Boot Camp Week 4 Day 3

Maybe the publishing world heard us last week when we toldja our girl Jennifer Hudson was having a tough time getting a book deal about her weightloss. Well, things have changed! J-Hud signed a deal to write a book on her dramatic weight loss. The ‘Dreamgirls’ star will be opening up about how her unhealthy eating habits which she says began at an early age. The Weight Watchers spokesperson famously shed 80lbs in less than two years, going from a size 16 to a size 6.

She’ll share her weight issues, and some of her own best tips for losing and maintaining weight loss, fitting in exercise and keeping the pounds off. In the mean time, someone needs to share with her that with the weight shed those breast aren’t the same beast they use to be and she can hide the push bras and stretch marks, right now!

SOURCE: E! NEWS

Lunch: baked chicken, salad leaves, chorizo, onion and nandos sauce. Yum, nandos sauce is so good on salad if you like spicy food :)

I’m inclined to disagree with you knowing how to abandon a food, considering meat is different than cheese - meat doesn’t have casein. Casein is the milk protein that you’re addicted to.

We do deal with a lot, as vegans, and I commiserate with what you’re saying about getting shit from friends - I find that people being unsupportive of my diet, even though it’s no concern of theirs and doesn’t hinder their lives in any way, is the only hard part of this lifestyle for me. You know what, though? I don’t have any friends who say it’s stupid, because no ‘friend’ wouldn’t take the time to try and understand a life and moral change like veganism that literally hurts no one. If your ‘friends’ are being called stupid and aren’t willing to support you in something you care about, it’s really high time to get some new friends.

As for keeping up with everything, I’m not sure what to tell you - yes, there’s a lot of ingredient-reading in veganism. Yeah, there’s a lot of explaining. Worse, there’s a lot of substituting, especially when you find out our favorite alcoholic drink or shampoo, etcetera, isn’t vegan. But you do it because living cruelty-free means more to you than convenience and hopefully someday (as it’s been starting for years and years) veganism will be as convenient as an omnivore diet. We already have so many amazing products that make our lives easier (one being Daiya, obviously) and the list goes on from there. This day and age, it’s not hard to be a vegan - it’s just mind over matter.

Vegansoapbox has a list of how to get cheese out of your diet - I’ll throw it in for good measure: http://www.vegansoapbox.com/i-cant-live-without-cheese/

Fitness Fun Fact:

I love double and sometimes quadruple dating. My boyfriend and I have so much fun hanging out and connecting with our friends. This more than likely ends up with us all meeting up to go out to dinner to catch up or heading to the movies together and ordering the popcorn. Last night, we changed that. We met up with my best friend and her fiancée at the park last night! We laced up our shoes and went for a 2 mile jog/run. Afterwards, we raced each other to see who was faster in the park parking lot(of course my boyfriend and I won!). It was a different type of meet up but we all had a blast and the best part: we burned calories and drank water instead of consuming calories with food and alcohol. This is just one of the things that we have done together fitness wise. As a matter of fact, my boyfriend and I are actually in a competition with my best friend and her fiancée!  Two weeks ago, we took before pics together. The couple who has made the most improvement at the end of July will receive a prize from the other couple! Cool, huh? It’s funny because the men are so competitive that in return they have been pushing my best friend and I to work that much harder. So fitness fact of the day is, include your friends in your fitness goals. You will have fun and all get healthier at the same time. Now that’s what I call a win win situation! 

““The main thing diagnoses are good for is sussing out what your shrink thinks of you — Bipolar Affective Disorder means they like you, Unipolar means you’re boring, Borderline Personality Disorder means they hate you and Schizophrenic means you scare the shit out of them because they can’t keep up with your thinking.””

- Blackbridge 1997

great video!

Typhus fever, a common tic born disease. http://dld.bz/qVs7 health

Lots of excitement today.

Reading is just a drug

“Some people read for instruction, which is praiseworthy, and some for pleasure, which is innocent, but not a few read from habit, & I suppose that is neither innocent nor praiseworthy. Of that lamentable company am I…Of course to read in this way is as reprehensible as doping, & I never cease to wonder at the impertinence of great readers who, because they are such, look down on the illiterate…Let us admit that reading with us is just a drug that we cannot do without – who of this band does not know the restlessness that attacks him when he has been severed from reading too long, the apprehension & irritability, & the sigh of relief which the sight of a printed page extracts from him?”

Somerset Maugham (The book-bag)

Our Book Is Available on Amazon Now!

I have been writing a lot in the past couple of days and haven't really got the chance to even see my mails. Today I just thought of checking my gmail and I was so surprised to get an email from Amazon.com.


Out of nowhere, they have selected our book "If Mortals Had Been Immortals and Other Short Stories" and have made it available on Amazon.com.

http://www.amazon.com/Mortals-Immortals-Other-Short-Stories/dp/B002AD3JXA/ref=pd_rhf_p_t_1

It was quite unexpected because after quite a few years I had actually finally stopped thinking about it. First we tried to get it published from abroad but since we couldn't contact the right people only time was wasted. Then we just got the chance to publish it online and it was made available on smashwords:

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/635

So, I am kind of happy as well since this is a way forward ...sort of...but I don't know how lucky will we be.

But whoever would read this post and would be interested in reading our book please do buy a copy and if you like it kindly recommend it to your circle of friends.

I'd like to thank again all those people who took out the time to buy and read our book when it was first published online on smashwords and lulu.com

The book that is not on the shelf

I usually don’t like my writings, because I’m never satisfied. The only factors that stand out in my writings are most probably honesty & the fact that I write things with finality. Anyway, I really liked our book & I was not supposed to write on it today. In fact, I didn’t want to, but my sister is on the net & I have nothing better to do. And I’m certainly not in mood of reading right now. So, I’ll talk about our book ‘If mortals had been immortals & other short stories.’

Well Z & I had loads of fun while writing this book. We started off in 2006 & finished the book after a year. Writing a book is not anything easy, as many presume it to be. Try it & you will get the picture. We worked really hard. 1 & a half year was wasted in waiting as one of my brothers said that he would get it published in America (anything can be published in the land of opportunity) where he lives, but somehow he never had the time.

Our book is far ahead of time & it is experimental writing. Naturally America seemed to be the right place. Somehow we got it published online & here I would like to thank those 5 people who bought our book in which no one believes. We tried to get it in hard copy, but we haven’t succeeded so far, as it’s not about partition or music or some kind of art that the world can relate to. I really don’t know the reason as I don’t live in the minds of people. And just come to think of it, what a sad abode that would be! Maybe it’s not the right time, but when is the right time to start thinking? When is the right time to look at a thing from another angle? If it’s not now, then when? Do we need thousand more years to wait? Maybe they can wait. It suits them.

Writers like D. H. Lawrence have suffered & who are we? Exactly nothing! Rejection is not a new phenomenon for Z & I. In a way, I feel good that it’s not typical writing & that’s why people aren’t ready for it. Moreover, it’s available on the net. Even when we die, our book lives. The words we have scribbled aren’t being wasted. That much I know.

However, people drink piss because they have to & they start shitting in their pants when they hear of something extraordinary. I don’t know if it’s ever going to change. I still believe in my work & I was asking Z the other day that we should go till the end. We just can’t give up, cause people are not ready for something far ahead of time. Just because they are scared doesn’t mean the work is a piece of shit. And we see countless books that aren’t even readable & yet they are in the market. Quite frankly, I mostly read classics, cause these new books are rarely readable. Sometimes it seems paper has been wasted. I’m so sorry for being blunt, but this is how I see it. And I don’t think our book falls in that category.

I’m not saying Z & I are the best writers of this century. I can’t say that. But I know how we write & I don’t think anyone can demoralize us. I still believe in our work & I just can’t give up on it, cause not a single soul believes in it. In fact, I want to work on another book with my crazy partner. I look forward to it. I really do.

Nadira Rahman