Where are your kitchen treats hidden?

Is your kitchen full of ways to ruin your diet?

Do you have a cookie stash, bag of crisps/chips, packets of sucky sweets, sachets of butter popcorn or hidden bars of chocolate?

Well it’s time to get rid of these kitchen treats, if you only have healthy things in the house then that’s all you can eat!

We’re all guilty of snacking when we’re bored, peckish or upset, when these naughty foods come out you’ve suddenly found yourself finishing off a whole bag of Doritos or a massive chunk of chocolate.

Just removing these treats won’t be enough for most people, they must be replaced with something to stop the temptation to visit the local store.  Try “grazing” on raw carrots, nibbling dried fruit or avoid those kitchen cupboards altogether when you feel like a snack!

It’s time to smash up that cookie jar for good…

Merry Christmas! I hope Santa Claus brought everyone the gifts they asked for. I got lots of lovely bath stuff, money to go towards my holiday and some rather fancy headphones from the lovely Jonny.

I did get lots of chocolates and a naughty hamper with mince pies, toffee and panatone which looks lovely!

When people don’t know what to get you, they often pick up little luxuries like nice chocolates and biscuits. It’s a terrible time if you’re trying very hard to lose weight – or even just maintain your current weight over the festive period.

So I’ve devised a little list of tips to help you enjoy your food at christmas that should help you prevent an unfortunate weight gain:

1. If someone gives you chocolates, thank them and share them among your relatives. You look generous and are less tempted to polish off the box!
2. At lunch time, fill up on green veggies and carrots. Turkey is a good, lean meat so don’t feel you can’t eat it. Do try and go easy on the roast potatoes, parsnips, chipolatas and other trimmings.
3. Take your time – too many people eat what is on their plate because it looks lovely. Learn to recognise when you are full and stop eating at this point.
4. Avoid attacking the chocolate tin when watching The Queen’s Speech or the Great Escape.
5. Christmas puddings are full of sugar and calories so eat a smaller portion and choose single cream or evaporated milk to go with it. You will be surprised how little can satisfy a sweet tooth.
6. Don’t drink alcohol to excess, make smarter choices when drinking alcohol and try and avoid creamy liqueurs after dinner.
7. Go for a walk or a short bike ride on Christmas day. You will probably want to sleep after dinner – that’s fine, just make sure you do something otherwise you will feel even more sluggish on Boxing Day.
8. Hit the sales. You don’t necessarily have to buy much but bag carrying is good exercise and we all know how exciting it is to find a bargain.

Back in September, I wrote a post about why women crave chocolate and it seems to have struck a chord with the majority of visitors to Total Chunk. I put forward an answer to this age-old question by suggesting that women crave chocolate around the time of menstruation because their body is lacking in magnesium. This is a mineral that is required for bone growth (it works with calcium) but researchers have also indicated that magnesium helps to relax your muscles which is vital when a woman is menstruating for easing pain.

Can you resist chocolate when you're on a diet?

I answered why women crave chocolate and suggested that ladies drink hot chocolate if their craving becomes critical. This has been met with a mixed response, most people think this is a great idea but my mum disagrees. I am always open to (constructive) criticism and suggestions. My mum (Janey to you) said that hot chocolate doesn’t satisfy her, for her it is about the texture and feel of chocolate when she consumes it. Her desire for chocolate is not often satiated by a drink.

So back off to the drawing board I went! We are all answerable to our mothers and the purpose of Total Chunk is to offer a big range of diet tips because not all tips work for all people. What is the point in suggesting you eat only bananas for breakfast if you can’t bear the smell of them?

My first tip was to drink hot chocolate so here are a few more so you can enjoy a little of what you fancy without ruining your diet:

• Buy a small amount of expensive chocolate, you will eat less but enjoy it more because you know it is special chocolate
• Drink coffee (preferably black) with a couple of squares of chocolate as it makes the texture very satisfying and you will savour it more as it lingers for as long as it takes to drink a cup of coffee.
• Switch to dark chocolate. Magnesium is in cocoa and dark chocolate has a high cocoa content so it’s in theory, better for you anyway.
• Share your chocolate bar with a friend

It is an unfortunate (and disgusting) fact of life, all women suffer from ‘the monthly curse’. Some may refer to a woman’s period as ‘auntie flo is coming to town’ or even less articulately, as being ‘on the blob’. Whatever you want to call it, it is never a pleasant experience as it is at best uncomfortable and mildly embarrassing, at worse a woman’s period is debilitating agony that stops life for 5 days of a month.

Some women become psychopathic, they cry, get upset over the tiniest things and are difficult to please. It isn’t our fault! Men often don’t help the situation by being completely ignorant to his partner’s pain and insist that a woman’s period is ‘blow job week’. Helpful!

What you will find is that women typically crave certain foods just before or during her period. I usually crave a packet of jelly babies! Many women will crave chocolate and pig out on giant bars of chocolate to satisfy the craving but will have no idea why chocolate is suddenly the most important thing in the world. If you ask a menstruating woman whether she’d rather have chocolate or world peace, I reckon chocolate would often win.

So why do women crave chocolate on their periods? Chocolate contains a high level of magnesium and it has been shown that magnesium can help alleviate menstrual cramps. The body is an amazing thing, if you are in tune with it, it will always tell you what it wants.

Think about it, when a woman is menstruating, she is losing the ‘best’ blood in her body, the most nutrient rich stuff which is why women are more likely to be anaemic than men. Magnesium is an alkaline earth metal but it is also the 11th most abundant element according to mass in the human body (the first being the metal calcium) so we need it!

If you’re craving chocolate when you’re on a period, don’t feel guilty about having a small amount to satisfy the craving. If you are still crawling up the walls desperate for it, try drinking low calorie hot chocolates like Cadbury’s highlights which are only 40 calories a mug. Ultimately you need to have self control, so try light exercise like yoga or pilates to forget about period pains if you are trying to be ‘good’.

TIP: A little bit of what you fancy never hurt anyone so if you crave chocolate when you’re menstruating, try drinking hot chocolate. Your body craves what it needs but you ARE still in control of your diet so don’t go overboard. Ask your doctor about magnesium supplements if you are concerned.