Going public.

It's nearly April, and there's still snow in Chicago. This may well happen every year here, but it's a shocking every time. The one positive aspect of having an extensive winter is also having an exension of cover-up time. This year's holiday season, domestic and international, has left me with a few extra "pudges", as a friend likes to call them, in addition to a tenacious sugar addiction. So, in all honesty, I'm a little happy to have a bit more time to hide under my coat while I ramp up gym time and reform the ol' eating habits. To wit:

May it here by be known that I, Cooky Monster, is going on a full on sugar rehab program starting Monday, March 24. The terms of my plan, subject to future amendment in the more strict direction only, are as follows:

• Starting Monday, March 24, Cooky Monster (hereafter known as, "CM") will not eat anything containing refined sugar for one full week (the first day on which CM may have refined sugar is April 1) in order to purge herself of a very nasty sugar addiction.



• CM may eat fresh fruit.



• CM may eat sugar substitute products, although they're usually not good tasting.

We will see how this program evolves after the first week. I hear that the first 3 days of sugar withdrawal are the worst, so hopefully it won't be too hard to keep dessert-y items at bay after a full week of going sugarless.

Yours truly at a wedding reception, post sugar bender. I had at least a little of everything from the dessert bar - chocolate cake, strawberry napoleon, mango mousse cake, fruit tart, chocolate covered strawberries, and ice cream, oh and champagne of course. Once the photographers came by, I quickly removed evidence of my binge away from my person. One plate managed to make it in the shot. Can you make out the contents?