January's summary

As of January 31st, I'm down 8 pounds! Woohoo! It was extremely hard and I had to constantly remind myself that I'm dieting. It actually sucks when you really want to eat but that nagging voice in my head yells "Put the fork down!".

As of today, I think I gained a pound of two thanks to the Super Bowl. I drank way too many Mojitos, ate too many Tequila Lime chicken wings and definitely one too many helpings of chips & that gooey, hot, melty cheese dip. (Is melty even a word?)

But as I woke up this morning, I was hit with realization that I have 41 days to get in shape for a friend's wedding. I'm determined to find and wear a bright colorful dress. (God, I hate dress shopping). Maybe something sleeveless and something more revealing than my usual style. It's going to be a nightmare but I'm determined to do it! The small dress selection is my closest contains 3 black dresses (two of them I haven't worn since college), 1 sundress I haven't worn in 2 years, maybe 3 years, and another sundress that made a rare appearance at our Easter brunch last year. (But I think I'm going to wear that dress again when we go the race track in a few weeks).

One thing I did discovered this weekend is that I love the new A&W Ten. Its this new soft drink from A&W and several others that is only 10 calories per 8oz serving. (The 16oz bottles have 20 calories - learned that one after the 2nd bottle).

But it's delicious! It tastes like fountain root beer and for some reason, I like fountain root beer better than canned/bottled root beer. (Which reminds me of this place in Chicago called White Hen that used to have amazing fountain root beer. Can't remember the brand but I do remember making "root beer runs". Wow - I'm weird). And it definitely tastes better than diet root beer. Which is usually what I drink when I want root beer. But not anymore! Diet drinks always have that strange after taste. Like a slap to your taste buds - "yea, this is horrible stuff but I want it and I don't want to feel guilty about having it". I love this stuff and I hope it sticks around for awhile. I think I can manage 20 calories of delicious root beer taste. Plus, 7-Eleven has a buy-one, get-one-free deal going on for all their flavors. I haven't tried the other "Ten" flavors but I might try the 7Up and Sunkist.

I did try another gluten free recipe over the weekend. It used garbanzo bean flour for a chocolate cake mixture. I made these mini bundt cakes for a party but there weren't that good. They were bland so I added a little frosting on top. When that didn't work, I drizzled white chocolate over them. I still think they were bland but people ate them at the party and when I took the leftovers to work. I did make an orange flavored mini bundt cake - full of gluten. Those did go faster than the gluten-free cakes. Oh well - bake & learn.