Starting My Health Journey

Last time I posted -- which, yeah, has been a few months -- I said I might start sharing some of my health journey here. I decided the easiest way to get that ball rolling is to show you what I posted on Facebook back in February, including before and after photos. That first photo is me at the Realm Makers writers conference in July 2019, which is why I'm holding a dragon. Not that it's so rare for me to be holding a dragon. The second photo is me in February 2025.

Here's what I posted on Facebook:

A lot of people have been commenting about my weight lately. People I haven’t seen in a while gasp and say, “Oh my god, Kat, you’ve lost so much weight!” The word “skinny” is very often used, accompanied by a look of concern. I’ve actually had a few people ask if I lost weight “on purpose” – which I’m taking to assume means they are worried I’m sick.

Folks, I’m not sick. Not now. I mean, I was. Not like cancer (which, btw, just had my checkup and I’m 20 years cancer-free!) or some other illness. But my labs were a mess. High blood pressure. High blood sugar (prediabetic). Cholesterol panel totally out of whack.

I changed my diet. I did not “go on a diet.” Although I was not happy at the weight I was, losing was not even on my radar – I was doing this to change my lab numbers. 

Y’all, I eat a lot. A LOT. I just don’t eat the same foods I used to (which, btw, I believed I was eating pretty darn healthy). My plate these days is loaded with meat, eggs, and veggies. Avocado. Coconut milk yogurt (can’t have dairy, allergic). Sunflower butter. Lots of berries. Bare minimum levels of grains. No sweets, no chips, no snacky foods of any kind. But as for calories…I have no idea. I don’t track that stuff. I eat. And eat. And eat until I’m full. When I’m hungry again, I eat again until I’m full. I assure you, I am far from starving. 

And I do exercise. I’ve walked daily for many years because it’s good for my heart. When my metabolism righted, I got more energy. Started walking even more. Started lifting weights again.

Anyway, to assure you all is well - that all is actually soooooo much better - here are my lab numbers from when I started this journey (September 2020) compared to January 2025:

Blood pressure (as measured at the doc’s office) 142/98 -> 116/73

Glucose 116 -> 90

Triglycerides 163 -> 43

HDL 63 -> 75

LDL 180 -> 133

Cholesterol risk ratio 4.38 -> 2.89

See? Not sick. Not even remotely. I feel better than I have in years. I don’t wake up creaky anymore. No more hobbling those first few steps in the morning. No soreness. No bloating. No heartburn. No fatigue. My balance has gotten better. My clothes fit. Like really fit. I have a waistline for the first time since before kids. 

I’m not telling you this for any kind of “atta-girl.” I honestly just want to put everyone’s minds at ease. 

{Btw, me focusing on my health has been a big reason I haven’t been active on Facebook much. Busy walking, working out, and working. Hours and hours of listening to podcasts about health and nutrition, functional medicine, metabolism, insulin resistance, etc., so the biology nerd in me can satisfy her thirst for learning. The science of the human metabolic system is fascinating.)

Since posting that, I've actually shifted my diet a bit more heavily toward meat, and my HDL has risen to 94, without my LDL changing. I eat even less grain now, too. Rye bread for a Reuben sandwich about once every couple of weeks and the "healthy harvest" muffin at my favorite mom-and-pop coffee shop every couple of months is it for me. And no, I don't miss it. Don't miss sweets, don't miss anything. I still eat all I want, never counting calories, only keeping carbs low. Lots of protein, plenty of fat. 

I still lift weights about four days a week, and it's maddening on the days I'm unable to get in enough walking. I need the movement. People still see me as "skinny" but I've gotten much stronger, lifting heavier at the gym than I have in years. I feel better, stronger, healthier than I have in years. What surprised me is that I "felt" pretty healthy before. But so many things improved, I realized that I had just gradually gotten used to all the little issues, and now that they're gone I know what healthy actually feels like. 

Okay, that's probably enough for now. I'll post more thoughts/experiences later. As well as some updates on upcoming events where I'll be selling my art and books. 

End Elementary Essays

This may be a surprising opinion coming from a writer, but I believe kids should not focus on writing essays in elementary school. I work at a tutoring center, and I am constantly being pushed to help fourth graders write essays, but it goes against everything I believe in. In elementary school, kids should be learning grammar, punctuation, vocabulary, and spelling. And they should be reading, reading, reading, and reading.

Instead of having their love of writing beaten out of them with pointless essay assignments, they should be learning all the parts of speech, what makes a good sentence, how to find the right word for the idea they want to express. Give them the building blocks of good writing. Teach them how to spell. Teach them how to construct sentences. Teach them where to put a freaking comma. How to effectively use a fragment. My experience is that when a kid learns these things, then later, like in middle school, when you teach them the basics of a good essay (a term I find an oxymoron, but more on that later) they’re able to run with it because they have the tools and materials, and thus the confidence to compose what they want to say.

And don’t start with essays. Start with creative writing while the kids aren’t afraid of being creative. Let them write about winged horses and talking mushrooms. Let them tell silly stories and learn early that writing can be fun, not a chore. Let them write about the things that interest them, the things they are naturally passionate about. 

I homeschooled both my kids and didn’t assign essays to them when they were young. I let them write fun stuff, and didn’t critique those things at first. My kids both ended up writing long assignments on their own. Nick wrote pages and pages of a made-up diary, the story of a Minecraft character’s daily adventures, complete with characterization and voce. Anna put together a binder filled with information on hamsters, organized by topics like habitat and feeding, to show that she was ready to have a hamster as a pet. 

Maybe, you say, they just inherited my natural ability to write. Hm, well, that could contribute to it. But I never felt like a natural writer. I didn’t start creative writing until I was in my thirties. And here is the “later” I mentioned before regarding essays: when I started writing for publication, I had to unlearn all the essay-writing procedure that had been drilled into my head in school. I mean, when is the last time you picked up any kind of published nonfiction work and it read like an essay that you were forced to write in school? 

This blog post even – does this sound like an essay? I’ve got a main point. I’m backing it up with details. But am I writing it like that horrid, strict format we were all taught? If I were, you would have clicked over to something else by now. 

Okay, time to get off my soap box and get ready for work, where I have to try and teach kids who don’t know what a preposition is, who don’t know how to punctuate, who can’t spell to save their lives – not because they aren’t smart, but because it’s not stressed in school and they’re spending their time writing essays on tedious topics that they absolutely dread.

Before I go...just a bit on my absence here. I'm fully aware I've neglected this blog a long time. I haven't been writing as much for years, and I've even slacked on art lately. My focus has shifted to my physical health, and I've been spending a lot of time educating myself about metabolism (short version: I was prediabetic and had other out-of-balance metabolic markers, but that's corrected now by food and exercise). Because of the changes, I have much more energy now and am finding myself wanting to write again and even pop over here and share. So, yeah, even though this has been primarily a writing and art blog, I may start posting a bit about what I've learned regarding health (and like today, maybe more thoughts on teaching/tutoring), if for no other reason than needing a place to talk about it. I also promise to keep up with any news on my writing and art. 

Phoenixes Featured

Quick stop to share that two anthologies released recently, one featuring my short story "Fountain and Fire" and one featuring my artwork.

You can read "Fountain and Fire" in Legendary: Havok Season Ten. The story takes my characters Melinda and Kalek from Toch Island Chronicles on an adventure at The Fountain of Youth in St. Augustine, Florida. Awesome phoenix cover art by Kirk DouPonce. Purchase the paperback or ebook on Amazon.

And the current issue of Spaceports & Spidersilk features my colored pencil drawing of a phoenix, so we've got a bit of a theme this month. You can purchase this issue on Amazon or directly from Hiraeth Publishing.

Three Published Stories in Three Days!

 Three anthologies released this past week with short stories of mine inside!

Another HAVOK anthology, Vice & Virtue, features my flash fiction "First Impression." This story goes along with "Dude" which you can read HERE for free on Wattpad. You can purchase Vice & Virtue on Amazon.

Ring of Fire contains my story "Fire Wall" that was originally published in The Absent Willow Review (an online magazine that has since closed its doors). In "Fire Wall" a literal wall of fire has appeared, surrounding a city, and a mysterious stranger offers a means of escape.

You can purchase Ring of Fire on Amazon.

And last but not least, my story "Darkness" (which originally appeared in Realmscapes) is featured in Florida Tech's latest issue of their literary magazine Kaleidoscope. This is a magazine that is given out on campus, so I don't know if/how you can get a copy, but you can read a few old issues for free here. What is exciting for me about this one is that my story won their contest for best prose in this issue!

It was pretty fun this past week having three releases and receiving my author copies all within three days of each other. That doesn't happen often. Now, I've got to get to work finding homes for the next batch...

New Published Short Stories

The latest issue (Winter 2022) of NewMyths features my flash fiction story "More Than Skin Deep." 

Here's a taste:

Taela stood at the pond’s edge, watching her son swim, her bare toes sinking into the wet soil. Sand clung to her calves, and her sleeveless tunic whispered around her in the warm afternoon breeze. It was their private place, hidden deep in the forest where the other Elven never followed.

The barely rippling surface reflected her image in broken waves—an image cross-sectioned by the tattoos covering her skin like colored lace. Neither the water nor the tattoos did anything to hide the unusual paleness of her Elven skin. Her onyx eyes were a vivid contrast, and the points of her ears were all that identified her heritage. Maybe that was why she felt compelled to trim her hair so short—no one could deny her place when confronted with those Elvish peaks.

She lifted her gaze from her reflection to Calen a few yards in front of her. Taela smiled as she watched him splash in the shallow water. He looked like any other Elven child out there, where no one could see the frail legs beneath him, the narrow ribcage that held a heart beating with the passion of someone ten times his size.

CONTINUE HERE to read the rest for free. 

HAVOK's latest anthology, Animal Kingdom: Havok Season Seven, released in October 2022, and it features my flash fiction story "The Placebo Effect." This sci-fi story will appeal to anyone creative, especially if you know what it's like to have a creative block. As usual, the cover art is lovely!

And the soon-to-release Chicken Soup for the Soul: Lessons Learned from My Dog features my story "A Promise Kept." This is the story of how taking in a neighbor's dog temporarily guaranteed she ended up at the home she really needed, and that really needed her. 

Stay tuned, as I'll be announcing a couple more short story releases in the not too distant future. 

Cover Art: A Superhero for Christmas

I've asked author H.L. Burke to post today about the cover art for her upcoming release, A Superhero for Christmas, part of her Superhero Rehabilitation Project series. 

Here's what she has to say:

I definitely know better than to attempt my own art. Both my daughters are (for their age) pretty good at drawing, but I have no attention to visual details, so generally speaking, I just give a vague idea to my cover artist and let them come up with something. I like to be surprised.

For my superhero universe, however, I always knew I wanted artwork that could reasonably fit in a comic book page, so drawn figures of people instead of photo manipulation or graphic design-type work.

I’ve known K.M. Carroll (on Deviant Art as NetRaptor… you should check her out. She’s got her own webcomic too https://www.deviantart.com/netraptor), and she’s done the artwork for this series ever since. I like the illustrated style because it feels comic-booky without looking like it
is for kids (except for maybe the YA series which IS arguably for kids).

Sometimes I’ll just give her a general list of traits, but for this one, I actually had casting in mind
for the characters. This is rare for me. Most actors or known people are too attractive to be my
characters who I generally imagine as everyday people, but with Glint, who is supposed to be
an overly charming, Superman stand-in with a sparkling smile and kind of a cheesy charisma, I
always felt he needed to be played by Nathan Fillion–and for the laughs, since this is a Hallmark
movie, I decided that the female lead would be Maggie Lawson (from Psych as well as some
Hallmark movies). I specifically asked for characters who looked a little like those actors but not
enough that I could be sued for using their likenesses without permission.
I love what she came up with.

Marvel hero action collides with Hallmark Holiday goodness in this new superhero romantic
comedy by Award-Winning author H.L Burke. Launches November 5th, 2022!

A Superhero for Christmas

When superhero, Glint's, aka Henry Nichols's, powers go on the fritz after a supervillain attack,
he finds himself rethinking his priorities. Years of devotion to public service have left him with
little for himself, and with forty swiftly approaching, he finds himself longing for his youth on his
grandfather's farm. An incognito vacation is just what he needs.

Former reporter Lara Landis lost her career and her only long-term relationship all in one
humiliating blow. Broke and rudderless, she retreats to her parents' small town grocery store to
try and make one last career rally, but how is she going to get a big scoop living in the middle of

nowhere? When a poorly disguised superhero lands in her neighborhood, insisting that he's just
a normal guy, she can't help but smell a story.

As their chance encounters turn into a begrudging friendship, Lara is surprised to find a caring,
sincere human beneath Henry's press-conference-ready exterior. When the truth comes out,
though, her big story could turn into his worst nightmare.

What readers are saying about A Superhero For Christmas:
Hallmark and Marvel got together to have a baby, Superhero for Christmas. An adorable
heart-warming cozy read for the reader looking for some superhero charm with their
rom-com.~Ticia

Christmas, romance, and superheroes...this story lifted my heart up, up, and away!~Ernie
Laurence, Jr, author of the Islands of Loar series.
A cozy Christmas rom-com with superheroes... it doesn’t get better than this! ~ Brianna
This story has all of the feels with, thankfully, not a thing that was sappy. This is how I have
always wished Hallmark holiday stories were written. ~ Veronica Lynn, AKA Mrs. Spellsmith

About the Author:
H. L. Burke has written more books than she can count—because she's written a lot of books,
not just because she can't count very high. Easily distracted by shinies, she has published in many subgenres including fantasy romance, Steampunk, and superhero, and always creates story worlds with snark, feels, and wonder. Married to her high school crush, she spends her time writing, spoiling her cat, and supervising her two supervillains in training (aka her precocious daughters). An Oregon native, she wilts without trees and doesn't mind the rain. She is a fan of delicious flavor, a follower of the Light, and a believer in happily ever after.

Amazon Pre-Order:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BFK45G8K
Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62611074-a-superhero-for-christmas
Website:
https://www.hlburkeauthor.com/supervillain-rehabilitation-project

Altered Additions -- My Newest Altered Thrift Paintings

Just popping on to share some of the newest art you can find on my Etsy shop. Prints (8x10) are available of all these.

My altered thrift painting featuring the most hard-working sponge on the bottom of the ocean. 

I'll leave it up to you to decide if Gary is running for help, or running away...

This is a painting I found that absolutely screamed for me to add Steampunk elements. I mean, look at that frame! (The original is not listed on Etsy, but I just had to show off the frame. 8x10 prints are available.)

And another adventure for our little green alien.

To find prints of these and more, visit www.JumpingRails.etsy.com.