So, I got back on my diet just in time for the traditional Christmas eating binge 🙂 We already started the sugar binge yesterday with sugar cookies and pastries. We were celebrating the snow day and I thought it might be fun to make sugar cookies so I mentioned it to 12-year old who jumped at the chance to make them, using this recipe. If you decide to make them, you might want to add more sugar if you like sugary sugar cookies (they tasted more like a tea biscuit). And then my husband brought home food from his office Christmas party and we had all kinds of pastries as well (one of them was a very rich tiramisu — one of my favorite desserts). Obviously, not a time to be dieting but I gained weight this semester (stress eating and I didn’t have the time to go to the gym) and I need to get it off and not add anymore or I won’t be able to fit into the new clothes I bought recently! I’m planing to grill a lean cut of meat on Christmas day (flank steak) but I’m also planning to make french toast and bacon for breakfast, cheese fondue as an appetizer and an apple blackberry buckle with whipped cream for dessert. So, I can’t eat too many extra calories before then. I need super will power to withstand the temptation of the cookies and the tiramisu 🙂 I think I’m going to get out of the house today and go to the mall and walk around and shop. Best to flee from temptation than to stay and fight it!But I plan to avoid Cinnabon! Did you know that there are 1,100 and 56 grams of fat and 47 grams of sugar in just one of their cinnamon rolls? I love cinnamon rolls but I never eat their rolls because they are way too sweet. It is the equivalent of 8 orders of Burger King onion rings!I found that out watching this Today Show video with David Zinczenk, the author of “Eat This, Not That.”

He shares other holiday food comparisons like the fact that one slice of pecan pie is equivalent to 7 scoops of Breyer’s Butter Pecan ice cream! I am so glad I gave up making pecan pies for Christmas years ago. Too sweet! But I’m sure there are tons of calories in the buckle, that’s why I plan to go to the gym Christmas Eve and the day after Christmas and hit the treadmill for an hour :-)BTW, I’m posting recipes on Monday so if you want to know what a buckle is, you’ll find out then.