Adriana Kraft

When it's time to heat things up...

Stay Healthy

Did our newest characters read this article? Sex and the over-fifty crowd #MidLifeHeroine #EroticRomance

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For starters, Mr. Kraft and I, who write together under our pen name, are older than fifty. You can bet that as we’ve aged, we’ve learned as much as we can about sexual health in the over-fifty crowd. I’ve said elsewhere that writing these stories keeps us young, and I’ll stand by that. But this article from AARP – tweeted by Ageless Sexuality Advocate Joan Price – pulled together things even I didn’t know about the health benefits of sex after fifty: ”10 Surprising Health Benefits of Sex After 50”

So even though Cliff and Carol, our Reluctant Santa and his paramour (yes, they do get it done), may not have read the article, we wonder if something about turning fifty drove them to abandon their dedication to the single life and find a partner.

Here are just a few things I learned – some of which I’d guessed, but it’s nice to see them confirmed.

“Regular romps with your partner are linked to a lower risk of heart problems.” Maybe that’s why Mr. Kraft, in spite of having a heart attack three decades ago and a triple bypass fifteen years back, now has a heart as healthy as any other male in his age cohort, regardless of heart history. I’ll add that there’s a vast amount of strength training, aerobic exercise, and healthy eating involved in addition.

Regular sexual activity (with or without a partner) boosts immunity. Who knew? It strengthens the pelvic floor (makes sense), an issue of particular concern for aging women. It reduces the risk of prostate cancer. It relieves pain – via the endorphins it releases. It reduces stress and improves sleep (all of which is likely related to the benefit for heart health).

Perhaps not surprisingly, given this wide range of benefits, regular sexual activity also increases life expectancy. Lest thinking about aging bodies getting it on disgusts you (and here’s hoping any such disgust decreases as you age!), here’s what’s happening elsewhere in the world: “In Ikaria, Greece — one of the regions of the world where people live significantly longer than average — more than 80 percent of people ages 65 to 100 are having sex.”

So we hope if you’re fifty or over, that you’re as eager as we are to think about fifty-year-olds having sex, and that you’ll enjoy our characters as they muddle through their awkward beginning. And we hope if you’re somewhat (or a LOT) younger than fifty, that you’ll keep an open mind and never give up on both the pleasure and the benefits that come with a healthy sex life.

Release Date: December 2, 2022

Publisher: Extasy Books

Word Count: 12,698

Genre: Erotic Romance, Mature Heroine, Holiday Story

Heat Level: 3 flames

 

BLURB

Is it ever too late to find happiness?

They’re in their fifties. Grief-stricken (her) and battle scarred (him) from their previous loves, they don’t want to risk more heartbreak, ever. They’ll have to take it slow, talk it through, test the waters carefully. Can they make it happen at this speed, get it done in a short story, and reap the benefits of sizzling sex at their age? Why not?

BUY LINK

Available for Pre-order at Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BLSB5DKS/

 

Hard Work Pays Off ~ Blood Sugar, Aerobics and Strength Training #LiveLonger #StayFit #IndieAuthor

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I can still hear our now-grown son as he got back in the car on his first day of Kindergarten, in a rush to tell me: “Guess what we learned, Mom? Hard work pays off!” Which may not always be true, but it’s a starting place, at least.

Did I think about working to stay healthy when I was a young adult? Not too much – I just was healthy, without especially thinking about it. I was active, ate reasonably well, didn’t have much flab, and enjoyed activities like hiking, swimming, boating (with a small footwell sailboat, nothing elaborate), bowling on occasion, doing walks for various charities and causes.

Did I ever actively plan to work at being or getting healthy? No. I backed into it. I gained about twenty pounds with my one and only pregnancy; life happened, and I only managed to get ten of those pounds off while that child was growing up.

In 2015, I discovered (or rather my primary care doc discovered) that I had problems with blood glucose levels. My clinic referred me to a six week diabetes education class, where I learned the basics of diet and exercise for diabetes prevention. I’d thought I was a healthy eater, especially after we revised our diet following my husband’s triple bypass a decade earlier. But there were specifics about carbs and fiber that got left out of that training. The exercise information focused on aerobic activities. I bought a Fitbit, started keeping track of steps, and lost the other ten pounds. Living in the Southwest, we have many marvelous options for hiking.

By 2020, those habits weren’t taking care of the problem. I have a genetic load for both diabetes and Alzheimer’s, and I desperately want to avoid having to use medication to control my blood sugar levels. My doc referred me to a year-long weekly class (on Zoom, during the pandemic) which was superb.

There, in addition to further refining diet (and writing everything down while I straightened that out), I also learned about the role of strength training. Strong muscles pull sugar out of the bloodstream and put it to work. After three months of following the new guidelines, I saw my blood sugar drop back down below the threshold. That class ended a year ago, and I’m still maintaining those levels. And the workouts. And the walking.

So I was more than thrilled when Hubs sent me the following article:

Combining weight training with another activity could lower your risk of early death, study finds.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/27/health/weight-exercise-benefits-lower-death-risk-wellness/index.html

Not only am I likely to live longer, I’m likely to be healthy enough to enjoy a lot of those years.

P.S. If any of you readers are concerned about your blood sugar level, you might be able to access the DPP Diabetes Prevention Program I attended. It’s put out by the CDC (US), and in Arizona it was free to participate.

https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/prevention/index.html

8,000? 10,000? How much is enough, and why? #StayFit #Motivation #JustKeepWalking #CountingSteps #MFRWAuthor

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I know many of you – reader and author friends alike – are struggling with health issues and doing your best to stay healthy. I used to blog regularly about health-related issues and how to stay motivated. I never made a conscious decision to quit blogging about it, but life happened. New health challenges arose and I wasn’t as happy with what I was doing – or with the results, for that matter.

In 2015 I got diagnosed with blood glucose problems, leading to a makeover of our eating habits and even more pressure to keep up aerobic exercise. When that wasn’t sufficient and the threat of needing medications loomed, I took yet another class and learned about the role of strength training in managing blood glucose. Strong muscles pull the sugar out of the blood, even more effectively than an aerobic walk. I’m on it. Half an hour, two or three days a week. Most weeks. I’m not perfect…

Sometime around then I dropped back from 10,000 steps a day to 8,000, re-set my Fitbit goal, and was pretty satisfied with how that made me feel. In case you didn’t know, aerobic exercise, among other things, rewards our brains with dopamine and helps combat depression. I like how that feels.

Mr. Kraft is always on the lookout for news articles I might miss that could be helpful. Last week he sent me one whose headline I would probably never chase – it starts out PEOPLE WHO DO THIS ONE THING EVERY DAY… Those lead-ins always annoy me. But because he’d sent it, I kept reading. The rest of the headline reads, pretty much, HAVE HALF THE DEMENTIA RISK OF THE REST OF US.

He definitely had my attention. Both my mother and her father spent their last years lost to us in full blown dementia. If there’s anything I can reasonably do to prevent that future, I will. Major motivation.

The article actually reports scientific research that shows how the risk for dementia decreases with the increase in step count. Here’s the LINK, for those who’d like more detail. Benefits start to show up at about 3800 daily steps, reducing risk by 25%. Getting to 9800 steps daily reduces the risk by 50%. People who walk 30 minutes of those 10K daily steps at a brisk pace (about 110-112 steps a minute) reduce their risk even further, to 62%. So I timed myself for four minutes, and I’m a tad over that. Well and good. Lets do this!

Today is my father’s birthday. He lived to be 101, and he walked extra steps and climbed extra stairs whenever he could, until he became wheelchair bound toward the end. I think he’d be pleased with what I’m doing, and I’m pleased to be posting this and remembering him on his birthday.

The first 2000 steps #MFRWAuthor #Health #Boomers #Motivation

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“Watch that first step, it’s a doozy!” Sometimes just taking that first step towards a more healthy lifestyle is a giant undertaking. But here’s the thing – those steps have to happen over and over, just like Groundhog Day, which popularized but probably did not originate the “doozy” phrase.

Now that I’ve discovered 8000 steps a day is the threshold that makes a discernible difference in my energy level and mental alertness, the challenge is how to fit them in.

I’m an early riser, usually up without an alarm between five and six a.m. I wake with a mental list of the tasks I hope to polish off in the two hours before my husband gets up. I usually wake feeling energetic and motivated, not wanting the rest of my day to get cluttered up with what I leave undone in the early morning.

BUT I’m starting to learn that if I don’t take advantage of the cool morning hours to make a significant dent in my daily 8000 steps, I don’t reach that goal. Polishing off 2000 steps before breakfast seems to be the minimum required to get to 8000 by the end of the day.

Now my marching orders become a little more daunting: I have to fight my urge to “get things done” and decide that staying fit, healthy, energetic and alert outranks whatever I might accomplish short term. It matters more. I have to give up maybe twenty minutes worth of tasks (and feelings of accomplishment) and convince myself that the mood elevation, long term benefits, and yes, feeling of accomplishment from reaching my steps goal is worth it. Every morning. Over and over.

How to motivate myself to keep doing it? I’ve got lots of tactics and will share more about them down the road. Right now, a picture might be worth a thousand words (and it sure helps with 2000 steps!)

We spend much of the winter in southern Arizona. Almost every morning, the Arizona sky puts a smile on my face as I’m walking. That’s a draw to at least set foot out the door – and as I’m sure you know, taking that first step is all important, whether or not it’s a doozy.

So far, so good!

Every step counts… #health #boomers #MFRWAuthor

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Are you interested in your health? How much time do you spend thinking about it on a daily basis?

More important, how much time do you invest in doing something about it on a daily basis?

When I was in my twenties, I probably didn’t spend a lot of time thinking about it, though through a quirk of fate (friends in college in the 60s) I’d already developed a daily exercise program.

We got excited about the RCAF routine and got together in the dorm halls (not co-ed, in those days 😊) most evenings to run through the 10 minute routine. It stuck with me. I liked what it did for my body – probably more motivated by what I wanted to look like than health concerns in those days!

But as I’ve grown older (Baby Boomer, here), my health concerns and activities have increased. Though each of my parents lived a very long time (95 and 101), both developed forms of dementia late in life: My mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and needed care for her symptoms for her last five years, during most of which time she didn’t know who I was (or her husband, either). My dad’s was more classic age-related dementia, and he continued to know me (the “blue-eyed” daughter), remembered raunchy jokes from his youth, and kept his assisted living staff entertained and engaged by laughing with them often. If I have a choice, I’d prefer his trajectory.

Fast forward to today: Each time a new link surfaces with information about preventing Alzheimer’s and dementia, I’m all over it in a flash. Whatever my genes have in store for me down the road, it’s clear a great deal is within my control. At the very least, if this is my future, I can delay onset and significantly decrease symptoms through how I live on a daily basis. And even if my genes aren’t poised to take me there, I’ll experience vastly greater quality of life through my remaining years.

So I’m going to take up blogging about it again. If you’re interested in what I’ve had to say about it in the past, you can explore the Stay Sexy column we published in 2013 and 2014.

My new series of posts will have the somewhat broader focus of overall health, though of course you can count on us to never ignore sex 😊. I’ll share tips, new research, what has worked for both halves of Adriana Kraft, what hasn’t, and opportunities for guests who have a similar focus. Drop us a line (use the contact button in the r.h. sidebar) and tell us what you’d like to blog about as our guest.

For today, I’m sticking to counting steps. FitBit has sold millions of step counters with its campaign about the benefits of walking 10,000 steps a day. Is the hype true? The answer, in general, is yes. A 2017 HuffPo article supports the benefits, with some caveats that are worth noting: slow steps don’t have the same benefit as a faster pace, and there’s no magic threshold at 10,000. More is simply better.

After researching step-counters, I invested in a FitBit Charge 2 (Mr. Kraft gave it to me last Christmas, actually). I love it. I always know where I am relative to my goals. What I especially appreciate is being reminded to move – at least 250 steps – every hour. I spend much of my day sitting at the computer (imagine that!). Not moving, it turns out, can be lethal.

What’s more, I’ve discovered that the bottom threshold, for me, happens at about 8,000 steps. If I get less than that in a day, I feel more sluggish, less energized, and less alert the next day (and Mr. Kraft is far more likely to beat me at WordStreak). I’m on much more of an even keel if I’ve reached at least that much, though my goal continues to be more. Every step counts.

What works for you? We’d love to hear from you, in comments below or via our email contact on the sidebar.

What do We Tweet? #Health #Boomers #Pride #Polyamory #SexPositivity

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What do We Tweet?

#Health #Boomers #Pride #Polyamory #SexPositivity

Are you getting the drift? My husband and I write erotic romance together under our pen name, Adriana Kraft. Yes, we are Baby Boomers working hard to stay healthy. Yes, we support Pride, polyamory, and sex positivity. I’ll start from the back of the list.

Here’s what sex positivity means to us: There are three criteria for judging any sexual encounter among adults:

One: consent of all involved parties, at every step of the process.

Two: Pleasure for the involved parties (however they define pleasure).

Three: it contributes to the well-being of the involved parties.

For us, this means things like no slut shaming, such as we encountered in some reviews of our erotic romance The Best Man. Yes, Kitty (our heroine) is a slut. Is that wrong? No. Does it bring her pleasure and contribute to her well-being? Sometimes – and when it doesn’t, those consequences force her to grow and figure out what she really wants. We think that stands for itself. A good read on this topic is The Ethical Slut, by Janet Hardy and Dossie Easton.

Working backwards: Polyamory (and multiple partners, whether or not all parties are in love) follows logically from sex positivity. None of us can dictate who will fall in love or even who “ought” to fall in love. Perhaps the most important line in our bio is “we believe in happy endings for all who fall in love, whatever their gender, sexual orientation or numerical combination.” We write fictional stories that adhere to these values, and those are also the values we apply in real life. Tristan Taormino has written a thoughtful book about polyamory that we highly recommend: Opening Up

Pride. Not just because we believe it is right and that it follows logically from the above values, but because both our extended family and our friendship network are filled with gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered individuals, all of whom we love deeply and believe deserve happiness and fulfillment in love.

Boomers – that cohort born between 1946 and 1964. This year, Baby Boomers are between the ages of 59 and 77, and no, we’re not among the youngest of those. Our stories often feature main characters who are in their fifties and beyond, though we also love writing younger characters. True love and satisfying erotic encounters can happen at any age and are always to be celebrated, including in erotic romance. Joan Price, an advocate for ageless sexuality, has a delightful collection of erotic stories entitled Ageless Erotica.

Health, without which none of the above would be possible. Maintaining health becomes increasingly challenging as we age, and it is our most important value. We work out. We read up on brain health, nutrition, strength training, aerobic exercise, and stress reduction. We incorporate as much of this information as we can into our daily routines, and we are each other’s cheerleader and workout buddy to keep ourselves on track.

If you are a blogger focused on any of these topics, we’d love to invite you to our pages. If you are a reader who shares our interests, naturally we hope you’ll check out our books at this LINK.