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I’ve gotten a number of questions lately on Facebook and Twitter about P90X by Beachbody, and thought it would be worth giving you some of my overall impressions of the program (I’ll save more in-depth reviews for later).

The first thing I have to say is that the P90X program really is complete, moreso than any of the other Beachbody programs (in my opinion). What I mean by that is that it’s not just packed with great workouts and a schedule to do them, but it also has an incredibly thorough nutrition guide. And that’s something I want to emphasize right up front: while the eye-catching part is the workouts, your success is going to largely depend on how well (or poorly) you follow the nutrition part of the program. That’s hard for me to emphasize enough: if you don’t change the way you’re eating and follow the guide, you’ll get in better shape and be stronger at the end by following the exercise routine, but you won’t come close to achieving optimal results.

Both the nutrition and the workout guides are packed with good information that’s very well-structured, and there is a LOT of it: take some time to really get acquainted with both manuals before you start.

The DVDs are, not surprisingly, extremely well done, and there are a lot of them: thirteen, to be precise! I’m not going to cover all the workouts here in any detail, but I did want to make a few observations based on our previous experience with Power 90, Power 90 Master Series, and ChaLEAN Extreme.

Being a veteran of the other workout programs, I was not nearly as intimidated by the workout routines as I thought I might be. While they’re definitely extreme and really tough, the programs we’ve already done have provided us with a great foundation. We saw a number of familiar exercises – along with lots of new ones! – and that gave me a greater sense of confidence. Ironically, this was particularly the case with Cardio X: after some of the cardio workouts in ChaLEAN, this one’s not a huge deal.

To be perfectly honest, that’s probably the one major downside to P90X for me: a lot of the exercises in the cardio routines were a bit too familiar. This wouldn’t be an issue for anyone jumping right into P90X, but if you’ve done the other Power 90 series workouts, it’s something to keep in mind. The good news is that it’s easy to substitute for cardio with workouts from other programs (particularly ChaLEAN Extreme and INSANITY, if you’re in good enough condition), or any other cardio activity like running, biking, etc.

The main concern I have with the weight training workouts are simply that, in addition to being extremely intense, they’re long (a full hour, including warmup and cool down, plus Ab Ripper X), so muscular endurance is an issue. And that brings us right back around to the nutrition portion of the program: it’s very clear (over and above the admonitions in the P90X documentation) that you’ve GOT to ensure that you’re eating properly to give yourself enough fuel to do the workouts, and enough protein to repair and build muscle.

Actually, the toughest workout for me is Yoga X. If you think yoga is for sissies, you’ll change your tune after you do this workout the first time. I’m not a yoga buff, but I can’t argue with the benefits of concentration, flexibility, and control that it gives you. The big downside with this particular workout, though, is how long it is: 90 minutes. That’s really hard for me to do during the week, so when I don’t have enough time I substitute the Dynamic Flow Yoga workout from ChaLEAN Extreme, which is 40 minutes long (I really like that workout, especially the guided meditation part Chalene Johnson does at the end).

Finally, if you’ve seen the P90X infomercial and are thinking about buying it, consider this: if you’re in good shape and you exercise fairly regularly, go for it! But if you’ve been sedentary or only work out every once in a while, please consider what you’re getting into. It’s called an “extreme” fitness program for a reason! If you’re not already in good shape, you really should think about starting with Power 90, Power 90 Master Series, or ChaLEAN Extreme to build up a good foundation before you tackle P90X. You want it to be a challenge, but not so much that you get discouraged and drop the program.

And remember: as with all Beachbody programs, there is an absolutely awesome support community with on-line forums and independent coaches like my wife, Jan. Joining Team Beachbody is absolutely free, and is one of the best things you can do to help ensure your success!

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If you’ve been scoping out books at Amazon over the last couple of days, you may have noticed that a lot of books have suddenly had their “buy now” buttons disappear. That’s because there’s a big fight going on between Amazon and the publishing house of Macmillan, both giants in their respective fields of retail and publishing.

The cause of the tiff? Macmillan wants Amazon to set higher prices – $12.99 to $14.99 – for ebooks versions of bestsellers and hardcover releases in the Amazon Kindle store. Amazon, to their credit, said not only no, but hell no, and pulled the “buy now” buttons for all of its Macmillan titles in protest. That’s got to be putting a huge squeeze on Macmillan and, unfortunately, its authors.

Amazon noted that, unfortunately, in the end they’ll have to capitulate and accept Macmillan’s terms (which, as of today, they have), because they want to continue to offer their titles, and it will be up to consumers to decide if they want to pay these higher prices (from the Amazon Kindle Team announcement). But I still have to hand it to them for at least popping Macmillan in the nose.

There’s a lot that’s going on behind the scenes on this, and the best summary of the shenanigans – and a lot of other great insights for both readers and authors – I’ve seen thus far is on author J.A. Konrath’s blog. But to me this is really the first clear and unequivocal signal that the times, they are a-changing, even if the big publishers like Macmillan want to remain rooted in the past. Why? Because the changes on the horizon, which I think are inevitable in this age of technology, threaten to completely destroy the business model that’s been sustaining them for – literally – centuries.

As a friend of mine once told me, “In dysfunction, there is opportunity,” and the exposure of the dysfunctional business models of traditional publishers offer some great potential opportunities for readers and authors alike, especially when readers are confronted with higher prices and authors with cuts in their royalties.

For readers, you’re going to see a lot more in the way of choices of what to read. The publishing houses are already starting to lose their power to dictate what is published, which in turn dictates what you have available to read. There’s a growing number of independent and small press publishers out there with great stories to tell, and the vast majority of them offer their work at “value” prices. Why? Because the price doesn’t have to support the huge infrastructure of a major publishing house that specializes in printing and distributing paper. On top of that, even when selling at a much lower price, many of these authors make more on each book sold than they would on sales of books through a publisher. Cheap eBooks can be good for both the reader and the author.

For authors, technology like Amazon’s Digital Text Platform and Smashwords allow you to get your work out to the world for free. You’re still responsible for making sure it’s professional grade (proofing, editing, cover art, etc.), but the profit margins are better and you’re in control. Amazon’s royalties are currently 35% of the price you set (although they can set whatever retail price they want), and at Smashwords it’s a whopping 85%, although that venue isn’t nearly as popular (yet). And Amazon is also introducing in June a 70% royalty for authors whose books meet certain criteria, namely prices in the $2.99 to $9.99 range. To me, the jury’s still out on other distribution channels like the Nook by Barnes & Noble and the recently introduced Apple iPad (and Apple is peripherally involved in the brouhaha between Amazon and Macmillan, as Steve Jobs is apparently content with letting the publishers dictate the prices for iBooks), but they’re still part of the wave of technology that is looming on the horizon.

So, keep an eye on the prices in the eBook stores and exercise your power as a consumer: if something costs more than you think it should, don’t buy it. There are lots of other alternatives waiting for you out there.

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PODBRAM – POD Book Reviews and More – did a roundup of their favorite books of 2009. Out of the eighty-four books reviewed, twelve were selected as the winners in various categories, and five more were chosen as honorable mentions. For those of you who aren’t familiar with their reviews, these folks aren’t pushovers: they have a pretty tough reputation for reviews, and I’m proud to say that In Her Name (the Omnibus edition) was chosen as one of the books that received one of their reviews, and that the book was good enough to receive an honorable mention!

This beginning of a new science fiction series is already receiving accolades everywhere from Amazon to the Kindle Boards.

Yes, I wish it would have one a category selection, but it’s not really too surprising to me that it didn’t: the book doesn’t fit easily into any single genre, as it combines elements of science fiction (particularly military SF), high fantasy, adventure, and romance. So it has broad appeal to readers across genres, but if someone’s looking for “the best” book in, say the sci-fi category, there will likely always be another book out there to beat it. I don’t look at that as a disadvantage, it’s just the nature of the book.

So, check out their review of In Her Name and see what they had to say!

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This is a recipe that I’ve had a lot of people ask about, so I decided to just go ahead and post a copy of it here. Before you scoff at the “whole wheat” part of it, let me reassure you that these things taste really good! We enjoy having a nice little treat after dinner, and having one or two of these cookies does the job in a way that’s healthy and not loaded with junk. My wife originally got this recipe from Spark People and modified it a bit to suit our needs better. Here is the original recipe:

Servings: 36

INGREDIENTS
1 cup all purpose flour
1-1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup Splenda
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup butter (unsalted, and softened)
1/4 cup applesauce
2 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
12-ounce bag of semisweet chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS
Preheat Oven to 375 degrees F.
In a large bowl sift together flours, baking soda and salt.
In a separate bowl cream together Splenda, brown sugar, butter, applesauce, egg yolks and vanilla extract.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and pour in chocolate chips. Stir until combined, don’t overmix.
Scoop onto baking sheet covered with parchment paper.
Bake 13-18 minutes.
Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

NUTRITION INFO (per cookie)
Calories: 148.7
Fat: 8.9 g
Carbohydrates: 17.5 g
Protein: 1.7 g

My wife modified the recipe by changing the Splenda to Sucanat, which is a type of Organic Cane Sugar. (Sometimes she uses Splenda instead. She switches back and forth. It doesn’t make a difference to the taste, but the Splenda cookies do seem to be a little lighter and fluffier.) Instead of butter, she uses Olivio, an Olive Oil-based margarine. And instead of two egg yolks she uses one whole egg and one egg white. She’s also been substituting 1/2 of the chocolate chips for butterscotch chips. They make a really yummy addition to these cookies.

If you want a great-tasting treat that can satisfy your sweet tooth, but won’t blow away your eating plan, give these a try!

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I have to confess being disappointed about the Apple iPad. I love Apple stuff (Jan and I have MacBook Pros and iPhones, and I would LOVE to have an “iNetBook”), but the iPad doesn’t do much for me. To be honest, when I saw the first pictures of it, I had an image of some giant holding this thing up and talking on it like an iPhone.

Not surprisingly, comparisons are being made between the iPad and the Amazon Kindle for reading eBooks. I can see that some folks would prefer the iPad to the Kindle, especially since (presumably) you don’t necessarily have to go the iBooks route, but could just download the Kindle app through iTunes and keep merrily reading Kindle books (or do both). For me personally, however, I find the eInk very easy on my eyes, and I’m not all that wild about reading from a backlit display any more than I have to, which is usually about 12 hrs a day, on average. Apple’s displays are great – and sure, they can show color – but just for reading the latest novel, my eyeballs still prefer my Kindle.

The real problem with the iPad, in my humble opinion, is that Apple only went halfway. While I’m sure they had constraints on both the engineering and cost modeling aspects, here’s what I would’ve liked to see (and if they’d put these features on, I’d already have my pre-order in!):

Voice capability. If you’re going to have wi-fi *and* cellular (depending on the model), it doesn’t make sense to me not to have telephony functionality. If I’m going to carry this thing around, why should I have to carry my iPhone along, too? Set it up with a standard jack and Bluetooth capability to link up with a headset and be done with it.

Memory. The base model has 16 GB. Come on, guys! That would be gross overkill for an ebook-specific device like the Kindle (since the text-based files used by the Kindle are comparatively small), but for a multi-purpose platform the absolute minimum should be 32. Even that’s pretty tight, considering the multimedia applications that the iPad is clearly designed for. 64 GB base, plus a smart card slot for additional memory, would have been nice.

Integrated keyboard. This is my biggest “missing item.” I wish Apple would have done something similar to what Lenovo is doing for their hybrid coming out later this year (see the pic at right). Call me a dinosaur, but a lot of the keyboard activity I do involves looking at split windows or multiple windows/tabs, and it looks to me like the iPad’s screen real estate is going to be really cramped with its touch keyboard active (this is one of the big annoyances I have with the iPhone in landscape mode: you can only see one or two lines of text). Further, having a hinged display/keyboard combination is a lot more ergonomic in many ways than just a flat panel: you can set it down and adjust it to many different positions to suit your situation. If I’m on a plane and want to watch a movie, I don’t want to have to hold the thing the whole time – I’d much rather be able to open it up to a convenient viewing angle and sit back to enjoy the show. Yes, I do like the idea of being able to just have the pad itself for a lot of applications where you don’t need the keyboard, but to me, the keyboard is still a necessity as part of the overall package. I know you can get an accessory keyboard, but it’s not the same as having an integrated unit (again, like Lenovo’s hybrid).

Webcam/microphone. This goes along with the telephony, in a way: if you’re aiming for this level of convergence, just do it!

Support for Flash. I just don’t get this: Flash is one of the most common multimedia technologies on the web, and it boggles my mind that neither the iPhone nor the iPad browsers have support for it. Apple, I love you guys, I really do, but this is an incredibly silly oversight that needs to be fixed.

Anyway, I fully plan to stand in line at the local Apple store to play with an iPad, but it’ll have to really capture my attention. Otherwise I’ll just stick with my Acer Aspire One and hold out for Apple’s next gadget.

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As I write this, I’m forty-six years young and in the very best shape of my life. I make posts on Facebook when I work out, and one of my friends there said that my wife, Jan, and I definitely had her beat on the physical fitness thing. I told her that it wasn’t always that way, and she and another friend (Florian, that’s you!) wanted to know more. So here’s my little story, and why I’m into fitness just as much as I’m into writing novels.

Wind the clock back to April 2008, when I had to go in to see my doctor for a routine checkup. I knew I was a bit overweight at 220 pounds (to put that in context, I’m six foot one inch tall) and wasn’t in very good shape, and hadn’t been for quite a few years. Like most guys my age, I sort of let things go a bit, although I liked to think I wasn’t a poster child for Weight Watchers or anything. I didn’t worry about what I ate, and while we got outside a bit, I didn’t exercise regularly.

When the doc came in, he gave me one of those looks, the kind you definitely don’t want to get. He had my blood test results, and as he went over the figures with me, he told me that he’d never personally seen anyone with numbers that high. My scores? Total cholesterol was 301 (the high end of normal is 200), and my triglycerides came in at almost 1200 – the high end of normal is 150. My cholesterol had always been a bit high, but this was ridiculous. Not only that, it was potentially lethal, and the men on my mom’s side of the family have a history of heart disease, with her father and his brother both having died of heart attacks in their fifties.

I got the message. Starting that day, my wife, Jan, and I sat down and started sorting things out: exercise and nutrition. The doctor wanted to give me some medication, but I told him I wanted to try and deal with this first on my own. We looked at a variety of exercise options, and finally settled on Beachbody’s excellent workout programs to get us started (if you’d like more information, feel free to get in touch with my wife – a Beachbody coach – through her Beachbody coach page). While I originally tried to order P90X, which you’ve probably seen advertised, the order didn’t go through, which was a good thing. Had we started with P90X, I think we would’ve tanked right away, because P90X is not for beginners! Instead, we started with Power 90 – which was just right for us – and worked our way up to Beachbody’s tougher (and toughest) programs, including P90X and Insanity. Throw in a lot of ChiRunning, and you get an idea of what our current routine fitness activities are nowadays.

The other thing was nutrition: it goes hand in hand with exercise. We went through the house and literally threw out the junk. All of it. If you want to see something disgusting, look at just about any ingredient label on the food we eat: it’s packed with sugar, high fructose corn syrup, fat, and chemicals. Yuck. More on that later, but the bottom line is that we replaced everything with healthy food, and organic food as much as possible. Doing yourself a huge favor (and one for your family) and get rid of all that garbage. We still go out to eat and even have pizza a couple times a month (and yes, the new Domino’s Pizza is really good! LOL!), but we do it with control and don’t go overboard.

Anyway, after four months of consistent exercise and eating good food (in reasonable amounts), I returned to see the M.D. to go over my latest blood work. The results, I’m happy to say, were nothing short of phenomenal: my cholesterol was down from 301 to 178 (the lowest it’s ever been), and my triglycerides were down to 109. On top of that, I’d gone from 220 pounds down to 190. My friend, that ain’t half bad for only four months and no medication! Since then, we’ve gone on to do things fitness-wise that I’d never imagined, including running in a half-marathon (which was tough, yes, but an incredible experience!).

Let me also say that I can’t exactly be called a fitness fanatic. I have tremendous respect for people who are, but it wasn’t my goal to get down to 5% body fat and be totally ripped: it was to stay alive and stay healthy. Looking better, even if I’m not ripped (I’m at around 12% body fat right now), is a great side benefit, though!

So, there’s my story! Hopefully there will be something in there that might help or motivate you. And with that, I need to get back to working on the next book!

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While I’ve mentioned it in passing in a post or two, I wanted to devote a post specifically to what’s called “ChiRunning” (or Chi Running). It may sound a bit odd, but it’s an incredible way to turn running into a potentially painful experience into a form of exercise that’s blessedly pain-free.

In a nutshell, ChiRunning uses the force of gravity to help pull you forward, with you leaning forward slightly from the ankles (not the waist) and setting your feet down – flat, or in what is called a mid-foot strike – just long enough to support your body weight. You move your feet in a circular motion to the rear of your center of mass, with the circle and your lean more pronounced the faster you go. Your skeletal structure, rather than your musculature, is used to absorb the impact shock, which is greatly reduced from what I’ll call “regular” running. While it’s not for sprinters, for casual or long-distance running, it’s the bomb!

There are more details to it, enough so that it isn’t something that will just come to you instantly: you have to learn how to do it and practice. I recommend that you start with the book, ChiRunning: A Revolutionary Approach to Effortless, Injury-Free Running. Much more importantly, I recommend that you take one of the ChiRunning clinics that are offered in various areas of the country. My wife and I attended one of these, and while they’re not cheap ($250 per person for the full day), it was worth every penny. The only downside was that I was suffering from tendonitis in my left knee, which – had we known about ChiRunning earlier! – I wouldn’t have had.

The bottom line, though, is that ChiRunning works. You have to invest some time and effort learning how to do it right, but after that, it’s smooth sailing. That’s been our experience, at least.

If you get the book, be prepared to read through some metaphysical observations by the author. I’m not discounting anything he says, but most readers are probably just looking for a better way to run.

Check out ChiRunning.com to learn more, and enjoy your run!

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