Thanksgiving was great, right?
It is possible that you need some guidance on how best to include chocolate in your day today. Depending on how you spent Thanksgiving and how you intend to spend today, choose one of the following plans.
- You feasted excessively yesterday and are going back to work today, slightly hungover and vowing never to eat rich foods again:
Cocoa Roast Almonds (Emerald makes them) or chocolate coffee (Gevalia and Godiva both make it -- take it black) give you the scent and flavor of chocolate without the fat and calories. The little hit of chocolate goodness will help you resist the break room, which will be full of leftovers people have brought in to share.
- You are shopping, beginning at about 4:00 a.m.
Plan to stop and have a cup of good hot chocolate mid-morning. This will encourage you and give you the strength to make good choices at lunch or dinner, instead of taking in more calories today than you did yesterday.
- You are still on vacation and nibbling on leftovers.
Enjoy it. However, consider making yourself a plate with good amounts of vegetables, lean meats, and whole grains, and treat yourself to just a sliver of that chocolate pie. One day of indulgence is not a problem. Our problem in the U.S. is not that we have feasts, but that we feast all the time. Instead of letting Thanksgiving be the start of a self-indulgent spell that lasts till Mardi Gras, let it be just one day, and you'll be thankful you did when you get to your annual checkup.
- You had a sensible Thanksgiving dinner yesterday, and today is a normal day for you.
While Thanksgiving is often a mad blow-out of saturated fats and simple carbohydrates, it doesn't have to be. If your Thanksgiving dinner was turkey breast, roasted root vegetables, salad, and a sliver of fruit cobbler topped with granola, then you can have a couple of ounces of dark chocolate today, for the sake of your health, the same as every other day.
