Success and a mini-cheat!

I'm doing my gimpy happy dance right now! As of this morning, even AFTER eating my breakfast (ok, drinking it...I had a protein berry smoothie), I am officially down 4 and a half pounds in one week! WOOHOO! This is exactly why I do this particular diet program; results are almost instantaneous, and after many years of dieting, I have found that fast results in the beginning is what I need. If I don't see some sort of results quickly, I get discouraged and start to sabotage myself. I am so excited right now! It looks like if I keep on track, which now that I see results I will, I could potentially lose 20 lbs this month, hopefully another 15-20 next month, and see where I wanna go from then. I understand that there will be plateaus, but I have fought against plateaus before, and I am a tough chick...I will win. I don't give up, and when someone tells me that I can't do something, it typically pisses me off (sorry for the strong language...thats the only phrase that TRULY sums up the feeling) and makes me want to do it faster...like with my leg. My docs told me I might never walk again, and here I am, on the verge of running and jumping. Take THAT statistics!!!

Friday night, Del and I attended a birthday party for a friend in our ward. It was a poker night, complete with a full junk-food bar...I was SO nervous going in because I wasn't sure of my will-power at that point. There was to be pizza, soda, brownie bites, candy bars, and much more...and veggies. I was grateful to our hosts for the veggie option, but not sure I could restrain myself from the other options. I was lucky though, because I had an accountability buddy! Marianne W. and I are of the same mindset when it comes to those things, so she called me up before the party to make sure we could keep each other on track. Whenever we saw something we wanted badly but couldn't have, we would hum the music for "Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka-dot bikini". It was fun to do and kept both of us on track. I'm grateful for friends who help me out so much because they know whats at stake. Marianne is a HUGE inspiration for me because she has lost over 60 lbs. and keeps it off. She is my hero!!!

This weekend, I had a little cheat. Normally, when I am on a strict diet, I will not do what I did. However, a high-school friend of mine opened a new bakery in the Power Square mall (Power and Baseline VF Factory Outlet area) and he was having his grand opening. In true facebook and proud coyote fashion, I clicked "I'm attending" on the event page and was excited to see a friend I haven't seen in almost 10 years. I took my family knowing full well that I would likely not find anything that I could eat and not feel super terrible about eating. As we walked up to the counter, I could feel disappointment building up inside of me....until I saw this:

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!! Commence gimpy happy dance!!! It was a teeny-weeny lemon cupcake...Barely a full bite! I bought ONE (and a HUGE brownie for the hubby and a little german chocolate one for Sam) and very slowly ate it. It was HEAVEN! I probably turned it into 4 bites. Anyway, I stuck to the one and didn't really want more. That little morsel of heaven was enough for me. It looks as if my willpower is growing strong! I highly suggest ya'll head over to the bakery and have some goodies. Ashba knows what he is doing!

Anyway, thanks again for your support. I love sharing my successes (and eventually a shortcoming that I KNOW I will have) with you all. Its nice to share these things and know that out in blogworld, people are cheering you on!