Monday Morning Motivators to Slay Your Creative Dragons

By CJ Lyons and Margie Lawson


Healthy Eating: from CJ

Okay, I know we’re all writers and always talking about ways to make our writing lives better, but one thing we often forget is how to eat right to give our minds the energy they need.

So, with the holidays coming, I thought it would be a good time to discuss simple rules to healthy eating.


Here in the US, we’re plagued by an epidemic of obesity and overweight, so here’s a primer on healthy eating for your mind and body.

A portion size = the palm of your hand. No, the fingers do not count!

Each meal should have one portion of protein (meat, fish, chicken, etc), two portions of colored stuff (fruits and veggies with color), and one portion of the white, starchy stuff (rice, corn, potatoes, bread, pasta, etc)

An easy way to remember this is to mentally divide your plate into quarters:

–1 protein

–2 colored veggies and fruit

–1 starch

It’s that simple. Start with that and next time I’ll throw out some other easy and healthy tips.


As a pediatric ER doctor, CJ Lyons has lived the life she writes about in her cutting edge suspense novels. Her debut, LIFELINES (Berkley, March 2008), became a national bestseller and Publishers Weekly proclaimed it a "breathtakingly fast-paced medical thriller." The second in the series, WARNING SIGNS, is due out January, 2009. Contact her at http://www.cjlyons.net

Margie Lawson -- presenter, psychotherapist, writer -- lives at the top of a Colorado mountain west of Denver. Margie merged her two worlds, psychology and writing, to develop psychologically anchored editing systems and techniques that teach writers how to write page turners. A former college professor, Margie works as a psychotherapist, writes fiction and nonfiction, and presents full day master classes for writers internationally. Go to http://www.margielawson.com for more information.

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Monday Morning Motivators to Slay Your Creative Dragons

By CJ Lyons and Margie Lawson


Take Ten: from CJ

We all know that we’re supposed to exercise everyday. We all know that we’re supposed to do 45 to 60 minutes of exercise to reap its benefits.

And most of us, don’t. No time, no energy, no time….But, you do have the time!


New research has shown that it only takes ten minutes of exercise, five to six times a day to gain the same benefits as a solid hour.

The only trick? You need to exercise vigorously enough to build up a sweat. Other than that, anything goes!

So next time you need a break from writing, take ten and by the end of the day you can cross that exercise goal off your “to-do” list!


As a pediatric ER doctor, CJ Lyons has lived the life she writes about in her cutting edge suspense novels. Her debut, LIFELINES (Berkley, March 2008), became a national bestseller and Publishers Weekly proclaimed it a "breathtakingly fast-paced medical thriller." The second in the series, WARNING SIGNS, is due out January, 2009. Contact her at http://www.cjlyons.net

Margie Lawson -- presenter, psychotherapist, writer -- lives at the top of a Colorado mountain west of Denver. Margie merged her two worlds, psychology and writing, to develop psychologically anchored editing systems and techniques that teach writers how to write page turners. A former college professor, Margie works as a psychotherapist, writes fiction and nonfiction, and presents full day master classes for writers internationally. Go to http://www.margielawson.com for more information.

Read more!