The creator of the Pleo, Ugobe, laid off all of its employees and filed for bankruptcy today. My poor, lonely MarthaStewart. In memorium may I present:

What You’ll Need:
• 1 oz. White Peach Perfect Puree, thawed
• 5 oz. Italian sparkling wine (Prosecco)

Method:
1. Add White Peach puree to a wine glass or champagne flute.
2. Gently add sparkling wine, pouring carefully to avoid foam-up.
3. Stir gently to combine.
4. Invite me over to help drink.

I’ve tried many a Bellini and this is by far the best, rivaling with the original made at Harry’s Bar in Venice.

White Peach Perfect Puree comes shipped to you overnight, frozen, from The Perfect Puree of Napa Valley folks. Buyer beware: shipping is expensive at $30 so buy 3 or 4 jars of this to make your order worthwhile — they sell many other real fruit purees so consider trying one red raspberry, prickly pear, or lychee too to make cock or mocktails (that was for you Shawn and Katherine) with. The puree will keep in your freezer for a really long time so don’t feel too guilty about buying these purees in bulk.

Today marks day 100 of the diet. I have officially met my goal weight and can see the skinny jean light as I work on taking off just one or two more extra pounds before I hit the mall. Here are the highlights and lowlights of the past 100 days:

* Food pushers. We all do it but if there’s anything I’ve learned the past few months it’s to be more sensitive to it. On average at least twice a week I have to get in to a debate with someone about why I won’t eat something. And it sucks. As you argue with me about how one bite won’t kill me, keep in mind how many other people are telling me the same thing as they try to get me to have some of whatever it is they’re serving/ordering/eating. I know it’s meant well. Friends want you to be happy. Mothers want to nurture you. Hosts want to be gracious. But the next time someone says “no thank-you” to your offer of food, please consider this. (I’m having to retrain myself to make sure I don’t push food too!)

* Sick? Toughen up. I hate working out. I hate being sick. The only thing worse is working out while sick. But I learned to work through my common icky coughing, sneezing, sore throat cold back in March with daily exercise. Had I not, I would have been out for over a week — besides the stall in my progress, I would have also likely had a difficult time getting back on the exercise wagon at all. Routine, routine, routine.

* On that note: Routine, routine, routine. I have a bowl of cereal every morning followed by my hour work out. Between noon and 12:30 I eat lunch. Between 2pm and 4pm I eat a snack. At 7pm I eat dinner. If I stick to this schedule I am for the most part never hungry even though I’m only eating a few hundred calories at any sitting. It’s when I miss a meal by an hour or two that I feel famished and want to eat everything in my immediate site. So I just don’t let that happen. This means packing snacks and keeping them in my purse at all times so I don’t have to be a slave to the clock when in a social setting.

* Set goals. Back in January when I started this all, I set and noted desired weekly goals in my calendar all the way through March 30. They were realistic goals of 1 - 2 lbs a week, depending on if I knew I would be traveling that week, or if there was a wedding and a party I had to go to another week (i.e. I totally was going to drink the champagne, knew it, and just pre-accounted for it). Every Friday Google Calendar would send me a reminder of my goal weight for that day. I never, not even once, missed my weekly target weight. Being aware is key here. I wasn’t unrealistic, but I also knew that come mid week if I wasn’t on track for my goal weight that Friday, I would work out a little longer or make sure to be extra vigilant with my calorie counting the remaining days. And when I’d get that Google Reminder come Friday after the extra work I had put in, I have to admit I felt very accomplished.

* Explaining “what type of diet” I’m on — this one is tough. Everyone asks me this and is seemingly disappointed/confused when I tell them I’m on the “just not eating as much” diet. Calories in/calories out. It lacks a fancy name and series of books but it works. I suspect if I answered “SouthBeach” or “Atkins” many would feel much better about my weight loss — but perhaps to some degree we all prefer the idealogical “I’m on a magic fat melting diet called Atkins” vs. the reality bitch-slap known as “I just stopped stuffing my face”. -shrug-

Dieting sucks. Remind me to never get fat again (I totally still blame Texas, damned yummy chicken fried everything).

• Caramel flavored Pirate Booty (120 calories for 1oz, a pretty filling cup full)
• Quaker Oats rice cakes in Kettle Corn flavor (60 calories for 7 mini cakes)
• Root beer floats made from Diet IBC root beer and 1/2 cup of non-fat vanilla frozen yogurt (80 decadent calories, mmmm)
• Twizzlers strawberry flavored licorice twists (40 calories per large sized piece)
• Fla-Vor-Ice Light popsicles made with Splenda (5 calories total for 2 bars!)
• Brothers All Natural Crisps –thanks Simon! (~35 calories per bag, my favorite is Asian Pear but they’re all good and remarkably substantial for what looks like such a little pack)