Pumpkin and Spice

 Whew! Yikes, that was an exhausting December! I really, honestly thought I'd post more last month, but I spent most of the month working, shopping or squeezing in some family time. I'm sure you all were in a similar boat- it's a busy season. Hope you all had lovely Chanukahs, Christmases and Champagne-soaked New Year's Eves. (Me? I had two glasses and was in bed by 11. I had to be up at 7a for work the next day, and I'm a girl who needs her eight hours.)

New Year's Eve is great- I love that feeling of having a new chance at a fresh start. I know it's just the turning of the calendar, but something about a new year makes anything seem possible. Did you make any resolutions? I did, and it's probably the same one many of you made- to lose weight. I make it every year, but I'm never very good at it. I've been going back and forth in my head about this, but I've decided that this year, I'm going to blog about it. Please don't roll your eyes- I know this is a food blog, but this is about food. I've tried to share with you all my adventures in food, and I feel like this is going to be a significant adventure for me.

And, well, it's my adventures in food that brought me here. I was a chubby kid, and a chubby teenager, and in college, thanks to the tried and true method of exercising a bit and not eating everything that wasn't nailed down, I managed to lose quite a bit of weight. Later, when I got engaged, I slimmed down even farther... but, with the threat of a strapless dress immortalized on film forever no longer looming, and the cozy comfort of newlywed-hood, a few pounds crept back on. Not a big deal, but then I went to pastry school and put on a few more, then I went to Utah and packed on some winter weight on top of that, and well... never really lost it. So, in a nutshell, I am an embarrassing 45lbs heavier than I was three years ago (thanks mostly to croissants, cakes, and other sweets...)