End of an Era

So, tonight marks the first Monday night in eight months that I am not going to boot camp. Kind of a sad day. I miss my evening workout and know that I can't just sit at home. I have built up so much strength that I don't want that to go to waste.

What now? Well, not totally sure. I think I am going to dust off the old 24hour gym card and start going back. My goal is to go at least 4 days a week. There is so much to do at 24, that when making out my gym schedule yesterday I was having a hard time choosing classes. How could I say no to Cardio Dance Party over Turbo Kick Boxing.

I know I can be dedicated and stick to it as far as exercising goes, it is the food. I think food is my nemesis. I just love it.

Night one of my exercise program. Well, went to a movie with Jarrett and was going to go to turbo kick box class, but he has to work on his day off. Go figure! He was going to go with me and I needed extra motivation today.

Hopefully tomorrow is different.

Pictures of my creations

I hope you like what you see. Tell me is this really creative or just like everyone else? I mean other ladies did make cakes with me.

Can you tell this is my first attempt ever?

My family thought it was nice, but they are my family what could they say?

First cake for cake class.

Not too bad if I do say so myself.
Not pleased with the colors, but now I know for next time.

This is one of my favorite ones. Just too cute!

Made this one for my sister-in-law and brother-in-law.
Can you see where I got the idea?

My attempt at free expression. The last cake in my class could be anything. I was going to give this to my sister that year, but it didn't turn out as well, so she got a fondant cake instead.

My attempt at non-edible cakes.

I have many more pictures of cakes and other things, but can't seem to find them all. I organize all of my photos by year and folder and date, but not always by name so I need to fix that. I was doing good through about 2007. Anyway, these are my attempts at creativity and not that great, but at least a start.

Creativity

I always wanted to be creative, but never had that bone in me. Jarrett always says it is my food, but I don't do anything with it. Nobody asks to buy cakes, chocolates, or cupcakes, and I don't do anything to promote it. It just seems like a lot of work. I am always looking for the ONE thing that I am good at. It is just so hard.

Lets see. Singing, no. Drawing, no. Writing, no. Comedian, no. Professional athlete, no. You see I feel like I have limitations unlike others who have natural gifts and that others see them do it. I just can't seem to find mine. Maybe that is why I am always trying new stuff.

Tried, to knit, make jewelry, crochet, embroider, quilt(well never actually started, but have some stuff for it), bake cakes, make chocolate candy, now my new thing is cupcakes and chocolate. I haven't quite given up on the chocolates yet.

As usual I toyed with the idea of making my own cupcakes and selling them. For some reason my mind is set on selling my food. I think, by now, I am a pretty good cook. I wouldn't say chef like, but working my way there. (I have always wanted to go to culinary school when I was little, but just thought it wouldn't work out so well, since I have never liked onions and bell peppers and so I thought my chances were slim. And now I want to go to pastry school.) And as usual I give up on my ideas just about as fast as I start creating them. I mean when I create my ideas it goes all the way through purchasing a place of business and me becoming the CEO with all kinds of chefs under me. I quickly realize that it will not happen that fast for me and lose interest all together. Then I try to talk myself out of it. But why? I mean if I am looking for some way to be creative why don't I just try it? Maybe it is money. I don't want to spend the money and then it fail. I think that may be a big reason, but unless I try it then what have I got to lose?

I have been thinking about this cupcake thing for about a month. I figured that I love baking and like doing cakes, and this would be just a simpler version. After talking myself out of it I have now talked myself back into it. This past weekend I bought all the stuff to make the cupcakes and the vision in my head is slowly starting.

What are you creative with?

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?

Debate

So, I debated whether or not to go back to Weight Watchers(WW). Then two weeks ago on Monday I received a Weight Watcher magazine. I thought it was kind of odd, since I have not subscribed to the magazine since 2007. So, I took it as a sign to join. I hemmed and hawed all week long and finally decided to go and join. I went last Saturday and to my surprise Jodie was still there.

A little back history. I joined WW back in 2005 with my sister in hopes to lose weight and became a life-time member in November of 2006. Kept the weight off for about two years got married and gained a lot back.

So, as I was saying Jodie was there and I felt at ease. I got on that crazy scale and was not surprised at my total. Went back this week and I’m a LOSER! Now, I don’t go around bragging that I am a loser often, only when I do well at WW and lose weight. I tried this week, but not as hard as I could have, but I lost 2.4lbs. YEA me!

For the month of January I am down 5lbs! Not too bad a way to start the year off.

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.