Am I Ready?

That's a question that is always on my mind.  "Am I ready?"  First, it was am I ready to get to my goal weight and live the rest of my life being healthy and active?  I can remember when I was asking myself "Am I ready" days before I was scheduled to run in my very first 5K race.

I am constantly questioning myself, can I do this, will I make it, "Am I ready".   Even on my recent road trip, I was doing it.  Can I still drive a stick shift?  Can I handle driving through Jacksonville (what is it about that City that makes my heart stop?  All those darned entrance and exit ramps on 95 remind me of something out of the Jetson's cartoon).  Can I handle driving through that tunnel?  Am I ready to extend my run (7 miles now!).  I am constantly questioning and doubting myself.  Now, here it comes again.

See, one of the things I have ALWAYS wanted to do was to learn how to decorate cakes and cupcakes, and cookies, learn how to properly use those mysterious cake decorating tips left by my grandmother.  But due to my fear of the unknown, I never really never gave it 100%.  I mean, I've made a few very sorry attempts at it, but never worked and I just quit.

Lately, it's been my fear of "the sugary treats".  How could I possibly learn this with all that sweet stuff staring me in the face.  But I really want to learn!  I really want to conquer this control that "I think" cakes and frostings have over me.  I want to say yes, I used to be overweight; yes, I am at goal and fit now; yes, I decorated those beautiful cupcakes AND I can do it without eating half the frosting!

I am involved in a few groups in the community and we have been doing a lot of fundraisers.  One thing that we did last year was a bake sale.  I tried to make cupcakes and pipe the frosting on, but didn't work out like I wanted (although they were delicious).  But I also struggled with that bowl of frosting staring at me.  I immediately said okay, enough of that.  But again, I'm giving up on something  instead of digging my heals in and beating it.

So I decided to give it another try.  I did some reading, found out that maybe I needed to add a few things to my can of tools (different cake decorating tips), and we're  at it again.  What I really want to do is take some cake decorating classes.  Hubby and I also went to the library for some books and are now thinking this might be a fun project for us to work on together.

So yesterday I baked up a batch of Weight Watchers chocolate pumpkin muffins and then last night we frosted them, just as a test.  First attempt:

Not bad, right?  Very basic, but I'm learning how to handle the piping bag.  The problem is these cupcakes are now in the house.  We ate one last night.  My plan is to give them away.  Now we'll start experimenting with different recipes to find what works best.  We have a fundraiser in a couple of weeks and I offered to bring something sweet.  Of course, I'll be bringing CUPCAKES!

I'll have to be very controlled about this new "hobby".  I'm thinking chew gum while frosting might help.  I also gave hubby the bowl, spatula, and piping bag to clean up when we were done so I was not tempted to start dipping my finger in the bowl!

So the bottom line is I AM READY!  I am ready to give it my best effort.   I can do this!  I WILL NOT let a bowl of butter and sugar control me!