Diet With Chocolate

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim...

A good Sunday it is this morning, hopefully until the evening.

Phase I of my diet ends today. I lost 0.7 kg. Target reached! ^_^

Opps... today I will be having BBQ with my friends. With chocolate cake made by my housemate, isk.....a great temptation for me. Oh noooo... +_+

A careful step indeed need to be taken: Eat healthy food first before going to the party..can be fruit + vegetable soup + a small bowl of rice. And having a chewing gum in my mouth during the party I guess will be helpful too. Let's try it ! =)

By the way, just wanna share some 5 simple food swaps that can help us lose more than 10 pounds ( 1 pound = 0.4536 kg) in the next 6 weeks. Read further if you wish to join me! ^_^

(Sorry guyz..this is lady slot. If you wish to read down, there is no offence. =) )

:: 5 simple food swaps ::

1. Stick to one serving of cereal.

For most people, a typical pour of breakfast cereal is equal to two servings. If we are trying to lose weight, trim calories by accurately measuring one serving into our bowl (usually that means ¾ - 1 cup, however, cereal serving sizes vary so we must regularly check the package labeling on our favorite brands and varieties).

For those who eat a daily bowl of breakfast cereal, make everything to half from now on. Follow my lead, and we'll save about 150 calories by cutting back on cereal and at least 50 calories in extra milk every morning.

2. Skip your late night snack.

We all feel the need to munch in the evening, and although a p.m. snack can be perfectly appropriate (diet-friendly p.m. snacks should not exceed 150 calories), for many people, the evening tends to be the time of day we blow it on calorie overload - comfort food central; ice cream, cookies, potato chips, popcorn and more! I don't really like ice-cream but sometimes Pringles do allure me most. huu~

On average, people gobble down way more than 250 calories after 8 p.m. Exercise some willpower and skip your night time snack altogether. Sip an herbal tea or light soup, floss/brush your teeth and close down the kitchen for the evening. You'll save at least 250 calories each day and after six weeks, you'll have cut 10,500 calories and dropped 3 whole pounds ( equal to 1.3608 kg)!

3. Scratch the butter/margarine.

Cut out a total of one tablespoon of regular butter or margarine from your toast, veggies, potatoes, dinner rolls, etc each day. At 100 calories per tablespoon, we will save 4,200 calories and drop over one pound in six weeks. What if we can't give up the butter or margarine? At least switch to a soft tub spread that says "reduced fat" and "trans-fat free" on the label - it's half the calories of the full fat versions, so we will still drop over ½ pound.. =)

4. Lose the mayo and cheese on our sandwich.

Omit the slice of cheese and mayonnaise on our sandwich (use mustard instead - only five calories per teaspoon) and we'll save about 200 calories per sandwich. If we eat a sandwich a day, we'll end up saving 8,400 calories and find ourself 2.5 pounds lighter after just six weeks.

5. Delete the extras.

It's amazing how much extra food we can munch on without realizing it - a grab of this/that off our friend's plate, an extra packet of ketchup or salad dressing, a bite of our co-worker's dessert... before we know it, we have consumed an extra 800 calories!

Be super mindful and delete the "extras" and we will be able to trim a significant amount of calories off our weekly total. Also, pay attention to our beverages - as well as what's going into your coffee and tea. I think it's a bonus for me since I like green tea without sugar and refuse soft drinks (like Pepsi, Coca-cola, etc) at all. By trimming 1000 extra calories off each week (about 150 per day), we will save a total of 6000 calories and drop 1.75 pounds at the end of six weeks!

Eat Chocolate while in Diet?

Yes, I got a good news for those who likes chocolate so much but in diet. We can still have a chunk of chocolate if we are really craving for it. There is nothing wrong with our healthy diet peeps...=)

There is room for chocolate in any healthy diet, not only because new research indicates that it’s actually good for us thanks to disease-fighting flavanols in the darker varieties, but also because it tastes good and we love it.

The key to including indulgences like chocolate in our diet without blowing our calorie limit is to eat them in moderation. That means limiting ourself to a small piece or two a day (about one ounce or 150 calories worth), and splurging on high-quality chocolate that really satisfies.

Another calorie-smart strategy is to pair chocolate with fruit (dip strawberries into a melted square, for instance---> suddenly it makes me remembering of someone..Siti Nurhaliza's love story :)) ), or mix air-popped popcorn with a few nuts and chocolate chips for a healthy homemade trail mix that feels like a real treat. What's more important is, keep everything UNDER CONTROL if we can't really eliminate it.

Enjoy our food while dieting, but ensure the food is healthy for us and is in small portion with as little calories as possible.

Before I stop, let's read this verse from our Holy Quran as a remembrance for us throughout the way....the way to the ultimate destination.

"And if Allah touches you with harm, none can remove it but He,

and if He touches you with good, then He is able to do all things."

[ Al-An'am: 17 ]

Let's move on to Phase II now..

Bismillahirrrahmanirrahim....=)