"Cookie-less January"

Ah, January. The holidays are over, the tree has been packed up (or in our case, broken and thrown out) for yet another year, the house is finally back in order, and the credit card bill for holiday purchases is due. Alas, this is also the time of year when girls like me try on our skinny Seven for all Mankind jeans and see the dreaded muffin-top from one (or ten) too many holiday indulgences.

Now, the first week of January for us was pretty much still an extended holiday. The first weekend in January a lot of my relatives came up to my parents' house to celebrate the holiday, where my mother actually ordered a tray of chicken cacciatore for everyone (as well as a ton of other munchies, like the crab dip I made for the occasion). Now - one nice thing to know is that Italian restaurants can be very accomodating of gluten free needs! All you have to do is ask:

• My office holiday party was held at Cornell's, where my husband was given a special plate of wonderful, gluten free, chicken marsala along with salad, rice, and they offered him sherbet for dessert (though he was already stuffed from the meal!) - this was a very special treat, because it was the first time we'd gone to an Italian restaurant since going gluten free!
• My mother ordered the chicken cacciatore from Canali's, where they prepared the tray in their "default" style and provided a gluten free version for my husband. Their marinara sauce is also gluten free, though since they don't provide gluten free pasta he had side dishes of their yummy green beans and roasted potatoes.

Anyway, now the holidays are officially and completely over, our puggle is still on her diet, and I am starting to eat and exercise off all those indulgent meals.

I asked my husband for the Wii Fit for Christmas, and while it's fun and no-doubt a workout if you do it right (at least, my legs were killing me the first week that I started using it), there's no contest in my mind that going to the gym is better - or even better yet, taking advantage of all the snow we've had so far this season and going snow-shoeing or cross-country skiing!

Anyway - I have less than a month to go until Italian Night at Glen Sanders Mansion, and I want to be sure to fit into a cute outfit! This means eating extremely healthy at Kat's GF Kitchen! I've stocked up on healthy fare including chicken, fish/shrimp and plenty of veggies, and for the rest of this month will be focusing on healthy, low-fat, low-calorie meals - and not going out to eat as much!

Who else has jumped on the diet bandwagon this January??