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The CHOCdiet. Can I lose weight eating raw chocolate? The challenge begins…

gochocchick — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 22:39:57 +0000

CHOC Chick Galia

Well Chicks, it’s high time I tested the amazing properties of raw cacao properly.

I have never been a slim person and have always struggled with my weight. I have honestly tried every diet and food fad known to woman.

When I discovered raw chocolate, I couldn’t believe how it not only tasted amazing, but after eating one or two pieces, I didn’t get the urge to gorge myself with chocolate as I would have after eating a dairy milk bar (or two). Making my own raw chocolate meant that I stopped buying commercially processed and sugar laden chocolate and without changing any other eating habits, I actually lost 20 lbs in 1 year. I dropped 2 dress sizes and went from a size 20 to a 16. Two years on and I’m still a size 16 but am definitely ready to drop 2 more dress sizes.

So the challenge is to lose 14lbs in time for our summer holiday in Spain this July. I will be drinking a CHOC Shot before every meal and when I feel hungry during the day/evening, will try and excercise a bit more and will simply eat healthier meals and snacks. (CHOC Shot of Antioxidant Goodness: mix 1tsp of raw cacao powder with warm water, sweetened with1/2 tsp Sweet Freedom).

No major dieting involved, just healthy eating and CHOC Shots and a little help from my friends at Diet Freedom and from the lovely Sam at Miss Fit Personal Training.

I will be speaking with Tina from Diet Freedom durng the week for advice on healthy eating and Sam (the original Miss Fit) has planned a light excercise routine for me for each day this week. Here is what Sam recommended for me today:

Before you start: Write down on a piece of paper EXACTLY why you want to start exercising and what you are going to achieve. Example: ”I’m going to be size 14 by July 1st and have more energy.” Then visualise how you would look, feel, behave once you have achieved this. Experience all the good feelings surrounding this visualisation (rather than focusing on what you’re not happy with at the moment). Stay in this ‘feel good’ factor emotion for a few minutes.

Every day: Start off with warm water and lemon to hydrate and cleanse. You are a super busy lady so do these exercises before you do anything else to be guaranteed to stick to the plan! Plus, your concentration for the rest of the day will be soooooooo much better and you’ll work smarter!

Day 1 - Monday April 26

Remember that ‘feel good’ factor of reaching your goal then go for a 30 minute brisk walk, focusing on breathing in deeply the fresh air, ipod on with favourite upbeat music.

OK, so rather than writing on a a piece of paper, I will be blogging about my chocolate weight loss challenge. I did manage to go for a brisk’ish walk with my daughters and our two dogs (it was around 20 minutes…Rome wasn’t built in a day) and have so far eaten pretty healthy meals. Dinner was particularly delish, we had grilled tuna steaks with mixed greens and broccoli and a very small amount of oven chips (I can’t believe I only had a few, I normally eat loads of chips, it’s early days though!). Since I had some ripe avocados that needed to be eaten, I made our CHOCalicious Raw Chocolate Mousse recipe (look out for our May Recipe of the month next week!) which we all enjoyed for dessert. (my girls were particularly pleased that this chocolate mousse, with avocado in it, actually counts as one of their 5 a day fruit and veg portions!)

As you can see, I have no intention of depriving myself of the things I love, but hopefully I will manage to enjoy this healthier lifestyle and lose weight as well. I have weighed myself, although am a bit ashamed to announce my weight to the world just yet and will try and keep the weighing to a minimum. The proof will be in dropping at least 1 dress size and comfortably fitting into size 14 jeans by July 1st 2010.

So far so good…wish me luck!

CHOC Chick x

Goddesses of Raw Chocolate

gochocchick — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 23:18:51 +0000

Fabulous CHOC Chicks

Galia and Trude the CHOC Chicks

Here come the girls…or CHOC Chicks really! Last Wednesday we spent a glorious evening, meeting old friends, making new friends, drinking champagne, eating raw chocolate strawberries, chatting and learning to make decadently healthy raw chocolates and amazing chocolate cocktails. The absolute perfect evening and only girls were allowed!

It was genuinely fantastic to meet so many beautiful and likeminded women and I’m always amazed and how wonderfully supportive women can be. All my networking and best business contacts has been through other women. The best thing I did when I set up CHOC CHick was join Mums in Biz networking group, run by Nicky Chisholm. I’m sometimes overwhelmed by the amazing women I’ve met through this group and the wonderful opportunities and support that have resulted.

I’ve managed to find a wonderful Virtual Assistant in the marvellous Trude Thomas, who has become a right hand person and an endless source of practical and emotional support. I met the glorious Fay MacDonald, who invited me to run a raw chocolate making session at her Diosa Delicious Goddess of Chocolate event on Wednesday and has now connected me with many more supportive women all interested in the goodness of raw chocolate.

So in today’s post, I just want to raise a glass to all women and especially to those who love chocolate! Gx

Ethical Sourcing

gochocchick — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 12:51:30 +0000

I feel really proud. I love chatting to my raw chocolate ingredients suppliers. They are an ethical company that imports healthy products from South America and Africa and have a wonderful and ethical attitude to business. I found them through a recommendation and the more I find out about their business practices, the happier I am to be working with them. During my last chat to them this week, I wanted to find out a bit more about my raw cacao and raw cacao butter suppliers in Ecuador. It turns out that my UK suppliers work directly with the growers and farmers in Ecuador to ensure working conditions are of a fair and high standard and that no pesticides or harmful agrochemicals are used in the growth, harvest or packaging of the products they import.

I simply asked my suppliers a few questions and found out a lot of interesting information. I found out that the raw cacao powder and raw cacao butter I use in my CHOC Chick Kits are grown by a fair trade, family run business in Ecuador. I found out that their business is an integral part of the community, that they look after all their workers and make a point of hiring single mothers, who find it particularly hard to find work in Ecuador. I also found out that all workers are given free food which includes organic, pesticides free rice and flour. And the best thing I found out is their name. This community business is run by Santiago and Carla and I feel very proud to be a small part in this ethical supply chain.

Why Raw Chocolate? Because it Makes you Happy!

gochocchick — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 12:14:03 +0000

As this is my first ever blog, it might be a good idea to explain to everyone why I left a pretty secure and fairly interesting job, working with really lovely people, to set up my own small business at home (on my own!). Well, it all started in January 2008 when I met up with a good friend, who had been seriously ill. We went to see a film together (it was actually the first grown up, non-animated children’s film I had seen in about 5 years) and had dinner afterwards. We talked about her health issues and how she had been told by doctors and nutritionists that she could no longer eat sugar, gluten, dairy foods and of course chocolate. Not being able to eat chocolate was probably the worst one until she discovered she could eat raw chocolate and easily make it herself.

I’d mentioned that having grown up in South America, I really missed the taste of pure chocolate and although I ate far too much commercially processed chocolate, I still craved the taste of the chocolate you find in Venezuela or Argentina. So, I went round to her house the next day and tried her home made raw chocs, they were absolutely divine. They totally transported me back to my childhood.

It was the taste that got me, way before I realised that they were also incredible health benefits to raw cacao. Those who know me, know that I love to enjoy life and for me that include a life full of great food (that my lovely husband cooks!), good wine, lots of music, singing my heart out and being surrounded by wonderful friends and family. I’ve never been a slim person and do tend to overindulge in the things I love, so to discover something delicious that was actually good for me was truly life enhancing.

And that’s why I set up CHOC Chick. I have a real need to share the things that make me happy in the hope that it will make others happy too. Having been immersed in raw chocolate making for a year now, I have not only discovered the pleasure of making delicious treats but have experienced the health benefits as well. I’ve lost weight, my skin looks fantastic (if I may say so myself) and I generally feel happy. I still have a way to go on the weight front, but having hit 40 and now almost hitting 42, I’ve come to realise (wish I’d known this when I was in my early 20 and 30’s) that if you are happy and feel good inside, you really do look good as well.

So for me the raw chocolate business is about enjoying life and being happy. Happy in what you do, happy in what you eat and happy about how you look. Hope I can spread this happiness and share the love of raw chocolate!