Last night I was eating cake. Not just any cake, but my favorite cream filled layer cake from Costco. As soon as it was gone, I felt remorse. Why would I delay my goals that way? Is one moment of pleasure worth a forever fighting to get where I want to be? If only I could undo it, that one decision to eat cake. And then… I woke up.

Oh happy day! I touched my belly, it felt smaller.

So I hopped on the scale. Oh, I know I shouldn’t have. Weigh in day isn’t until Sunday, but sometimes I just have to know. Like the pregnancy test I should wait to take in two more days….but two days is too long to wait to know if our lives will be forever better. (I’m not pregnant, just an illustration.) And the number on the scale looking back at me was 139.8. What?!!! I walked into the bedroom in my weigh in outfit 😉 and said, Darren look at this. This is what 139 lbs looks like. And we high-fived and laughed.  I’ve wished for 2 years too see a 3 in the tens place and it taunted me like a race-horse’s carrot always just out of reach.  But all it needed to be real was a little bit of consistency from me.

The dream and this success are good fuel for me. A gift from God to make good choices through the Independence Day festivities that begin tonight and don’t end for us until Sunday morning. We are true patriots and Independence Day is second only to Christmas in our family. A wonderful and terrible (for weight loss) thing at the same time.

But I have allies at the parties too: My friend, Rebecca, who wrote me last night to tell me what supportive dishes she is bringing to the basket dinner tonight. And my sister-in-law for our family gathering. Both are Fit Yummy Mummies and it just helps to be surrounded with friends who are using the same methods to meet their fitness goals.

I don’t remember a lot about yesterday, except that I tried Holly’s new July workout of the month and loved it! It was super challenging for me, especially since the last 4 exercises were in plank positions. My shoulders get tired quickly like this and it’s good for me to build this up–though somehow miserable at the same time. My chocolate workout recovery shake makes up for any discomfort I feel during the workout itself. I love those shakes!

And I sucessfully made two recipes for fudge protein cookies. These are like a protein bar, but softer and chewier. The first one is higher in fat and is less sticky–more like a traditional no bake cookie (but really without sugar how can it be the same?) Note the original recipe used oatmeal, but I updated the recipe with coconut flakes to reduce the net carbs even more.

The first cookie was delicious, but after I typed in the nutrition information I was less than impressed. So I tried again for protein cookie #2.  It’s also yummy, but a bit stickier and doesn’t set up as fast.  The nutrition specs are exactly what I was hoping for, so I can deal with a little sticky.

With the oats replaced with unsweetened coconut flakes, these have 169 calories each; 11g fat; 4 net carbs; and 14g protein