Chocolate can be part of a balanced diet

Hands up if you ate your own body weight in chocolate in the past seven days?

Outside of Christmas, Easter is by far the worst time of the year for people’s diets.

There’s enormous amounts of chocolate just dumped at your feet and it rarely has anywhere else to go other than your belly!

We’re in a world where food is omnipresent. It’s all around us, available at every turn and all that does is make making good food choices harder. When that’s the norm and you add a house full of Easter eggs, well, we’re in bother.

I’m a big believer in enjoying food and not falling into the trap of depriving ourselves of types of foods that although they may not be great for us, we wholeheartedly enjoy, ie. An Easter Egg.

With this in mind it’s important to appreciate that if we are going to go down the road of indulging in high calorie foods that have very little nutritional value from time to time we must take this into consideration when planning the rest of your daily food intake.

So with the possibility of a few days poor quality eating behind us it’s worth thinking about making sure the next couple of days act as a counter balance of sorts. Tick the following boxes and you won’t go too far wrong!

• Make sure you have a protein source in every meal. Be it poultry, meat, fish or eggs, try your best to include a healthy source of protein to increase satiety which in turn reduces the chance of cravings creeping up on you, never mind the cell building and muscular repair aspects of protein which the body needs on a regular basis anyway!!!

• Hydrate. Reach for your water bottle and make sure you’re hitting your targets.

On a non-training day it’s one litre for every twenty five kilos of bodyweight, on a training day you can add another half-litre for every thirty minutes of exercise!

Dehydration can cause lethargy, and when you feel lethargic you’re more likely to reach for a quick pick me up in the form of something sugary. Stay hydrated and you remove the chance of that scenario from ever occurring!

• Load your plate with colourful veg. Vegetables for the most part are jam packed with nutrients, high in fibre and low in calories.
Get your fill of vitamins and minerals, keep your gut healthy with a steady supply of fibre and reduce your caloric intake by choosing vegetables over more calorific options!

If you can consistently do this you’ll quickly get on the right side of any damage those Easter Eggs may have caused.
And, once you see and feel the benefit of applying these tips, you can carry them in to everyday life and watch as your spectre of health and fitness expands by the day!

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