All About Tawny Weber

I love romance. Happily ever after, hot love scenes… all the good things in life.

For a long time, I was content to explore this enticing world through books. Then, wow – I found out it can happen in real life. I met my husband, who showed me that all those wonderful, magical feelings described in the books are real. Hey, what d’ya know, fiction really IS based in reality.

Once that particular dream came true, it was like Pandora’s Box opened… if I could have that dream – why not the one I’d hidden away in that quiet corner of my mind… the one about putting those stories dancing around in my head onto paper (or computer screen) and writing my own romances?

It took awhile. Workshops and classes, voraciously devouring every how-to book I could buy, studying the market and finding my niche – to say nothing of my voice. Throw in those little distractions like life, children and such… but the dream started taking life.

Once I joined RWA I found another form of magic. Camaraderie, support and friendships that have touched my heart. The dream is blooming. In the last few years, I have served two terms as Secretary for my online chapter, as well as Publicity Chair, Mentorship Chair, Critique Chair and moderated a few other programs. I was the 2008 President of the Black Diamonds Romance Writers and VP of Administration of the SFA-RWA — and loved the challenge. All of this gives strength to that dream, and keeps it grounded.

My novella, A Babe in Toyland is a part of the Must Have Been the Mistletoe anthology, out December 2010. This will be my ninth Harlequin Blaze. I have with three more scheduled for 2011 - Breaking the Rules in February, Just For The Night in May and a new series will launch in December.

I do have other dreams that I’m happily tending: my own real-life hero husband and our two children. Our Northern California home, an ode to ideas and obsessive redecorating/remodeling. Good thing my hero is handy with a saw. Gardening, scrapbooking, crafting and an incredibly supportive family round things out. Along with homeschooling our children and writing, I work from home with my Intuitive Consulting business.

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Tawny's News & Fun Facts

I’m a homeschooling mom.
I love lifting weights. There is something so satisfying about being able to see muscles grow.
Before I was a writer, I was an Intuitive Consultant and Reiki Master.
I’m a list addict. I make lists for everything – even my lists.

Blog Posts from Tawny

I Love my Peeps

Posted by Tawny Weber May 17 2012, 12:30 am in diet, Program, Tawny Weber, Tawny's Thursdays, tracking

My Spark Peeps, that is. SparkPeople is awesome, I’m telling ya!

Now, I’m not saying it’s just because I used SparkPeople that I reached my goal weight. I’m sure that I could have done it with another tracking program. But I looked at a lot of them, and went with this because it was totally awesome (did I mention that already?).

Why?

Because it’s simple.
It’s mobile
It’s encouraging
It’s all-encompassing
It’s interactive
It stays in touch
There’s room to do lots, or little
It’s free
It works

Okay, the last point is probably the most important one. But we never know if something is going to work *for us* until we try it, so I’ll admit, that one is a little subjective. But the other points? Those are solid.

It’s super simple to log in what you eat, what you drink and what you do for exercise. You simply enter your current weight, your goal weight and the date you want to get there and the program keeps you on track. Whether you weigh in weekly, daily, monthly, whatever, it creates a graph so you can see your progress. Entering your information is super easy, too. The database of food/exercises is extensive, and if something isn’t listed, it’s simple to manually enter. What I loved about this was the ability to create a favorites list- those foods I tend to eat often and regularly, so I didn’t have to do a search for every meal. If you tend to eat food combinations, like I do (1/3 cup fat free vanilla Greek yogurt with 6 chopped almonds and 2 tbsp craisins after ever workout), there’s an option for that, too. Tracking is so simple and easy, there’s no excuse not to do it.

And mobility? There’s an app for the phone (free, baby) and the iPad (free, baby) and they all tie into the main account. So if I’m home, I track my food/workouts via my computer. If I’m out, I use my phone. There are also daily articles and blog posts that really keep the focus on being healthy, as well as offering a lot of new thoughts to mull, information to consider and options to try. They have recipes, too, and a great selections of fitness videos (all free!).

If you’re the social sort, one who does better with diet and fitness if you’ve got a lot of people on board to talk with, be accountable to or encourage you, that option is totally available. There is a large community, groups to join and challenges to inspire and keep you invested. Also, a clever thing they do is the “points’. You get points for everything – logging food, drinking water, logging exercise, reading articles (they have fabulous articles), etc… It’s a virtual award program that adds an element of fun to staying focused. You can also sign up for daily/weekly emails (and reading them gives you more points- ooh fun), so there’s a nice reminder if you slip away from tracking and visiting the site to get you back in gear. All of these are options you can dive into, or totally ignore. So if you’re like me, someone who just wants to do their thing, there’s no pressure.

Lets, see, what else did I list as a reason I love SparkPeople? Oh yeah, it’s free. I really like this one. I’ve tried a lot of weight loss programs in the past. The big famous ones, like Weight Watchers and Nutrisystems and Southbeach. None of them worked for me. This one did, and, again, it was free

I’m in month 3 of being at my goal weight and still use SparkPeople every day. It’s a super simple way of staying on track and accountable.

Do you use a particular program? Are you open to checking them out? And if you’ve ever tried SparkPeople, what’d you think? If you haven’t, um, hey… Check it out! *g*

4 Comments

Breaking the Rules

Posted by Tawny Weber May 3 2012, 1:00 am

I’m a fan of rules. Okay, not so much rules, but guidelines. I’m a fan of Pirates of the Caribbean, too *g* I personally think that guidelines serve a wonderful function in both writing and in weight control. Guidelines give us those generalities that we can craft our story, our diet, or our workouts around. [...]

9 Comments

Hungry?

Posted by Tawny Weber Apr 19 2012, 1:00 am in Hunger, maintenance, Tawny Weber, Tawny's Thursdays

“If hunger is not the problem, then eating is not the solution.” —Anonymous “I’m hungry.” How often do we say that or think that? I’m hungry seems to be a catch all phrase that can mean so many things. But its one that has an immediate solution: hungry? go eat!. The problem is, quite [...]

2 Comments

The Status Quo

Posted by Tawny Weber Apr 5 2012, 1:00 am in maintenance, Tawny Weber, Tawny's Thursdays

It’s been about a month since I reached my weight goal and I have to admit, I’m loving it. And I’m also paranoid, with depths that sort of freak me out, that now that I’m at goal, I’ll regain all that weight I worked so hard to lose. So my focus for the next year [...]

14 Comments

Snack Time

Posted by Tawny Weber Mar 15 2012, 3:30 am in snacks, Tawny Weber, Tawny's Thursdays

One thing I tried to make sure of while losing weight was to include favorite foods and snacks I loved in my day-to-day eating. While I’m big on discipline, I’m not a fan of deprivation. And not being ‘allowed’ chocolate would deprive me of a great deal of happiness! Popcorn is one of my go-to [...]

2 Comments

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