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!

Summer Food Fun!

Here are a few pics of other fun food projects I've done this summer.  

I made peanut butter cup ice cream.  I had a recipe for peanut butter ice cream and I added in some cut up mini reeses cups.

In the ice cream machine.

Candy!

Finished Ice cream.

I made some caramel and some of it I just left as caramel, some I coated in chocolate, and some I poured on cashews and then covered them in chocolate.

Melting chocolate.

Caramel being cooked.

Someday I'll take clear pictures.

Cashews!

I saw a pic of octopus pizza on Pinterest.  I decided to copy it, well sort of. Mine was all pizza, not the bread sticks and dipping sauce idea the original post had been for.  but mine was cooler because it was a scary octopus with teeth on it's tentacles!  Do you see that fish about to get eaten????

Scary Sea Monster Pizza!

And finally I got strawberries and rhubarb from gleaners and a pie crust.  So I made a pie.  Then I had more strawberry and rhubarb, but no more crust and I don't make pie crust very well!  I did however have some phyllo dough in the freezer, so I made phyllo cups using a pie pan and cooked the pie filling in a pan in the oven, then I put it into the phyllo before it cooled.

Before big pie was baked.

Tiny pies.

Close up view of tiny cutie pies!

 The End!

Confetti Jello from March

Years ago I found an ice cube tray (well at least I think it's an ice cube tray) that makes round ice cubes.  I decided to use it to make polka dot jello which was different colors of jello balls in clear jello, which was made from knox gelatin and white grape juice.  I made that a few times then I decided making confetti jello using the jello beans tray would be awesome, but sadly I had lost my jello beans mold.  Thankfully I was able to find one at Goodwill, actually I found 2!  

Only $0.99!

Then I went to the store and bought a bunch of different flavors of jello.

Not as many colors of jello as you'd think...

Next I made the jello beans. 

Oooohhh, pretty! 

Then I decided which flavors to use.  Some of the colors are very similar.  

Cherry, Raspberry & Cranberry, can you tell the difference?
I didn't get strawberry this time, but it is a very similar color...

Orange & Peach, also similar.

I honestly don't remember which red flavors I used.  I think I left the cherry out because there was a chance my sister who hates cherry jello would have some.  I used both orange flavors.  And I realized I had enough to make two different confetti jellos!

Next I made the clear jello for it to go in.

Tastes good, I promise!

When I made the polka dot jello I let the clear jello start to set up then added the colored balls, that seemed problematic with the smaller and more numerous pieces of "confetti".  

Here is what it looks like when it's in the bowl and set up.  

Cloudy side view of bowl.

Blurry view from the top.

This is once it was carefully taken out of the bowl.  

Even with running it under warm water it was difficult to remove!

Done.  Colors don't show well though.

Sides don't look super pretty, but check out the colors!

And here are the pretty, pretty slices with all the pretty colors!

Look at those colors!!!

So pretty! Ok the edges could be more smooth, but whatever...

In case you are wondering all the flavors went well together.

It was Easter time and I have an egg mold so I made a few Easter eggs with jelly beans in it!

So cute!

The End!

Adventures with bread!

So I decided to make sourdough so I don't have to spend so much money on tasty bread. My little brother has tried numerous times to make a good sourdough starter and generally ends up with alcohol... I ♥ you Drox, but it's true. So I used a recipe nothing like the ones he uses and it worked! Well somewhat... It's from breadtopia and uses pineapple juice and flour.

Because I am brilliant I decided to try an interesting and complex recipe first. Three pepper cajun sourdough, also from breadtopia. This is a pic of the dough.

We took pics of the bread, but with Drox's real camera so I don't have those pics. The bread turned out ok. A bit heavier than I wanted, but VERY tasty. This was made Fri-Sat (March 23-24). Sourdough has to rise for 18 hours!

Next I decided to try a basic white sourdough bread. I checked out some books from the library and this recipe is from Artisan Breads by Eric Kastel. They use the term Artisan very loosely because really it should be breads that only have water, salt, flour, yeast/sourdough in them and some f theirs are fancied up. Here is it rising on Wed the 28th after it was shaped into loaves.

And the white sourdough baked on the 29th.

"Crumb" is the word used to describe the inside texture and air hole spaces on bread. Here is a blurry pic of the crumb of the basic sourdough. It has holes, which shows the sourdough was doing something. But not very tall.

Next I made "White Mountain" bread from Beth's Basic Bread Book. It's just plain-ish white bread for Brent to make sandwiches. It has milk and honey in it so there is extra flavor.

Next decided to be adventuresome again and made garlic cheese sourdough. From the Artisan Bread book. I started it yesterday morning and baked it this morning. I think I didn't let the sourdough sit out long enough before using it, because it didn't rise super well, but it has ok crumb and tastes good.

Last night I also started the "poolish" for English muffins. You let part of the flour, yeast, and water sit out overnight before you make them. The below pic is of the muffins after they were toasted in a pan. You toast them before baking them to get the color. As you can see I didn't have the right heat figured out at first so some are sad and pale... The book freaked me out with it's warnings about not overcooking them.

This is some of the paler ones after baking.

Same tray as 2 pics above after baking.

Crumb of an untoasted muffin.

Crumb of a tosted muffin. My poolish apparently worked well because they are fluffy and have proper holes like store bought ones. Only mine are light more like Australian Toaster Biscuits, but better flavor.

I have decided that I am not buying bread for the rest of the year! I realize time is valuable, blah, blah, blah, but I like my bread and breaks from studying are good! And when you consider how dang much fancy Artisan bread costs at the store even with counting my time, my bread is less expensive.