Showing posts with label Motivation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Motivation. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 18, 2021

FEATURED AUTHOR: DR. ROBERT KILTZ

ABOUT THE BOOK


Living Your Best Life: How to Think, Eat, and Connect your Way to a Better Flow will provide the resources necessary to help create the ideal you by focusing not only on the body but on the mind and the soul as well. Dr. Kiltz applies a holistic approach to medicine, working collaboratively on his patients’ physical being as well as their emotional and spiritual selves. In his book, Dr. Kiltz provides guidance on various self-help techniques such as the power of mediation, eliminating stress, the benefits of yoga, and listening to your inner voice.

Book Details


Title: Living Your Best Life: How to Think, Eat, and Connect your Way to a Better Flow


Author: Dr. Robert Kiltz

Genre: nonfiction, health and wellness, mental health, motivation, self-help, holistic lifestyle, nutrition, diet


Publisher: Waterside Productions (April 21, 2021)


Print length: 252 pages





LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT WITH DR. ROBERT KILTZ


A few of your favorite things: my guitar, my potter’s wheel, but also my partner, my relationship, and my dedication to the work I love to do as a physician, artist, and father.

Things you need to throw out: somedays I think I need to throw out most everything in my closet for sure, but old clothes and stuff in drawers and on my desk that I haven’t touched or seen in way too long.

Things you need in order to write:
a quiet space, but mostly inspiration—thoughts and ideas that I learn from reading, listening to, and watching others. Then I can conceive of ideas that might be a little different or I can just twist and turn them around a little bit. 

Things that hamper your writing: distractions and being tired. When I’m tired, I’m a little distracted also. I just need to lay down, take a nap and rest and relax. Quite often even then I need to listen, watch or read something else to re-inspire me.

Things you love about writing: freeing my thoughts and ideas and expressing them help me to better understand myself and life in general. It’s like any other piece of art—my pottery and my painting—it’s an expression, but it lets those feelings flow and gives creativity to my life. 

Things you hate about writing: writer’s block and the fear and worry that my thoughts and ideas have little value and maybe won’t be liked. But I’m working on getting over that one.

Easiest thing about being a writer: nothing. Being a writer isn’t easy because there are all of those fears and worries we carry. But it’s not really a difficult job. It’s not digging a ditch or fighting in a war zone. 

Hardest thing about being a writer: the hardest thing may be conveying the real thoughts and feelings and finding the right words and ideas, but learning through practice and patience, those skills come too.

Things you love about where you live: I live on a lake in Upstate New York in Skaneateles. It’s the lake and nature that draw me. I think it’s the quiet nature of the area. Growing up in Los Angeles, there were (and still are) a lot more crowds, traffic, smog, and concrete. Although I did spend time at the ocean. I grew up in Newport Beach and in LA. I guess you take all of the good and the bad and learn from it. The beauty is all there in everything. But what I really love about Upstate New York is the greenery, the lakes, and the land.  

Things that make you want to move: not much, because I really love where I live. At times the winters can be a little cold and long, leaving me aspiring for a little sunlight and warmth, which is why I go down to Florida for a little bit in the winter too. So we can solve those problems quite easily.

Things you never want to run out of: life and enthusiasm, but I think we never really run out of any of that stuff. It’s always there.

Things you wish you’d never bought: that’s a hard one. I’m not sure I know of anything I wish I never bought. I typically don’t have any regrets of anything I’ve done or bought or experienced.

Words that describe you: energetic, enthusiastic, joyful, hardworking, and focused.

Words that describe you but you wish they didn’t: selfish and egocentric. But really that part of me is always focused on finding thoughts and ideas to help others, so that’s the conundrum.

Favorite foods: rib-eye steak. Pittsburgh blue sliced. The fattiest one you can find. Ice cream. Kiltz’s Ice Cream. Cream, egg, vanilla, a little bit of sugar. It’s the very best. But fresh is best.

Things that make you want to throw up: a merry-go-round. Spinning motion. I’m not good at that. And maybe a little goulash. Maybe it’s the word. I’ve never actually had it.

Favorite music: I love jazz, flamenco, Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass. I love most music, but I really love most music without words. I love the repetition of the guitar, piano, trumpet, and the wind sounds. Mostly when it’s positive and uplifting. Occasionally the sorrow and sadness of a song or music can get to your heart and help you dig deep into the feelings and bring about the understanding of our human-ness, our faithfulness, and our connection to the vibrations and energy of the universe.

Music that makes your ears bleed: I don’t particularly like heavy metal, but maybe it’s just the loudness and it’s just not my vibration.

Favorite beverage: coffee has been my favorite beverage for a long time, but I’ve been off coffee for a few weeks now trying to detoxify, so sparkling water or plain water.

Something that gives you a pickle face: pickle juice and tart lemonade.

Favorite smell: jasmine. The night-blooming jasmine that sat right outside our front door at our house in Los Angeles in Silver Lake. My mother loved that plant. I loved the smell. From time to time it comes to my mind and brings back fond memories of growing up in LA.

Something that makes you hold your nose: I don’t hold my nose for much because I have to get into some dirty stuff as a physician, but rotten eggs is a good answer.

Something you’re really good at:
pottery, flying, and being a fertility physician. Those are the things I’m good at, but I always say I need more practice and learning. There’s nothing we are perfect at. We need to keep working to be better at the thing and that takes practice, practice, practice.
Something you’re really bad at: in-the-line drawings. That means staying in lines. Most of my painting and pottery is kind of throwing mud or paint, not in the lines. Any time I try to draw something exactly how it looks, I go very abstract.

Something you wish you could do: singing better and reading music. I just need to decide to put my time and energy to it. Anything you really want to do, just do it. 
Something you wish you’d never learned to do: drink alcohol is about the only one.

Something you like to do: sit at the potter’s wheel making pottery and also in front of a canvas making paintings or free-writing in my journal, listening, reading, and being inspired by others. The thing that gives me the most meditative joy is sitting at the potter’s wheel making pottery.

Something you wish you’d never done: complained about anyone or anything. I’d like to get rid of the complaints I’ve lived in life.

Last best thing you ate: steak, lobster with butter and salt, and some really crispy French fries (fried in duck grease) and dipped in mayonnaise.
Last thing you regret eating: I don’t typically eat things I’m going to regret, but I guess it might have been the salad and vegetables I ate at the restaurant Tia and I went to over Easter. It was one of those six-course meals, and they had all of these fancy vegetables. I promised Tia I would eat everything on my plate, and I did. But it caused me a little ogida the next day. It’s all good. I survived and thrived.

Things you’d walk a mile for: to spend time with my partner, Tia, and my daughter, Pilar.

Things that make you want to run screaming from the room: too much loud noise and distractions.

Things you always put in your books:
stories of success.

Things you never put in your books: stories of failure, but only because I look at stories of failure absolutely as stories of success. The more you do, the more you learn and get creative, you find those stumbling blocks are really stepping stones.

Favorite places you’ve been: Cabo San Lucas with Tia or traveling through Paris, Rome, and London with all of the amazing life, art, people, and creativity in all of these inspiring places.
Places you never want to go to again: I don’t really have many places like that. There are great people in the Dominican Republic, but we just had an experience in an all-inclusive resort that wasn’t the greatest. I typically don’t think about things that way though.

Favorite things to do: fly my plane or jet, sit at the potter’s wheel, paint a canvas, and spend some time with Tia or Pilar.
Things you’d run through a fire wearing gasoline pants to get out of doing: maybe making the bed?

Things that make you happy: seeing others happy, seeing others succeed, seeing those patients suffering from infertility conceive and deliver that beautiful baby, and building families.
Things that drive you crazy: not spending time with my daughter or Tia.

Proudest moment: becoming a doctor and seeing my parents’ pride in that and, of course, becoming a father.
Most embarrassing moment: 
when I didn’t match for my residency in OB/GYN in my fourth year of medical school, that was an embarrassing moment, but I think I took it in stride and ultimately it was one of the best things that happened to me. It gave me the gift of something different that I learned from and grew from. It created even more for me. So, I don’t look at it as truly embarrassing because the more I’m embarrassed, the more I grow and learn and let it go.

Biggest lie you’ve ever told: ultimately, I am less or I am imperfect or I am a failure. And I realized that lie was always perpetuating what I thought about. But it was part of the energy that brought me to the truth that I am everything, God is everything, and we all are here doing our best every day.
A lie you wish you’d told: maybe it’s the part that God is all of us. But in fact, I recognize that it’s not really the lie, it’s the truth. But our brain still has a fighting nature with all of that. And so all things essentially in the lies I told are all perfect in the way they were told, but you’ve got to understand the truth when it comes for whatever reason.

Best thing you’ve ever done: become a father.
Biggest mistake: I make mistakes every day, but none of them are ultimately the “big one.” They are all small in the nature of the universe. We make them “big” or we make them “small” in our thinking.

Most daring thing you’ve ever done: learning to fly an airplane and a jet.
Something you chickened out from doing: dedicating my life to doing a better job when I was younger. And understanding the power of God. Had I begun to listen and learn when I was much younger, then maybe I would have learned new and different things at a younger age. But maybe my big “chicken out” thing today was to get in a helicopter and jump off onto a skill hill [heloskiing]. I’m staying away from that one!


OTHER BOOKS BY DR. ROBERT KILTZ

Daily Inspirations

The Fertile Feast


ABOUT THE AUTHOR



Dr. Robert Kiltz is a board-certified OB/GYN and reproductive endocrinologist, and Founder and Director of CNY Fertility, one of the largest and most dynamic fertility centers in the country, featured in the Wall Street Journal, Today Show, and CNBC for helping shape the future of fertility medicine. Dr. Kiltz has earned recognition outside of the fertility world for pioneering the holistic health movement and the keto lifestyle. He is the author of several books including The Fertile Feast and Daily Inspirations, and his latest, Living Your Best Life: How to Think, Eat, and Connect your Way to a Better Flow which released April 2021. In addition to his own media outlets, Dr. Kiltz appears regularly on numerous popular blogs and has shared his views as a TEDx speaker.





Connect with Dr. Kiltz:
Website  |  Blog  |  Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Instagram  |  Youtube  |  Goodreads 


Buy the book:
Amazon


Sunday, January 5, 2014

Featured Author: Cara Alwill Leyba

CLP Blog Tours brings Cara Alwill Leyba here today to talk about her self-help book, The Champaign Diet: Eat, Drink, and Celebrate Your Way to a Healthy Mind and Body! I don't know about you, but that title caught my attention, and I was eager to talk to Cara. Sadly, I have no champagne samples, but wait! Cara gives us a sample of the book! So eat, drink, celebrate, and read on...


About the book:

This book is for the woman who wants to feel good about herself and her body, and learn how to start incorporating healthy habits into her life. It's for the woman who doesn't want to trade in her champagne for skinny jeans. It's for the woman who is done with dieting, and ready to start paying attention to her health before that number on the scale. It's for the woman who is ready to stop letting her weight define her, and is ready to understand why it always did. This is not a diet book. This is a lifestyle guide. This book will change the way you view your weight and yourself forever. You will walk away feeling empowered, inspired, and downright sexy (and probably craving a glass of bubbly). You will learn how to celebrate yourself and your body. You will learn to make your health a priority, always. And most importantly – you will learn to love yourself, exactly as you are. So get ready to embark on a complete dieting and lifestyle overhaul, sister. You are now on The Champagne Diet!

What reviewers are saying:

"The Champagne Diet will resonate with every woman with it’s realistic and simple approach to dieting. Alwill delivers a personal, relatable, and funny guide to shedding pounds without deprivation." - Kim Barnouin Co-Author, Skinny Bitch

Interview with Cara Alwill Leyba

Cara, this is your second book. How long have you been writing, and how did you start?

I've been writing for as long as I can remember. I started writing short stories in grade school and wrote my first book as a project in the 4th grade. I got a 100+ :)

But of course! What inspired you to write The Champagne Diet?

I've always struggled with my weight. I have tried every diet known to man, and it wasn't until I learned to eat for my health as opposed to the number on the scale when it clicked. As soon as I started eating whole, real foods, and truly loving my body, I was able to maintain a normal weight and get off the crazy diet train. Is my body perfect? Absolutely not. But that's okay. I'd much rather enjoy a bowl of pasta and a glass or two of wine than be a size 2. I wrote this book because as women, we put so much pressure on ourselves to be skinny that we forget to live our lives. We also forget that we'll never reach a healthy weight until we get our minds right. I wanted this book to be a love letter to all the girls out there who have forgotten how to be kind to themselves and their bodies and remind them what life is all about. I wanted to teach them the importance of eating nutritious foods as opposed to chemical-laden frozen meals. And I wanted to teach them that deprivation does nothing but fuel the cycle of misery and disappointment. There is an easier (and much more enjoyable) way!

The book sounds amazing. How long did it take you to write it?

About three months, but I started it five years ago.

What do you hope readers will get from The Champagne Diet?

I hope that readers will see that their lives are so much more important than their weight. That there's more to life than toning their abs. That they are beautiful no matter what size jeans they wear. And that life is meant to be enjoyed.

How did you come up with the title of your book?

A few years ago, when I finally had my "healthy eating/healthy life" epiphany, I remember asking one of my close friends if I could still enjoy a cocktail while being healthy. She told me that I should start drinking champagne because it has the least amount of calories out of all drinks (about 100 calories per glass). Plus, she added, when you drink a glass of champagne, you immediately feel glamorous and sexy. I was sold. I started exclusively drinking champagne whenever I went out and it became my signature drink. I joked and called my new lifestyle "The Champagne Diet" and it just sort of stuck. That title became the name of my blog and my entire brand, and ultimately this book.

Well, you sold me! Do you have another job outside of writing?

Yes, I am a Digital Advertising Director at MTV Networks.

How would you describe your book in a tweet? (140 characters or less.)
 

The Champagne Diet is about learning to eat for your health, love your body, and always leave room for champagne!

I love your cover art. How did you come up with it?

I wanted something simple and elegant, so I worked with my designer to help convey that concept. I was inspired by a photograph my friend/photographer Angelica Glass took at my friend's wedding. The bride had just taken a sip of her champagne, and it left the most perfect lipstick mark on the glass, and I just fell in love.

Tell us about your favorite chapter in the book.

I love Chapter 5 titled "Ditch the Dead Weight: Why Stress Will Make You Fat and Miserable." I really feel like this chapter is the foundation of the whole book. If you are feeding your soul with crap, you will likely eat crap. This chapter is a great way to assess your current life and figure out what needs to change so that you can achieve optimal health and feel amazing.

Who are your favorite authors?

Jennifer Lancaster and Wayne Dyer.

What book are you currently reading and in what format (e-book/paperback/hardcover)?

I'm currently reading Wishes Fulfilled by Wayne Dyer and Think Like a Stripper by Erika Lyremark (a brilliant business book).


Do you have a routine for writing? Do you work better at night, in the afternoon, or in the morning?

I write best in the morning after a good night's sleep and some strong coffee!

Where and when do you prefer to write?

I prefer to write in my living room at the dining room table while listening to 80's music.

What’s one of your favorite quotes?

"To bring anything into your life, imagine that it's already there." ~ Richard Bach

What do you like to do when you’re not writing?

I love to travel and try new restaurants with my husband.

Okay...think fast, and answer quick! 

Name one thing you couldn’t live without. (It can’t be your phone!)

My dog!

If you could only keep one book, what would it be?

The Secret
.

Your last meal would be...

Eggplant Parm.

Would you rather work in a library or a bookstore?

Bookstore.

You won the lottery. What’s the first thing you would buy?

A one-way ticket to London.

You’re given the day off, and you can do anything but write. What would you do?

Shop.

Where would your dream office be?

I'd probably pick two: one in Soho (New York) and one in Chelsea, London.

Where’s home for you?

New York City.

Good job! And finally, what are you working on now?


I'm currently putting together two self-help workshops that I'm launching in January (one is virtual and one is located in New York). If you'd like more info feel free to email me at Info@TheChampagneDiet.com!


Excerpt from The Champagne Diet

Comparison Will Kill You


Can we just address this right now before we go any further? The fastest way to be miserable is to compare yourself – especially your body – to anyone else’s. I can’t even begin to tell you how many times I’ve stared obsessively for hours at photos of other women, trying to identify with someone who looked most like me, and then convince myself that she wasn’t really “that fat.” What a serious waste of time.

I’ve seen countless women do this to themselves and guess what? It makes you even fatter. Yes, seriously. The more you stress and obsess, the more you self-sabotage and overeat. If you are that down on yourself, you’re so much less likely to eat a super healthy dinner or go for a run on a Saturday morning. Instead, you’ll be wasting that energy wishing you had your sister-in-law’s ass. And that is a one-way track to Loserville.

Remember this: nobody in this world will have the exact same story as you, or the exact same body as you. Nobody in this world will lose weight at the exact same pace you do, or see results from working out the exact same way you do. You know that cute little Dr. Seuss quote, “There is no one alive who is Youer than You.” We brainwash kids with that message because it’s f&%#ing true. So why can’t you believe it? The sooner you realize that your body is a unique gem that is like no other, the quicker you’ll be on your way to health and happiness. And the quicker you set goals that make sense for you and only you, the quicker you’ll reach them. There is no “one size fits all” for weight, body type, or beauty. We don’t all need to be a size two. Define your “happy place” when it comes to weight and health and do whatever it takes to get and stay there.

**********************************************************

What Are You Waiting For?


A major theme of The Champagne Diet is “living your most effervescent life.” Not ten pounds from now. Not next year when you’re finally wearing a size eight. Right now. If I think back to all of the times in my life where I waited to do something until I lost weight, I get really sad. I missed out on so much: so many dips in the pool, trips to the beach, parties that I skipped out on because I didn’t want to wear a sleeveless dress in the summer, dates I declined, and events that I didn’t host because I felt like I wasn’t thin enough yet. It really sickens me to think that I could have had so much more fun if I had just learned to let go a little and stop waiting to get skinny.

As women, we seem to have this idea that life will be perfect when we lose weight. We’ll finally start that business, have the confidence to wear a bikini, or go on that vacation. We’ll start dating when we’re thin, and we’ll be ballsy enough to ask for that promotion. It’s completely ridiculous to assume that any of those things will be made possible by a shift of the scale. Guess what? It’s the exact opposite. Once we start actually doing those things, the weight will come off. I promise you that. When you’re fulfilled in your life, it is so much easier to eat healthier and eat less because you have so many exciting things going on. Think about that one for a moment.

Make a list of 3 things you’re waiting to do until you lose weight:
1.     __________________________________________
2.     __________________________________________
3.     __________________________________________

I want you to examine that list and come up with a valid reason for each one explaining why you need to be thin to do any of them. Remember, I said valid. Write the reasons below:
1.     ___________________________________________
2.     ___________________________________________
3.     ___________________________________________

If you actually filled anything out above, cross it out right now. It’s bullshit and I don’t buy it. There is nothing in this world that you should be waiting to do until you lose weight. Nothing! If that’s your excuse, you’re missing out on more than you can imagine. By the end of this book, I want you to promise me that you will have an action plan in place to do at least two of the things on that list. You don’t have to have completed them, but you’ve got to at the very least be planning for them. Got it?

About the author:

Cara Alwill Leyba is a best selling author and life coach from New York City who encourages women to live their most effervescent lives and celebrate themselves. She runs an international private coaching practice where she works with women who are ready to make their happiness a priority. Through loving guidance, support and an expert perspective, Cara empowers women to be the change agent in their lives.

Her blog, TheChampagneDiet.com has been featured in Glamour, Shape, Marie Claire UK, Cosmopolitan South Africa, and a host of other publications worldwide. Cara's writing has been featured in The Huffington Post, Marie Claire, xoJane, Mind Body Green, and many other sites.

Cara is the author of two books: Sparkle: The Girl's Guide to Living a Deliciously Dazzling, Wildly Effervescent, Kick-Ass Life, which was a #1 Amazon best seller in the Happiness and Self-Esteem categories, and The Champagne Diet: Eat, Drink, and Celebrate Your Way to a Healthy Mind and Body, which was a #2 Amazon best seller in Self-Esteem.

When she’s not popping bubbly and blogging, Cara spends her days leading a digital advertising team at MTV Networks. She lives in Brooklyn, New York with her husband and dog.

Connect with Cara:

Website | Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Publisher 

Buy the book:
Amazon