Red, white and yum

How was your holiday? I hope you all enjoyed the time with your friends and family and saved up your calories for a few splurges.

Do you know who didn’t save up his calories? Joey “Jaws” Chestnut, who won the annual Nathan’s Fourth of July Hot Dog Eating Contest for the fourth consecutive year.

Joey ate 54 hot dogs. I broke that down in nutritional value. Fifty-four hot dogs (sans buns) equals:

• 16,686 calories
• 1,085.4 grams of fat
• And for my fellow Weight Watchers, 378  points

I love a hot dog as much as any other American girl, but this year, I stuck to the 97 percent fat free Hebrew National dogs. They’re really good.

As a splurge, I made my mom’s traditional Fourth of July fruit pizza. It’s made with sugar cookie dough, topped with a cream cheese, sugar and vanilla mixture and then layered with strawberries, blueberries and bananas. It’s heavenly. And certainly not something I put on my daily menu. But I firmly believe in the importance of moderation, especially on holidays.

And I still lost this week, despite not even having the buffer of the typical Monday after a weekend. I’m now officially down 57.8 pounds.

I’ve talked about it before and I'll talk about it again, but I’ve learned that the black and white/all or nothing thinking is what got me in trouble in the first place. Tell me I can’t ever have pizza? Guess what? I’m going to eat an entire one by myself. Tell me I can never have ice cream? I’ll eat a whole gallon.

Now I allow myself pizza and ice cream in moderation. I’ll have one piece of pizza, or a small bowl of sherbet. Knowing that I can still have them--and some of my other favorite treats--makes me less rebellious.

Now it’s your turn to tell me. What are some of your favorite splurges—those treats that you sacrifice extra gym time for or save for a special occasion?