How to eat chocolate without getting fat this Easter

The Diet Everyone Talks About is committed to helping you in your endeavours to lose the weight while still leading a normal and fulfilling lifestyle that allows you to join in on the family fun and not feel deprived.

Here are some simple hints and tips to enjoy your Easter holidays:

Do dark chocolate

Contrary to popular belief, there are many benefits to eating chocolate, especially dark chocolate. Chocolate started out as a drink made from cacao beans in pre-Columbian Mexico hundreds of years ago. The drink was said to have revitalizing and restorative properties.

Today, we enjoy chocolate mainly because of its sweet and rich taste. This is because of the added sugar and milk in the production of modern chocolate. However, chocolate started off as dark and bitter like the original cacao beans it came from.

Since the cacao bean originates from a plant, it contains a lot of the health benefits which are associated with dark vegetables. Dark chocolate can be very good for your heart. Eating a small amount of it every day can help to keep your heart healthy and improve your cardiovascular system by reducing blood pressure and lowering cholesterol.

The health benefits associated with dark chocolate are not limited to improving your heart. Many people prefer the slightly bitter taste of dark chocolate to the sweetened taste of normal milk chocolate. It contains much less sugar and fat than normal chocolate. Dark chocolate stimulates the production of endorphins in the body which give a sensation of pleasure as well as containing serotonin which is an anti-depressant hormone, so there is some truth in the belief that chocolate boosts your mood!

Dark chocolate stimulates the production of endorphins in the body which give a sensation of pleasure as well as containing serotonin which is an anti-depressant hormone, so there is some truth in the belief that chocolate boosts your mood!

Expend more energy

Aside from the many obvious positives of exercising, it is a great way to allow yourself some guilt-free indulgence. The basic principle of losing weight is that your intake of kilojoules is less than the daily energy you expend. In order to enjoy a happy Easter, your kilojoule intake will inevitably increase, and thus it makes sense that you should expend more energy.

Energy is expended in three ways: the movement of your body, food digestion and through simply keeping alive. Your body burns kilojoules even when you are doing nothing, this is known as your Basal Metabolic rate, and is the number of kilojoules you expend merely keeping the body functioning at rest.

Over this holiday period, try to take advantage of your extra time away from work by adding to your exercise regime. Think creatively and get the kids involved: running after your children is definitely a good way to burn kilojoules. Take them to the park and kick a soccer ball around or find a tennis court and hold a family round robin tournament!

Any form of exercise will increase your metabolism and burn fat so try and up the exercise to counteract your increased food intake

Drink more water

Drinking water is important if you're trying to lose weight: some studies have shown that thirst and hunger sensations are triggered together. If there is a slight dehydration the thirst mechanism may be mistaken for hunger and one may eat when the body is actually craving fluid.

As most food contains some water, if one doesn't drink much they may be subconsciously driven to eat more to gain the necessary water supply however, you also gain the undesired effects of increased kilojoule consumption. Drinking more water can help to prevent overeating and benefit weight loss.

Listen to your body and counteract those cravings by drinking at least eight glasses of water a day. A great way to ensure increased water consumption for the whole family is to always have a big jug of water on the kitchen counter. Jazz it up with some lemon slices, mint leaves and ginger; not only do these add a great flavour to the water, but also help to combat bloating. You can kick-start your metabolism in the morning by drinking a mug of hot water with lemon.

Enjoy your holiday, spend time with your family and don’t be too hard on yourself for indulging in the odd Easter treat. Simple tips such as these will enable you to keep up with your diet.

Remember to minimise your intake of refined carbohydrates and try to eat your biggest meal at lunch time or before six in the evening.

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