Adriana Kraft

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

Boomers

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!

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 (with a shout out to Charlie Glickman, who we think offers the clearest definition): 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 53 and 71, 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.

Brain Fear? What to eat! #MFRWAuthor

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Brain Fear?

Yup, big time. With Alzheimer’s and dementia only one generation away up my family tree, I chase everything that comes across my newsfeeds about caring for my brain.

Here’s the latest, from AARP – six foods that support brain health, and my status:

Legumes, for B-complex vitamins, help protect against brain shrinkage – So-so .We definitely need to add in more, though the humus we enjoy daily at least contributes some

Citrus, for vitamin C antioxidents – Check! An orange a day.

Almonds, for vitamin E, healthy blood vessels – Check! This is my go-to snack. I nearly always have some handy – my only concern is eating too many!

Fish, for Omega 3s – Um, not often enough. Will work on this.

Spinach – flavenoids that slow amyloid plaque build-up — Ooops. I’ve been focusing on romaine for our salads, partly because it keeps so well. It turns up on many other lists of foods that help the brain, but doesn’t necessarily affect amyloid plaque. Will have to add spinach back in. Though in my defense I’ll add that when we eat out, a spinach salad is often my choice – especially the Panera Spinach Power salad.

coffeeCoffee, three cups daily have slowed cognitive decline compared to impaired adults not drinking significant coffee. – Check, and hooray! For decades health professionals have succeeded in making me feel somewhat guilty for my coffee addiction, so I’m excited to be justified. Plus, I know single cases neither prove or disprove aggregate research, but my father was a daily coffee drinker and my mother wasn’t, and her decline greatly exceeded his in onset and severity. I’ll drink to the difference!

My score? Excellent on three out of six, marginal on two, and pretty much zero on the spinach front. Got my marching orders – how about you?

Stay Sexy ~ Ageless Erotica Review

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If you’re under thirty or even in your forties, you might never pick up this book, but you should. Ageless Erotica, edited by Joan Price, is a steamy collection of erotica by and about men and women over fifty. The book flies in the face of the notion that our sex lives have to diminish as we age, or that if we stay sexually active, we shouldn’t talk or write about it. The stories offer hope for those under fifty and will bring smiles of recognition, laughter, arousal, and delight to readers old enough to identify.

I was impressed by the wide range of stories, characters, plots, themes and creative sex acts across the collection. There’s solo sex, same and opposite gender sex, fantasy sex, married sex, pick-up sex, sex with a paid professional, a touch of kink – a little something for everyone, demonstrating that just as sex doesn’t have to stop as we age, neither does creativity and imagination. We’re told the authors range in age from fifty to eighty, and I take encouragement from that!

I did have some favorites. In “Invitation to Lunch,” Donna George Storey offers a touching erotic lunch break with a married couple, spiced with a dash of fantasy exhibitionism. “Sex with him is like truly fine old wine, each year adding more complexity and mystery.”

The theme of carrying a secret pleasure turned up in both “Other People’s Stuff,” by Susan St. Aubin, and ”Jaguar Dreams,” by Evvy Lynn. If you’ve ever wondered why old people are smiling to themselves, “Jaguar Dreams” will forever change your answer.

I also loved the open, tender married relationship in D.L. King’s “Mr. Smith, Ms. Jones will see you now.” Mr. Smith’s wife is never on the page, but always in his thoughts through each iteration of kink delivered by Ms. Jones, whose first appointment was gifted to him by the wife unable to enjoy the kink she knows he needs. This story captures so beautifully the rewards an open relationship can deliver to the primary couple, under the best of circumstances.

Joan Price is a highschool-English-teacher-turned-exercise professional after an automobile accident nearly claimed her life in 1979. She married the love of her life in her late fifties, lost him to cancer a mere seven years later, and turned her energies to celebrating the excitement, sizzle and sexuality she and others have discovered in later life. You can find all her books at her Amazon PAGE, and she blogs about sex and aging at Better Than I Ever Expected.

If you’re over fifty, she’s seeking input for her next book, The Ultimate Guide to Sex After Fifty, at this LINK

Stay sexy, and have fun!