Hello January.  Yes, you hold the bright promise of a new year and the anticipation of all we wish to accomplish including, for many of us, a vow eat healthier and end 2012 with a closet full of clothes several sizes smaller.  But, how can we approach our ambitions with joy when we’ve just experienced the season of indulgence with visions of rib roasts, pastries and seasonally flavored martinis dancing in our heads?
Luckily for us, we can skip the deprivation-induced depression and delight our gustatory senses with sumptuous fare that will give us a chance to make some new resolutions next year.  Restaurants like Simon’s Coffee House, Veg and miPueblo are known for providing steadily good vegetarian, vegan, and organic delights.  Other great options for healthy, calorie-conscious, and gluten-free eating are tucked around our area offering fresh selections every day.  
In the best-selling book “French Women Don’t Get Fat—The Secret of Eating for Pleasure,” author Mireille Guiliano says eating soup is one reason Frenchwomen stay looking great.  Non-creamed soups, being mostly water, are filling without a lot of calories, and by their very nature force us to slow down and savor each spoonful.  Often considered humble fare, soup is quite a different experience when in the hands of a masterful chef.
B&G Soup Stop is much more than the name implies.  In addition to a changing array of nine soups, proprietor Brent Williams offers a selection of creative salads and sandwiches.  Although soups change daily, gazpacho and tomato-basil are always on the menu.  He also has vegetarian and vegan options like the nutritious vegan beans and greens soup flavored with Bragg’s Liquid Aminos for great taste and added nutrition.  A carrot ginger soup brightened with a splash of orange juice also is vegan.  One of his best sellers is Greek lemon chicken soup.  “Chicken and lemon is the most soothing to your gut,” he says.  “If you’re not feeling good and eat some of that, it will help cure what ails you.”
A clean-tasting sweet and sour side salad of black beans, cucumber, jicama, and grape tomatoes marinated in a little vinegar and sugar rounds out a light soup meal as does the gourmet salad of baby greens with spiced pecans, Granny Smith apples, and crumbled gorgonzola cheese lightly draped with a mango vanilla bean vinaigrette.  
Tucked behind the Publix across from Southgate Plaza, the Monterey Grill offers an incredibly extensive menu of fresh and healthy items.  The restaurant has been bringing its California-inspired fare to Sarasotans for five years at that location. Julie Venafro, who owns the restaurant along with her husband Michael, says they began shifting their offerings to satisfy diners increasing hunger for healthy eating.  “We try to buy from local vegetable companies and do organic when we can.  Everything is made to order,” Venafro says.  They also are knowledgeable about gluten-free living for people who have Celiac disease and others who are watching their gluten intake, she adds.
In addition to fresh soups made daily, Monterey Grill has a wide selection of salads, including the S.B.R. (that’s Swim Bike Run for us non-triathlon types.)  With mixed greens, garbanzo beans, carrots, artichoke hearts, sprouts, tomato, cucumber, craisins, sunflower seeds and avocado, what diet-conscious diner could walk away hungry?  Monterey Grill’s satisfying signature rice bowls, made with brown or basmati rice, are very popular.  Many are topped with a selection of wild seafood, like spicy seared Ahi tuna, salmon, mahi or Tiger Shrimp and stuffed with a variety of veggies.
If you’re craving variety, there’s nothing like Sweet Tomatoes massive buffet to let you try a little of this and that without piling up a calorie count that looks like the national debt.  Sure it’s a chain, but that means you can go to their website and check out the nutritional content of their menu, which aside from perennial favorites, changes every two weeks.  No artificial ingredients, preservatives, stabilizers or MSG are in any of the foods, which are used in their most natural, raw state, says spokeswoman Tracy Marks.  In addition to eight soups served daily, there always is an array of tossed and deli salads.  All items are marked if they are vegetarian, vegan or gluten-free.
Menu favorites that generally do not change include Big Chunk Chicken Noodle Soup, Wonton Chicken Happiness Salad, and Deep Kettle House Beef Chili, which is low fat and gluten free.  Taking into account January dieting, Marks says low-fat champagne pear and Chianti dressings will be on the menu as well as a selection of whole grains, which pack a nutritional punch without packing in a lot of calories.
So hop on your bike and pedal on over to your favorite healthy eating spot, and the next thing you know, you’ll be breaking out your favorite pair of skinny jeans.