What is it about chocolate that make it so irresistible? We eat for any reason; as a treat to reward ourselves, to lift us when we are down or in our favourite desserts. It ticks all the boxes, but we also know that we shouldn't eat the amount that we do, unless it was healthy chocolate of course.
And the good new is that there is a healthy chocolate out there. There are many good things in chocolate such as vitamins and minerals, so what is it that makes it generally so unhealthy?
It's all the stuff that we put into chocolate that makes it fattening and unhealthy. These are things such as milk solids, sugar and cocoa butter. These help to make milk chocolate taste so good, but are really bad for us. A dark chocolate and especially a low sugar bitter variety doesn't have all these additives.
Chocolate isn't actually food as far as our bodies are concerned, they will merely store away all the bad stuff and ignore the good bits. This makes our guilty treat even worse for us than we thought!
The trick is to eat chocolate with other foods as well, nuts and fruits are perfect. Eating them together ensures that your body treats the chocolate as food and you get all the goodness from it.
The ideal accompaniment to chocolate is fruit rich in vitamin C, as it works to form a nutritional balance to make sure that the iron from the chocolate gets absorbed and not dispelled. What you end up with is probably the tastiest multi-vitamin supplement you'll ever have!
I used to work as a chocolatier, so you can imagine how much chocolate I used to eat! As I ate dark chocolate complimented with strawberries, blueberries, nuts etc I never put any weight on. A blood test also proved that I had the optimum level of minerals and vitamins in my system.
There is now no excuse for filling up on cheap and nasty milk chocolate which will just add pounds. A healthier bar of dark chocolate which has fruit and nuts in it will do the same job but without any weight gain.
Like everything else, if you eat too much chocolate it becomes unhealthy, so watch your consumption.
Michael knows a good deal about chocolate, and even more about the many orange rug buying possibilities on the market. See for yourself at http://orangerug.org.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Michael_Framball
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Combine Dark Chocolate With Fruit and Nuts For a Healthier Treat
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Chocolate Cravings and the World Cup
How to stop Chocolate Cravings during the World Cup ( or at any other time!)
1. Being prepared prevents chocolate cravings during the World Cup ( or at any other time!)
Before a match check how you are feeling about it and also what you have to eat in the house. I'm serious. Whatever happens with your team, or the team you have adopted, in a match, you might celebrate or commiserate with chocolate so you need to be prepared do you not? So, I suggest you make a list of at least three things that you could do instead; things that will really light you up.
For example: it could be any of the following: time with your partner, time with your family, time shopping, whatever it is that will light you up, pick you up and make you feel good basically.
2. Getting in touch with your inner cravings.
Designate a special notebook or journal and look a little deeper into why you might be craving chocolate so much. For example, it is not just that your team are out of the World Cup, it is something deeper. So, I invite you to imagine you are with your best friend, having a chat with them, about how you are really feeling about something and all that 'dirt' comes up, the stuff you only admit to them as you really trust them with your life so write that down for yourself.
As you write you will gain clarity on your true inner-reasons why you crave chocolate so much which could be anything from having low self-esteem, to fearing having your heart broken, be it for the first time, or again to lack of intimacy or sexual expression, to sheer overwhelm in your life, to finding it hard to express yourself confidently, to huge amounts of stress, to loneliness, to lack of life direction or purpose, to even feeling lovable. Whatever it is there is no right or wrong with what you write down but write you must for you and only you to get really in touch with your deep, inner cravings.
3. How would you feel if you won your own 'World Cup,' when you have stopped your chocolate cravings?
Get your journal out again and write down the following question and answer it in as much detail as you can as it is vitally important to have a vision of where you desire to go, so that you will be much more likely to keep going when it gets rather tough, which it tends to do as you let go of what no longer serves you.
When you have a deeper understanding about why you crave chocolate so much, and you know what you are truly desiring, then your desires stand a much bigger chance of manifesting.
For example: when you have stopped your chocolate cravings will you feel happier, more emotionally balanced and centred? Would you be more focused on feeling good about yourself and your life, and planning the life of your dreams.
Would you be feeling so much more at ease with yourself, therefore more fun to be around, more open-hearted, and more able to deal with issues that arise in your life instead of ducking out and procrastinating with oodles of chocolate?
Whatever your feelings are about winning your own 'World Cup,' when you have stopped your chocolate cravings, look to draw upon them, and leverage them as often as possible to help you to achieve you goal, therefore place them in the prominent position where you might see your vision often be it on a family notice board, in your diary, in your purse or by your bedside.
For free mini Chocolate Rehab from Carrie Eddins just go to http://www.chocolaterehab.com and sign up!
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Carrie_Eddins
