Lady Boss- the kool-aid is strong in that group!

To be honest I joined the Lady Boss challenge to have something to do on FB that didn't involve masks or politics.  I liked week 1's ideas.  Week 2 is where they started to lose me a bit.  I don't believe people of all sizes need a gallon of water a day.  Based on 1/2 oz per lb with a gallon being 128oz that's what a 256lb person should be drinking.  There are people who weigh close to 130lbs in the Lady Boss challenge and while it's not necessarily harmful for them to drink a gallon, I'm not a big fan of one size fits all and feel it's kinda irresponsible to tell people EVERYONE *needs* to drink a gallon of water everyday.  I do think most people are chronically dehydrated, but used to it so they don't notice, and 64oz a day isn't enough for some, but a gallon? Really?

Also they are just way too peppy for me.  I'm not a peppy person.  And the messages were confusing.  You are strong!  You can do anything! You are a lady boss!  Just follow everything we say!  Trust the process!  Wait am I strong and confident and can do anything or do I need to follow you to a T without thinking for myself?  Here's a text I sent a friend during the challenge "...Lady boss is all you kick butt and you can do anything! And then I see all these lady bosses asking am I allowed to eat this? Is this approved? If I put mio in my water does it still count as water???" There were also multiple times people asked if Kaelin (founder) would approve of something or say that Kaelin said something so it *must* be ok.

I didn't quit the Lady Boss group cuz I was still trying to see if there was anything I could connect with in the program, because I realize I am likely just going to do my own thing, but want to find the useful parts.  And the no excuses and monthly exercises challenges people posted about and suggestions for smoothies were great.  I even joined a group a member posted for a 30 day exercise challenge. On day 3 I posted saying I hadn't really followed all the lady boss stuff and the reason I had joined the group originally, but was glad to find the group as I had gotten something from the challenge. The woman who made the group if I was still doing it. I wasn't sure what exactly she was referring to, but said not lady boss, but working on healthy stuff yes. Went to check in today and do accountability post and discovered she removed me from the group and blocked me on FB. I was like wow! This is great example of why I didn't want to do lady boss. It's not really about supporting other women and getting healthy, it's about worshiping Kaelin and following it 100%.  I am not mad I was removed from the group, I was just shocked that a group that was presented as being a way to continue healthy habits we learned by having an exercise accountability group removed me for not following the same bigger belief system.  If it had been presented as a continuation of the Lady Boss challenge I wouldn't have joined it,  it was presented as accountability and exercise and they even said we can talk about non Lady Boss products (which wasn't allowed in the other group).

THIS is why diets don't work.  Even the anti-diet diets that acknowledge diets don't work, for a variety of reasons, (which Lady Boss falls into that category) don't account for personal preference or physical variations.  It's nuts and it makes no sense.  If Lady Boss works for people, great!  I am 100% happy for you.  But if it doesn't work (which I heard from lots of people- doing everything but it isn't working!) you don't need to accept the idea that it might take more than 4 weeks to see ANY changes/improvements or that you aren't trying hard enough.  I feel if you honestly tried for a month and it didn't work.  Then maybe it's the diet not you, and you should try something else. 

Lady Boss! Lean - not so much

I am currently looking into different diet and weight loss and *lifestyle* programs.  I don't feel counting calories is sustainable forever for me and want to find a different/better way.  The Google and FB spies have started giving me ads based on my searches.  I look at almost all of them but am like nah really quickly.  The LadyBoss lean ads caught my attention and I have been trying out protein shakes recently so I decided to try it. Ordering was difficult, you have to have a membership- can't just order once (unless you go through Amazon which is $10-15 more) and the wiat, you can add on this for a discount pages were somewhat confusing and I wasn't sure if I clicked the right button but I figured I could double check my cart at the end (wasn't an option on the multiple add this pages) but nope at the end it was just like order placed.  I checked my email and saw I had clicked the wrong button.  Emailed right away and cancelled the item I didn't want to buy. That was pretty easy and straightforward. 

Few days later I was looking at their ad again and someone asked if the sucralose they use is the same as Splenda.  I was like what??? I didn't see that!  I cannot do sucralose and always check labels.  Thing is the ingredient list is really hard to find on the LadyBoss site (especially on a phone) so I either didn't see it at all or when I did see it, it's small enough I didn't notice the word sucralose.  Anyways I emailed saying just noticed this is in it and I can't have it so can I cancel?  They replied with info from the FDA about how sucralose is safe (so are peanuts for most people FYI). And how they love being open and honest and transparent about ingredients. They said it already shipped and yeah you can return but shipping is on you and if you refuse the package we'll charge you shipping.  They encouraged me to try it first and mentioned that they have an empty bag policy so I got it opened it, offered it to my family - they didn't like the taste, so I just emptied the bag and am sending back an empty bag. I see no reason to send back an almost full 2LB bag when they can't re-sell it anyway.

I also need to cancel my membership with them.  So today when I got the package ready to mail back I also went to cancel.  It was a process had like 3 different page to confirm cancellation then I got to the last are you sure? page with options pause membership, keep membership, and then cancel. I said yes cancel.  The next page was almost identical, one could almost think they just didn't click yet, but I saw the button had moved over slightly and a 4th button was added this time it was paue, new button ( didn't read it) then cancel and then KEEP!  They had switched the spots of cancel and keep. I almost clicked keep because the rest of the page was the same and if you double clicked you would've hit keep on the second page!  Finally I hit the last cancel button and it takes me to a freaking screen saying in order to complete my cancellation I have to call them.  So I call and the guy is all chatty saying so why'd you sign up was it for and starts listing things and I cut him off and said I'm cancelling, don't like the product and he got my info and said it was cancelled pretty quickly so at least that wasn't too difficult.  Not a fan of how they work...

Jenny Ford understands what beginner means.

Tried out this video this morning. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNAeuOs866Y it's what I was looking for in a beginner workout. Taught basic steps and was repetitive without being boring. It seemed the point was to make sure you had the basics down so you can add to them in future workouts. I will definitely look up more of her videos.

I still like Denise Austin.

The first time I lost weight when I was like 19-20 I did Denise Austin's Fit and Lite every morning before work. Today I tried out this video and it was good. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52uvwCi03yE she does a great job of showing you how to modify, which for me personally gets me back to the higher impact faster.

I really don't like Jillian Michaels

Instead of creating yet another blog I'll likely soon abandon, I'm just changing what I post in this one, for now... Or it can be for everything in my life.

The other day I tried a "beginner" step aerobics video on you tube and it was simultaneously boring, without much variation in actual steps and too confusing for a beginner IMHO. They had lots of excess nonsense off the step and parts where you aren't facing the screen but, as a beginner, still supposed to be able to follow her somewhat confusing directions.

Today I decided to do 30 day shred which I did my last successful weight loss attempt 7? years ago. I don't like Jillian and I remember hating it and only sticking with it because I was in a group doing it on MFP. So I made my kids breakfast and started it while they ate. I still don't like it. I still really really don't like her and I'm not going to keep don't it because it makes me miserable and quite frankly I think she's a bully. But I am going to keep looking up beginner videos and trying then out until I find something I do like.

Super Bowl Cake!

I've been making super bowl cakes for a long time, I don't know how many years, maybe 10 and that includes missing a year or two.  It started when I saw this cake in a magazine  

and was like, I can totally do better than that and trust me. Mine was way cooler.  I even had a peanut m&m football.  And it was completely obvious from my cake I know nothing about football as I had like 5 different plays going at once.  Other cakes have included a half time show featuring quarter machine aliens playing instruments.  They usually have team logos on them, but not always because some teams have sucky logos *cough*Patriots*cough* and have gone to the super bowl a bunch of times and did I mention their logos suck?  anyway this year the logos aren't too bad.  Here are some pictures of the cake in the making and I will update it after Sunday when we eat it.
My sister sent me a cool cake link on Pinterest and I used it to make the cake.
http://www.mycakeschool.com/blog/how-to-make-a-cake-with-zebra-stripes-on-the-inside/

Here are the pictures 

Batter in the pan.  I felt VERY Dr. Suess

After it had been baked 

Pretty colors inside!
                      Not sure why so many holes though...                      

Frosted cake with stencil I printed and cut out and frosting.
It's two layers, fyi.

Stencil on the cake, smeared with frosting.  It's much more
complicated than it looks.  You have to make sure the paper
doesn't move and get frosting in the wrong places.

Stencil has been removed.
The gaps had to be filled in by hand. I used a shish kabob skewer...

Finished cake.  I had to put in the sprinkles one at a time as
I was too lazy to make another stencil.
Also I was concerned it would mess up the blue frosting.

Pinata cake.

OK, I stole this idea from Pinterest.  I didn't make it like they said the first time.  I made a cake in a batter bowl and just cut off the top and hollowed it out and filled it with candy!!!!

I didn't take a pic before we cut it. 

Look at that cake throwing up all that yummy candy!
I used red "spray paint" to decorate it.

 It worked well, so I decided to do it again, but the way they said.  It didn't work so well.  Here are the disastrous pics!  I was making it for my niece's birthday and had told people I would bring the cake.  Since it was the first time I was bringing cake for a family party for my husband's family I couldn't just be like never mind and not bring anything, so I had to make it work!

Bottom, funfetti cake mix ready to go!

All together, looks great!
Well for a few minutes then it was lots of panic and trying to stop it from breaking. 

Broken bottom piece with candy removed.

Ok fine, we'll try the homemade chocolate cake as the bottom half...

Switched sides and frosting glued the funfetti bowl back together.

Back together, but not for long.  Chocolate bowl also broke...

Cake bowls glued back together with frosting,
filled with candy, then placed upside down on plates.
If you didn't know better you'd think they were meant to look like this...
My niece was turning 20.

And since having cake fall apart on me a million times wasn't fun enough I decided to try to make cake pops.  I swear it was completely random if they worked or not.  I tried freezing some to keep them from falling apart, but it then the almond bark hardened quicker and looked icky.  Oh well.  Some looked pretty. 

First successful one.

All the ones that didn't look really bad.

People took pics of the cake when it was cut, 

but I was pretty much over it by that point so I didn't...  

What we took to the party.

P.S.  All the crappy pictures is a plot to try to convince my brother to move back to WA from crappy icky southern ID so he can take better pics for me.  J/K.  Though it would be cool if he moved back and southern ID does suck!

FYI- the idea was to make swirly frosting,
 it all turned one weird color.
It was a good idea...
I'd love to figure out how to make it work on cake!