I had a couple interviews about this book already and hopefully more to come. But I wanted to let you read about my perspective and give you some details on what actually went on behind the scenes when I was working on it.
I think I’ve gotten to where I am by being real and honest; I don’t ever plan on changing that approach because that’s who I am so here we go.
My favourite thing about writing this book is that it finally came to fruition. Something that really inspires me is a kind of alchemist approach. Well, not exactly but I like the thought.
The def of Alchemy: Alchemy is an influential philosophical tradition whose early practitioners’ claims to profound powers were known from antiquity. The defining objectives of alchemy are varied; these include the creation of the fabled philosopher’s stone possessing powers including the capability of turning base metals into the noble metals gold or silver, as well as an elixir of life conferring youth and longevity.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alchemy
I didn’t exactly change a physical thing into something more precious (ie. Gold), but what I did do is make something out of nothing. What I did was, I made a thought into a physical substance., which is incredible to me. There was nothing, then there was something; beginning with only a thought.
I use to think, ‘why doesn’t everyone write a book?’….until I wrote one. A second one for that matter but the first time I co-wrote and hired a graphic designer so there was help. I wrote that particular book with Holistic Nutritionist, Rick Kohut and it is called Elevate Your Health: It’s time for change. Something I’m still proud of today, which had its own ups and downs I still appreciate.
So much time, effort and energy goes into writing a book. It’s kind of personal, for me to write down my thoughts, ideas and beliefs. For me to share with everyone that picks it up how I believe we should live and how I personally live, was slightly hard to do. I consider myself an introvert in most cases. My profession doesn’t allow an extreme case but trust me when I say, BIG crowds make me very uncomfortable, usually small talk is half scary because I rarely know what to say and sitting alone writing or reading a book is considered heavenly to me. It makes it difficult being more of a public figure (very small mind you) but living in a small town makes that notion grow for the only fact that you run into the same people all the time. And me being me, minding my own business and not paying attention to everyone walking by…I’d imaging I could come across as conceded which certainly isn’t the case.
I began writing this book because it seemed like everywhere I went someone asked me for a meal plan. They wanted to know how I eat and they wanted to know what a ‘clean’ diet looks like. So I decided to write a 2 week meal plan. Funny right? Who writes a two week meal plan? Once I got going I found myself at around 50 pages, which was okay by me, still seemed a little short but then I started talking about the food industry, what we should know and avoid; which led me to other toxins that are not only in food but in cosmetics we use every day (and I’m not talking about just make-up, I’m talking soap and lotion, ect as well).
I continued on with research on this and that, course I heavily believe in the mind, mind over matter, mind and body, ect. You can’t have one without the other. I always believe the mind controls the body so I had to add the mental detox, the toxic thoughts we think and how to clear them. All this leads to stress on the mind and body, along with sleep habits and so on.
Interviewers want to know why I wrote the book, and the first thing that comes to mind is knowledge. I believe industries, societies, ect, deceive us. They purposely don’t give us the facts they should. Course they’d go out of business if they did but nonetheless, if you’re making a product that is harmful (GIVE YOUR HEAD A SHAKE!). I have no patience for those companies that mass produce (‘health foods’, that have absolutely no consideration to what’s happening to the people (consumers) using their products. I wanted to make it very clear that harmful toxins are among us every day in the products we consume or absorb. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t entirely blame ‘them’, we’re at fault also. We choose to NOT educate ourselves which means we have to take some of the blame also. We have that reasonability and don’t take it.
So without a doubt I believe there’s a direct correlation between these toxins and not only obesity but CHILD obesity, the growing trend of medication prescribed, depression, and just plain feeling unenergized throughout the day. We wait and hope for the day to be over, we no longer dream for a vitalized life, we accept whatever misery we’re in. We are okay with taking a pill and dealing with the side affects, the drive through is fine not thinking about your children your affecting not only harming their health but not giving them the tools they need to eat healthier themselves (ie. teaching them to cooking), the ‘Time’ excuse always seems to be good enough to not take action.
That’s probably enough about that. I want to get back to the time and effort: When this book seemed close, that was about 6 weeks ago. So each week I pushed on like a sprint to get to the finish thinking I was close to the end. Little did I know I was a month and a half away. Every spare hour I had was spent on this book, editing, formatting, resourcing and researching. I stopped to go to my appointments and continue on with my income being personal training and classes. At times I wouldn’t have gotten through the day without the positive people I’m surrounded by. I might have skipped out on this or that meaning being with friends or family; at times I didn’t shower, eat or workout, ha. Seriously though, when you get rolling and you have that inspiration and momentum you don’t want anything to stop it because there are days when the last thing you want to do is make one more change or add one more thing.
The help I had mentioned in the ‘acknowledgements’ of the book really made this possible. I couldn’t have done it without those people, period. They helped me push on when I couldn’t find the energy, they inspired me when they were actually using the meal plan, the edits, formatting, and ideas. Absolutely everything they did was more than I could say. It might be my face and name on the book but this is just as much theirs as it is mine. They believed in it and me and with all the time and energy put in, how could it not be?
Money, what people seldom talk about for whatever reason, I could probably write a book about that, is something else people want to hear. The fact of the matter is, no there isn’t a lot of money in writing a book, in fact what’s invested, to get back in return will likely be VERY hard to come by. I mean time alone…. there were days I worked 8-10 hrs eating while I wrote. And that was only the last 6 weeks, this book started well over a year ago. The price margin is very small, what’s most difficult to deal with is when people are surprised when you tell them the price, like they were looking for it to be on amazon for $5. I guess that goes along with the people that want a free copy, which I’m very fortunate not to have to deal with very much. I have a very loving and supportive family who actually want to give me money for it in support, and don’t want to hear me say, ‘it doesn’t cost anything’. You get the odd person which is where I wish there was word or feeling you could share just for an instance of how much of you is actually in this book (and they want it for free). 5000 books is a successful book in Canada. Will I reach that? I suppose time will tell, if it’s not this book I’m sure there will be another on the way at some point. To make real money on a book you have to buy thousands so you get a really cheap rate which increases the profit margin. Something I’m not interested in at the moment.
I’m not sure if I’m supposed to share this and an ‘author’, I haven’t found too many authors that would give me actual price details but whatever. I bought 75 books, that’s it. I don’t know the exact protocol but I wanted to get them out to friends, family and clients to see how they liked it, make some edits, send them out to get some reviews back and go from there.
You know what always ceases to amaze me is the support that surrounds me. With my friends, family, followers and those that believe in me, I’m quite certain, MOST of these first 75 are spoken for. I couldn’t be more grateful for the people that support me.
Financially this is a big investment for me in which I’ll be happy to break even on. I explained early why I wrote the book, it had very little to do with finances. My goal if you read anything I write or hear what I talk about is giving a different perspective on changing your life for the better.
My only hope is that people start to realize making changes for your health is possible with little steps with a constant effort for sustainable results. I believe I’ve done that in this book, I believe I’ve put everything I have to offer in it. I talked to Dan Millman briefly before I started my last 6 week sprint. First he quoted Somerset Maugham, “There are three essential rules for writing a successful novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.”
And lastly he said “Your responsibility is to not publish the book until you are certain it is the best you can do”. Great words of advise, and I’ll stand tall knowing I did exactly that.
