10 Questions with Fitness Guru & Author Greta Boris (@fitnesinsideout)

This Author Spotlight is something a bit different than our typical weekly fare. We are now in the middle of March. In other words, more than three months into the new year. Experts say that 103% percent of Americans make "Losing Weight" their New Year's Resolution.

Actually, I don't know what the percentage is, nor can I be bothered to go dig it up. The point is that a LARGE number of people feel they themselves are too large and want to be leaner, fitter, and healthier.

To that end, this week we are going to chat with fitness expert and author Greta Boris.

Greta Boris is the author of The Wine and Chocolate Workout - Eat, Drink and Lose Weight and the editor of the inbox magazine, Vanity Network. She worked in the fitness industry for close to 20 years as a personal trainer, weight management coach, and the Health and Wellness Director for a YMCA. She now writes to inspire her readers toward a healthier and happier life.


1. How did you get into writing?

My father was an editor for Harcourt Brace Jovanovich when I was growing up, so books and magazines were a constant in my home. Every school paper I ever wrote had to go through the red pencil scrutiny before it was delivered. It was a given that I'd major in English in college. That degree got derailed, but I did end up working for several magazines and was infected by the publishing bug before I started my family.

I became a personal trainer and weight management consultant while my children were small. I taught some group health and wellness classes. My clients were the ones that requested I write a book.

I responded with The Wine and Chocolate Workout - Eat, Drink and Lose Weight. My love for writing and publishing was reborn in the process and I'm now working toward a second career writing, publishing, and speaking.

2. What do you like best (or least) about writing?

I enjoy the brainstorming, the planning, the research, and the creative aspects of writing. I absolutely love having a finished product with my name on it, either published online or in print.

Where I tend to bog down is in the revision process. When I'm done with something, I'm ready to move on to the next idea. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way. Revision is really one of the most important and time consuming aspects of being a writer.

3. What is your writing process? IE do you outline? Do you stick to a daily word or page count, write 7 days a week, etc?

I write every day but since I publish a health and happiness blog at Fitness Inside Out, an inbox magazine, Vanity Network Magazine - Inspiring Women, and I'm working on my first novel, much of my schedule is determined by deadlines.

4. Who are some other writers you read and admire, regardless of whether they are commercially “successful?”

I love thrillers, mysteries, gothic novels and things with a little supernatural twist. That covers a lot of territory. I read everything from C.J. Box mysteries, to Douglas Preston and Lee Childs, to the Harry Potter books. My favorite author is always the one I'm currently reading. The author I most want to meet when I get to heaven is C.S. Lewis.

5. Should the question mark in the above question be inside or outside the quotes?

Inside, of course!

6. What’s your stance on the Oxford Comma?

I'm ambivalent, or maybe schizophrenic, sometimes I use it sometimes I don't.

7. What is your book The Wine and Chocolate Workout - Eat, Drink and Lose Weight about and how did it come to fruition?

As mentioned earlier, I was teaching group weight loss classes and my clients began clamoring for a book. This put the idea in my mind. I have spent a lot of time in the fitness industry and saw a hole in the available material on the topic. This is hard to believe, I know, with the complete flood of celebrity and doctor weight loss books out there. It almost seems arrogant to say it.

What I discovered, however, was that there isn't much that is realistic available. Most books about weight loss promote one method and promise that it will work for everyone. This makes the reader the problem if they aren't successful. My approach is completely the opposite. There isn't one method and success is subjective. The most important thing is that you enjoy life, hence the wine and chocolate.

I believe fitness should be a process of discovery about what makes you tick, your personal likes, dislikes, and hang ups. Too often it is preached in a legalistic manner that leaves most people feeling defeated.

8. What’s your current writing project?

I embarked on my first attempt at fiction writing since college with NaNoWRiMo this past October. I'm really excited about the project. The story is about a woman who is going through a midlife, career change and has an accident that forever alters her outlook on life. It has some thriller and supernatural elements but is also a very real look at human nature.

9. What book(s) are you currently reading?

I'm currently reading two self - help books, Jack Canfield's The Success Principals and Gail Blanke's Between Trapezes. I'm also reading a book by author friend, Katherine Sartori, The Chosen Shell and a fun read by David Liss called The Twelfth Enchantment.

10. Who or what inspires your writing?

I write to help. I've got that golden retriever personality. I'm never as happy as when I'm encouraging someone else to be or do something they didn't think that they could. My fitness writing has become more and more about happiness and perspective.

At the magazine, Vanity Network, I write stories about inspiring women. Those interviews are some of my favorite snapshots in time. Today, for instance, I interviewed an amputee triathlete whose story knocked my socks off. I can't wait to write it. I even love copywriting, if I believe in the product.

Finally, is there anything you’d care to add? Please also include where people can read your published stories, buy your book, etc.

I would love to connect with anyone who feels they need a dose of encouragement. They can find my book, The Wine and Chocolate Workout on Amazon. I've also recently added a free e-course to my website, How to be Fit | 30 Ways in 30 Days for People Over 30. And Vanity Network Magazine offers inspiration on health, beauty, and career and has some great stories about amazing women. Our plan is to turn the inspiring women stories into a book in 2014.

Thank you, Greta, for sharing this excellent, practical, no-nonsense guide to diet and fitness.

So there you have it: A perfectly acceptable means to get fitter, leaner, healthier, and happier, all while enjoying wine and chocolate.

Check out Greta's book and use it to re-invigorate your workouts and to jump start your fitness regimen in the event that it may have stalled. Swimsuit season is just around the corner, after all. If you get after it now, you can accomplish a lot, and can remake your physique in time for summer.

Greta's book can help you do it.

And then, once you've done it, her philosophy can help you maintain the body you've always wanted and for which you worked so hard.

You can find her at www.fitnessinsideoutoc.com, on Facebook at Fitness Inside Out and follow her on twitter at @fitnesinsideout.

Good luck!