2 Teaspoons a Day Keeps the Handbasket Away
I am a stereotype. 10 days or so out of the month, I am a raging lunatic for sweets. Undeniably, part of a healthy lifestyle is fulfilling your desires. Another part of a healthy lifestyle is not consuming too many calories or overeating. When your hormones step into the driver’s seat, it’s hard not to give up, plop down in the big chocolate handbasket, and go straight to you know where.
Noting the date, and realizing the strong possibility I would inhale the bag of Snickers bars that was the sole chocolate item in the house, I needed a plan. It had to be cheap, because I splurged on produce this week. Enter: Whole Foods 365 brand chocolate chips. Remember the pancakes?
hm, pancake, there's something different about you. wait, don't tell me...
Even better with 2 teaspoons of creamy chocolate nuggets each. Yes, that’s me you see on the subway at 8:30 AM, savoring a tablespoon of peanut butter–or goat cheese–and half a sliced banana between recently reheated, fluffy, oaty, chocolatey clouds.
choco-mergency preparations: don't you love my blurry camera skills? yeah, me neither.
The ingredients are cheap and natural; per 2 pancakes, it’s 1 egg white, 3/4 oz yogurt, 1/2 tsp oil, flour, oats, and negligible amounts of baking soda/powder and salt. The bag of chocolate chips (safe in the freezer from hormonal hands) cost $2.99 and will last several months.
Chocolate chip pancakes work because they are built right into my existing grocery list and also my daily allowance of calories. Were I to go for a Snickers bar each day, I’d be adding over 200 calories of sugar and fat to my diet without adding much nourishment. If I ate the chips by themselves as dessert, I’d be left feeling deprived: only 2 miniscule teaspoons! .
Working them into breakfast makes the whole meal seem like a big treat. And what fun it is to eat one of those to start your busy day–rather than late at night, half-secretly or else unwisely brashly, when you’re feeling crabby or upset.
treat = breakfast; no willpower required
Pancakes may not be the answer for you, but permitting yourself to have a little treat, and building it into your days, might be just the helping hand you need to pull yourself out of the basket.
katecooks
October 26th, 2009 at 4:31 pm #
those pancakes look delicious! i don’t know if i’d be able to moderate the choc chip consumption quite so well but i’m impressed that you can
admin
October 26th, 2009 at 6:01 pm #
Thanks, Kate! The chips aren’t a temptation for me, but if I tried this with reese’s pieces, the whole plan would be ruined.