1. What inspired you to write Get This Body In A Barn: The Milkmaid’s
Guide To Fitness?

My sister is the inspiration behind this how-to fitness guide. She is the ‘real’ milkmaid, having grown up on a dairy farm only to turn around and marry a dairy farmer herself. The town I grew up in, on said dairy farm, is very small. There is no Gold’s, 24 Hour Fitness, what-have-you. Every time I go home for a visit, my sister puts me through the ringer in a makeshift gym she assembled in my mother’s barn. The same barn that used to hold dairy cows when we were adolescents.

My sister is a Health & P.E. teacher at the local high school. Her workouts, in the barn, always seem to yield better results for me than the ones I do regularly in my state of the art gym in Austin. That’s when the idea hit me to write this how-to guide. Working out doesn’t have to be complicated and require all sorts of ammenities and equipment. Working out should be compact and concise and fully transportable across the continuum, be it a gym or a barn.

2. The cover is great. Who did it? Whose invented the idea for the cover?

Lol! Thank you. The simple tongue-in-cheek cover idea was mine. We considered doing a tradition fitness book cover — you know the one with the sexy, fit model flexing abs of steel. But I felt it would better suit me to do something cheeky — you know a bit self-deprecating and humbling.

My mother actually took the picture of me in the barn with a personal camera. Then I turned it over to a creative cover designer, Kayla Curry. I told her I would like her to insert a confused Holstein cow with its eyes popping a bit, a milk pail, some straw and a dumbbell. And voila…we had our cover!

3. Get This Body In A Barn: The Milkmaid’s Guide To Fitness is for
women. Could men read the book and receive ideas on how to reduce
weight and be healthy?

Of course. I find my fitness mentality to be fully applicable to men as well. Now granted, as a woman I do not lift particularly heavy. Therefore, if a man is most interested in bulking up with massive weights, my book may not be the best fit. However, I can hold my own respectively. I incorporate weight training and cardio training in this book. In my weight training, I do pull-ups, push-ups, chin-ups, bench presses, clean and jerks, etc. So there is a multitude of exercise options and weekly routines for both men and women to choose from. The basis of this book is getting back to the basics. Making what you have work for you. Keeping it concise, intense, convenient and doable. With those few things, anyone can have a successful fitness regimen — men or women.

4. How did your experience as a Nurse play a part in this book?

My nursing background as well as my massage therapy, personal training and athletic training experiences fed into this book by giving me the platform and information necessary to facilitate and narrate effective workout regimens. It’s amazing the anatomy and physiology you learn as a nurse. I love gaining knowledge about the human form. Being a nurse definitely makes me cognitive of my health. As part of that position, I often act as an advocate for my patients. So, you could say health in general is important to me, not just my own. This is my way of sharing what I’ve learned and what works for me from both an educational and practical standpoint. If someone out there picks up some tidbits or some inspiration from this book in improving or maintaining their own personal health, then I’ve done my job.

5. What sets Get This Body In A Barn: The Milkamaid’s Guide To Fitness
apart from other books dealing with diet and exercise?

Get This Body In A Barn: The Milkmaid’s Guide To Fitness, much like its cover, is without pomp or pretense. It’s a no-thrills, no-frills, practical fitness guide for the everyday woman, or man. In this book, I talk about what it takes to stick with a workout as well as what to do during a workout. Fitness is very much a frame of mind, and without that all of the equipment and know-how in the world can go untapped. Workouts have to be convenient, somewhat enjoyable and usually completed within 30-minutes to an hour. All of these premises are played to in this book, with particular attention to the 15-minute time block. There is a lot one can accomplish in 15-minutes if they are informed and motivated. I call it bang for your buck. Getting the most out of your workout. If you only have 15-minutes, pick up the intensity and turn it out. Anything is better than nothing.

Also, the diet portion of this book is really no ‘diet’ at all, it’s basic nutrition. I like to eat. One of my reviewers commented on my nutrition section, citing that it was nice to actually see a fitness book where the author ate like a ‘real’ person.

6. Will you have a DVD of Get This Body In A Barn: The Milkmaid’s
Guide To Fitness?

I doubt we’ll have a DVD per se. We have talked about doing a series of YouTube videos that correlate to each exercise noted in the book so that readers can get a good visual. We do have images within the book of each exercise cited to aid with that as well. And we talk quite a bit about form and function, so that readers can rest assured they are executing each move appropriately, getting the most out of their effort.

7. What is the importance of staying fit for a human being?

In a nutshell: Higher quality of life. Staying fit allows one to live longer, giving one more time. That’s what we’re all chasing right…time. Not only do fit people live longer, they have a higher quality of life. It’s important to be fit for oneself, for ones lover/partner, for ones children and grandchildren. The way I see it, I would be selfish not to care about my fitness because it robs those I love, those I spend my time with of my energy and vitality.

And for me, personally, it’s a must. As a writer, I am in my head a lot. In order to stay centered, I have to exert my physical self as much as my mental self. It’s the perfect physical yang to my mental writing yin. And I swear there is nothing better than a good run or weight lifting session to cure writer’s block. It gets the blood pumping and the ideas circulating. I believe it’s what helps keep me sane…lol!

8. Will you do a sequel to this book?

Maybe. I thought it might be kind of cool to do a series based on the Milkmaid’s title as different stages in my life occur. Maybe a Get This Body Back: The Milkmaid’s Guide To A Post-Pregnancy Body. I’d have to work on the titles and work them around my life’s circumstances, sharing what I learn at those particular junctures.

And may I just say, I think Bravo should consider adding this idea to their Real Housewives empire. The Real Milkmaid’s…I’m just saying!

9. What is your message to my readers concerning Get This Body In A
Barn: The Milkmaid’s Guide To Fitness?

If I have any one message it would be that fitness must be convenient in order for folks to succeed in it. Convenient in both know-how and time. These are the basics I talk about in this how-to fitness guide. I want everyone to succeed in their fitness goals. Having successfully succeeded in mine through the years (although I am not without a few trips off the wagon), I feel as though I have some very good, solid tips.