by Tammyjo Eckhart

Created on: September 01, 2010   Last Updated: September 03, 2010

A year and a half ago I started a blog where I talk about chocolate in all its various forms.  At the same time I made some important life changes to help my health.  The result was that I'm eating more chocolate than ever but I've still lost over 30 pounds of unwanted weight, improved my cholesterol levels, evened out my blood pressure, and found more balance in my emotional life.  I want to share with you how chocolate factored into all of this.

Here's the blunt truth: Consuming more calories than you burn is what causes weight gain.

It really does not matter where the calories come from in terms of your body burning them or storing them as fat.  If you ate more calories than you burn off in the form of carrots, you'd gain weight.  However the type of food you eat can have a huge impact on how much of that food you eat.  Yes you can eat too many calories in the form of chocolate but the odds are that that is reflection of other things going on in your life as well as the quality of chocolate you are eating or drinking.

Why do you turn to chocolate?  What causes your craving?  Sometimes it is biochemical craving and you need to figure out what it is specifically about chocolate that your body is craving.  It may be that the chemicals  you desire come in one form of chocolate much better than another.  For example, all those "good things" you've heard and read about chocolate are higher in darker and more natural chocolate.  So if you craving seems biochemical, reach for pure darker chocolate.

Sometimes your craving feels like a body craving when it really is an emotional craving.  Let's face it.  Many of us were raised with food as a reward or a comfort we were offered by a parent.  It's much easier to hand your child a cookie than to sit down and talk through their feelings.  One way to determine if your craving is emotional is to examine when you eat it and how you feel about it after you've eaten it.  If you find you eat chocolate alone or you feel the need to hide it from others, you are feeling guilty, a sure sign you've been indulging for emotional reasons.

Here are some concrete steps I've taken that have helped me appreciate chocolate more and in a healthy way.

Stop eating it alone.  I now share my chocolate with at least one other person especially if the chocolate is more on the unhealthy side or is a large quality of treat.

Look at your labels.  I've always

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