Passion

Have you ever had something you were passionate about? I mean you thought about it all the time and at times you would do something with it. Well, mine is food. Go figure, since I go to WW and all. Of course it would be food. I think my passion is more than just food. It is all about pleasing people. I want to make people happy at the sight of the food, while eating it, and after as well. I want them to want more of my food.

Before I got married I cooked, but not too much. It wasn't due to lack of knowledge, rather lack of wanting to have leftovers for the whole week for just me. So, every now and again I would tinker in the kitchen. When I got married I realized that Jarrett likes to be in the kitchen as much as I do. We cook together or cook something for each other. It is just fun.

One of my favorite parts of the cooking is baking. When I was little my mom used to bake for us all the time. We were the kids that got to take snacks to church that everyone loved and were wanting more. That always made me happy. I knew my mom was a good cook, but the truth was when others agreed too.

For awhile I was the only kid living in the house. My sister was married and my brother was living the single life. Mom and I used to bake. Not too often, but enough where I liked it. I think my favorite part was the mise en place. That is french for putting everything in place. I loved getting all the ingredients ready and set aside for our baking adventure. We baked the most at Christmas time. In fact we now have what we call Bake and Take every year.

One Valentine's Day Jarrett enrolled me in a cake making class. It was a class to learn how to decorate cakes. He even took the first class with me. I LOVED it. It was so much fun and therapeutic in a way. I could just let my mind at ease and work on my cake. I loved it so much that I took all four classes that summer and then the next summer I took my nieces. But, nobody was requesting cakes and I didn't have my name out there so I stopped doing it. I made my last cake back in 2007.

SO, why a passion that will kill anyone's diet? To please people and make people happy, which makes me happy. What is your passion? Have you thought about it?

Cooking at Home or Out to eat?

So, it is true that cooking at home helps cut down the budget and waistline. I guess that all depends on what you are cooking. Jarrett made a little shopping/planning sheet for each week. It isn't anything too complicated and not sure why this is working. We have tried all kinds of things from cooking all of the meals on Sunday to planning out each meal on Sunday. For some reason writing out the shopping lists of the recipes one of us has picked and then heading to the store to retrieve those items is helping.

Each week we decided that one person would pick out all the recipes. We pick enough for M-Th and the plan is Friday to be left overs. Well, it is my week and I thought how great I only have to plan two meals. I am going out to eat with some folks from work on Tuesday and Wednesday. I decided though that I can't plan a week to lose weight when I am out to eat and tempted by all the things I love. So, I cut it down to one day out and I feel good about it.

We have been cooking a lot at home lately. Don't get me wrong we always cook, but for some reason I find myself not wanting to eat what we have planned for the week and can't stop thinking of the good food that is prepared as fast as I can say I would like a #3 no onions. (Can anyone guess what restaurant I am at?)

So as tough as it can be sometimes I have to remind myself that nothing tastes as good as skinny feels. A little saying that my former Weight Watcher leader, Barb, used to say.

Get In Shape Girl!

Do you remember "Get In Shape Girl" from the 80's? That was the name of this awesome workout equipment I used to have. The cassette was so cool. Here is a commercial to refresh your minds.



Well, a little coaxing and encouragement and I rejoined thenorthdallasbootcamp.com. I didn't really quit. I just took December off and my instructor new that. So, after five glorious weeks without exercise, ugh I went back and am regretting every bit of it. I should have been doing more than I was, but I am back and that is all that matters.

To top it off tonight's meal was 100% bison steaks with steamed vegetables. YUMM!

I had a little post-dinner workout as well. I talked my husband into doing The Biggest Loser Wii Game. I could only hang for another 10 min. since I had already worked out an hour prior. I am so proud of him because he did about a 30 minute workout. Can't wait for tomorrow's dinner!