There is not a single soul in the world who detests chocolates, for a lot of people it is the go-to comfort snack but at the very same time, most of us also share a rather complicated relationship with chocolate. We crave chocolates literally all day, every day but are scared to enjoy them for health reasons and are guilty when we actually do enjoy them.
Based on a study, it is women who feel more guilt than men while enjoying even a piece of chocolate but this constant agony and guilt can be extremely harmful to one’s mental health according to several psychologists and can push people into having eating disorders.
It has psychologically been proven that the minute something is put off-limits for us, we want it and crave it even more- chocolates are one such thing. You cannot push it away so it is best to start adjusting to it and inculcate the habit of indulging in it in moderation.
Here is where mindful eating comes to play, mindful eating is the act of responding to your body’s needs and signals and eating till you are completely full and never overeating. Chocolate is definitely not something that can be enjoyed and popped into your mouth like a good ol’ bowl of cheese popcorn, with chocolates you need to savour it and control the portion size.
Miten Kakaiya, a fitness coach and the founder of Miten Says Fitness confirmed that a lot of his students were able to lose weight and strive toward their fitness goals even after enjoying a piece of chocolate on a daily basis.
Talking about how one could enjoy chocolate every day without guilt-tripping themselves, Miten says, “Add weight training to your daily routine so that the energy from the sugars in your chocolate is utilised to build muscles and this, in turn, can improve one’s metabolism, allowing the person to consume more food during the course of the day.”
He further suggested that one could possibly, “Switch to dark chocolate since it is rich in iron, magnesium, copper and manganese and is an important source of some really powerful anti-oxidants.”
With chocolates, one sure does need to find a middle ground between completely avoiding them and overindulging in them. It might be difficult initially but is not impossible to achieve. Plus, it can be terrible for your health to banish chocolate from your life since it does have quite a few benefits, such as increasing blood circulation of the heart, reducing stress and giving a good balance to the immune system.
In case you are facing trouble with controlling your food intake, it is highly advisable to seek the help of a medical expert and a professional nutritionist.
