Nadia Lee :: Romance Writer

Went to the pool today and tanned a little bit. I don't really like to tan, though my skin turns brown very easily, but I read some studies that getting vitamin D via sunlight can help you feel better, etc. Since I spend a lot of time indoors, I thought it might be good to get out a bit.

I don't know about the health effect, but my arms and legs are quite tan now. (I didn't tan my face...for obvious reasons...)

P.S. The studies / articles I've read about vitamin D:

• Vitamin D & depression
• Vitamin D & allergy
• Vitamin D & pregnancy complication
• Vitamin D & breast cancer

P.S.S. No, I don't have all the issues mentioned above, but I can get mildly depressed from time to time.

I'm not sure if you've seen it, but Linda Howard briefly discussed the trouble she's been having with her work due to her health issues on Facebook. I'm not surprised that less than good health can affect one's creativity and productivity and everything else so much. It doesn't even have to be something hormonal. Even something as non-specific as chronic pain can bring on numerous problems and kill productivity.

When little aches here and there let themselves known, I used to just forge ahead until my body went on a massive strike. It did for two months soon after I signed with Agent. It did again last year. After two devastating battles that lasted five months total, I've decided I cannot win against my own body. So these days I try to be kinder to myself, even though it's very hard, especially because I never used to have joint pain. My first instinct is usually to flog myself for being lazy or whiny or something.

So what do I do when I feel achy or fatigued? I allow myself a very short nap and half an hour of stretching. On top of that, I see my physical therapist at least twice a week to keep my joints in working shape. And I eat fresh fruit and vegetables every day. I should exercise more regularly as well, but one thing at a time.

What do you do to keep yourself healthy?

In the last two weeks I thought I'd read and relax, but none of that happened. Instead I got sucked into an epic historical drama with awesome larger-than-life characters, and I couldn't bring myself to read anything afterward. It's disappointing, but basically 007 Dukes and so on that I had on my TBR just lost their appeal.

I'm sure my appetite for them will return by the end of the summer at the latest.

How's your August so far?

I'm the master of stealth...

Oh...crap! I'm stuck! How do I get outta here again...?

Oh wait! Forget water. I feel the presence of the Hand from the Sky. (Hand from the Sky = hamster's understanding of generous human hands that give him treats...)

I'm here! Food, food! Gimme gimme gimme!

Last week was just not my week. In chronological order:

• Some sandals that used to be comfortable suddenly gave me four really bad blisters on Monday after ten minutes of walking.
• I had the most horrific neck pain plus a nasty migraine for four consecutive days.
• I had a severe allergic reaction to food that had never given me trouble previously.
• Almost got hit by a truck -- twice -- on my way to the grocery store (10 minute bike ride each way).
• Fell and cut my wrist -- if the cut had been deeper I might've bled to death.
• Kuro passed away.
• My computer died for no reason that I can think of, and I couldn't work my mojo to fix it. So I had to do a clean reinstall. Thankfully I was able to save all my data.
• My left forearm became swollen and inflamed for no apparent reason.
• Emails I sent didn't reach any of the recipients.
• My post-clean-reinstall computer died again yesterday. I couldn't save it, so I had to do another clean reinstall (no data lost at least).

OTOH -- I finished reading two books and was able to wrap up Step 2 in my revision process. So now I'm ready to make the changes to the soft copy.

Anyway, this is a brand new week. So hopefully whatever evil Murphy's Law cloud is gone.

How was your week? (Hope it was better than mine!)