’t been many writing conferences to attend in-person
  3. Money isn’t coming in for workshops or editing like it used to
  4. Publishers are having supply chain problems (paper, binding, shipping)
  5. Agents are more difficult to acquire

My five writing wishes right now are:

  1. Sell the current manuscript circulating in the query pool
  2. Finish the research for the book I’m writing now
  3. For COVID-19 to be less of a deterrent to going out in public
  4. Get a few more clients for editing and book coaching
  5. Take a marketing course designed for authors

What’s on your lists?

Be well, write well.

All good things,

Joy

Buy at Amazon

This article may contain affiliate links. I may make a small commission if you click on a link and make a purchase. Thanks for your support.

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Writer Wellness Online Workshop in September Will Cover the Basics

Posted on by Joy Held

cropped-writer-wellness-cover-2020_front_writer_9781951556051The idea for my book and workshop Writer Wellness: A Writer’s Path to Health and Creativity (Headline Books, Inc., 2020) came to me when some of my critique partners asked how they could be my clones. They wanted to shadow me for a week to see what I did every day that led to my prolific publishing (over 500 articles and counting,) life as a homeschooling mom, and part-time hatha yoga teacher. Up to that point, I hadn’t done any self-examination of my processes, but when they asked, I stepped back and watched myself for a month while documenting my doings and beings in a journal.

What I concluded during my self-analysis was that journaling, exercise, meditation, good nutrition, and creative play supported my career and life. In the workshop, I share my story as well as ways you can customize the idea to reach your goals.

The workshop I’m leading Sept. 14-25 for Romantic Women’s Fiction chapter of RWA in September is a detailed look at the five key concepts of Writer Wellness and an exploration of how you can incorporate the practice into your life. With Writer Wellness as the foundation, you can achieve the writing dreams and personal goals you desire.

Be well, write well. See you in the workshop!

Register here: https://romanticwomensfictionwriters.wordpress.com/online-courses/

All good things,

Joy

Women with clean houses do not have finished books. ~Joy E. Held

Would you like an autographed copy of the updated third edition of Writer Wellness? Email moi. joyeheld at gmail dot com.

To purchase a copy: https://headlinebooks.com/product/writer-wellness-a-writers-path-to-health-and-creativity/

Journaling: The Soul of Writer Wellness

Posted on by Joy Held

JOURNAL OF A NOVEL BOOK COVER

“The unexamined life is not worth living.” ~Socrates, philosopher

Writer Wellness is the term I coined several years ago to identify my personal lifestyle plan. Writers in my critique group wanted to know my secret to raising a family, working part-time, homeschooling two children, publishing regularly, and staying healthy. I stepped back and observed my daily activities. Based on what I learned and my training as a dancer and hatha yoga teacher, I offered to teach those writers how to devise their own personalized program that included journaling, exercise, relaxation, eating right, and creative play.

The workshop meetings evolved into the publication of my book Writer Wellness: A Writer’s Path to Health and Creativity by WigWam Publishing in 2003. A second edition was released in 2011 by Bob Mayer’s Cool Gus Publishing, and a third edition is coming soon from Headline Books, Inc. From there, I created a course that I have taught online and at conferences since 1998.

JOURNALING

“The Many Joys of Journal Writing”

Journaling and writers share a long and important history. From the personal journals of Gustave Flaubert that read like a laundry list of how to view life to the story bibles many writers create to keep themselves organized throughout the writing process, writers have always had and always will have numerous reasons to keep a journal. A journal can serve writers of all genres in many different ways, chief among them as a place to collect and hash out story ideas.

It isn’t a waste of valuable writing time to scribble in a journal in advance of working on one’s novel. In the words of author James Brown:

What matters is how journaling can help the writer come up with ideas, kind of a warm-up to a bigger process. The next step is building on those ideas, discarding some and fleshing out others, developing characters and motives, and arranging the scenes in a logical, meaningful sequence with a firm sense of a beginning, middle, and end. Whether you write your thoughts down in a journal or try to store them all in your head, which I don’t recommend, story begins when you begin to dream and brainstorm about people and their problems. (Raab 6)

Then there is the fascinating practice of documenting not only one’s life, but the progress of a book. Two books by John Steinbeck that fundamentally changed the way I look at myself as a writer and a human include Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters and Working Days: The Journals of The Grapes of Wrath. Reading these helped me understand how keeping a journal alongside writing a novel can serve several purposes.

One use for a journal is a place to cleanse the palate, so to speak, before turning to the blank page of the work in progress. Reading snippets about Steinbeck’s faithfully recorded personal life reinforced my feelings on using a journal as a “dumping ground” to clear a writer’s head prior to working on a current project. All too often personal issues can make their way into our creative work and many times that isn’t the appropriate venue for hashing out our problems.

Steinbeck wrote a page or two each morning about his life, thoughts, and sometimes current events in order to “warm-up his writing arm.” He also used the journal pages to organize his thoughts about what to write. For example, one day’s journal describes his plans for writing:

May 9, Wednesday: It is time I think for the book to pause for discussion. It has not done that for a long time. I think that is the way I will do it. That way-first a kind of possible analysis and then quick narrative right to the end, explain it first and then do it. (79)

Steinbeck is just one example of a writer who uses journal writing to stay focused on the creative project at hand. Sue Grafton, prolific mystery author (“A” Is for Alibi) believes that the writing process is a constant back and forth between the right and left-brain hemispheres. She keeps a daily log of her writing progress and says:

This notebook (usually four times longer than the novel itself) is like a letter to myself, detailing every idea that occurs to me as I proceed. Some ideas I incorporate, some I modify, many I discard. The journal is a record of my imagination at work, from the first spark of inspiration to the final manuscript. (Raab 9)

Similar to Steinbeck, Grafton starts each writing day with logging the date into her journal followed by what’s going on in her life then a note about ideas she has for the book she’s writing. She ‘talks to herself’ about where the story could go and explores the writer’s question “What if?” In the privacy and safety of a “for my eyes only” journal, Grafton claims that this collection of meandering thoughts helps her jumpstart the creative juices and before she knows it, she’s writing new pages (Raab 11).

The many joys of keeping a journal for writers is a lengthy list. These three writers demonstrate how valuable a tool this is for brainstorming, whining, organizing, formalizing, clarifying, reflecting, and much more.

Upcoming Online Workshop: Writer Wellness

I hope you’ll join me in June for an online workshop hosted by the Yosemite Romance Writers where I’ll spend the month covering and sharing information and activities related to journaling, exercise, nutrition, relaxation, and creative play. The workshop is open to members and nonmembers.

All good things,

Joy

Women with clean houses do not have finished books. ~JEH

Raab, Diana M., ed. Writers and Their Notebooks. The University of South Carolina Press, 2010.

Steinbeck, John. Journal of A Novel: The East of Eden Letters. Penguin Books, 1969.

 

Friday Feast: ‘Shrooms Va-va-voom and Friends

Posted on by Joy Held

Not everybody is a mushroom fan, but this baked stuffed portabella has been known to win over a few non-fungus eaters!

‘Shrooms Va-va-voom

Recipe by Joy Held

2 large portabella mushrooms, wiped clean with the stems cut out and the gills scraped out

¾ cup fresh spelt bread crumbs

½ cup low fat mozzarella cheese

¼ cup grated parmesan

¼ cup minced onion

¼ cup finely chopped parsley

½ tsp onion powder

½ tsp garlic powder

½ tsp dried thyme

2 Tbls melted butter, salt free

1 Tbls olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Mix the bread crumbs, parmesan, onion, parsley, butter, and spices together well in a bowl. Cave out the mushrooms a little if necessary to make room for the filling. Divide filling evenly between the caps  and drizzle with olive oil. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 15-20 minutes. In the last five minutes, turn off the oven and turn broiler on high. Sprinkle mushrooms with mozzarella and broil to desired melty deliciousness. Don’t take your eyes off! Burns quickly!

After this treat, take a walk around the block then settle down and visit these web friends of mine. Tell ‘em I said hello. And feel free to share this recipe and spread the fungus among us (couldn’t resist.)

Writer mom NATALIE MARKEY

http://pentopublish.blogspot.com/2011/07/understanding-writing-mommy-mind-with.html

Hot romance scribe MEREDITH ELLSWORTH

http://www.meredithellsworth.com/

Fav social media chicka KRISTEN LAMB

http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/2012/05/02/big-six-publishing-is-dead-welcome-the-massive-three/#comments

Meanwhile, remember to look for a digital or print copy of Writer Wellness, A Writer’s Path to Health and Creativity at Cool Gus Publishing.

Have you subscribed to this Writer Wellness blog yet? Get email updates when a new post is added. Click “subscribe” and leave your email. That’s it and thanks in advance!

Be well, write well.

Joy E. Held

joyeheld@gmail.com

http://twitter.com/Joy_E_Held

Friday Feast: Pass me the veggies, peas.

Posted on by Joy Held

We get our energy from food. Not from exercise. Not from supplements. Not from sleep. We get energy to burn and live from the foods we eat. We are what we eat. Literally.

There are seven personal habits of a healthy person:

*sleeping 7/8 hours daily

*eating breakfast almost daily

*consuming planned snacks

*being at or near prescribed weight

*never smoking cigarettes

*moderate or no use of alcohol

*regular physical activity

(Practical Stress Management, John A. Romas and Manoj Sharma, 2010)

I want to add: *no abuse of controlled substances such as prescription or illegal drugs.

Healthy eating enhances our ability to cope with stress and stressful events. If we are sustained through healthful eating, we are more capable of dealing with daily stress because we are not stressed by being overweight or under nourished. The whole idea to eating healthy can be summed up with one word: balance. The key lies in maintaining a balance of quantity and quality of food and regularity in eating. There are dietary guidelines leading to balanced eating for Americans as described by the government. I encourage you to review all the recommendations presented at MyPyramid and visit the website if you’re interested, but I also stress to you that just like the way we deal with stress is a habit learned many times from our relatives, eating habits are also learned early in life. If you are concerned about your eating habits, take a long and serious look at what you eat, how you eat it, and why you eat as soon as possible. It will be too late to seriously address your eating habits when you are faced with diabetes, obesity, and heart disease due to high cholesterol caused by a high fat diet.

The first step to balanced nutrition is awareness. Just like the principle of awareness of stress being the first step to learning how to cope with stress, awareness of eating habits is the first step to deciding how to maintain healthy eating practices. Because we take eating for granted, it is important to stop from time to time and look seriously at our eating patterns, write them down, and decide what changes if any we wish to make.

Ask yourself questions like:

+Do I eat breakfast regularly?

+Do I eat between meals?

+How much caffeine do I take in on a daily basis?

+Do I abuse any unhealthy substances such tobacco, drugs, or alcohol?

+Do I prepare most of my own food or does someone else make it and I heat’n’eat?

+Is my sugar consumption reasonable or is it too high? What about my salt intake?

After understanding that balance is the key to healthy eating habits and awareness of personal eating habits is the key to determining good balance, the next step is moderation. This is understanding that there are food choices available and that no one food should be consumed in excess. The key to healthy eating is know that there are food groups necessary to the body’s ability to function and that moderate choices will help you eat in a balanced way.

The body needs carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals, and water in balanced moderation to achieve balance.

Lastly, there are things to avoid consuming in excess. These are alcohol, smoking, and drugs. While it’s common knowledge that many, many people turn to these substances for solutions to their stress, never are they successful. Never. The point is to learn coping methods and healthy alternatives to the use of alcohol, smoking, and drugs. All these substances do is post pone dealing with the stress. They do not alleviate stress in any way shape of form. They only delay the inevitable. And they pack on the pounds. Alcohol is full of sugars and useless calories. Smoking depletes the immunes system’s ability to function and ward off disease and causes disease. Drugs are a temporary fix. That is not coping. Drugs lead to dependence and decreased coping capabilities because they distort the nervous system’s ability to react and function.

Eat healthy and prosper!

There are five primary areas of practice to the Writer Wellness plan. Every other week I will post an idea for relaxation (Monday Meditation,) creative play (Tuesday Tickle,) fitness and exercise (Wednesday Workout,) journaling and misc. (Thursday Thought,) and nutrition (Friday Feast.)

Meanwhile, remember to look for a digital or print copy of Writer Wellness, A Writer’s Path to Health and Creativity at Who Dares Wins Publishing, http://whodareswinspublishing.com.

Be well, write well.

Joy E. Held

Friday Feast: Books that changed my life week

Posted on by Joy Held

EAT RIGHT FOR YOUR TYPE (1996) by Dr. Peter J. D’Adamo with Catherine Whitney not only changed my nutritional habits, it changed the direction of the feasting by my family and those around me. Every chance I get, I testify to the satisfying differences we’ve experienced by choosing foods based on the work of Dr. D’Adamo and his father. Their studies, quirky as it may sound at the onset; definitely make a difference in how someone feels when they eat based on their blood type. Dr. D’Adamo with Catherine Whitney has provided relief for thousands of people including me from the worries of weight gain and disease. Simply following the food lists provided takes the burden off of what to eat, and I no longer worry if what I’m eating is right for me. This food program has supported me and my family for thirteen years and we have no intention of going backwards with our health. Thanks to the “blood type diet”, we all feel better and better every day.

 

“As the human race moved around and was forced to adapt its diet to changing conditions, the new diet provoked adaptations in the digestive tract and immune system necessary for it to first survive and later thrive in each new habitat. There changes are reflected in the development of the blood types, which appear to have arrived at critical junctures of human development:

 

 1.The ascent of humans to the top of the food chain (evolution of Type O to its fullest expression).

2.The change from hunter-gatherer to a more domesticated agrarian lifestyle (appearance of Type A).

3.The merging and migration of the races from the African homeland to Europe, Asia, and the America (development of Type B).

4.The modern intermingling of disparate groups (the arrival of Type AB).” (EAT RIGHT FOR YOUR TYPE, Dr. Peter J. D’Adamo with Catherine Whitney.)

 

 

 

There are five primary areas of practice to the Writer Wellness plan. Every other week I will post an idea for relaxation (Monday Meditation,) creative play (Tuesday Tickle,) fitness and exercise (Wednesday Workout,) journaling and misc. (Thursday Thought,) and nutrition (Friday Feast.)

 

Meanwhile, remember to look for a digital or print copy of Writer Wellness, A Writer’s Path to Health and Creativity at Who Dares Wins Publishing, http://whodareswinspublishing.com.

 

And check out these great blogs for ideas to keep your writing and publishing healthy and prosperous.

 

http://writeitforward.wordpress.com/ Bob Mayer

 

http://jenniholbrooktalty.wordpress.com/ Jenni Holbrook

 

http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/ Kristen Lamb

 

http://inspiration4writers.blogspot.com/ Inspiration for Writers, Inc.

 

http://pentopublish.blogspot.com/ Natalie Markey

 

http://amyshojai.com Amy Shojai

 

Check out my new website Joy E. Held

 

Have you subscribed to this Writer Wellness blog yet? Get email updates when a new post is added. Click “subscribe” and leave your email. That’s it and thanks in advance!

 

 

 

Be well, write well

Friday Feast: Spelt Breaded Turkey Fingers Are Positively Yummy

Posted on by Joy Held

When my youngest child was in the hospital at age nineteen with a serious case of pneumonia, she lost fifteen pounds over the course of the nine day ordeal. It was horribly scary from day one until an infection specialist was called in and figured out the problem. Once he made his changes to her care, she started to turn around in just ten hours! We weren’t out of the woods yet. She still didn’t have any appetite. Her already thin body became rail thin, and my heart pounded with worry each time I would see her frail arms and legs sticking out from under the hospital sheets. I was determined to get her healthy with the good food she was used to eating at home. When her appetite gradually returned, the hospital fare wasn’t cutting the mustard, so to speak. The first thing she asked for were my own twist on the mini-chicken bites so famous in fast food restaurants. My daughter’s blood type food program suggests that she avoid chicken. I started making turkey nuggets at home and that’s the first thing she wanted to eat when she felt hungry. I knew she was going to be alright. Here’s the plan.

Spelt Breaded Turkey Fingers

6 slices of spelt bread (white or whole) crumbs

1 pound of boneless turkey cutlets pounded thin and cut into strips

¾ cup of buttermilk

1 cup white or whole spelt flour sifted

3 eggs

1 packet of Ranch dressing mix

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon dried marjoram

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1 teaspoon dried or fresh chopped rosemary

1 teaspoon dried or fresh chopped parsley

1 teaspoon garlic powder

½ teaspoon onion powder

½ cup canola oil

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a wire cooling rack in a baking sheet and set aside.

The “dipping station”

In a medium bowl, mix the dried bread crumbs, packet of Ranch dressing, and all the remaining spices and herbs. Stir to blend. Let sit on the counter under a towel to dry out a bit.

Pour the buttermilk in a plastic food storage bag, add the turkey strips. Seal and place in a bowl in the refrigerator to marinate for 15 minutes.

Place the flour in a medium bowl. Break the eggs into another bowl and beat with a fork. Add a pinch of salt to the flour and the eggs.

Set the bowls out for the “dipping station”-(dry, wet, dry.) Flour first, eggs second, bread crumbs and spices third. Take the turkey out of the refrigerator and place at the dipping station.

Heat the oil in a cast iron skillet on medium high. When oil is ready, begin dipping the turkey in the flour, then the eggs, then the bread crumbs and slowly place in the hot oil. Fry on one side for 2-3 minutes. Turn and fry for another 30 seconds. Place the turkey fingers on the rack on the baking sheet. When all the strips have been fried, place the baking sheet in the oven and bake for 15 minutes. Watch carefully and don’t allow to get too dark.

Don’t underestimate the value of “finishing” off the turkey fingers by baking in the oven. This is the secret to moist meat on the inside and a perfect crust on the outside. This same daughter doesn’t like it when I “cook the crap” out of the meat.

Serves four.

There are five primary areas of practice to the Writer Wellness plan. Every other week I will post an idea for relaxation (Monday Meditation,) creative play (Tuesday Tickle,) fitness and exercise (Wednesday Workout,) journaling and misc. (Thursday Thought,) and nutrition (Friday Feast.)

Meanwhile, remember to look for a digital or print copy of Writer Wellness, A Writer’s Path to Health and Creativity at Who Dares Wins Publishing, http://whodareswinspublishing.com.

And check out these great blogs for ideas to keep your writing and publishing healthy and prosperous.

http://writeitforward.wordpress.com/ Bob Mayer

http://jenniholbrooktalty.wordpress.com/ Jenni Holbrook

http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/ Kristen Lamb

http://inspiration4writers.blogspot.com/ Inspiration for Writers, Inc.

http://pentopublish.blogspot.com/ Natalie Markey

http://amyshojai.com Amy Shojai

Check out my new website Joy E. Held

Have you subscribed to this Writer Wellness blog yet? Get email updates when a new post is added. Click “subscribe” and leave your email. That’s it and thanks in advance!

Be well, write well

Friday Feast: World Vegetarian Day Pizza

Posted on by Joy Held

My ‘O’ blood type is noted by Dr. Peter J. D’adamo in his book Eat Right for Your Type as the oldest blood type and the blood of the hunter, the pre-historic meat eater. We have highly acidic stomachs and staunch digestive systems unless we eat too many acidic foods. Then our stomach linings slowly disintegrate and ulcers abound. We need protein and aerobic exercise like running through the forest chasing an elk for today’s menu board. But every once in a while, I prefer vegetables over animal fat. And I love pizza.

The other dietary nemesis for us O-rdinary blood types (we’re the universal donors, but we can only accept ‘O’ blood ourselves,) is wheat. The wheat alternative that helps some of us with our cravings for bread is spelt. Spelt is the ancient ancestor of wheat and is a bit more digestible. Combining the two principles of pizza and spelt, I’ve managed to satisfy my teenage holdovers for pizza with the following recipe. If you don’t have the patience to make your own pizza crust, check out the ready-made product I’ve listed below. And look around. Spelt is popping up everywhere and making alternative baked goods really yummy!

Spelt pizza crust

2 cups white spelt flour

1/2 cup whole spelt flour (I like to sift them together so the crust is smooth but still has some body to it because of the whole flour.)

3/4 cup warm water

1 teaspoon rapid rise yeast

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon sugar

2 Tablespoons olive oil

Dissolve the yeast and sugar in 1/2 cup of the warm water. Let sit covered in a warm place until the yeast “proofs” or has foamed up some. Using an electric mixer, mix the flours and olive oil together with the water/yeast mixture slowly at first. Add the rest of the warm water and when a moist ball begins to form, add olive oil and increase the mixer speed. The goal is a ball that sticks to the paddle but cleans off the inside of the bowl as it spins. Don’t over mix. That makes a tough crust.

Line a large pizza pan or cookie baking sheet with parchment paper and spray with cooking oil. Spray your clean hands with cooking oil and remove the dough from the bowl. Work it in your hands and spread it on the pan to the edges. Let rest while you prepare the sauce and toppings.

Pizza sauce

1  15 oz can of crushed tomatoes

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1 Tablespoon dried Italian seasoning

1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes

1/4 tsp. black pepper

1 teaspoon olive oil

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl. Then spread the sauce on the pizza dough.

Toppings

This is where your own tastes come in, but this recipe is in honor of World Vegetarian Day ‘O’ctober 1.

Cheese: 2 cups shredded parmesan, mozzerella, cheddar (If you don’t eat anything that comes from an animal, you probably are well acquainted with rice and almond cheeses. Knock yourself out.)

1 Tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

1 Tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary

1/3 cup of banana pepper rings chopped

1/3 cup chopped red onion

1 tsp. dried Italian seasoning mix

olive oil

Cover the sauce with cheese mixture then remaining herbs and vegetables adding whatever other veggies gets your palate popping. Drizzle olive oil around the edges of the crust.

Bake for 20-25 minutes at 425 degrees. Cool briefly, cut and love every bite.

Source for ready made spelt pizza crust

Berlin Natural Bakery

http://www.berlinnaturalbakery.com/

 

There are five primary areas of practice to the Writer Wellness plan. Every other week I will post an idea for relaxation (Monday Meditation,) creative play (Tuesday Tickle,) fitness and exercise (Wednesday Workout,) journaling and misc. (Thursday Thought,) and nutrition (Friday Feast.)

 

Meanwhile, remember to look for a digital or print copy of Writer Wellness, A Writer’s Path to Health and Creativity at Who Dares Wins Publishing, http://whodareswinspublishing.com.

 

And check out these great blogs for ideas to keep your writing and publishing healthy and prosperous.

 

http://writeitforward.wordpress.com/ Bob Mayer

 

http://jenniholbrooktalty.wordpress.com/ Jenni Holbrook

 

http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/ Kristen Lamb

 

http://inspiration4writers.blogspot.com/ Inspiration for Writers, Inc.

 

http://pentopublish.blogspot.com/ Natalie Markey

 

http://amyshojai.com Amy Shojai

 

Check out my new website Joy E. Held

 

Have you subscribed to this Writer Wellness blog yet? Get email updates when a new post is added. Click “subscribe” and leave your email. That’s it and thanks in advance!

Be well, write well

 

Friday Feast: Nutrition In Six Words

Posted on by Joy Held

 

 

Starving, I prey on innocent nutrients.

 

Comments limited to six words, please.

There are five primary areas of practice to the Writer Wellness plan. Every other week I will post an idea for relaxation (Monday Meditation,) creative play (Tuesday Tickle,) fitness and exercise (Wednesday Workout,) journaling and misc. (Thursday Thought,) and nutrition (Friday Feast.)

Meanwhile, remember to look for a digital or print copy of Writer Wellness, A Writer’s Path to Health and Creativity at Who Dares Wins Publishing, http://whodareswinspublishing.com.

And check out these great blogs for ideas to keep your writing and publishing healthy and prosperous.

http://writeitforward.wordpress.com/ Bob Mayer

http://jenniholbrooktalty.wordpress.com/ Jenni Holbrook

http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/ Kristen Lamb

http://inspiration4writers.blogspot.com/ Inspiration for Writers, Inc.

http://pentopublish.blogspot.com/ Natalie Markey

http://amyshojai.com Amy Shojai

Check out my new website Joy E. Held

Have you subscribed to this Writer Wellness blog yet? Get email updates when a new post is added. Click “subscribe” and leave your email. That’s it and thanks in advance!

Be well, write well

Friday Feast: A Homeboy For Everyone

Posted on by Joy Held

“Eat Right 4 Your Type” is my homeboy. I’m using the term to mean “my closest friend,” and when I don’t pay attention to my food program (I don’t say “diet” because the first three letters spell “die” and I first heard this from exercise slash weight loss guru Richard Simmons,) I pay the price. My homeboy Eat Right explains clearly what my food choices should be. I must avoid a particular list of foods. I can eat from the highly beneficial, beneficial, and neutral lists to my heart’s content. It’s that simple. If I listen to my homeboy food counselor, there are no dietary or health issues to deal with. So why can’t I be faithful to the lists? Because I eat from the avoid list and create cravings and upset the apple cart and my digestive system.

Everywhere I turn there is a homeboy lurking it seems. Country music hunk Eric Church released his song “Homeboy” earlier this year to give fans (ME!) a tantalizing taste of his summer release album “Chief.” While “Homeboy”is a haunting song about finding a lost brother, only Eric Church (and songwriter Casey Beathart) could weave the word through a story/song/poem the way they have. It’s a great tune and the album builds on Church’s revamp style that brings Willie and Waylon to mind while listening to songs such as “Country Music Jesus” which cannot help but make your country gospel forehead drop forward and back over and over to the pounding rhythm. And Church lets out a warble or two or three and sounds exactly like the young, vocally strong Garth Brooks of yester-music. You won’t be disappointed in Church’s style and homage to homeboys and the black hat wearing bandits of country music (including Johnny Cash.)

And just when I think the word “homeboy” is a passing fad, my daughters receive key chains from a good friend engraved with “Arab Thunder is my homeboy.” And I know they are protected and watched over when I can’t be there (which is less and less as they gracefully mature.)

So a “homeboy” is what we need it to be and there when we need him to be. Kinda like an angel only with tattoos. Oh, well. Appearances are less and less the persona these days, and that forces us to look deeper to the true spirit of the homeboy so we can know what’s really inside.

Who’s your homeboy?

There are five primary areas of practice to the Writer Wellness plan. Every other week I will post an idea for relaxation (Monday Meditation,) creative play (Tuesday Tickle,) fitness and exercise (Wednesday Workout,) journaling and misc. (Thursday Thought,) and nutrition (Friday Feast.)

Meanwhile, remember to look for a digital or print copy of Writer Wellness, A Writer’s Path to Health and Creativity at Who Dares Wins Publishing. They have a triple play sale going on now that includes Writer Wellness! Check it out before the deal is done.

And check out these great blogs for ideas to keep your writing and publishing healthy and prosperous.

http://writeitforward.wordpress.com/ Bob Mayer

http://jenniholbrooktalty.wordpress.com/ Jenni Holbrook

http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/ Kristen Lamb

http://inspiration4writers.blogspot.com/ Inspiration for Writers, Inc.

http://pentopublish.blogspot.com/ Natalie Markey

http://amyshojai.com/ Amy Shojai

My new website!

https://www.joyeheld.com

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Be well, write well