It’s hard to believe.  I used to eat more butter in a day than an entire Nicaraguan family eats in a year, and after two weeks of starvation, I’ve lost a grand total of 1.5 pounds!  It’s quite discouraging, as I’m saintly in what I allow down my gullet.  No more Eggo waffles swimming in butter and syrup.  I’m now spraying a bit of Pam into a pan and scrambling two eggs instead.  And for all of that, I have lost one and a half pounds!

There is very good news on the business side of things, though.  The nice produce of CBC Radio’s show Sounds Like Canada, Jen Moss, has invited me back for another interview for their final segment on small business.  They invited one other entrepreneur and me, and we’ll be asked about the progress we’ve made as a result of having been assisted by CBC.

In particular, I’d have to say having a business coach has been invaluable.  The fear of having said I’ll do something and then not having it done just isn’t worth it.  And it’s not because Prerna is mean, it’s merely fear of disappointing her.  Along with her I also have weight loss coaches around me at Weight Watchers, and fitness coaches at the gym, so pretty soon I should be almost perfect.

There is a dear little instructor at the gym who tried one of my Okanagan Fruit and Rum Bars and said she loved it.  The other day she mentioned that she could really use one, so the next day I put one in my bag for her.  I actually hummed and hawed about whether I should give her another bar, if you can believe anything so stupid.  But, then I thought, “Oh for God’s sake, this kid needs the damn bar, give it to her.”

I handed her the bar, and she said how much she appreciated getting another one, and then added, “My boyfriend’s mom is a food distributor in Alberta.  I’m planning to give her one of these for Christmas.  Maybe she’ll decide to take you on.” And you see, the moral is that had I been cheap and anal, I would sitting here wondering how to grow the business.

Word of mouth seems to be working slowly, as I had someone inquire if they could buy an Okanagan Harvest Cake to help them decide if they wanted to buy it as gifts for Christmas.  The customer had asked in particular about the sweetness.  I told her that 2 cups of sugar make 14 cakes, so only about 1/7 of a cup of sugar per cake.  She lived downtown, so I dropped one off, and told her to let me know what she thought, and drove home.

When I got home and checked my e mail, I got a message from her saying that the cake had lasted for about 10 minutes.  She said she’d eaten the entire thing, and that convinced her to buy them as gifts, but she said she would not be ordering any more of them for herself.  It’s perverse, really, as I’m actually supplying the customers to Weight Watchers with my own products.