Louisa's Weight Loss Blog

When a relationship ends, you may certainly be heartbroken. It is normal to cry and need a comforting hug from your friends and family, fun drinking sessions with friends and so on to forget about the emotional pain. The thing is that most people cannot get to the fun stage until they have finished the ‘wallowing’ stage and this is where the Heartbreak Diet comes in. We have all been there and most women will support you and try and help you by telling you of their experiences and how they got through it. You will get over it and you will meet someone nice again. I didn’t meet anyone remotely nice until Jonny came along which was three years after my last relationship!

Most women will be familiar with the Heartbreak Diet and it can go one of two ways.

• Some women won’t want to eat at all. They will only eat when forced and each mouthful of food sticks in the throat and you always feel sick afterwards. Normal eating will usually resume after a few weeks but women who have lost weight as a result will typically be thrilled with their new bodies and will work hard to maintain their new weight.
• Other women will turn to food for comfort and can’t stop eating. They will put on weight and may spiral into depression and feelings of low self-esteem.

When your heart is broken, you will either turn to food for comfort... or turn away from it.

There are ways around the unfortunate second option if you believe you may fall into this trap.

• Surround yourself with mates and maybe eat with them too. Cook healthy meals for each other and go to exercise or dance classes together.
• Keep your self esteem up, stay busy and treat yourself regularly with small gifts that aren’t food.
• Join the gym, spend all the time you would have spent with him exercising and working for the body you always wanted.

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