Green Lemonade

Today in your purview, there’s a chocolate cake in the work pantry, M&Ms on a co-workers desk, and a Pumpkin spice Frappuccino catching your eye at Starbucks. It’s a sweet world; you just live in it.

As you start this journey into eating healthier, real foods, dessert will still be on your eating roster. The dessert “consensus” among many women new to eating more whole, natural foods with less refined sugars is that a good piece of dark chocolate (>70% cocoa) finishes off a meal nicely.

And why shouldn’t it? From campfire s’mores to hot fudge sundaes, chocolate has been an integral part of your sweetest childhood memories.

Switch to a few dark chocolate covered almonds, or hot cocoa with almond milk

The goal of course is to try and whittle down your sugar and enriched flour dependence – so the bakery pastries are obviously out. A small piece of dark chocolate bark with a few almonds or walnuts is also a nice option. A few chocolate covered nuts would be fine too. A sweet potato harvest smoothie made with rice milk, a half of a cooked sweet potato and a bit of honey is also a favorite of mine. Some women love a date or two with almond butter.

In the wintertime, perhaps a cup of almond milk with some cocoa would also work for you – it is surprisingly satisfying. Definitely go with this hot cocoa route if you find yourself starting to nibble on an entire bar of dark chocolate per day. It really does hit the spot.

If you do drink, wine is better than liquor or beer

If you do choose to drink, Miss Scarlet, red wine is better than liquor or beer in this way of eating. All good things in moderation, of course.

Just make sure and skip fruit based desserts

The only thing that you want to avoid is a fruit based dessert. Fruit digests so quickly that if eaten with other food tends to ferment and cause gas…not good for you as you work to boost your lightness and energy. Gas also gets trapped in the body and ultimately can contribute to cellulite.