Wow! New research findings are troubling to say the least…

Research funded by the National Institute on Aging, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, National Center for Research Resources, and the American Heart Association has concluded the following: Obese people have 8 percent less brain tissue than normal-weight individuals. Their brains look 16 years older than the brains of lean individuals. Those classified as overweight have 4 percent less brain tissue and their brains appear to have aged prematurely by 8 years. That’s a big loss of tissue and it depletes your cognitive reserves, putting you at much greater risk of Alzheimer’s and other diseases that attack the brain,” said Paul Thompson, senior author of the study and a UCLA professor of neurology.  “But you can greatly reduce your risk for Alzheimer’s, if you can eat healthily and keep your weight under control.” More than 300 million worldwide are now classified as obese, according to the World Health Organization.  Another billion are overweight. The main cause, experts say: bad diet, including an increased reliance on highly processed foods. Obesity packs many negative health effects, including increased risk of heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, hypertension and some cancers.  Read the full story at: http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20090825/sc_livescience/obesepeoplehaveseverebraindegeneration

Give your children a head start by learning healthy habits now!  Don’t wait until there is already a health issue, don’t sit there until there is already a weight problem.  We must teach our children good habits now, before these issues come up.  It’s the least we can do as parents.  However, if you already have a child with a weight problem…get on the ball.  It’s never to late to make healthy changes.  Let Mini and Me: Learing Healthy Habits help get you and your family on the way to a healthy and fun lifestyle.  As a community, as parents, we can help each other make these changes.  We need healthy kids for a healthy future!

Book Sales

So,  Mini and Me: Learning Healthy Habits is available for purchase…let the buying begin!  Right?!  We have had so many people respond to our blog and our Facebook group with such amazing encouragement.  They say what an awesome topic, how important this is, what an epidemic childhood obesity has become, how great the book looks, how cute the illustrations are, what a great story, how they love what Shelly and I have done, etc, etc, etc.  Now if all these people would just go ahead and buy a copy.  We did have a few days where our website was not working properly.  Mill City Press says they have corrected that now, but we do know a handful of people tried to purchase and could not. 

Our book has only been available a  few weeks, but it has been years that our anticipation has been growing!  And boy has it grown…we have thought about the day someone could buy this book, read it to their child and have it make a difference.  We have thought about the day that a parent could read the “Informative Guide for Adults” and realize they should do some things differently, that they need to make a healthy change for their family, that maybe they are using some words that hurt and should rethink how they speak to their kids about the sensitive topic of weight.  Like I said, it has only been a few weeks and we will not become frustrated because WE BELIEVE IN THIS BOOK!  We believe in the message and we KNOW it is an important topic.  It takes time to get the word out and we will prevail! 

We did get some great news… The Fort Worth Independent School District  ordered 85 copies for their Guidance and Counseling Department!  This is a huge step for our project and hopefully other local school districts will soon follow.  This is so exciting to know that our book will be in the hands of school counselors who can talk to children in need. 

So, if you’re reading this…say a little prayer for our book!  We are working on our marketing plan and making contacts every day.  Oh, and did I mention…we have the cutest letterhead you’ve ever seen! ;)

Thank you for the Reviews…

Mini and Me: Learning Healthy Habits has received a couple of reviews so far.  This is very exciting for first time authors!  It’s just nice to know that someone other than your family loves what you have done.  (No offense Mom and Dad.) 

Emily from Mill City Press has been very helpful with our galleys, pitch letter and sending out ebooks.  She returns emails, answers your questions and is always polite…Thanks Emily!  Check out the reviews at:

http://fitmamaeats.squarespace.com/home/2009/7/26/mini-and-me-a-new-kids-book-promoting-health-not-thinness.html

http://stepmomextraordinaire.blogspot.com/2009/07/mini-and-me-review.html

We hope to be able to post more reviews soon!  Also, we would love to hear from anyone who has read the book…

Thanks,  S&S

And now, the moment we’ve all been waiting for…

Well, at least the moment Shelly and I have been waiting for!  The – book – is – here!  We are thrilled with the results.  The illustrations look amazing, the colors are awesome, the quality is great!  We are so proud and so happy that we decided to take this journey. 

It was a year and a half ago that I was laid off as an Assistant Vice President at a finance company and initially thought my life would certainly be in shambles, trying to find another equivalent job in this economy.  A week after I was laid off, Shelly followed .  We took about a week to whine, fuss and fret and then looked at each other and said “what a blessing this could be!”   Let’s do it!  Do this book that we have talked about for years…the timing was perfect.  And so, the journey began and we had the most wonderful year of our lives! 

And now…we actually have a book…that looks amazing! (Did I already mention that???)  Mini and Me has the potential to change lives.  It’s so exciting!  This book is more than cute pictures with a cute story.  It is educational, it is essential, it is life altering.  Sounds like a lot for such a small book, huh?!  But it’s true.  The obesity epedimic in our country is affecting our children, our future and our healthcare, to name a few.  It’s a massive problem that our government is trying to address, but more importantly, we, as parents, must address this in our homes.  We must lead by example.  We must talk to our children.  We must make changes, some of which are hard.  We must have healthier children if we want a healthier future. 

You can purchase Mini and Me: Learning Healthy Habits at our website: www.miniandmethebook.com

So close…

Sell Sheet

We are getting so close, it’s actually starting to get a little scary!  Shelly and I have been working so hard for so long, it sort of felt like this day may never come. 

The books should be here any day.  Mill City Press is making the last of the revisions to the website, www.miniandmethebook.com.  MCP has completed our sell sheet and it looks really good.  We have submitted our marketing plan and author bio to the distributor so that it may be included in catalog listings and promotional materials.  Mill City does some marketing for us, but the real marketing will be done by Shelly and I.  So time to get busy!  We will be starting a letter campaign soon, contacting local media, newspapers and magazines, as well as contacting several on-line sources such as, book review blogs, children’s and parenting blogs, subject relevant web-sites, etc.  Just think, our little book could be helping children and families make healthy decisions about food and exercise before the end of the summer. 

This should be so exciting…thanks again to our of our family, friends and fans for taking this ride with us.   HOLD ON!!

READY TO PRINT!

It’s so hard to believe…after all this time, after all this work, after all the up’s and down’s…we are finally READY TO PRINT!  Mini and Me will really be coming to you soon! 

We received the proof last week.  It wasn’t exactly what we were thinking it would be…we thought an actual book would come to us.  We were told because we choseoffset printing, we would not be getting a bound book to approve.  We did get to see the cover and it looked amazing!  The interior was not the actual paper that would be used and the print quality was not reflective of the actual process.  So, we used our imagination and envisioned what our actual book would like like…bound, on 80# gloss paper, beautifully printed illustrations and best of all our names listed as the authors.  And what we saw…was AWESOME! 

 We also submitted our website information to Mill City Press, who should start working on www.MiniAndMeTheBook.com which will have the all important “buy the book” button!  Feel free to check out our other website… www.MiniAndMe.com  for more information about Shelly and I, childhood obesity and more.

It’s all coming together nicely…don’tcha think?

I thought I learned patience from my 4 year old…

I thought nothing could teach me more about patience than my 4 year old daughter.  Patience is a virtue…blah blah blah!  Mill City Press has nothing on a toddler.  I’ve had to learn a whole new level of patience working with MCP.  This entire process has been one huge “delay”.  Unexpected delay after unexpected expense…over and over again. 

The galleys finally went out after 5 months of unexplained confusion.  Next on the list…the physical proof.  How exciting it will be to actually have our book in our hands to approve!   After the approval then off  to the printer it goes.  We were told one week to get the proof.  It is now over 2 weeks and still nothing.   We are reasonable people…really we are.  It’s just that along with all the delays comes very poor customer service and incredibly weak communication skills.  So, now after 3 emails and numerous voice messages we are told they will overnight the proof to us tomorrow…at our cost of course.  Really….are you kiddin’ me???  

Please tell me that one day soon, this printing process will be over and we will be on to our next journey…marketing this incredible little book.  This book, that will hopefully change children’s lives by helping them live a happy, healthy and active lifestyle.

Hopefully, coming soon:  MINI AND ME: LEARNING HEALTHY HABITS

Out go the galleys…

The galleys are in and we were told they look great!  We approved the pitch letter and the galley mailing list.  We only had one minor glitch during this process, which Mill City Press is rectifying by sending out 5 e-books for us.  Thank you Emily!  One more thing on the list completed.   Now, cross your fingers for some good reviews!

It’s time now to complete the copyright paperwork and start the MCP website.  Shelly and I already have www.miniandme.comwhich is partially complete.  Now we have to get a domain name for the MCP site which will have the “buy the book”  page.  Things are getting busy…thank goodness!

And yet another delay

Well, another delay and another unexpected expense.  After working with Mill City Press for almost a year now, I shouldn’t be surprised.  There was a problem with the font size on one page of the electronic proof.  So, another $50 charge and we’ll see how long it takes to correct it.  The communication and customer service at this place has been frustrating to say the least. 

On a much more pleasant note, we have been introduced to Emily at MCP, who is working on our galleys.  For anyone who doesn’t know what a galley is, like Shelly and I when we started this process…a galley is an “early readers addition” of the book that is sent to magazines, newspapers, Internet sites, radio shows, etc.,  hoping for a mention or a review.  She has been very helpful and even returns a call and an email in a timely manner!  Woo Hoo!  She said the galleys look great and sent us a list of places she plans on sending them and a copy of the pitch letter that will be attached.   This is an exciting step!  (Not as exciting as actually having a book, but exciting none the less!)

Mini and Me: Learning Healthy Habits

Mini and Me: Learning Healthy Habits

We are very pleased with the cover art provided by Mill City Press for our first book in the Mini and Me series.  Look for it, hopefully, in 6-8 weeks.