This weekend I got the honour of making Deborah & Nicolas’ wedding cake. It was a crazy task since each tier was uber heavy, had graceful swags piped on and sugar flowers… oh, the sugar flowers that gave me nightmares!

I was watching Dragon’s Den & putting these lavender flowers together. Love! (I wish everyone’s job was as fun as mine!)

I met Deb at combat class and we hit it off right away. Let me tell you how I started taking these intense classes…

I’ve been taking combat classes since mid-2011 and LOVE it but it didn’t start off that way. I took it 3 years ago and gave up within the first 10 minutes vowing never to embarrass myself doing such a coordinated and difficult workout in front of other people… who have eyes. Last year I turned over a new leaf and decided to try it again… within the hour, I wanted to quit 57 times. “I’m going to die… this is so hard… I am so uncoordinated…”, said my inside voice. I was discouraged and drained by all the negativity, week after week… and finally decided that all the negative thoughts had to GO. Before my next class, I gave myself a pep talk… “You can do this! It’s only an hour… just follow the instructor and don’t worry about what other people think. Think of how good you will feel after the class is done. I believe in you!”.

After that day, my life changed for the better. I did combat every week and each week, I chose to have control over my thoughts and over my life. I chose to not be scared of anything and to conquer my fears. I chose to fight through the pain, the negative thoughts and the constant, nagging voice telling me that giving up would be so much easier. I would mark down in my calendar when I went to the classes and felt such a sense of accomplishment when I look back at the months passed and saw that I didn’t miss a class. PROGRESS!

The new releases became easier to master and my instructor and I became great friends. Along with that, I met so many amazing people including Deb and her cousins–The Combat Squad! I look forward to seeing them each week because working out should be a FUN and social event (it makes the time pass by quicker ).

That’s how I got to make this weekend’s cake.

I got to take what I learned from class and apply the skills to the real world. No, I did not roundhouse-kick my cake even though at 4am, the icing was melting off the cake and all I wanted to do was cry and sleep… (and sleep more and then cry when I woke up)… BUT I persevered. I fought through the frustration, calmed myself down and broke down what I needed to do into smaller, manageable tasks. I popped the cake in the fridge, thickened my icing with meringue powder and icing sugar and continued on. “Quitting” and “giving up” was all I thought about but if I did, Deb and Nick wouldn’t have gotten their cake! I reminded myself that I was STRONGER than these negative thoughts creeping into my head telling me that this cake was beyond me.

And guess what?

Deb and Nick got their cake!