Ten Secrets to Losing Weight After 50 Now Available

Do the following excuses sound familiar?

“Losing weight is SO hard after 50 – impossible – in fact!”

“I’m eating the same way I did when I was younger and somehow packing on the pounds.”

“The methods I used to lose weight when I was younger don’t work anymore.”

“When I dieted before, I’d drop four pounds the first week and two to three pounds a week after that. Now? Forget it! I’m lucky to lose half to one pound a week – if anything at all.”

Unlocking the Secrets to Losing Weight After 50

If you’ve been singing these songs, I’m ready to help. My new book, Ten Secrets to Losing Weight After 50, was released January 1, 2020 just in time for New Year’s Resolutions and is available on Amazon now.

After years of struggling and decades of yo-yoing, I finally unlocked the secret of losing weight after50. No dangerous surgeries, diet pills, expensive weight loss programs, pricey supplements, crazy fad diets, expensive gym membership fees, or personal trainers involved.

I’m ready to spill my secrets. After explaining why it’s so hard to lose weight after 50, I share 10 things I was doing wrong and what I changed to finally succeed.

My tips outlined in the book include how to:

• overcome a slower metabolism and loss of muscle mass
• choose the right diet
• get past stubborn plateaus
• avoid going hungry
• control stress eating
• make exercise count
• keep the pounds off

It’s Never Too Late!

If you’re 50-plus, it’s time to take stock. Don’t surrender to middle-age spread and cross the line into obesity without a fight. If I – someone who battled with weight my whole life – can win the weight war, you can too!

Food choices and fitness strategies really do work – even in your 50s, 60s, and beyond. It’s never too late to adopt new healthy lifestyle habits and make a big difference in your health.

“I’m Your Daughter, Julie” Wins Top Prize

I’m Your Daughter, Julie: Caring for a Parent with Dementia, won grand prize from Royal Dragonfly Book Awards.  The international competition honors excellence in all types of literature.

According to their site, the grand prize winning book “must be outstanding in content, readability, entertainment value and overall production.”

I’m so thrilled this book, dedicated to my mother who bravely fought Lewy Body dementia, was recognized. My book not only earned this year’s $500 grand prize but also won first place in the aging/senior living, how-to, and self-help/inspirational categories.

This book was written from the depths of my soul during one of the lowest periods of my life.

As I write in the book, “Sometimes you lose a parent in death suddenly. What you don’t realize until you have a parent with dementia is that sometimes you lose a parent excruciatingly – a little bit at a time.”

I’m honored that this book has received several five star reviews on Amazon. Most rewarding of all, caregivers have sent me notes, emails, and messages thanking me for sharing my story. I received even more messages after Next Avenue published an article based on a chapter from the book.

I’m so grateful that my book helped them through a difficult time. Helping other noble unpaid caregivers, the majority of which are family members, was the motivation for writing this book.

If I have helped even a few people cope with the many challenges of caregiving and provided a bit of comfort to those losing their loved one a little bit at a time like I did, then I am fulfilled.

Promoting, Writing & … Shark Cage Diving?

In March, my book, I’m Your Daughter, Julie: Caring for a Parent with Dementia, was published. This is a book is close to my heart.

Although many people encouraged me to share my story, I couldn’t immediately immerse myself in the painful memories of watching Mom slowly lose her mind, deteriorate physically before my eyes, and take her last breath. Nevertheless, eventually, I felt compelled to write the book out of a desire to help others learn from my successes and mistakes as a caregiver. By sharing my intimate journey, I hoped to make the process of bit easier and provide comfort to those losing a loved one to dementia so they wouldn’t feel alone.

I’m so grateful that my book has been well-received with several five-star reviews including one from Readers’ Favorite.

My Next Book

After promoting my latest book, I’m happy to get back to writing again. Next up, a book to help those over 50 who are struggling to lose weight.

Confession time. After caring for my mother for a few years, I had gained a lot of weight stress-eating. Since I had neglected my health during that time, a check-up was in order. The doctor bluntly informed me that I had gained 20 pounds since my last visit. Okay, I already knew that, but it was still painful to hear!

So began my quest to drop the weight. 

Let me tell you, losing weight is a whole new ballgame as you age. This was a a learning experience as I mastered what worked – and found out what didn’t work anymore now that I’m older.

I’m ready to share my secrets. No dangerous surgeries, expensive weight loss programs, or crazy fad diets involved.  I hope to have it finished and ready to publish by the end of the year just in time for 2020 resolutions.

On a personal note, this fall, I will fulfill a lifelong dream and visit South Africa with my husband, Scott.

One of the reasons I think our marriage works so well – even after 40 years – is because we support each other’s dreams. Going to Africa has been more my dream than his, but he jumped on the bandwagon quickly when we saw a great price. But then Scott became super excited about the idea of shark cage diving with the great whites in Cape Town. Oh dear! Although I consider myself an adventurer, visions of the scene of a shark attacking the cage in Jaws kept dancing around in my head.

Now, for the big question. Will I do it?

Drum-roll please….yes, we have booked this adventure.

Mind you, this decision was not made lightly. I did plenty of research and watched several videos so I’d know what to expect. I discovered that the companies in South Africa do not chum the waters or feed the sharks and closely follow safety regulations. I couldn’t find any reports of fatalities, but I did see a viral video of a cage dive gone wrong on Guadalupe Island in Mexico when safety precautions were ignored. Horrifically, the shark ended up thrashing around violently inside the cage with a man – who miraculously was unharmed. By the way, even though I am scuba certified, I would never go shark diving without a cage or try to feed the sharks. I have my limits and that just seems dumb and dangerous.

Now, if I could only stop hearing “duun-dun, dun-dun, duun-duun, dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun” every time I think about the cage dive.

Stay tuned, I’ll be blogging all about my experience.

Welcome to my Writing World!

Welcome to my new author website and blog! I have several exciting writing projects in the works. I’ll keep you informed of all the latest news and ramble about my writing life.

My Journey as a Writer

As a writer, I am in love, captivated, and addicted to words. And with good reason.

Inspiring words can lift us up, bring joy, motivate us to do good, offer hope, heal, and excite us. Words are powerful and sometimes even magical. Words evoke our imaginations and create wondrous worlds to explore.

However, being a professional writer and author is anything but easy. Along this journey, many tears of disappointment and frustration were shed on this crazy roller coaster ride of emotions.

As George Orwell said: “Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand.”

Don’t get me wrong, the highs are incomparable. When I saw my byline for the first time, landed a famous agent to represent my first YA novel, co-wrote a book published by McGraw Hill, won three journalism awards, and lived out my dream of a book signing at Barnes and Noble – I was on top of the world!

But there’s a flip side. I submitted my work for six long years before being published for the first time, received enough rejection letters over the years to wallpaper a house, quit my daytime job too soon and had to work a humiliating temp job, and got dumped by that famous agent when my first novel didn’t sell.

I swore off writing many times throughout the years. Am I glad I persevered? You bet!

Writing is an addiction, a compulsion, a seduction that tugs at your soul. I started down the path of a becoming a writer 30 years ago and still love the endless possibilities that this career offers.

So, stick with me and stay tuned. Let’s see what the future brings…

Image courtesy of praisaeng at FreeDigitalPhotos.net.