HELP!! I need Chocolate!

I had a day like that this past Tuesday. I almost ended up baking cupcakes and probably would have eaten 4 (although i'd be proud i didn't eat more :P)

I am not trying to come off insensitively, if chocolate is your absolute 'avoid at all costs food', by all means stay away and you have my deepest sympathies for feeling this way and enduring a stressful day....but if you have done well with your calories today, would it be possible to allow yourself a piece of really good quality chocolate anyway.

If you have had a stressful day it may help raising your seritonin (sp) levels and actually help lift your mood a little.


No matter what you do I hope life gets easier and if you overcome this urge (maybe a hot drink and a walk could help too) and if you don't get into binging many congratulations to you for overcoming this.

Best Wishes

Unless you're still at the point where you'll binge if you have it, find a way to work it into your calories for the day. On days I travel, I always leave room for the Toblerone I get free at Hampton Inns. One of my go-to snack foods is the Goodness Knows peachy-cherry that has dark chocolate on it and just tastes fabulous. You can have chocolate and be successful! If you can't right now, then find something else to focus on until the moment passes

Put 8 oz. of milk, 10 grams of chocolate sugar free instant pudding mix, 8 grams of semi-sweet chocolate chips, & 1.5 cups of crushed ice into a blender. Blend it until it is smooth enough to drink through a wide straw--161 cal, 25 carb, 2 fat, 8 protein. It's a good size drink & chocolaty enough to satisfy cravings. You could cut the milk back to 4 oz & cut out the choc chips & make it 78 calories in a pinch--it's still pretty good.

Add some plain baking cocoa (no sugar or cream unless you normally use it) to your coffee - a teaspoon is about 5 calories. I also have been known to eat 1/2 ounce "squares" of baking chocolate - about 70 calories per 1/2 ounce/14 g. The taste is bitter and maybe needs to be "acquired", but I like it. You could also go buy a small bar of "really good" chocolate - I've found such at World Market, the local food coop and sometimes at the checkout in such unlikely places as Michael's craft stores. I think the worst thing you can do is totally deprive yourself - hard not to binge when you finally give in.

I just ate two chocolates...I feel guilty.

Skinny Cow Ice Cream Bars! I can't preach enough about these things! Only 100cals/bar AND they taste good! Go to the store and get you some!

If you really want it, then I would say have it; count the calories, log it. Just make sure you only have a small amount, by buying a small individual chocolate, or having dark chocolate 70% cocoa fat - it gives you that lovely chocolatey taste but is very rich and I don't think you could eat a whole lot of it. Buy a block, break it into small pieces, wrap individually, freeze it. Then if you really really want it, take out ONE piece and let it defrost, and then eat it slowly.

Try Choc o Lait - not sure if you can get it, can in Australia - low fat low calorie drinking chocolate, really soothes that chocolate beast!

But also think - why are you turning to chocolate - or at least wanting to "binge"? Could you do something else if you are stressed? Go for a walk, drink a big glass of water, deep breathe, listen to music, learn new ways to cope with whatever is upsetting you?

:flowerforyou:

Dark, high cocoa solids (85% or more), chocolate is actually a very healthy food. It is one of the few foods that actually help your body to repair its DNA. Just make sure you don't eat more than 40 grams a day, and DON"T eat it within an hour of any kind of dairy or calcium supplement as the calcium blocks the uptake of the beneficial chocolate polyphenols in the gut. In Europe, they sell chocolate made with dextrose (the industry name for glucose which is arguably better for you than sucrose). Much of Europe is anti-GMO so, if it is organic, you can be assured that there is no GMO in it. Eating a bit of chocolate here and there is my only exception to the no-sugar rule I have made for myself. I don't crave it anymore since I have made a point of nourishing myself better but I make the ultimate sacrifice and eat it "for the sake of my health".

I ate chocolate today but had a good run to burn it off.