OK, I have actually lost more weight (8Lbs in total so far, hooray!!), but I have decided I am definitely not going to call this a Diet. It’s the dreaded D word that just gets to me.
To be honest, the only thing I’ve achieved by dieting most of my life is to put weight on and the more I think about being on I diet the more I start to panic. I have such a rebellious nature that as I start to get into a diet routine, I ultimately get the urge to splurge and eat everything in sight. But not this time! All I am doing is drinking my CHOC Shots 3 times a day and eating a bit less and more regularly. I am also not going to weigh myself as often, it was getting a bit obsessive and all consuming, so next week before we leave on holiday will be my last regular weigh in.
I’m sure I’ll still weigh myself now and then, but after next week, the scales will be removed from the bathroom floor and will be brought out only in case of emergencies!
I also just realised that I should have a proper before and after photo shouldn’t I? Of course being particularly camera shy, I didn’t take one but have found a grainy image of me on my 43rd birthday in April just a few weeks before I started the CHOC Shot drinking (not Diet!!) and I will take a photo next week so we can all see the difference.
So cheers and hopefully the next pic will be minus the double chin!
Wow, I can’t believe I’m still on my CHOC Diet. It’s now week 8 of my CHOC Shot taking regime and I have lost a grand total of 6Lbs. I probably could have lost a lot more doing a more calorie controlled diet with higher levels of exercise, but my days are so busy and mad that I need to find a slightly easier routine I’m afraid, as controlling calories and exercising just doesn’t come naturally to me.
So to say that I’m delighted that I’ve lost weight at all is an understatement. I’ve tried every diet around and usually given up by week 6 and indeed that’s exactly what happened this time. Everything was going pretty smoothly up until week 4, I was drinking my CHOC Shots pretty regularly before a meal and eating significantly less than normal. It meant I was steadily losing 1lb a week, which is perfect for me as from past dieting experience, I would normally go on a crash diet for 4-6 weeks, lose loads of weight and then put double the lost weight back on within a month. So this slow and steady pace is ideal.
As expected weeks 4-5 were the most difficult and I did put on 2Lbs in week 5, so of course I felt like giving up, and I did to be honest. I stopped drinking the CHOC Shots regularly and binged pretty badly at the weekend (well we did have a few parties and people round!). But the weird thing is that I didn’t feel guilty at all and last week I just started drinking the CHOC Shots again and lo and behold, I’ve not only lost the 2Lbs I gained but lost an extra 1Lbs to boot!
Raw chocolate smoothie or milkshake is the perfect lunch
The CHOC Shots are super simple to make. All you need to do is put 1tsp of CHOC Chick Raw Cacao Powder in a small cup (espresso cups are perfect), add warm water (not boiling as you will reduce the antioxidant benefits), stir well and drink this before every meal and when you feel peckish. I’m still eating 3 meals a day and on some days this week have had an amazing Raw CHOC Smoothie for lunch (I put 1 banana, 1tbps peanut butter, quarter pint of milk, handful of crushed ice and 2tbsp plain yogurt in a blender, whizzed this and added 1tbsp raw cacao powder and 1tbsp Sweet Freedom or Agave Syrup to sweeten and blended together) which kept me feeling full until 5pm!
I have only got 4 more weeks before our holiday, so am feeling more motivated to continue in this quest. I’m already wearing trousers that were far too small for me 3 months ago and can just about fit into the size 14 pair (I have trousers in my closet ranging from size 20 to 14!). So onwards and upwards (or downwards in weight) and I’ll keep you posted on my progress soon.
Wow, a lot has happened these past few weeks and I have to admit that I’ve slightly forgotten about my CHOC Diet. I took part in both the Real Food Festival and the Allergy Show in London during May with the wonderful Sweet Freedom ladies (here’s a photo at the Allergy Show with me and Tina from Sweet Freedom and the wonderful Dr. Chris Steel from GMTV) and had to organise the launch party for our CHOC Chick Party Kits and collaboration with Cheeky Butlers and Lucky Voice. So I think I have a good enough excuse for being lax.
The result of all the recent madness has been that I found it hard to have a daily routine, so haven’t been drinking the CHOC Shots and eating regularly. I did lose 1Lb in week 4, but of course have put on 2Lb in week 5! Hey ho, I won’t be discouraged and have started week 6 by drinking my CHOC Shots and being a bit more conscious about my food and drink intake (yes I admit it…I did also drink a bit too much over the past few weekends!).
I promise to keep you all posted on the CHOC Diet again soon, but now to the really interesting news… our CHOC Chick Party Kit Launch Party last Sunday at Lucky Voice with the scrumptiously Cheeky Butlers! It was AMAZING fun and thank you to everyone who came and helped make it such a fabulous afternoon.
Cheeky Butlers and Guests
So…here is how the afternoon panned out. We had the gorgeous David greeting guests at the entrance to Lucky Voice, followed by the fabulous Anthony who offered everyone raw CHOC strawberries as they arrived. CheekyButler Mark was absolutely delightful and made sure everyone had a glass of wine. He was also my lovely assistant as I demonstrated raw chocolate making and ended up with a face covered in chocolate!
Chocolate covered butler
It only took 10 minutes to make the raw chocolates (we added a bit of Frangelico to jazz the CHOCs up) and while we waited for them to set (20 minutes in the freezer) Ben, Lucky Voice’s mixologist made the most amazing chocolate cocktails for everyone to try (using our raw cacao powder and sweet freedom to make the chocolate sauce for the cocktails of course!). It was a real blast and everyone got involved making and drinking the cocktails.
We’ve uploaded loads more pics to our Facebook page http://bit.ly/8YvFzG so have a look and see what you missed! Of course you can recreate this in your own home, all you need is a CHOC Chick Party Kit, add a CheekyButler and you have the perfect night in!
Right my lovely Chicks, I’m so sorry I haven’t written about my progress for over a week, what with life and work getting in the way, but I’m ecstatic to say that I have actually lost 2Lbs!!! Yippee!!
It’s mind boggling really, I’m still eating everything I love and even indulged in a few drinks with friends on one or two (maybe 3) occasions, but still managed to lose some weight. I think the secret is that I’m much more conscious about what I eat and when I eat. Making sure I drink 3 CHOC Shots a day actually makes me stop and eat a meal 3 times a day which is the big change for me. I used to eat very little during the day as I was always busy rushing about working and trying to balance my family life. I always ate breakfast and started off well but would find that I wouldn’t eat a thing since breakfast at 7:30am until around 5:00pm. So it’s no surprise that I would feel so hungry that I’d end up eating huge dinners and picking continuously from 5 in the afternoon until 8pm!
This is indeed a very big but simple lifestyle change for me. The CHOC Shots not only remind me to make the time to eat properly, but have also curbed my appetite and I do find that I eat much less than before. I’m so amazed and thrilled!
Now I just need to get a bit more exercise in, keep drinking the CHOC Shots and eating regular meals and I should hit my target of losing 14Lbs by mid July. So…on that note, I’m off to make myself some lovely lunch and will keep you all posted as soon as I can! Oh and if you fancy some gluten free and low GL treats, have a look at our CHOCtastic recipes this month.
So, the long weekend is nearly over and I have to say it’s been a bit of a struggle but not impossible. We went out for dinner with friends on Friday and had friends staying over on Saturday and normally what we tend to do at the weekends, whether with friends or on our own, is to indulge in lots of food and drink. My husband is the most amazing cook and he gets a lot of pleasure out of cooking sumptuous meals for us. So you can imagine how worried I was when I went on the scales this morning, but to my amazement I have actually lost 1lb 4oz!! I was completely blown away as I really thought I blew it this weekend (pardon the pun).
I guess the difference has been that my portions are smaller, I’m still eating great food but am actually eating less (no second helpings) and am choosing less bread and more meat and vegetables. I’m not drinking as much alcohol, just 1 glass of red wine at dinner and I’ve been drinking a CHOC Shot before each meal. I did also manage to have a bit of a walk and a jiggle on Saturday as my daughter took part in the Brighton Children’s Parade, so did fit in a small amount of physical activity as well (I’m sure Sam from Miss Fit will be pleased!).
The best discovery today has been the amazing advice on the Diet Freedom website www.dietfreedom.co.uk. I know I can’t just go on a diet without any proper nutritional advice and I also know from experience that I can’t stick to a strict diet. Having registered with Diet Freedom I have to admit that I found their advice incredibly inspirational. They encourage people to enjoy food, not to limit what they eat, but to choose foods that have a low glyceamic load and release sugars slowly to reduce our cravings. Reading their nutritional advice has also helped me understand where I’m going wrong with my eating patterns. Although I always have breakfast, I often don’t eat anything until 4-5pm in the afternoon and then feel absolutely ravenous and end up eating throughout most of the afternoon and evening. So this week, my main objective is to eat more regularly. Diet Freedom recommend eating every four hours, eating 3 small meals a day and 2 snacks and of course drinking lots of liquids.
I’m looking forward to this week now and don’t actually feel like I’m on a diet. I haven’t counted a single calorie and am still eating the foods I love. I think I can manage eating more regularly and drinking more fluids, especially if they are CHOCShots. Here’s to week 2!
Wow, so 4 days in and I still feel good and haven’t been tempted to over eat. It’s pretty typical for me though to start very enthusiastically and then the enthusiasm starts waning…but this is not about will power, it’s essentially a simple routine change. I don’t really feel restricted and drinking the CHOC Shots when I need a boost (normally around 2pm) and before each meal seems to be working.
Lovely porrdige with blueberries and nuts
The best thing is that I don’t find myself thinking about food all the time, I just eat when I’m hungry (I’m starting to notice when I’m hungry as well, which is a first for me!) and have tried to exercise a bit more. It’s not rocket science really, but just knowing that you can choose healthier alternatives seems to be the key.
The advice from Tina at Diet Freedom was incredibly helpful. It’s not about denying yourself the foods you love, but simply choosing foods that have a low Glyceamic Load which release sugars slowly into your system, so you feel satisfied longer and don’t get the massive sugar cravings. It actually does seem to work. I start my day with porridge, which I love, adding a teaspoon of our raw cacao powder and some blueberries or raspberries and a handfull of nuts is absolutely divine and I just add a small teaspoon of Sweet Freedom to sweeten. For lunch so far this week I’ve chosen whole wheat breads or wraps with hummus and chicken or avocado and egg (used creme fraise instead of mayo!) and have added a salad as well, so I feel like I’m eating loads. I’ve also eaten yogurt, some fruit or ryvitta crisp bread when I’m peckish in between meals and then at dinner, what amazes me most so far is that I’ve not had second helpings (normally I wolf down one plateful and then serve myself another AND then finish whatever is left on my daughter’s plates).
Excercise wise it’s all pretty doable as well, today’s plan was the same as Tuesday’s:
Walk 5-10 minutes to warmup
Then do 3 sets of 10 of the following exercises:
squats
crunches
tricep dips
lunges
I did my excercise first thing in the morning and hopefully this will become a part of my daily routine. I do feel that so far the changes to my diet and routine haven’t been huge but actually feel a big difference. Let’s hope this lasts and fingers crossed for the bank holiday weekend!
I'm just gonna look at this pic next time I fancy something sweet!
Wow, what a day! Anything I write about my diet progress will be totally overshadowed by the fact that I got to spend a whole day surrounded by 7 semi naked butlers from www.cheekybutler.co.uk at a photo shoot in London (I love my job!).
The day started off a bit panicky as I had to get my girls ready for school and then get CHOC Chick Kits and chocolates ready for the photo shoot in London. I nearly ran out of the house without eating anything, but actually stopped myself and sat down and had a bowl of porridge (with some raw cacao powder and blueberries) before I dashed out.
So glad I did as the photo shoot took 4 hours in the end and all we had to eat were my raw chocolate truffles, individual chocolates and chocolate covered strawberries! I actually only ate 2 truffles as the boys loved them and to be honest, I was so overwhelmed by the amazing bodies of young men around that I couldn’t have eaten anything even if I wanted!
By the time I got to the train station I was starving (next time I will plan better and bring a sandwich), so grabbed a tuna baguette which I scoffed very unelegantly on the train back home. I was so knackered by the time I collected my daughters from their friends that I really didn’t fancy making any dinner, so it was fish fingers for all with a bit of frozen veg (can’t be Nigella every night, or any night for that matter).
The excercise plan Sam (Miss Fit) set for me for today was:
Wednesday
30 minute walk…this time add a little jogging in short 30-60 secs bursts
Now, with all the goings on, I didn’t manage to set aside any time for this, but as I traipsed around London carrying two very heavy bags and panting like an old Labrador, I think I at least managed to walk for over 30 minutes so did get some exercise in (and in high heels!! does that make it high impact walking??).
Overall, I’m pretty pleased, I could have planned my food better and not left such a big gap between breakfast and the tuna baguette at 4pm, but at least I didn’t succumb to the pastries and cakes at London Bridge Station and just had a slug of my CHOCShot which I brought with me in a little plastic bottle.
So far so good. Day 1 was great and I’m still full of enthusiasm (it is indeed very early days!). I started my day by drinking a CHOCshot first thing and then 2-3 during the day, before a meal or when I feel the need for something sweet (which is most of the time). So far I’m happy to report that I managed to avoid eating the chocolate biscuits my daughters had and a rogue sausage roll that was lying about (only healthy food for me thank you!) .
I also managed to fit in Sam’s (Miss Fit) excercise plan for the day, which really made me feel great:
Tuesday
Walk 5-10 minutes to warmup then do 3 sets of 10 of the following exercises:
squats
crunches
tricep dips
lunges
I actually managed to do most of them and did walk for 30 mins, so am pretty pleased with myself.
Now for the food intake. The lovely Tina from Diet Freedom asked me to write down all the food I love. It was pretty easy to be honest, any and all carbs are what I love. There’s a saying in Spanish that if you want to lose weight you need to reduce/remove all foods beginning with P – pasta, pizza, patatas (potatoes), pan (bread)… but thankfully Tina’s advice wasn’t extreme at all.
After reading my list of favourite foods, here is what Tina said:
‘I think from what you have told me the first thing you need to do is recognise that your issue is eating too many highly processed, high energy carbs and then not using all that energy which has nowhere else to go so it’s laid down as fat for future energy use. Great in a famine but not in our land of plenty!
These foods have a high GL (glycaemic load) which means they will cause your blood sugars to rise and peak and then suddenly drop again and each time your blood sugar crashes back down an hour or so after eating these types of foods you will crave more of the same as your body struggles to bring your blood sugar levels back up to normal so you are in a vicious circle of eating high GL foods and then feeling hungry and craving more of the same. You need to aim to keep your blood sugar levels stable by choosing slower acting carbs that provide sustained energy throughout the day.
You can eat carbs such as bread and pasta but choose the lower GL ones that are not so highly processed. Pumpernickel or Burgen soya and linseed bread, chickpea pasta are good choices.
Including choc shots is perfect as they are nutritious, low GL and healthy, the Sweet Freedom adds sweetness and is low GL so ideal in place of sugar. We used to recommend a few pieces of dark chocolate a day to our members but of course it has sugar in so we are now recommending your choc kits instead (they are ideal to make up the chocolates and keep in the freezer so you aren’t tempted to overeat them). I make them up in small tin foils and add different nuts, my favourite ones are adding slivered almonds to the mix, delicious and very filling, they actually ‘taste’ good for you. I never buy normal chocolate now, it takes me about 3 minutes to make a batch, I was amazed at how easy it is to make your own healthy chocolate to be honest!’
So now that I have all this great advice and support I feel a bit more confident about my chances of success. I’m actually looking forward to Day 3 now and to finally fitting into those size 14 jeans soon!
Oh what a night! A truly terrified Heston Blumenthal gate crashed one of our Goddess of Chocolates nights in Brighton last October and it was a total blast. We’d already spent a few hours making lots of CHOC Chick chocolates, truffles and amazing CHOCtails with the Sumptious Sam from Cocktail in a Box and the Fabulous Fay from Diosa Media. We all even had gorgeous chocolate massages and scrubs from the divine and luscious Zoe and Katie from Into Beauty Hove and were very much enjoying all things chocolate, when Heston Blumenthal walked in.
The atmosphere, that was already pretty hyper before, became totally electric and a slightly startled Heston, the only man in the room, was soon surounded by lovely ladies high on chocolate! (before he arrived, the only male figure was a golden male torso that dispensed CHOCtails from his nether region!)
We treated Heston to a CHOCtail master class with Sam, body scrubs with Zoe and Katie (using CHOC Chick’s amazing cacao butter and cacao powder) and super easy chocolate making with CHOC Chick. It was amazing to have the opportunity to chat with him about chocolate and what it is about chocolate that makes us so happy and everyone got involved in the debate.
It was an incredibly fun night, we all had a blast and Heston was charming and gracious to everyone.
Tis the season to eat chocolate….Easter is nearly upon us and like in most Western countries, this time of year in the UK it’s all about chocolate. We’ve spent two exhausting but wonderful weekends working at the Brighton and London Chocolate Festivals making and sharing chocolate and were visited by hundreds of people. Everyone was full of the joys of chocolate and it was lovely to see so many chocolaty smiles. It was also heartening to speak to so many people as well, who had just watched the BBC’s Panorama programme (http://bit.ly/dif3h6) about the chocolate trade in West Africa and who were concerned about the endemic slavery that still exists in cocoa plantations.
This is a topic that has been very close to my heart as my dissertation and research for my Masters degree was on trafficking of women and young girls to the UK and the effects of current legislation on modern slavery. So having some knowledge of human trafficking, it was clear to me when I set up CHOC Chick that all our ingredients would be ethically sourced and the first questions I would ask of any supplier were about the welfare and conditions of plantation workers. We have a very close relationship with the importers of our raw cacao ingredients, who share the same values as us and work closely with cooperatives in Ecuador and Peru. They are passionate about environmental and ethical practices in agriculture and it is clear that when these go hand in hand, both the welfare of people and our planet are protected. Our importers work directly with the cooperatives to ensure organic farming methods are used and all employees are paid and treated fairly. I myself met last September with one of the cooperative members and hope to go out to Ecuador very soon for a proper visit.
I feel very privileged to live in such an open and liberal society in the UK, where there are many people who genuinely care about the working conditions of others. There is a lot still to be done to eradicate slavery in all forms around the world, but by being aware that modern slavery still exists and asking questions before making purchases, we can start making a difference.
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(here’s a photo at the Allergy Show with me and Tina from Sweet Freedom and the wonderful Dr. Chris Steel from GMTV) and had to organise the launch party for our CHOC Chick Party Kits and collaboration with Cheeky Butlers and Lucky Voice. So I think I have a good enough excuse for being lax.
