I do believe! I do, I do!

As this past weekend approached, I was a worried mess about how I was going to manage my new...as I now refer to it...lifestyle and still have a successful 3rd weigh-in on Monday. My son was celebrating a 5th birthday, and along with a birthday celebration comes calories. And those aren't the type of gifts I like an abundance of!

My son loves Superheroes, so he got a pretty super cake. I make their cakes myself, it's a curse and a blessing. I'm good at it, I love doing it... but it puts me and sugar together for a long period of time. Alone. Just the two of us. Like 2 horny teenagers in a parked car.

I guess you can call me Wonder Woman, because I wondered how the hell I was going to make my son's double tiered cake without endless nibbles, bites, licks and tastes. Hah! I'm supposed to keep track of how many points a lick of this and a bite of this would be? Suuuure. Ok. Much to my surprise...I made it through the day with very few sugary tastes of frosting and cake passing my lips. Wanna know why? I didn't want to write it all down in my food journal (thank you food journal!). I knew I'd be mad at myself for all those empty calories, and it worked!

It's party day!  Bring on the calorie orgy! Hot dogs and cheeseburgers, chips, potato salad, taco salad, fruit salad, cookies, apple dip and soda. Nice spread. LOTS of points. One Morningstar veggie burger for me (I don't eat cow!) and I loaded up on fruit with just a spoonful of the high point salads.

The soda was a huge temptation for me. In my cooler amongst little cubes of ice were beautiful red cans of Coca-Cola Classic. I picked up a can of Coca-Cola, looked at the calories and set it back in it's bed of ice, kissing it goodbye. Coke Zero, you're my new best friend! No calories, low sodium, and it tastes just like the real thing!

Candles are blown out. I'm cutting the cake. Oh crap, the cake! As I bit my bottom lip debating on whether or not I eat half the cake  in the bathroom real quick and tell everyone "Oops, I'm such a clutz...it fell on the floor"... or just go ahead and serve it up and share it...my conscience won and I shared. I had one small piece. Totally worth the 6 points I saved!

Party day was over and a success.

Then the hubs decides to have some of the guys (and their better halves plus offspring) stay for the Hawks game. I've got 8 kids tugging on my shirt asking if they can have something to eat as 6:30pm finally registers with me on the clock. What's the easiest and cheapest thing to feed a small village? PIZZA. However, pizza + Jess = sabotage. I LOOOOOVE PIZZA. I could eat it every fricken day. So I decide I'll eat it and 3 pieces is the MAX for me. I slooooowly ate my 3 pieces, enjoying each hot gooey bite and threw away my plate. Done.

Moral of the story...you CAN have your cake, and eat it, too! It's so cliche, I know! But seriously...Dive into the cake. Eat potato salad. Have a soda. Enjoy some pizza. Just eat them in smaller portions! Plan ahead and MAKE substitutions. Giving up the things you love will only make you want it MORE and you'll fail at reaching your goal. It's easier said than done, I get it. I was in those shoes once. But, something has changed for me in this journey (for the better), and this former skinny girl is ready to take down Fat Jess!

And I'm starting to feel empowered! My Monday evening weigh in was my BEST yet. I lost another 1.8 pounds! I'm pretty stoked. And I'm starting to believe Jillian Michaels is a God. She was right! Be consistent, and you'll see results!

AMEN!