Happy Fat Tuesday

Happy Fat Tuesday or just plain Tuesday (depending how you're spending today)! 

Lent has once again crept up on me and I have yet to decided what I am going to give up or do more of. Many people give up sweets, pizza or chocolate: Well, (1) I love sweets but only have them on occasion so  giving them up would only be a Lenten cop-out, (2) I don't eat pizza (cheese) and (3) if I gave up chocolate I would be a miserable human being.

So what to do, what to do. As of now, my leading Lenten contender is diet soda (pop, soda pop, what have you) -- my weakness, my kryptonite. So knowing this, this would be a huge challenge which fits the criteria for a Lent give-up. I also want to do more of something... this has yet to be determined. Ideas?

I recently found this article on FitSugar <--- check it out! It shows the benefits of giving up a single item (like fast food) over a period of 40 days. By seeing the big picture, it makes the desire to give up something you really enjoy (and how many calories you'd save by choosing a regular coffee over a latte) a little easier.

Or do more of something or something new! 

What are you doing this Lent?

Stevia: The Sweet Superman

When looking for something to spruce up my coffee or tea, I am a victim of no calorie sweeteners. It's a fact that sugar imitations like Sweet n' Low and Splenda aren't good for you, but it's so hard to avoid them when you want something sweet without all the calories. I love agave nectar on my oatmeal and greek yogurt, but a few squirts can add at least 80 calories (or more if you have a mouth full of sweet teeth like moi). Plus it's processed and high in fructose (70-80 %). If you don't want to give up agave, like me, look for products with 30-40% instead.

The Sugar Imitation Villains (yeah, we're on to you)

Ugh, I feel so stuck in my non-sugary sugar options. Can the health gods answer our prayers? Well, they may have. It's a bird! it's a plane! No, it's Stevia! Yay...finally a natural, zero calorie sweetener to save the day!

If you've seen the Truvia commercials with the cheesy jingle, that sweetener is only partly made of the Stevia plant. 

*FUN FACT ALERT* 

Coke and Pepsi just got the green light to use Truvia instead of Splenda (sucralose..bad!) to sweeten their diet drinks. Thumbs up for a slight step forward in making soda kinda-sorta healthier; I actually am really excited about this because I also am a huge victim of diet sodas. Sigh, no one's perfect.

The question on everyone's mind (or perhaps not) is: what exactly is a Stevia plant? Well, I Googled it and it's a plant from South America whose leaves are 30x sweeter than sugar; many companies are starting to use it because of this. It looks like any other plant you'd see outside, but hopefully it can be the sugar superman to beat all the imiattional villains.

Hm, now what to do with all those Sweet 'n Low packets? 

Here's an idea:

Have a Sweet Hump Day!