Warm weather brings cold cravings...

With the weather finally warming up, the cravings for cold treats will likely increase.

1. Frozen Yogurt - A fabulous alternative to ice cream, frozen yogurt tastes much better than it did years ago. We've already tried a few spot, but it is still dangerous ground so tread carefully. We don't go more than once every two weeks and even that is probably a lot.

Frozen yogurt is difficult to find at the grocery store, but maybe it's for the best not to have it in the house. If it's expensive and you go out occasionally to purchase just one serving, it will be much easier to stick to the diet plan. The problem is, frozen yogurt joints are not as they used to be either. They are self serve and you pay by weight. My frustration is that the smallest cup is usually 16 ounce, but one serving size is 8 ounces so it's difficult to judge your calories.

TIP: 1 cup should look no bigger than a baseball.

Read the labels at each frozen yogurt machine. Some are sugar free, some non-fat/fat free. Non fat is your lowest calorie option, but still comes in around 160. I count mine as 200 even though a few can be a little more than that. (If I'm really trying to be good, I will count it as 250) Again, if it's a treat, you can go over and still lose weight over all. Toppings all need to be counted no matter what you choose. 2 Tbs chopped fruit will be your safest bet; around 40 calories. Syrups are well over 100 for a couple tablespoons and those chopped up candy bars or nuts are better avoided completely.

Farr's Fresh has a variety of yogurt, ice cream, and frozen custard in their location near Macey's in Sandy. The yogurt tasted delicious, but because of the variety, there were few options. The tastiest looking choices were in the 'naughty' area so I will probably avoid going there.

We've tried TCBY (Fashion Place Mall) and Planet Yogurt (Quarry Bend) as well as Frogurt in Fort Union. If pressed, we would choose TCBY because they have creamier frozen yogurt and offer many flavors in a nice twist. Planet Yogurt comes in second, I think, though they don't offer all of them in twist and some of the combinations seem a little weird.

2. Juice bars - cool off guilt free with Dreyer's fruit bars. Many of them are 50 calories per serving and they taste great.

3. Creamy - Snickers and Twix offer 100 calorie ice cream treats, but they are tiny and a little grainy. Skinny Cow has delicious ice cream bars - my preference being the white mint. Their other products are lower in calorie than similar items, but still more calories than I usually like to have so we have skipped things like their ice cream sandwiches.

4. Target has a nice rainbow sherbet. I believe it is about 120 calories per serving, but it tasted wonderful and could be a nice treat.

My suggestion? Skip the cone. It's only a few calories, but that's all the more calories you can enjoy in the actual frozen yogurt.