It was Dh's birthday, so I of course had to make a cake. I didn't have time for anything extravagant, but he loved it none the less. It tasted delicious! Mmmmmmm, chocolate :OP

What a fun weekend! Bellaboo hopped on a plane and came to visit us VPC'ers. Azriel and Pamalam drove several hours to get in on the action. It was a blast! I haven't had that much fun in a long time. Brodiegirl, being the gracious hostess that she is, had a get together at her home for everyone. I couldn't partake in all of the weekend festivities, but I guess the ladies went for Sushi, Gelato, and had pedicures done.

Here is a picture of Bellaboo and I. I ♥ this lady. She is just an absolute sweetheart, and it was so nice to meet her in person.

Azzie brought everyone some of her infamous "porch wine". It's the best! She insisted that I take a bottle home (twist my rubber arm).

We played some Rockband. MsBlingBling has quite the voice!


Here is a pic of Brodiegirl and I sampling MsBlingBling's fabulous Vodka Fudge. Normally this fudge is only 2 pts per serving. I'd imagine with the vodka it would be more...but who was counting that night? ;o)

Thanks everyone for a fantastic night! I loved seeing you all, and can't wait until the next VPC get together. We'll have to plan one soon!

Another person with a weight problem :O(

It's my son, and he's only 6 yrs old. I've noticed him "growing" these last few months. Back in spring, I started to become concerned. Particularly when I did some research and found out that he should only be 56 lbs. At that time he was 67 lbs. Since then, he's grown an inch taller and gained 8 lbs. At the doctors last week, he weighed in at 75 lbs, he should only be 58. She was a little concerned, and offered a few suggestions. So, I've changed some things at our house. Juice is now limited to ONE per day (she said not to buy it at all, but I feel one per day is OK), and that goes for all 3 of my kids. Just because the other 2 are at a normal weight doesn't mean they can't eat healthier as well. I am serving more veggies than I was before, and not catering to fussiness. If they don't like what's on their plate, they can pick it out or avoid it. I'm hoping that by offering a variety of foods, they will take the plunge and try new things from time to time. My 6 yr old has already tried several new foods this week. Most importantly we are watching portion sizes. My son tends to eat VERY fast, then wants 2nds before his brain has had time to realize his tummy is full. Now I ask him to wait 10 mins, and if he's still hungry I will give him more food. Not once has he waited the 10 mins, then needed more. We are also putting more emphasis on drinking water, cutting down on sugar, and increasing the amount of activity that they get. My kids are already very active, but I'm giving them even more opportunity for exercise. I am proud to say that after one week of making these few changes, my boy is already weighing in 4 lbs less on the scale. I'm not putting him on a diet, or trying to make him lose weight...I'm just guiding the kids towards a healthier lifestyle. If he loses weight then great. Right now my goal is just to prevent him from gaining anymore.

Now, as far as my weight loss attempts go...starting Monday (weigh in day) I'm going to try Sparkspeople.com again. I used it in the past, and loved it. I just found it a little more time consuming than counting points. Something mustn't be right though. For me to be on plan for this many weeks, and not lose a single lb, is just odd. I like how accurate sparkspeople is. So, that will be my experiment for next week. If it doesn't work for me, I'm done trying. There is no point in depriving myself of food if it's not helping me to lose these 5-10 lbs that I'd like to get rid of.


And since this post was partially about my kids, here's a pic I took of them yesterday showin' off their new haircuts :O)

Still tryin' to lose, still not getting anywhere...this week I'm not using any flex and keeping my pts lowered to 25 per day. I will earn my 28ap's this week as well.

Soon, I'll just give up. My body is comfortable in the 150's whether I like it or not.

AH WELL - tis life I guess!

Wow - I got an email from another blogger sharing the link to his (yes I said his) WW blog. I was so totally blown away by him that I have to share the LINK with you all. He's lost 89 lbs since February, and his goal is to lose 100 lbs in total. It's looking like he'll reach his goal in under a year. Now THAT'S pretty freakin' amazing!

ANYWAYS, I found this guy to be very inspirational, so I figured you all would too :O)
http://q102briand.typepad.com/

P.S. I started at the gym again today after some time off. I'm trying kind of a mid-range pts for this week. I normally do 30 for maintenance, and 23 for losing, but 23 hasn't helped for several weeks now. I'm trying 25 (plus flex and ap's of course) for this week. Hopefully some good workouts will help get things moving. I'd really just like to get back into the 140's again...PLEASE!!!

Still a big kid at heart :OP

Here's the cake that I made for my 6 yr old. Everything is edible except for the Hot Wheels cars. The big Spiderman and the spiders on top of the cake are made out of chocolate. The buildings are royal icing, as well as the little web shooting out of Spiderman's hand. This is a stacked cake, the bottom tier is a 14" round, and the top tier is a 6". This is my first stacked cake, it was interesting that's for sure :O)

My son requested Wall-E cupcakes for his birthday party yesterday. Phoenix lent me the stand, isn't it awesome? That's 38 cupcakes there. I'm making a cake for his actual birthday on Wednesday. I will post pics :O)

Say....CHEESE!!!

This pic was taken in Kamloops :O)

I have a couple of new things to show you guys :O)

First...a new haircut!



Second...a new bag! This is the Core Gym Bag *Dip Dye by Lululemon. I LOVEEEEE this bag!!!


Here's the Description...

* Rich Purple (a beautiful range of shades) patent-leather like exterior (wipes clean), with matching light purple lining with teal accents in the interior
* Faux croc trim and bottom part of bag
* Long handles for over the shoulder carry
* Exterior material has script from the lulu manifesto written on the front, along with little embroidered emblems randomly dispersed on the bag
* Engraveable name tag on front
* Many pockets and compartments, including a lap top pocket and a large zip pocket seperate for your gym gear (with a shoe bag). There are also 6 pockets on the outside of the bag that you can't even tell are there
* Comes with detachable shoulder strap
* Water resistant liner wipes clean easily
* Tested to hold 50 lbs

All for $98 bucks. I think that's one heck of a deal :O)

Sharing some pics of my family and I that were taken on my trip last weekend.





Haha, my 5 yr old took this shot and told us all to pose "like silly statues". This is my Dad and his girlfriend in the photo. We were over at their place for a BBQ.

My new plan is working! One day of lower points/healthier eating, and I'm already down a lb. The lowest I've been in 5 weeks. I hope this continues! I'm excited! I want to see those 140's again :O)

I really appreciate all the helpful comments everyone. I'm so lucky to have all this support :O)

So, I'm done pouting and moping about my body not wanting to lose weight. I'm ready to tackle this again. I've tried low points, I've tried high points, and I've tried mediocre points...all of these options have gotten me nowhere. Now, I'm going to try the NOT GIVING MY BODY A DAMN CHOICE plan. I will drop my points again to 23, and I'm NOT going to eat my flex this week (which will be hard because I always eat my Flex). I'm going to revert to the old WW plan and only eat up to 4 AP's per day. I will do my best to earn 28 ap's during the week despite this crappy ankle injury that I have. I'm also going to take some of your great suggestions and try to incorporate more of the Core-style foods into my menu. I'm still going to count points though because I don't trust myself not to overeat. I guess that I'll be doing kind of a Flex/Core combo. I really hope this kicks my body into weight loss mode. I think once I get the ball rolling, I will lose consistantly like I did before.

Wish me luck!

(Oh, and weigh in today was 151.5 lbs, so basically I stayed the same again)

Well...I'm 151.6 lbs today. Which is down 2 lbs from last week, but right back to where I was the week before. So basically, in the last 3.5 weeks of lowering my points, I haven't gotten anywhere. I GIVE UP! I'm sick of eating so few points, especially since it's not working. So, I'm bumping my points up to 27, which is 3 less than I normally do for maintenace, and 4 more from what I've been doing these last few weeks. I feel totally defeated :O(

This will be my last week of eating 23 pts. It's just not working! I will finish the week because that's just my style. I don't quit. The lowered points isn't doing a darn thing though! I've been trying for 3 weeks now, and I've been earning my AP's just like I usually would (28 per week).

Just poppin' by with some cool cake pics. I made my graduation cake for Wilton Course 2 tonight, and I'm also sharing pics from my Gumpaste Flowers class on Monday (Sweetpeas and Orchids). The cake is a low fat yogurt, vanilla cake. I worked out today, so I can have a piece. I'm really trying to keep my activity level up with some good workouts. I can't run right now because I've done something to my calf muscle...how weird is that?!? Watching PHOENIXRISING *LINK* working so hard this week is really helping me to stay motivated though. That newbie enthusiasm is so catchy :O)

GAIN - AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH *jumps off bridge*

I lowered my points from the 30 that I usually eat on maintenace, down to 23 for losing. I earned 28 ap's this week. Ate all of my flex and AP's, and what do I get? A FREAKING GAIN! Up 2.6 lbs. Do I even bother to try again this week? It seems so hopeless.

Omggggg, I stood on the scale this morning and despite lowering my points and exercising lots this week, my weight is going UP! I can't believe this! I've switched my WI's back to Monday, so hopefully things change by then. Something tells me it won't though. Talk about frusterating, I could just SCREAM!

Ok, so I've found something that I suck at. Royal Icing! Last week I made a batch for my Wilton class, and it was totally runny by the time I got it there. I couldn't make it form a flower if my life depended on it! So this week I made sure to make the icing good and stiff, and it still didn't do me any good! I CAN'T make Royal Icing flowers at all! Here's a pic to prove it! They just look like blobs! LOL! Feel free to laugh at me!



However, I can still make cupcakes. Here's some that I made for my cake instructor/friend that I mentioned below. It was her 30th birthday today. See what a good little "weight loss" friend I am? *mwahahahhahah* She's a "Wall-E" fan, and these cupcakes are chocolate cake with my homemade Hostess Twinkie Filling, topped with Chocolate Buttercream :O)



As far as weight loss goes...I'm on my 2nd week of trying to lose. I need to get my weight down about 10 lbs or so. No, I'm not overweight, but I'm not where I like to be. The extra weight always shows right in my gut, and I HATE THAT! So, week 2 of lowering my points for losing, and am I getting anywhere? NOPE! Since being on maintenance, whenever I try to shed a couple of lbs, my body won't give it up! I will win this battle though. Mark my words.

Here's what I learned in our Gumpaste Flowers class tonight...

These are fondant flowers that I made in my second "Gumpaste Flowers" Class on Monday night. The second pic is of the Superman cake that I made for MsBlingBling's hubby.

Oh, and the scale is down 3 lbs so far. Hopefully it's a good weigh in on Friday :O)

I haven't posted any pictures of myself in a couple of months, so I thought I'd share these (of me stuffing my face) that a friend took at the company picnic.