Chocolate? Moderation? Really?

I love chocolate. This comes as no surprise to most of you, in fact, you may have groaned and silently said, "Duh..." upon reading it. I suspect many of you share my feelings, which is why you read this blog. I often ask at my parties how many attendees have "a relationship" with Dove chocolate, and most hands go up - mine included. My relationship with chocolate goes beyond a simple epicurean (or admittedly spiritual) interest; it now comprises part of my livelihood. How, then, can I embark upon a weight loss venture and still maintain a relationship with chocolate? 

The answer? Moderation.

We hear this everywhere, but it is good advice, it does work, and it can be done! I have, to date, lost 26 pounds (...in about 7 weeks. I never hoped for such results!) and I eat chocolate every day. No, really! This doesn't mean I inhale an entire pan of brownies or get cozy with a pint of ice cream while I'm watching a movie, but I do enjoy a little chocolate on a daily basis - and not just the sugar free stuff (which sustained me through the first two weeks of this journey). I eat regular full-sugar chocolate. Last night I had some hot chocolate: about 6 oz. of warm milk with 2 tablespoons of Dove Dark Sipping Chocolate. Some days I eat one section of a Chef-Series Dark Chocolate bar, and occasionally I have a Sea-Salted Caramel. I discovered the other day that our Chocolate Covered Graham Crackers are only 100 calories each, and those are incredibly rich and satisfying.

I have shared this with people, and they have responded with, "Oh, I could never do that. I can't eat just one of anything!" Really? OK, I would have said that of myself three months ago, but I've figured out some things. Wanna know how I do it? Here are my tips for enjoying chocolate in moderation:

• Get the good stuff. One piece of really good chocolate (like Dove!) will satisfy you infinitely better than a whole bag of that sad faux chocolate they sell around holidays - or even the bar you're used to picking up in the checkout line. Seriously.
• Have things that are individually wrapped or pre-portioned. Make some yummy Truffle Fudge Brownies when you're really full, then cut them up into wee bites (about 1 inch works well) and wrap them up. Freeze them and take one out once in a while.
• Recognize that some chocolate is actually GOOD FOR YOU. Chocolate is high in antioxidants and also contains iron and calcium. Take it off the "forbidden fruit" list, and you'll be surprised how easily you can "have just one." 
• Speaking of fruit, eat chocolate with fruit, especially other antioxidant rich ones like strawberries, blueberries, cranberries, cherries, and raspberries. I love dipping strawberries in dark chocolate - and one ounce of chocolate will easily coat about 8 strawberries. For extra convenience, get fruit that's already covered in chocolate! ( I know where you can get some...)
• SAVOR. I break off one section of a Chef-Series bar and put the rest in a baggie. I eat it slowly, taking bites and letting it melt in my mouth slowly. One half-ounce section literally gives me about 5 minutes of chocolate euphoria.

My best tip for enjoying chocolate in moderation? Get ready, because this one's "out there" : become a Chocolatier. Stay with me; this will make sense in a minute. Upon hearing about my business, people often say, "Oh, if I did what you do, I'd weigh a ton. I'd eat all my profits!" In my experience, the opposite is true. I think I can successfully incorporate small amounts of chocolate into my diet because I work with it and share it with people. I have by no means become immune to the seductive wiles of chocolate - its enticing aroma, creamy texture, and complex flavors - on the contrary, I appreciate it on many more levels than ever. Think eating chocolate makes you feel wonderful? Try giving it to someone who's had a long day, watch his or her face, and your own spirits will rise to new heights.

The above are tips, not guarantees. I'm certainly not promising that if someone becomes a Chocolatier, he or she will magically lose weight, no more than I would promise that he or she would instantly make a million dollars. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle, like succeeding in business, requires awareness, attention, discipline, and effort. I'm totally not a health and fitness guru, but it seems to me that building a healthy body and building a strong business can go hand in hand, especially if you incorporate your passions into both. I'm working on it - you can, too!  I invite you to join me - together we can accomplish anything!

Un-Chocolate

Perhaps by now you've read about my South Beach Diet experience. I have, at this point, made it a whopping 3.5 weeks into SBD with a weight loss of 16 pounds (hold for applause). Sometime last week at the grocery store, I spotted some of the "South Beach Living" products in the cereal aisle, with the granola bars and other not-so-healthy stuff disguised as healthy stuff. I picked up a box or two of the High Protein Cereal Bars and read their ingredient labels. The S'mores variety contained sucralose (a.k.a. Splenda), and you know how I feel about artificial sweeteners, so I put that one back. I picked up the Chocolate ones. I didn't spot any evil sugar subbies on that list, so I thought I'd give them a try. OK, so I just didn't look hard enough, and when I got home I realized their ingredient list also sports some sucralose, only hidden in the middle among all the other words I can't pronounce. This should have been my first clue that these things are not ideal for human consumption.

I still decided that maybe I'm a little too rigid in my abstinence from noncaloric sweeteners, so I packed one along when I went to pick up my daughter one day. I desperately needed a snack and didn't have time to put almonds in a baggie, so off I went with this "Chocolate" cereal bar. Mind you, the box housing the bars bears the words artificial flavor in wee tiny print immediately following "Chocolate." This should been my second clue.

I'll spare you all the drama of the unwrapping and eating and get straight to the description: chunky sawdust covered with a brown nearly sweetlike substance that comes about as close to chocolate as mustard does. Yeah, I ate the whole thing because I didn't want to faint while driving, but I ate it with the same enthusiasm I normally reserve for something like tearing a paper towel from its roll. Sadly, I have come to accept that most snack foods of this ilk taste somewhat like sawdust (I think it must be the "protein nuggets" or some such ingredient), so I think I was most offended by this cereal bar's sad attempt at tasting like chocolate. Yes, offended. Not that I gagged or anything - it's by far not celery or anything evil like that - but still, I couldn't help but feel like I'd been had. This bar sullies the good name of Chocolate, and should therefore not get to bear it anywhere on its packaging. Chocolate is sacred and should be held in higher esteem than that.

I may have gotten spoiled or I may just not have gotten desperate enough before I tried this "Chocolate Artificial Flavor" bar, but I learned something. Chocolate is definitely chocolate, and this concoction definitely is NOT (duh, right?). Can you imagine if a person (say from a distant land or Venus or Tatooine or somewhere) picked up one of these bars and thought that's what chocolate is supposed to taste like? Boo, foul impostor! From now on, I believe I'll go with one of the flavors of High Protein Sawdust Bar that doesn't even try or pretend to be chocolate.